Amps for Christ

Amps for Christ is a trippy-dippy mishmash of a project that fluctuates between sub-electronic experimentation, fuzz-guitar meditations and Appalachian folk ditties. In the past ten years the group (which exists revolving door-style around main-man Henry Barnes, an ex-member of Man is the Bastard) have released a flock of limited edition releases for handfuls of obscure labels, an effort that eventually landed them on 5RC, for whom this is their second album. Since Barnes switches up his styles so much, you can’t help but get your head spun for a loop when "Cock o’ the North,” a gently revolving banjo-plucked folk tune winds up next to "Out on the Moon (Slight Return),” a fuzz guitar instrumental that would sound at home on an old Earth album. As a result, Every Eleven Seconds plays like Faust’s The Faust Tapes, as though the entire album were comprised from snippets of outtakes, only much of the material here isn’t exactly strong or interesting enough to really warrant being released. Perhaps if Barnes picked one direction and went all the way with it, instead of dabbling in so many styles, he could summon more incredible results.