Dopesmoker Is A Fucking Terrible Album

This will absolutely go down as one of my favorite tapes released this year. Some of you may remember an older post where I talked about the debut Cuck Dirt EP released on Uninvited Records. I was a massive fan of their composed, smart-ass, vicious take on noisecore, that whole tape is incredibly fun and a cut above the normal bunch of newer noisecore bands. Now it's a year later, and Cuck Dirt have unleashed their follow up in the form of a single track, C2 cassette, released on Doughgirl Tapes in a super limited edition of 25.

 What Cuck Dirt have done is create a diss track about one of my personal favorite albums; "Dopesmoker" by Sleep. In leu of Sleep releasing their "comeback" record so to speak, I saw a ton of people start saying some not so great things about, just all at once and out of no where. I guess it's because they released it on 4/20? I'm not sure, and I'm not here to talk about Sleep. In any case, Cuck Dirt are straight dissing that shit, and it's as funny as it is harsh. It starts out with a sample of an auto-tuned voice, talking about how "it's fucking nice out, who's trying to hang and smoke some loud?". Apparently this is taken from some sort of meme, which I'm honestly unfamiliar with. I thought it was some brilliantly weird shit in any case. From then on it's a blasting, snarling dose of vitriol for the next 50 seconds, great stuff all around. The lyrics are pronounced and rapid, in a mid-period Sissy Spacek kind of way. They're down to earth and blunt, but it's done perfectly for what it is. It reminds me of Jay Randall's lyrical style from those good ANb days. Cuck Dirt's fantastic and seamless blend of composition and complete noisecore is still strong here, no riffs but a good sense of structure.

I also appreciate how they just didn't hold back on this cover art, which is clearly just the artwork from the "Dopesmoker" reissue, with crude MS paint dick drawings. Perfectly dumb. The whole layout is wonderful, and I'm dang happy to have gotten the #1 copy, not sure how I scored that! The tape dub is just the tiniest bit murky and fuzzy, but it's forgivable.

I fucking love this tape, it's a total winner in my book. Buy this before it sells out!!!

~VII

Living Market/Bullshit Room

Here's a tape that I got from the good person who runs and operates the Pop Miasma label, who coincidentally happens to be a member of the band Living Room! I've seen some fellow peers bring up their name here and there, and I was definitely interested in hearing what Living Room were all about. So naturally, I was thrilled when they wanted to send in copies of their new splits for review! Here's the Bullshit Market/Living Room split cassette, not sure how many copies were made.

This is the first tape I've got that has recordings from the newest Bullshit Market line-up. Now a duo, and pretty much sticking to straight-up noisecore at least for now. This recordings is lo-fi, nasty and fast as fuck thanks to the always ridiculous drumming from Aaron. Drums and bass with some super murky, pitch shifted vocals that kind of remind me of Ops-Psf, but without the cut up sound and styles. The bass doesn't even really sound like a bass, lots of pedal manipulation and weird feedback. This session is a nice and solid batch of short, untitled, noisecore bursts, with some entertaining little bits of in between banter/dialogue and hip-hop samples in between the blasts to keep it lively. Fun shit, I'm excited to hear more from this line-up.

Alright, so now I'm finally hearing Living Room, and I gotta say I wasn't quite expecting this kind of stuff, but I'm really really digging it. That cut-up style/editing that I mentioned up above is here in spades. This shit is a wonderful collage of various sounds! I'd only really call it noisecore because sometimes there are longer bits where you can hear traditional stringed instruments and drums. But mostly, this side sounds like a quick cut, sharp and nasty harsh noise session. I can pick up lots of various tape manipulations and recording speeds fucked with in real time. I'm unsure whether this is all sourced from recordings they did as a band, or from different members separate contributions. Not a lot of vocals or what I would traditionally call noisecore, but there's definitely enough of that rapid energy to keep the roots apparent. As a fan of crazy cut-up noises, I dig this. Think Penis Geyser's side of their split 7" with Sete Star Sept. Awesome project!

 I can tell Pop Miasma is nailing down that consistent aesthetic. The packaging is a simple, double sided J-card, but I dig the layout a lot. The tape sounds awesome too!

I got another Living Room split to write about in the next couple posts.

~VII

Another Song About Dicks

This tape came out back near the end of 2016, when Sedem Minut Strachu really started propelling into their solid status as one of the best noisecore bands doing their thing. I was really happy to find it out in the wild this past April while I was on tour. At the very excellent Torn Light Records in Kentucky. Trashfuck Records is responsible for putting this tape out, not sure how many were made.

