Makeout Videotape’s website claims that the band is a two-piece, a collaboration between Mac DeMarco and Natalie Gitt. The group’s
Heat Wave EP, however, sounds suspiciously like the work of one man. With songs that are comprised of nothing more than distorted guitar chords, buried vocals and thumping, monotonous drums, it’s even possible that the collection was recorded in single takes,
Chad VanGaalen-style.
With such simple arrangements, it would be easy for the Vancouver group to get repetitive in large doses. But
Heat Wave blows through its seven songs in just 13 minutes, meaning that you never have the time to get restless. Each song is a blast of white-hot distortion, the rudimentary recording style meaning that everything is buried in dense fuzz and reverb.
Like fellow no-fi rockers
Wavves and
Times New Viking, the songs themselves are gleefully catchy, aping ’60s surf and bubblegum pop. The hazy, blissed-out riffs of “Slush Puppy Love” give way to punchy, double-time verses and sing-song vocals; the lyrics are impossible to discern, but the title suggests they’re probably every bit as sugary as the melody would imply. “I Guess the Lord Is in New York” is a bouncy
Harry Nilsson cover that ends up sounding a bit like
Lou Reed at his most accessible. Best of all is “Heat Wave,” a haunting groove with an infectious, wordless falsetto refrain.
mp3: “Heat Wave”
Makeout Videotape released
Heat Wave on CD-R earlier this year, but it’s currently sold out. If you shoot the band a message on
MySpace, they might be kind enough to hook you up.
