Smegma – “Rumblings ” – [Hanson]

This SoCal art/noise/music collective has been hanging in there for like 30 years now, and it’s always good to hear what they’re up to. On this CD, the free jazz noise experiments are great fun, and in addition to the horns and guitars and such, they also toss cheesy electronics and radio/TV/movie dialog into the blender along with everything else. Tracks 3, 4, & 5 are worthy, and also check out the three “Oops” tracks. The guys drag out some primitive garage rock on a few tracks, and that’s cool. Track 7 is a nice sound piece, made up of about 90% train noises with some other weirdness mixed in. Track 15 is similar to that one, but it eventually segues into a pumpin’ rave-up to end the record. That’s the good news. On the other hand, Richard Meltzer is still ranting, an element I’ve never liked. Artful ranting can be OK (hello Captain Beefheart!) but this is more like a brain-fried crazy person sitting next to you on the bus. His voice is irritating and his subject matter is worms, meat, bodily functions? I mean who cares? It can be frustrating because there is often something musically interesting going on underneath him. Oh well? Smegma works for me as long as I can pick and choose tracks.