Possession Sessions


"Third record, following a pair of amazing 12" near-LPs, by this Columbus howitzer. On their debut, Flash Fuck (A Wicked Company, 2013), they were a trio, but they subsequently dropped a guitarist. By the time they cut Vernacular Splatter (Superdreamer, 2015), they has found their true shape as a duo. With Aurelie on drums and vox, and Chris Corbin on guitar, they had pared their shit down to a tight-packed near-perfect two-person howl. For Possession Sessions they have retained that format, although legendary producer Mike Rep can't keep from making his guitar a deep deep part of the mix. And by hooking their braying sonic mule to Rep's stark, chopped production aesthetics, Sex Tide've created a sound that is naught but balling. All the shards that were present in their work earlier -- Gibson Bros., Cramps, Dead Moon, Pussy Galore, Churchmice, etc. -- have been compacted into a rough spew of concrete garbage rock that will have your ass spinning in its own special grave. Only quibble is that I'm not sure how much I've managed to wallow in the specifics of each song yet, since the whole thing flows wobbling and seamless, like a lost record by a band you wished had existed. Grubbiness of this particular style always initially seems like it should be roll-off-a-log easy. The chords are so basic, the thumping so primitive, the voices so devoted to unknown tongues, you'd imagine any monkey could do something similar. But man, it ain't easy. You can listen to a couple hundred records in this vein and maybe they'll all sound pretty good ('cause the style is so perfectly suited to R&R barbarians), but it's rare to hear anyone do it as well as this. Sex Tide's first couple of records are dazzlers, but this one goes way beyond that. And I'm betting it will stand up as an unparalleled booze party soundtrack for many years to come. So buy two. You're definitely gonna fuck up your first copy." --Byron Coley, 2017 Edition of 300.