The Hair & Skin Trading Company's second album found the trio ever more settled into its own brand of Krautrock motorik meets psych noise -- if still clearly the product of Mackay and Wills' time spent in
Loop, there's a greater range of styles at play and a sense that the group is finding its own particular voice. Again, compared to Robert Hampson's continuing drive into the unknown via Main, the Hair & Skin Trading Company comes across more conventionally but, in terms of brusque power combined with psych/drone approaches,
Over Valence is a treat. Mackay and Wills still often aim at Can/Neu! trance, but when Wills in particular fires up the drumming mania on songs like the commanding surge of "Levers" or the absolutely frenetic "Machine Gun," no prisoners are taken. There are signs of the players being comfortable enough to take chances, like the snippet of guitar that arcs in and out of the mix dramatically on "F.D.M.," the blasting feedback abuse of "Lock-Up," or the slow burn and build of "Carrier Wave." One of the best titles is "K-Funk," and, if it's meant to signal a crossing between German and American styles, it succeeds -- the song itself sounds like Funkadelic at its loudest and grooviest matched up with Can in the same way, and then pumped up even more so. Webb's scrawling guitar just increases the frenetic, obsessive drive. In an inspired guest appearance,
Laetitia Sadier, during the height of
Stereolab's own fired-up and sprawling Krautrock phase, contributes vocals on "Go Round." There are some fairly calmer, more conventionally tuneful moments, though even the ghostly Jesus & Mary Chain-styled vocals on "Loa" can't take away from Wills' rhythms, while even the blissed-out closer, "Static," turns disturbing as the drones get more trebly and stretched-out. ~ Ned Raggett