The Sharp
Ease/Hot n’ Heavy split 7”
Spitshine Records
info@spitshine.com
SR08
I’ve got to hand it to Ryan Revenge of Spitshine Records. Of all the label owners I know he seems to have a unique knack for putting together great bands. In the case of this split 7” featuring L.A.’s garage punk ensemble the Sharp Ease, and no-wave duo Hot N’ Heavy, Ryan has outdone himself. Putting out a 7” these days takes balls, not just because of the archaic analogue qualities of the media, but with everyone and their mother having access to home recording studios, there is a flood of product on the market. That’s why the most successful 7” projects are like the split above.
Ryan has gone out of his way to make the most consumable documentation of these two bands. The dual-cover art, done by Martin Sorrondeguy is stellar. For the Sharp Ease side It features a vintage shot of L.A.’s defunct Red Car Trolley line laid out across a map of the city. The graphics are raw, like the Sharp Ease’s music, yet manage to hold together through the chaos to produce a crystal clear composition. On the Hot N’ Heavy side, the coding is somewhat different. A grainy picture of the duo leaning over their turntables (in a mock pose akin to the no wave and early rap acts of the 1980’s?) holds the cover. The block-font text “HOT N HEAVY” is relayed as a glaring strip amist a shifting field of hot pink. If all this wasn’t enough, the first 500 of this 7” are on pink vinyl.
And did I mention that the music on the record kicks ass?
For the Sharp Ease side, Ryan used the classic song “Manipulation”. It has all of the rough-n-tumble punk antics of the Sharp Ease sound, with Paloma Parfrey wailing into the mic whilst the rest of the gals lay down the shattered glass and buzz saw growl that has made the Sharp Ease one of L.A.’s tightest punk ensembles. Due to the Sharp Ease releasing a new album on their parent label, Soft Spot Records, the band only was willing to give up one song for this 7”. That left this reviewer hungry for more of the same musical carnage, and Hot N’ Heavy was able to fill me up.
Hot N’ Heavy in into the no wave/new wave tunage that spewed forth from the mouths of the angry and disaffected (or maybe that was nihilistic, but whatever) art youth of the late 1970’s. In any case the duo has the sound down and gives it their own unique twist. “State of Confusion” is brilliant art-punk spin with a dirgy back-beat and morbid keyboard hum. Luckily the kids of Hot N’ Heavy don’t take themselves too seriously, and that’s what makes this band so great. Sure it sounds a bit like Neu! And Berlin, but they manage to do their predecessors justice, and like any good artist take the movement one step further.
-John Southern