Waste Of Notes

This was a split that I knew I had to buy right away,  as soon as it popped onto my radar, no questions asked. Hard to believe it actually took this long for these two legends to do a proper split 7" together. If you need an introduction to either of these bands you probably aren't the type of person who would read a blog where I'm geeking out about them. You also probably know if you want to buy this regardless if anyone says it's good or not. This was released by the infamous Ratgirl Records, in probably a multitude of color variants. The white color press is limited to 100, 33 RPM.

There was a time when I aggressively collected Agathocles records. Nowadays, I've definitely slowed down, especially with the 7"s. I don't know, it's hard to find the Agathocles splits that really "wow" me these days. This is one of those recordings that falls into that "okay, but nothing great" category. The recording is putrid sounding, obviously. The cymbals really wash over everything and the snare is barely audible, making it kind of a slog. The guitars have a nice dirt bike buzz to them, and Jan sounds great as always over these simple riffs. There's a couple moments here for sure, but nothing that's really outstanding.

Definitely more so, I bought this record to hear the Deche-Charge side, and boy did their half deliver all the goods! This is the kind of DC recording that I love. Just the complete destruction of music, blown out to the absolute max! No riffs, no fidelity, just ugly sounds and Chainsaw's grunting. It sounds like the microphone was literally placed inside one of the amps, it's that kind of super hot low end. There's some great short traxxx moments with more pauses towards the end to keep it flowing and engaging. A lovely recording from these legends!

I absolutely love this cover art. It's a beautiful illustration, I wish I knew who drew it but no information was given.

So yeah, Deche-Charge and Agathocles finally did a split 7"! You already know if you need it or not.

Cause Celebre

Here's that other 7" I mentioned in my Suffering Mind/Protestant post. The Shoppers/Panzram - split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of Shoppers only full length, "Silver Year". And unfortunatly, this is their final release. They broke up about a month ago, right before I was about to play a show with them and Cloud Rat. Super bummed I didn't get a chance to see them live. Anyway, two new tracks from them, same blown out, distorted pop-punk/shoegaze material. Something like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Bikini Kill all mixed in one. Great stuff. Panzram play noisy hardcore, 2 tracks from them as well. The blown out production compliments the Shoppers side, and I think they fit well together. 

Nice, thick sleeve with screen-printed cover art. Very lovely package.

I picked this up from Halo of Flies, and it's definitely in a few other distros. Pick it up!

~VII

59 Seconds To Kill Them And You

I picked up one of the most recent The Afternoon Gentlemen splits when I ordered the Gadget LP. By far one of the best examples of current grindcore. Every record I have by these guys shreds, and pretty much kills every band they share a split with. Here's The Afternoon Gentlemen/Chiens - split, white vinyl, 45 RPM.

6 rippers from the Gents this time around. Totally solid and fierce grindcore, as usual from them. Tight musicianship, phenomenal songwriting, and more stop-starts riffs than you can shake a stick at. I am in love with the vocals in this band too, they can pull of practically everything; the highest of high pitch screams, growls, pig squeals, power violence barks, you name it. The Chiens side is awesome as well, and definitely a good companion to TAG. I'd say they're definitely more fastcore, which is all fine by me. More stop-start riffs, great drumming, it's a solid 4 tracks effort. They have a 1-sided 12" that I'll probably be picking up sometime.

Great artwork and packaging, filled with all sorts of goodies like a sticker, small poster, and a download card. 

I hate glare so much...

I just ordered a new TAG split which I've been looking forward too for quite a while. An update on that later! Enjoy some grindcore done right!

~VII