If Paul Rosales is to be believed, his SoCal-based Wonder Wheel project is 36 albums deep since June 2003, though he claims that this tape on Sixteen Tambourins is the first “lyrically and audibly coherent” release in the mammoth home-cut catalogue.
Coherent, indeed, but not exactly finding the center and squatting on it, either. The B side lead-off track “Eyes” manages to waver like a bent vinyl that goes in and out of tempos and even tone. Someone should strap some headphones on a drunk stumbling through carnival grounds and see if he notices.
“IMHO” mucks up the same lazy canals as other next-new-wave contemporaries like Blank Dogs and Gary War, throwing something dark and off onto pristine oohing, ahhing, clean guitar tones, until it all dries up and slows out.
The Brave New World cassette is available now.
