I remember a lot of things from Lollapallooza ‘97:

• Lost Boyz tore it up for a bunch of white folks with goatees (save me, who couldn’t grow one at the time);
• I believe Snoop Dogg was serviceable;
• Prodigy and Korn kancelled;
• Tool changed my life;
• Freaks were everywhere …

For some reason, Atari Teenage Riot, the brainchild of Alec Empire, barely register in my memory banks. I vaguely recall some intense beats, maybe some samples, but that’s IT; hell, I could have confused them for those wankers in Prodigy had I not known of their cancellation prior …

It was my loss. Empire’s resume is impressive, his various feats rendering him perhaps the Julian Cope of the electronic, often copyright-challenging generation of musicians that emerged in the ’80s (others: Negativeland, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, The Residents, etc.).

This post is focused on just one of Empire’s achievements: His ass-out, sound-melting, muck-job of a “collaboration” (hence the “vs.”) with Elvis Presley that fuses the King’s vocals with all manner of nuclear-ready electronics.

This isn’t your typical mash-up of a Britney Spears song with the theme from Snorks, but a dinner mash-up where everything in sight gets fucked … HARD. Presley often gets forgotten, yet his absence yields way for even more fascinating explorations, so it’s impossible to take umbrage with the inconsistency.

Empire essentially uses Presley’s grunts, asides, movie moments and melodies as skeletal foundations for giant blobs of bass-blasting, noise-hurtling IDM/electronica (you might have even called it “techno” back then) that goes way past any notions of dancefloor synchronicity, glitching, hitching, stopping, starting, juking and jiving as it hops from one E-vis moment to the next.

AE vs. EP is so ahead of its time it’s disgustipating. Empire foresees new genres, studio tricks and tools of manipulation, and if you spend your days/nights warping sound in some way, watching its colors dripping down the walls, you’ve been influence by Empire — and maybe this ALBUM — in some way.

Panicsville, Aphex Twin’s Druckqs album, Excepter — oh FUCK this might be the most direct connection — flash.bat, Secret Mommy, John Wiese solo; all have sucked from Empire’s teat in some way, whether consciously or unconsciously, furthering a practice that turns the ears into scientific objects, employed to analyze fresh data, rather than tools used to entertain oneself.

If you’ve been following Gumshoe’s explorations via Skyscraper or Tiny Mix Tapes for any amount of time, you know long-lost albums like Alec Empire vs. Elvis Presley are the reason I opened the Shoe HQ in the first place; seek this out and be one of the first in on the Empire/Atari Teenage Riot revival.

Mincemeat Or Tenspeed - Strange Gods - Zum Records

“No synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, musical instruments, or ulterior motives.”

Such is the message pasted onto Strange Gods, the new album from Mincemeat Or Tenspeed. Is the declaration/warning really needed?

Nah. It’s obvious from opening track “Hulot” that Strange Gods has more in common with electrical current than “proper” music. Mincemeat Or Tenspeed ride waves of feedback like surfers scaling a giant, white-hot crest of pure manic energy, soaring and swooping as the syrupy bubbles of sweet dissonance pop and explode, covering you with hot-pink audio duck sauce.

If it sounds tasty it’s because it is. I used to delight in taking the piss out of suffocatingly insular bands like MOT. Now, I couldn’t be more embarrassed of that temporary viewpoint, as I realize groups like Mincemeat, Wolf Eyes and its scholars, Basalt Fingers, Prurient, John Wiese, DJ Scotch Egg, Lightning Bolt/Mindflayer/Wizardzz, Landed and many, many more are forging the audio explorations future generations will look to for inspiration.

The emperor from Star Wars couldn’t match the florescent, purple-yellow hue of the electricity coming from David Harms‘ fingers. He wields his weapons of noise-making in a violent manner, standing over the listener menacingly and daring you to move. Go ahead, try him …

You won’t budge a muscle; you’ll want to hear what happens next. Don’t be afraid to let this one creep into yr head slowly. It’ll eventually lay eggs, its seed spreading throughout your body. From there, anyone whom touches you will incur a tiny shock, as if they’d just jumped off a trampoline or rubbed a balloon in their hair.

DO NOT PANIC. This is a perfectly normal physiological response to Mincemeat Or Tenspeed’s stimuli. That’s it, let it take you under …

Who am I kidding?

