Underground icons completely reinvent their line-up with brass and percussion into a new hot and raw sci-fi sound.

Think Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers.

"This album was a self imposed ambitious project for us. Something to kick in the creative flow. The last few years, having been a challenging time in general, felt like a good time for a pivot. The last two albums were so guitar and keyboard centric, I wanted a weird and fun set of parameters for us to work with. I demo’d everything at home on cassette 4 track (harkening back to simpler times) using drum loops, and just had at it 'til I had a pile of “songs”.

Tom and I chose one sound each using synths and created a range of 3 octaves of that sample, then loaded them into Roland SPD-SX samplers and learned the transcribed songs using drum sticks. The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have 4 people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys.

As we were recording I kept thinking how the sounds, when paired up, sounded a bit like brass. So, we added a saxophone horn section to round out the horniness of the sound with a bit of reedy bell tones. Thanks to Cansfis Foote & Brad Caulkins on tenor and Baritone saxophones :)

Sort of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets The Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk.
Poppy and hooky, heavy at times..
Sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound.
Boneheaded in riff and heady in lyrics.
Recorded at Stu-Stu-Studio by me on 8 track 1/4” tape .
So pretty hot and raw.

Lots to write about today.
A lot of these lyrics were taken from things people said in passing about taking on life right now that stuck with me.
Things that made me reflect.
Things that made me laugh.
Things that made me WTF.

Some folks are kind, genuine & give you love and energy.
Some are greedy manipulative ghouls who hang off your veins.
You must be strong, composed and take care of yourself.
Be self aware and check your mind for cracks.
Learn to relax and be well.
There are moments of beauty and redemption.
Its not all bad news and there’s always hope.
People continue to surprise me one way or another.

Anyhow,
Hope you enjoy and good luck out there."

— John Dwyer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Look At The Sky
2. Pixelated Moon
3. Drug City
4. Also The Gorilla...
5. Termination Officer
6. Blimp
7. Cochon D’argent
8. Cassius, Brutus & Judas
9. Zipper
10. Lear’s Ears
11. Earthling
12. Plastics
13. Neo-Clone

A pop record for tired times. Sugared with bits of shatterproof glass to put more crack in your strap. At long last, verse / chorus. A weathered thesaurus. This is OSEES bookend sound. Early grade garage pop meets protosynth punk suicide-repellant. Have a whack at the grass or listen while flat on your ass. Heaps of electronic whirling accelerants to gum up your cheapskate broadband. Social media toilet scrapers unite! Allow your 24-hour news cycle eyes to squint at this smiling abattoir doorman. You can find your place here at long last. All are welcome from the get go to the finale…a distant crackling transmission of 80s synth last-dance-of-the-night tune for your lost loves. Suffering from Politic amnesia? Bored of AI-generated pop slop? Then this one is for you, our friends. Wasteland wanderer, stick around. Love y’all. For fans of Teutonic synth punk and Thee Oh Sees (who the fuck are they?)” — John Dwyer.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The brilliant OSEES are back with a vitriolic blast of fuzzy guitars, frenetic percussion and wonky synth sweeps. Dwyer and co are without a doubt at the forefront of the garage/indie movement, crafting a sound that's both hugely impactful and undoubtedly their own, with more than a hint of irony peeking through here and there. Brilliantly done, as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stunner
2. Blank Chems
3. Intercepted Message
4. Die Laughing
5. Unusual & Cruel
6. The Fish Needs A Bike
7. Goon
8. Chaos Heart
9. Submerged Building
10. Sleazoid Psycho
11. Always At Night
12. LADWP Hold

"Osees don’t seem to mutate or morph so much as remain extraordinarily open to what moves them to do next and capable of getting music done that’s consistently good. What motivated the band to turn loose this hyperconcentrated slightly less than 22 minute burst of meteor density somewhat punkazoidal music? When it comes to the Osees, that’s at best a mediocre inquiry as they just do the next thing, genre, prevailing tastes or whatever influence might guide a lesser unit are not even a consideration. A Foul Form is a cool pivot from their 2020 studio efforts Metamorphosed, Panther Rotate and Protean Threat. A Foul Form vigorously shakes the Oseesetch a sketch clear so whatever comes next (which will probably be sooner than later) will likely be something completely different yet again. As far as a potential inspirational indicator, you might notice the final track on A Foul Form is a cover of Rudimentary Peni’s Sacrifice, which can be found on their Farce 7” released in 1982. A fitting way to blow out this rad slice." HENRY ROLLIINS.

