Jebus - The Ants Are Eating My Head
Irritating cover design. Do they really expect me to read all that text? Probably. Well, bolox to it, I say. States on the press blurb that Jebus had previously been working by him/her/itself but that this is a collaboration featuring members of Psychic Space Invasion (who we all rather like, don't we?), Green End Listening Station & Directive 2 (Sheesh, these names!). This is the first Jebus session, all fully improvised, created in 6 hours with guitars, pedals, samples, a theremin & other electronical gadgetry. Can't wait. Into my getting-on-in-years "big one" it goes and... yeah, all very calm & soothing & trance inducing & minimal drones & scrapes & shuffles & snuffles & chimes & sirens & buzzes & whirrs & whirls & peeps & pops... alas it doesn't work anywhere near as well as Book of Dreams. If you tried to get it on (bang a gong) with a cadaver to this, you'd only end up being laughed at in the face, and quite rightly so. It's too much in one go & I just get the feeling that our "collaborators" wanted to squeeze in as much smarty-pantyness as they possibly could for the session's duration. It uncharacteristically, unsatisfied. I'm not into 'sound effects' albums &, unfortunately, a lot of this CD tends to play just like one. Having said that, the last track does indeed start to patch things up immensly, so all is not lost. In fact, on the 2nd listen, this 3rd & final piece does start to sound rather superb... love the "trick" ending too! - Gary Simmons, GIAG
Jebus are a trio featuring members of Psychic Space Invasion, Green End Listening Station and Directive 4: all of them swapped guitars, pedals, samplers, etc. during a 6-hour improvised session, and this 3-song cdr is the final result. A great trippy start with throbbing, melodic swirls, and there are definitely some excellent intimistic moments throughout which would have been wonderful if further developed. Unfortunately, this suffers from the improvised session syndrome: it was surely fun to play and record, but what about the listener? It comes down to personal tastes, I guess, but I've found many passages of their extreme/psychedelic/delayed jamming (and it's 90% of the record) pretty dull. It's loud, but it's not interesting. Again, this could have A LOT of potential, but needs some skimming and cropping - 66 minutes of this are just too much. - Eugenio Maggi, Chain DLK
With Jebus, Holloway and his collaborators take it one step further. Ranging in length from 14 to 36 minutes, these are long, exploratory pieces that shift and change through numerous dimensions. Whilst it retains the spacey textures and shivering glitches of what Holloway does in Psychic Space Invasion, added into the mix are occasional minimalist rhythms fading in and out, and often much harsher textures, even parts where the sound shrieks out of the speakers like some kind of demon orgy. This is definitely music for adventurous listeners. A deep, dark journey through both inner and outerspace, The Ants Are Eating My Head hints at the madness its title suggests. But the origins of the madness are left for the listener to explore. - Jeff Fitzgerald, Aural Innovations
JEBUS is a collaboration involving members of PSI (no links to the American trio on the ‘Evolving Ear’ label), Directive 4 and Green End Listening Station. With their heads full of sci-fi themery/NWW and the timeless possibilities of dronescaping, they entered an anonymous studio in Feb ’04 for their first improv session. The results of this 6-hour meeting of the minds can be found on “The Ants are Eating my Head”. The four untitled pieces are cyber-tooled with murky throbbings, zero grav oscillations and arrhythmic metallic skritching. Theirs is a sound that is surely more than a sum of their influences and one as spicily alien as modernist taste decrees. Steve Prescott - Rumbles
Jebus is made by members of Psychic Space Invasion, Green End Listening Station and Directive 4. This record is the outcome of a 6-hour session where the musicians exchanged roles amidst an array of instruments including guitars, samplers and theremin bathed in effects and assorted "electrical gadgetry". Three long improvised tracks containing noise, drones and surprises in large doses; these psychedelic pastiches of incorporeal abrasions have their own character, yet they function best as filling material for your head to forget about life's troubles. Nevertheless, the partially menacing environment surrounding the atmosphere is enough to keep an eye open, even when concentration starts dwindling. Like all Elvis Coffee releases, this CD is sold at postage cost only. What a class! - Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
The Elvis Coffee Records label from Wales releases small editions of works by people from the South Wales area, but not exclusive to that area. Most of these artists are new to me, people like Jebus. It features members of Psychic Space Invasion, Green End Listening Station and Directive 4 (all never heard of, but surely so when I finished this review). Jebus plays around with a battery of guitars, pedals, samplers, theremin and electronics and all of the tracks on 'The Ants Are Eating My Head' are from the first session as Jebus. Sometimes drone related, sometimes glitchy and scratchy, the sound of guitars seem far away here, most of the time. But it's spacious character makes this into quite a nice, atmospherical release. Underground psych music. - FDW, Vital
And I feel like the ants are eating MY head after reviewing all of these CDs. Don’t get me wrong, this stuff is GOOD, I DO like it, but it IS a little much to digest all in one or two sittings. I like to hear VOCALS now and again. Anyway, back to the task in hand. Jebus (I take it the name is meant to be a cross between Jesus and Judas.. oh no, that would make Jedas, wouldn’t it!? Seems like I’ve got the wrong end of the stick AGAIN! Is it a pun on Rebus, the fictional Edinburgh detective, I wonder? Answers on a postcard) offer no song titles AGAIN, just lots and lots of confusing noise and something that LOOKS like a lyric sheet but, guess what? There are NO LYRICS!! HA ha HA! Those WAGS! Track one started to give me a headache after the first FIVE minutes, so I skipped to track two.. and THAT didn’t make me feel much better so, after only about ONE minute, I skipped to track THREE, which seemed like a better bet, being a bit peaceful and nice to listen to while looking out the window at the twinkling Christmas tree lights in the neighbour’s garden.. Yes, jolly nice. Track three can come back and stay AGAIN, especially as it has what sounds like a THEREMIN on it and you don’t hear THEM everyday! Shame it degenerates into more headache-inducing mania in the middle. Sometimes, it’s good to know when to SHUT UP. But then, they DO shut up, as there IS no track four. Phew! Think I’ll stick on some easy listening now. - Mark Ritchie, Sniper Glue
