The Glorious Rebellion – Euphoric

 

Live at the Haven 05/30/2015. Photo by Sandy Rushing. — with Zeke Rushing, Wade Scianimanico and Billy Myers III.

Euphoric is the kind of bully no one can have a problem with. It is a release which harries and bruises the senses as if it was created to do nothing else, though truthfully, the debut mini album from US noise rockers The Glorious Rebellion is just as uncompromising and seriously compelling with its range of intrusive hooks within an infectious swagger. The band creates corrosive rock ‘n’ roll with a bite and attitude as virulent as the imagination that fuels it.

Formed and driven by vocalist/guitarist Billy Myers III, the Florida hailing band was soon lighting up their local live scene, that success stretching further afield as their dirtily rapacious noise rock ferocity and sonic rabidity grabbed attention. As rich in almost savage melodic mischief, their music seemed to easily spark crowds as The Glorious Rebellion shared stages with the likes of Jucifer, The Phuss, Black Tusk, Ken Mode, Lo-Pan, Black Cobra, Child Bite, Holly Hunt, Hollow Leg, and Destroyer of Light amongst many over time, successes luring new fans whilst enhancing the band’s reputation pushed again by the release of their two track single I in 2014. The years have also seen numerous line-up changes over the years; in fact it seems any page you look at and info found has a different line-up suggested. Importantly for the album though, it is Myers igniting ears with everything apart from drums which the impressing dynamics and swings of Wade Scianimanico takes care of. With additional vocals provided by Dan Manata, Euphoric is a sure-fire ball buster of sound, attitude, and intensity, which predominantly leaves pleasure emulating the album’s title.

The album opens with It’s A Sucker’s Game, Kid and straight away has ears under sonic and rhythmic siege whilst already sparking an eager appetite for what is to follow. What do badger the senses next are thick and predatory grooves around just as grouchy riffs and rhythms.  Already a heavy catchiness is laying potent bait, lures reinforced by the excellent attitude sculpted roars of Myers and an even strong spice to the grooves. In full aggressive stride, there is a Pigs meets Unsane feel with a tasty whiff of Motorhead to the track, though to be fair, all are passing essences in the band’s distinctive animosity of sound.

The great start continues with the equally infectious and fearsome Emmett Brown Has Never Met A Scott That Wasn’t Great. From a more low key start, a thick tide of riffs and rhythms descend on ears before stepping aside momentarily for that great initial coaxing to grip attention all over again. Throughout, the song makes for an intrusive and abrasive proposition but digs into the psyche just as potently with its unpredictable and inventively twisted web of noise and ear gripping adventure. It’s easy to offer Melvins as a hint to the song’s escapade whilst the even more outstanding Benaquyl and its enslaving rock ‘n’ roll nudges thoughts of bands like Gruntruck and The Great Sabatini in the course of sculpting another pinnacle within Euphoric straight after. The song also highlights more of the variety of spices in the band’s sound, stoner and punk as open as this slab of noise rock breeding.

The brilliant Have I Told You Lately That I Loathe You? snarls and rages next with vocals and guitars as irritable as each other and just as pungently enticing around the rancorous grumble of the bass. Within that hostility though, band and songs cast some of the most addictive and infectious essences to be found on the release. They are elements which turns hunger into a lust for more which The Dirtiest Dream Jobs feeds with its cantankerous tone and sonic enterprise soaked in melodic acidity. Admittedly personal tastes are not quite on fire for the song as for its predecessors yet it is nothing less than a highly enjoyable and in turn lingering tempting drawing attention back onto band and release.

The album closes with Bitches Hate Misogyny, an ill-tempered and tempestuous blaze of sound and vocal incitement which tells you all you need to know about the band in noise, craft, humour, and thrilling adventure. It is a hellacious mouth-watering end to an equally impressive release which was our introduction to The Glorious Rebellion but the beginning of a major kinship between ear and sound we suspect; something hard to see us being alone in.