I bought Basalt Fingers‘ self-titled live LP because it was out of print (OOP), pressed in a limited edition (of 845) and blessed by a couple of big names (Ben Chasny of Comets On Fire/Six Organs Of Admittance, Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers, and Brian Sullivan), not because I truly thought the drone/noise/crust-scum jam would change my life.

And I was right; the best things about this LP involve everything but the music, which is itself passable but never worth more than passing consideration in light of much more interesting work from Lichens, Dead Texan, Panicsville, KK Null, Aaron Dillaway, John Wiese … the list goes on and on.

Basalt Fingers start their performance with a giant glob of drone caked atop some pitch-bending and off-kilter tone-vending, and things don’t exactly ramp-up from there. We’re talking SIN-I-STER tones, the sort of coagulations that could strangle you in a dark alley and take your valuables or follow you home and wait menacingly outside your apartment while you wonder what you ever did to evoke the wrath of a noise gang.

Thing is, the gang is unorganized, a big sloppy-joe set to music. You’ll get hot sauce and meat all over your face and hands because the bread isn’t substantial enough to keep the warm, wet blobs under control.

BF is basically a ghost, a priest and an angry, dark-gray storm jamming together. This may sound like a tantalizing prospect, but too many of the outbursts blend in with one another, resulting in an often-faceless aural display that probably made a lot more sense in concert than it does emanating from my speakers.

They got my money, but they didn’t get my soul.

I was asked the other day what is  noise and why do I like it. I was fucking stumped to tell you the truth. If I had my time again I would  have said that he pleasure that I get from noise is in those thrills  of the unexpected, that transcendent isolationism you get when you hear it through headphones and the sheer power of it all. But alas I was not that quick and I responded with something like “It’s great”, which you know, is lame. But I tell you this rather boring  anecdote because although I’m not keen to over intellectualise my love of noise, many are. In the liner notes of Teenage Hallucination, T. Mikawa of Incapacitants writes this: .. the strongest sound of all is noise. Pure noise encompasses all of time and space. This is my definition. As a definition I think its a bit limited but you know, good on him for having a go. The purity of noise of which he speaks is certainly in evidence on this retrospective of John Wiese’s earlier recordings. This is dense unrelenting electronic bastardry. Particularly the later stuff which indicates the blueprint of the manic hyperactivity of Soft Punk for instance. Those looking for the spacial glitch and click of his awesome Circle Snare might have to  look elsewhere. The real treat for Wiese fans and there are some of us out there,the final cuts which actually stem from his time as a 14 year old. The idea of Wiese as the harsh noise version of Miley Cyrus kills me but the tracks, despite the dreadful production have some great noise ideas which I haven’t heard in some time. The backwards noise loop stuff was particularly fun. If you like Wiese then this will certainly not disappoint.

One of my favourite noise artists going around right now has to be John Wiese. Whether he is collaborating with Yeh or Merzbow, doing his thing as Sissy Spacek or releasing stuff under his own name, Wiese doesn’t seem comfortable in doing the same thing twice. Wiese is turning into one of the most prolific and talented noise artists of right now and  Circle Snare, his latest release on Carlos Giffoni’s No Fun Productions, shows just how good he can be. This record was recorded whilst on his European tour last year. He used his basic set up and reinterpreted what it produces to make a sound that I’ve only heard hints of in some of his Sissy Spacek records. Gone are the Merzbow-esque power electronics of Black Magic Pond so too the hyperactive, cut and paste of Soft Punk. Now I really liked Soft Punk but my experience with it was almost physical. Soft Punk was a record that simply overwhelmed me. I have never been able to listen to it in one sitting. When I try to, I can usually get to Track 4 before my brain feels like it is no longer capable of independent thought and if my experience is anything to go by, the US could use repeated listens at volume as an enhanced interrogation. Circle Snare is a very different beast.  For one thing it is a much more minimal affair and in some ways also one of his more powerful works. The noise itself seems to be produced on two separate planes in much the same way Giffoni does and Merzbow can produce in his best works. Yet in saying this Wiese has produced something completely unique. Sometimes less is more and if you have any interest in Wiese I recommend you pick this up.

Oh man.  Basically the only drawback of having so many friends doing interesting things is the odd occasion when there are so many events going on in a single evening that I’m forced to leave someone out.  That’s the case tonight.  There are two local music performances I couldn’t recommend more highly, and I can’t do both.

