The review of the first single by S.M. Wolf released by In Store Recordings in 2013 begins with you turning up the stereo volume, pressing the track skip button twice and playing “King Of Confusion” very loud.
Not because the first two tracks are not valid, they are equally beautiful, but “King Of Confusion”, in my opinion, makes the difference. Pity it lasts less than two minutes.
The single is available both on 7″ vinyl and on cd. I will tell you that in this case, I prefer the cd, because I can listen to the song at full throttle with minimum effort. A choice of convenience then.
All songs written, performed and recorded by Adam Gross in a tiny bedroom studio on a 4-track reel-to-reel, I read.
Was Adam alone? Or in the tiny bedroom were the other members of the S.M. Wolf project also? Being one of their first recordings, the doubt that Adam may have played all the instruments comes to me.
Being a bedroom, Adam must have silenced all instruments. Can I record music without letting a wall of sound come out of the guitar, drums and keyboard / synthesizer? I ask for his neighbors at the time. I personally would not have complained about the volume, quite the contrary. When at one point Adam almost blows up the synth, I imagine the surprise of the neighbors. A bit ’80s, “King Of Confusion” is definitely my favorite song on the EP. This morning at the fourth or fifth consecutive listening I came to mind that old game for Atari, Asteroids that I had in the BBC Model B version. What music to play while you are on board of a spaceship and you are crossing an asteroid field? King Of Confusion, without a doubt.
Choosing a second favorite song between the other four tracks is very difficult, because the average quality of the songs is high.
It is impossible not to move while listening to “King Of The Suits” the opening track. The EP runs fast, so the advice is to listen to it several times.
I was lucky enough to meet adam a couple of summers ago, he played live in the pub downstairs. An atypical set, voice and guitar. Listening to “The Rights Of The Dead” I can’t help but imagine a live version of this song, in which the drummer instead of sticks uses thighbones to play the drums or beats some small bones. A tribal version.
What should you expect from this ep? psychedelic pop, indie pop, lo-fi declined to perfection.
You can listen to the EP here.
