Penis Geyser's Two Minute Tape

I was happy to be able to score some sweet additions to the Penis Geyser/Smash Music label collection the past couple of months. Penis Geyser obviously being a very loved band on this blog. One of the gold standards for American noisecore in my own opinion. This is a tape I always wanted to hear, mainly from friends talking about it and just knowing how short it was. This is the self-titled, C2 cassette they did on Smash Music, not sure how many copies were made.

Unsurprisingly, this tape fucking rules! Recorded in 2011, but released three years later according to the info in the Jcard, most likely with the trio line-up. Now what is surprising actually, is how good this recording actually sounds. Like, it sounds like they actually used more than one mic in a room, and recorded different instruments separately. This is all speculation of course, but the recording is remarkably crisp. I think I actually let out an audible "woah" when the tape started playing.

Penis Geyer's trademark noise explosions maintain their strengths here. The recording is cut up and spliced together in a very rapid pace to help it work with the very short run time, which I love. It's a super great listen, all two whole minutes of it. Maybe some of my favorite PG material I've heard. It's a great tape to play in your auto-reverse tape deck and just let spin and spin.

I'm not sure who did this great collage work, but it looks like something Colton/PMS would whip up. Pretty sure this is the same image that appears on one of their shirts that I own.

I've seen this pop up in a few distro's lately actually, so if you see one I recommend buying it. Don't be scared to pay five bucks for a two minute tape.

~VII

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

Fascination Of Regurgitation

This wonderful 4-way split was on my want list for a long time. I'm turning into a big sucker for the 4-way splits, particularly ones that stick to the C20 time length like this one. What a great line-up of bands, put out by Ill Faith Records, Suicide Of A Species and Fuck Your Life Records. Limited to 200 copies.

So first up we have Haggus, undoubtably the hottest flame in the newest generation of mincecore bands. These four tracks were actually recorded back in 2015, pretty close to the beginning of the band. The vocals were recorded in 2017 however. This is more of that classic Haggus sound before they became more of a down tuned, goregrind band. Lots of major key, punky riffs, polka beats, and fun, catchy breaks and transitions. This is the kind of sound that made me really fall in love with Haggus back in the beginning, top notch mincecore riffing!
Meatus are up next. For those who don't know this is a long-going solo project from Joe of Archagathus (and Cannibalism, Violet Gorge, Raw Addict, etc). Joe is a grindore madman, constantly creating and recording some of the roughest and most real brutal music. The fidelity and volume level just fucking drops as soon as Meatus starts going. It was shockingly quiet, I had to really crank up my stereo. This stuff just sounds so gross and raw, I have no idea what kind gear you need to record on to make it sound this way. I love it. Completely raw and uncompromising goregrind, with plenty of sick riffs clawing through the muck.

I actually mainly picked up this tape for the Disemboweler tracks, to be honest. Disemboweler is a Simpson's themed, brutal grind group duo made up of Brandon Denetsosie (who runs Ill Faith records and contributes to many grind projects in the Arizona scene), and Chris Tapo, who is by far the person I trust the most to deliver the hardest gory grind I'll hear. This is the real deal stuff, it's fucking heavy, slamming, slapping grind. Just straight up, to the point brutality with punishingly heavy drums, vocals and meat-shredding riffs. Not to mention I always appreciate a good Simpson's sample. Definitely the highlight of the whole tape for me, I really dug this quarter a lot.
The Disembowler side ends with a looped sample that goes on for an almost disorienting amount of time. Which goes right into the rawest portion of this 4-way split, a band called Albratos. I had never heard anything about this band before, and according to their little bio in the jcard they were never really active at all. This quick little spurt of songs is insanely rough and sloppy. Almost like they just never picked up instruments at all before hitting record and just went for it. I can dig that a lot most of the time, but this was just a little bit "meh" for me. It didn't really have that punch in any of the instrumentation that really grabbed me, like a gross guitar sound or a sharp snare tone. Nothing terrible, just not my favorite of this whole tape.

This tape looks and sounds great, a top notch, quality job all around. The red cassette was a very nice choice of color. I also like how both side ends with the much more lo-fi sounding bands. 

There are 200 of these things floating around in the world, so you should have no problem scoring a copy if this interests you. Buy from the labels!!

~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

We Out Here Doin Bad Shit

This was a tape that caught my attention towards the end of last year, and it really stuck with me even though I only visited it a few times online. In the noisecore world, a band or project like Cuck Dirt doesn't pop up all that often. Nor does any band with this kind of blatantly goofy aesthetic, end up being this good. "Cucked To Death" was released by Uninvited Records, a tape label that everyone who isn't a goddamn coward should support. A total of 40 copies were made.

Maybe it's a little off to call Cuck Dirt noisecore, since the songs here do seem to have a little bit of extra thought put into them, as opposed to the usual improvised short blasts. This is more of a Sissy Spacek/Nihilist Commando/Beggin' For Oxys type of band. Sharp and intense song composing/lyrics and an energy level that doesn't let up. There doesn't seem to really be any sort of guitar or bass on here, just blown the fuck out drums and super intense vocals. I mean, there's definitely a lot of noise, especially towards the end where this super distorted and deep bass frequency shows up. But for the most part, Cuck Dirt makes a lot of racket with seemingly the bare minimum.

The band name aside, Cuck Dirt does not seem to have a real overt political message. All the lyrics are just random non-sequiturs. Such as having a local Dollar General that doesn't stock Jolt Cola, doing drugs, and maybe one of my favorite song titles in recent times; "A Picture Of Edward Scissorhands But It Just Says 'Edward Hands' And Instead Of Scissors He Just Has Normal Hands". Almost every song is kick started with a fitting sample, and I can't pound in enough just how well composed everything is. The whole EP flows fantastically, starting aggressive and ending with a gargantuan amount of sound, and using a ton of varying tempos, and heavily engaging vocals to keep the momentum high! This tape just slaps, end of story. 

