Loop - Spinning

(Head, 1987)

I always thought it was silly for a band like Loop – invested as it was in drawn-out and oft-metallic hypno-jams – to release 7”s, and apparently those guys agreed with me, since they only ever bothered to push three of the things out onto the market. The first of those, the “Spinning” single, is a good example of said silliness, since it adds a B-side (“Spinning Part Two”) that’s nothing more than an extended instrumental coda… why not just tack that onto the 12” version (which is “Spinning Part One”) and eliminate the fade-out/fade-in that brackets the side-break? Which might be what “Spinning (Spun Out)” on the World in Your Eyes singles comp is, but I honestly can’t tell if that’s the case or not; sounds like “Spun Out” might have some additional overdubs. Regardless, it’s a strong piece of Stooges-meet-Spacemen lunkhead-psych, with plenty of nicely-toasted swoops and wiggles in the guitar department. And now that Robert Hampson has finally overseen reissues – COMPREHENSIVE and TIDY reissues! – of Loop’s entire catalog (including ALL versions of “Spinning”), there isn’t any excuse for not owning the whole of this sledgehammering gunk… he’s made it easy for you goofs.

Lockgroove - Something To Give

(SharkAttack!, 2001)

Released between the Sleeping on the Elephant Fog and Calm Right Down albums, this mighty fine single actually shares more with the noisy Terrastock space-rock of the group’s debut Rewired EP than with the spaced-out (albeit still noise-inflected) pop-/rock-leanings of later days. “Something to Give” has the hazy, bluesy psych-stomp feel of very early Spacemen 3, or perhaps mid-’90s Brian Jonestown Massacre – but with a little more dynamism than either band typically threw out there on a per-song basis – while “Only One Time” makes a more frantic, clear-headed run through similar regions. A final blast of looped clubnoize points the way, I’m guessing, to the Compass splinter act.

Lockgroove doesn’t seem to exist anymore (breaking up after Calm Right Down, which includes serious Best Songs Of The 2000s contenders “Payin’ the Price” and “Execution Style”), but folks from that group and brother band Charlene are still a-strummin’ and a-thumpin’ and a-ooh’in’ and a-aah’in’ around the Boston area these days as Broken River Prophet, a worthy venture that displays much in the way of sonic connective tissue. See ’em, if leaving the house happens to be your bag! Heck, I did it and it involved a BUS.