Now I've seen the Starving Weirdos play live, which always tends to blur opinions of a band's recorded material. If you see a band play and they are a bunch of obnoxious f*ckwits with no clue what they're doing it can colour your judgement somewhat and make a record seem a lot worse than it is, and if you see a band that are just frankly very awesome indeed and lovely folk to boot, then it can give you a different focus when you hear them on cd. Thankfully Humbolt crew Starving Weirdos fall into the latter category, these chilled out fellers put on quite a stunning show complete with faux-Greek pillars and a large picture of the great emancipator himself Abraham Lincoln, something that can't be replicated on record but I like to keep in my mind as I listen. Those familiar with the Root Strata label should know the focus is on exploratory avant garde business, and 'Shrine of the Post Hypnotic' is no different, building on guitar drones, synthesized bleeps and squelches and all manner of instrumental tomfoolery. What's interesting though is that at no times does this feel overly improvised or throwaway (as so much of this stuff tends to), rather you get the sense that these guys are aware exactly what they're doing. That's something I realised also as they were playing live, discounting the fact that two members of the band are brothers the troupe have an almost psychic link that you only develop when playing repeatedly together - they know what the other one is doing and the playing is measured accordingly. A crushing collection of occasionally disturbing, distorted avant-drone rock or whatever you want to call it, this is a record to savour. We have limited copies in stock so don't sleep! Highly recommended. - Boomkat