Another wonderful product created with tons of love and care by Joe and Kayla of Uninvited Records. The label just does fantastic work, and Joe is one of the realest and most genuine people supporting noisy shit. No complaints at all with this tape. 

Definitely click the link at the top of the post and check this tape out. I sincerely hope there's a follow up release for Cuck Dirt. 

~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

Radical Urban Isolation

I got a distinctive, excitable rumbling in my guts; the kind that pops up when I find a band I get really excited about. One that I need to acquire as much material from as I can. In a recent trek up to Canada I was able to get a couple releases from the Toronto, ON sometimes noisecore/sometimes powerviolence hot mess Beggin' For Oyxs. This is a tape that they put out this year, "Radical Urban Isolation". Not sure how many were made.

I'll keep it short and sweet just to keep my point focused; this tape is pretty much perfect. It's exactly what I look for in my noisecore. Just pure, balls to the wall, no bullshit volume and speed. The kind of focused and articulate brutality in the same league as other greats like Sedem Minut Strachu, World, and Sissy Spacek. Side A is just non-stop fire, nothing but insane tempos across 20 sharp and short tracks. The snare is perfectly up front and annoyingly loud in the mix, the guitars create a beautifully gross wash, fuck-riffs-style, with some seriously pissed off vocals on top. This shit makes me wanna throw chairs at a wall. Side B has a lot more groove and some slower bits, more variation if you will, but no intensity is lost. This tape is 8 minutes of pure, blood pumping noise, I'm in love.

The consistent aesthetic on every Beggin' For Oxys release is another quality I appreciate a lot about the band. The graffiti lettering on the cover, the total lack of any color or information. It's wonderfully non-caring, but still manages to be just the right touch.

Listen to Beggin' For Oxys, that is all.

~VII

Oozing Sarcoptes

A quick little post about an incredibly dank gorenoise tape that I was happy to pick up semi-recently. A short and sweet pairing of some incredibly solid projects, Oozing Pus from Arizona and Sarcoptes from Missouri. Released by the mighty Craniophagus Parasiticus Records early in their existence. No idea what this is limited to.

I've followed both of these projects pretty closely since I found them. Both were still pretty new, like within a year old when this split was made. Fantastic, wet, gurgley, drum machine basting gorenoise, no frills or tricks. Oozing Pus opens their side up with a devastatingly long sample describing a gruesome scene of disembowelment. Whatever movie it was taken from sounds fascinating and terrible. After the long ass sample, the Pus's characteristic bass rumbles and gurgle-roars start booming. The programmed drums, as usual, sound nice and crisp and are perfectly brutal and crude. The sharp, slam snare sound is totally in effect. This project always knew how to have great build-ups and segways into hyperblast moments, it's some wonderfully crafted gore. After four great tracks the side is over before you know it.

Sarcoptes offer 4 more tracks, and it's some of my favorite material from this project by far. More blown out gorenoise, with super bubbly vocals. Again as usual, the drums sound great, but stay within that more realistic realm of drumming. No ridiculous inhuman tempos or anything. The blasts stay pretty consistent throughout all 4 tracks, saving one measly little groovy riff for the tail end of the song. Some of the best sounding recordings this project was able to get, I'm not sure if Austin is keeping it going still. Super solid stuff.

Check it out over at Craniophagus Parasiticus Records.

~VII

Facade

Another new tape from Prime Ruin, and one of my favorite new power electronics tapes at the moment. The latest EP from Lace, a duo comprised of noise makers Weston Czerkies and Valentine Sinclair. A tape simply known as, "Facade". C24 tapes in white shells, limited to 60 copies. 

"Facade", a two song offering, uses it's mere 20+ minute run time with an expert level of efficiency. The dominant A-side title track weaves and segways between a multitude of textures and styles. Opening with the stuttering and distorted samples of human chatter, echoed and quickly layered into a wall of delayed distortion and ambient feedback. Eventually more junk metal sounds and the unmistakable rumble of a spring reverb show up. The lo-fi recording is wonderful, totally complimenting the influence of sounds from the early Broken Flag PE groups and 80's extreme industrial. When the flanged vocals kick in, the track instantly turns twice as menacing, and "Facade" turns into a mean and glaring power electronics track. Rumbles of distortion, squealing microphone feedback peaking everywhere, and abused metal crashes. I'm a sucker for that echoed, waved and flanged vocal effect, and the delivery here is excellent. Patient, controlled, only rising in inflection and volume when they needs to. Groups like Ramleh come to mind for sure. The walls of sound eventually decay and leave only the indecipherable vocal samples that started it up. It's a fantastic track, I've played it twice while writing this. 

The B-side, "Visual Anonymity" , is an instrumental and a great compliment to it's other half. A much more ambient and chilling track, beginning with slow moaning chants, and murky, dark textures. Mic'd up scrapes and dragging sounds claw their way into the mix, and eventually a wall of cold, metal screeches and synth chords has been built up and has you. The different dynamics here are effective, and don't stray too far away from the brutal A-side. Would I have preferred more vocals? Perhaps, but this song is wonderful regardless. 

Very tidy layout and printing on the thick 3-panel Jcard. Prime Ruin does a superb job as always. 

If you're quick, you can still pick up a copy of this tape at PRIME RUIN. Highly recommended!

~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