My Favorites of 2018

Another year has come to an end. As with the years previous, the world continues to literally fall apart, and the only thing that didn't let my spirit down is good, quality music. Plus the many people that create it, and mutual thrive in it. A lot of things happened personally in 2018, many experiences that shaped me to be who I am today. Some great things happened; tours, new friends, recordings some killer tunes, seeing lots of cool bands, seeing my family more, etc. These 20-some releases were also crucial to helping make every day awesome and most excellent. There were a ton of great releases this year, twas a very strong one for music. The new golden age of noisecore that we are currently in produced an insane amount of good releases, grindcore around the world was really on it's shit. Plus pretty much all of my favorite labels were consistently putting out great tapes, records and CD's. There were many things I did not get the chance to have a proper sit-down with. That being said, narrowing it down was still tough. It usually always is. But naturally, I had to go with the releases that I continuously returned to, and meant the most to me.  Here were my favorites, in no order except for the top 5. 

Traci Lords Loves Noise - The Ultimate Fantasy CS
It's a joyous occasion to get a new TLLN tape, and it does not disappoint. Comprised of previously unreleased recordings from back in the day, this is Traci Lords Loves Noise exactly how you would want it. Angry, lo-fi, sample heavy and tongue in cheek (especially the B-side). An example of how to do proper noisecore from a cult legend. 

Parlamentarisk Sodomi - Krieg Mot Norge 7"
After claiming the top spot on my last year end list, the Norwegian grind God PS is back with a full 7" EP of new material (with a new vocalist too). One half is thrashing, crusty grind songs, the other half superb, hyper-speed, stop-start noisecore tracks. I kinda wish it was all the noisecore tracks, but everything Steiner does is great. So there. 

World - World Discography CD
At long last we have the full discography from one of the best bands ever, the Japanese noisecore legends World. Packed together in a beautiful pro CD, and all the material sounding better than ever. This is an absolutely crucial collection from one of the most incredible bands.

Bruised Ego - Roman Numeral One LP
I may have a slight bias here since I helped pay for the vinyl release, but this debut full length from Baltimore's best fastcore band truly slays. You get incredibly tight drumming, riffs that thrash, stomp, and flail with a beefy and thick recording, and tons of just fun-ass songs in general. A well earned and finely tuned LP from some good old boys. 

Deterioration - Lupara Bianca CS
This EP just slaps, no if's and's OR but's about it. Deterioration unleashed a doozie of a release with this mafia / gang inspired release, and it quickly became my favorite recording by the band to date. No bullshit fast music from arguably the most beloved grindcore band going right now, and with releases like Lupara Bianca, it's not hard to figure out why.

John Coltrane - Both Directions At Once 2LP
My expectations for this record were immeasurably surpassed: an LP's worth of unreleased studio sessions from the classic quartet, which for me sits very snuggly within the rest of Coltrane's 60's output. Masterful work, performed with passion and grace. I still hum the riff to "Untitled Original 11383" to this day.

Cuck Dirt - Dopesmoker Is A Fucking Terrible Album CS
This whole tape is just one minute long diss track at one of the most revered stoner metal albums ever, and it's just a pure blast for the entire 60 seconds. Cuck Dirt are amazing and this tape immediately landed a spot in my year end list when it arrived in my mailbox. Snotty, humorous, nothing but a good time.  

Cannibalism / Sulfuric Cautery / Endotoxaemia / Lectularius - Guro Grind Guignol split CS
Of all the 4-way splits I've heard this year, this particular one slapped the hardest, and not just because of the Sulfuric Cautery contributions (best band in America right now). Every band here has submitted some crushing material. From the lo-fi, riffy sewage of Cannibalism, to the low-end heavy pummeling of Lectularius, this is a proper collection of gory grindcore. 

Incinerated / Sulfuric Cautery - Split 7"
Sulfuric Cautery put out so much material this year, I can't narrow it all down and feature one single release. So much brutality and hyper speed blasting on both sides, it's ridiculous. This team-up also introduced me to the incredible Aussie grindozer that is Incinerated, further cementing the fact that Australian bands can not suck. 

