Exquisite Boredom

Vertical Slit - Slit And Pre-Slit (Siltbreeze, LP, 2010)

Here’s what I know: Vertical Slit is, for all intents and purposes, one Jim Shepard with some friends recording at home (the Ohioan way, apparently). Jim was a legend in certain underground music circles, with connections to the Bassholes, Mike Rep & the Quotas, and even over to Daytonians Guided By Voices (mainly serving as an inspiration). He’s played with Vertical Slit here, Phantom Limb, Ego Summit, and V-3. Outside that, he apparently lived hard and, sadly, took his own life in 1998.

Slit and Pre-Slit originally appeared back in the late ’70s as a private-press in an edition of 100. Shepard intended to use that pressing to gain visibility — apparently copies ended up making their way to luminaries like David Bowie and Todd Rundgren. Whether they heard this is another story. They should have, but it probably wouldn’t have changed much if they had.

So, the music. Throw away any thoughts about fidelity — it doesn’t really exist here, but it’s not a barrier to entry. What you have is some expertly played, free flowing, third-eye type psych rock influenced by and somewhat in the same vein as Free, Hendrix and the Who as well as, yes, Bowie and Rundgren, but way further out. The guitar work is something spectacular, even with the recording’s warts, tape warble, and bum notes, which seem to just add something almost voyeuristic and natural. For me, songs like “Ascension”, “7:00 AM Jam”, and “6x4” just don’t get better. They’re well played, compact, and fucking awesome. Not to mention, between the monster guitar workouts live these eerie, crazed tape loops, that send this thing into outer space, if it wasn’t there already. Totally disorienting and in the best possible way.

Slit and Pre-Slit is mind-blowing — I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a glimpse of an artist that had the technical ability to do whatever was necessary, yet wasn’t over controlling and realized that sometime you just need to let it go out there. And all with the limited resources that any one of us might be able to scrape together. DIY, for real.