ShareGRAND UNIFYING THEORY – Kim Salmon & the Surrealists (Low Transit Industries)
 “Where do you think you’re going? Don’t you know this is my trip, and you’re on it?”
 
So sayeth Kim Salmon, halfway into his first outing under the “…and the Surrealists” rubric since 1997’s "Ya Gotta Let Me Do My Own Thing". Despite the fact that the aforementioned album was the last new music I’d heard from Salmon (there's also the multi-headed, mainly instro guitar beast
SALMON), the Barman pitched me the ex-Scientist/Beast of Bourbon’s newie, correctly intuiting that such a slab of evil psychedelic murk would be Right Up My Alley after a few years of listening to Japanoise and stuff like the Gunslingers.
 
On first listen, this album reminded me of nothing so much as local Dallas light Wanz Dover (ex-Mazinga Phaser)’s new power trio The Black Dotz, and that’s meant as a compliment. “Turn Turn” starts things off with sinister electronic rumblings under a nasty bass-and-drum groove, over which Salmon plays the role of the unwilling passenger on an out-of-control joyride. “Order of Things” opens with gutty fuzzed-out auto-wah rumblings, which are joined in succession by hi-hat splashes, a tinkling triangle, and intermittent bass punctuation, creating a hovering sense of dread. Then “RQ2” explodes like an Anglophone Mainliner, with Salmon uttering Iggy-esque whoops.
 
“Grand Unifying Theory I” continues in like manner, with blasts of pulsing feedback and thunderous clatter-drums, before the riddim boyz lock it in the pocket. Then the track segues seamlessly into the 22-minute “Grand Unifying Theory II,” the album’s centerpiece. Salmon and crew lay down jams as feelthy as Blue Cheer, Les Rallizes Denudes, or High Rise, but at a measured pace with a much deeper groove. Around the ten-minute point, they break it all the way down to the primordial stew, and you can hear what sound like bowed cymbals and tuba-like bass harmonics. It’s anarchic, but in the most subtle way imaginable. Then pulse and skronk return. Strong stuff.
 
On “Predate,” Salmon & Co. trawl the same swamp of Diddleyesque funk the Stooges did on “Little Doll,” concluding, “It’s a beautiful thing.” Wanna argue with him? I sure don’t. “Childhood Living” starts out in the same mode as the title track before making a 180-degree turn into a slamming punk song. “Kneel Down At the Altar of Pop” is the closing tune, and you’ll want to obey the title’s directive after the pummeling Salmon and his minions inflict here. About the farthest thing from “pop” one can imagine; I want more. - Ken Shimamoto

 

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