Faded, lazy, hazy Hip Hop Beats from Sasquatch on this two sided tape release. A patchwork quilt of fine velvety beats, Bass lines and irreverent samples; quick stitched, cut and pasted excellence. ‘Creep Jazz’ has a very chilled out, blunted vibe, replete with vinyl crackle and warmth, scratch, tape distortion and Jazz melodies and Bass. The sampled melodies also have a somewhat sharp, crisp quality which only adds to the Jazzy sound. Recommended!
Two track release from Jay Randall’s Harsh Noise/Pulse unit Seal Team 666, released by the awesome harshnoise.org. Two of the more spacious Seal Team tracks, featuring the signature blistered engine-failure Seal Team Pulse with lots of breathing space and time gaps between sounds. This thinner, more clinical, less dense atmosphere works really well in highlighting the abstraction and absurdity of Seal Team 666’s weaponised sound. Warped, damaging and sterile. This sounds like a illegal weapons test in a non extradition safe zone, deep in a dis-used missile silo. Short, sweet, shock.
Captain Three Leg are well known for disregarding genre or listener expectations/limitations, something which I personally have always admired in any band/musician. With ‘3516’, the Captain released what is likely their most alienating record to unsuspecting Grindcore fans; a lush sounding, blissful Space Rock/Prog/Ambient record, entirely instrumental. There’s Classic Rock riffs, sweeping melodies, moments of Jazz/Fusion rhythm, and a complete disregard for expectation. The instrumentation is not without complexity and arrangement, but entirely avoids any sense of pretension, something which all too many Prog/Instrumental Rock albums suffer from. The hypnotic melodies drenched in reverb, laid back Drumming, drifting Ambient passages and spacious tones make for an excellent, rewarding listen. The vibe of this record is thoughtful and relaxing, reminding me at times of Rush, Can, Thin Lizzy, Hawkwind and others, although the record never feels like a pastiche of any of the above bands or their influences. As with any sound Captain Three Leg have turned their hand to, they make it their own and put their stamp on it. I would recommend this to fans of the more fun/weird ‘Return to The Space Hole’ release, or any of the above mentioned bands. Apparently this record lost Captain Three Leg a lot of fans. Good.
Split from 2012 between Captain Three Leg and Distant Trains. Distant Trains present two tracks of strange, muddy Drum Machine grease, laden with synths and keyboards, lots of weird effects, distant echo growl vocal, and a very noisy sensibility. This all collides in a most confusing and interesting way, one which needs to be heard to be described. Goofy, creepy, noisy. The Captain Three Leg material here is 8 tracks of electronic scree and drone; quite ambient, kinda harsh and very minimalist. I find this stuff relaxing, climactic and very Sci Fi sounding. This one probably isn’t for fans of Captain Three Leg’s Grindcore/Hardcore releases but Noise fans should take notice.
The latest split from Gonzo favourites Captain Three Leg, this time sharing space with Grindcore band Flvx Capacitor. The three Flvx Capacitor tracks here are noisy Grindcore with lots of hyper blast beats, Hardcore half time parts, some D beats, raging burl/shriek vocal and an old school sound. There’s also a kind of Noisecore intensity to this stuff, particularly in the frenzied drumming and some of the vocal delivery. This stuff is berzerk! These tracks wouldn’t sound out of place on any number of 90’s Grindcore/Hardcore comps, in a good way. They make a perfect foil to the Captain’s continuing interest in playing stompy, 80’s/90’s sounding Hardcore with blast beats and super burly vocal. There’s yet more melody, song craft and structure here, which is no bad thing. These tunes are catchy, surprising and pissed with funny, awesome lyrics and lots of samples. As with their other Hardcore sounding stuff, this reminds me of Rupture and Negazione at times, but there’s also a ‘4 Of A Kind’ D.R.I. sound here in the Thrashy Guitar parts and solos. Overall an indispensable slice of stupid throwback Hardcore/Grindcore, really cool artwork also! Go get it.
Sarcoidorrhoea is a Gorenoise project from Russia, about whom I can’t find a lot of information. This stuff is awash with ringing snare, Noise ‘Guitars’ underpinned by frantic blast beats, D beats and watery, drowned super low vocal. Gross, pulverizing and torrential. The production is strangely clear for this type of slop, the beats are very crisp and the drum patterns make the whole thing punchy and brutal; sound wise this stuff most reminds me of the awesome Active Stenosis. The ‘Guitar'(?) sounds here sound like sewage, very noisy with no discernible riffs as you’d expect from Gorenoise. For fans of Urine Festival, Anal Birth, Last Days Of Humanity, and Active Stenosis/Menometrorrhagia.
