Hey Kidz,

So the big bit of news this week is that it looks like Silber will now
have some distro through both SquidCo & Soleilmoon. At least on a
trial basis. They both seem like good matches though. It should be
in effect by the end of the month.

I made some alterations to the Silber start page (
www.silbermedia.com/start ) so that it has links to streams for the
radio stations that have been playing our current releases & also the
info for placing a request for them to play it. Stuffing the ballot
box, I know. It's like I think I'm one of the big indies that
literally have interns that just spend the day calling in requests at
a couple hundred stations. Maybe one day....

Below are some recent reviews.

hrt
Brian John Mitchell

NORTHERN VALENTINE: THE DISTANCE BRINGS US CLOSER
Lead by a married couple from Philadelphia, Northern Valentine glides
through definitive icy spells that are remarkably created by guitars
and no post-production. Having already set a mood by placing a photo
from Iceland on the album cover, Amy and Robert (along with two other
guitarists and a bassist) easily evoke any kind of wintry, arctic
imagery. These are also some of the most haunting ambient sounds put
to tape, some of which play like the soundtrack for a crumbling and
crashing ice sheet.
~ Kenyon Hopkin, Advance Copy

Hailing from Philadelphia, Northern Valentine is a band built around
the core of husband and wife duo Robert (guitar) & Amy Brown (violin,
keyboard). Inviting two guitarists (Jeffery Bumiller and Ben
Fleury-Steiner) and a bassist (Marc Carazo) into the fore, the band
adds depth to their ambient post-rock sound which follows the same
aesthetics as Windy&Carl, Netherworld and Biosphere.
Like drifting in a bulbous cloud through a unpopulated, cotton-wool
metropolis, Northern Valentine score the soundtrack to an imaginary
Arctic dusk, an image which is perfectly conveyed by the album art.
Across the 5 pieces, elongated string melodies glide and evaporate in
spectral fashion as crisply effervescent tones occasionally glisten
within the drone laden expanse. Themes of glacial isolation,
depressive darkness and ominous paranoia fuse delicately with a
delicate romanticism and the silver lining of optimism in a soundscape
that floats between dense and minimalist textures.
Opener `Born Yesterday' is a cinemascope manifestation of ethereal
post-ambient music. Like a lingering nature shot in a Haneke or Coen
Brothers film that is riddled with a deep, emotive undertone, it grips
ones mindset through its subtle use of omnipotent drones and deeply
melancholic tone. The album then starts to slowly move into a
regressive lull, especially on the solitary introspection of
`Dimanche' which churns subtly with a windswept forlornness. Sounding
like The Caretaker meets The Necks played at 16rpm in the banquet hall
of the submerged Titanic, the delicious sub-aqua, minimalist piano
waltz of `Escaping Light' adds a much anticipated glow to proceedings
as glistening melodic droplets lace a backdrop of warmly buoyant
drone. The closer `Already Gone' is the most post-rockish of the 5
tracks as stretched violin and guitar melodies meander around each
other in ghostly fashion, all-the-while exuding that reflective and
melancholic timbre that poignant post-rock is all about as melodic
arcs resonate with compassionate fervor over a timeless soundscape of
drifting sonic spacedust.
Recorded live using a stereo field recorder and without any
post-production or overdubbing, the five-piece improvised off of each
other around planned themes. Thusly, such a process has led to a
natural and spacious soundstage that wrings with an all important
warmth. With all the pieces melding into each other to form an
engrossing 45 minute dreamscape, the emotive cinematic expanse of `The
Distance Brings Us Closer' will have you cloud surfing for many
enjoyable hours to come.
~ Ray Miri, experimusic

This is lovely. The cover features photos taken by the couple behind
the band, Robert and Amy Brown (guitar, and violin and keyboards
respectively), on tour in Iceland in June 2008 – that would be just
before the Icelandic economy evaporated like steam from a geyser, then
- and the wide open spaces, airiness and atmosphere of the pictures
they've used sums up the mood of the album exquisitely.
A Philadelphia, USA, based duo, they are joined here by two additional
guitarists and a bassist, all of whom improvised together in the
studio around various themes to create the album. The title, which I
fretted at first might be suggesting that the band had mailed various
recordings to one another which were subsequently sewn together
digitally, rather references the trip to Iceland, and the songs
throughout are clearly inspired by this. The lengthy (15 minute)
opener `Born Yesterday' is glacial in its movement; fans of Windy and
Carl and Aarktika will smile knowingly and close their eyelids in
satisfaction are the soothing, intense ambience of the sound. `Dies
Solis' ticks and burbles along like a slow train crossing a snowfield,
while `Dimanche' builds to a crescendo like a fish-gutting factory
waiting for the fleet to arrive. The stand-out for me though is
`Already Gone', with it's solitary keyboard "plink" lending inevitable
references to Pink Floyd's `Echoes'.
This is minimalist ambience at its best. Heartfelt, soulful and
affecting, like gazing at a scrapbook of memories. The ever-reliable
Silber Records are to be commended for bringing us this – repay the
favour by investing in a copy, since downloads won't help guarantee
there'll be more to follow.
~ Phil McMullen, terrascope online

