Are you a New Yorker? Or the type that disparages this fine city, when I know you are secretly jealous of us lucky, lucky, lucky people? (Hey ex-Mayor Koch! How'm I doin'?) If you loved music in the mid-'70s, New Yawk was the place to be. At Max's Kansas City or CBGB, little bands turned into legends: New York Dolls to Heartbreakers, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Ramones, Television, Blondie, Cramps, yadda yadda f***ing yadda. Maybe this ole town hasn't produced such a golden crop since, but creative sounds have always emanated, and recent years have been the best in a decade. Inspired rockers Lotion, East River Pipe, Madder Rose, Versus, Ivy, and Guv'ner are now national items, but there's another post-punk bumper crop below them awaiting their due. Among them are French, Saturnine, Ditch Croaker, and this group, Camber. With a wired, heavy, smacking sound, Camber has made strides from early gigs and the foursome's Hollowed Out 7". Gotta love their fiery fury and controlled desperation. The guitars of Corby Caldwell and Barry Lott warp with chiming discomfort, as the bass and drums pound like doomsday. Yet, like French (only heavier), Lott's melodic, thick singing belies the ton of bricks bursting behind. The result is a post-grunge wall of sound, and soft to heavy tension pounding not for the timid! Perfect for a wound-up town. ~ Jack Rabid