Description
The Atomic Bitchwax – Force Field – Clear Vinyl Record
Force Field puts the Atomic Bitchwax’s appetite for speed at the center of a compact, riff-heavy album. Released in 2017 by Tee Pee Records, it brings bassist and vocalist Chris Kosnik, guitarist Finn Ryan, and drummer Bob Pantella together for twelve tracks that move with little downtime. The New Jersey trio draws from hard rock, psychedelic guitar music, and the heavier end of seventies riff writing, but its approach is restless rather than ponderous. These songs are built to hit quickly, develop their ideas, and make way for another burst of activity.
Kosnik and Pantella’s connection to Monster Magnet is part of the band’s background, yet the Bitchwax has a specific personality within that broader heavy-rock world. Finn Ryan’s agile guitar playing gives Force Field much of its immediate attack, while the bass and drums have to remain equally mobile to follow the turns. The music depends on the three instruments moving together. Fast runs and abrupt changes would lose their force without a rhythm section capable of keeping the riffs grounded, and that balance between coordination and physical impact is a major part of the album’s appeal.
The opening “Hippie Speedball” makes an appropriate introduction to a record that rarely settles into a slow drift. “Earth Shaker” and “Alaskan Thunder Fuck” continue the first stretch, with “Shocker” and “Crazy” helping maintain the emphasis on short forms. Most of the selections run around two or three minutes. That economy distinguishes the album from the long-form explorations often associated with psychedelic heavy music: the trio can suggest a larger instrumental world while keeping the actual songs lean and concentrated.
Titles such as “Fried Dyed and Layin to the Side,” “Houndstooth,” and “Humble Brad” retain the band’s unpretentious streak. Force Field does not present its instrumental skill as a solemn exercise. The busy playing serves an energetic strain of hard rock, with fuzz, momentum, and a slightly unruly sense of fun sharing the same space. The later “Super Highway” and closing “Liv a Little” keep that character intact across the second half. It is the consistency of the attack, rather than a single extended centerpiece, that defines the program.
This Tee Pee pressing presents the complete twelve-track album on clear vinyl. For listeners who enjoy the meeting point between stoner rock and more nimble power-trio playing, Force Field captures an experienced lineup working in a particularly concise mode. The guitar remains busy, the low end stays active, and the drums give the arrangements their forward push. It is a record rooted in familiar heavy-rock ingredients but shaped by the Atomic Bitchwax’s preference for putting those ingredients into motion, making the interplay of the three musicians as important as the weight of any individual riff.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Hippie Speedball
Earth Shaker
Alaskan Thunder Fuck
Shocker
Crazy
Fried Dyed and Layin to the Side
Shell of a Man
Houndstooth
Tits and Bones
Humble Brad
Super Highway
Liv a Little
