!FUCKED BY NOISE MID-YEAR ROUND-UP! - Brayden's Picks

So I've been without a dedicated computer for a fair portion of this year, hence I'm a little behind on this year's releases - but I'm gonna pretend like I haven't just been exclusively listening to cloud rap and shitty beatdown and give this a shot. Here goes nothing:

'Afterthoughts In Limbo'
White Walls

Shoegaze is such a woefully underdone and over saturated genre you'd be forgiven for overlooking this band - but also, don't - you dummy. White Walls are a suuuuuuuuuper heavy 'gaze band from Melbourne who pair their walls of fuzz and feedback with ethereal vocals and lush melodies. For three guys they make and ungodly amount of noise. This double LP's been on my watchlist for a while and it did not disappoint. Do check it out.




'Antipodean Sickness' - Tanned Christ

I kinda sorta maybe wrote this band off as a shameless 'Farewell All Joy' era Idylls clone initially, but this new LP has totally swayed my opinion. While's there's some definite similarities to the aforementioned band, tanned Christ warp their tinny, mathy grind into their own gnarly, fucked up creation. Angular, noisy and pretty scary to boot.

'Preservation Measures' - Gay Kiss

Arizona once again pulls another fucking rager out of the hat, thanks to Gay Kiss. It may have taken its sweet time to get here, but Preservation Measures delivers the goods in the form of manic, unrelenting hardcore. If you're on the prowl for some obtuse, angular guitar work and raspy vocals look no more - hell even if you're not, give it a listen anyway.

'Slurping At The Cosmos Spine' - Dawn Of Humans

Up until this LP dropped, I was certain that Dawn Of Humans could never really translate their trademark weirdness to record without sounding too forced or contrived. There's no sign of this on Slurping... however - just an array of bizarre vocal performances, caveman-like rhythms and stompy punk riffs. A winning combination of catchy and disorienting slime.

'Fantasy Empire' - Lightning Bolt

Rhode Island's loudest two piece churn out even more fuzz drenched goodness on album number seven. The grooves are monstrous, the drumming is utterly insane and the bass guitar manages to sound like just about everything other than a bass guitar. I've been on a huge Lightning Bolt fix this year, and a new album has made it just that much better.

'Wingwalker/Prayer To God' - Great Falls/Thou

90's style angular post hardcore meets a sludge cover of actual 90's post hardcore on this gargantuan sounding split. Great Falls bring the dissonance with metallic crunch and yelping vocals while Thou cover a beloved Shellac song and FUCKING KILL IT. In a good way, I mean.

'終焉' - Gentlemen

Gentlemen are easily one of my favourite punk bands in Australia at the moment, so naturally I was stoked when I head they were dropping TWO 7"s earlier this year. 終焉 sees the Melbourne band trying their hand at both dirgey post punk and hyperactive, Siege-esque hardcore across three tracks. If you dug the filthy, raw self titled EP from last year, you'll definitely dig this one.








'Autism Vision/Auto Warfare' - Brando's Island

When you're dealing with a band that has members of Pathetic Human, Velvet Whip and serial pests The Zingers, you know you're in full a wild ride. Brando's Island are a four piece art punk/new wave band that play jarring tunes by way of vibraphone and synthesizer. No guitars, no bass - just a very stripped down version of a school big band. The deadpan vocal delivery and unusual instrumentation are a winning combo.

'Cult Of The Technocrat' - Coffin Birth

Coffin Birth get better every time I see them live, and not surprisingly this translates to their releases too. Absolutely manic, riff laden grindcore a la Insect with a healthy dose of noise and death metal grunt. This stuff will make you want to neck domestos and run through brick walls. Also holy shit I hope these guys record their cover of 'Fluids' by Neanderthal at some point.





'War.Fire.Death' - Ripped Off

Brisbane band Ripped Off finally got around to releasing some music this year, and boy am I glad I did. Imagine Scandinavian, Japanese and noisy US hardcore thrown into a blender and played through really nice amps and you'll have a pretty good idea of what this is like. It's like the apocalypse, but with more d-beats.






HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Prurient - Frozen Niagra Falls
Thou/The Body - You Whom I've Always Hated
Sumac - The Deal
Rectal Hygienics - Ultimate Purity
Foot Hair - Self Titled
Soma Coma - Dust
Rule Of Thirds - Self Titled LP
John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Gentlemen - Pro Famine
No - Treating People Like They Don't Exist 12"
Sadist - The Shadow Of The Swastika EP
Ho99o9 - The Horror Of 1999 EP
The Coneheads - Selected Ringtones Tape 3
Triac/Sacridose - Split
Disciples of Christ - 2015 Demo
Faceless Burial - Demo
Nervous Habit - Demo
Avian Terror - Demo

ANTICIPATED RELEASES:
Destruction Unit - Negative Feedback Resistor (!!!HYPED!!!)
Burlap - LP
Last Chaos - LP
Head Wound City - LP
New Daughters LP?? (I hope??)
NASA Space Universe - LP (RIP you beautiful band)
CØNDITIØN - Actual Hell 12"

Iron Lung Mystery Product (New Rip, Fixed Tracks!)

'Mystery Product'
Unknown Artist (Mystery Product)
2013

Review* by Joey

Genre/s: Hardcore Punk, Noise Rock, Noise Punk
For Fans Of: White Wards, Cult Ritual, Society Nurse, Walls

*I'm too lazy to write a totally new review, so here's the same one I used the last time I posted this, but with some edits and additions:

"It's a mystery you dummy."

That's all Iron Lung Records has to say about this anonymous, unmarked cassette.  It came out under the radar last year in an unknown quantity and with no information on the artist released.  It has been speculated that this is the unreleased LP of Mentally Challenged, a band featuring members of Mind Eraser and others, but the label has neither confirmed nor denied this claim.

What I can tell you, however, is that this tape is amazing.  From the very first ringing of feedback to the last drum hit, this release is a wild ride.  There's something in here for everyone: stompy punk, off kilter hardcore, deathrocky dirges, and even strange noise/ambient interludes.  The only artists I can really compare this material to are primarily other bands on the Iron Lung Records roster such as White Wards and Walls, both of which deliver weird, noise drenched hardcore punk. Also like the previously mentioned bands, there is a lot of subtlety to be found here, much of which is not apparent on the first listen (and certainly wasn't as easy to pick out on my previous rip) and which adds a great deal of depth to the release; not everything jumps right out at you, and some of the things you pick up with multiple listens really make you realize just how much shit is going on in these songs and, if you're like me, it'll make you love it more and more with each listen.

I doubt you'll ever see this tape surface unless somebody is selling it on discogs or ebay, so I highly recommend checking it out. Oh, and thanks to ILR for posting this on your bandcamp and indirectly tipping me off that my rip had an incorrect track list; and also that the rip was not quite as good as I had previously thought.

Tracklisting:
1. Mystery Product I
2. Mystery Product II
3. Mystery Product III
4. Mystery Product IV
5. Mystery Product V
6. Mystery Product VI
7. Mystery Product VII
8. Mystery Product VIII
9. Mystery Product IX
10. Mystery Product X
11. Mystery Product XI
12. Mystery Product XII
13. Mystery Product XIII

DOWNLOAD

Endon - Mama

'Mama'
Endon
2014

Review by Brayden Bagnall

Genre/s: Noise Rock, Harsh Noise, Hardcore, Blackened Noise
For Fans Of: Pastafasta, Marousa, Boris, Gnaw Their Tongues, Me And Him Call It Us

So a bit of backstory on this one: I'd been searching low and high for this ever since a friend had put me onto the videoclip for Parricide Agent Service last year, and despite  my best efforts I couldn't for the life of me dig it up. I did come across plenty of interview and reviews however - all of which suggested that Endon were one of the most intense and chaotic bands to come out of Japan - and this is the country that gave us the likes of Hanatarash, World and The Gerogerigegege. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I finally stumbled across a download on slsk, and....
This is fucked. Absolutely, unashamedly fucked. It's like twenty different bands were hired to soundtrack a day in the life of a paranoid schizophrenic, but they were all made to play at the same time.
Sure enough there's elements of conventional hardcore, grindcore and black metal but for the most part it's buried under layers and layers of chaotic noise - which is not surprising given that Endon have two dedicated noise makers in addition to a vocalist, drummer and guitarist. The furious mish-mash of electronics squeals, blastbeats, screams and guitar noise are broken up on occasion by ambient noise and drone passages, but for the most part this is pure, unsettling chaos. With no traditional song structures to speak of, and an even more unconventional band structure - Endon revel in unpredictable, terrifying audio terrorism.
All I can say is, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Etude For Lynching By family
2. Parricide Agent Service
3. Acme Apathy Amok
4. Pray For Me
5. WIWTWM
6. Just Like Everybody