Sedem Minut Strachu as you all should be aware have been pretty much dominating noisecore over the course of several years. Consistently putting out true, ugly, proper noisecore from tape to record to tape again. And of course constantly releasing splits with many amazing and fascinating bands from all over the world. Their side here is a 163 track effort, so there's plenty of short bursts and stops on this one. Jan is really blasting hard. It sounds like one of their practice room recordings, so the bass isn't that blown out and more in the background. Not as much ping in the snare as I normally like either, it actually sounds like a real snare drum here. Pretty awesome stuff, as usual.

Bullshit Market is a long going, genre bending band from Detroit. Patrick, one half of BsM, also runs Trashfuck Records. This is some seriously whacked out noisecore fuckery. Super fast and tight blasting, harsh noise in the vein of Nikudorei, and some left in band member banter with very tight cut up/editing. The vocals too, I love how they sound on here! Not so much screaming, more like loud moaning and grunting, but with some SUPER heavy delay or echo on them in a way I don't hear very often. There's also an amazing part in the middle where there's a reverse playback of the band chatting, and then this reversed cymbal decay just starts rising up, until there's a sharp stop into harsh fucking noise blasting. This side is just great, I really really like this a lot. 

We got a proper, old school style, whole folded sheet of paper for the cassette art. Including an iamge of the poster from when Sedem Minut Strachu and Bullshit Market played together on the American 7MS tour. The tape dub sounds superb and crispy too.

This tape is long since sold out. But if you manage to luckily find it in the wild like I did you definitely should buy it. Both sides are winners!

  ~VII

Frost Cracking Trees

The latest batch of releases from Prime Ruin offered a lot to the listener in the ways of expansive and shapeshifting audio adventures. They're a label I can always trust to have quality output, and support for a wide variety, but still cohesive mixture of experimental artists. One of the newest tapes from the label was the excellent new Kjostad release, entitled "Frost Cracking Trees". Limited to 60 copies on yellow tapes.

A sibling project to Stefan Aunes long going Breaking The Will moniker (both having releases on his label New Forces), Kjostad has been having a rather exciting and active past year. Releasing the split LP with Ligature, called "Overgrown", and with several more cassette releases on the way. Brilliantly recorded natural/organic textures and loops, tape manipulation, and a calculated rise in aggression and tension. A convergence of the natural and the industrial, but with neither side trying to overpower the other. "Frost Cracking Trees" is yet another incredibly detailed and layered offering, but with a much more rapid pace and destructive sound. Bright, fluttery bird calls are quickly met with the tight whip crack sounding loop of some scrap metal. Sharp bursts of finely tuned, crushing low end spastically cut into the mix in a cut-up style. The whole track builds into an enormous amount of sound and industrial rhythms. It's very impressive how Stefan is able to manipulate these field recordings into something so loud, but still keep the integrity of the organic sources. The pacing and movements of the loops also keep everything engaging.

The journey continues on side 2 with more bird sounds and the subtle crunching of feet on a foresty turf. The pulsing, crackly distortion yet again swells up in a timely manner. The wormy and gritty sound of the compressed sound sources really get under my skin sometimes, in a good way. There's lots of scratchy textures on here. It sounds like the actual scraping against tree bark and digging into the earth. Not as rapid paced as the A-side track, but the claustrophobic atmosphere is tremendous.

I adore all of the art on this tape. It's one of my favorite collages on a Prime Ruin release, it encapsulates what the recordings sound like perfectly. As usual the tapes sound pro as fuck.

Not sure how many of these are left, but if this sounds good to you at all I recommend spending your money on it.

~VII

Garbage Gets Me Hot

I'm a big fan of the whole 4-band split thing. I suppose most people would call that a compilation and call it a day. Personally I say you gotta get up to at least 5 bands for it to reach that "compilation" level. Anyway, four bands on one tape means more bang for your gorebuxxx, and I'm always down for more hot garbage sounds. This tape that Ben put out on the bodacious Craniophagus Parasiticus Records I've been after for a minute. I was happy to finally get it from him in person on the Scab Addict tour. Here's the Twat Slug/Womb Stew/Post Natal Drip/Cutaneous Horns 4-way split.

I've had an affinity for this split since it got announced. It's a stacked line-up, obviously, but everyone really just brings some of their most over the top material. One of the most coward-unfriendly splits I own, it's marvelously filthy. Twat Slug's quarter opens up the tape with four tracks of stomping, lo-fi gorenoise. Cheap, programmed drum beats, bizarre porn samples galore, blown out bass riffs and cavernously burpy vocals. This shit is great, I really adore Twat Slug. This is the kind of healthily porn-obsessed music I can get behind, and getting to see how rad the dude behind it is was really sweet too. The love for hunting down the most ridiculous and wild films, kinda like finding the most unmusical music.  Real freak music, total fetish material.
Right after Twat Slug, shit gets seriously fucking loud with Womb Stew. A harsh, harsh, HARSH gorenoise project from Aaron who ran Fermented Bile Vomit Records. This offering is one of the more pure harsh noise recordings from Womb Stew. I've always admired the projects almost complete lack of separation between pure noise and gore-stylings, but again on this split it's just extra cracked out material. The drums are almost completely buried under the overdriven distorted noise and feedback, absolutely no string instruments by the sound of it. It's a harsh and heavy wall that doesn't let up, the only thing that puts it in familiar territory are the continuous roaring troll vocals. Painful and unfriendly.