Five tracks make up The Distance Brings Us Closer and each of them
take a similar format. These are soundscapes, great glacial swathes of
low frequency keyboard washes and intermittent guitar and percussion
interventions. The effect is of a series of sound collages, notably
lacking in some of the overindulgence that often spoils the intended
effects of this type of experimentalism, and the results are, over the
forty or so minutes, some of the most effective pieces of aural
sculpture I might've heard since the first Sígur Ros album.
Northern Valentine is very far from novice in this field though; the
members have been recording together in various forms for over a
decade, based around husband and wife team Robert and Amy Brown, and
The Distance Brings Us Closer is their seventh album. Working as a
five piece here (adding to the aesthetics here are Jeffery Bullimer,
Marc Carazo and Ben Fleury-Steiner) and eschewing a studio style in
favour of a more immediate "live in the studio" approach, the quintet
go some way towards pushing the boundaries of post-rock beyond
metallic repetition and on to some areas which I hesitate to describe
as ambient. There's simply too much backbone in Northern Valentine's
work for The Distance Brings Us Closer to find itself merely labelled
as Muzak.
I need to admit that I don't very often hear full albums of this type
of soundscaping. Those I do hear often slide into either chaotic
atonality or folk based whimsy, and Northern Valentine do neither of
these. There aren't any sudden feedback solos or overbearing
mood-shattering drumming going on here: The Distance Brings Us Closer
is a tightly-scored piece each of whose five parts properly cohere.
There isn't as much as a spare hi-hat tap on display, and if Northern
Valentine really are improvising, then their decade of practise has
worked any of the more effusive traits out of their composition.
Varying between the abrasiveness of third track "Dimanche" and the
sonorous glissandos of "Escaping Light" which, while it incorporates
some more identifiable post-rock touches, these are sublimated beneath
the vastness of the entire Northern Valentine armoury. Great swathes
of white noise and guitar hydraulics, blizzards of reverberating
electronics and a refusal to undercut the strength of this music by
adding more populist elements make for a challenging and rewarding
listen. Play it quietly, 90% of The Distance Brings Us Closer exists
beneath the surface.
~ Jon Gordon, Delusions of Adequacy

Northern Valentine is the husband and wife duo consisting of Robert
Brown and Amy Brown. Unlike most other husband and wife duos, however,
these folks do not create cutesy pop music. The Distance Brings Us
Closer presents five tracks of atmospheric drone. Recorded live in the
studio with no post-production or overdubs, this is definitely an
album that will create a mood. Joining the Browns on these recordings
were Jeffrey Bumiller (Doctor Scientist, Lunch With Beardo), Marc
Carazo, and Ben Fleury-Steiner (Light of Shipwreck). Even though
traditional instruments like guitars and basses were used in these
recordings, you won't hear any traditional or obviously familiar
sounds. Everything has been heavily treated and/or drenched in effects
to the point of becoming hypnotic noise. The folks at Silber seem to
be one of the main sources in the United States for this style of
music and, as such, seem to unearth some of the best of the best.
Intriguing stuff, rather heady and elusive...
~ Babysue

Disco difficile quello dei Northern Valentine. Tremendamente difficile
ed ostico, ma anche ragionevolmente molto bello. Ci vuole tanta
pazienza, ed un'assoluta predisposizone mentale per farsi coinvolgere
da questi suoni. La bellezza assoluta di "The Distance Brings Us
Closer" -disegnato amorevolmente da questa band statunitense
(Philadelphia)- risiede proprio nel lanciarsi (con dovizia di
particolari) in perfette divagazioni psichedeliche (per nulla tediose
e banali), dove gli strumenti scappano liberi. Cinque pezzi,
rigorosamente strumentali, dove i rimandi e le influenze musicali
spaziano dai Mogwai ai Sigur Ros. Northern Valentine percorrono
-dunque-svariate filosofie soniche, risultando alla lunga volenterosi
ed anche creativi.
~ Claudio Baroni, Musica su Libero

