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MDR-001 Reviews

• “Minimal synth that fails to bore. So much shit in this genre is overly premeditated or precocious while Mattress is like acid burning through your prefrontal cortex with canned Casio beats reverberating in a death knell dirge. This is what Scrummage University should sound like.”

  Ben Blackwell
  Detroit Metro Times
  11/14/2007
  www.metrotimes.com

• “I swear I just stopped listening to old live joy division from heart and soul, like disc 4, for a second to listen to mattress' myspace and I thought I forgot to turn JD off and it was still playing...crazy.
  
  But only for a second, this song Mirror it has the same determination and drive as JD, the vocals start off a little subdued and dark and then launch into a chanting tirade. All of it sounds like it's been processed and played through custom circuits and then a radio shack mixer, in short it's that electro-punk greatness, but not exactly with that manic dance energy. It's darker, instead of dancing you should be looking over your shoulder for the experiments gone wrong in the corner of this basement show. Or it could be I've been listening to Joy division too long. Have to go see control...tonight.
  
  There is this great keyboard noise that even on the tiniest computer speakers is unignorable and piercing, I don't think anyone else can take it but I have to hear it again.
  
  Wow, there was a liars noise at the end that was so perfect. Like from 'There's always room on the broom.' That indescribable electronic distortion.

  I ordered this but it's been a while and I think it got filed next to the record player as 'must listen to', but that pile isn't getting any smaller, and these jems are waiting.
  
  Damn I like these guys, I have to go listen to this 7" later....
  
  You know that's why in the end I like myspace....it's the ugliest uniform piece of crap, but every band has a presence and I appreciate that.”

  Jason
  7 inches
  10/11/2007
  7inches.blogspot.com

• “A clash between mangled soul and electro-pop, Mattress' latest EP is an experiment in sounds both rudimentary and complicated. The music is as basic as it gets as it riffs on the prototypical blues and soul formula, but the interjection of bleeding heart vocals, spastic electro-breaks and hypnotic beats reestablish blues as a malleable art, especially in an age when instruments and electronics are readily available to any DIY musician. Mattress has a slow climb to reach the pinnacle of electronic domination, but In Your Pocket is a giant step towards reaching musical heights yet explored.”

  Electronic Voice Phenomenon
  10/07/2007
  elecvp.blogspot.com

• “If Nick Cave had a bad dream with Suicide on the soundtrack. Over modest electronic backing Mattress reminds us that we can still sing without sounding garish or insincere. The sort of thing that’s eerily romantic and irresistibly weird. Almost warrants use of the word ‘important’.”

  Connor Morris
  Sunshine & Grease
  09/23/2007
  sunshineandgrease.blogspot.com

• “It sure has been the year for fish-eyed, tweaked-out 7"er's hasn't it? By the pound too it seems like, giant nets full've noise & pop mackerels, hoisted on board to be picked over or thrown back. And sure enough there's always the one's what get tucked away in the hold to keep for yourself. From my recent trowelings this new ep from Mattress would fit that bill to a T. It's also the debut release on the Malt Duck label, captained by none other than Fuzzbox Flynn over to KDVS so I needn't have worried that I was gonna get hornswoggled by some precosity or affectation (hello Olympia!). In fact, I was so tickled by the aural results I made a malt duck sangria in order to further imbibe in the swagger of this Mattress fella. I've heard some genteel peepin about his similarities to Alan Vega & Suicide but I don't think the paleo dark/space vibe (what resonates from Suicide to my node) is all that prominent. I mean, it's there-if you want it to be-but scratch your ears a little faster & hear trickles 'n blurts what's remininscent of Minimal Man, Pyrolator & (early) Quintron. It a man & his machines, primed & pulsating, up against it w/not a worry in the world. It's not naivete folks, it's bravado & personally.....I like his odds.”

  Tom Lax
  SiltBlog
  08/13/2007
  siltblog.blogspot.com

• “Severe and bleak are the words which best describe the debut record for both label Malt Duck and Portland’s Mattress, a 2-song 7” stuffed with a CDR of the two sides along with an additional two songs.  I’ve been scratching my head for days over this, and when I read someone refer to Mattress as the perfect fusion of early-Smog, Nick Cave and Suicide, I couldn’t help but to let out a big sigh of relief.  Genius!  Thank you!  I couldn’t have said it any better. Mattress skillfully fuses the three into a strangely exciting new sound within the simple play of crude synth and soulful crooning.  Severe and bleak- but I keep coming back to it.  Hopefully this is just the first of many for both parties.“

  Sean Wright
  Z-Gun
  August 2007
  z-gun.org

MDR-002 Reviews

• "I’m a sucker for thinned-out loping repetetive hypnotic bassy guitar loops (see:  Wooden Shjips, Chris Harwood) and was dang pleased when I came across a new 7″ from Oregon’s Them, Themselves or They.   Their MySpace picture tips off the Lard Free influence, though TTT sound more like a less-proficient Lard Free that doesn’t give a shit, which is okay by me.  7″ courtesy of Sacramento’s Malt Duck Records, who, counting last year’s sweet Mattress single, are now 2 for 2."

