The ever prolific
John Dwyer
of
Thee Oh Sees
decided in 2013 that operating one brilliant garage pysch band wasn't enough to keep him occupied, so he started working on a solo album of synth pop weirdness under the name
Damaged Bug
. The first album to be unleashed, 2014's
Hubba Bubba
, was a good, weird, and messy exploration of synths and sound. A fine start for sure, but the second transmission, 2015's
Cold Hot Plumbs
, blows it away in both the sound and songs categories. This time out
Dwyer
tips the balance in favor of the songs, turning in a batch that would have been highlights on
Oh Sees
' albums. Only instead of ripping guitars and crashed-out drums, he clothes them in hypnotic drum patterns, burbling synths, and restrained, almost robotic vocals. There's loads of
Can
influence, and lots more vintage keys and vocals on display. Some tracks even bring in guitars, and these are the tracks that click into place and become something close to perfect. "What Cheer," for example, might be the best pure recording
has ever made. Other tracks come pretty close to that high standard -- "Jet in Jungle," the swirling "Cough Pills," the brilliantly psychedelic "Cones" -- but what makes the record so good is the high quality throughout. That and the wide range of super cool synth sounds. It may be a side project but
really put all his formidable talents into
. What makes it even more impressive is that it came out only a couple weeks after
' excellent
Mutilator Defeated at Last
album. Most people can't even get one decent band together, that
can crank out two top-notch, very different projects at once is a testament to the kind of near genius he is. ~ Tim Sendra