The Onion A.V. Club review of Fresh Gasoline
Phono-Comb
Fresh Gasoline
(Quarterstick)
As a general rule, instrumental records need to have a lot going on:
Without human voices, the playing must exude emotion (a la Dirty
Three), style (a la Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet) or technique (a
la any number of late-'80s guitar-wankers). But Phono-Comb, an
offshoot of the aforementioned Shadowy Men, takes a different
approach: Its debut full-length is full of low-key instrumentals
that, despite a vague surf-rock feel, are so subdued they feel almost
subconscious. And in aiming relatively low, Phono-Comb has put
together a fine collection of warm, well-crafted background music. If
that's not enough for you, the band was smart enough to at least give
some of its instrumentals titles like "International Anthem (A
Simulation of Assimilation)" and "I Dreamed I Went To Heaven In My
Cross-Your-Heart Bra." If you're going to stick mostly to
instrumentals, you might as well give them amusing names, right?
-- Stephen Thompson
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