Retro Review: The Amphibious Man – Witch Hips (2015)

Composed of an “ever-growing collective of occult-minded individuals”, University of Hartford’s The Amphibious Man have been making their own twisted, macabre obsessed brand of lo-fi garage rock for years.  As if the goal of the music was to create the soundtrack to the long lost horror film of the same name,  The Amphibious Man’s proper full length “Witch Hips”, is the gruesome monster unmasked… only to reveal something far more sinister than before.

While previous releases sat at opposite poles of either lo-fi garage rock or eerie, instrumental tape loops, “Witch Hips” proves to be a more sophisticated blend of the two.  For anyone who may have questioned the band’s inevitable move to more refined production values, they totally pull it off here without losing any of the grime that characterized their earlier releases.  On standouts “Halloweed” and “Jimmy” both vocalists Jason Principi and Jackie Hopkins sound as haunted as their instrumentals, effectively completing the monstrosity.

Definitely Check Out:  “Fischer Cat”, “Jimmy”, “Halloweed”