Description
**12", 33 ⅓ RPM, single sided**
Released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Spunt's label, PPM, The Roy Tapes are Wives' last gasp, seven songs recorded immediately prior to the band's first and final European tour, then shelved for nearly seven years. As lost albums go, it's not quite Smile or Black Album-grade myth-fodder. It's a slight, unlabored collection of tunes-- 10 minutes of shrill feedback and growl, preserving the last handful of tunes the band wrote, plus one Negative Approach cover ("Can't Tell No One"). If you caught them in 2005, it will set off an immediate, tender pang of nostalgia.
But there's historical value, too-- if only because you can hear the early percolation of the ideas that would drive No Age. On The Roy Tapes, Spunt and Randall's songwriting takes a step back from the abstract and brainy turf that Wives staked out on their debut. The songs are clumsier in execution, but more hummable. Instead of a tool to voice aggression and anger, noise becomes a more melodic and textural element, playful instead of pummeling. On "If You Went Any Lower You'd Hit China", the trio rides a simple singsong guitar hook through a wave of electronic squealing, tumbling into a primitive rave up.