Growing Needs to Leave Town for Their/Our Own Good

A A A Comments (8) By Justin F. Farrar Wednesday, Sep 10 2008

The Social Registry puts out some righteous jams: Gang Gang Dance, Telepathe, and Psychic Ills are all top-shelf freaks. But the Brooklyn imprint shit the bed when it signed Growing last winter. Despite creating some killer drones in '03 and '04, the duo has been in decline for more than two years now, and the trend continues with All the Way, Growing's third release for their new label. As with much of their output since relocating to New York, the album is a poorly sculpted fusion of avant noise and minimal techno à la Basic Channel and Pan Sonic. We're talking 35 minutes of whirs, snaps, and zaps that desperately want to be Beaches & Canyons or even Creature Comforts, but wind up sounding more like an homage to the Terry Riley homage of the "Baba O'Riley" intro.

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Growing's devolution into a Black Dice knockoff makes zero sense. Back when Kevin Doria and Joe Denardo were just stoned college kids from Olympia, Washington, the duo totally ruled. Like Earth's sensitive little bros, they filtered lava-oozing doom through Another Green World–era Eno. That, of course, sounds like a hot-versus-cold impossibility, but the duo somehow pulled it off, creating a fuzzy throb that roasted flesh while encasing brains in foggy mist. Brutal but gorgeous, chaotic yet serene—that's what Growing were once about. So what happened? I partially blame the band's cross-country move. Once in New York, Doria and Denardo—just a couple of hippies, really—found themselves surrounded by hip urban bands uniting the dance floor with the noise underground. And so they tried keeping up with the Joneses. But these dudes utterly lack the producer's ability to micromanage—a big, fat prerequisite when experimenting with techno-inspired repetition. As a result, All the Way never really grooves; it just sputters like an infant with gas. Please, Growing: Return to the Pacific Northwest. Mother Earth needs you.

Growing play Terminal 5 with Hot Chip October 3 and 4

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david beyers 07/12/2009 5:50:00 AM

what an asshole review that record is great
ghostbusta 12/19/2008 10:49:00 PM

What's wrong with Cleveland now?
j 09/16/2008 10:07:00 PM

Nah, seriously Kevin; you guys need to figure some shit out. I love your band but that is not working.
MATT DAMHAVE 09/13/2008 8:21:00 AM

you read mojo- you read arthur-you read the wire and pitchfork.. you listen to old records- you hate new things because no one has told you how to respond to new things- frightened- did you like "Spit On Your Corpse?" no? because you have no idea who they were- you had no invitation to see them play until they changed their name to Black Dice---and your invites didn't come from friends- your invites and knowledge came from the press-the media-the enemy-- you don't know what community is or what it sounds like---i'll tell you what it sounds like--it sounds like "ALL THE WAY." too bad you couldn't get vice to publish your drivel...was it below even them??? thank you for your time.
JFR 09/13/2008 1:59:00 AM

How the mighty have fallen.
Jeff J. 09/13/2008 1:16:00 AM

Wait, a guy who lives in a basement in Cleveland is writing reviews the for the venerable Village Voice?
Kevin Doria 09/12/2008 8:12:00 PM

Hmm. Review or personal attack? Maybe the writer should move back to Cleveland into his mother's basement. Oh. Wait. He already did.
MFB 09/11/2008 11:36:00 PM

First off, your article is fundamentally flawed, because Black Dice are effing horrible. Growing has changed, but should they just keep making the same record over and over? Doubtful. Like all the Animal Collective haters of late, most would rather see a band do the same, safe, perfected style over and over again than try anything new. Being into underground music used to signal that someone was a bit more adventurous and perhaps even supportive of groups willing to drastically change their style and tone over time. Now, the underground has a majority population like yourself, waiting to valorize the latest unlistenable and - of course - super-limited private press CD-R thingamajig just so they can turn around and dismiss the same group six months later for slightly altering their style and putting out a record that more than 500 people have the chance to hear.