The first is a show at the Blue Moon Tavern curated by Portable Shrines.  As I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I’m a huge fan of Portable Shrines and their commitment to fostering community in Seattle’s underground psych scene while putting together some of the most inspired rock shows in town.  Tonight’s lineup features Seattle bands Backward Masks and Nice Smile, along with PDX’s To Get Her Together.  It promises to be incredible.  And it’s free!

The second is a performance by LA noise legend John Wiese at the Josephine, a private venue in Ballard.  Known for his lucid solo material as well as his collaborations with sunn0))), Merzbow and Wolf Eyes, Wiese will be headlining a delectable freak fest that also includes a rare appearance by Seattle death/jazz/improv quartet Kuru Cult (who have a mind-warping new live CD out on band member Simon Henneman’s Mt. Non Fiction Records) and an equally rare performance by Mood Organ, the solo electronic project of genre-bending multi-instrumentalist Timm Mason (who also plays bass in Kuru Cult).

It just so happens that it’s Darlene from Backward Masks’ birthday today.  AND it’s Timm from Mood Organ/Kuru Cult’s birthday as well!  Seriously. I couldn’t make this up.  And they are both wonderful people and great friends.  What kind of a sick world is this, anyway?

Here’s my tiebreaker: Timm also happens to be my bandmate in Midday Veil.  So is Simon of Kuru Cult/Mt. Non Fiction.  And there you have it.

Fortunately for you, Music Fan, you have no such loyalties.  However you decide to break the tie is entirely up to you.

John Wiese will play at 013 tonight and Pu:ppkakkbaggrlull in Zaal 16. If you like some noise. Be there!

This is another one sided LP, this time on John Wiese’s own Helicopter imprint & limited to 100 copies (presumably long sold out too). The LP is a collaboration between Dead Machines & sometimes Sunn O))) member John Wiese.

Edition of 100 copies LP from this consistently brain-bending collaboration, John and Tovah Olson with John Wiese. This is another fantastic, subtle low-level investigation of extreme avant garde form, with long passages of near-silence illuminated by clanks, beautiful technicolour drones, hovering death tones and the kind of wildly abstruse art praxis of the best of the Alga Marghen catalogue. Another peerless release from this great hook-up that seems to inspire the best form from alla the participants. Highly recommended.

Dead Machines & John Wiese – General Assurance [2008, Helicopter]
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?djnl1ly1cmy

Split 7″, one song each from these projects. Wiese assumes side A with a track called “Psychedelic Casualties.” It is a smattering of cut up found sounds and instruments with short bursts of electronics and deep rumbling distortions. It’s a disjointed ride recorded for your pleasure in Hawaii. Die Yellow Swans is a new one on me. The untitled DYS track begins with low ambient rumblings and then erupts into a loop of structured dramatic pseudo-dancey synths and drums, that quickly erodes into blipping fluid electronics and another plodding sort of beat rises to meet it. It’s a very fluid track with a driving edge to one side and a liquid flow of textures to the other. Through all of this various elements drift through the piece giving it a dense overall presentation as well. I’m not a huge cut up fan for the most part, but the Dead Yellow Swans track is quite interesting, and no doubt fans of Wiese will like his contribution more than I probably did. – Scott
JYRK

I love 3″ cds. I think they’re gonna save the noise genre. See, pure non-linear noise is best in small portions. Nobody needs 80 minutes of relentless grinding. That kind of noise is best suited for to-the-point, short bursts. 20 minutes at the most. This release is 23, but I can forgive that. “Arrhythmia Wave Burst and Panner Crash” is made up of 4 tracks, each a live recording from a different west coast location. It’s all pretty standard noise fare – screeching, grinding, beeping – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but nothing stuck out in my mind about this release. Seriously – this could be the ‘everynoise’. Recommended for fans of standard japanoise ala Merzbow, and only serious fans at that. Nothing here is must-have. I can only assume it’s a lot more interesting live. – Christine Lett
HELICOPTER

I’m trying to end the year on a high note and do  my best to focus on records released in 2008 because if you are a regular reader of this site you probably are a bit like me and need to write lists of CD’s for family to get you just in case you end up with that new Bloc Party record. The problem with French Record is that it mightbe a bit hard to find in your local chain record shop so it may be best just to ask for the cash this Xmas.  If I look back at the 150 or so CD’s I’ve bought this year the focus has been away from pure (harsh) noise CD’s (although there have been a few exceptions) and towards stunning drone CD’s by Daniel Menche and the sheer joyous sound of anything released on Rune Grammofon. There’s been a lot less Merzbow and a greater focus on expanding my horizons in relation to music that at least attempts to breath some life into rock during the long terminal illness that has afflicted it during the past few years. Some records are kind of what I expected or match comparisons to what I had read but few records have genuinely blown me away this year more than French Record. 

