Reviews on May 10th 2003:
(RCA; 3
tracks;)
(File under : Progressive alter-rock?)
Cave In http://www.cavein.net/
(Suggestion;
CDR (limited to 60); 17 tracks (9 from Hynouiki, 8 from D-503); 62 minutes 34
seconds)
(File under : Very violent Electro-noise/Very
well textured noise)
Those who don’t know the cheap porno imagery behind Spain’s Hynouiki and their zine Barbie is A Bitch (turned recently into an audio zine called Barbie Is A Hooker), you don’t know what you miss. The idea behind this release is to pay a tribute to Grimm brother’s romantic fairy tale classic Snow White. I mean what a fucking sick subject, the (laser printed colour on white paper) cover is filled with a photo session of a girl stripping in (Disney’s) Snow White outfit, that’s pretty weird (well you didn't saw the inflatable flowers that make the background). It looks crazy… The release comes too with a copy of a Xeroxed copy of the snow white text in English, with one of these disturbing picture on the cover. And yeah, there’s music too on this… Well something that is weird when you check on the track list is the way each songs are. First let’s say that there is four D-503 tracks and after come there’s six Hynouiki tracks. well the problem comes by the fact that there’s remix between songs, like the first track is D-503’s track #1(there’s not songtitle) and just after there’s an Hynouiki remix of it as track 2 and so. At first sight it looks very stupid, but when you forget about this and you forget that it’s a split, you have a pretty nice record to hear. The remixes are nothing but rebuilding the same song, they sound pretty different from the original song. As I see it D-503 do pretty damageous noise but can play more ambient stuff, like the track number ten that is a remix of an Hynouiki song and another song that I was thinking that my headphone’s wire fucked up… Hynouiki play a very voracious pornoise (wow what a wonderful word) with pretty damageous violent electronic sounds. Like I said I heard the album without paying attention of who do what and in the end it make a pretty awesome album. What I see is that both entities fit really well together, the more ambient approach at some point of D-503 can give a rest for the violent attacks of Hynouiki. For the pretty sick packaging and the pretty sick content, get this nice piece of Spanish/American noise while you can and prepare your ears for a dangerous meeting.
Suggestion http://www.suggestion-records.de/
(Noisetape;
Cassette;3 tracks (2 from IATIA, 1 from DG); ??? long enough to get your skull
crushed)
(File under : Power Electronics purity/Skull
crushing ambient harsh noise)
Noisetapes https://www.angelfire.com/darkside/hmr
(Chondritic;
3”CDR (limited to 54 copies); 3 tracks;)
(File under : Intelligent noise with matter and
deep soundscapes…)
Chondritic http://noise.sinkhole.net/
(Napalmed; 2
tracks; 72 minutes)
(File under : Confrontational industrial harsh
noise)
My first existential interrogation for this release is around this release is : What do Napalmed got against MSBR? If you know, please explain it to me? Ok, if you never heard of Napalmed it’s because you’re possibly not into the DIY noise scene or the DIY scene in general. You know that scene you order stuff to people’s distro and you got 84765348 flyers coming with your order. So if you know that kind of scene it’s quite impossible that you never got a Napalmed flyer. Napalmed got with this kind of propaganda and their near 10 years of history developed a strong name in the underground scene worldwide (noise and grindcore) with a big bunch of split and DIY releases and here’s their first proper CD after 8 years of existence. Mastermind Radek Kopel and his acolytes play a kind of noise/industrial improvisation that made me think the first time I heard this CD that this is like a bad drug experience in a factory. I guess this is maybe the best cut they possibly ever recorded if they decided to put this on a pro-CD, because you don’t invest cash pressing and packaging (by the way the packaging is really nice it’s like a six panel colour with tons of beautiful picture collage, very nice packaging) if they don’t believe in this music. I was never been impress in the music before (except for their split with the mighty Government Alpha), but I guess that these two tracks (one of 15 minutes, another of, mmmm, 56 minutes) worth the cost for an introduction in the Napalmed world. The sound is like a succession of harsh electronics, neo-tribal stuff with metallic matters, dark pounding sounds with power tools, etc. This is a really nice mixture. So if you enjoy long ambient neurotic noise, I strongly recommend you this first pro release from these underground noise purveyors. (Note: this review was wrote last year and supposed to be on ITFOR #8, I wanted to give respect to Radek for sending me a copy of this album…)
(Noisetape;
Cassette;2 tracks; one 30 minute side)
(File under : Lo-fi, unoriginal, radio tuning
to avoid)
Another Noisetape here, Radio Anna Ki,
which I really don’t know what to expect but since there’s the word radio in
the name of the artist, I guess this is a radio waving-sourced noise record.
