ROBOTS AND EMPIRE
Omnivore
(Trip Machine)

NYIA/ANTIGAMA
Split
(SelfMadeGod)

BROWN JENKINS
Dagonite
(Moribund)

SLOTH
A Whole Other World of Fun
(At War With False Noise)

CAN KICKERS
Live at Lavazone
(Fistolo)

LOOM
Angler 

(Exigent)

HATER
The 2nd

(Burn Burn Burn)

MORE REVIEWS

From the getgo this band got my attention because as the title attests there are thirteen samples here, many of which come from this sparrow’s favorite movie American Movie.  So yeah, there are some great slices of pure Americana here, such as guitar hero Mike Shank’s ‘one day I was partying in my basement and I used to get like pissed off and stuff because I would wanna party really heavy and no one else would and then all of a sudden Mark came over and ah…either I had a bottle of vodka or he had a bottle of vodka but anyway we were drinking vodka. I was so happy that I’d found someone who would drink vodka with me, you know. And then Mark would drink vodka with me all the time. I’d go over all the time and we’d buy a fifth of vodka and we’d share it you know. That really made me happy.’ Fuck, all that talk about vodka really got me jonesing, you know? But besides the audio samples the other thing that got me quite intrigued is this Ohio band’s choice for an album cover; basically a kid’s drawing with a happy tree, a happy rabbit, a UFO spaceship, a turtle and a bat. A head scratcher for sure, but it all kind of makes sense once you get into the disparate music contained here.

That said, I just learned that Sloth has been actually at it for quite a while and have on their backs split releases with sludge doom cult acts like Floor, Noothgrush, Grief and others which may or may not tell us that these thirteen songs are a departure. And what an odd fucking departure this must be. Taking out the samples and heading into the music; “The Wooleybear Looked at You?”, like all the songs here, is a lo fi sounding track. Unlike the rest, has some piano, a quasi alt rock riff (but lo fi), a slow breakdown, and both clean and necro vocals. “Stack ‘em Up” is mellow and titillating, revealing spoken lyrics about one man’s introduction to pornography, “A Night at the Park” is quiet stuff, with simple guitar arrangements and almost hushed vocals and “I Farted” which has some of the most natural sounding drums this side of the garage and which weirdly matches the music to a peacefully delivered line enunciating ‘I Faaaarteeedddd’. “Derek’s Song” is folk for the deranged and eventually melts in our ears. By design, A Whole Other World of Fun is uneven; by experience I can say that is entertaining, and by assumption I am pretty sure many won’t even consider this an album worth checking out. Fuck them.