I think it may be time to acknowledge John Wiese as the new generation noise pioneer. His solo work on Soft Punk was extraodinary but challenging. In fact I have never sat through Soft Punk all the way through in one sitting. It’s something which if played all at once becomes just too overstimulating and may be the first record that should come with an epilepsy warning. French Record takes the sound collage approach that he perfected on Soft Punk but instead of chucking all of the ideas together, he allows some of them  to grow and through repetition (something any Wiese fan know has never been high on his agenda) create something both challenging but extremely listenable. The first Sissy Spacek record I bought had 77 tracks none were longer than 90 seconds and some were only 4 seconds. French Record is much more conservative. It still has short vignettes of noise (like the sound of glass being smashed filtered through some studio fuckery) but the crowning achievement is the longer tracks of pure noise genius. I can’t do justice to what he produces on French Record but I will say that the opener, Scorpion Whip,  his take on heavy metal,  can be added to the small sub-genre of fun noise tracks. If your having trouble tracking this down you can order it straight from the Dualplover website and I recommend you do that as a matter of urgency. In a genre that suffers from small print runs and limited editions you just can’t afford to fuck about. I won’t go out on a limb and say that it is the best noise record released this year, the collaboration he did with C. Spencer Yeh is absolutely mindblowing and Burning Star Core’s Challenger happens to be the most played record on my ipod, but good lord it just might be.

Really into the Haters

Eyeslit-Crypt in-house noise favorite, John Wiese performing live in Brooklyn, 18 September 2008.

I picked this up from  a couple of months ago. John Wiese himself, from time to time, sells copies of his CD’s on ebay. I took the opportunity to buy this, Black Magic Pond and the split CD Wiese did with C. Spencer Yeh. Out of those three records the spit with Yeh is my favourite but Multiplication for some reason is the one I seem to have played the most. I think the reason for the  number of plays it’s received is me attempting to define exactly what this record sounds like. I was searching for something recognisable that would make sense in a written review. Merzbow put this record together when John Wiese sent his contribution by mail. What has been created is a blistering document of extreme noise. There are no beats or relief from the relentless cluster fuck of noise this record unleashes. Ever now and then there is a small pause before the two  the two sides of the noise smash into each other again. The cover at to this record is very appropriate. To me it looks like a tear in the very fabric of the Earth and this record is so relentless that’s it’s hard to disagree with that interpretation. I wonder how many times I’ll end up playing this again. I like my Wiese and Merzbow a couple of notches back from what they produce on Multiplication. If your new to your noise and just dabbling there are way better Wiese and Merzbow records to start with. I’d give ths one a wide berth unless you know what you are getting yourself in for.

As an aside Misanthropic Agenda has a great website and online store. It has plenty on Menche, Jazzkammer  and Merzbow at really cheap prices and the postage is very reasonable. It’s well worth checking out before you make your next purchase. I’ve added their sight to the links on the top righthand of this blog.

„Die letzte Perversität des Stils ist universale Nekrophilie“ – so dereinst das vernichtende Urteil Adornos insbesondere eines ironisch geprägten Eklektizismus, der aus der Not der künstlerischen Sprachlosigkeit eine Tugend machen will. Eklektizismus heißt, so Lyotard, „Nullpunkt der Bildung“, denn hier herrscht Willkür und Beliebigkeit des Schaffenden, herrscht ein im pejorativen Sinne verstandener subjektivistischer Historizismus, der zum alles bestimmenden künstlerischen Prinzip erhoben wird. Wie nun aber steht es mit einem Eklektizismus, der in erster Linie nicht im Auseinanderstreben stilistischer Einflüsse, sondern vielmehr in einer divergierenden Klanglichkeit besteht, in dem obendrein eben diese heterogene Klanglichkeit sich nicht aus einer affirmativ zitierenden Haltung, sondern aus der radikalen Destruktion und Dekonstruktion eigener wie fremder musikalischer Produktion ergibt? So geschehen auf der Platte „Soft Punk“ von John Wiese.

