Pegasuses-XL is such a warped mash of different styles, its hard to classify what it actually is, in easy terms for a music journalist at least! Featuring Mark Dale of Disband, Jeff Tobias of We Versus The Shark and Dark Meat, Joel Hatstat of Cinemechanica and Jeff Rosenstock of Bomb The Music Industry! Its almost a super-group from Athens, GA/Brooklyn, New York, and they’ve only had three self-released EP’s to date, The Midnight Aquarium, XL and Third EP, which are all compiled here.
Its punk-rock, but its electronic, its dance music made with fierce breaks and overloaded analogue instrumentation, distorted vocals, with just about everything else distorted as well. Shows influence from 90’s hip hop, the pop of Kraftwerk and Gary Newman, the guitar posturing of Black Sabbath or Black Flag bathed in a sea of noise, and the absurdness of early Devo. The lo-fi approach, utilising distortion in a similar way to Muslimgauze or The Bug, smacks of a freshness, and a raw energy missing from the hyped super-groups and stadium rockers the music press seem to love so much, but who are often just a big let down.
There is an honesty here, Pegasuses-XL don’t want to fit in anywhere, it just sounds like they are having so much fun on all fronts. Pretty crazy stuff, there’s enough energy here to really annoy your neighbors or regain your youth.
Wayne Stronell
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Comments (1)
kencollapse September 1, 2009
I’ve seen mixed views for this record, but I think it’s really underrated. It may be too noisy for some folks, there’s a fresh raw energy to it and enough stuff you haven’t heard before to make it worthwhile.