Vinyl Review: "Errors" by Absolutely Not

Errors

After many more "you're going to remember where you were when this happened" moments in the past eight months that anyone has ever thought possible, the fact that there's still emotion in my soul is kind of a wonderful thing right now.

As this is being written, it's 1:08 PM CST in my sitting room in St. Louis, MO on August13th.

Yes, Charlottesville, VA happened over the past couple days and I'm raw. Music and politics will be and have been inextricably linked for the following and preceding millenniums.

As there was a KKK/Nazi Rally in the United States, that President Trump didn't disavow or denounce, it seems serendipitous that on my turntable is a raging, punk record by an LGTBQ group.

It's still infuriating that their not being straight white males is relevant in 2017, but here we are.

Absolutely Not

Perhaps if it wasn't, Charlottesville, VA wouldn't have been descended upon by Nazis dressed like President Trump carrying torches next to their Make America Great Again hats.

Errors is an EP in truth. It should be noted that, though, it's on twelve inch vinyl, this is a 45 RPM record. There may have been a reviewer who originally listened to this disc on 33 RPM....

He, and hes totally not me, noted that even at 33 RPM, this record still sounded pretty good. This same guy said the same thing about listening to doom metal 45 RPM instead of 33 RPM....

That's a very round about way of saying this disc is full of fast rockers.

Here's what makes this "Post" Punk, I think, even though the music isn't precisely complex. It's a bit reminiscent to me of what Metallica did in their early years. Even though the guitar lines weren't anything to write home about, they were played with such precision, it made the songs sound amazing.

Absolutely Not has been able to do this amazingly well. Each track, and there are ten of them wrapped up in this twenty minute EP, is chock full of musical movements.

Any long, or short for that matter, reader of this little blog probably knows that Punk Rock normally isn't my cup of tea, but bands like X, Sonny Vincent, etc are really things that get me going. Aside from the attitude, those bands have little to do with what comes to mind when the phrase punk rock is uttered.

Absolutely Not also tends to live in that realm of music. There's definitely punk rock attitude, but it's coupled with ambitious songwriting and deftly played instruments.

Every song is in key, on time, and mad as hell. This is the kind of stuff that I can get behind.

Reminder again, this is a 12" 45 RPM EP....don't play it at 33 RPM.

For the disc, it's neither 180 Gram vinyl nor is it that flimsy damned near flexi disc skinny vinyl. My copy has a small warp in it, but that didn't seem to affect playback in any way whatsoever. A few weeks in my the rack and it'll be good and flat again.

There's a lyric sheet and a download code on the inside. (Everybody  knows how I feel about those codes.)

From top to bottom, pun intended, this album sounds amazing. The mixing and mastering were both top notch to compliment the supremely written, performed, and produced songs.

Please note: there's no unboxing video today....because the record was unboxed without this guy realizing this was a promo that arrived....seriously...the little one and I were at home, and this vinyl showed up.

I had no idea what it was as no one told me one was coming. So, to Absolutely Not, I'm sorry you didn't get an unboxing video.

Release: July 2017
Genre: Post Punk
Label: No Trend Records
Formats: EP/Digital
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