HOTEL HOTEL: THE SAD SEA
`The Sad Sea' is the long awaited sophomore album from Texas post
rockers Hotel Hotel. Formed in 2005, the band released their acclaimed
debut `allheroesareforeverbold' before their drummer, and the real
force & mastermind behind the bands formation, mysteriously
disappeared at La Guardia airport on April 11, 2007; not having been
seen since. You might think that this episode cast an aura of
disillusion over the remaining members and you'd be right- with the
band going on a year-long derailment. A chance meeting with a guy
dressed up as a sailor who was on an expedition to discover the real
"Marie Celeste" convinced them to sign up to the adventure and glory
to be had on the high seas and the rest is history.
`The Sad Sea' vividly documents the tale of this fateful voyage from
Galveston, Texas to the coast of Haiti during the thick of hurricane
season. Sprawling compositions see swathes of acoustic,
reverb-drenched ambience form a captivating blanket of sound that
washes over the ears with the dynamic buoyancy of a stirring ocean
illuminated by moon-light. Patience is the key to carving out an epic
and emotionally unhinging soundscape and patience is a quality Hotel
Hotel demonstrate in spades. They painstakingly work their instruments
up to vibrant crescendos and then reign them back in just as
meticulous fashion, but unlike the more popularized chief's of the
post-rock movement that crystallize such bursts of energy within
single tracks, Hotel Hotel do this on an album-wide scale.
Never brash or hasty, the group perfects the art of elongating tones
in a way that wrings out every last drop of emotional resonance.
Within such deep and spacious sonic tapestry's, twinkling melodics
shimmer quixotically over a molasses of gloomy deep-set drones, eerie
atmospherics and vertebral percussion. After a dreamy start laden with
drifting ambience and hazy sonics, proceedings burst into life during
`Marie Celeste' as the friction of industrial textures start to engage
with ominous atmospheric tones. It is very much like a solitary vessel
has journeyed into the deep abyss of the ocean and has been greeted by
a storm cloud from which escape is in the hands of the gods.
Follow-up, `Equator in the Meantime (black Sabbath)' is testament to
the ultra engaging dynamics of Hotel Hotel wherein they form a shroud
of melancholic sound in the vein of an opulent Grails meets Explosions
in the Sky at their most introspective. A grandiose cinematic swirl is
whipped up to envelop listeners like a whistling wind whilst
reflective yet haunting melodic tones tinged with a sense of romantic
desperation provide a deep and entrancing mysticism. The whole package
bobs and sways on a super dense and emotional current that moves
across subtle but nevertheless entrancing peaks and valleys. The
poignancy of closer `the captain goes down with the ship (drowning)'
showcases the crux of the bands abilities to carve out powerful
messages through sound. Being a perfect encapsulation of the albums
mystical and entrancing nautical theme, the group strike at the very
fabric of the anguish and hopelessness of being caught out at
sea-weaving through a repertoire of meticulously crafted
micro-crescendos in which melodious tones shimmer with a wry energy as
deeply textural tones and military percussion play out beneath.
Across its 8 tracks, `The Sad Sea' proves to be a tangibly executed,
cinemascope soundscape to an unmade film- its dulcet tones narrating a
story of suffering, solitariness, anxiety and deep pensiveness but
with a shimmering veneer of hope that prevails throughout. If you are
after top-draw `real' post-rock that shuns the immediacy of more
commercially minded bands in favour of a brand of subtle progression
that has melancholic and morose characteristics deeply intertwined
within its rich sonic texture, then `The Sad Sea' is for you.
~ Kamyar Sadegzadeh, experimusic.com

