SATURN AND THE SUN

 

Before I listened to this tape I tripped out on the cover and the title for a while. Something about the title specifically made me think of BASTARD NOISE - an easy through line when you say "skull tones" - and CASIO TONES FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE, which honestly makes a lot less sense but you can't always control where your thoughts go, right? But the trip is....this 2015 recording kinda lands like a weird amalgamation of those two disparate entities and I am so totally here for it. Brooding and monotonous electronics, delivered with patience and purposes...as if we didn't need any more harsh realities and/or skull tones in our lives (hint: we do...we all do). 

HARSH REALITIES, BROKEN BONES AND SKULL TONES

QUATTRO STAGIONI

 

I'm going to guess that most North American DIY thrashcore/grindcore/fastcore freaks were introduced to this German outfit the same way I was - either the EP on 625 and/or the immaculately packaged split 5" with IRON LUNG. All of the tracks from those records are here rubbing elbows with their demo, a healthy batch of live recordings and a 12" that I never knew existed until this tape landed in my lap. Relentless start/stop mania with face numbing blast beats and throat shredding vocals, not sure what more you could ask for, really. The uninitiated might want to take a deep breath before diving in (57 tracks is a lot of fukkn tracks when you're talking about sixty second blasts), but just let those blast beats wash over you and feel the joy of New Century Euro-Grind fill your old, jaded veins. 

DISCOGRAPHY

SLUGGA

 

I'm in Arkansas today, trying to sneak a peak at a mind melting astronomical event. You're at work, cranking some maniacal glue sniffing hardcore punk squirms from deep in the heart of Georgia. The way I see it, we're both winning. 

SLUGGA

MULTA NOX

 

The doors that open when you hear a thing for the first time, when a sound comes to you at the right time and in the right place. You can't explain these doors or the paths that they expose, but you can look beyond and walk down those paths....sometimes it's a sonic journey and sometimes a spiritual one. But the best journeys are both, and the self titled 2016 cassette from MULTA NOX is absolutely both. Treat this recording like a half hour meditation instead of a sound sculpture or anything approaching "music" and you'll be rewarded. Multa Nox is not easy listening, particularly not when experienced properly. Multa Nox is for deep listening....let the sound wash over you, and bathe yourself in regret and retrospection and hope. And walk through the doors. All of them.

MULTA NOX

NERVOUS TICK AND THE ZIPPER LIPS

 

Okay - a little about me. I produce a shocking amount of earwax. I't kinda gross but I'm used to it. I've tried the oils and the candles and the doctors and the drops and every homeopathic thing, but it's just...a lot. So I get my ears professionally flushed every year or two and these wild black plugs come out and without fail the medical person performing the flush gasps or exclaims in some discrete manner and then I walk away feeling like I'm on some alien planet (and/or drugs) because I can hear every footstep and every paper crinkle and it's like this wild world of sound that takes a couple of days to get used to. Why does this matter? Well, I ripped and edited Something's Gotta Bleed last week, and I had my ears flushed this morning and motherfukkr this thing sounded good last week but THIS?! The fuck?! Today is an entirely new listening experience and maybe y'all should all clean yourselves before you listen to this masterpiece. NERVOUS TICK is to Buffalo what SHRINKWRAP KILLERS is to California, you're welcome. 

SOMETHING'S GOTTA BLEED

VARIOUS DEATHS

 

Disorienting noise. More noise. Six pieces of aural mania from the fine folks at Audible Mastication to grind your earholes to a pulp. GREENLING and GNAWING TEETH have visited these pages previously, and SHRIKE appeared on the Grunge To All comp I shared last summer - these three are joined by ARMENIA (Ecuador), WHITE UNDERWEAR (Australia) and 886VG (Chile). Clocking in at 90 minutes, Various Deaths is a commitment to be sure (unless you foolishly decide to try to make this background music) but full immersion is highly recommended as the line between the two 'tations' (rehabili- and debili-) blurs to the point of meaninglessness. Noise as meditation...I knew there was a third. 

VARIOUS DEATHS

WRETCHED OF THE EARTH

I can't tell you how hard this tape hit when I listened to it earlier this week. This tape (fukk - this band) is precisely why formulaic mid-'00s political DBeat crust is timeless and essential - the power is real, and this shit will take you back (if you were there). There are riffs, to be sure....but you can hear the desperation and the determination. You can hear the hope, misguided and disillusioned as it may be (or may have been), and you can hear the honesty. You aren't listening for the riffs, even though there are riff for days...you're listening for the hope. 

FIRE TO THEIR HOUSES