Euphoric is out now via Magnetic Eye and @ https://thegloriousrebellion.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/thegloriousrebellion   http://thegloriousrebellion.bigcartel.com   https://twitter.com/TGRnoise

Pete RingMaster 18/04/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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We’ll Go Machete – Smile Club

Though knowing the name and reputation earned through their earlier releases, we had yet to get to grips with a We’ll Go Machete encounter. So it is with thanks to the band’s vocalist/guitarist Paul Warner, who introduced band and new album Smile Club to us just recently. All that can be said is boy have we been missing out, as the band’s second album is a glorious tempest of sound, striking imagination, and creative intensity. Smile Club simply infests ears and psyche with a hex of noise rock, post punk, and math rock plus any other caustic spicing you can think of, and certainly left us not hungry but desperate for more.

With a line-up completed by bassist Chris May and drummer Rachel Fuhrer, the Austin hailing We’ll Go Machete first sparked interest with their 2009 self-titled EP though it was debut album Strong Drunk Hands two years later which was the catalyst to richer attention and acclaim. Live too the band has garnered a healthy name and stature, shows alongside the likes of Future of the Left, Melvins, Hammerhead, and Fatal Flying Guillotines, as well as their own headlining events over time marking We’ll Go Machete out as one of the more exciting emerging propositions. Late to the party, as said Smile Club is our first real taster of the band and fair to say the, as its predecessors, Cedar Fever Records released album just whipped up a frenzy in sound and lustful reactions.

   Absence is the first welcome stirring of the senses, tangy grooves and thumping beats enriching an instant sonic swamp of noise swiftly loaded up further with the distinctive, angst hued tones of Warner. It is a striking and invigorating mix which has body and thoughts fully involved from the first trespass. Like something springing from a blend of Melvins, Quicksand, and Sofy Major, the track continues to growl and flex its confrontational muscles yet breeds an inescapable contagion. Adventure is already bold in the album, the song for example slipping through mellower evocative scenery across its potently unpredictable landscape for a mighty start to the inventive emprise of Smile Club.

The following and as outstanding Drawstring is just as quickly captivating, its entrance of tenaciously prowling rhythms and rapaciously alluring riffs gripping attention and appetite immediately. Spicy grooves and sharp hooks only add to the emerging theatre of sound and melodic drama with the again pungent voice of Warner only seeming to inflame the sounds around him into greater enthusiasm of craft and energy. Like a web, the track has fresh inescapable treats at every turn, the rhythms of May and Fuhrer cage like in their union around the acidic tapestry cast by the guitar.

A post punk tone and imagination comes with The Bardo though it is soon overwhelmed by a noise rock tsunami of emotional intensity veined by creeping sonic tendrils of guitar. The song does not have the same immediate impact as the pair before, but blossoms into a bordering on sinister persuasion of clanging dissonant chords amidst suggestive and volatile textures to only enslave over time.

Strasberg Air is a far swifter raw seducing with again hooks and rhythmic tenacity key bait in the evolving ingenuity of sound. Like a more restrained Fat Dukes of Fuck and mellower Shevils, the track bounces off the walls of ears and senses with Fuhrer alone creating an inescapable trap with his addictively imaginative beats. Carrying a grungier colour to vocals and melodies, the song leaves a lingering thrill before making way for the melancholic tempest of Scratch Built. The early solemn come doomy premise and air is eventually set ablaze by the corruptive quickstep of toxic riffs and earthy basslines splintered by viciously swung beats. With its own emotional ecoclimate, the track shifts from heavily dark through torrentially volatile to infectiously energetic before heading back into imposing shadows in a final exhilarating outburst.

