Contemporaries of Sebadoh and Pavement, San Diego’s Trumans Water missed out on the acclaim awarded their lo-fi rivals on account of their unwillingness (or inability) to write a hummable tune. Instead they practised a kind of freeform artcore that took Beefheart and the wilder end of Krautrock as first principles. After seemingly releasing an album a week, they dropped off the radar completely?until now.
Not much seems to have changed in Trumansworld. They are still as scratchily psychedelic and wilfully obtuse as ever, with ‘songs’ like “Meteorites And Troglodytes” turning rock on its side before pushing it over a cliff and recording the resulting din. Hints of melody surface now and then, but the group never allow it the upper hand over their patented harmolodic rock.