C.A.D & The Peacetime Consumers - Play Atlantis LP

'Play Atlantis’ brings to my mind a bunch of dots that were joined between Michigan and Australian undergrounds 10 to 15 years ago via the All Gone label. Key words for this connection: Roachclip, The Bibs, Siobhan (who also had a cassette, on Altered States Tapes, one of my favs in their discography), Mad Nanna, The Intended, Sick Llama, The Cannanes, Quilt Boy etc.

I mention this backdrop of no-fidelity basement rock and junk shop tape wonk as I feel this context sets the scene for the latest from All Gone label head and member of many of the aforementioned groups, Christopher Alan Durham, even though it’s an ambitious, slightly overground foray into chooglin’, rustic, psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll with real-deal working band The Peacetime Consumer.

Add them to the list of current American bands that evoke the history of 60w US psych (signatures of both coastal sounds have been mangled here) in a way that sounds of stained teeth, frayed edges and lives lived. — Nic

"With a pre-Asylum Laurel Canyon vibe by way of those busted Wayne County roads, Play Atlantis deftly splits the difference between the Straight and the Bizarre. Though the committed students of a variety of moldy freaks from the bygone days, Christopher Alan Durham and his Peacetime Consumers have crafted new mutant strains of lysergic choogle to guide righteous outsiders through the dawn's early light." -Nate K. host of Burn It Down! on WFMU

"C.hris A.lan D.urham emerges with the Peacetimers Straight Outta Del Ray, Michigan. C.A.D. & The Peacetimers enter a studio and come out with jams akin to early Pink Floyd singles and Easy Action-era Alice Cooper moves. Straight-up NZ jammers like “Into the Void” or Soft Boys-styled “Blue Toy.”. Some of the best codas I’ve heard in recent years. Chris and the Consumers make the stench of Del Ray, MI become hazy and psychedelic like it’s 1966 Texas." - Damon Sturdivant: Puffy Areolas,Tyvek,Revigorant etc

"New music by Christopher Alan Durham is always welcome in my small part of the world. It customarily comes with a certain amount of his trademark tape hiss, but being that “Play Atlantis” is an actual ROCK AND ROLL* record by a band with a thunderous yet dextrous rhythm section, the increased fidelity of this release is not only welcome, but utterly necessary. The record starts with the classic sound of a reverberating drum roll, and proceeds to warp idiosyncratically from there.

Muscular Rust Belt dystopianism in the tradition of everyone from Tin Huey to fellow Detroit compatriot Nicodemus merges here with the early wilde flowering of UK Prog. C.A.D and the Peacetime Consumers operate in a preferable alternate reality where the 1966 Who relocated to Canterbury and took on some of the more pastoral and esoteric twists of the clever carrots. Intricate and unexpected lines are delivered by Essential Logic meets Nik Turner saxophones, rendered in aural technicolor. That makes us happy. On a song like “Into The Void,” you may think you're getting a standard GARAGE ROCK type jam, but then the grand off-kilter chorus kicks in. By the time the bewildering coda fades you realize you are in new territory altogether.

C.A.D has toiled long and hard in the subterranean catacombs of obsessive music output. He's crafted enough outstanding material to earn a place at the big table, but this record is still something of a revelation. He tells us that 'Life's a vast empty playground' and we are extremely inclined to agree." - Dan Melchior

(*This is the professional version of Garage Rock.)