The major pinnacle of the album is Positive People which comes next. It is another delving into post punk terrain, an eighties genre spicing lining choppy riffs and a wonderfully brooding bass tempting from May. Elements remind of bands such as Artery and The Fire Engines, whilst the cold air certainly has a Joy Division-esque feel to it, but again We’ll Go Machete only sculpt a startling and addictive exploration of their very own. Discord is always a friend of the musician and here perfectly woven into the torment soaked anatomy of one glorious incitement, its majesty continuing into Break the Kettles which evolves out of its predecessor’s tail wind. A slower corrosively elegant proposal, the track binds ears and imagination with sonic lacing whilst simultaneously sending splinters of guitar invention and rhythmic animosity into its angst thick drama.

Both Shot Giant and Cigarettes and Face Masks keep the compelling power and industry of Smile Club ablaze, the first an intensive shuffle pressuring ears with spiteful beat spilling agitation and ravaging riffery but unafraid to slip into something more melodically provocative and hauntingly intimidating. Its successor brews its own ridiculously addictive and threatening maze of fierce imagination and bitchy rhythms infested with swarms of toxic grooves and citric melodic endeavour. Each only ignites greedier pleasure but the second is especially virulently disorientating and thrilling.

The album is brought to an end by firstly the warped harmonious beauty of Molten Tiny Cell, a song nagging in sound and repetitious mastery until satisfaction is drooling and lastly Dust Storms May Exist. The final song is just superb, a hellacious storm of flavour and imagination which at times has a spicing reminiscent of KEN mode, in others moments a raw tone and feel which is similar to In Love Your Mother, and continually leads the listener on a spiral of exhaustive and perpetually resonating adventure in craft, energy, and again relentlessly twisting swirls of rabid sound and invention.

There is plenty more to say in praise of Smile Club but bottom-line is we simply adore it and feverishly recommend it to all fans of noise, psych, punk…well any lover of fierce rock ‘n’ roll.

Smile Club is available now via Cedar Fever Records.

RingMaster 26/08/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Them Teeth – The Knuckledragger

There is nothing like a good sonic brawl to grab attention and get the blood rushing feverishly through the body, and that is exactly what you get with The Knuckledragger EP from US noise punks Them Teeth. The three track assault is an uncompromising and galvanic incitement for ears and emotions, one so potent that within a single listen it had permanently placed itself in The RR’s favourite violation list for 2015.

Its creators, Western Michigan trio Them Teeth arose in 2013, formed from the ashes of Supercontinent, Rough Rope, and Mean Mother by vocalist/guitarist Ben Roeske and drummer Adam Tatro. The following year saw the line-up completed by bassist Jason Harris and the self-release of a well-received self-titled demo containing six songs bred on inspirations of 90s noise rock and early 2000s Hydra Head Records encounters amongst many things. As that offering and now The Knuckledragger reveal, there is plenty more to the Them Teeth sound though, plenty of diverse strains of toxicity to savage and seduce body and soul.

   The EP seizes ears and appetite straight away with the raw, grouchy entrance of opener Hammslamm. Guitar and bass grumble with attitude and resonance first, their grudge backed by the firm handed swing of drum sticks. It is a controlled and predatory start but one becoming more volatile with every passing second, especially once the caustic vocal squall of Roeske spills animosity. Acidic infectious grooves soon vein the unrelenting stalking and pressure on the senses, the song’s raw rock ‘n’ roll constantly igniting greater hunger in ears and emotions, especially when it break outs Sex Pistols seeded riffs and hooks midway. Like Whores meets KEN mode with the sludgy venom of Nightslug but managing to be simultaneously unique, the track is a mighty start quickly matched by its successor.

Whitewash is lighter on its feet but just as aggressively imposing and energetically rebellious. Like a middleweight flitting round its opponent looking for weaknesses, the track swings hooks and rhythmic jabs before going for the jugular in raucously honed choruses. The raw rapacity of a Coilguns or Shevils comes to mind as the song continues to challenge the senses, spilling rousing contagion and rugged animosity with open relish.

The EP is closed by a thrilling cover of the Fiends track Packin’ A Rod and Them Teeth give it new life and character to dare we say actually outshine the original. It is noise soaked punk ‘n’ roll at its best with great backing roars from Debra Warren and Lara Tatro alongside additional guitar exploits from Mitch Anderson, a classic song given a face and body lift to rousing effect.

