Twenty Six "This Skin is Rust" 2xLP (Dead C, Gastr del Sol, Thela, Sonic Youth)

$

25

Baron Elmo proudly presents a head-spinner of experimental rock music that far too few folks have been exposed to: the debut album from John Padgett, aka TWENTY SIX: This Skin is Rust, a double LP barely released in 1996 by the Bobby J label, an Austin, Texas imprint that folded after three years. Who should one cite as a comparison point to this minimalist bedroom-studio deconstruction of rock? The best we can do is to describe it as something akin to an ambient Dead C, or a variation on the quieter textures of Gastr del Sol. Another band that comes to mind is Thela – though Twenty Six strip their music down even further than that august ensemble. How much can you remove and still have rock? The question remains unanswered, but this album takes a serious stab at figuring it out. John Padgett would later do an artistic 180-degree spin by re-christening himself Johnny Jewel and founding the Italians Do It Better label, which explores odd but endlessly fascinating permutations of disco. Wonder what his take on This Skin is Rust would be at this much later date? This is a fascinating LP that should bring much pleasure to those who favor alt-rock with an avant-garde edge. Both records and the cover are in pristine, near-mint condition.

Track listing
One Exit
Unbound
The Coldest Day
Humus
Twin Exits
This Skin Is Rust
Astorone
Circles Within Circles
Metal Rings
Wheels Within Wheels
To Walk Forward And Not Look Back

The concept of the double album is all but lost these days. W/ CDs clocking in at 70+ minutes, its only logical that the vinyl version would have to be two discs, so naturally, there are more dull dbl-LPs now than ever. Of course, even before CDs ruined the format, it was still primarily used to cash in on something - the live LP, the career retrospective -- but the dbl-LP as a non-negotiable statement of "what it is," not "fill it up" those are pretty few & far between. Personally I've always been kind've into that statement – not the vinyl equivalent – the idea that said bulk of work has to be released as is because of some sort've linear transformation within. You know what I mean? For instance, I would say the two best examples of this in the 90s have been Lake and Harsh Seventies Reality. Not far down the path -- & especially for the latter 90s -- would be this. Its probably safe to assume that Mr Twenty-Six has been w/in earshot of both those releases, but no matter, the vectors on this here still point back to his basement. What I particularly like about this are the long, exorbitant breaths that are taken. The banding on the vinyl would have you believe that there are many different pieces -- there are -- but they move inconspicuously in & out've each other, like hemp-laced tether balls floating through plumes of pigmentary smoke in some anonymous, non-gravitational netherworld. It can be downright numbing at times. And while I cannot say for sure that anything on here consciously nods in the direction of fellow Texans Jandek or Charalambides, its staying power is certainly more up to par w/them than, say, Stars Of The Lid or any of that ambient punk clone crap currently making the rounds. Go ahead & blab all you want about the Krautrock mumblings emitted, I'll still shove it in the pile closer to the This Heat records than anything else. Now there's a band who should've made a dbl-LP. There aren't too many names to add to that list. The list of those who shouldn't have -- well now, that list is very long. And growing.
~ Tom Lax / Opprobrium

Long before Johnny Jewel was making magic for Glass Candy, Chromatics & Desire, he was hidden in a basement somewhere in Humble, Tx. committing this chunk of loner creepiness to tape. We ran in the same circle of friends at that time, and I seem to remember him in a band called Paloma around then... but that was more than 15 years ago, so details are hazy. Anyway, I do remember pretty clearly walking in to Aquarius (old location on 24th st. kiddos) with some other Texas expats and someone realizing that the weird no-info Jandek look alike-LP on the wall was actually John P’s record. I can't recall if I picked it up that day, or at some point later, but what I do know was that I was in no way ready to really hear the music on it. That was a couple years down the road still... This hits all the right spots if you find yourself among those listeners that enjoy This Heat’s first record & Peel session (particularly the Farfisa drone / found-sound facet), early SY, lonely pianos, sine waves, druggy acoustic guitars... you get the idea. Very personal, very dark, totally essential.
~Jefre, Root Blog