| Back
in the last century, at the end of the 90'S Pulkas we're one of the most
exciting metal bands in the land, they were
yet another band who emerged through the fertile London underground, lots
of gigs on Organ bills as well as with people like Discord inferno (who
turned in to Household Name), great gigs like the Noise stage at the Deptford
Free Festival, the Organ birthday party, the 99p show they did with Cynical
Smile, King Prawn and Dog Toffee, that Christmas show with Dream City Film
Club - in fact they first appeared in the pages of Organ way back when
they were called Primal Organ Grinder and had these strangely interesting
songs that mixed Neurosis with Killing Joke - they must have played dozens
of shows for us when no one knew who they were.... Their first major exposure
outside of the London underground was via the Organ Radio One compilation
album, three tracks that some people say actually sound better than their
later album versions (not sure about that myself...)
Pulkas
pushed their way in to the metal mainstream - Their debut album came
out on Earache - and very fine it was toooooooooooo, they backed all that
early promise and delivered the goods, it's one of the finest Metal albums
of the 90's and they're one of the most powerful live experiences out there...
...and
then it all went wrong, boring music business/record company (this time
Earache had a point - the labels aren't always the bad guys) politics saw
them grind ot a hault and it seemed like that was that until, early 2002
and the phone rings "Hello, it's Luke from Pulkas, we're back with a new
band, can we have a gig?"
So
I-AM-I were born, pretty much, as far as my eyes and ears tell me, PULKAS
with a new drummer and a whole set of new songs that are kind of like where
you would have hoped Pulkas would have gone, it's a new band, but hey,
at the same time they're still Pulkas....
I-AM-I
have a demo now, it sounds good to us, here's a review we put up on the
ORGAN pages on September 15th 2003
2004
- Where are they? Bunped in to them at a My Ruin gig at the start of the
year, they said they were recording - InfernoRecords were invovled, oh
dear, haven't they got in the way before... |
| I-AM-I
–
The return of Primal Organ Grinder (or Pulkas as they were later known).
We told you they were back, we had them play on quite a few Organ bills
in and out of London in 2002 (Manchester, was total apathy, we won’t bother
putting any more Organ shows on there!) and now we have the first recordings
from the born again I-AM-I. Never the most organised of outfits, it’s taken
me about six months to prise this CD out of their secretive mitts
- we’ve got some recordings so now you can all stop e.mailing me asking
if there’s a demo. Now the boys in I-AM-I will insist this is a new
band and not just Pulkas under another name (and they point blank refuse
to perform any of the old stuff live) - whatever they may say, it’s PULKAS!!!!!!
It’s what we all want! Pulkas with a new drummer (Al Baker from the now
defunct Earthtone 9). I-AM-I deliver more of that abrasive, tense, taught
Neurosis/Killing Joke aggression and self destructive hypnotic uncoiling
musical violence. They’re back to sandpaper the back of your eyeballs whilst
they lock you in with that relentless forward motion that is their trademark….
It’s a relentless sound, it doesn’t stray off it’s chosen track that much
– that’s not a problem – it just locks on and relentlessly hunts you down
like a great big black evil slow moving semi-truck (with black windows)
hunting you down. Although third track here - Frostbyte - adds a unexpected
and previously unheard dimension. I-AM-I (or Pulkas) have always had their
own slant of the aggressive modern metal thing, it’s a slightly diseased-around-the-edges
sound, kind of like the sound of that meat you’ve got out back that’s starting
to turn just a little rancid and green around the edges and the flies are
starting to take serious interest – time to get it cooked…... This is where
the Pulkas sound should have been going if they hadn’t been rudely interrupted
by the failings of the hapless UK music business. Pulkas are back, this
is very much a demo, it’s not something ready for release…. Hopefully someone
will get them in the studio and get it all done properly sometime soon……
and no, I don’t have current contact details for you, and I don’t know
how you get your hands on this yet. Sorry. |
AS
PULKAS
organ025
ORGAN RADIO 1 - 16 track compilation album featuring the original versions
of REBIRTH/HIPPY FASCIST/CONTROL (some people - including me - think these
versions are better than the versions of the very fine debut album that
came out some time later)
org052
ORGAN RADIO 6 - 19 track compilation album featuring CONTROL (different
version)
AS I-AM-I
Nothing
by I:AM:I is recorded yet besides the demo reviewed above, the band ARE
NOT signed to ORG, we we're just giving them a helping hand, who knows
what is going to happen next... |
