MOLOTOV ARC is really one Gary James; a Connecticut-based musician whose work is usually hewn from found sounds, oscillations, broken and treated instruments, with the emphasis placed on a Harry Partch-style desire to create from the most unlikely sources.
The four tracks comprising "Hit That Long Lulu Note" are only faintly informed with anything you'd relate to 'rock' per se. Indeed, the names spinning to mind in comparison mostly come from the avant garde fraternity, such as La Monte Young, Derek Bailey and even John Cage.
"Hewn Carotid Ballet" opens and is entirely very pretty and minimal or major league annoying depending on your tolerance levels. This reviewer would give Gary the benefit of the doubt here, finding plenty to enjoy in the twinkly, bust music box version of what is basically Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake." Remarkable, considering he'd previously thought no-one could take it further out after PIL'S extreme "Death Disco."
The album's title track follows and it's the one place where we lose contact. "Hit That Long Lulu Note" is a reference to Beefheart's wonderful "Big Eyed Beans From Venus", but the track itself employs a Sonic Youth-style approach of knives scraped along frets coupled with electronic FX which is tough to stomach for nigh on 15 minutes without succumbing to the tempation of going to do the dishes or whatever.
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"Peony" is no picnic either, but the way the screeing feedback melds with the pretty, hammered dulcimer part creates something pretty spectacular, while the closing "Behold The Pale Horse" again challenges with a 1929 National Steel triolan (no, me neither...) duelling with a low 'C' string on the verge of breaking. The effect is hypnotic and ominous in the extreme.
"Hit That Long Lulu Note" is weird, uncompromising and in places every bit as abrasive as Lou Reed's infamous "Metal Machine Music." It's by no means redundant, though, and if you can rise to its' challenges, you find some beauty seeping through.
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