‘Vagina Problems’ has a smaller line up (than previous album Lobster Cock and Friends), (Chvad) SB on electronics, Brian A. Bernhard on bass, James Devin Johnson on electronics and the non-related David Johnson reciting poetry and stories. The band improvises and Johnson recites his stuff. All recorded in one go and these seven pieces last one hour, which is way too long. The voice is quite on top of the music, so it’s hard to enjoy this in terms of purely music with a bit of spoken word. I always find it hard – as a non-native speaker – to keep my attention to the story, which I guess, is a bit of a problem for other non-English listeners. There is an echo used on the voice microphone, which is steady in each of these pieces, which gets a bit annoying too. I am sorry to say, but I find it very hard to be enthusiastic about this. The music is very much improvised from a rock stance, but I am sure it has a (great) value, but not for me I guess. (FdW)

Review by; Frans de Waard

Originally published in Vital Weekly #933 here:
http://www.vitalweekly.net/933.html