Download

Happy Flowers - Discography

'Discography*'
Happy Flowers
1985-1990

Review by Joey

Genre/s: Noise Rock, Industrial, Noise
For Fans Of: UFO Or Die, The Gerogerigegege, sounds of children in pain, Cosmonauts Hail Satan, Throbbing Gristle

Believe it or not, aside from Ramones, my first exposures to punk were a video of T.S.O.L. playing "Code Blue"and the subject of this post, Happy Flowers. The story behind my introduction to Happy Flowers will take you on a trip back to the early 2000s. The year is 2003, the Iraq war has been going for a few months, and everyone has just found out about the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison. One of the US soldiers' main methods of torture was playing loud music, and apparently Happy Flowers was used. So, I first heard the track "I Said I Wanna Watch Cartoons" at age 12 or 13. I fucking loved it, although more so for comedic reasons than for musical ones. I'd revisit it every once in a while and eventually started finding other tracks; and when I finally started downloading music, I remembered this band and sought them out. And here I am today.

But I'm sure you don't care about my story, so let me talk about what Happy Flowers sound like. The two members, Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant, bring you childhood nightmares and traumas, accompanied by an assortment of instrumentations which include (but are not limited to) wailing feedback, caveman drums, atonal guitar noise, the occasional actual riff made of notes, rare melodies, the sounds of banging on a piano, and droning bass. The lyrics, as you may have guessed by the part about "childhood nightmares and traumas,"  are all from the point of view of children. They throw tantrums, they cry, they fight, they bully each other, they try to apologize for simple mistakes like accidentally killing a pet or burning the house down, they ask absurd questions, and sometimes practical ones too (why can't we eat the baby like the pet gerbils did?). This is truly horrifying shit, and it's amazing.

Honestly, I feel this band is one of the best and most underrated noise rock bands who ever existed. They should be up there with Flipper, Brainbombs, No Trend, Drunks With Guns, etc as a classic band and as pioneers of the genre. So download this, sit back, and enjoy. Or don't enjoy it. Either way, you're in for an experience of sorts.

Here's what you're getting:

• Songs For Children (1985)
• Now We Are Six (1986)
• My Skin Covers My Body (1987)
• They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush (1988)
• I Crush Bozo (1988)
• Oof (1989)
• BB Gun (1989)
• Call Me Pudge (1990)
• Lasterday I Was Been Bad (1990)

DOWNLOAD

*Does not include comp tracks, compilations/combined releases, or the Peel session

Triac / Sacridose - Split

'Triac / Sacridose'
Triac / Sacridose
2015

Review by Joey

Genre/s: Grindcore
For Fans Of: Flesh Parade, Benümb, Gate, Nuclear Death

I have been waiting for this split for a few years now. It was originally intended to be a split between Triac and LA's powerviolence saviors Lie Still, but the latter broke up before things could come to fruition. Fortunately, FL's Sacridose were there to pick up the slack and fill out the other side of this hyper aggro, blasting rager of a split.

I'll start with Triac, because people seem to be more familiar with them. If you already know them, you know what to expect, so just sit back and get ready for the ride. For those of you who haven't heard Triac, the best way to describe their sound is a fusion of gritty 90s grind (Flesh Parade, Benümb) and noise rock (Cherubs, Big Black) which results in some of the most disgusting grind you've ever heard. This release is somewhat different from their last release -- the 2012 split 12" with Disciples Of Christ -- which veers more into noise rock territory; on this split, Triac has opted to dish out three tracks of relentless grind with more emphasis on the aggression and less on the weird. Don't worry though, there's still plenty of dirty, crushing destruction here to keep this material sounding like the Triac we all know and love.