Oozing Meat - Contaminated CS
Oozing Meat's particular harsh noise and effect-smothered noisecore really came through the loudest and most impactful on their 20-minute cassette, Contaminated. It's as abrasive as it is entrancing, switching from pure noisecore and micro track blasts, to weird drum grooves, samples, heavy passages of feedback and disgusting vocals over the course of 766 tracks. 

God's America - The Undeserving CS
While I'm not all that focused on powerviolence at this stage in my life, God's America are to me the embodiment of what the genre should naturally progress to. God's America sound only like God's America, and their singular brand of lo-fi recording and unique songwriting and riffs make them stand heads above the rest. Totally in their own league. The Undeserving is one of their finest moments to date.

Heinous / Haggus - Split 7"
Most of the time with a Haggus split, I tend to usually listen to the side that isn't them more often. Such is the case with their split 7" with AZ goregrind band Heinous. Heinous' side starts with pretty much a perfect opening track, and the savage, meat shredding grind does not let up at all. Groovy, powerful and gore soaked. It's just wonderful.

Kjostad - Frost Cracking Trees CS
Giving some love to a local artist Kjostad. No release floored me or stuck with me as much as what is stored in the gorgeous looking and sounding cassette, Frost Cracking Trees. The beautifully recorded soundscapes of nature are perfectly manipulated and transformed into something uplifting and claustrophobic. It's a truly impressive piece of sound manipulation and to me, sits as Kjostad's finest work to date. 

Sidetracked - Perpetual Dissent CS
My favorite Sidetracked release of 2018 is this short and sweet EP. The recording is absolutely ruthless, some of the heaviest sounding material that the band has done. While the lack of variation in the songwriting may be cumbersome to me, I personally love how the band focuses in on a specific mode for each release, and Perpetual Dissent rocks this in spades. Every time I show this tape to people, they're hooked. Totally unique and a band that stands on their own in the fastcore / noisecore style. 

Nickelus F - "Stuck" 
CD/CS/LPIf there was one release that just barely made it into the top 5 it would be this. It's such a damn good record. I haven't been this excited about a hip-hop release since Danny Browns -"XXX". Something about this record just hits's that good spot in my brain, it just makes me feel better. The beats are this brilliant combo off jazz rap, trap, soulful samples, conscious shit, and the album flows like butter from track to track. Great hooks with a perfectly laid back but soulful delivery, until Petey start's spitting fast bars. It's lyrically a strong record too, there are many moments of introspection, and observation. The lyrical theme of being "stuck" returns throughout many tracks, with many contexts attached which I adore. It add's to the experience of it being a proper album, you dig? It's something that is hard to skip tracks through. Super high recommendation from me, I really love this record.

TOP 5 NEW RELEASES
5: Sissy Spacek - Thrash Staging & Ways Of Confusion LP's
Sissy Spacek turned the ripe ol' age of 20 this year, and to commemorate such a feat they seemingly decided to try and release as much music as they could (I count 8 all together). They’ve highlighted all of their styles, from noisy grindcore, to live ensemble records, to the purely electronic. Released on the local New Forces label, the Trash Staging LP is an exceptional document of both the grind and the noise together, split between both sides. The A-side is some of the harshest and uncompromising grind the band has done yet, while the B-side is some of the best harsh noise I've heard all year; crushing and cold with big inspiration from Japanese noise artists like Incapacitates. Ways Of Confusion on the other hand is all blast. 39 tracks of raw noisecore, blurring the lines between composition and free improvisation at a dizzying pace and over in about 15 minutes. Sissy Spacek continue to be one of the tightest and best bands in America, period. 

