TULLUM "Voluptous Astral Freeze" (Mancat)
This tape of the little known Austin, TX punk band Tullum was recorded between mid 1986 and early 1987, but it's only now getting it's first US release, on Shawn David McMillen's Mancat Records. When he brought it to me he described it as something like "Black Flag on more drugs", but in reality it sounds more like "Flipper on worse drugs", but that's more than okay in my book! The music herein was recorded at Scratch Acid's practice space and these guys once got a half page write-up in Maximum Rock'n'Roll. The recording quality is uneven, but there are some real fucked gems on here and the tape surely deserves repeated listens. Most of the songs feature solid midtempo riffs and sing-talking, but there is one track that has some brutal screaming and backwards guitar. That one is pretty cool. Apparently these guys were Hippies just like Flag and some of that comes across here. It's by no means the greatest find of the century, but I really think you'll want to pick this up if you're sick of wading through the mire of hypnagogia
Buy the tape and check out the interesting back story of Tullum here:
http://www.mancatrecords.com/tulum.html