Texans Hotel Hotel have tapped into a fertile wellspring of melancholy
bubbling up from deep in the ocean's depths on this, their second
album (the first being 2006's `All heroes are forever bold', which
apparently featured a different drummer who subsequently disappeared
under mysterious circumstances at LaGuardia Airport, leading to
something of a hiatus in the band's career... however, I digress.)
Salty old sea dogs long in the whisker, such as myself, will
immediately identify with Hotel Hotel's modus operandi on `The Sad
Sea': the lengthy instrumental passages, seamless track-to-track
changes and the compositional unity is eerily redolent of a 1970s
Progressive Rock Concept Album. The eight titles all serve to
underscore this, ranging as they do from `From Harbour' via `The
Shoreline Disappeared' and `The Dirac Sea' (wasn't Dirac that fellow
from Bristol who discovered antimatter?) to the inevitable closing
pieces, `The Captain Goes Down With The Ship' (two parts, Sinking and
Drowning, but no Waving.)
The album is however symphonic without once lapsing into
pretentiousness, and uses classical instruments whilst leaving its
feet remaining firmly rooted in rock, juxtaposing delicate, alluring
guitar work and atmospheric cymbal splashes with often quite sinister
howls from a violin. On `The Shoreline Disappeared' a piano is used to
great effect, adding movement to the fluid sounds; and on `The Dirac
Sea (High Tide)' a pounding drum riff drives the number forward.
Interestingly, an electric violin is used as a lead instrument here.
I'd love to believe there was a nod of recognition to the similarly
violin-driven High Tide and their signature album `Sea Shanties' from
1969, but sadly I rather doubt that's the case. Nevertheless, `The Sad
Sea' is a fine piece of work and I for one will be filing it amongst
the "keep" pile.
~ Phil McMullen, terrascope online

This band has an interesting story very early in their career. After
releasing their first album (allheroesareforeverbold), the band's
drummer disappeared at an airport and has not been heard from since.
Because he was the driving force in the band, the other members felt
somewhat lost initially...before running into a fellow in a bar who
was searching for a lost ship called the Marie Celeste. Thus, the idea
for The Sad Sea was born. If the idea was to create atmospheric pieces
to conjure up ideas of the seas and the skies above, then the guys in
Hotel Hotel have succeeded magnificently. The album is divided into
eight sections. The music might be described as ambient drone or even
modern classical. There is no percussion...only the ethereal and
slightly surreal tones ebbing and flowing in and out of the speakers.
Beautiful, intricate compositions include "From Harbour," "Mary
Celeste," "The Dirac Sea (High Tide)," and "The Captain Goes Down With
the Ship (Drowning)." Beautiful stuff, highly stylized. Housed inside
a really cool and classy cardboard sleeve...
~ Babysue

What happens when two post-rock land-lubbers team up with a
salt-sucking barfly and go seek out the Mary Celeste? Somewhere
between Texas and Haiti things got lost in low tides and gloom,
pounded by relentless dumpers and sent drifting for days beyond either
compass or Sat Nav. Luckily, the men on board the stricken schooner
found time to record that all important LP of fogginess and float it
home before the onset of yellow jack.
Slotting somewhere between the drones of Xela's Dead Sea (2006) and
most anything by the young Greg Haines, "The Captain Goes Down With
The Ship (Sinking)" rolls out soundscapes designed to cause
mindscrews, plus an extra peripheral element you really don't want to
entertain if you've just set foot on your first luxury liner. Violins
slide into a cold and watery grave—not quite with the grace of the
quartet in Titanic, but all the more authentic for it—conspiring with
a frozen Theremin line to ice-nine a vast sea that dooms the listener
to shivers. It's a stoic and ghastly little number, cold as corpses in
pack-ice and perfectly suited to anyone who gave up on the sound of a
rescue chopper. Just the job if you're into your brine and
bereavement, but to the more casual listeners out there, I'd recommend
heading Michael Caine's remarks from the last few moments of The
Prestige: "I once told you about a sailor who drowned. He said it was
like going home. I lied—he said it was agony."
~ George Bass, Coke Machine Glow

In "The Sad Sea" (nuovo lavoro degli Hotel Hotel) si percepisce tutto
il profumo acido e fetido del Texas più brutale. Il Texas caldo che
avvampa di mistero, e racconta le sue storie lancinanti. Gli Hotel
Hotel percorrono le strade sconosciute di questa regione degli Stati
Uniti d'America. Con la loro musica sanno, e possono, ricongiungere
pensieri che provocano solenni stordimenti dell'umore. Post rock che
mette i brividi, gela l'anima ed il cuore; ma scalda la mente.
Sonorità lente e ben studiate, che avvolgono ogni singolo neurone del
cervello. Questo è il post rock che avanza con le sue forti leve,
questo è il post rock che si vorrebbe sempre ascoltare.
~ Claudio Baroni, Musica su Libero

