GRADIENT FADE

 

The first time I put this on I listened with intent for a few minutes and then more or less went about my afternoon with the early bars of the second track "Frost Heave" lingering in the background. I don't know when I realized that Sensory Drift was affecting my thoughts and movements, but somewhere in the middle of "Mount Analog" I had to adjust the volume (up, naturally), sit down and focus. I was focusing on the sounds to be sure, but really I was thinking about how the sounds made me feel....because the sounds made me feel. In brief moments, this recording sounds like an indie rock synth freak is trying to play funeral doom and there are other moments where it feels like a lost North Bay ambient new age relic. But in all of those moments (and all of the others), GRADIENT FADE sinks into you in a way that's hard to articulate - even the most calm and casual sounds are made with care and intent...the same way we should be treating ourselves. And maybe that's the thing, it feels like it's supposed to make you feel.

SENSORY DRIFT

ABYSM

 

No one is going to come to me for in depth and knowledgable discussions about death metal, but damn I know what I like when I like it. And that's what it's really about....and I like ABYSM. Relentlessly putrid and pummeling blackened death metal from the UK; just three tracks capped with a GRAVE cover that I would never have recognized were it not for some other chap opining on the internet about this 2012 recording. Primal, howling devastation that owes equal debts to '90s  Florida and POSSESSED...I think. But who am I anyway?

UNLEASH THE FALLEN

ZABØGART

 

You're standing at the intersection of Crust & Grind just minding your own business, and then a dumptruck drops a healthy load of Fastcore right on top of the pavement and a steamroller with a flipped up hat starts crushing it all. And then, just six minutes later, you have ZABØGART. Fourteen doses of relentless distorted fury, and it's done before you even know what happened. URBAN WASTE and CHARLES BRONSON covers to keep them honest, but ten years from now some kids on the other side of the world are going to record their version of "Polotik Identitas" and I hope I'm hear for it. 

FUCKSCENE

====================================

BIG JAR OF MAYO

 

It was the turn of the decade and depending on where we were (geographically and/or spiritually) most of us were at some stage of managing a pandemic reality. Especially in retrospect, that period changed so many things about how we re/act and interact, how we exist, how we develop, how we create. It crushed some people (and some peoples) socially, but there were little rays of light that kept poking holes in the shrouds so many were living under. And it's in that spirit that I present the second cassingle from BIG JAR OF MAYO - this mysterious bunch of punks from (or probably not from) Nowhere, Wyoming started a ton of bands and a label called Deluxe Bias and started dropping outside freak punk tapes out of the sky and we ate them like candy. The energy that made NWI so appealing to so many seasoned '00s punks had been reborn in the Great North American Void while so many of us just wondered what was going to happen tomorrow instead of making something happen today. "Shit City" b/w "Another Ripoff" from 2021. Three minutes that were part of a larger (and greater) catalog that reminded us to live. 

SHIT CITY b/w ANOTHER RIPOFF

GRAND INVINCIBLE

 

More low-key genius from the EONS / SICK collaboration GRAND INVINCIBLE. Every beat is an earworm, every verse sounds like it was organically grown in the grooves of the dank basement funk records - it's effortless. Contraband Altars presents as an outtakes collection (whether that's reality or not? I have no idea...) with a B-side focused on DJ EONS ONE instrumentals, but literally everything these two touch is worth your attention. Perfect sunny Saturday swilling sounds. 

CONTRABAND ALTARS

PARTY JAMS 91

 

The name says it all. 

PARTY JAMS 91

The only question is whether or not you want to party.
Do you?

SCARLET WOMAN

 

Continuing on a theme (almost) this live ritual from SCARLET WOMAN lands like a black metal summoning interrupted by psychedelics and noise. Captured in København in 2009, a half hour of mystery and patience groans like your aching body...and then there was nothing. 

SCARLET WOMAN

A:S:

 

A:S: is a likely extension of ANCIENT SUPREMACY with help from Saevum from ABHOR and their noise is a murky, brooding black metal constantly struggling to restrain the urge to unleash. The tension created by their slow to midtempo pace is undeniable, just as the determined resistance to fidelity (and/or replication quality control standards) puts the listener on edge, searching for the dark melodies that are hidden in the mist. Sometimes A:S come off as pedestrian instead of primitive, but it appears to be a part of their (brilliant) plan...now if someone can snag me a copy of Messa Prima, the predecessor to Necrovento? I'll owe you a coffee and or bloodletting. Until then, listen to the vocals creak in "Antica Supremazia" and welcome to the dark realm. 

NECROVENTO

KEITH JARRETT

 

These sounds land somewhere between (and fluctuate in and between) introspective jazz, new age ambiance and epic orchestral soundtrack movements. You can put it on and get lost, then leave (mentally or physically) for a time....and when you return it will still be there. Even more interesting is that it might still be there after the listen is complete. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel, but please proceed. 

