Episode 36 – Melvins is Cult, Part 1: Hostile Ambient Takeover

Radical Research Podcast · Jul 23, 2019 · 1h 7m

Melvins’ career -- a vast, still-expanding 36-year odyssey across the full spectrum of heavy and experimental sound -- is marked by goalposts, some triumphant, some deviant. On this episode of Radical Research, we train a critical eye on 2002’s bellwether, the curiously-named Hostile Ambient Takeover. The album takes stock of many of the band’s hallmarks: droning, hypnotic trance rock, mathematical hijinks, and Mountain/Cactus-inspired groove. But the band breaks with its tradition of conspicuous mash-up and manages these generic demarcations with remarkable seamlessness. To drop it into…