Time was that you tuned into a DAN MELCHIOR record and you knew what to expect: some of the best, and wittiest garage rock leaning pop-smithery found anywhere on the planet. MELCHIOR’s rock could stand up against its more famous and equally prolific contemporaries, and it could stand up against anything amongst the onslaught of Australian tweaked rock goodness. He always found a way to surprise you with a hook, or an arrangement. He always found a way to make those same 3 or 4 chords shimmer with newness, and he just kept getting better and better at it. But something’s changed in MELCHIOR’s approach. Perhaps he finally tired of spinning magic out of the same old dampened piece of wool. Perhaps hard times in life made pop song endeavors less rewarding. Whatever the reasons DAN MELCHIOR has been making some weird ass music for a while now. His trademark witty pop-smithery is still there at times. But now several records into deeper and deeper experimentation you wonder if he’ll ever go back, and if he could ever even find his way back to his old sound at this point if he wanted to. I stand with this musical progression. Whether he goes back or not doesn’t matter. DAN MELCHIOR is still making great records. They just sound a lot more fucked up now. K-85 (released by HOMELESS RECORDS) flits between bent takes on classic MELCHIOR rockers such as the first track “Dirty Lies” and cheapo electronics grounded noise excursions like “Air Nippon.” I’m sitting here right now and l’m telling you that the inclusion of these varying kinds of tunes makes for a better whole. As it has been over the course of his last few records, including the great EXCERPTS (& HALF-SPEEDS), and THE HERON (DOESN’T CARE WHEN THE WOMAN STAMPS HER BOOT), it is a pleasure to watch an artist move through new and previously unexplored sound making territory. With every new release I am very interested to see where DAN MELCHIOR is going to take it. Only 100 of these on vinyl, good luck!