Description

1LP Vinyl – MCR 926 – Olive & Grey Swirl

Opening this collection of live recordings, “Horizontal Hold” was either the precursor to post-rock, or Krautrock with a junkie’s itch. Hi-hats and guitars shuddered like helicopter blades, building to a velocity that threatened to (and eventually did) rip the song apart. After “Not Waving” drifts on seasick synths, “The Fall of Saigon” comes clattering in on one of the grimiest loops to ever grace tape. Pulsing with apocalyptic beauty, the song cuts deeper than any other agitpop band’s barbs. It was topped only by “Makeshift,” an angular epic that evokes King Crimson reborn with Public Image Ltd.’s metallic lurch. This Heat built a post-punk Tower of Babel, climbing for five minutes before tumbling in a hail of drums and rabid bleating. It was an impossible racket to follow, as evidenced by the three anemic ambient pieces that close the album. Evidently, appearing on Peel’s show was as big as This Heat got, unsurprising given the band’s emotionally rattled timbre. But in that paradox sat the music’s power: Made Available was a genuinely unnerving experience — the ultimate in uneasy listening.