We can expect to hear plenty more of and from Them Teeth ahead, indeed they have a 7″ split with France’s brilliant Sofy Major via Detroit’s Corpse Flower Records on the horizon, and if anything matches or can actually surpass the outstanding The Knuckledragger we are all in for a thrilling bruising.

The Knuckledragger EP is available digitally and on Ltd Ed 7” vinyl from August 25 via Triple Eye Industries.

RingMaster 25/08/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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If I Die Today – Cursed

There is a torment in the heart of the new album from Italian post-hardcore band If I Die Today, and a tempestuous air which lives up to any ideas inspired by the name Cursed. There is also an invasive and at times punishing darkness and emotional trespass coursing through the veins of the encounter but equally an imagination loaded, gripping enterprise which ensures it easily stands out against any other similarly sculpted and bred offerings. Cursed is destined not to be for everyone, and will frighten many off with its searing intensity and emotion  but there is no escaping that it announces If I Die Today as one of the more fascinating incitements in the post and hardcore scene.

If I Die Today emerged in Mondovì in 2007 and by the early months of the following year had released their self-titled debut album through Wynona Records. The release enabled the quintet to tour their homeland and share stages with numerous bands, that success reinforced by the You Are Alone EP in 2009, again unveiled to strong and positive reactions. It was the same with second album Liars the following year, its potent presence luring greater attention and acclaim cross Europe, the band following it with shows across Italy, Hungary, France, and the UK as well as playing alongside artists such as Sum 41, Offspring, No Use For A Name, Simple Plan, Face To Face, Taking Back Sunday at Bologna’s Independent Days Festival. The band’s workload and reputation continued to grow as 2012 saw the release of the Postcards From The Abyss EP and If I Die Today playing with bands like Every Time I Die, Good Riddance, and H2O as well as going on a tour taking in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and venues back home. Since then more venues and countries have been scorched by the band’s sound, before and after the recording of Cursed last year, which with its worldwide release through Sliptrick Records sets a new chapter in the rise of If I Die Today.

     It’s opening handful of seconds are an inviting temptation but in no time Jesus becomes a searing sonic wind blowing over thickly jabbing rhythms and coming loaded with spicy hook lined enterprise from the guitars. Vocalist Marco Fresia roars just as swiftly and intensely in the tempest whilst the caustic breath and heart of the track is perfectly tempered by the magnetic lure of the throaty bassline from Morgan Ferrua and the controlled rhythmic dance cast by drummer Davide Gallo. There is no escape from the sheer energy and emotional turmoil of the song though or its flesh scarring sound with its virulent onslaught as gripping as it is intimidating.

In the sheer wind tunnel like delivery of the song there are essences of bands like Kabul Golf Club, KEN mode, and Statues in its creative adventure and tenacity, a potent mix continuing in Adams which is another instant arousal of attention and appetite with thumping bold beats and bracing vocals. Settling down a touch once established, though still a bruising confrontation, the guitars of Antonio Aresu and Michele Testa spin a web of raw aggression and intricate sonic seducing whilst the bass creates another deliciously alluring and individual line of bait. As its predecessor, the song is an epidemic of punishing and invigorating incitement, pure abrasive adventure to get your teeth into and drool over before it fluidly flows into Lucifer and its own exhausting tempest of scarring emotion and increasingly volatile and creative ferocity.

Through Patrick and Elisabeth, band and album continues to wither flesh and create emotional tension but again with plenty of fresh twists and adventure to their canvases. The first of the enthralling pair comes in a hostility lit slow shuffle with numerous expulsions of energy and vocal angst but also tendrils of flirtatious grooves and addiction breeding rhythms. There is no compromising with an If I Die Today proposal and no chance of being subjected to anything mundane or predictable as shown by this and its successor. Elisabeth maybe offers less uniqueness within the album than other tracks but it too is ripe with seriously enticing slithers and caresses of sonic ingenuity and melodic seducing, all resulting in less than two minutes of exciting violation.

