HARRY PUSSY 'One Plus One' Double LP (US, Palilalia Records, Catalogue #PAL-009) Brand new/unplayed copy of Palilalia Records label 2012 Double LP edition/collection of recordings, rare and reassembled, by Harry Pussy (originally recorded in Miami, 1992-1993.)

(NOTE: LIMITED VINYL EDITION!)

Gatefold double LP compiled from hours of early walkman recordings documenting the duo of Bill Orcutt and Adris Hoyos. Recorded 1992-93, “One Plus One” combines the best of key early releases (the “Vigilance” cassette, the Planet & 2nd Esync singles) with 40 minutes of unreleased contemporaneous material.

During their brief, mid-1990s career, Miami noise killers Harry Pussy played most often as a trio, with five musicians involved at various points. But their core was always the founding duo of guitarist Bill Orcutt and drummer/singer Adris Hoyos. The former's unmistakable car-crash sound and the latter's primal beats and soul-stiffening screams defined the group's destructive aesthetic, leading Douglas Wolk to brand them "just about the most abrasive band America has ever seen."

Though they earned that superlative, it's slightly misleading. Because while Harry Pussy could over-stuff speakers with bracing din, they also injected space and structure into their racket. At times they sounded more like a punk-damaged free jazz group than an abstract noise machine. That's especially true of early duo recordings by Orcutt and Hoyos, where the pair's intuitive interplay is clearest. When Orcutt pinches out piercing notes and Hoyos responds with snare slaps that propel him into clanging chords, the result is more conversation than confrontation.

Orcutt used only duo material to create One Plus One, combing through over 10 hours of Walkman-recorded sessions. Along the way he grabbed some pieces that had already appeared without titles on early 7"s, but he edited them anew and gave them all names. That may seem purposefully confusing, but Orcutt's intent was actually genuine. He approached One Plus One as a new release rather than a reissue, selecting the best, most complementary material regardless of whether it had been heard before.

It was a wise choice, because One Plus One is better-paced and more coherent than anything released while Harry Pussy were still together. It still has tons of clamor and dissonance, and even the most welcoming songs challenge ears. But the album flows with a distinct internal logic, as Orcutt and Hoyos revisit sounds, work out ideas, and explore what happens when they use the same moves in different contexts. So when Orcutt repeats a vibrating riff in "Forming", it resembles a fractured Link Wray outtake; when he stretches a similar chord into a stoned drag during "On the Couch", it evokes the Dead C applying their patented lurch to "Forming".

Orcutt's sequencing also reveals Harry Pussy as much more than a single-gear noise band. As One Plus One winds its way forward, serious drama mixes with absurd humor, urgent chaos balances joyful abandon, and loose asides lead to intense precision. It all culminates in "Vigilance", originally released as a repetitive collage on a 1992 Chocolate Monk cassette. Here, we get the raw source material-- a surprisingly consistent jam that suggests what Jimi Hendrix might've done if his version of "The Star Spangled Banner" had guided the rest of his career. Perhaps fittingly for a band that inverted rock norms, such consistency means that the first Harry Pussy record that works as a conventional album happens to be a posthumous one. (Marc Masters/Pitchfork)

Tracks on this Double LP are as follows:

Forming Like A Paving Stone I Fought The Police One Plus One My Cocaine Is In The Sun A Simple Mind Tight Fit This Is My Voice It's Cold And I Don't Know What Time It Is The Way We Were Domestic Disturbance Nazi U.S.A. Not Bright Improbable People Our Song The Way We Were Not Your Blues I Fought The Police Vigilance An Excuse To Leave Bad Faith On The Couch Like A Paving Stone Scenes From A Marriage

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Record shipped in professional, superior rectangular shaped, corner-protecting corrugated cardboard record mailer with filler pads. Satisfaction guaranteed!