Wiese zitiert neben seiner eigenen Formation Sissy Spacek ebenso die Band Grand Ulena sowie den bei beiden Projekten agierenden Schlagzeuger Danny McClain, außerdem Die Monitor Bats, darüber hinaus scheinen an mancher Stelle auch nicht vermerkte Zitate das Fundament für die eigentliche Komposition zu bilden. Die Mediatisierung solch performativer Ereignishaftigkeit erfolgt allerdings nie in ungebrochener Vorgefundenheit, vielmehr scheint Wiese mit seinen hart kontrastierenden, präzise arrangierten, teils an Ryoji Ikeda erinnernden Schnitttechniken an der Entgrenzung dysfunktionaler Klanglichkeit in den Bereich musikalischer Organisation interessiert zu sein. Ganz ausdrücklich widersetzt sich die Musik der Illusion kontinuierlicher Bewegung, der Kohärenz und immanenten Logik des Ursprungsmaterials und zerlegt, verkürzt stattdessen dieses, um aus dessen Auslassungs- und Leerzeichen etwas hervortreten zu lassen, was mit Amedialität, bzw. eben Dysfunktionalität umschrieben werden kann. Sei es, dass in „Sad Physics“ eine Gitarrenimprovisation so zerlegt wird, dass sie nur noch in einer degenerierten, mehrfach gebrochenen Form erscheint, sei es, dass in „No Party“ das Schlagzeugspiel Danny McClains so kleinteilig geschnitten wird, dass sich dieses in seiner Körperlichkeit ständig selbst behindert, sei es, dass in „Snow Pit“ ein Konzert der Die Monitor Bats in seiner zeitlichen Abfolge dergestalt subvertiert wird, dass vor dem Anfang des Konzerts, dem Einsetzen der Band, dessen Ende, nämlich der frenetische Jubel erscheint. An diesen und weiteren Beispielen lässt sich zeigen, dass es der Musik nicht um einen affirmativen Zugang zur Wirksamkeit medialer Konstruktion, sondern vielmehr um deren fundierenden Bedingungen geht. Durch die Logik des Cut-Ups vermag Wiese eben diese Bedingungen medialer Hervorbringung hervortreten zu lassen und sie zum thematisch-reflexiven Gegenstand künstlerischer Aktivität zu machen, um daraus erst die spezifisch dysfunktionale und dekonstruktive Klanglichkeit hervortreten lassen zu können. Den künstlerischen Focus auf die Bedingungen medialer Konstruktion zu legen ist freilich nicht völlig neu – erinnert sei nur an den Umgang Kurt Krens mit den Materialaktionen Otto Mühls im Wien der 1960er Jahre. Hier allerdings findet die Haltung einer dekonstruktiven Strukturation nicht durch serielle Permutationen, sondern unter der Vorherrschaft eines impulsiven, prinzipiell eklektisch agierenden künstlerischen Subjekts statt, weiterhin jedoch unter dem Vorzeichen einer Neuerschaffung der Wirklichkeit des ursprünglich vorhandenen Materials zugunsten einer artifiziellen Metaform von Unmittelbarkeit und Präsenz.

Gleichwohl liegt bei Wiese ein besonderes Augenmerk auf das Problem des Scheiterns solch einer auf die Bedingungen medialer Produktion gerichteten Musik über Musik: immer wieder wird angezählt, ohne dass die Erwartungshaltung eines nun eigentlich folgen müssenden konstruktiven Ergebnisses erfüllt würde. Stattdessen schließt sich auf solches Anzählen die Negation eines produktiven Ergebnisses an – entweder als Quasi-Stille oder aber als brachiale Harsh Noise Attacke, zumeist von raschen klanglichen Wechseln aufgebrochen. Durch ultraschnelle Schnitte verleibt sich das generativ-konstruktive Moment stetst seine eigene Negation ein. Das Zitat, verstanden als Gabe, bei der der Gebende als Gebender zugunsten der Gabe zurücktritt, wird so zum Akt des Scheiterns und Ausdruck des Unmöglichen. Nochmals genauer: aus dem Zitat als der Möglichkeit eines selektiven Umgangs mit einem frei verfügbaren Materialzusammenhang entbirgt Wiese die Unmöglichkeit solch einer affirmativen Verwendbarkeit von Klanglichkeit hin zu einer in der medialen Konstruktion selbst stetig vorherrschenden Negation der eigenen generativen Mechanismen. Das Zitat wird durch solch eine konstruktive Selbstnegation zur Reflexion seiner eigenen Legitimation.

