High Marks - SOURED CDr

High Marks - SOURED CDr 

High Marks - SOURED cassette

At times juxtaposing the grungy, blown-out stomp of the Jesus and Mary Chain's Honey's Dead era with the experimental spirit of PIL's early albums, SOURED is pure punchy fusion. Post-industrial dub tracks commingle with thundering doomer rock, High Marks packs a jet setting degree of variety into SOURED's relatively short run time. This kaleidoscopic vision comes courteously of one D Haddon, a multi-instrumentalist and producer (also of experimental noise rockers Yellow Bulb.) from rural Oregon who is at the center of ever evolving cast of creative collaborators. Haddon is joined throughout SOURED by David Mansfield (of ATL post-punkers Stranded) on lead guitar and keys, the pair also co-wrote a handful of the songs. Elsewhere on the album, appearances by Sara Storm (of NOLA), MN psych duo Sisters of Planetaria, Travis Kuhlman (DUG and also of Yellow Bulb.) and Colorado neo-chanteuse Mandy May populate that diverse musical landscape.

SOURED is an album about the shifting sands nature of all human relationships, whether romantic or artistic, political or professional. The perspectives in these songs vary from a dissatisfied television actor ("Arc Breaker") to philosophy professor turned nihilist ("Nothingness or Something Less"), slices of life populate the quirky cacophony. What choices do we make that cause things to go sour in our lives, and what change is just inevitable with the arc of time?

RIYL: Jesus and Mary Chain, Vacant Lots, AUTOBAHN, PIL, the Drin