Obsessed With Cruelty

Here's a split that I'm sure most people in the noisecore world are pretty hip to already. Obviously, I just got around to getting it in my grubby mitts. The incredibly mysterious and aesthetically pleasing group, Facepalm Death, have been floating around for the past couple years. I always see friends posting tapes that they've released. Actually, FpDth mastermind Colton Pickles assembled maybe the most impressive noisecore compilation from last year, simply called "Pieces". Still haven't gotten that either. This is the split with Mental Abortion, released on Perverse Taste Tapes and Breathing Problem Productions last year.

Mental Abortion is a band that I actually really like a lot. They're definitely one of the more impressive and focused noisecore bands (yes, a full band) that has come out in the last several years. Hyper sexual, titillating, and extreme in their subject matter and imagery. Basically what you would get if a bunch of serious power electronics/harsh noise people started making grind, which is what Mental Abortion is. Their side is all recorded from a live show, and it plays out how a standard noisecore set does. Short bursts of blasting and screaming with pauses in between, sometimes so they can say the tracks title, recorded super lo-fi of course. By far the least exciting stuff I've heard from Mental Abortion, but it's serviceable.

The Facepalm Death side fucking rules! I heavily dug this side a lot; tons of variation in "song" structure and lots of different sounds and tones. Like a mix of Ops-Psf, Traci Lords Loves Noise and Nihilist Commando. Sometimes there's lyrics, mostly for the shorter songs, samples from exploitation movies, and impossibly fast programmed drums that are simple but effective. Noisecore that sort of play's like a mixtape made by someone who lives in a warehouse full of fucked up instruments. Definitely the winning side on this split for me.

The aesthetic of this tape is on point too. Mental Abortion's sexually obscene imagery takes up a little too much space, but the lay-out and look of everything is super nice. Really good sounding tape too, crispy as hell.

~VII

A Stream Of Random Events

A new post; a new return; a new set of starkly designed sheets as a background. There have been so many releases I need to talk about that have come out this year, and trying to catch up and get to them all would be too much of an ambitious undertaking for me at this point. But I figure I should highlight some of the real standouts of 2016 as much as I can. It's always these odd-numbered years that generally have good music being pumped out in the truckloads. Ironically, these sad, confusing times have only gotten much worse as of late, and for me I'm taking more and more solace in my days of collected angry music.
One of the best tapes of the year came out this summer under the trustworthy production of the Smash Music and Follow Me Into The Laser Eye labels. The epic 4-way split with Limbs Pin, Penis Geyser, OPS-PSF and Parasite Social. Limited to 100 copies.

The A-side kicks off with the spastic majesty of OPS-PSF. A cult noisecore band from Japan that a lot more people should know about, especially since their recent resurgence of activity. Definitely a must listen band for anyone into unhinged/cut-up noisecore. "104 Storys of Fake Adventure" is a mind-shifting, relentless collage of sounds. Some sort of movie trailer sample introduces the track, with only a few seconds of jarring, guitar and drum stabs coming in from time to time. As the piece goes on into about the 2 minute mark, it's blast off time, and OPS-PSF create a beautiful, chaotic explosion. Muddy, distorted, z-tuned guitars, clean jazz chords, stick clicks, cymbal hits, a kick drum or two; scronks, squeals, screams, all going by at the speed of light. Magnificent!!!! Limbs Bin proceeds immediately after with one of the harshest recordings the project has ever done. The usual drum machine bursts are almost completely buried under searing distortion walls and some of the hottest microphone distortion I've heard of tape all year. Everything here from the vocals to the instrumentation is manipulated and drenched in so much sonic sewage. At the same time, the textural pops and crackles that spew from all the distortion and the mastering make this track as captivating to hear as it is painful on the ear drums. Wonderful!!

The B-side opens with Parasite Social, a new band to my ears, and honestly their contribution is the least exciting part of this tape for me. Pretty standard and by the books grind/noisecore, almost bordering on gorenoise from the gutteral vocals and bass heavy, riffless guitars. The short bursts of songs come and go in a pretty linear, suitable way. It's not terrible by any means, but it lacks the distinguishable characteristics that all of the other three bands possess. Which leads us right into Penis Geyser, truly one of the USA's strongest examples of genuine noisecore garbage. And I say that with all of the best intentions. It sounds like it was recorded on a broken cassette walkman in a basement with one hanging lightbulb dangling from the a mold covered ceiling, and I love it. The tension and unpredictability of a Penis Geyser performance shines through here. You're never really sure what kind of attack you're going to get, or how long until the drums finally decide to come back and lead the band into "go time", or for how long that will even last. But I desperatly wait in anticipation for the next blast. Free music of some of the highest caliber and dedication.

The stark collage work of Alex York that covers the Jcard is interesting. I feel like I have to look very deep into it to see the real picture. It's a very wonderful presentation, I love that trademark Smash Music spine design. The tape is also dubbed very very well, everything sounds as loud and intense as it should.

I say this is definitely one of the mandatory harsh noise/noisecore releases of the year. Spend your money wisely and buy this HERE and HERE!

~VII

Cutdown

Last year you might remember me posting about a lil' grind band from Connecticut called Gowl. Their infamous 7" EP, "BLURRR" took my heart and ears captive and was my favorite grindcore EP of 2014. It was a chaotic, suffocating, distorted storm of music. Full of attention grabbing riffs, grooves, and some incredibly fast drumming. "BLURRR" was all around wonderful, and the world has sat patiently ever since waiting for their first full length which was teased about. Before that however, Gowl has given us this new demo tape called "Cutdown". Containing some first drafts of songs from the full-length 10". Which was announced would be handled by Mass Deadening and Grindfather Productions. My copy was generously supplied by the band for a review. Limited to 50 copies on orange tapes. Same songs on each side.

Hopefully this tape doesn't mean that the album will be pushed back a lot longer (though with the overflow at the pressing plants currently I don't doubt it), as this tape supplies a lot of mysteries. No track listing or titles are present anywhere on the tape or online. From what I can tell there are nine songs on here, in just under 10 minutes. Gowl's usual blend of chunky death metal riffs with noisegrind's atonal chaos and frenzied hyberblast tempos still remains, and their songwriting has progressed into longer songs, and even more blasting. Seth's deep roar is more up front and clear in the mix then most previous efforts, riding their own unique pattern.
The sound of the recording really does nothing to compliment these songs however. I know it's a demo, and I certainly am not put off by a raw recording. But this kind of roughness just makes everything sound flaccid. Nothing is loud or overblown and mean. And that being the case, a lot of what's on this tape kind of goes in one ear and out the other for me. Unlike "BLURRR", a lot of the riffs don't have that aggressive punch or addictiveness that rough recordings can give music. It also doesn't help that my copy has a dub that is a little iffy. The cymbal hits all have this flanged/washed sound that's a bit distracting. I do hear parts and songs that I know would sound great with a better recording, so I'm not applying a lot of judgement on the 10" based on the sound of this tape. I do certainly hope it improves though.

Fantastic collage art again from Seth.

You can listen to a much better sounding version of this demo right HERE, and also find out how to write the band to order a tape. Bring on that 10"!

~VII