4: Suppression - Placebo Reality LP
Since 2015, Suppression's output has moved away from their powerviolence and noise rock phases from the 90's and 2000's and into a whole new beast. I’m resistant to call it noisecore, even though the short songs and raw fidelity definitely make them comfortably sit under that brand. What Suppression has done here is truly exceptional, laying down 73 songs (yes, actual songs with riffs, composition and diversity throughout) on this LP. For a band to put out an LP with this many tracks, and not go the easy way out of just having every one be random gargles of instrumentation and screaming, is something that is both inspirational and commendable. This LP has it all and it’s a defining moment for an amazing band, 20+ years into their existence. 

3: Binker & Moses - Alive in The East LP
No contemporary jazz unit has wow'd me more than the duo of drummer Moses Boyd and tenor saxophonist Binker Golding. This new live recording (featuring Evan Parker, trumpeter Byron Wallen, harpist Tori Handsley and extra drummer Yussef Dayes), is a dazzling, uplifting, urgent, soulful, and strangely danceable record. From the opening, blood pumping drum duet, into the sputtering and chaotic intro of the two horns, the notes scurrying around the open air like a swarm of bees. The performances here are elegant and calculated and at no point does it feel or sound like there is any competition between the musicians. Just a symbiotic conglomerate of beautiful music. 

2: Cystgurgle / Vomitoma - split CS
During a night in Chicago while I was on tour, my friend and tour mate Ben put on a cassette that he was releasing though his label. Through the haze of inebriation that I was in at the time, I heard a sound that hit me like an avalanche. One of the loudest snare drums I had heard in a minute exploded into the room, so unbelievably fast and tight I asked if it was a drum machine. It had to be. It wasn't. This was the Cystgurgle side of their split tape with long-going USA gorenoise act Vomitoma. It was love at first listen and I snagged one off of Ben right away. Throughout all these past 365 days, I have not heard a goregrind / noise release this powerful. Specifically where the drums, for the most part, are the central focus. On top of that are the wettest, bowel-churning vocals and distorted bass imaginable. Vomitoma's vocals literally sound like piss. This is also one of the first Vomitoma releases (to my knowledge) to feature a live drummer (courtesy of Adrian from Putrefuck). This release is everything I love about goregrind, and it would have been my #1 pick of the year, if it was not for one release...

1: Needle Exchange - Kill Em All With Fentanyl CS
I have heard a lot of noisecore releases this year, more than I can count. It's a genre of music that is very near and dear to my heart and to be personally connected to this 3rd-wave golden age of the genre is truly wonderful. Sometimes I hear a band push the genre into a next level territory of extremity, something that I sometimes doubt is even possible. This newest effort from Needle Exchange has created a sound so absurdly intense, so far into the red that the meter has exploded and covered those who listen with a coagulated, smelly, crimson gunk. The A-side is a 666 track hurricane of some of the most rapidly cut-up and stitched together blasts of noise I've ever heard. Like 7MON's "Thrashbora" flexi, but fucked up x 10. This tape is genuinely demented, everything about it so extreme and over the top. From the completely distortion-covered bass, to the stop on a dime cuts, to the vocals which screech, gargle and bellow like they are done by a true psycho. Side-B continues the onslaught with a scant 245 tracks, but without losing even a molecule of brutality. The aesthetic of this band might make some people turn their heads, it's some intense and uncompromising shit, but nothing about it feels phoned-in. This swallows you into its own world. Either choose to except it or beg for mercy. Best thing I've listened to this year.

~VII

Ausländer

The "Window Hammer" 7" was one of the first grindcore-style Sissy Spacek records I really got into, even before "Contretemps". It was released last year by super-noise label Chondritic Sound, but avoided being in my possession until a few weeks ago when I spent way to much money at the SS merch table. Limited to 313 copies, all on black vinyl, 45 RPM. My copy came with the bonus DVD-r which I'll get to later.