INVOCATIONS // THE MOTH AND THE FLAME

DISSÖLVE

 

Nostalgia is a frequent visitor to these pages; I suppose it comes with the territory when you're posting old(er) sounds and documents alongside newer versions, the comparisons provide context and the nostalgia is inevitable. We can't live in it though. We can't live in what used to be or what we used to have or what we used to be a part of. We can, however, use those lived experiences as a starting point for new ones. Somehow this wisdom relates to DISSÖLVE's debut release Oathbreaker and how I feel as I listen to twelve blasts of furious hardcore from Indonesia. This could have been a band I heard twenty (five?) years ago...ballistic crust tinged with DBeat and fastcore fronted by throat searing vocals from Sleepy...and those words should be all the motivation you need. The band's sound is embodied by "Unforgiveness," which lands near the middle of the track listing - the fasts are faster here, the vocals will raise the hairs on your arm and then after a breath or anticipation, DISSÖLVE the fiercest breakdown outro imaginable. But it's the whole damn thing and not just one track, it's blast after relentless blast for a solid half hour, and it's awesome. This tape from 2024 makes me feel alive and makes me feel like I have lived...which is putting that nostalgia to good use.

OATHBREAKER

COOKING COURSE

 

Even more recipes from your friend Vincent Price, this time eating his way through the world of Greek cuisine. I can't imagine someone cooking along to these in real time, and it blows my mind that Nelson Industries felt it wise to release these as nine (maybe more?) LP series back in 1977....just as it amazes me how enjoyable they are to listen to now. 

COOKING COURSE #4: FOOD OF THE GODS (GREEK CUISINE)

NANA VASCONSELOS // ANTONELLO SALIS

 

About ten years ago I was introduced to NANA VASCONCELOS' Saudades, which remains one of the most beautifully jarring and intense records I know. It's difficult to imagine a release transporting me to a time and a place as instantly as that one still does (and always will), so it was without hesitation that I snagged this 1988 collaboration with Italian multi-instrumentalist ANTONELLO SALIS when I saw the cassette in a jumbled bin of treasures last month. Lester cannot compare to the aforementioned Saudades, and the accordion can be more then a little distracting....but listening to this music through an improvisational and/or Afro-Futurist lens can be transcendent. Is transcendent. Choice cut is the closer "Ondas (Nos Olhos de Petronila)" which combines Salis' smooth jazz piano with the anything-goes percussion of Vasconcelos - it's a perfect landing for a genuinely interesting journey. 

LESTER

DEATHBED

 

As far as I can tell, this relic is the sole artifact left by a raw and depressive blackened death act from Chicago called DEATH BED. It takes them a full five minutes to start cooking, and even then they stop for a doom interlude just as you start to fall under their spell. But then.....from that point on my friends, this shit is bliss. Howling vocals in the death via screamo vein and a shameless reliance on simple riffing. They use force instead of nuance, so much so that "Hell Is Where The Heart Is" feels almost natural in its desperation by the time you get there. Do not come seeking fidelity; come here for passion and bleak honesty. 

DYSTHYMIA

VIOLENCE OF CRUSDAE

 

A message to virtually every North American and European punk: You will never know the true depth and reach of so-called Third World Hardcore. If you're looking, then you will find another new (to you) band every time you take a breath....and if you want more, then every one of those new (to you) bands will lead you down a new (to you) path where you will open more doors and find even more new (to you) bands and scenes. But the parentheticals are important here - because these bands and scene exist outside of the first world DIY structure even though the influences are often apparant (and sometimes blatant). Enter VIOLENCE OF CRUSADE from Kediri, some ten hours roughly east of Jakarta. They left us with a small handful of deadly metallic hardcore releases form the mid-2010s and 2014's Dead might be my favorite. Dark and intense hardcore that leans on technical melodies and uses stadium crust tendencies without ever falling into the subgenre's trappings. "Dead//Suicide" into the dreadfully intense "Balada Rimba Malapetaka" (roughly translated: "Ballad Of The Jungle Disaster" so draw your own conclusions and sit with that shit) will make your hair stand on end but the whole damn thing is incredible and it just makes me think: "Shit - there's more where this came from?!?" And yes, there's always more. 

DEAD

CHRISTIAN COSMOS

 

Deliberately minimal dark ambient techno from a world that I will never be able to penetrate. I will forever exist as an observer....and that is okay. 

THE SHARP LINES THAT DELINEATE HIS ROBES

ADAM VOID & CHRIS FISHER

 

I've developed several virtual connections through Terminal Escape - people and artists I've never actually met (and likely will never meet) but whom I have followed and communicated with over the course of several years. There's one person who just sends me tapes sometimes - no note, no nothing, just their music - and I return the same. Tapes from the label, Wright Copy volumes, the occasional mix tape. We've been trading sounds for a decade and never exchanged a single word. But...we're connected. Enter outsider Appalachian outsider folk visionary ADAM VOID joined here by Unread Records empresario CHRIS FISHER. The listen becomes a thing in and of itself here; it's not that you listen, it's that you are when you're listening. Force Majeure / Forced Manure is the full experience; never a hint of the next move, just like I never know what 's inside when I open the envelope. I love this shit, and I am grateful.