Faustus borders on barbarous with its bestial weight of sound and energy but counters it with a tapestry of punkish hooks and twisted sonic imagination that simply whips the passions into a maelstrom of lust whilst The Ancient Mariner prowls the psyche and taunts ears with its fusion of noise rock and punk in stormy hardcore antagonism. Both tracks are glorious, adding their full thrilling and inventive weight to the unrelenting persuasion of the album.

An even fiercer punk venom courses through Vincent, the song openly revealing the inspirations of the band with its Every Time I Die meets Converge like onslaught. There is plenty more in the depths and brutish body of the song of course, lots to get greedy over before the album’s title track gives Cursed a whole new climate to explore. The band is tagged as post-hardcore but the closer is the one song which perfectly fits that billing, the rest a wonderful bedlam of styles and flavours. With a blackened and frosty air to its invasive ambience over hauntingly cold scenery, the track is an inhospitable drift through a dark and emotionally tortuous landscape compellingly bringing the album to a highly provocative and startling end.

Instantly gripping, Cursed only gets more powerful, persuasive, and emotionally penetrating with very listen. It certainly lingers and leaves scars in its wake too, but only to please and make demanding reasons to go back into its merciless majesty. If I Die Today is one of the truly exciting bands in the post and neat hardcore scene, Cursed shows exactly why.

Cursed is out now through Sliptrick Records.

RingMaster 12/08/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

William English – Basic Human Error

The most intimidating and thrilling cauldrons of hostility are those which spit and burn even before you get dirty and scorched within their blistering ferocity, and so it is with Basic Human Error, the debut album from UK noise violators William English. It is a release which singes flesh from ears and boils the senses from its first breath alone, only impacting and thrilling with harsher and richer intensity once you actually delve into the depths of the seven ravishments. The Norfolk quintet lit a fuse in the passions with their first single from the album Bud Vessel a couple of months ago, but hindsight shows its triumph barely scratched the surface of the wonderfully hellacious Basic Human Error

The William English sound is a prowling rabidity of doom enriched, tar thick sludge which is just as open and voracious with heavy strains of hardcore, noise, and dark metal. It makes for a menacing and uncompromising proposition yet one with an array of virulent toxic grooves and rapier like rhythms aligned to slithers of invention embroiled in anything from punk to noise to post punk. It is an invigorating and punishingly exhausting consumption of body and psyche, which only gets fiercer and more scintillating with every listen.

   It is Bud Vessel which lights the touch paper to the album, its two minutes plus of vicious addictiveness an instant onslaught of barbed hooks and spicy grooves encased in fuzz soaked, snarling causticity. With mercilessly stabbing beats from drummer Joe Woodbury in the driver’s seat, the track careers through ears with the squalling hardcore tones of vocalist Shane Miller an acidic burn in the hostile and contagious smog of the song. Stoner seeded grooves spring their bait throughout too, everything colluding to ignite ears and emotions in a blaze of cancerous temptation.

The opener is as much a punk roar as anything else and quickly contrasted yet emulated in many ways by Life Of A Fisherman. The song is a slowly invading protagonist, a crawling and persistently expanding threat initially which once settled kicks up a gear and unveils a masterful swagger rich with ravenous and inviting grooves around a volatile nest of barbarous rhythms. Spilling sonic ire and addictive lures with every passing minute of the track’s weighty length, guitarists Ryan Carter and Dave Vickers sear and ignite the senses and imagination respectively, their hostile invention, as across the whole band, forceful and riveting whether slowly trespassing through or raging with tsunami effect at the listener.

The epic assault finally makes way for a just as intensive examination from Seaweed, a track venomously lapping ears with steady persistence, and as the last, creating moments of sheer violence. The bass of Callum Gibb is a predatory stalker within the crushing weight and intensity of the song whilst vocally Miller uncages his full punk spite and expression, especially devouring the air with an effect covered might when the song slips into a cavernous, post punk spiced, doom soaked passage of insidious calm. The torrent of rugged riffs and rhythms provide a constantly evolving and nagging proposal but as other aspects around them are regularly unafraid to switch gait and hostility as the ever gripping drama of the grooves persist in their addictive tenacity.

