The Answer Is In The Beat

Cop Funeral: 2 Stressed 2B Blessed tape (Already Dead Tapes, 2016)

April 1, 2017 at 6:37 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

So here’s an example of a tape I’ve had sitting on my desk for months and just never got around to listening to it, and then somehow the day I finally decide to put it on, it’s what I need to hear most. I’m in the middle of a 3-day weekend where I just don’t feel like leaving the house or talking to anyone, not feeling any love from anyone, not feeling like my life is going anywhere, definitely not happy about society in any way. This tape alternates between field recordings, harsh noise, and lonely synth meanderings. Titles include “Everything Will Be Okay” and “Try”, making it seem like it’s attempting to push forward even though everything’s hopeless. “5/11/16” sounds like a sort of cop funeral, with a mournful trumpet playing taps while cars pass by on the street, and it sounds like there might be a faint, distant police siren in there. “Sick of Dreams” has a flickering drum machine beat under blown-out ghostly whirring. Most astonishing of all is “Blood Tummy”, a psychedelic noise nightmare on the second side. This album was made by the guy who runs Already Dead Tapes, and it’s easily my favorite thing on the label. Highly recommended, and still available at Bandcamp.

Abdul Sherzai: I Tried To Make Something Pretty tape (HEC, 2016)

April 1, 2017 at 6:16 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Very short tape of homemade synth and drum machine sounds. Waves floating around, bending, changing colors, and then having sudden seizures and crashing to the ground. “Family Shame Stain” is a loner sludge jam with supremely crushed, distortion-pumped beats and mumbled thoughts leaking out of his head and into broken pitchshifters. “Song of My Dream” is an outer space synth exploration, and then the prettiest melody (or hint of a melody) on the album ends up being the song where he mutters “You’re Fucking Dead” over a wobbly, trippy beat. He did try to make something pretty, and it still turned out ugly and corrupted and sinister, but it’s fine that way, really. Available at Bandcamp.

Horoscope: Misogyny Stone (Wharf Cat, 2017)

March 31, 2017 at 8:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Horoscope’s second LP for Wharf Cat consists of swarming post-Throbbing Gristle noise-drone and unsettling spoken lyrics intended to dismantle the patriarchy. “Drone Gold” is filled with buzzing and helicopter-like whirring, with some frayed, frazzled pulses and some suddent, hazy blasts. The title track features Kathryn Undorfer’s echo-covered speaking voice surrounded by thumping beats and chilling, nearly melodic synths, plus squealing feedback. “Azabache Necklace Bought to Protect My Daughter” also features slow, snapping beats and cold but stirring synths, edging towards darkwave but without vocals, and then ending in shifting, rushing waves. “New Piece (for Christian Mirande)”, at the end of the album, starts out ominously, and then gets flooded with distorted vocals, ending up the album’s most volatile, threatening piece (but still not quite harsh noise). A seriously gripping album, definitely recommended.

Throwaway: “Milk Song”/”Family Cry” lathe cut single (self-released, 2016)

March 31, 2017 at 7:36 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Former WCBN DJ Kirsten Carey has been making avant-rock as Throwaway for a while, and this is the project’s first vinyl release. Two songs of temper-tantrum noise-rock, with Carey shrieking and thrashing her guitar, and Nicole Patrick attacking the drums. Both songs are pretty short, and primal yet complex, mostly containing hell-spawn shrieking, but also pausing for some schoolyard-like chants which start quiet and quickly accelerate to more caterwauling. Pressed to a lathe cut, this is definitely not audiophile vinyl, it sounds very muddy and garbled, and more like an old cassette tape than a vinyl record. But these songs wouldn’t work as clean, crisp recordings. This isn’t a Steely Dan record. These are bitter, ugly songs, and that’s how they should be presented. Also, Jonathan Snipes of clipping. and Captain Ahab mixed this! Listen at Bandcamp.

Snakehole: Interludes of Insanity (Wharf Cat, 2017)

March 31, 2017 at 7:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Second album from a ferocious female noise-rock duo split between Miami and Philadelphia. The duo shun conventions, producing a towering mass of spontaneous free-form sludge. The drums stagger and splatter, and the guitar is dense and widescreen. The vocals are mainly shrieked, but often seem nervous or fear-stricken rather than strictly angry and aggressive. The album’s first 2 songs are sort of like mutated sludge metal, then “Bum Song” is shorter and more punk-ish. A haunting piano interlude sits in the middle, spread over both sides of the vinyl LP, and the singer calls out “it’s coming to get you!” over the fog of feedback, delay, and crashing cymbals. The rest album is back to the blown-out noise-punk sound, culminating in the 10-minute “Izardus”, which is filled with strange, girlish laughter and a mysterious phone message buried near the end. RIYL: Palberta, Priests, Lydia Lunch.

Sujo: A Deeper Curse (Inam Records, 2017)

March 31, 2017 at 6:23 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Sujo is back!!! Not that he ever went away, he’s just mainly been releasing music under his own name, and it’s drifted towards clicky minimal techno. But here, he returns to his doomy guitar drone project, and it’s as glorious and bleak as ever. It seems to alternate between full-on noise squalls and calmer moments, such as the beginnings of “Lehi” and “Phosphorus”. There’s some vague rhythms holding the blustering drones together, but this music expresses a state of hopelessness that’s just impossible and futile to confine to a beat. The albums ends with the 17-minute title track, which was originally released as a digital bonus track in 2013, right before the project mysteriously went under the surface. It’s absolutely massive, just a giant wall of gray smoldering fire. Truly astounding. Totally what I need in my life right now. Behold the amazement at Bandcamp.

