A Demonstration of Intellectual Property EP
Label: Artist Direct
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: A Demonstration of Intellectual Property EP
After the influential “Loveless” album by My Bloody Valentine rewrote the rules of guitar rock (at least good guitar rock) for the ’90s, dozens of bedroom-bound axe-wielders saw fit to unleash their wobbly, feedback-drenched sound on the world. Problem was, most of those records sounded like they were recorded in a bedroom. By a guy who hadn’t heard many albums besides “Loveless.” Certainly, there were exceptions, but largely, the phenomenon passed unnoted, due mainly to the homogeneity of the artists involved. Jonathan Bates didn’t emerge from his bedroom long enough to notice any of that, and now he must wonder why no other record out there sounds like his Mellowdrone project. Bates/Mellowdrone has mustered up six songs on this EP that are fascinating if only for their sheer audacity. There just aren’t people making guitar rock this simultaneously aggressive and fragile in 2003. A track like “Fashionably Uninvited” may have some subliminal markers that whisper “Radiohead” to a casual listener, but the way that Bates merges his bombast and beauty surpasses even the pretense of those blokes.
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2003.