  Brad L
  Always Eating Breakfast Blog
  05/13/2008
  Alwayseatingbreakfast.wordpress.com

• “Its weird when Jason posts something at Seven Inches (Everyday), I always hesitate posting the same thing, or at least right away. He just posted about this Them, Themselves or They 7″ only yesterday, which happens to be exactly when I got the record in the mail. So I was thinking “hold off;” and then I put it on, and I got really excited about it, and am now posting about it anyways. I am sure the inner psyche of the blogging record collector is really interesting to you, no? Ok, lets move on then.

Malt Duck Records is now two singles deep into their catalog, and I am going to tell you now that this is one of those labels that you are going to have to start following. Their first single was released last year, Mattress “In Your Pocket” should have made it onto my year end list (kind of an oversight on my part), and as good as it was, this new one ups the ante a little.

Them, Themselves or They’s Angel Dust & Magick Wands 7″ starts off nicely with a side of weirdness that always stays grounded (as in, it never really shakes the groove it is in), and instead tries to fill in the haunting soundscape with strange noises and whatnot. B-side is even more mellow, and the comparison I read on Seven Inches that it sounds like a less precise Wooden Shjips is dead on here.”

Qmass
Seven Ten Twelve
03/06/2008
sevententwelve.com

• “This is some kind of meticulous slow muddy restraint. Tracks are created with the barest of bone machines and at the latest hour in the middle of the city. This is someones soundproofed basement apartment under blacklight and clouds of smoke. Has the eerie quality of an Angus Andrew, in this deep melodramatic wavery vocal style, that gets endearingly too close to the mic. It really makes you question where the hell they could be possibly coming from. Where is the reference? Nothing like it.
  
  But they obviously are barreling ahead and fuck the rest. Like Suicide, they are coming from completely left field and there won't be a 7" even remotely close to this. Scary and minimal and electronic.
  
  This is TTT's debut, though you might be familiar with band member Sally Strobelight and her LP of loner psych that came out last year. If so, you know a bit of what you are getting into: simple outsider psych. To peg them to a sound: Think the Wooden Shjips with less chops, less guitar hystronics and more hypnotism. Definitely a product of someone's bedroom. Comes with CDR.”

  Jason
  7 inches
  03/05/2008
  7inches.blogspot.com

• “Excellent sunrise burnoff quiet psych jams, kind of in line with Valet-style double vision candlelight headbone reverberations, but also with a more bluesy, ground-based attack, with big booming basslines akin to Opal at their roadhousiest. Cool mists rise off of these two offerings, quietly seductive and begging for “freshies” in the chamber. Extremely listenable and gets better with repeat spins.”

  Doug Mosurock
  Dusted, Still Single Vol. 4, No. 5
  www.dustedmagazine.com

• “Lastly (& bestly), I wanna let yous all know about the 2nd release on the already esteemed Malt Duck label. Entitled Them, Themselves or They, this is a crucial swab of cracked weirdo experimentalism with stunning rich undertones that is as tranfixing & eerily bewildering-in real time-as DDAA, The Makers Of The Dead Travel Fast, Ludus or Kosmonautentraum was back in halcyon yore. Made up of former members of Eat The People, Sally Strobelight + others I have never heard of (either), I am very curious & anxious for someone to get the ball rollin on releasin MORE Them, Themselves or They as well as delvin into the vaults to get these other Sac-Town whackers works into the ears 'n arms of us appreciaters. Thankfully this too comes w/a a bonus cdr so I'll have somethin soothin to listen to later while that lamb rolls around on the spit. Shit, this thing has got me so giddy w/delight that I'm gonna have to call it one of my favorite 7"ers of the year thus far. Malt Duck is battin 1000% & I suspect they got nowhere to go but up.”

  Tom Lax
  SiltBlog
  02/23/2008
  siltblog.blogspot.com