Customer Reviews

Microminiature Love

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Ever hear that unwritten rule that unreleased material ends up being UNreleased for a reason?Michael Yonkers,a musician from Minneapolis had apparently recorded tracks 1 thru 7 here on 'Micro...' in 1968 and the lp never did get released,until recently on the Sub Pop label.Yonker's vocal performance is okay,but his playing is really pretty good.I would describe his work as low-key psychedelic rock&roll,with some energy that seems to show itself even more so on the CD's tracks 8 thru 13,that are,in fact demos that Yonkers had cut in 1969.So,if they're only demos,why are they better than the disc's first seven cuts?I was sort of caught off guard with "The Clock Is Running",the rocking "Hush Hush","The Thunder Speaks" and "Scat Jam"(that somewhat resembles Zeppelin's "How Many More Times?").Just might appeal to fans of The Fuggs,Stooges,Sonic Youth and Geordie.

this is a quirky record, and uncharacteristically dark for its time. describing the album as dark in a velvetish or zappa-like way (as some have suggested) however accords "microminiature love" a status it doesn`t deserve:

"boy in the sandbox" is a fine psychedelic period piece, with inventive guitar abstractions reminiscent maybe of fifty foot hose (whose only album is a masterpiece in this writer`s view). however, that`s where the distinctiveness of this album ends: playing seven slightly differing versions of "boy in the sandbox" (in the same key, too!) a long-lost psychedelic masterpiece does not make.

forgive me therefore if I suggest taking an earful of this album in 30 second bites at amazon before investing your hard-earned cash, proceed via a download of "boy in the sandbox", say, and then opt instead for a cd re-release of fifty foot hose, randy holden (population ll) or similar for superior listening pleasure...

Microminiature Love has a pretty quirky yet accessible sound that is at the same time thick and droning and kind of creepy. It reminds me of what early Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention might have sounded like if they had been (A) more gloomy and (B) less interested in skewering pop music. The sound is somewhat dated, hearkening back to late `60s psychedelia, but there's enough originality to keep it fresh and interesting in a contemporary setting. Anyway because the album is so off-kilter, there is a song or two that drive me crazy, but it is an otherwise very good album whose originality and boundary-pushing are as exciting as something like Captain Beefheart, yet far more accessible.