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Outrageous Cherry
THE BOOK OF SPECTRAL PROJECTIONS
(RAINBOW QUARTZ)

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Almost a decade into their career as a living, breathing Nuggets compilation unto themselves, Detroit’s Outrageous Cherry are still finding new ways of saying old things, reconstituting their primordial garage stomp in the service of, uh, new concepts — the latest of which is the 20-track, double-length Spectral Projections. You may recognize the distilled cool, reverb-washed voice of head Cherry Matthew Smith from his other outfit, the acid-country-minded Volebeats (if you thought that was Steve Wynn covering outtakes from VU’s Loaded, chances are it was Smith). Although there’s nothing brazenly new here that OC haven’t previously explored on their past efforts, they do this sort of retro-’60s garage pop — Eyes-style bubblegum psych; minimalist Velvetsy drones; trashy Electric-Prunes-by-way-of-Chocolate-Watchband rawk — better than just about anybody this side of the Green Pajamas. And for the first time, every conceivable stylistic inclination OC have ever had is together in one place. The title-track opener, for example, is all baroque majesty, with towering walls of haze that give way to a Love-flavored groove, early–Pink Floyd tangents ("It’s Only Sorcery"), archetypal Stones riff-oramas circa Aftermath ("The Hour Glass"), and a plethora of tunes reverently built from the basement up.

BY JONATHAN PERRY

Issue Date: September 5 - 12, 2002
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