3 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Dave Gardner (recorded by)

By dint of often being the frontman of his various projects, I often consider a lot of Nick Sakes’ post-Dazzling Killmen acts as “his” bands – his songwriting, his sway, when the reality is probably much more of a group effort – and thus tend to judge these bands within that framework. It’s hard not to do this, as Sakes’ presence is notable and unignorable: whether singing or shouting, his throaty staccato vocals are unmistakable, and the same is true for how he plays guitar – strumming tunefully or wrecking chords for chaos, he tends towards a particular sound and punctuation.

You can thus plot Colossamite on this same Sakes axis that includes Sicbay and Xaddax and more, even though there are several other voices here that edge us away from Dazzling Killmen and Nick’s fractured sense of pop. That said, it’s probably not coincidence that opener Hot House could be a DK tune, as we’re chronologically closest to that act: it’s brutal, shouty, propulsive hardcore punk. …Although I think you also start to build on a Sakes’ feature, here, of rather vague lyrics that poke at imagery and use phrasings that never quite access an emotion outside of their tone, with some stabs at cheekiness that, matched to the heavy music, feel a bit cringey.

This is a sign of the internal battle Sakes’ bands war, where some kind of linear rock act looms behind every riff, but is overtaken by pummeling percussion, distorted guitar tears, and yelling. Colossamite is the most fractured in that regard (I’d say future acts tend to pick a shtick), arguably making them the most outwardly interesting: beyond the Killmen nods, we get flashes of jazz and pop and Brise-Glace-esque noise, with a disruptive, 100% Skin Graft no-wave eff you in the dos ‘s Yona Kit stretch of ten second tracks of the same riff. …Mind you, this gives way to the album’s best material, when all of this stuff – plus skronky horns! – gets tossed into the same stew.

I rag on Nick a lot, but only because his body of work touches on so much I like, and then I’m fascinated by/when it doesn’t stick, and whichever band ends and he starts anew. That regeneration project kicked off with Colossamite, indicative of all pluses and minuses to come, but also making Economy of Motion a damn listenable album.