Post Natal Drip come through again with another session of drunk, no-fi jamming insanity. Post Natal Drip will rip every cowards face off, as is declared while the band prepares to slam dunk this shit. Completely free, way too overblown, sloppy and wild. Like if Deche-Charge mixed up with Peter Brotzmann. Seriously, the complete bastardization of music here is so on point and in your face, I love it.

And of course we end with Cutaneous Horns, who honestly could not have done a better or more proper job with the closing track. Big ups to starting it off with a good hip-hop sample, again referencing lack of friendship towards cowards. What follows is just pure wetness. I'm almost certain that it's just layers of water under distortion. Wet gorenoise taken to the fucking limit, shamelessly and triumphantly. What's funny is that the way the different samples weave and come in and out, it actually sounds quite nice and somewhat creepy at times.

As is usual with Ben's releases, the tape sounds great, and the whole package looks nice. 

If you can find this you should buy it, it gets a big recommendation from me. Real freak shit.

~VII

Affinities

Finally, finally, FINALLY I got my hands on a Dead Gods release. A little brick and mortar/cassette label based out of Brooklyn, NY, owned and operated by Justin Lakes (Shredded Nerve, Pusdrainer) and Matt Boettke (Scant). The newest tape from the excellent Breaking The Will, a long-going solo harsh noise/cut-up project from Stefan Aune (who also runs the excellent New Forces label). Most likely done in a run of 100.

Stefan's a buddy of mine, and now a resident of my home town. So personal bias not-withstanding, I'm a big admirer of Breaking The Will and Stefan knows how to make legit, brutal noise, straight up. Nothing but pure adoration for extreme volume, harsh feedback, and ridiculous tape manipulation. "Affinities" is yet another excellent 20 minute testament to all these traits; starting and ending 100% brutal. Mammoth waves of crushing distortion, rapid fire modulations and some of the most disgusting and disorienting sudden stops in the game. I haven't really gotten the background concept for this particular release; seems to be about war and violence and all that good stuff. So without getting to heady about this, a harsh noise tape, it's just thoroughly excellent and enjoyable. Everything is also recorded really well, you can tell that every tone is dialed in to sound exactly how it should. I love it, good work there.

As I expected, the quality of this release is outstanding. Amazingly loud dub, super crispy, and a lay-out and aesthetic to match. I also love the Dead Gods spine that adorns all of their releases. It's both cool, and an annoying thing for me; because I can't have just one of these spines in my shelf, I gotta get 'em all! It's the same thing with Smash Music spines, the consistency is just what my OCD needs to get sucked in.

As far as I know this isn't sold out, but at the time of writing this the Dead God's Big Cartel is temporarily down.

~VII

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

Like A Worm In My Liver

Highly highly highly recommended brutal noisecore split right here. A nauseatingly rotten goop pile of a cassette released very recently by Strangle and Amuse Tapes and Hjitrous Tyror. It will definitely go down as one of my favorite splits of the year. Here is the split release by the insanely brutal Chopped of Dick and the up and coming Genital Cancer, not sure how limited it is.

Chopped Off Dick are a fucking great, brutal noisecore band from Ohio that have stuck out to me among the crop of underground bands right now. No bullshit, demented, savage beat downs with a very clear focus on their unique delivery, and also a heavy influence of true crime. Each song uses crude, constantly blasting programmed drums, no frills or fills, just blasting. With a good amount of wretched guitar riffs that have a twisted death metal style, and layers of fucked up gutterals and screams. Like a healthy mixture of early ANb, Mortician, and Mellow Harsher, but fucked up on hardcore hallucinogens. I really dig how the recording quality and even the tone of the drum machine will change from track to track (another maybe unintentional nod to early ANb), and the sheer chaotic blend of sounds that come up on every track make each one unpredictable and engaging, and also sort of numbing. It will sound like a whole other track is invading the one you're listening to, a weird bubbly gurgle or guitar solo will come out of no where, or a wave of other vocal tracks. It's chaotic, fucked up noisecore to the extreme. I love it.

