When the weekly list of records to review came around a couple of months ago, I remember this particular record by Houston’s Indian Jewelry caught my eye. The name had been bandied around by the fantastic Upset The Rhythm crew and I’d generally heard positive word from my close trusted musical peers. Oh and maybe because of my Indian heritage as well but that’s by the by. What I found on first listening is that it is droning seizure-inducing outlook will appeal to fans of psychedelic shoe gaze and sonic experimentation but I’ll be honest, at first I couldn’t quite get myself fully absorbed into Free Gold.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been on one long drone and noise trip recently, further capped off by seeing My Bloody Valentine when they very nearly destroyed my ears with their histrionic aural punishment (damn them!) but after getting over that personal obstacle found myself coming back to this record sporadically since then and on these return visits found some real gems tucked away beneath the laser synths and dirged blows.

The music sounds purposely primitive, and it was no surprise to learn that the majority of the songs were partly improvised in true impromptu spur-of-the-moment fashion. Both ‘Temporary Famine Ship’ and ‘Nonetheless’ could have been picked off one of Japanese noisemakers Xinlisupreme’s own records, with their muffled unrelenting drum machines inspiring a truly frightening underlying paranoia. The wilting melodies of Brendan Davis’ psych guitar that knowingly make all the right mistakes sounds equally menacing and naive. Dirty hooks and fluid grooves fuel ‘Seasonal Econcony’ which bounce with the sampled and looped vocals resonating over and over for the songs climax. It almost seems as if their intentional junk-shop aesthetic is being sabotaged from the inside but regardless, sounding damn cool in the process.

The summery wistfulness of ‘Pompeii’ sounds like it has a Lou Reed-esque 60′s pop gem buried under the reverbed drenched guitars. Tellingly, the track ‘Everyday’, by far the most straight forward and stripped down track here also happens to be the best. It’s Erika Thrasher with a slight hint of delay on her voice over an acoustic guitar displays how good the music sounds when they keep it simple. It sounds more like a Mazzy Star dream-like hypnotic trance rather than a chaotic and meshed Throbbing Gristle scathing assault.

Maybe I’m being picky but it probably wouldn’t hurt if it was cut short of a couple of songs or three to improve the overall flow of the record, but without question there are definite nuggets here if you have the proclivity to unearth beneath the experimental gestured marsh. I can see that Free Gold will prove frustrating to many listeners but definitely worth picking up or downloading. (Yeah you do it) even only to hear a record which is really very fascinating.