Entertainment

The vast field of auld time recordings being dug up yields good, bad and indifferent. It’s pretty rare, though, when a disc arrives that’s equal parts of those things. Granted, some no wave clunkers do exist. But finding a disc sporting mountainous highs and depressed canyon lows is truly bizarre.

I suppose, the Parasites of the Western World aren’t in the same realm of music as DNA or whoever you’d care to pluck from that New York scene. And considering that this duo - Terry Censky and Patrick Burke – sussed out this conglomeration of noises up in the Northwest, Portland to be exact, it’d be fair to cut ‘em a bit of slack.

The group’s first release spurt out around 1978. And while that’s not early for New York, Los Angeles or other major, metro hubs, it’d be difficult to name another group or two from Portland with an eye towards these sorts of aural abstractions. Maybe that’s simply my own ignorance speaking, but there you have it.

Beginning with “Mo,” listeners might figure the stuff to follow remains in line with the aural proclivities on display here. The punky tempo, grinding and phased guitar – not to mention that barely tenable guitar solo – hint at what the confluence of aggressive rock stuffs and utter noise should be. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many other moments resembling this one. And in fact, the following song winds up being a two minute rumination on a single bouncing snatch of reverb. While that’s all well and good in theory, it doesn’t do too much in the realm of entertainment. Arguments can be made for this being art. But I don’t listen to art, I listen to music.