Album of the day: Dwarr – Starting Over

Praise for Dwarr‘s Starting Over from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Gotta give it up to the folks at Drag City, they’re (weird) music lovers after our own hearts, all right. Not only did they reissue the eccentric 1986 outsider “doom metal masterpiece”, Animals, by one-man-band Duane Warr aka Dwarr (an album that we at aQuarius had previously made a Record Of The Week, back when we were ordering an earlier, self-released CD version directly from Dwarr himself, we might add), they have now reissued that album’s predecessor, 1984′s privately pressed Starting Over – which, despite its title, was in fact Dwarr’s debut.

Thereby proving that they didn’t just put out Animals for a lark! They’re serious about their love for Dwarr, and really think people should hear his stuff – and people should, we agree. Maybe not all people, but certainly people who appreciate the finer things in, well, wacked out, downer DIY psychedelia, occasionally dosed with Eddie Van Halen style guitar shred. It’s the ’60s in the ’80s, the dark sides of both decades distilled down to a unique, entertainingly demented essence. And not just entertaining, but truly affecting.

Now, we hope you already have Animals (go read our rave review of that right now, if you haven’t!). If you do have it, we probably only need say you want this too. If you don’t, well, while we would have to say Animals is the #1 best Dwarr, this one comes close, certainly possessing a similar vibe, and since it was the man’s first album, there’s no reason not to start with it if you wish to delve into the weird world of Dwarr. In fact, depending on your inclinations, this one might just be a bit more accessible, as it’s not so overtly metallic, but perhaps even more sparse and psychedelic (if possible).

Super slow but for the soloing. Black Sabbath is perhaps less of an influence on this one, than Pink Floyd… Or at least, rather than riff monsters like ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Electric Funeral’, this one takes its cues from the mellower, pot-wreathed Sabbath numbers like ‘Solitude’ and ‘Planet Caravan’. This is a gentler, folkier Dwarr, sort of. But definitely druggy and proggy (like Captain Beyond, circa Sufficiently Breathless), very odd and home-brewed, and certainly sometimes heavy too. Well, always “heavy”, maaaann.

The songs are moody and melancholic, with hushed, woeful vocals. The production is lo-fi, of course, with tinny, trebly guitars indulging in widdly, effect-drenched soloing. Heck, there’s a gnarly two-minute instrumental called ‘Christmas Shopping’ that sounds like something Mick Barr might do, overdosed on cough syrup! Or anyone remember the ’90s Mexican prog  /psych band Humus? Probably not, but it totally could be them. And is that a genius song title or what?

We also like ‘Lonely Ecstasy’ as a title, that’s another one here. Well, he’s got a lot of interesting ideas, that Dwarr. And, as with Animals, this has an amazing piece of album cover artwork, to match the music in outsidery strangeness.

Along with Sabbath and Floyd, another “ordinary” comparison we could make would be to, maybe, solo Steve Hillage in the ’70s. And Hendrix is a likely influence (Dwarr’s vocals on ‘I’ve Been Thinking’ kinda remind us of Jimi). Uli Jon Roth’s solo stuff, too?? But given an even more eccentric, living-in-his-mother’s-basement makeover. Then there’s the pantheon of other outsiders we love, with whom Dwarr totally belongs… Michael Yonkers, Bobb Trimble, Todd Tamanend Clark, and more recently, and possibly more precisely too due to the doom metal element, Tony Tears.

Ok, enough said really. Either we’ve piqued your interest, or your life will stay sadly Dwarr-free. And again, if you’re already a fan, you’ll want this for sure!

Hmmm. Maybe 25 years from now Drag City will be reissuing Fastest albums too…

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, doom, Drag City, Dwarr, outsider metal, Starting Over

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2011 at 6:20 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.