4 out of 5

Label: Chunklet Industries

Produced by: Gary T. Flom (recorded by)

The Purkinje Shift return, a bundle of years onward, doing a similar shuffly, heavy instrumental rock bit as before – like a tighter-lipped, angrier Man or Astro-Man!; or a more focused Breadwinner – but a bit tighter and regimented, rather befitting the trio’s dress-alike suits and glasses and cropped hair. Where earlier Purkinje might’ve let some moments ring out, here, they’re absolutely guided to the next cut of chord.

Both tracks on this single are excellent outlets for this style, with Mohawker very much continuing in the vein of kinda sideproject Moreland Audio‘s sense of contained buildup and explosive – but logical! – conclusion, and Mo Ave Tav showing how this approach can be applied to something a bit more mercurial and melodic / emotional, and not as directly riffy.

This might just be me preferring volume, but Mohawker is an all-timer; it is kind of the epitome of what you want a single to be: a memorable sound, something that summarizes the band / artist well, and delivers a full-on beginning, middle, and end. Mo Ave Tav is conceptually a good B-side, as this can be an opportunity to hang your hat on an A-side so you can show off something different on the flip, but it’s neither different enough nor does it really stand on its own – it’s a solid groove with a really good ebb and flow that ultimately seems like an intro to something.

Nonetheless, both additions are exciting ones to the small TPS catalogue, and though the subsequent album kind of proved the limitation to this sound, it also shows that the decision to release a stream of singles afterwards might’ve been well considered – could be that this group just functions best in small doses.

Extra note: my 7″ copy of this… sounds pretty bad. Digital shows off how, I think, it “should” sound (especially since we have other evidences of Gary T. Flom’s recordings); I’m not knocking the rating because it might just be my copy – no comments on discogs – but my definition of bad here is that the mastering seems off (it’s pretty flat) and when the group starts rocking, it gets super fuzzy. Buyer beware, and get a digital backup.