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.

Compass - Antonio Rumori

(SharkAttack!, 2001)

Lockgroove bassist Dave Doom (a.k.a. Compass) takes a strut down solo-gentleman lane, and it’s certainly a different trip from the spacerock blast-offs of his SharkAttack! friends. Rather than guitars, beats are the key here, tinny beats all a-snappin’ and cracklin’ and poppin’ alongside keyboards and electronic loops. It’s not “dance” music, though, and there’s something vaguely unsettling about the grimy, densely-layered “Antonio Rumori” as those peppy rhythms skitter underneath Doom’s faraway vocals. There’s definitely a late-night, druggy fog around both songs (particularly the languid pop-collage “Estacion Especial”), which means that Compass, mood-wise, doesn’t stray so far from the Lockgroove/Charlene reservation as to be totally unrecognizable as a product of that scene, but it’s still an interesting attempt to stretch out and cover some new sonic turf.

Compass later released a full-length that I have yet to hear… I got nuttin for you on that front.