The A-side consists of all nine tracks of "Window Hammer" that I was familiar with until getting this record. Yet another very focused and visceral take on stripped down noisecore/grindcore. This session featuring the trio line-up of Corydon, Mumma and Wiese. Loosing the guitar noise and going for more stand-alone bass riffage. Brief stick clicks are the only break between songs before all three members immediately snap into attack mode. Everything on here is tight, do not be lead to believe otherwise from the lo-fi recording and lack of song writing variation. What this group does with only blast beats and bass is very impressive. You can tell a lot of attention was put on the different variations of blasts and cymbal hits to make these songs still flow as, well, songs. Instead of just taking the easy microsong/noise burst approach. Fun fact, Joe Preston of Thrones/Melvins fame supplies some back up vocals on a couple tracks.


The B-side was a new listening experience to me, consisting of a single track entitled "Seven Dwarfs". As you could probably guess, this is another collage/cut up piece, created by the Mumma/Wiese duo line-up. If you've heard any of this line-ups work, like the "Brath" full length, you'll feel immediately familiar with the mayhem on here. Consistently harsh and blurred throughout it's whole run-time, leaning towards more of a raw noisecore style. Buried drum hits and vocals fight against blaring junk distortion and bass fuzz. It's a chaotic mess, I dug it a lot. Very similar to something that would be on their first "S/T" full length, or Charlie Mumma's other noisecore band Surplus Killing.

"Window Hammer" comes packaged in a standard fold-over, double sided sleeve. Again, no lyrics or insert of any kind. I do really wish I could read some of the lyrics. I've always been curious what Corydon is yelling about.

My copy also came with this bonus DVD-r, which contains a couple live concerts from the band during the "Contretemps" era. Most of the footage is very intimate, claustrophobic. Lots of close-ups of the band and crowd, with some extra spliced in footage of the band shooting guns, and recording a concreté piece with Smegma (I believe). The sound quality is tastefully overblown, it definitely fits the footage. I'd say it's worth trying to find a copy with the DVD, though I'm not sure how many of these were made.

Definitely another essential piece of the Sissy Spacek catalog, and thankfully this is still pretty easy to find. Don't sleep.

~VII

Gloves

"Contretemps" fucking rules. I was overjoyed when I saw that Sissy Spacek somehow still had copies for sale at their merch table. I've been after this one for a long time. This is what I like to call some perfect noisegrind. Released on Post Present Medium, 500 copies pressed on black vinyl, 45 RPM.

Out of all of Sissy Spacek's newer EP's, "Contretemps" still leads the pack as my favorite of their grindcore records. This EP managed to get a sound that none of the other records really managed to nail. John's bass tone is so rounded, crunchy, bassy and overblown here. It fills up the whole spectrum of sound. They've also just never sounded so pissed before, not like this. Corydon's voice rides a constant plateaued level of intensity. Shouting rapid fire vocals to match Charlie Mumma's stripped down, pure blast beat drumming. Listening to this on vinyl was like hearing it for the first time. The master is devastatingly loud and bass heavy, it sounds like mountains crumbling. But still under all the noise, Sissy Spacek have written some of their finest songs. Every track can stand on it's own thanks to the excellent riffs that Mr. Wiese can write. Tracks like "Gloves", "End Mill", and "On On On On" all have parts that I remember easily and fondly. Great songs, perfect sound, and incredibly tight performances.


The record comes packaged in a very flimsy glued sleeve. Seriously, I'm so scared of ripping this thing. As usual, no insert or lyrics included.

Not sure if the band still has copies or not, but you can still find this on Discogs pretty easily. Buy or forever cry.

~VII

Roulette

I was recently privileged with the opportunity to ride with a wonderful companion up to Buffalo. To catch Sissy Spacek and Wolf Eyes on a very rare jaunt through the East Coast. Pure Disgust also played, but I only caught the very last two songs of their set. Seemed like it would have been pretty fun to be there for them too. Regardless, the band I was most excited to was Sissy, who slammed through nine minutes worth of tracks that had me smiling the who time. Incredibly tight, and drenched in chaotic, shrapnel-toned bass noise. It was well worth the trip up. I also managed to scrounge up enough coin to get a few new, and not so new SS records. This one here being brand-spanking, and carried on a very interesting idea. "Roulette" is a new 7"  EP/vinyl experiment brought to us by Claimed Responsibility Records. Black vinyl copies are limited to 100 (as are the white vinyl copies).

