Hold your horses Negative Pegasus! You can’t just turn up out of the blue and inflict upon the world a sweltering forty minute tirade of stomping psychedelia upon the world! That just isn’t the way we do thing around here. We need a good half dozen promising EPs at least first. How the hell am I supposed to sit here and bleat about how you are ‘not the finished article yet’ now? At least fill your debut full-length with a bit of filler to stretch it out to the point it becomes about half as listenable. Honestly, bands these days...
Right from the start of this record Negative Pegasus are, depressingly for most bands, right at the top of their game. It is pretty hard to conceive of how this band could consciously make an effort to be better at what it is they do. This kind of demented shoegazing stoner prog is all about the stomping rhythms and the elasticated, mind bending guitars...and, quite honestly, Negative Pegasus have both of those elements so nailed down that they have the cheek to spend half the record deliberately experimenting with both. Take the hazy drone of "A Single Fuck” in comparison to the insistent march of opener 'How It Happens' as proof.
You probably think I’m delving too far into the realms of hyperbole right now and, to be honest, I am. At the same time, however, it is hard to overemphasise just how exciting 'Looming' is as a debut record. It flies by in no time at all but at the same time steers away from being something completely superficial by virtue of its willingness to mess with the formula. Without the excursions into more wilfully difficult terrains that make up a good part of the run time here, this record would still be worth a listen but that Negative Pegasus seem capable of altering their own formula with consummate ease really brings things up a level.
Like an image of Monster Magnet (newly fronted by Bradford Cox) dressed up as The Cure at a My Bloody Valentine gig, Negative Pegasus are sometimes baffling. More importantly, however, on 'Looming' they are always interesting and always capable of sneaking in another searingly brilliant tune just after unleashing their latest burst of uncontrollable feedback. That may not make much sense, and indeed this record may not be in any way perfect but it showcases everything a young, passionate, hungry band should be. That makes it a minor triumph.
'Looming' is out now via Smalltown America.
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Right from the start of this record Negative Pegasus are, depressingly for most bands, right at the top of their game. It is pretty hard to conceive of how this band could consciously make an effort to be better at what it is they do. This kind of demented shoegazing stoner prog is all about the stomping rhythms and the elasticated, mind bending guitars...and, quite honestly, Negative Pegasus have both of those elements so nailed down that they have the cheek to spend half the record deliberately experimenting with both. Take the hazy drone of "A Single Fuck” in comparison to the insistent march of opener 'How It Happens' as proof.
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