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Michael Yonkers

It’s Only Yonkers

Released 2004 on Galactic Zoo Disc-Eclipse records
Reviewed by blind re-viewer, Jun 2006ce

A
a1 — the beginning
a2 — come on everybody
a3 — here’s to you
a4 — it will be soon
a5 — what do you care
a6 — well i won’t be there
a7 — uh oh
a8 — i look out the window
a9 — here i go again
B
b1 — is that you there
b2 — gotta find the time
b3 — tell me all about it
b4 — well all
b5 — ya all come runnin’ back
b6 — can’t seem to wait
b7 — who do you think you are
b8 — woo woo woo
b9 — what is that secret
b10 — i’m not anywhere 

For those who have been expecting for the unexpected for years, having no respite from the fatal remembrance of This dinausoresque ‘micromignature love’, just stop the lament!—Here comes the 2004’s enormous Bomb that has been dropped by the Plastic Crimewave’s Galactic Zoo Disc with Eclipse Records—19 killers-tracks of the highest yonkersian calibre & strong enough to outlive all tittle-tattle on the question. Yes brothers !—Michael Yonkers is back & well there, and the album brings the true proof that the wait, as long as it was, has generated such an assault like very few actual records do. 

The first time i played the monster, 10 fucking playing seconds of ‘the beginning’ haven’t gone yet that this brief moment brought all the reality of a wide-ranging mind, a mind the micromignature’s phantom-posterity has occured in the air as an ambiant breath full of inspiring atoms for all the freaks & suckers of the earth——For the charge of the 1968’ legendary album was so loud that it has taken many years to get it out from its smoky crater—, and then the opportunity is given now—and particularly for the actual young generation, to put a stop to our ignorance about the actual avant-guardism of our old musicians-peers’. That’s a real deal. It may be not a come back but ecstasy beyond the ages.
‘It’s only Yonkers’ definitely appears as a monstruous elevating, visceral and archetypal album of small pieces which have to be listened as you may listen to a rootsy blues song from the ancient time (ex : i’m thinking about one or two Delta-slide in one face, which causes much more terror that we can suspect in fact), but much more than this & as if this wasn’t enough, you’re gonna get some brutal avalanche of noise, clearly a slide & Christmas of noise, some psychedelic distorted & fuzzy tones on some buzzy atmosphere, some jerky rhythmic guitars (‘i won’t be there’, ‘here i go again’), some minimal & loud beats or kicks, in most cases as tempo-only, sounding like if it came from his feet-or any tambourine-grave, or at least like some drunk & nihilist drums.
All of this is made of a real terrific and sharp efficiency, and even if we must say that it is a properly wild and brutal album, with no compromise—for the pleasure of yonkers’ fanboys i guess—some melodies or riffs get more fineness & softness ( ‘i look out the window’, ‘is that you there’). Add to this the preaching tone of an haunted voice, whose timbre gets no major difference from the one of Micromignature, but less screaming maybe. The destructive power Apogée of Yonkers’ full-of-rage-riffs may be attained on such small tracks as ‘tell me all about it’ or ‘come on everybody’ which offer an interesting synthesis of the yonker’s manner. 

His actual work may features one of the new age possibilities of both r’n’r and blues, integrating distortion in each domain of the space as a way to (de)-compose the decadent process (and progress) of the Harmony.
Harmony of forms & forms of the Harmony which, in a sense, means the same. That’s a typically expressionist concept to think forms and background as one & equal thing. And Harmony never gets enough deconstruction. Also that’s why his music spreads all its boundaries very far from the simple canon of blues, garage & rock music, even if you can hear all of that into it. 

That’s essentially rock’n’roll, but every track of this masterpiece tell you to be very careful with that. And that gives many questions to the Genre.

These 19 tracks were taken directly with a 4 tracks-recorder and, indeed like it has been saied before, without overdubbing. So you won’t be so surprised to know that illustrating the most powerful 4 tracks-recorder facture as possible, this record has no noisegate into it, but just blues-buzz for you ears given by one of the most primitive (re)-actor that psychedelic rock music can actually conceive . 

N.B : Sleeve artwork by Plastic Crimewave.

blind re-viewer