Endless Boogie

★★★★ The Gathered And Scattered NO QUARTER. DL/LP

Four-LP motherlode of the cratediggers’ favourite underground rockers.

Crude Truth is the title of one monolithic groover on this suitably heavyduty box set, an apt précis of Endless Boogie’s super-reductive rock’n’roll aesthetic these past 20 years. The Gathered And Scattered compiles various CD-R rarities alongside plentiful unreleased tracks, mostly circa 2000-2010; fractionally more lo-fi but every bit as compelling as their orthodox albums. What the band call “Basement Jam Rituals” predominate: epically simmering, blues-infused and mostly instrumental workouts that privilege Paul Major and co’s taste for a sort of gnarly, monster truck motorik, and their knack for finding the transcendental through relentless slog. Watch out, though, for high-energy attacks like Magic Square, roughly akin to AC/DC falling in with Detroit’s Grande Ballroom crowd circa 1969. And beware the end of side six on the vinyl edition, where Fat Man Loop ∞ reveals itself to be a piano vamp stuck in a locked groove: endless boogie-woogie, no less.