Sacridose is relatively new, having put out their first release in 2013, but feature members of recent notable FL grind band Cellgraft. Their sound seems fairly straightforward on the surface, but there are some subtleties in the mix that really give them an edge. A lot of the riffing sits in a weird place between 00s Japanese grind like Gate and Realized; and early 90s deathgrind like Multiplex (who also happen to be from Japan) and Nuclear Death. Drawing from these two strains of absurdly aggressive grind, Sacridose rip through their six tracks with an unceasing intensity and sense of urgency. There's not a whole lot of new grind that can get me super excited, so this is a band I'm going to be keeping an eye on.

But blah blah, get to the download, gotta go fast. I got you.

Tracklisting:
1. Triac - Cesspool
2. Triac - Wrecker
3. Triac - Year of the Corpse
4. Sacridose - Reality Versus Image
5. Sacridose - Fatal Extraction
6. Sacridose - Inversion
7. Sacridose - Raw Nerve
8. Sacridose - Fixed
9. Sacridose - Clouded Rituals

DOWNLOAD (Nerve Altar bandcamp)

!FUCKED BY NOISE MID-YEAR ROUND-UP! - Joe's Picks

Okay, so it's June now, and that means we're half way through 2015. And what a year it's been, holy shit. As far as punk goes, 2015 has been incredible, and there's still so much more to come. This is going to be tough, I'm going to keep it to 5 releases per category (LP, EP, demo), listed in no particular order; and at the end I'll list some more things I was into, plus some releases I'm really looking forward to. Let's get to it.

LP

NO - Treating People Like They Don’t Exist

I reviewed this when it dropped last month and I'm still just as excited about it as I was when I first heard it. I've heard that they're breaking up soon which is a shame, because the three 12"s they put out are flawless and are perfect representations of to make noisy and unpredictable, yet raging hardcore punk.

MUERTE - Muerte

I just posted a review of this a week ago when it came out and like everything on this list, I'm still hyped on it. I listened to it five times in a row the day it dropped and each time I found new things that grabbed me. Deathrock is finally getting its edge back.

FOOT HAIR - Foot Hair

Okay, this one I haven't reviewed here yet. A friend turned me onto this and it's probably the best noise rock I've heard this year (sorry, Rectal). Take the nihilistic stupidity of Drunks With Guns and mash it up with the obnoxious sounds of Upsidedown Cross; and since that's not enough, crank up the scum levels. That's Foot Hair. You should be sold on this already.

HALDOL - Haldol

Here's another release I recently reviewed, and as it turns out it's another new deathrock jammer. All you need to know is this is suffocatingly dark but with enough aggression to still kick your teeth in. I sure hope we don't get inundated with nerds hopping on this deathrock revival and ruining it.

BROKEN PRAYER - Misanthropocentric A.K.A. Droid's Blood

The champions of modern synthpunk are back! Broken Prayer have somehow managed to make their synth more synthy, their angst more angsty, and their pop more poppy, all while funneling it into a caustic and nasty punch to the gut. Here's to hoping they do a tour at some point. 

EP

PERSPEX FLESH - Ordered Image

UK goth punks Perspex Flesh have managed to top themselves with this new 12". They've taken their best qualities and made them better. I'm glad I saw them on their tour with Razorheads (which intersected with the Lotus Fucker / Sete Star Sept tour, resulting in a ridiculously stacked show) and they were just as intense as they are on record. If you're looking for a fucked up, dark punk powerhouse of a release, this is the one. 

BÖRN - Börn

Have I mentioned how much I love this new wave of bands putting the punk aggression back into goth? Börn really draw from the post-punk side of things, but instead of trying to carbon copy that airy 80s feel, they go straight for the throat. Noisy guitar work and winding bass lines are at odds, yet compliment each other in a dirging dance of death (I'll admit that was a little corny). Also they're from Iceland if you care about that sort of thing. 