On my copy, even though both sides have their own artist's labels, right after the COD side ends Genital Cancer's side starts right up. The Genital Cancer side is mysteriously blank, which really confused me the first time I played this. But yeah, thankfully GC's side is here and in tact, starting very smoothly by a slow building ambient intro. With a creepy as hell movie sample for a good minute or more until the disgusting gore starts flying. Genital Cancer is raw gore/noise project featuring members of Hypnic Jerk, and their side is brutal as hell. Lo-fi, out of tune, frantic shit gore; the kind of filthy sounds that real, dark bedroom dwelling, horror movie enthusiasts like myself swarm too. It's a good mixture of raw mince, goregrind and noisecore, bonus points for the little hip-hop sample too. I'll be bugging Travis for more material until they release it for sure.

The packaging is just brilliant, and is so wonderful to look at in person. The cover is a silk-screened sticked pasted on the cassette shell, and also comes with a brutal double-sided insert. Everything about this release pops out!

The aesthetic is really on point with this one. 

Please go and buy this great split, it comes with a high recommendation from me. Noisecore lives. 

~VII

Floating Rot

A great tape from some wonderful, trustworthy noise makers, released on a legendary cult label. I was sold from the very start. This is the excellent Oozing Meat/Hypnic Jerk split cassette, released this year on Chaotic Noise Productions. Most likely limited to 50-100 copies.

Hypnic Jerk is an excellent noisecore band from Michigan, and have been highlighted on this blog before. They've coined one of the best slogans for their group; Sincere Noisecore. Two words that perfectly describe the Hypnic Jerk experience. They are true purveyors of uncompromising, lo-fi harshness. Everything is 110% distorted, blown out, gritty, gore obsessed and fucked up. Characteristics that are still completely true on this 7 minute, 16 track recording. One of the rawest sessions I've heard from the Jerks, recorded as a duo, possibly in a live show setting. Yet again bordering on pure harsh noise, every sound is mangled and suffocating. Sharp spiked of feedback shriek out from the basement fidelity, low end rumbles and spastic blasting. Tortured and wretched vocals come through sometimes to let you know the members are still alive. Crushing stuff.

Oozing Meat is a more recent noisecore band featuring Jason Hodges from Suppression/Mutwawa/Bermuda Triangles, etc. and they are a glorious, twisted mess of noise. In good ol' noisecore fashion, they've cram 123 tracks under one name, "Floating Rot", and it's dank as fuck. The recording is very good, very loud and piercingly intense. Hot screeches of contact mic feedback open it up, with a repetitive sample of someone saying "oozing meat". The drums and vocals come in slowly at first in short bursts, giving lots of time for the pure noise to breath. As the side continues, the tracks and blasting become more and more close together and intense, with lots of varied vocals and different pieces of instrumentation and editing. The way that this side is edited and chopped together is incredibly sharp and jagged too, which we all know is a sound I'm a huge fan of. Tracks and vocals will start and stop very suddenly in a glitchy sort of way, it's very tinkered with. Another super solid side that makes me want more!

The J-card is very professionally made, with a brutal and tidy layout that perfectly suits the ugly sounds on this tape.  The dub is perfectly crispy too.

You can listen to this tape here, a link to purchase it is above. Please support these bands and Chaotic Noise Productions.

~VII

Hypnic Meat

There's tons of really quality, filty noise coming out of the midwest. Old news to anyone with an eye on the underground. The noisecore genre has grown massively in the past several years, and this tape is a great pairing of some really good projects that have come up. Hypnic Jerk from Michigan, and Horse Meat from Texas. Released in an unknown amount of Strangle and Amuse Tapes.

Hypnic Jerk never skimp out on sheer, unfliching brutality. The recording is a blown out bombshell recording, the fidelity is less than zero. It would almost be considered a straight up harsh noise recording if there weren't splash moments of cymbal crashes and strained vocals. Pretty sure during this recording Hypnic Jerk was just a drums and noise equipment due. A different sort of line-up then the usual noisecore affair, and they pummel you with it. Thirteen fast moving, chaotic noise tracks. Insanely harsh stuff for noise creeps.

Horse Meat is a solo noisecore project that uses a drum machine, and give another winning recording session on their side. Instantly winning me over with an excruciatingly long, overblown sample from one of my favorite movies, "Basket Case". After about a minute and a half of that, the blasting begins and I loved all seven tracks of it. Kinda reminiscent of 7MON when they used a drum machine, but Horse Meat actually has some parts that do resemble riffs (as free as they are), and don't play microsongs. The vocals are also diverse and fun, going from caveman "ooouurgh's", to cracked screams and some pitch shifted gutterals. Awesome project!!

The tapes sound great, and the layout and graphics are perfect. Strangle and Amuse definitely sticks to a solid look with their releases. The painted tapes do in fact play great, and they look dank as well.

Find this in a distro some where, I believe the label is sold out now. You snooze you lose.

~VII