The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviews or reviewed material—namely 7”’s, 12”’s, 3” CDs, EPs, cassette-only, DVDs and MP3-only releases.

Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney
I Gave You
[Domino Records, 2005]

I still find it hard to believe sometimes that Oldham’s records aren’t being dug up in batches from across some great desert. Regardless of the instrumentation or collaborators there’s always a hint of sepia in everything he does. This single’s three exclusives are as strong as anything from Superwolf, if anything they’re most instant and obviously melodic. Two of the songs are fleshed out by keys, some Cave-esque Chapel organ on “Four Screams” and Western saloon piano alongside “My Circle”s cracked harmonies. The narrative of closer and standout collaborative effort so far “Birch Ballad” is back to the stripped guitars sound of the album but paced by a light tapped rhythm and fingers on mic percussion.
[Scott McKeating]

Jazzfinger / Ultra Shit Inferno
Three Bottles of Dissolved Time / Untitled Live (Split 7” limited edition of 200)
[Self Released, 2005]

This split release is another example of Jazzfinger’s increasingly impressive live performances translating into outstanding studio work. Here they balance an uncertain swelling piano line next to the contours of buzzing twisting treble and a distended bassline-ish recurring bulge sounding almost like the half bloated half consumed corpse of a ‘proper’ song. Ultra Shit Inferno take roaring feedback noise and loosely strap it (sex swing style) to some percussive abuse and instrument manhandling with nods to Sludge / Doom / Drone grinding Metal. Blistered shredded shrieks and a general air of degeneracy push this beyond a simple noisy soundclash into something murkier with stains on its underwear. Any chance of a split LP next time?
[Scott McKeating]

Terrapin
Payola EP
[Sidekick, 2005]

It says something about me that I was surprised to hear a woman's voice come in after the aggressive guitar beginning to this EP. [Hey, I own my Sleater-Kinney! I pretend to have read Judith Butler!] It says something more about Terrapin that they chose to have Jo sing on "Pixelated," juxtaposing her smooth voice against the ragged noise the band hammers out. When she returns for the lengthy "Foolscap," it's a softer sound. Terrapin bounces around its sounds without losing focus, mixing male and female vocals, overdriven and clean guitars, patience and rashness. The group makes a coherent opening statement while proving themselves flexible enough in their art to be surprising, whether playing it steady and cool or balls to the wall [or something less gender-specific. I like Kim Gordon!]
[Justin Cober-Lake]