Geronimo
Geronimo
Three One G
We’re not dissin’ them—no reservaaaaatioooooooons!
Watch out, Vikings, because Native Americans are on the fast track to becoming extreme music’s favorite culture! I’m mostly basing this on Geronimo’s self-titled debut randomly ending up adjacent to the new Indian disc on my CD shelf and, uh…there was that last Tomahawk record. Three things is officially a trend! Check out our special Peyote Rock issue later this year! Geronimo, DIY noise hippies with ties to the first wave of powerviolence, weave Native American themes into their album by giving songs titles like “Firewater” and “Coyote,” and less explicitly through trance-inducing repetition and a pastoral approach to noise. Plus you can really “smoke the peace pipe” to it, IF YOU GET WHAT I’M SAYING.*
The homemade, low-tech electronics point directly to Bill Nelson, formerly of Man Is the Bastard and spinoff Bastard Noise. A few moments on Geronimo recall another part of the Bastard Noise family, Amps for Christ, but where Amps are rooted in folk music, Geronimo pursue groove like George Clinton. It might come at a torturous sub-Khanate pace, as on “Firewater,” parts of which literally have seconds of silence between beats, and it might suddenly get all aggro with black metal robot vox at the end of the same song. Then “Headdress” goes directly to Funkytown via distorted industrial breakbeats. But the whole first half emphasizes rhythm, bassist Francoso and drummer Ruiz locked but loose, Nelson’s caveman electronics squawking and blooping and building into grooves of their own. Weird, then, that the big standout is so different: “Spiritwalker” is a stunning piece of imaginary-movie soundtrack, eerie and engaging for its full 12 minutes. Nelson’s noise boxes evoke crickets at first, turning ominous as slow, steady war drums pound and feedback gets sculpted into a Goblin/Morricone crossbreed. So bummer that after “Spiritwalker” it’s a bit downhill. The last two songs are more rock and more ambient, respectively; the Native American stuff is gone and, coincidence or not, they’re kind of boring. Totally worth it for the first half, though, or really even just for “Spiritwalker.” * Marijuana. —Chauncey Kosciuszko
