KSR40: Uphill Gardeners “5-6″ LP
The Uphill Gardeners were a short-lived trio from the 1995-1997 era of Los Angeles. In the mid 90′s our friends started driving us to good shows at the Huntington Library, Jabberjaw, and early Smell in Los Angeles. We were blown away by bands like Los Cincos, Godzik Pink, and the band Uphill Gardeners. When we first started Kill Shaman we wanted to put these bands but were too late. One night, we talked about Uphill Gardeners with Jim (Smell owner and Olfactory Records) and he told us of unreleased Uphill Gardeners songs. We decided we should do a co-label release of these goods. TWO YEARS later…. here it is. Jarrett Silberman and Bobb Bruno contributed to many bands in this time period and since, notably Young People, Get Hustle, Liars, Polar Goldie Cats, For Carnation, Goliath Birdeater, and performing as solo artists. Drummer Nigel Ludemo was a film composer and drummer for Godzik Pink, another pivotal early Smell band. This LP is a collection of unreleased material that has an improvised sensibility that veers toward dark abstraction, but there’s actually a composed structure to most of it.
Tracks:
1. Boner Music
2. Goldenrod Sunrise
3. I’ve Got to Stop Getting Pregnant
4. Sounds
5. He is Master
6. Diet Experiment
Termbo says:
Took me a while to figure out just what the hell I was reviewing. The band name or even record label info on this package was nil. They do have this fine song title: “I’ve Got To Stop Getting Pregnant”. That’s a sure fire winner in my book. Ah…there’s a download card. Ok. Band name in check. Now off to the grooves…The Uphill Gardeners lay down some serious improv plink and skronk. Quality instrumental plink and skronk. Loosely based in song structure, but there’s songs in there. The Arto Lindsay herk-n-jerk method is applied to its fullest force, but it’s not at all spazz-jazz …there’s some low bottom drone thrown in to stoner jam upon. Rumbling guitars and rolling drums cut deeply by sharp repeated scree. This stuff was recorded live in the late Nineties, so don’t go looking for them to play yer town anytime soon. For fans of Sightings, Neptune, car horns, metal scrape and twiddling with radio signals. Catchy for those of you who find ‘Sonic Death’ catchy. Industrial in the old Neubauten sense of the word and not the kind ya dance to. Good shit. 500 pressed? I think. (RSF)
(olFactory Records / Kill Shaman // http://www.killshaman.com)