While working in a bookstore, I learned that despite what the cliche says, you can, by and large, indeed judge a book by its cover. It’s not an infallible rule, but it does act reasonably well as a way to filter out crap. And so I approached IV: White Walls with some trepidation, as neither the band name nor the album’s artwork inspired much confidence. Thankfully, I was wrong about this and IV: White Walls turned out to be pretty decent.

Newagehillbilly is the alter-ego of Baltimore’s Alex Strama, a self-described “one-generator of noise, grooves, and moods”. The buzzing, spaced-out electronics of some tracks remind me of LSD-era Coil, while other songs go for a more straight forward heavy/stoner rock feel. There’s a bit of dark electro-pop and even a track that has a Gong/Hawkwind/AMT feel to it.

As you’d probably expect from something so stylistically diverse, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Personally, I think that his electronic tracks are better than his rock tracks (with the exception of “Ghost”), though that may be in part my aesthetic preference. He sounds like he’d be a lot of fun to watch live.

http://www.newagehillbilly.com/
http://www.mt6records.com/

Posted: 09|28|06 at 4:42 pm. Filed under: record reviews.
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