7/10

The Clean Crime Scene's debut album 'Raw Cuts' began with John Simek trying to make a 60s and 70s-inspired rock record with friends during family trips to the Jersey shore. But what later emerged is rougher, stranger and more expansive than that starting point suggests; delivering a nine-track record where garage-rock abrasion, psychedelic drift and dreamlike melody continually rub against one another.

The basic rhythm tracks were recorded live in a basement in Asbury Park across three successive summers, before he returned to Richmond to build out the songs with overdubs, editing and additional contributions. His wife Diana Simek added vocals from their home studio, while Jay Wilder, Ralph Nicastro, Colin Carhart and Will Pattie helped broaden the record's palette.

The process seems to have preserved some of the looseness that can disappear from overworked studio records, and 'Elevator to Nowhere' is one of the album's clearest examples of the project's appeal. Its longer runtime gives the band space to lean into repetition and atmosphere, allowing dirty guitars and hazier textures to coexist without forcing everything toward an immediate payoff. There's also a sense of movement without destination, which suits the title perfectly.

'In the Ground' then takes a different approach. Shorter and more direct, it shows the strength of their melodic instincts beneath the grit. The track demonstrates that The Clean Crime Scene aren't relying purely on distortion or vintage texture, and that there's real structure underneath all the fuzz.

Elsewhere, 'Turn Down the Bright Lights' and the sprawling nine-minute closer 'Sunshine Death Train' push further into the record's psychedelic side, giving 'Raw Cuts' a scale that gradually widens as it progresses.

For a debut collection, 'Raw Cuts' feels unusually lived-in. It carries the marks of different rooms, different summers and different phases of patience. And instead of polishing those years away, The Clean Crime Scene let them stay audible, and the record is certainly stronger for it.