The cover is a cube with the title and R.A.K. written in front, not much more
information, just a DIY cover. Well actually, it begins nicely, some loud
noisescapes pounding out which are pretty interesting and relaxing until it got
worst… Then there’s a complete Wu-Tang Clan song I guess (with the sampling)
with hissing over it. Mmmm…
Non Merci… After this songs there’s a succession of
radio tuning which goes from opera broadcast and I hear Eminem once, well I
don’t think I can hold more here. There’s no much more thing than that on this
record. No power electronic processing, no ambient soundscapes. I guess this is
really a waste of time… I can understand how it goes, some guys think they are
nice and original, record it, send it to everybody, nobody likes it except
people who can belive that some guys are serious making this, I know what I mean,
early Foutredieu!!! was like that I guess. Anyway there’s better people doing
that kind of noise, Chaos As Shelter and Radiode (as seen on Noise Sux 2). If
you want to know what it really sounds like, take your old ghetto blaster in
your garage, smoke a joint, press “rec” and have fun turning your radio tuner.
That’s Radio Anna Ki… There are better Noisetapes releases out there… Avoid
this one…
Noisetapes https://www.angelfire.com/darkside/hmr
(Victory; 10 songs; 38 minutes 37 seconds)
(File under : Emotive conception of a metallic
punk life)
Silverstein
comes form southern Ontario, does it reminds you that this is a place where a good
band that disbanded last year come from? Yeah that band… I always like that
band, but the most recent offering from their remaining member under the name
Shallow Hollow disappointed me. Anyway, Silverstein come in a good time in my
like, I listen to Jawbreaker and was deceived by the new band of members Grade
(that band), but no more… The cover is pretty much ugly, not my kind of
artwork, a robot holding his heart he just took off his body, that should
expect what this band should sings about… Musically this is relatively catchy
metal-meet-rock guitars supported by I-wanna-jump beats. The guy who sings got
a really voracious throat when he scream that is filled with emo vocals and
made a rich exchange of vocals (better than the recent Freya release). Well I
guess the comparison with Grade is relatively inevitable, but the comparison
with the other Victory bands like Taking Back Sunday and Thursday can be said
too. Lyrically this is the traditional guy-likes-girl-but-girl-don’t-likes-guy
emo lyrics, which is not really my cup of tea. Well this is a relatively nice
release from the southern Ontario guys, I guess it will have a certain success
too since it’s catchy and pretty than all these new 18 years old new emo bands
that are formed with kids who only heard emo in their life. Silverstein got a
very diverse sounds rank that goes from pop to metal (one guy was in Maharahj).
That’s what afraid me, as I got older everyday, some of my musical tastes goes
more melodic and soft, but when you always listen to emo since you were 12 or
14 that will make really boring music. That’s pretty awesome that we still can
have bands that switch from harder music to play more melodic stuff like
Silverstein because it can manage to have an original sound, because I think
the next wave of emo will be really disgustingly boring and I just saw
recently. While this band was playing, I was hanging out with the bassist from
the punk-rock band Cigar and I told him that “the worst thing with these kind
of band was that they think they’re cool doing this” and he replies me “yeah,
they probably even don’t know what is Sunny Day Real Estate (and Piebald, Jazz
June, Fugazi and The Promise Ring possibly) that were doing this far better ten
years ago”. Yeah, we just see now emo duing as a post-hardcore/post-punk
phenomenon, which was something that hooked me to it. And Silverstein is
possibly among the last of these bands. Althought the opening scream will told you that they are not 100% emo. Praise the last bands with integrity…
Thank you Victory records for providing an alternative to this young cute
suburban un-punk scene that is growing up every day…
Silverstein http://www.silversteinmusic.com/
Victory http://www.victoryrecords.com/