FLAT WORMS - Witness Marks LP

Highly recommended.

Flat Worms return, parts summed to once again form a whole, a garage-shackled writhing beast that twists and turns, pulling at chains, grooving and steel-chilled riffs hooking like icepicks through the skin. They pull you along through beating rhythms that tap straight into the reptilian brain. The band, bolstered by working once again alongside Ty Segall on the album, a history of the recent DIY garage movement in their ranks, produce a glorious racket.

Single "Sigalert" marks their territory over a pummelling bassline, a sparking guitar firing a bent note, Gang Of Four-like clanging beneath before it all comes together to a great chorus. When it descends in the anti-solo the control is reigned in to explode again. It’s a great opener that drops down into the slow groove of SSRT, once again pinned to the ground by Tim Hellman’s bass, allowing frontman Will Ivy to build a wall of sound in the breaks. Coming together they slither along a fine groove that rises up and into early album highlight "Time Warp In Exile". It’s here that the band fulfill the promise of what was previously building.

"Orion’s Belt" is a ninety-second aural blast of noise, Ivy’s guitar wailing over Justin Sullivan’s pounding beats. It’s easy to see how, through their work with Segall, Osees, Sic Alps and more, the band are mining that crazed garage sound.

Amidst the racket, occasional almost pop gems emerge, unpolished, crude but never left wanting, reminiscent of Future Of The Left in their power. The chorus of "16 Days" is the perfect example with its infectiously simple chorus. "See You At The Show" marks a departure from the rest of the album with its trippier more downbeat feel. The intro spins dizzily into a doomful overture before the band sign off with the no-wave noise-fueled title track.