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Rating:
You won't find anything incorporeal, reflective, or contemplative here.
Fu Manchu is the most earthy and horizontal band on the planet: the hyperamplification of a sound as explosive and sunny as it is cavernous and barbaric. "Eatin' Dust” further consolidates the granite style of the Los Angeles band after the commendable "No One Rides,” "Daredevil,” "In Search Of,” and especially the monumental "The Action Is Go,” which (simultaneously with the introduction of Brant Bjork into the lineup) highlights them as the most powerful and dazed interpreters of the stoner genre.
Therefore, in the form of an EP and initially conceived as a follow-up to the new single cover "Godzilla,” eight intensely compelling tracks for an album that seems opposite to its predecessor: as exhausting, monolithic, and technically monothematic as "The Action Is Go” was, this one is equally essential, fluid and dissimilar. But the most intriguing thing about "Eatin' Dust" is that it takes a while to take off, like a blazing diesel pickup that needs to warm up a bit before taking you full speed. The first three pieces are built on simple mid-tempo and slurred with a heaviness that is the bastard and dumb offspring of the best seventies: the slow pace of "Godzilla,” the rhymed voice on the four-four that further charges the sense of a devastating motion, as if the Blue Oyster Cult – original composers of the track - decided to end it all and raze the entire world while parading through the great metropolises on the monster's back. "Module Overload” sounds like an ZZ Top track pumped with speedball <...ok, what now? do we hit hard with coke or slow down with heroin?> then "Living Legend,” which calls on the Black Sabbath stoned on marijuana to hit a backbeat. Suddenly, the bpm doubles with "Eatin' Dust,” "Shift Kicker,” and "Orbiter” which explode in the stereo speakers with unprecedented power; Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy fiercely distorted and accelerated. The point is that these damn bastards are magnificently evocative in the extent to which they carry forward a ruthless extremization of a performance technique (from Jimi Hendrix downward, who the hell do you think is the greatest ever? Not that Fu Manchu's guitar work is directly linked to old Jimi, mind you: I mean in terms of sound amplification, pure wattage) and they do it by distorting the same chords of thirty years ago in an animalistic way: harder, heavier, and more grinding than anything that has come before. The Blue Cheer of the twenty-first century. Once this is metabolized, even the atonal voice of Scott Hill, which drags more than sings vocal chants without any melodic sense, becomes exciting.
So, the final bang is approached at full speed. Where the concluding "Mongoose” and "Pigeon Toe” stand out, two pure adrenaline torpedoes where the interplay between the musicians becomes astonishing, and the guys strike with crude and ecstatic power perfectly choosing the timing, the pauses, and the explosions in a coordination of sounds that are trails of alchemical fire.
Indestructible and blissful.
How can you miss them when for you too the word is only one?
Sucking the 70s!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Godzilla (04:39)
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down
Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them
He picks up a camero and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town
Oh no, they say he's got to go go go Godzilla
Oh no, there goes Tokyo go go Godzilla
History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of men
02 Module Overload (04:16)
Right by a sattelite... we went
out of control
A hundred feet... in front of me
back up we go
A weeks like a time spent..leaving it alone
Ya cant get there from here... I heard em say
Up from where we were
And Im sure..been there before
Cutting throught the field...like a sea
Head beneath it all
Hands off the wheels... start the ride
heading to the wall
Hypnotize...from the light
Nothing like we seen
Can you show us the way...light the fee
Holdin what we need
And Im sure.. been there before
Straight down... straight down
We'll drive it right... into the ground
its a module overload (x a bunch of times)
05 Shift Kicker (03:02)
A eye pleaser 20 years ago..
To this day I still think so
Type 2 in a door seat 3
And all with the greatest of ease..
I couldnt see .. a damn thing
Engine wise slip through your hand
Speed gear alone they stand
What kind of plan have you received
Off we go... you bet: full speed
I couldnt see .. a damn thing
In a row..in a row.. we go
06 Orbiter (03:18)
Man made way uknown..change course.. back to home
from the scope they saw a shine.. like that.. close behind
By now the controller knew..full power chased by two
No one in the room could tell... a wild story yea ohwell
For a moment things went calm..no need to sound the alarm
The controller gave the word...planes vanish is what we heard
Did it happen like he said.. better find out instead
Rolling back in time..short notice.. but we'll try
Will they ever show..Orbiter lays low
Next morning we arrived on site.. had a feelin something aint right
Soon as the car door slammed.. Hemi's keys were in my hand
Blown heads on a six fifty four (654) All right now we need one more
Orbiter is close at hand.. we all agreed on a skyward plan
Will they ever show.. Orbiter lays low
So now months passed us by.. we're sure it was all a lie
Sun mirror was placed on high.. will let us know over time
First step to another world..is from years gone by were sure
07 Mongoose (06:16)
Look inside...the day started right
A back road in a dirt town lives...all time
Slowly turns...signals high...what happens next
All time
The mongoose flies
Removed from the times
Event for the eyes
Mid day they gathered one by one
All time
The story lies behind...the mongoose flies on by
Out on the street they ride...the mongoose flies on by
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