Eastern Light

"Who would have though that a little cd-r from some unknown group called the Starving Weirdos would have caused such a ruckus? But stir up a ruckus it did! We have been selling that first disc like hotcakes, and why the heck not, a glorious noisy blast of free rock avant drone, No Neck by way of the Dead C by way of the Yellow Swans by way of Avarus by way of Sunroof! by way of Birchville Cat Motel. Or something like that. For more on how we discovered the Starving Weirdos, or more precisely how they discovered us, check out the review of their debut cd elsewhere on the site. So now we have this here brand new double cd-r and it's as good as if not better than the first (it features one track that was on the first record, but everything else is new and previously unreleased). The duo of Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay is truly adept at crafting ramshackle conglomerations of clattery percussion, weird warbling guitars, abstract ambient soundscapes, moaning horns, shuffling almost-rhythms, wide open expanses of random sounds, soothing and mesmerizing, a gloriously shimmery clatter and shuffle, rattle and wheeze. Five lengthy tracks spread out over two discs. Fans of ANY of the above mentioned bands will be in drone rock free folk bliss out heaven!" - Aquarius Records

"Fascinating drone/Improv madness from this impossibly obscure Californian combo, with echos of the backwoods psychedelia of the freer end of the free folk scene and the no-fi wilfulness of The Dead C. The group strike a perfect balance between drift and purpose, sprawl and discipline, noise and non-noise. The results are rough but quite gorgeously radiant. "Plastic Gagaku" envelopes an irregular percussive snap, shifting lines of feedback and interjections from plastic toys in a dense fog of reverb. The 20 minute "Friday the 13th Pt II" moves dreamily through a series of vaguely narcotic atmospheres, but with great conviction. There are sections that sound rather like gamelan metallophones played through old 60s fuzzboxes, and if that doesn't pique your intrest, nothing will." - The Wire