     Captain Tugboat unleashes its own distinct violation next, bringing extra tang and ingenious unpredictability to a fury of hooks and toxic grooves in a presence which embroils torment and rage in one corrosive and once again irresistible animus of sound and emotion. As the album, at times the track sparks thoughts of bands like Eyehategod and Buzzov*en but equally of others like Coilguns, KEN mode, and Neurosis; raw whiffs just as suggestive in the following Grandpa Sorrow Pt. 1, another taking such elements and sculpting them into something solitary and predacious to William English. The track stalks the senses with a laboured but hungry intent from start to finish, eventually dissipating for A Monger to cast its individual sonic coaxing and bracing creative hostility. There is no escaping its slow encroachment and the subsequent raptorial explosions breeding mouth-watering savagery, nor the spellbinding effect of its unbridled barbarity in tone and sonic enterprise. Bass and the song’s truculent atmosphere provide a bestial embrace, the vocals an ever shifting in delivery and belligerence throughout whilst the guitars emerge carnivorous in invention and enthralling in craft for another viscous treat.

The album closes with the eleven minute sonic opus of Grandpa Sorrow Pt. 2, a full journey in its own right exploring every flavour and inventive corner within the William English invention, ability, and sound. It is as dramatically appealing and darkly ruinous as the world we live in, every passing second and twist a creative cacophony of raw seduction and jaundiced attitude shaped by fearsome tapestries of viscid sludge spawned ingenuity.

The track is a tremendous end to a thrilling first album from William English. Basic Human Error is sure to be an encounter seeing many fleeing for the hills in fear but similarly one to breed plenty of lustful hunger and stalker like attention for its creators. We are the latter and suspect we will be heftily joined in that club over the coming weeks.

Basic Human Error is available now via Grandad Records @ https://williamenglishband.bandcamp.com/

and http://grandadrecords.bigcartel.com/product/basic-human-error-william-english

https://www.facebook.com/WilliamEnglishBand/

RingMaster 01/07/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

 

Tvivler – Negativ Psykologi #1

photo by Mads Ogstrup Nielsen

A rousing of the passions like no other; that is probably the best description of the effect the debut EP from Danish noise punks Tvivler had on our tender ears. Bristling with four tracks of something between post hardcore, noise rock, and sonic ferocity, Negativ Psykologi #1 is a blistering trespass of rabid virulence, an addiction in the making for fans of anyone from At The Drive-In and KEN mode to Kabul Golf Club and Coilguns. Band and release has a sound and presence though which is equally unique from those suggestions, a personality and freshness of its own which translates as one of the most exciting debuts in recent times.

Formed last year, Tvivler (Danish for doubter) hails from Copenhagen and comprises the united talent from numerous other Scandinavian bands. Vocalist Thomas Burø is a member of Lack whilst bassist Morten Ogstrup Nielsen is part of instrumental progressive metallers Town Portal. Completing the line is guitarist Thomas Feltheim from Obstacles and drummer Morten Clausen, the pair also part of hardcore band Children Of Fall. The quartet bring an eclectic mix of styles from their other projects into Tvivler but yet again the band emerges with something wholly distinct from those spices and other propositions breeding a similar assault of sound.

   The first instalment in a 7″ trilogy, Negativ Psykologi #1 simply explodes in ears with the first breath of opener Almanak, guitars spreading a sonic rub quickly joined by raw and catchy riffs amidst scything rhythms as well as the scorching tones of Burø. There is an immediate contagion to the encounter, hooks and grooves uniting in a web of irresistible sonic flirtation whilst vocals squall with a just as gripping persuasion. UK band The Gaa Gaas spring to mind at times as the tones of Burø climb over the wiry strands of guitar, his magnetic pull the perfect temper to the carnivorous enticing from the throat of the bass and the emerging dance of surf and post punk imagination.

