Demolition Plot J-7 - Music

Music

Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Heather Phares wrote in Allmusic's biography of Pavement that, with Demolition Plot J-7, Pavement "had begun to forge influences into its own signature sound." A review in the Baltimore City Paper likened the EP's sound to "a cross between The Fall (circa Frenz Experiment) and Half Japanese". A review in LA Weekly stated that "The guitar on 'Internal K-Dart' and 'Fork Lift' is patently similar to Big Black and, but Pavement steer clear of the former's pretentiously bleak posturing and the latter's dreary self-pity". Malkmus noted the influence that jazz musicians had on the EP's recording, and acknowledged jazz albums Interstellar Space by John Coltrane and Andrew!!! by Andrew Hill as two of his favorite records. The EP is Pavement's first to incorporate keyboards.

The first song on the album, "Forklift", features fuzzy guitar effects, like much of the band's early material. "Forklift" also incorporates what Pavement biographer Rob Jovanovic calls "almost Kraftwerk-sounding" overdubbed electronic keyboard sounds in the chorus. "Spizzle Trunk" is a punk-influenced track with "thrashy guitars", but it also includes "barroom Jerry Lee Lewis piano buried in the mix". The next two tracks, "Recorder Grot" and "Internal K-Dart", are both heavy and guitar-oriented songs. "Perfect Depth" is, according to Jovanovic, a "gloriously messy sonic assault", and "reflects a more considered Malkmus attempt at lyric crafting, even if they are nonsensical and almost impossible to hear". The EP ends with "Recorder Grot (Rally)", a 21 second instrumental of guitar feedback.