Warmer Milks - Radish On Light LP (Troubleman Unlimited, 2006)
Top shelf mid-00s 'noise world' nightmare rock from the excavated crawl spaces of subterranean Kentucky, performed by some of the same square-pegs who would go on to form CROSS, Mazozma, Wretched Worst, Teal Grapefruit, Huevos II, etc.
This is none of those things though. The Milks were unparalleled. Imagine an off-road, rural trap house commune a la Amon Düül 2 (or dare I suggest Grateful Dead)-meets-VU, uniformly generating a dissonant, head-nodding and not-always-but-often lateral chug, topped with the unsettlingly torched vocals of a Rusted Shut or MItB's Eric Wood...yet even more emotionally unwound than any of those comparisons could suggest.
WM's "Radish" is as bold of a debut statement as our fair commonwealth has summoned so far this century -- a 40+ minute cry for help to an empty field, just as the rain is rolling in. Take cover...
"Those of you searching for a Cleveland/Detroit post-Monoshock, post-Rocket From The Tombs take on mentally subnormal ‘Final Solution’-informed seer/sucker rock should get their mitts on the incredible RADISH ON LIGHT by Kentucky singer Warmer Milks. Unlike many new albums, this record was put together by one succinct motherfucker with a traditional 40-minute ceiling for his debut. This album is four destroyed unyielding tracks of cackling, gargling, gurning, howling, sub-humanoid yelp concluding with the quarter-of-an-hour title track, and not a moment too long. In fact I spun this bastard three times in a row last night – family’s in Venice – and the beer just got tastier as the bathwater cooled to an autumnal pond temp. Get hold of Herr Milks’ extremely consistent masterpiece...Nice? Fucking fantastic!" - Julian Cope (Head Heritage)
"Finally heard Radish on Light by Warmer Milks today. I wasn't even really planning on reviewing it, figuring I'd already said plenty, but damn, it's too good not to mention. Just a stunning array of guitar-led dirge concepts, sequenced beautifully and continuously by a band on top of its form. More so than most of their work, Radish on Light could be described simply as a rock album, but even within these relatively defined parameters, there is an unpredictability and complexity that is constantly emerging. Vocals are very few and far between, but leave a huge mark on the proceedings, taking a traditional hardcore stance and tweaking it just a little up, a little down, just slightly more gothic, a little sharper here, higher-pitched there. When the vocals are gone their presence lives on, sounding the unstruck note while the band heavily boils. Classic psych LP template: four songs, two long cuts per side, nutso cover painting. The sequencing is so perfect that the only text on the back cover (besides label logo/address) is the total LP running time, 41:07. (I wish my family would go to Venice so I could sit in the bath and drink beers while playing this album three times in a row!)" - Blastitude