Hey Colossus are the closest thing the UK has to the inheritors of the crown of the Butthole Surfers – which is not a criticism, just in case you were wondering… quite, quite the opposite. And if 2009’s ace Hey Colossus And The Van Halen Time Capsule Present Eurogrumble Vol. 1 was their Hairway To Steven then RRR – an altogether more considered, threatening and psychedelic affair – is somewhere between their Rembrandt Pussy Horse and Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis. This isn’t to say that there aren’t moments of caustic, acid blotter chewing madness here – check out banger ‘The Drang’ – but elsewhere Killdozer in a basement hitting a manatee with golfclubs just won’t cut it on its own. No, RRR features both kinds of music – demented and threatening. Opening track ‘Teased From The Nest’, with buzzing analogue synths and rumbling speaker cabinet feedback is like that moment of psychic pressure drop during the psychedelic experience when you realise that person you’ve been talking to isn’t actually in the room.
Elsewhere, the all-out pig fuck attack of previous albums is replaced by a more nuanced cosmiche/elektronische approach. The title track might start with the sound of an angry serial killer howling at the base of his dungeon based, visitor holding-well but it then develops into a symphony of drones and elegiac textures. Rotated For Success is the throbbing centrepiece of the album, which sounds like the whole Texas Chainsaw Massacre family drunkenly shouting along to Neu! and Loop during Ragnarök and Almeria, Spain recalls Part Chimp’s amp torturing loudness and heaviness (RRR was recorded at PC’s Drop Out studios in South London). UK noise rock is going through a particularly healthy period at the moment, with RRR being a perfect example of its pith, piss, vinegar and vigour.
