Seriously, The VSS are getting the reissue treatment from Hydra Head. Not only is this a completely unexpected revelation, but it is one that will probably go mostly unnoticed by most people, which is rather unfortunate considering how excellent the original version of this record was. Then again, The VSS (featuring ex-members of the equally and criminally unappreciated Angel Hair and from which members went on to be in Red Sparowes, Year Future, and others) will more than likely end up as one of those criminally under appreciated groups that a few people will thoroughly enjoy and considering that the group's lifespan was a relatively short period of time (roughly two and a half years from January 1995 until July 1997), maybe such notoriety is the best to be hoped for this band's "legacy." This re-release gives quite the slew of additional material to go along with the original version of Nervous Circuits (itself their lone LP) as there is a DVD along with the CD that contains three full live sets and other assorted minutiae and artifacts, and the first one thousand copies of the reissue also have an extra CD (entitled The Skin of Tiny Teeth) which offers an additional five unreleased and or rare studio tracks as well as a live set which also includes two songs that are not available in any other form. So even if the original is in one's possession, this is well worth the adding to the music collection.
With the manic and sneering vocals (at times vaguely reminiscent of some of what can be heard on Public Image LTD records) given a great deal of effects and the angular guitar interplaying with the rhythm section and keyboards competing in the small aural real estate of The VSS, listeners are privy to a sonic attack which drops subtle hints of melody amidst the ensuing chaos the band conjures from track to track. Considering the relatively short period of recording time that Nervous Circuits, The VSS sound very contemporary (production wise) although in the liner notes for The Skin of Tiny Teeth the band mentions scrapping the original concept of "Tone Dialer" due to the difficulty of achieving their goals because of the difficulty surrounding cutting up the track in the pre-Pro Tools days when the recording took place. Listening to tracks from Nervous Circuits like "Lunar Weight" whose angular guitars cut through the thick din, "What Kind of Ticks?" with its bouncing rhythm and cutting keyboards, and "Nervous Circuits", the closing opus, betrays the only aspect of these songs that might date them (at least to other groups that have some sonic kinship to the VSS (to some extent The Blood Brothers and other groups of their ilk owe a debt to The VSS)) and that is their originality and willingness to experiment. "Sibling Ascending" also offers that experimentation while kicking the composition up several notches with guitar repetition and a sinuous bass line fronting a relentless drumming performance while vocalist Sonny Kay (formerly of Angel Hair and now with Year Future) wails over the procession; when the group hits the middle, a rather excellent melodic break that features the keyboards and a great tempo change, and the song continues its adventurous foray through the noisy outro that gives way to the percussion of future Red Sparowes member David Clifford.
The DVD which comes with Nervous Circuits is pretty full of interesting documents over the course of the short lifespan of The VSS with a full show dating back to 1996, two more full shows from 1997, and a tour montage from the Nervous Circuits tour. The quality on this visual document is surely not going to win any awards for cinematography but that is not the purpose of this part of the release, but rather, the Nervous Circuits DVD serves to show a band whose live show was completely integral to one's experience of the group and is included here to offer that experience.
Possibly the real gem of the whole release is the The Skin of Tiny Teeth CD that comes with the "mail order" version of the set and could be a full-length in its own right when one considers the amount of material which it includes: five studio rarities including previously unreleased songs and nine live tracks of which two are previously unreleased and actually are post Nervous Circuits compositions. One of the studio tracks is an Echo and the Bunnymen cover, "No Hands" and is actually the only cover that The VSS recorded, and its original release (on a split double 7" record with Rye Coalition) is pretty difficult to get a hold of to hear. Another studio track, "Rats" is actually an abandoned outtake from the Nervous Circuits session that the group found while pulling this reissue project together while the aforementioned "Tone Dialer" is an instrumental that was also abandoned during the same sessions as "Rats." The live set that makes up the majority of The Skin of Tiny Teeth is thankfully not of poor quality which at least allows for the two unreleased songs, "Trajectory" and "Solid Gold Follower," to be heard relatively easily (and upon hearing, makes me wonder what directions the band could have gone had they kept it together).
Hydra Head truly outdo themselves with this release as it looks excellent with the full color double disc digipack. And while the liner notes might not be expansive as some re-issues of this volume have at times, the shear amount of material in addition to the original album is staggering. In order to listen and view everything that The VSS give us on the re-release of Nervous Circuits, one needs to be willing to spend more than three hours of time to do so. More reissues should be this expansive instead of just a remix and re-master job with maybe expanded artwork or, if we are lucky, new artwork. This version offers the original album plus a DVD and CD of extras that makes this well worth tracking this down, particularly due to the fact that this record has not been available for quite some time (its original release occurred roughly ten years ago and was not always the easiest to find).
