Slint - "Glenn/Rhoda" EP

Woo! Going to see Slint in Dublin tonight, or more specifically, 'Slint Performing Spiderland'. Should be a good gig...

This isn't Spiderland, although if you want to find out more about that amazing album you can read this. This self-titled EP contains only two songs, 'Rhoda', a reworking of a song from Tweez, and 'Glenn', a previously unreleased song presumably dating from around the same time (apparently, all the songs on Tweez were named after pets and family members).

There are two reasons why I love this EP. They are called, basically, 'Glenn', and 'Rhoda'. Let me explain...

Firstly, this EP almost perfectly bridges the fairly disparate sounds of Tweez (a lo-fi, desultory and crunchingly metallic album) and Spiderland (a twisting, epic and subtle masterpiece of post-rock). 'Glenn' rejuvenates the minimalistic sound of Tweez, tightening it up and adding an extra dimension of tension to the instrumental style. The song quickly builds up into a crescendo, which almost immediately goes nowhere, except to introduce an ominous humming sound... part reminiscent of the antagonistic noise of Tweez, part prescient of the eerie claustrophobia of Spiderland.

Secondly, the music of this EP was for me the most 'accessible' part of Slint, coming as I was from a particular musical direction. Previously, I had an allergy to the whole aesthetic idea of post-rock or math-rock (don't worry, I'm on meds now... the doctors call them the mercury program). The song 'Rhoda', in no small way, helped change that. You see, I was listening to a lot of Maximillian Colby, which was a very heavily Slint-influenced emo/hardcore band, similar in vein to the Swing Kids or perhaps Clikatat Ikatowi. But Slint-influenced is not the same as Slint, so when I downloaded Tweez (the only Slint record Touch and Go have released on eMusic... insert conspiracy theory here) I was a little disappointed, not to say confused. Because this alternate version of 'Rhoda' is simply so much better than that entire album. Right from the starting notes, it is probably Slint's loudest song, performing a similar synthesis of styles to 'Glenn' but simultaneously amping the sound up several notches, drenching the spaces between jagged riffs in perfectly pitched feedback, descending into weird, metallic noise and finally collapsing into a droning whine...

Repeat play is advised, with caution... possible some of the most intense twelve minutes of your musical experience ever.

Slint - s/t ep