At two minutes it is far too short but in its brief presence an inescapable slavery of ears and emotions making it easy for the following Tænder to turn up the heat and passions. It too has no interest in offering a gentle entrance, bundling itself through ears in a ball of antagonistic bass and jangly guitar temptation courted by Clausen’s concussive beats. It is a thick assault of busy sound but with a clear centre from which Burø unveils the narrative with acidic prowess. Living up to its title, the song switches around with striking invention and rhythmic agitation, guitars and drum sticks a maelstrom of unpredictability to which the bass provides its own twisted grudge. With a whiff of bands like The Mai Shi to it, the tempest is an anthem to the primal and disorientated amongst us and quite scintillating.

Træfælder opens on a portentous ambience wrapping church bells, but an atmosphere taking less than a second to become a cauldron of unsettling suggestiveness leading to a furnace of guitar causticity and raw vocal bewitchment. As imposing and abrasive as the delivery of Burø and in turn the backing of the band are, they expel a ringing harmonious lure which is as seductive and disturbing as the kaleidoscope of psyche sucking adventure around them. The song’s title means traps and there is indeed no escaping the addictive hold of the song, another living up to its name and keeping ears with a greedy appetite chained.

The EP finishes with Tyndhudet, the harshest, most disorientating fury on the release. Each track within Negativ Psykologi #1 gets progressively rawer and violent, the closer bringing the release to a hellacious and abrasing finale. It is not all raw confrontation though, Tvivler again spinning a weave of infectious hooks and addictive grooves which just light body and imagination. Drums and bass are bestial it is fair to say against that alluring tempting but even they have moments where lust gets the best of them and they ease off a whisper to add fresh flirtation.

The track is a glorious end to a stunning encounter. Tvivler and their sound is not going to be for everyone of course but if those hints earlier get the juices bubbling and indeed post and neat hardcore as well as noise and punk rock too, then Negativ Psykologi #1 is going to bring some ecstasy to your lives.

Negativ Psykologi #1 is out now @ http://tvivler.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/tvivler

RingMaster 23/06/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

 

KEN mode – Success

photo Brenna Faris

Predictability has never had a presence in the sounds and imagination of Canadian noise wreckers KEN mode, though that in itself is something to be expected. Their caustic and furious brews of post-rock, hardcore, metal, and noise, to mention just some of their flavours employed, have ignited ears and imaginations with a tempestuous almost petulant creativity ensuring the band’s propositions are some of the most persistently and highly anticipated treats. The Winnipeg trio’s new album Success is no exception but this time it has taken a detour which definitely takes assumptions by surprise.

The band has gone back to explore the sounds and invention which were fermenting and fuelling the late 80s/early 90s when KEN mode began to sow its own sonic explorations. The album’s press release lists the album as paying homage to “both their Canadian Prairie roots, and a time when they first started to care about making music; the burgeoning grunge; and Touch Go/Dischord scenes of, with bands like Nirvana, Big Black, Cop Shoot Cop, The Cows, Circus Lupus, and Drive Like Jehu warping their teenage minds.” Listening to Success though you can go back further and find the seeds in predominantly post and noise punk with the album persistently sounding like a primal version of Gang of 4 on steroids. It is the band as raw and aggressive as ever, probably even more so at times, and still lyrically stirring up thoughts and emotional involvement, but it shows a new character and new compelling designs from the band which might not quite work for all but here is being greedily devoured.

     Recorded with Steve Albini (Nirvana, the Jesus Lizard, PJ Harvey) and recorded as a fully live and analog session, KEN mode’s sixth album opens with Blessed, a track which from its initial sonic whistle turns into a heavy bestial prowl. Simultaneously a swagger emerges in the grizzly tones of Scott Hamilton’s bass as magnetic jabbing lines the beats of drummer Shane Matthewson. Intimidating restraint replaces their predacious aggression at this point, the vocals of guitarist Jesse Matthewson crawling syllable by syllable with open ire over the addiction igniting web now in place. The song’s volatile instincts soon return to take rein though, almost insidious discord and hostility invading whilst binding excited senses in inventive and mischievous rancor.