Brain stem cracking scum-punk
recorded tersely in the basement of my home.
After a notoriously frustrating eon the knee-jerk song path was aggressive and hooky.
This is an homage to the punk bands we grew up on.
The weirdos and art freaks that piqued our interests and pointed us on the trail head to here/now.
Bad times make for strong music is something I agree with.
I would say that is evident by the past few years of output from the underground.
Transmissions have been all over the map.
scanning…
searching…
sweeping out in the darkness looking for a foot hold.
A Foul From represents some of our most savage & primal instincts.
Fight or flight.
And the importance of a sense of humor in the darkest hour.
Nothing wrong with keeping it snappy in the meantime.
For fans of Rudimentary Peni, Crass, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Screamers, Abwarts, Stooges and all things aggressively tilted towards your face.
You can lean back but don’t flinch…it’s a brief foray into the exhausting pogo pit so stiffen your back and jerk with your knees.

Enjoy - JPD.

TRACK LISTING

1. Funeral Solution
2. Frock Block
3. Too Late For Suicide
4. A Foul Form
5. A Burden Snared
6. Scum Show
7. Fucking Kill Me
8. Perm Act
9. Social Butt
10. Sacrific

It seems that every time you turn around, there’s another Oh Sees slab. Long ago we lost all capacity to be surprised that this sturdy unit keeps putting out records and that they’re really good. You can now add the Metamorphosed 12” to your ever deeper shelf sagging row of John Dwyer & Co.’s seemingly no sleep release schedule. The five tracks were taken from the sessions that formed 2019’s Face Stabber album, a 17 track/80+ minute jammified four-sider. Metamorphosed would have been the perfect third LP to fit in with the other two. The very existence of Metamorphosed asks any number of questions. Speculation is for pundits and amateurs. Let’s go to John Dwyer and see if he’ll kick loose some information.

As to the Metamorphosed coming out so long after Face Stabber: This is just how the release landed. We are trying to stagger the releases a bit this year and we have a salvo coming down the pipe, so that’s how the cookie crumbled. Metamorphosed would’ve been out sooner but with the virus restrictions, shipping of LPs has obviously slowed down and so has manufacturing, so here we are. It’s worthwhile to note the Face Stabber sessions also resulted in The 12” Synth, a two track deal released in November of 2019. So, what was happening in the studio that rendered almost three hours of finished music? Just the usual run with ideas. Usually this takes place at the end of the planned recording. We have extra time and tape to lay down some deep cuts and long jams, etc., the fun part, really. It’s a test to keep up with Dwyer and his extraordinarily able bandmates. It seems like there’s always something on the way to the pressing plant. When and how did Metamorphosed come together? Basically, I found myself with a 12"'s worth of material in the new year and things were starting to grind to a halt, so it was the perfect time to sew it all up. People need some tunes right now and I think the artist's community is making a good run of it. So much great shit is seeing light right now. John and Matt Jones run the Castle Face label with full autonomy, so it would make sense that Metamorphosed, like The 12” Synth, would have been a CF release. Yet, it’s on the very cool Rock Is Hell Records label, which has put out some great Dwyer related jams in the past. The OCS Live In San Francisco album was not only great musically but all the vinyl and sleeve variants made the collectors break out in a fan sweat they’re probably still recovering from. Being able to do all this yourself, it’s obviously cool to still work with Jochen and Rock Is Hell. Yes. I’ve worked with Jochen a few times over the past decade or more (so he is grandfathered in. :) It’s pretty rare these days that I work outside my own label but his stuff is so well done and usually its own work of art. Last question. The fan cannot resist! At any time, were you thinking of making Face Stabber a 3LP set? Hell no. But now maybe I am. Metamorphosed isn’t just some barrel scrape for those who can’t get enough. All of the five tracks stand up to anything on Face Stabber. The record’s 23+ minute I Got A Lot is one of the coolest songs the band has ever done. As it is with a full on Rock Is Hell roll out, there’s a lot of details. Metamorphosed is no exception. This is what the release schedule looks like: In October, there will be a silkscreened cover limited to 300 copies with four sleeve variants. A larger press run will follow in January with four or five color variants. Whew! Something to look forward to! - Henry Rollins.