2nd album from Mark Ryan's (Marked Men, High Tension Wires) Mind Spiders, and it's a Meltdown, alright. This is a very different beast from the s/t Mind Spiders LP released just 13 months ago. The most obvious difference is that while the s/t LP was recorded piecemeal, with Mark more-or-less playing all the instruments, Meltdown is the first Mind Spiders recordings to feature the full live band. And what a band it is: members of The Bad Sports, High Tension Wires, Marked Men, Uptown Bums, etc etc.

The fact that there are 2 drummers (Mike from the Marked Men AND Greg from The High Tension Wires both play drums at the same time) gives alot of these songs a rhythmic complexity that sets the songs apart from a lot of other "garagey" type bands.

Loosely organized like the first LP, with the more straightforward, rocking stuff on side A and the weird curveball stuff on side B, Meltdown, while remarkably cohesive, blends a lot of different elements: Great sounding guitar tones. Happy, warm organ. Mean, buzzing synth. 60's pop sensibilities. Snotty garage rockers. Dark, brooding postpunk. Weirdo sci-fi soundtrack stuff. Nods to Krautrock. Oh, and did we mention there are 2 drummers?

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