I had a keen eye on this EP in particular when I learned about the details of the A-side. Four new tracks, each one contained on a separately cut groove from the other three. That means that each track also gets it's own starting point at the beginning of the record. So it's literally a roulette to which track you're going to get. I've heard of this idea being done in the past, but I can't for the life of me remember what record it was. Sounds like an incredible process to make, and I imagine it could be infuriating for some of you to try and hear all the tracks and keep landing the same ones. Amazingly, I somehow managed to hear each different track within the first 5-6 drops of the needle. It's a cool idea, and definitely fun, but each track is only a spare few seconds long. Riding the same noisecore influenced, blasting bass wall noise they've been doing as a duo. Hopefully some MP3's of this pop up sometime soon.

The B-side track, "Flayed", is a cut-up collage piece recorded sometime in 2011. I've honestly only scratched the surface of Sissy's collage years, but I definitely am a fan of that side of them as well. This track is filled with reverse noise loops, bits of drum tampers, industrial steam sounds, what I think is human moaning. And that's just scratching the surface of the huge amount of dense layering and manipulation that's going on here. It all morphs organically through each sample and field recording, sometimes landing into brief parts of more continues loops and gradual builds. Probably the side I'll be going back to more often honestly.

We got a nice, sturdy, glued matte sleeve to hold the record. There's no real insert included, though mine did some with a little show flier from somewhere they played.

I tried to get a good picture to show what the grooves are doing.

All around I thought this EP was a success. It had a clever concept, a solid, however brief delivery, and showed the dynamics this band can work with. Good stuff. You can pick the record up HERE.

   ~VII

Hot Poison

One of my biggest, mushiest, lovey-dovey music crushes is John Wiese's prolific, monumental noisegrind/harsh music concrete band Sissy Spacek. A swirling, ever evolving and experimenting unit which has been on a roll of consistently putting out grindcore rooted 7"s over the past couple of years. Due to my deeply saddening lack of online purchases, I'm still missing quite a chunk of SS records. However, the fantastic "Lead Their Exit" EP has managed to find it's way into my loving hands. Black vinyl, 45 RPM, limited to 300.

Sissy Spacek is one of my true loves because in addition to their constant experimentation, I think they are one of the purest examples of what quality noisegrind should be. Mr. Wiese's mastery of sound manipulation instantly lends itself to inventive ways of actually incorporating noise into the grind, and drummer Charlie Mumma's brilliantly stripped down style or 100% pure blasting and nothing else. He will play literally just blasts. it's a recipe for perfect noisegrind. At least when Sissy Spacek does it.

This is a notable release for Sissy Spacek for a couple of reasons. Most notably is the entry of new vocalist Sara Taylor, screaming her throat out as the replacement for the usually present Corydon Ronnau. Sara's vocals are equally raw and monotone, sounds a lot like Madison from Cloud Rat actually. She is also partnered with the brutal metal screams of Charlie, which is pretty different for the band. Sissy Spacek really have becoming a devastatingly tight band, under all the noise and lo-fi production. Slowly creeping closer and closer and toying more and more with the more straight forward grindcore style of writing.

I'd say that "Lead Their Exit" is one of the more focused and well executed of the recent batch of 7" EPs. For the short time length, they add a lot of variety and a good amount of individuality to these tracks. Side B opens up with the less then a minute power electronics track "Oils Of Your Eyes", before going into two BRUTAL Arsedestroyer covers. It's a pulverizing display of Sissy Spacek at their most straight forward and aggressive, ending with the most structurally complicated track "Decrypt". These last few tracks are the best examples of Charlie and Sara dueting with each other, and it's an incredible assault. 

Very good packaging in a sturdy glued sleeve. My favorite!! No insert, and all the infor given is printed on the back.

~VII