Grimble Grumble - Fucked In The Head

(Amberley, 1998)

Another of the previous decade’s great, forgotten spacerock bands, the ever-active/inactive Grimble Grumble released only a handful of arcane singles and albums over the years, but every recording was – and is! – worthy of dedicated bin-burrowing, especially if one has the slightest interest in the likes of fellow Terrastock alums Azusa Plane and Flying Saucer Attack. A tape-saturating ebb and flow shared with the better, semi-ambient-minded psych groups of the ’90s – here performed with guitars, keys, bass, and drums – drenches the entire disc, making the music “floaty” in a non-shoegaze Slowdive sense, while still LOUD in a non-shoegaze My Bloody Valentine sense. And howzabout more comparisons? OK!! “Fucked in the Head” is echo-blasted instrumental hypno-psych that nestles itself between Tortoise and late-’60s Pink Floyd, and the oceanic “Return,” with its swelling crescendos, sounds like a more acid-soaked early Spiritualized. Nothing wrong with any of that, yeh? Indeed: this is an extremely nice record, and, released on a hopelessly obscure British label (which later happened to earn the lasting enmity – scroll down to “Scituate Loves Dear Alan Sheppeck” – of the Swirlies) one that is sadly difficult to find. Compile this stuff, bandpeople!