Providence’s Load label sure knows which rocks to look under to find the most harrowing, gritty and assaultive music. Their latest is Sex Church, whose “Growing Over” is a wonder: a sick, perverse ride through minimalist gritty psych that manages to be creepy and fun at the same time. This is the debut full-length from the Vancouver quartet, and clearly there are many a dank garage in that city for gritty rock to grow.
“Put Away” is one slow burn of menacing couple chord glory, setting an eternal gritty tone; this is a set that often sounds like it could have been recorded in some acid-soaked surf cabana in ’66 as well as this year. Sex Church are the Anti-Ventures, or maybe what GG could have been had he kept it together and clothed. Chalk most of the sound to guitarists Caleb and Levon (no last names); in their hands sludge never had it so good, as on “Paralyze.” They can groove as well, “Dull Light” as menacing a pop tune as Brian Jonestown Massacre ever dreamed of delivering. “Bleed Me,” “Garbage in the Grass” and Beneath the Bottom” are all soupy psych, with noise as melody and melody as weapon.
Back in the day when there were record stores and record hunting was a bittersweet quest, how many times did you take a chance on a record based on the cover alone, hoping that the music inside was as heavy an wild as the cover promised? You were hoping to find “Growing Over” inside every one. Sex Church sound timeless and fearless, delivering a blistering splash of funky noise from a cauldron of guitar-based, acid-drenched broth. If you dig this kind of music, this is the Grail of the month.
