Review Summary: Unsane deliver the best live recoding they've ever done at the expense of the missing third part of the album
Unsane recorded three live sessions for John Peel's(R.I.P.) radio show and they released two onto one cd, entitled "The Peel Sessions".The tracks here have had nothing added to the production so the record came right off the mixing board. That same right-off-the-mixing-board technique has given the album a really raw and satisfyingly noisy sound. Now for the actual review itself.
The sound quality of all the instruments here are really good. The vocals are a bit more audible and clear this time around but still retain the noisy aggressiveness that is Unsane's trademark sound. The guitars, while a bit muddy, are heavy,distorted and filled with good riffing abound. The bass is a little more subdued here and Pete Shore's bass isn't delivering like it does on the other albums. The drumming from Charlie Ondras a.k.a. "The Action Man" is wonderful, rhythmic and tribal like always.
The actual songs sound very well done performed live. They manage to generate the sound from their studio albums into a rawer, more intimate, style. One of the best songs on The Peel Sessions is the 11-minute opening medley of a few of their early songs and the flow between tracks is very well done. Other good tracks include Unsane performing different versions of the songs
HLL and
Black Book.
The songs are just performed with so much energy that you wouldn't really get out of a standard live recording.
The only problems with the album is that for some reason, Unsane managed to leave off the third peel session which containded two unreleased tunes. Also, while i have nothing against the production values, some people may not dig the raw, noisy and distorted sound that comes out of the record.
pros
+Raw sound
+excellent 11-minute medley at the beginning
+There aren't any wonky mess-ups that usually accompany this type of live recording
cons
-some may not dig the nosiy production values and style
-is missing the third peel session
-bass is quieter than usual
buy or download?
-sinc its hard to find, you'll probably want to download it
