(Alternative Rock, Psychedelic Rock, A Silent Place) [CD] Plastic Crimewave Sound - Painted Shadows - 2009, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Engineered and mixed by Mark Yoshizumi
Produced by PCWS and Mark Yoshizumi at Long/Division
Mastered by Paul Mahern
Photo by Libby Ramer
Design by Brock Manke & PCW
Painting by PCW
For their contribution to the Italian A Silent Place label, the Chicago drug/bike/psych/boogie/freak outfit Plastic Crimewave Sound continued to be, well, just that. But in their case that's definitely a sign of playing to their strengths, and if Painted Shadows isn't always a surprising album from them, it's still entertaining in a "so why haven't they been cast in their own grindhouse exploitation movie yet?" sense. That said, there are many moments of trying out different approaches -- a song like "Arraj" is fairly murky on initial impact but creates the feeling of a bad trip that couldn't necessarily have sounded as precise and textured as it would have been in 1967. (If anything, it also feels indebted to some of the more shadowy corners of 1980s 4AD releases!) That sense of darker vibes gives much of the album its best character, as on the zone-trudge of "(Can't) Turn the Key," while "I Feel Evils" kicks everything off with heavily echoed vocal pronouncements and, naturally, a crazed guitar solo over the Hawkwind-ish chug of the band. The lengthy title track has the feeling of the classic side-long jam -- think Love on Da Capo -- but "Ecstatic Song" is the real winner, a huge rave-up that never seems to stop and just gets crazier and more drum-heavy as it goes. If much of Painted Shadows can still have a hint of the pro forma about it, it's still done very well. - Ned Raggett, AMG
Chicago's Plastic Crimewave Sound, the brainchild of music critic, vocalist and guitarist Steve Krakow, harked back to Blue Cheer's stoner-rock (filtered through Seattle's grunge) and Hawkwind's space-rock (filtered through the Acid Mothers Temple) on Flashing Open (Eclipse, 2003). However, the music is never easily classified. The massive groove and riff of Giant's Eyes is married to a Cream-esque melody before it takes off at punk-rock speed. The hypnoptic, bluesy Down And Out is devastated by discordant basslines as well as guitar noise. The stylistic range is quite broad. At one end of the spectrum, Roar Back And The Waves is a distorted freak-folk lullaby with echoes of Donovan and of old-fashioned raga-rock, and opener No Vision could be the soundtrack for a shamanic ceremony. At the other end, Husk is a delirious, pounding, feedback-drenched voodoo-billy, the second half of Go Away borders on Japanese noisecore, and the seven-minute Caged Fire Theme has enough fire and sloppiness to make the Thirteenth Floor Elevators shiver and to make the MC5 proud. Somewhere in the middle, the six-minute romantic space-rock instrumental Perfect Glass Orchards is tinged with the morbid done of British dark-rock of the 1980s. This album, while often derivative, is the musical equivalent of a relentless eruption of radioactive lava.
The double-LP No Wonderland (Eclipse, 2006) featured guests such as Devendra Banhart, Tara Burke of Fursaxa, Josephine Foster. The sound is denser than on the first album but not necessarily more original. The tribal motorik of the eight-minute Korean Ghost Ship evolves into a cosmic instrumental, a follow-up of sorts to Perfect Glass Orchards, just like the six-minute Far In/Out sounds like a follow-up to Caged Fire Theme (distorted litany a` la Thirteenth Floor Elevators coupled with MC5-esque infernal rhythm). Their esoteric side is well represented by Rolling Seas, a cauldron of pow-wow rhythm, shamanic invocation and chaotic percussion. The lame Indian-tinged folk lullaby Flower Eating Dreams becomes increasingly noisy and ominous as it pickes up rhythm. For a few minutes Nil Null & Void concocts a decent imitation of the Velvet Underground, and Corrosive is a passionate emo-like power-ballad. But too much sounds half-baked or predictable. The electronic ballet New Throb is hardly successful as a stab at futurism. The poppy Lemos is too slow to become anthemic. Echoes of Blue Cheer and Cream in Improve #2 are too obvious. Shake Your Dying Cowboy Mind sounds like noise for the sake of noise. Instead of a double album this should have been a six-song mini-album.
The increasingly more chaotic and abstract Plastic Crimewave Sound (Prophase, 2008) contains the three-movement 17-minute The Pasture, whose main drawback is to indulge in ambient sounds.
Painted Shadows (A Silent Place, 2009) boasted one of their most psychedelic and progressive suites, the 20-minute Painted Shadows (alas also one of their least cohesive), as well as explosive garage-rockers like Ecstatic Song.

Skog Device: drum(s) / electric washboard
Mark Lux: bass, moogs
Plastic Crimewave: guitarwaves, voice, banjo
Nick D'Vyne: geetar, background shouts
On 6. - Amy Cargill: voices
Liz Tapp: violins