Bolides Over Basra LP
Load Records, 2000
While many scoff at this post-Born Against project featuring the infamous Sam McPheeters, you should really give this, their swansong album, a good listen, as it stands up as one of Load Record’s finest releases during a time period when that label was consistently lobbing massive chunks of unheralded sonic excellence into the world.
(Sidenote 1: The Load catalog circa 1995–2005 deserves some overdue recognition as well with a rogues’ gallery of notable noiseniks including Arab On Radar, Brainbombs, Burmese, Friends Forever, The Hospitals, Thee Hydrogen Terrors, Khanate, Landed, Lightning Bolt, Noxagt, Mindflayer, Mr. California and the State Police, Pink and Brown, Prurient, Six Finger Satellite, The USA Is A Monster, Total Shutdown, Vaz, Zen Guerilla and more. Yeah, damn.)
(Sidenote 2: Sam McPheeters’ excellent book Mutations from 2020 is also well worth your time. The punk provocateur behind Born Against and Men’s Recovery Project also has a lot of insightful things to say about all that’s great and not so great about the punk scene. Highlights include an extended profile on The Crucifucks’ Doc Dart, which is worth the meager admission price alone.)
Anyway, back to Bolides.
Men’s Recovery Project could easily be dismissed if you’d sampled a smattering of their hit-and-miss singles or uneven LPs. Each release seemed to be a prank on the listener who’s never really let in on the joke, which, honestly, even holds true for Bolides. It’s also easy to overlook them among the other stellar releases Load was putting out around that time (see Sidenote 1 above), each with it’s own weird ass take on noise/rock that could be off-putting or oblique in their own unique way. That said, Bolides Over Basra is a rewarding listen for those susceptible to Chrome-esque journeys of mutant rock, and even if it seems like you may never “get it”, you will be taking a ride that’s unlike many that’ve come before it or since. And as an adventurous listener, do you really need 100% understanding of everything? Sometimes that ambiguous mystery is a lot more interesting.
The album’s effortless flow from track to track — each song stretching into a new, strange terrain while still being connected by coherent aesthetic — makes this album best experienced on vinyl or CD to hear it in the manner it was meant to be heard. While I’m thankful that a smattering of tracks from the record made it onto the 5 Rue Christine label’s noble The Very Best of Men’s Recovery Project compilation, the tracks disconnected from their source serve only as snapshots from an otherwise epic journey. With CD copies available for under $10 on Discogs right now, you can take this wholly underrated sonic adventure any dang time you want.