Saajtak: Spokes EP (self-released, 2017)

March 26, 2017 at 3:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

Easily one of the most original, captivating live bands I’ve seen in a long time, Saajtak are a prog-jazz-glitch ensemble from Ann Arbor but now based in Detroit. Alex Koi’s haunting, operatic vocals float over the complex, twisted backdrop of sounds provided by Simon Alexander-Adams (keyboards, electronics), Jon Taylor (drums, percussion), and Ben Willis (bass guitar, upright bass). Witnessing this group fuse their powers together and lock into their form of magic is nothing short of astounding. I just can’t even imagine how their songs and performances come together. This CD comes as close as possible to capturing their live energy. Songs like “The Keeper” are just pure mysticism. “Spokes” is more jazzy and chaotic, with synths approximating tapes rewinding at hyperspeed, and Koi’s vocals nearly lapsing into spoken word over the tumbling, crashing drums. Best of all is “Underscore [ _ ]”, a truly brilliant piece with haunting vocals and splattery, drum’n’bass-like rhythms. That one grabbed me when I saw them perform for the first time and it hasn’t let go. Too amazing for words. CD and digital available at Bandcamp.

Longmont Potion Castle: 13 (D.U. Records, 2017)

March 5, 2017 at 9:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This year’s LPC album is the most epic one yet. Including bonus tracks, it’s nearly 3 hours long, and it was released as a triple CD (which sold out in a minute, like every LPC album from the past few years). These tracks are long, convoluted, and dense. He’s using crazier effects than ever, and it sounds like he’s crunching or editing the calls so there’s less silence and awkward pauses and just a higher intensity. In the first track alone, he misinterprets someone saying “she’s not with us” for meaning that she passed away, tries to sell someone a KISS comic book printed with LSD, and tells someone his name is Schwab. Then he’s asking for weird animal parts (multiple times) while weird distorted groaning sounds roll around in the background. At one point he actually asks someone “Do you idiots sell urine?” Also it sounds like he’s editing callers so that certain phrases repeat and they sound like they’re stuttering, like on some older LPC releases. And then on “Mongoose”, he edits his own voice out so it’s just a big block of confused people chattering about mongooses (mongeese?). And of course, the one where he calls people asking who they’re voting for. One dude swears he always writes in Billy Dee Williams every election. Another dude recognizes it as LPC calling and says “you’re my hero!” Also, Alex Trebek still doesn’t seem to know what’s up. Also, LPC does some sort of Avalanche Bob-like scatting during “Bicycle Center”. I was going to post here that an LPC documentary called Where in the Hell is the Lavender House? is in production, and I was going to post the Indiegogo page, but it says it’s closed. I didn’t get around to donating yet! At least this (and every other LPC) album can be ordered at D.U. Records’ site.

Solypsis megapost

March 5, 2017 at 7:12 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I posted about a Solypsis tape last year after I saw him in Ann Arbor. He releases way too much music to keep track of, but a few of his recent recordings have caught my attention. Smoke Signals was one of two albums he released on Component last year. This one is focused on his techno side, with many tracks having upfront 4/4 beats which slowly become layered with noise and glitch. Other tracks are more fractured and blown out, eventually becoming more deconstructed and pulverized. There’s a few bits of industrial cyber-hip-hop, and lots of scorching noise techno. It’s an hour and a half long, and lots of the tracks go on for a while, so some of it feels like live jams. Some mindblowing feedback and flanging and other fucked up effects on tracks like “Painfully Tight”. So much to process, but yeah, it’s worth it.
Noise Is Natural appeared on TRASHFUCK, and unsurprisingly, it is a huge, heavy slab of harsh noise. The album contains a lot of tracks that are under 2 minutes, but it’s actually the longer ones that leave a greater impression. Opener “Alone Time” has such a full, all-encompassing sound, and it moves around in all directions. And it’s just so huge and full-sounding. Other tracks are more lo-fi and transistor-y, so they don’t have quite the same impact. Then others like “The Shed” are more fragmented and seem to have a few things going on at once.
Solypsis also released a split album with Catdog called Resisting Arrest, on Legs Akimbo Records. The Solypsis tracks have more big, nasty, dirty beats and noise crunching. Some of it’s a bit closer to hardcore/gabber, but still somewhat streamlined in a way. “Millions of Splinters” sounds like just that, in the most overwhelming way possible. Catdog’s tracks take up the second half of this album, and they are absolutely the best material I’ve heard by him. Just a really solid mix of raggacore, atmospheric jungle, and breakcore obliteration. Tracks like “Who Dem Wan Sound” just bomb everything out of the sky.

v/a: Red Bolatiero tape (Teen Action Records, 2015)

March 5, 2017 at 5:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I didn’t even realize how old this tape was until just looking it up, but I might as well still review it anyway. I need to keep better track of all the tapes stacking up on my desk. Teen Action Records doesn’t seem to get talked about much, even though they’ve been around a while and released tapes by Emeralds and Bee Mask. They also seem to have slowed down their release schedule, and their website doesn’t even mention this tape. It’s still out there in the world if you look for it, though. Most of the artists are pretty much unheard-of, outside of the label’s catalog, but label regulars like S.C.O.A.M., Univac, and Hiss and Hum are present. The best tracks mix cosmic spaciness with heavy sludge, but not in a metal way, in a slow, enveloping dark drone way. The creepy backwards voices and starry melodies of Eezrah Mason’s tracks particularly stand out. Otherwise, some ominous pianos, and plenty of corroded filth distortion. The second side gets more doomy, and then eventually more noisy. There’s some rickety space techno in there somewhere too. And some circuit bent Speak N Spell at the end of the tape, which is never not fun.