Four years after they went all the way to “Antarctica”, Flat Worms are back in gen pop with the rest of us— but, as intoned on the album opener “Sigalert,” “back again like I never was.” Is this a nod to the way time passes over our sorely vexed synapses? Or are we to believe that there’s hope to be found in this broken world? Kick back with “Witness Marks” and see what other traces Flat Worms have left us in the dust.
The album title alone leaves a foreboding impression. But look closer—“witness marks” aren’t something out of a forensic analysis—they’re actually practical; scratches placed in old clocks designed to aid continued maintenance further in time.
Hitting flat and hard with their bass-drums-guitar and vocals alignment, Flat Worms use a buzzing combo of blunt force and surreal lyrics to hammer the absurdity of the status quo, as it deserves. Our social experiment continues to implode before our eyes; “Witness Marks” offers both critique and compassion, with songs that corkscrew through shades of exhilarating, dizzying and ambiguous spaces in between times of crisis and complacency.
Working once again with Ty Segall, Flat Worms continue to find new answers by digging into themselves and playing their kind of rock: hard and flat, bass and drums thrusting stalwartly forward with conviction, guitar twisting and spinning in outrage, deadpan vocals decrying a dire set of circumstances.
The democracy of working together, so often messy and frustrating, was found to be a powerful release for Justin, Tim and Will. Acting as one, Flat Worms navigated challenging times by coming together, finding release in the clockwork repetitions of practice and the shared creative space they occupied together against the encroaching world.
Recorded at Harmonizer Studios in Topanga Canyon Mixed by Ty Segall and Flat Worms
from the LP/CS/CD “Witness Marks,” out September 22nd, 2023 on God? Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 