The Irreversible Neural Damage was a short lived three man Noise/Grind project, featuring the always excellent Jason Hodges of Suppression and others. This short, sharp demo captures a very primal, lumbering blend of Bass heavy, swingin’ dick M.I.T.B. freak out and Noisecore blurts of suppressed rage. The whole thing is drenched in filthy, clicky Noise, the vocal is pained and burly with occasional Biafra/Elvis warble, and despite lots of blast beats the Drums are varied and really interesting. You can definitely hear what Suppression were also doing at the time in this primitive release; like their Bass driven Noise Rock was born from The I.N.D.’s fuzzy womb. Predictably great, like pretty much anything with the C.N.P. Roach stamped on it is.
‘Harsh Noided’ is a compilation of remix/mash up tracks created by George Moore of Orange Annihilator, The Cryptic Yeast and the excellent Prime Eggsample Records. The tracks here are a collision of Death Grips stem tracks and Harsh Noise/Power Electronics tracks from various American Noise artists, many of whom are associated with Prime Eggsample. MC Ride’s mentally unstable flows are enveloped in Harsh Noise of different intensity and focus, creating a portentous and headache-inducing blend of aggressive vocal alienation and spiraling, mind raping Noise. The concept works unbelievably well, and many of these tracks sound like original compositions rather than remixes. On hearing this I found myself wondering why this hasn’t been done before, given that Death Grips release remix packages with their original stems/tracks. Highlights for me are the spacious, blunted obstruction of ‘Reproductive Organ Failure In Birds’ (Seal Team 666), the dull scrape of ‘Unworthy Hunger Games II’ (Deceiver) and the rumbling, pulsing vibration of ‘Two Bitter, Dry Heavens’ (Pregnant Spore). I expect this will get a Grindcore Karaoke re-up any day now, and I really hope George does some more of this stuff, it’s fantastic!
Japanese Torture Comedy Hour is a Harsh Noise/Electronics project consisting solely of J. Randall, although for years before involved Andrew Kokes, Chris Leamy, Scott Hull (the founding member) and others. This 24 hour Harsh Noise marathon is a strange one to say the least. Sonically this stuff is massive sounding, expansive, at times eerie and absorbing, brittle and in all not actually as straight up Harsh as some of the other JTCH releases available. Whirring, droning oscillations breach waves of glassy, frigid sounding minimal Pulses, giving an impression of cohesion, whether intended or not, and louder collision sound wanes into drifting, buzzing and kinda warm ambient tone. Listening to this in a single sitting would be an utter absurdity; from my experience working long overnight shifts last month listening to this, after several hours the impact is lost and I’d find my interest disappearing. However, despite Randall’s comments in the explanatory liner notes, certain passages here are better than you might think for what is essentially an experiment in human limitation, and there’s a genuine craft and design to be found in the Noise here. There’s a strange sense of empathy and human experience in listening to this, thinking of a solitary human being behind the controls of this monster, losing self respect and beard hairs incrementally as the hours pass. Overall, despite some interesting Noise, this recording really works because you know the story of Randall’s experience in creating it; the liner notes are as important in trying to digest this idiocy as the actual sound within, in my opinion. Inspired by the legendary ‘Merzbox’ release, I like to see this record as the kind of modern equivalent to Merzbow’s monstrous Noise collection; impossible to absorb, self defeating, somewhat brilliant and most importantly free to download and enjoy. Recommended listening to the unemployable. Get LOST IN DISTORTION.
Super short and super sweet release from Pointless Records, LinesInWax/Gonzo Sean’s label. Sean’s one man Noisecore project Clunge occupies one half of this lathe release, with four tracks of crusty, pissed off Noisecore blasts. Very raw, unwieldy and aggravated, with some Crust riffs and D beats, lots of blast beats, really pissed shriek vocal and political samples throughout. The other side of the spit is one track/two ‘songs’ from Canada’s one man Gore champion Hyperemesis. I’m sure by now you know to expect stampeding Mince parts, blast beats, Sludge Guitars, mad ringing Snares and gross vomiting vocal spew. Despite the length of this release a lot of ground is covered and the two sounds here compliment each other well. If you own one of the 10 lathe cuts Sean released here, you are an underground icon. If you don’t, go download it.
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