a marauding dirge descending slowly from the sky to land on your car, 'my black ass' menaces and mesmerizes you into realizing this will be no ordinary aural trip. shellac is about repetition until a particular riff or measure is perfect, and then throwing little variations into it to muss you up. they, of course, never lose their timing or include inappropriate noise-all moves are planned, all things are considered. not to say that this record don't have no noise-check out 'crow' and 'song of the minerals', for monstrous, vicious rock. 'the idea of north' develops like sunrise, and 'boche's dick' is a tight, methodical near closer that is waay too short and way to good to be short. all in all, no misses here. best tune: 'song of the minerals', featuring sustained, forearm destroying albini harmonic guitar scrape, and a sad story about a girl who uses heroin and sleeps around, possibly the same protagonist of 'trouser minnow'?"why? cuz it makes you feel better-its your arms, its none of my business", he growls. don't expect many messages here, though; this is not a record of syntax, its all about the music. normally rock sounds stupid when it takes itself seriously; not here.
