The Brooklyn label Social Registry may owe most of its cachet to the ink spilled over Gang Gang Dance (not to mention some blogger WTF over Jah Division, a dubbed-out tribute to Joy Division), but the real gem on its fast-growing roster of fine narco rock is Psychic Ills. Dins, the band’s 2004 full-length debut, was a visceral, bull-by-the-horns entropy mission that could’ve been some lost Doors session that Jim Morrison missed but Ron Asheton made: two sides of inspired space rock that nose-dived from the asteroid belt into the earth’s core, never fading in intensity even in its “mellow” moments. Their newest release, Early Violence, collects the band’s two Mental Violence EPs, a cut from a Galactic Zoo Dossier comp, a previously unreleased recording, and a hidden sonic postscript. Overall it doesn’t have the smeary continuity of Dins, and the tunes suffer from low fidelity, but the atmospherics are varied and compelling. Plus, it’s keen to have a promising band’s out-of-print material in one handy package. –J. Niimi
