New Zealand has been responsible for producing some truly bizarre, imaginative and frontal lobe frying noises for years now and this recent offering from one-man science fiction sludge-punk terrorist Kraus is certainly no exception. Those of you who may have heard the ?Emily? album on Campbell Kneale?s Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label (released under the moniker Prince Kraus) or anything by The Futurians may have some inkling about what musical-hemisphere this disc lies in.
Analogue B-Movie synth bleeps nudge up against duelling cock-rock guitar riffs and some ?Maureen Tucker on Ketamine? style tub-thumping, occasionally collapsing into disarray like someone just walked into the room and pummelled Kraus? four-track into pieces with a malfunctioning Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It?s hard to describe, but bands such as Men?s Recovery Project and post-Six Finger Satellite group Olneyville Sound System certainly spring to mind, or if The Residents had put out an album on Skin Graft or Bulb/Load records ? the hipster?s current ?Plat du Jour? - it may very well have sounded a bit like this.
Whilst this kind of thing doesn?t usually do it for me, this little slab of sound is quite original and it?s certainly a lot of fun. If you?re fond of any of the bands mentioned here or are generally just into some pretty far-out shit, you could do a whole lot worse than to pick up a copy of ?I Could Destroy You with a Single Thought?. 7/10 --
James Blackshaw (25 May, 2005)