SADIST - The Shadow Of The Swastika

I didn't find out about this band's demo until about a week after I'd posted my list of favorite 2014 demos, but had I known of them sooner they would have been on it. This 7" is three rerecorded tracks from their 'Blood Song' CS which, while still blown out, have clearer depth to them. I'm just waiting for them to play somewhere that isn't a fest / high profile show in NYC or Boston.

WETBRAIN - Vacant Life

Washington state has been turning out some incredible bands in the past few years and Wetbrain certainly holds their own among them. What starts out sounding like off kilter raw punk devolves into frantic noise rock madness, not losing an iota of intensity. This release is definitely a trip and I wouldn't be surprised to see this band on the Iron Lung Records roster in a year or two. 

BLANK SPELL - Blank Spell

Oh look, it's another Philadelphia dark punk band who put out a great demo last year and an even better record this year! This 7" is comprised of a few rerecorded songs from Blank Spell's 2014 demo tape along with some new tracks which are consistent to their style and quality of songwriting/performing. Get dark, get freaky. 

DEMO

URGE TO KILL - Take Control

I'm going to come out and say it, this is my favorite demo of 2015 so far. Imagine a more boneheaded 'Mankind' era Infest and that's all you need to know. You'll be breaking shit within the first 20 seconds. 

THE DRIP - Demo

The Drip's demo has way too many memorable hooks and riffs, along with plenty of twists, some of which are pretty subtle, all of which keep me coming back for more. Oh, and there are some odd things the band did with the recording which I'm not allowed to talk about, but if something feels weird to you, that's just the way they want it. 

NAAMAHK - Stagnant Pool

Earlier in the year a friend let me know there was a new Naamahk tape on the way, which, if you've heard their 2014 demo, you know is awesome news. I waited for months and heard nothing, and then finally it surfaced. It did not disappoint. These canadian black metal/noise rock weirdos have really worked on fine tuning their sound, this tape sounds bigger and fuller than its predecessor, but has lost none of the freaky vibes. I need more. 

THE BUG - What’s Buggin’ You?

I saw this posted somewhere with the tagline "members of Raw Nerve" and I thought, okay, you got me. Well, it sounds like Raw Nerve insofar as it's fast, ripping hardcore, but that's about the only comparison I can make. The Bug is something else entirely. This band is way noisier, way more chaotic, way more unpredictable, and just all around way better than Raw Nerve. Oh and there's power electronics parts. Forget that it has members of Raw Nerve. Just strap yourself in and go along for the ride. 

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST - 2015 Demo

I ripped / reviewed this a few months ago; it's still dynamite. The previously unreleased tracks on it should hopefully be on an LP in the next year or two. If you don't already know DoC, get ready for some of the best grind of 2015.

Other Notable Releases:

-Rectal Hygienics 'Ultimate Purity' LP

-Solutions 'Life Of Joy' EP

-Barcelona 'Extremo Nihilismo en Barcelona' EP

-Qualm 'Qualm' CS

-Blackmagnum 'Sick Of Living/Unwilling To Die' CS/EP (?)

Anticipated Releases:

-Sin Motivo 'El Desierto' LP (the two tracks they posted are incredible)

-No Form 'No Form' LP (they only posted one track, but it's totally fucked)

-City Hunter 'Open Season' LP (corny/racist antics aside, that tape was bomb as fuck)

-Condition LP (the 7"s were both great, can't wait for more)

-Dreamdecay LP (Iron Lung Records' spaced out noise lords return for round 2!)

-Cape Of Bats 'Violent Occultism' LP (I'm ready for the deathrock / black metal hatred)

-Flesh World LP (noisy aussie punk who apparently broke up, not mellow post-punk on ILR)

-Bone Awl LP (rumored on NWN! boards)

-Column Of Heaven / Suffering Luna split LP (finally?)

-Full Of Hell / The Body collaboration LP (or is that due out next year?)

-Triac / Sacridose split EP (do I have to say anything?)

-Gross EP (just saw them with Dilate and False Punk, the new stuff sounded sick)

-Internal Rot / Mellow Harsher split EP (Mellow Harsher's side is great, I need Internal Rot's)

-Gentlemen '終焉' and 'Pro Famine' EPs (why are there no good rips of these yet?)

-Sickoids (nothing announced, but I'm still waiting for the two records they promised in 2013)