Wildildlife - Six (Crucial Blast Records) - Keith Boyd 12.21.07
Feral and freaky as they come. Vague shapes form in the forest and you are definitely hearing a "bustle in your hedgerow". Wildildlife hail from the greatest city on Earth, San Francisco , and they have sallied forth to show you the color of rain in outerspace.

To my knowledge this is the first full length disc from Wildildlife. They had an EP or two under their other name, "Wildlife" but along with the extra three letters they've gone head-long into some full frontal freakery. How to describe this sound? There's a touch of Butthole Surfers but not so mean-spirited. At times a little 1980's Big Country/Adam and the Ants surfaces (though not cheesily) but the overriding sentiment and sonic-fingerprint is BIG BLISSED OUT NOISE. Hooks and riffs will occasionally bubble to the surface out of the tarpit bong water background only to be swallowed by shadowy, metallic waves of crunch. These are psychedelic pop songs buried under a mountain of Katrina mud. These are some toxic swamp water homegrown buds all fired up and toasty.

The length and intensity of these jams speaks of a band that simply must be a devastating live act. If it will help I'll through out a few sound/vibe analogues and you can take your pick. "Fun House" era Stooges, "Masters of Reality-Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath" era Black Sabbath, Zodiac Mindwarp, Gaye Bykers on Acid, A thrust or two of Mammatus, Echoplex voyages from Comets on Fire or Earthless, Crash Worship in full flight. Does that do it for you? Do you get the picture? If not I guess it might be helpful to spin off in another direction. Crusty, Metal/Punk street kids high on Krautrock, Fruit Loops, Fresh dried Peyote and Vodka go berserk and crash the local Gothic graveyard party. In the midst of painting each others faces and shouting slogans from both the Situationists and the Brethren of the Free Spirit they realize that everything is everything and free fall through space in a liberated mindmeld. That must do it, no? Does that scratch the itch so to speak? Any damn way you slice it this is a mega-fucking-watt hoedown of a disc. There are the scattered and shattered splinters of so many good sounds here. It's a geological layering of all that's been good for the past 40 years or so. And yet it manages to be more than just a sum of parts. The sound stands on its own and is what I am finally able to call truly UNIQUE. Stop reading this damn review, go out into your nearest wooded area and smear yourself with mud. Tie Palm and Fern fronds to you arms and spin around until you're not sure if it's you or the Earth doing the spinning. Chug some creek water, lick rocks. Thread roots through your hair and bark at the clouds. Then arrayed thusly, proudly march down to your locally owned independent music shop and purchase Wildildlife's glorious and Super Natural new disc, "Six". The Gods will smile on you and golden rays of infinity will shine forth from the storm.