2nd album from Mark Ryan’s (Marked Men, High Tension Wires) Mind Spiders, and it’s a Meltdown, alright. This is a very different beast from the s/t Mind Spiders LP released just 13 months ago. The most obvious difference is that while the s/t LP was recorded piecemeal, with Mark more-or-less playing all the instruments, Meltdown is the first Mind Spiders recordings to feature the full live band. And what a band it is: members of The Bad Sports, High Tension Wires, Marked Men, Uptown Bums, etc etc. The fact that there are 2 drummers (Mike from the Marked Men AND Greg from The High Tension Wires both play drums at the same time) gives alot of these songs a rhythmic complexity that sets the songs apart from a lot of other “garagey” type bands.

Loosely organized like the first LP, with the more straightforward, rocking stuff on side A and the weird curveball stuff on side B, Meltdown, while remarkably cohesive, blends a lot of different elements: Great sounding guitar tones. Happy, warm organ. Mean, buzzing synth. 60’s pop sensibilities. Snotty garage rockers. Dark, brooding postpunk. Weirdo sci-fi soundtrack stuff. Nods to Krautrock. Oh, and did we mention there are 2 drummers?

Meltdown is definitely one of the high points in the Dirtnap catalog, and given our history with Mark Ryan, that is saying alot. By our count, this is the 11th record we’ve released with him on it (1 Mind Spiders 7″ and 2 LPs, 3 High Tension Wires LPs, 4 Marked Men LPs and 1 7″), I guess you could say we are a fan.