The Dictaphone - Hazmat (2015)

A new album by the French heavy psychedelic garage project known as the Dictaphone. Released by the Viennese label, Totally Wired Records, who you might recall as the folks that put out the Drunken Draculas' songs in Austria. I haven't posted about the Dictaphone since the release of 2012's Let's Not. However, it took mere seconds of listening to Hazmat for me to recall why I would have taken the trouble to write them up years ago.

I called the Dictaphone 'heavy' psychedelic garage for a reason, though a looser term like lo-fi is likely more applicable. The songs are incredibly dense and rich and only at times fast and messy, perhaps best exemplified by the amazing song "Wrist Job." Yet in the second half of Hazmat the tone shifts in tracks like "Ex-Cop" and "Remove The Need" to a slower and a more droning style overtakes the brash garage rock. Then in the end it changes back into very lo-fi garage rock, with the fuzzy guitar, pounding percussion and belting, echoey vocals one should expect. Throughout all of them is an innate connection to electronic music, especially in the building introductions and layering of rhythms. Check out the track "Stalker" to really see what I mean and just how excellently the differing dynamics are integrated into a cohesive song. It is a stellar album all around, one I won't soon be moving on from.

To be had here:
The Dictaphone - Hazmat