Tuesday 1 May 2012

The 2kDozen 500: #156 - a.c. acoustics, "able treasury"

John Peel's Record Collection archive opened today - here - and I've had a quick peek already. The first album that was available to listen to on Spotify - and not all of them are tragically (I'd love to hear what The A's sound like!) - that wasn't ABC was this. Appropriate title too.

AC Acoustics sounded vaguely familiar as a band name. I'm sure I must've read about them in 1994 - this was at the height of my consumption of the music weeklies. I'd buy the NME and Melody Maker every week, even though they'd do the same interviews within a week of each other. I must've heard them on Peelie too, as the early Nineties were also when I'd devour his shows most hungrily too.


It's good stuff. That earthier type of grunge like early Teenage Fanclub and Dinosaur, Jnr. Turns out they were from Glasgow, which would make sense. It seems one of those cities that was most in touch with the good in grunge, perhaps because it has such an Atlantic feel to the place.


The lyrics I can't quite manage though: something mumbled about "man size" and "knife" on "King Dick", I think. But there's the opiate snarl that still stacks a little bonfire in my blood. "Three" fades in with wailing guitar: I love it when a track fades in. In fact, it never quite fades in, but lingers in the medium ground all the way through; those jokers! "Sister Grab Operator" suggests a fondness for Pavement song titles and the quiet/loud bits alternate in a Pavement fashion rather than the later Mogwai model. There's a relaxed sunshine to this music that really cheers me up, even when singing "I'll fight my own fight".

"M.V." is closer to the Mogwai model - but with vocals, obvs! Fiddly wee guitar bits and tinkling cymbals.  A great acidic surge of overdriven noise crashes over the sea wall about three and a half minutes in. Times like this, I think this is the music my heart makes to itself when I'm asleep or not paying attention or something. This track and the closer, "Sweatlodge", were originally released in 1993, and they have a bit more of a Swervedriver feel, a bit rockier.

Rating: Fuzzy Treasure out of Archive

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