Uncut UK – October 2019

22 • UNCUT• OCTOBER 2019

T

HEnewsthatJohnDwyer

hasgenerouslydelivered

a doublealbumasthe

22ndfull-lengthstudio

recordingbysome

configurationofhisband

Thee(orTheortheor

nothingatall)OhSeesmaybetheleast

surprisingthingaboutit.Indeed,Face

Stabber’s 81-minutegirthseemsalmost

modestgiventheman’sproductivityand

thesensethathe’slongbeenheading

towardssomethingbig– sobig,infact,

thattheGermanshavea fancyword

forit.RichardWagner’sconceptofthe

gesamtkunstwerkwasthatofa workthat

unitedallofthearts– music,drama,

dance,spectacle– inoneawe-inspiring

creativetotality.Surely,attheratehe’s

going,Dwyerwillsoonproducehisown

equivalent to The Ring Of The Nibelung,

consisting of hours upon hours of

woolly freakouts, psychedelic sludge,

free-jazz meltdowns, garage-punk

assaults, unrepentant prog bombast,

beatific folk and sun-dazed pop.

Visual accompaniment to this

Wagnerian opus would surely consist

of the most lurid excerpts of the films

of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jess Franco

and the three-headed monster King

Ghidorah, plus every shot in Mad Max:

Fury Road featuring the guy with the

flamethrower guitar.

In the meantime, there’s plenty here

that needs digesting. And that’s just fine

for all those who’ve regarded Dwyer as

the tip of a modern

psych-rock spear

ever since his Oh

Sees first reached

Mach speed around

the time of Warm

Slime in 2010.

Although they’ve

since gained worthy

peers in Ty Segall’s

bands and King

Gizzard And The

Lizard Wizard –

acts Dwyer helped

launch when he

released their early albums on his label,

Castle Face – the Oh Sees remains the

most artistically ambitious and flexible of

the lot. Face Stabber sets a new standard

when it comes to demonstrating Dwyer’s

eagerness to extend, distend, distort and

generally overhaul whatever constitutes

the Oh Sees template. While he maintains

a formidable standard regarding the

mayhem and velocity of the Oh Sees live

shows (no small thing given the major

venues they’re now able to fill), there’s

no predicting what will happen on the

albums except that it’ll be loud.

Expanding the already wide scope

of last year’s Smote Reverser and 2017’s

Orc, Face Stabber alternates between

skronky bursts of primal aggression,

medium-sized rockers in various

stages of collapse, one more named

“Captain Loosely” that seems to have

totally liquefied, and two longer pieces.

The occupants of this last category

demonstrate the foremost imperatives

in Dwyer’s modus operandi: hurtling

between ideas and modes at breakneck

speeds and drilling down deep into a

single one until achieving some brutal

OH SEES

Face Stabber

CASTLEFACE

9/10

JohnDwyerandcospread their wings on

sprawling22ndLP.ByJason Anderson

Air guitar:

John Dwyer

takes flight