Sound Lays You To Waste

Connecticut's Myty Konkeror released their first album recently, "I miss the future.", on their own Twin Lakes label. Besides the CD version, there's also a labor-intensive LP version, limited to 30, which includes an individually lathe-cut clear polycarbonate disc (made in New Zealand by Peter King) in a hand-assembled, hand-numbered jacket with a few other goodies thrown in, one being a CD-R of the album. The CD and LP offer very different listening experiences, not just in their resolution-- the CD is a lot "brighter", for instance--- but in the shape and frequencies of the sound being produced, due to the hand-made nature of the LP. The LP, of course, is actually pretty neat; I have one other similarly lathe-cut record (a Mountain Movers 7"), and they're made not of vinyl but a super-clear polycarbonate, so clear that the bands on the records where there aren't any grooves are completely see-through, just like a glass window. Playing the record is almost like dropping the needle on a sheet of ice.

A good chunk of "I miss the future." is heavy rock, but not in a typical Black Sabbath stoner metal kind of way, as you might be expecting. This record can be fairly ambitious and intricate at times, especially with songs like "Kidz and Gulls" (still available as a free download at the Twin Lakes web site if you go there now, I think) and "Whitewash", which are poppier and very similar to Built To Spill or Sebadoh, especially in the vocals. My favorite songs on the album, "sus Envy" and "Vastare", are two of the more bone-crushing ones; I'm including "Vastare" here, which I've ripped from the lathe-cut LP, for you to check out.




MYTY KONKEROR -

"Vastare"