MWVM: ROTATIONS
"It´s Easy To Be Miserable", one of the track titles of this album
claims quite truthfully, so why not exert yourself and be happy
instead? On his debut album, Micheal Walton from Durham in the UK
proves to be a joyful, if restrained, guitar-teaser, stroking and
molding it with delay pedals and other electric acoutrements, looping,
seeking his own blissful ambience.
The soaring opener is a thermal-borne survey of the wonders of the
sunlit landscape below. Watson strives for clarity of sound, as
opposed to many colleagues who prize the overwhelming swarm of buzz
and distortion. Some of these ten tracks, ranging from three to twelve
minutes, are linear and narrative, others more static and ambient.
There is a great variety of texture and permutation, though the mood
remains constantly uplifting; even several forays into relative
darkness, like "Negative Pole", eventually emerge into the light. The
album ends with a beatific coda, promising to be "Never Constant".
This is thoughtful introversion that travels well, because it is based
on the expression of a fellow human being´s "within".
~ Stephen Fruitman, Sonomu

HOTEL HOTEL: UNDER SEA, OVER STORM
Hotel Hotel are from Texas--the land of Koresh, armadillos, and home
of the United State's 43rd President.
Don't let the amount of dreck to ooze from the Lone Star State
frighten you--for all the preconceived bad, there's a lot of factual
good. Hotel, Hotel just happens to represent the latter with their
unique guitar/violin assault on post-rock (or as label Silber puts
it--and we agree--whatever it's called this month).
The band is offering up a free EP in anticipation of the fall
full-length, The Sad Sea. The 40 minute live performance of Under Sea,
Over Storm was captured in October 2005 but is seeing the light of day
for the first time. To listen or download the EP, just follow the
link. It will be a triumph for the great state of Texas.
~ Electronic Voice Phenomenon

ELECTRIC BIRD NOISE: LE VESTIBULE - VESTIBULE TRANSITOIRE
South Carolina guitarist Brian Lea McKensie's fourth album under the
EBN monikor is an ambient wash of haunting electronic soundscapes in
the mould of Stars of The Lid and Windy & Carl, et. al. As the title
suggests, the release consists of two sidelong tracks of soothing
guitar lines, supplemented by ebow stroking and feedback looping. (The
titles refer to the radio show, "Le Vestibule" with DJ, Jean-Francois
Fecteau, for which they were originally recorded and they are here
released on McKenzie's own label with distribution through the fine
folks at Silber Media.)
Fans of Eno's ambient works will also enjoy these soundtrack style
offerings, which paint musical pictures on the insides of your eyelids
with their swaying processed loops that will have your heads swirling
throughout. I can almost hear these sonic tones accompanying some
Discovery Channel special on the origins of the Universe! Warm,
enveloping, claustrophobic, yet as comforting as grandma's arms on a
cold Winter afternoon. Simply amazing!
~ Jeff Penczak, Foxy Digitalis

LOST KISSES #5 & xo #3
Yep, that's about actual size for this comic. It was actually shrunk
from a smaller size a few years back and is now right around the size
of a pack of matches, but somehow Brian manages to pack all sorts of
goodness into this tiny package. This is a short version of the story
of Brian's life, his struggles to keep friends, to distinguish himself
from humanity as a whole (although I would submit that a continuing
interest in this medium is a good start), and his surprising lack of
interest in many self-perceived failings. Turns out (spoiler alert!)
that he has something called Asperger's, so maybe this odd
disconnectedness he's feeling is simply a matter of faulty brain
wiring. Honestly, when I see a comic this tiny, the best I'm hoping
for is maybe a good joke or two, something mildly amusing because of
the novelty format. The fact that he was able to put together an
emotionally moving story while still being oddly disaffecting is
impressive as hell to me. You can order all five issues at his
website for $3.50, or maybe, what, $1 apiece? This is well worth
seeking out for anybody who has ever felt listless and directionless,
which I'm guessing is just about everybody reading this at one time or
another...
~ Optical Sloth