CROMAGNON – Orgasm

Yeah sure, everybody prattles on about these so-called “fucked up” records alla time to the point where the term loses its edge entirely. Is it REALLY fucked up, or does it merely offend the sensibilities of the same twits who have built little Ikea record collections based on MTV or “hipness”? Shit, some people think Ween or John Zorn is/was way out there, whereas I find them to be disposable pap that stole its soul from early Zappa (former) or Carl Stalling’s work on Warner Bros. cartoons (latter). Which brings me to an album that truly IS fucked up: Cromagnon’s ORGASM. Before I go too deep into scribing here, for history’s sake I’ll point out that this sucka appeared in 1968 on ESP-disk, mavericks among mavericks in the musick biz. They brought us Sun Ra’s HELLIOCENTRIC WORLDS, the first two Fugs platters, Albert Ayler’s SPIRITUAL UNITY, and of course, the entire catalog of proto-punk heroes, the Godz.

Now, when you stick needle into groove that is opener, “Caledonia,” you’ll immediately think you’re listening to Einstürzende Neubauten gone black metal… then you’ll realize you’re WRONG and that there were no reference points such as that available in 1968. Geezus! Is that an army of bagpipes making that infernal racket??! Wow! The next track, “Ritual Feat of the Libido,” is simply “Caledonia” slowed down to 1/3 speed; it makes yer hands kinda clammy… music shouldn’t scare ya right? Especially not the kind made by two guys who useta write bubblegum hits that woulda make Herman’s Hermits blush??! Ooops! Shouldn’t listen to those voices in your head: not only is it possible, that’s exactly what’s happenin’. And who are these mantra-chanting freaks cryptically referred to as their “Connecticut Tribe”? OK, you can’t see me, but I’m shrugging my shoulders nervously…

Dare thou look in thee comments? Dare thou leave one?

BASTARD NOISE – Sound Engine

Coexisting alongside mothership act, power-violence pioneers Man Is the Bastard since 1991, Bastard Noise became the main focus of Eric “Throatrake” Wood with MItB’s dissolution in 1997. The project originally was a collective of various members with Wood as the only constant– but over time was pared down to thee Dynamic Duo of Wood and John Wiese (who has recently been replaced with Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s Jay Randall), known for his work with Sissy Spacek (not the actress) and Heavy Seals (among countless other one-off ventures and collaborations). “Sound Engine” is a collection of works recorded between 2001-02.

Thee Noise’s brand of aural rape is a perfect gateway to full-on degeneracy for those interested in dipping their pinky toe into the scree cesspool. That’s not to say they won’t/don’t appeal to tinnitus-afflicted veterans; simply that their use of dynamics and complex layering techniques make ‘em a little more palatable to the virgin ear than, say, the merciless onslaught of Government Alpha or early Merzbow. Opener “A Pedestal to Support the Invaders” is a collaboration with Jesus Philben aka Chris Dodge, founder of Slap-a-Ham Records, and ex-guitarist for Spazz and No Use for a Name. It could almost be considered an ambient piece if not for the unnerving blasts of feedback that cut in and out between warm, low-end tones. Still, nothin’ that the average fan of “Sister Ray” shouldn’t find relatively digestible. The same cannot be said about “Killing Stick-Men” which, despite beginning with some subtle drones, quickly devolves into inhuman shrieks that will test your endurance for high frequencies– again though, no big whoop, ’tis but three and a half minutes long.

To these ears, thee pièce de résistance is “Human Denial,” a collaboration by mail with Japanoise Terrorist, Guilty Connector, aka Kohei Nakagawa. The only track to feature Ol’ Throatrake’s patented grunts, the piece is fulla twists and turns without descending into chaos. Expect the unexpected here– subtle ringing tones that could ALMOST be described as beautiful give way to ever-building gobs of distortion with expertly executed panning bringing different light/dark elements in ‘n’ out of the foreground. If this cut doesn’t bring you over to the dark side, you’re either a big ol’ puss or a hopeless case, I’m afraid. Or worst of all, somehow convinced you’re “well-adjusted”… hahahaha!

In comments for those made of sterner stuff.

It was great. 3voot12/Tilburg was also there and made some pictures.