Thursday, November 1, 2007

REIN SANCTION – CREEL (SUB POP)


REIN SANCTION – CREEL (SUB POP)

When the Sub Pop grunge flag was flying at its highest point so many bands seems to go through the label and every now and then you could catch/snag a track and be truly blown away by the wares of yet another find by the label. Rein Sanction were one such band as this track appeared on the Revolution Come And Gone compilation and stood out as one of the highlights and true prospects on the label.

Alas Rein Sanction was one of the bands on Sub Pop that in the end didn’t make it. They hailed from Jacksonville, Florida (not exactly Seattle) and were formed when brothers Mark and Brannon Gentry found a bass player. After two albums they had split in 1993. I guess it just wasn’t to be.

“Creel” opens with a guitar noise that sounds as if it is creaking before tripping into a whirlwind and cacophony of overdriven guitars that layer beautifully as somewhere West Coast sounding laidback voices sing along as if being led astray by the distortion of the piece. It’s a sincere, lumbering piece of work where you can’t help but feel it is the instruments driving the players rather than vice versa. Held against such elements the voices represent some kind of yearning for a prior sense of control and energy with which to tackle such elements while at the same time feeling happy to submit and dispose. “Creel” is just a truly wonderful piece of work.

The flipside “Willowbreach” proves less inspiring as a similar vocal style is employed to a song that sounds a cross between Tad and Pond prior to drowning alive in lashings of wah. It has the clambering, drunken feel of lumberjack without quite nailing the rock on its head.

They coulda been a contender. Maybe they just didn’t look right.

Thesaurus moment: interloper.

Rein Sanction
Sub Pop

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