FORCE MAJEURE // FORCED MANURE

BLINDED HUMANITY

 

Blazing mid-00s Lion City street crust with just enough earnest energy to keep them honest. The way "Sensou Soochi" stomps, the way "Vanished" flies completely off the handle after the intro - they're a product of their influences and it rules. '90s US crust and classic Japanese hardcore all doing battle with ramshackle DBeat, using distorted guitars as weapons. 

ENDLESS MASSACRE

****************************************

MONOLITH // DEAD SYSTEM

 

Raw blasting grind/crust from Austria's MONOLITH. I hope you're ready. 
Raw blasting crust/grind from Indonesia's DEAD SYSTEM. I hope you're ready.

You're going to want to hydrate before listening.

MONOLITH // DEAD SYSTEM

OSCAR PETERSON

 

I will never pretend to be knowledgable in this realm, but I know what I like and I honor my connections to sounds. This is me with Barbara and Morris in the Lovelight bakery at 3am - Barb taking care of business while Morris was still flying from the gig he had played that night, trying to help but distracting me and frustrating her in the process. He was so consumed, obsessed...he was so into it, and he wanted to share his joy. I feel that, and that feeling transcends genre. This 1964 recording is something special - shit is simply beautiful. Morris knew that (and Barbara understood and let him hold court and hold space in that bakery), and I remember. I'm grateful and I remember. 

THE TRIO: LIVE FROM CHICAGO

UNDERGROUND FROM SPILS

Another great collection of lesser known Latvian punk from the early 1990s, picking up right where Naïve Years left off. Thirty tracks from ten different bands including SEPSIS, 33-Х ЛЕТНИЙ ПОДОНОК, ORGASM FAKERS (my personal favorites on the tape), ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ КАКТУСОВ, TERMOPSIS KAPITANA GRANTA among others. A solid hour of new (to me) punk is always a treat, and it's even more delicious when it's this tasty. Easy to imagine most (or all?) of these bands sharing bills with my hoard, and even easier to image ТОРЕЦ ТОТАЛИТАРРИЗМА absolutely laying waste to a drunken warehouse crowd in some desolate not-yet-rehabilitated corner of San Francisco thirty years ago with an indescribably brilliant blurrcore track called "Я Приду Поздно, Пьяный И Не Один" - what I would give for a time (and space) machine. 

UNDERGROUND FROM SPILS 2

PAPER GANGSTER

 

I've probably told the tale before, but in 1996 FUCKFACE were quasi-stranded with HICKEY at the FAT DAY house in Somerville, Massachusetts for the better part of a week with no shows. We were well taken care of and the show at the end of that week was one for the ages (Matt was green, enough said), but I made a mix tape in their living room...and that's the connection here. We were light years removed from the tough hardcore scene (see also our show with UNDERTOW, UNBROKEN and JASTA 14 in New Haven on the 1994 tour, and the handful of shows we did with BURST OF SILENCE....lest I digress). These dudes were in New England, and 'that kind' of hardcore was everywhere. And the Firestorm EP was in their living room, and that record made it onto the mix tape and that was really the first time I had spent any time with this shit. 1996 - wild, right? 
Anyway, PAPER TIGER are from Depok, not far from Jakarta, and this 2004 recording takes me back to that living room except that Season Of Destruct is undeniably more interesting and innovative.
This isn't 'my kind' of hardcore (whatever that means), but try to tell me that "New Empire" doesn't resonate and I'll tell you you're wrong. Then we can talk about "Behind The System" and "Hope" and "Civil War" and then I'm going to start to wonder if straight edge groove metal is my new favorite genre because....well, because of PAPER TIGER.

SEASON OF DESTRUCT

UNIT X

 

You tell me you know a band called UNIT X and I'm gonna tell you that I think I know what they sound like. Well....that's what I thought when I picked up this tape. And I wasn't wrong. We're talking ten minutes of smart Y2K fastcore and classic SXE 'core and a little bit of that less-posi energy to keep listeners honest (think LACK OF INTEREST sharing a bill with LIFES HALT). The shit hits the spot.

WAR ON SELF, WAR ON EVERYTHING

DAVID RUSSELL

 

Shit sounds like a compilation made by a person on all of the drugs. This person grabbed bits from the Poltergeist soundtrack and used their phone to record some noise band testing out their gear before a show, then looped some squelches and manipulated them before dragging their $20 thrift store keyboard down into the basement, documenting the sounds as it bounced down the stairs. They broke some things (and recorded it). They walked past a stranger's window and heard a baby crying (and recorded it). They put it all together and made everything sound so...fucked...up. A noise recording that sounds like a sound collage - a noise recording that defies description and never even suggests what might be coming next. Eighteen minutes of complete (controlled) cacophony awaits. 

SYNTHESIZER IS A DEAD SCENE