Altered Zones

Back when we covered The Psychic Paramount's latest excursion into the upper echelons of prog rock's ultimate destiny, it was mentioned that the band had formed from the ashes of Laddio Bolocko-- one of the most transformative bands to ever walk NYC's black-blasted halls of extreme rock and roll/noise/awesome--, and that their output had been collected on a 2xCD comp by No Quarter Records. Well, as luck would have it, this out-of-print gem is about to get reissued again, and that means I get to say some nice things about one of the most amazing and forward thinking "rock" songs in the history of the medium.

"Y Toros", the closer of the band's first record, Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko, clocks in at... almost 35 minutes. And while it is split into two, 16-minute sections with silence in the middle, I'm pretty sure I have never started listening to this song without stopping whatever else I'm doing and listening to Every Single Second Of It. (To be fair, I do fast-forward past the silence). With a three note guitar arpeggio exploring pretty much every possible tonal inversion a guitar can find, drums so blown out it's as though John Bonham were screaming at you through a tin can from about 6 inches away, noise squalls that rise and fall like the moon, and bizarre and unintelligible "lyrics," it is, in a word, Perfect. --Arturo Darvishire, Altered Zones

Laddio Bolocko: "Y Toros"

The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko 2xCD reissue is out not on No Quarter