I dropped the needle for the first time on this record a few minutes ago. The sound coming out of my speakers was akin to that of playing a song over the phone, playing it on a loud speaker under water and then taking a single channel microphone to record the music coming out.
I Shalt Become's music is raw. Actually that is an understatement, this goes back to the early 90's sound where it's exceedingly difficult to tell anything that is happening in the wall of fuzz... and it's glorious.
I only found out about I Shalt Become a few years ago. I started seeing this album pop up in a couple of distros a few years back and eventually started seeing it in people's collections. I listened to the digital a few times and didn't know what to think... and today I saw it at my local shop and decided why not pick it up?
The experience listening to this on my main sound system rather than on headphones is drastic. This album captures that rare magic of being sloppy but having that sloppiness work in the albums favor.
Is that drum beat off a bit? Yep. Did they just miss finger that riff? Yep. Did his voice strain a little bit on that rasp? Yep, it sure did. All of these things make the album sound more organic and fit the wall of fuzz production perfectly.
The combination of the sloppy playing with the harsh production is a perfect match. While there is nothing super innovative happening on Wanderings, this is one of those rare records that manages to be greater than the sum of its parts.
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