Sunday 29 April 2018

BALCANES - DIRECTO #1

Directo #1
Balcanes
2018

Artist Submission

Review by Joey

Genre/s: Noise Rock, Post-Punk, Industrial
For Fans Of: Skullflower, Will To Live, The Ex, Swans

I've been vocal about my love for Balcanes since their first 7" in 2014, and everything I love about them is amplified on their newest release which happens to be a live recording. In anything noise related, live documentations are crucial because of the unpredictable nature of performance, and a studio recording can never accurately capture the energy and intensity of an artist's performance.

Those who know Balcanes already are in for a treat (as are those who don't). They are a heavy and filthy band, and those aspects of their music is only highlighted by their performance on this tape. The whole thing just sounds like a dilapidated machine lurching forward through a post-industrial wasteland, struggling to keep itself together, fixing one piece at a time not able to keep up with its imminent collapse. This is accomplished with nasty and wretched tones, death howls, and a mastery of build and release. The bands mentioned up top should give you a pretty good idea, so if that's what you're about, you gotta get on this screaming metal death trap.

As far as the setlist, Balcanes plays through everything they've put out, which clocks in around 40mins (much longer than any of their studio releases). Get ready to get steamrolled.

Tracklist:
1. Pánico / Combustible / Rójo Máquina
2. Decrépita
3. Masada
4. Desorden
5. Decadencia / Plataforma / Autopista 2

LISTEN / DOWNLOAD (Bandcamp)

Sunday 22 April 2018

DATSUSTORA - OF FINAL

Of Final
Datsustora
1986

Review by Joey

Genre/s: Deathrock, Industrial, Post-Punk, Power Electronics, Death Industrial, Goth, Noise
For Fans Of: Mannequin Neurose, Grim, The Dead Relatives, Clair Obscur

Okay, so you're probably thinking "holy shit, that's a lot of genres, what could this even sound like?" so just sit tight and I'll do my best to explain. There are four tracks, two of them are industrial/noise tracks; and they are sandwiched in the middle of two deathrock tracks, which act as bookends of a sort. Each track is absolutely punishing, twisted, and truly dark in a different way, yet all four still form a whole.

Datsustora was the project of Elle (a.k.a. Achy) from LSD, the legendary Japanese hardcore punk band of ADK Records fame, and the less well known industrial project Criminal Party. This project, however, does not have nearly the level of notoriety of LSD, but I'd argue it's much better (and certainly much weirder and multifaceted). The rest of the lineup remains a mystery as far as I can tell -- aside from a brief run with Yoshimura Hideki, also of LSD fame, on guitar -- and was most likely a revolving door, quite possibly as multifarious as the music itself. Musically, this flexi is as I described (half deathrock, half industrial), but the varied nature of each track -- starting with bouncy dark punk, transitioning into two tracks of unsettling ambient, heavy electronics, and rhythmic industrial, and then closing with a track which feels like the joyful embracing of despondency through post-punk -- really adds to how strange this thing is. It's one of my favorites and there's a good reason for that.

This is a wild ride from start to finish, and I feel it should be essential listening for both industrial and post-punk fuckers. Highly, highly recommended.

Tracklisting:
1. Untitled (apparently there is a title, but it's in characters nobody can read)
2. Datsustora
3. Of Final
4. 幻夢円舞曲

DOWNLOAD

P.S. If anyone has a link to the split with Criminal Party and/or the Kyo-On compilation 7", please get in contact because I've been dying to hear those for a long time. And while I'm asking, if anyone has the Criminal Party split with Grim, please please get in contact with me.