Sunburned Hand of the Man - The Trickle-Down Theory of Lord Knows What
(Eclipse)
Sunburned Hand of the Man - s/t
(Skull)
Hot on the heels of the high profile "New Weird America" cover story in The
Wire, which was centered around Boston's Sunburned Hand of the Man, these two
LPs show two very different glimpses into this enigmatic and strange communal band. And as is to be expected, rather than making the picture clearer, they just broaden it.
First up is Eclipse Records' The Trickle-Down Theory of Lord Knows What.
Side A starts of with "Spell it Out" which is driven by Jon Maloney's treated John Sinclair-meets-Fursaxa chanting. A sloppy clattering bangs along and eventually builds into a drum-circle-in-the-park-ish percussive hum. "Show of Hands" introduces guitar and organ to the loose wanderings. The vocals moan and yelp while the guitar and organ peek in and out from beneath the ringing and clanging percussion. The vocals are looped, the guitar distorts, and the mood becomes darker. Just when most bands would start in with something explosive, the drums tighten and the song ends in a laid back afterglow-groove (I think I heard a flute in there). Side B opens with the droning "Easy Ease" before diving into the trance-inducing raga jam "Always Correct." Eastern melodies, various treated sounds, squeaks, and bongos made the music, but as is the case with a lot of music of this sort, there's something indefinable between the sounds. The record ends with its strongest track, "Rivershine." The thick wall of droning guitar (?), organ, straight ahead drumming and, of course, Maloney's vocals feel like the culmination of everything that came before it.
The second record is a self titled "bootleg" LP from the same source that brought similar LPs from Wolf Eyes and Acid Mothers Temple. Because all of Sunburned's releases are live recordings, the fidelity, mood, and attitude of this release are all in line with what they've done in the past. But musically this is by far the most unusual work they've done. Starting the disc is a funk inflected jam, which is embellished and overtaken a few times by percussive squalls, horn skronk, space rock guitar, and a touch of vocals. Not quite like their previous releases, but not an enormous leap. The next track, however, is. What sounds like a fucked up drum machine provides the rhythm for vocals moans, saxophone, and some kind of treated flute which results in something along the lines of a grittier early Kraftwerk as recorded by Sun Ra playing in Yahowha. Side B's side-long track opens with free jazz scatterings led primarily by a bleating saxophone and flute in a volume contest with torrential drumming as could only be provided by the singular Chris Corsano. Once it settles into an extended percussion groove, vocals and saxophone compete for position while the drums slowly build and fade.
After a couple fistfulls of CDRs and a few LPs, Sunburned Hand of the Man are still cryptic and hard to pin down. Even more so after the self titled LP. While these two LPs are very different (very good) and hard to really compare to one another, I must say that after seeing them play recently where they played a straight up funk song somewhat similar to the one that opens the self-titled LP, the best is still to come.
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