The outstanding start kicks up another notch with These Tight Jeans, a song which roars and excites like an illicit union of Nirvana, Black Flag, and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Of course that is a mere hint to something unique to KEN mode, the track a rumbling, grumbling contagion of wiry hooks, spicy grooves, and rhythmic badgering. As ever the song is driven by fury loaded vocals but this time assisted by the excellent punk lures of guest Jill Clapham who just adds richer colour to the slimline unbridled furnace on the senses.

The Owl… follows the brilliance of its predecessor with its own gripping dark beauty. A sinister noir lit intrigue escapes the growling bass groove, its drama escorted by the similarly potent landing of drum sticks as vocals dangle their raw tone and narrative over the imagination. An air of Bauhaus wraps the absorbing lure and agitated swing of the song as guitars and bass spring an inescapable menace of a flirtation which only gets darker and more imposing as the emotive intimacy of cello from Natanielle Felicitas returns after first gracing the opener. The solemn gentle passage hugging her enterprise is soon a brawl of noise and intensity again before regaining control in a mesmeric finale which leaves ears and emotions in lustful bliss

The grungy turmoil of I Just Liked Fire explodes next, it too a rebellious blaze for ears and appetite to get lustful over as twisted discord and carnal noise collude to abrase and infest the senses whilst its successor Management Control, with greater restraint crowds ears with a thick resonating bassline and a tangy vining of guitar endeavour. The beats of Shane once again provide disorientating yet anthemic bait aligned to the predatory and contagious groans of bass but sonically the song is more involved and less instant with its catchy hooks and grooves. This is not to say the track is any less virulent than the previous songs, just a more intensive exploration with layers of waiting rewards.

There is a feel of Psychic TV to the following A Passive Disaster as its carnivorous basslines and caustic bellow gets right under the skin and into the psyche whilst Failing At Fun Since 1981 straight after, is punk belligerence at its blisteringly sonic and primitively rhythmic best. Both songs are a jungle of menace and bracing invention, individual noise riots to thrill and linger though they get outshone a touch by A Catalog Of Small Disappointments and in turn closing song Dead Actors. The first of the final pair is an uncompromising persuasion, its stalking rhythms and vocal angst entwined in the rabid theatre of guitar and lyrics. The track enslaves body and emptions with ease, threatening and seducing with every snarl and raw fingering of the senses before its successor takes over with a psychotic and darkly elegant Gang of 4 meets Wire like meander of sound and distress lined emotional reflection. The song is spellbinding, a long term journey taking itself and the listener on a traumatic and turbulently fascinating adventure.

It is hard to say yet if Success is KEN mode’s finest hour such its big enough departure to previous encounters reveals something openly and strikingly different but the seriously thrilling encounter is definitely a contender.

Success is available via Season Of Mist now @ http://shop.season-of-mist.com/predefined-search?id_list=102, http://kenmode.bigcartel.com/, or https://kenmode.bandcamp.com/album/success

http://www.ken-mode.com/

Upcoming KEN mode dates with Fight Amp

June 16, 2015 – Toronto, ON @ The Shop (Parts & Labour) w/The Great Sabatini

June 17, 2015 – Montreal, QC @ Turbo Haus w/The Great Sabatini

June 18, 2015 – Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus w/Pyrrhon, Couch Slut

June 19, 2015 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie

June 20, 2015 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups w/Lo-Pan

June 21, 2015 – Chicago, IL @ The Burlington w/GOBO’S CVIT

June 26, 2015 – Winnipeg, MB @ The Goodwill w/Pop Crimes, Teethmarks *no Fight Amp

RingMaster 16/06/2015

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Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net