Two different mini-comics tell two very different stories all in a
format no bigger than a book of matches.
Indie writer Brian John Mitchell continues two of his "tiny" projects
with new issues of his mini-comics XO, about a serial killer trying to
reform, and the slice of life story Lost Kisses, about a young man
trying to understand life, emotion and everything that goes with it.
Both comics are only about the size of a book of matches and black and
white.
In this issue of XO readers take a trip back to the past and witness
the first time this assassin for hire killed. It may not be for the
reasons you think…
In Lost Kisses the narrator ponders his bad luck at relationships,
questions his lack of feeling and then must struggle with a sudden
diagnosis that, while it explains certain things, now raises more
questions.
Mitchell has a genuine talent for managing to write stories that read
densely in just a short amount of space. This issue of XO, however,
feels a bit more like a vignette rather than a complete story. The
spare, clinical prose, while it does give insight into the mindset of
a man who can kill with an equal, clinical detachment, also keeps the
reader too much at arm's length. The tale ends up feeling more like a
vignette or a scene rather than a complete story.
Lost Kisses, on the other hand, not only feels complete, it leaves the
reader a bit dizzy and pondering. The narrator embarks on an almost
adolescent cataloging of faults and failings and yet breezes over them
with a self-deprecating humor that borders on self-flagellation. The
reader goes through an emotional turn as they may find the author's
attitude at times juvenilely annoying and at other times feel a kind
of sadness and sympathy for his plight. The interesting point being
that the narrator himself experiences no real emotions throughout and
does not experience the same events in the same way the reader takes them.
XO is illustrated by Melissa Spence Gardner in a simple, slightly
manga-influenced style that nevertheless manages to convey quite a bit
in just a little space. With a canvas only the size of a matchbook she
wisely focuses on close-shots and keeps the details and surroundings
to a minimum – but not so little that readers cannot follow the
action. Lost Kisses, however, is illustrated by Mitchell himself and
features his usual stick-figure style. Being stick-figure based, he
focuses on representational and metaphorical action rather than
attempting for any kind of realism.
While both of these titles manage to provide quite a bit of story and
impact for a buck a piece, this month's edition of Lost Kisses is the
more well-rounded read. If you are in the market for something a lot
different, something imminently portable, and something that you can
read in class or a meeting without getting caught then these
mini-comics are worth a look.
~ Tonya Crawford, Broken Frontier

xo#1-3
Format can do a lot to influence the attractiveness of a book, but
even unique and unexpected styles of bookmaking can blend in at big
conventions like MoCCA or APE. However, at a small Midwestern show
like the Madison Zine Fest, unconventional books have a chance to
really stand out.
It was there that I noticed three ultra-mini minis (1.75×2.25″)
sleeved in small plastic bags and sitting unattended on a banister. I
thought about taking them. They would fit in my pocket. No one would
know. The sensation passed, however, and good karma struck back. The
books were given as a gift to my table mate who gave them to me. Now I
share them with you.
Baby corn, puppies, doll-sized furniture - typically these and other
small things define cute. One might expect that XO, a series of mini
minis would be cute as well. Even the series' title XO implies kisses
and hugs and touchy-feely stuff. However, these books are anything but
cute, because each contains a story of murder.
It's completely disarming and even kind of funny, if such a topic can
ever be funny. The stories are told from the first-person perspective
of a guy who without emotion keeps killing people either by accident
or without remorse. The guy is a total sociopath, and the things he
does are so unbelievably dry and strange, it makes the book's plastic
slip-case seem like a metaphorical body bag or some caution to keep
out the younger set.
Each page is filled with a single illustrative panel hovering above a
few sentences of plot, in a kind of Far Side style perversion. The odd
combination of art, layout and typography makes the stories seem even
weirder. Thick, awkward lines outline human shapes and thin straight
lines accent the shadows. Each drawing is trapped tightly in a box and
clipped at all sides to make room for the words. The font used is some
standard sans serif, one you might use on a website or a term paper
or, you know, an unassuming murderous comic book series.
Each book left me stunned and laughing awkwardly just to release the
unexplainable tension. I'd call them modestly awesome. You can pick up
copies of XO dirt cheap for $1 apiece or all three for $2 from Silber
Media.
~ Sarah Morean, The Daily Cross Hatch

Here's another tiny mini by Brian, as it looks like he enjoys sticking
with that matchbox format. This it's a fictional (I hope) tale about a
young man's first murder, as he sees another man with his girlfriend
and snaps. Smashing a head in is generally a sure way to kill
somebody, and the man spends the rest of the tiny issue methodically
dealing with the body and the consequences, slight as they are. It's a
thoroughly creepy book and Melissa does a great job with very little
space to convey a complex range of emotions on these characters. This
is probably $1 like the other issue and you could still get all of
these comics for a pittance, not to mention the ridiculously tiny
envelope they could all fit in…
~ Optical Sloth