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Best of 2020

Keeping it trim this year because no one needs to hear about it. These are the records that kept things afloat in 2020, and while I recommend them all, I’d like to highlight the Native Cats’ Two Creation Myths 7″ as thee best/my favorite record of the year. Please keep supporting artists, record stores and concert venues if you can. I can’t wait to buy you a beer at a show in the future. Until then...

10. PROTOMARTYR, Ultimate Success Today (Domino) 9. V/A, Respect the Unexpected - In the Age of Sci-Fi LP + CD (Kashual Plastik) 8. PERMISSION, Organized People Suffer (La Vida Es Un Mus) 7. BLACK CURSE, Endless Wound (Sepulchral Voice) 6. LEWSBERG, In This House (12XU) 5. KA, Descendants of Cain (Iron Works) 4. SLEEPER & SNAKE, Fresco Shed (Lulu’s Sonic Disc Club/Upset the Rhythm) 3. KOMARE, The Sense of Hearing (Penultimate Press) 2. PRIMITIVE MAN, Immersion (Relapse) 1. OILY BOYS, Cro Memory Grin (Cool Death)

Six more:

C. LAVENDER, Myth of Equilibrium (Editions Mego)

GEN POP, PPM66 (Post Present Medium)

KOBRA, Confusione (Iron Lung)

P22, Human Snake (Post Present Medium)

PATOIS COUNSELORS, The Optimal Seat (ever/never)

TREASURY OF PUPPIES, s/t (Förlag För Fri Musik‎)

12″/7″/Cassette

MOSQUITOES, Minus Objects 12″ (ever/never)

SIAL, Tari Pemusnah Kuasa 12″ (La Vida Es Un Mus)

ALGARA, Enamorados Del Control Total 7″ EP (La Vida Es Un Mus)

APPARITION, Granular Transformation 7″ EP (Profound Lore)

HEALER, Resurgence 7″ EP (625 Thrashcore/From the Head of Zeus)

THE NATIVE CATS, Two Creation Myths 7″ (Rough Skies)

PRUTSER, “Netels” b/w “Derealiteit (Alles Wat Ge Denkt, Zijt Ge Zelf)” 7″ (Stroom)

GLEN SCHENAU, “Jhumble” b/w “Jearnest” 7″ (self-released)

C. LAVENDER & AARON DILLOWAY, Secret Destroyed Instantly CS (Hanson)

DEPLETED, Wretched Decay CS (GreySun)

STOMACHACHE, A Certain Uncertainty CS (self-released)

Digital only releases

BBYMUTHA, Muthaland (self-released)

BLACK NOI$E, OBLIVION (Tan Cressida)

KITCHEN’S FLOOR, “Expiry” & “Before Dawn” (self-released)

LA SUFFOCATED, Dust, Fungus and Blasphemous Thoughts (self-released)

MSC & THE BODY, I Don’t Ever Want To Be Alone (self-released)

Komare, The Sense Of Hearing (Penultimate Press, 2020)

This is not for everybody. Or any time. If you thought the music of Mosquitoes was indecipherable, brace yourself for Komare, a project involving two of the three members of the aforementioned band with an even more minimalistic, abstract and puzzling sound.

The ideal setting to experience The Sense Of Hearing, I guess, would be a sensory deprivation tank. The idea being that, as the title suggests, you would rely strictly on your sense of hearing to enter a completely alien world, probably similar to a fever dream or a particularly dark psychedelic experience.

While listening to this apparently meaningless mishmash of pulsating drones, electronic squeals and primitive, inarticulate voices in a daylit room, one might even find it occasionally funny. The two sound like children playing around with a couple microphones and various machines, breathing and clicking their tongues and mumbling and speaking gibberish over layers of static.

At the same time, there’s a whole different dimension to it: the idea of reaching the very source of sound and communication, a primordial soup of bubbling electronic chaos, taking away every foothold and letting your brain roam free between alternate universes. When the last, epic excursion between hissing blades of sound and distant calls on side B ends, you’re left confused, with a tangy taste in your mouth, as if you’d been licking a sheet of aluminum for the last forty minutes, and a new appreciation for the wooden, earthly warmth of music. It resembles an intense DMT trip, where the real sense of bewilderment and awe comes after the experience, when your brain starts processing reality normally again.

Like I said, it’s not for everybody. It’s a journey, an exploration and a reflection on the chaos that is life on Earth. It may also just be two people having fun with the raw materials of sound and I may be forcing meaning onto something that has none. It may be what we do all the time with everything. If everything is fiction, might as well take a trip into the grey, barren, but unique landscape of Komare.

Click here to listen to side A of The Sense Of Hearing on Bandcamp.

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#grrawr #recordreviews #komare #penultimatepress

A month in year-end list purgatory

January was unintentionally dedicated to discovering last year’s hits from the usual deluge of year-end lists. The lists might be self-important exercises, but it’s a feat these days to block out the constant din and zero in on what actually resonated. Cheers to the usual suspects who’ve tipped me towards these five pieces of plastic that shouldn’t be left in 2018′s dust.

Komare, “Got to Stop Me” b/w “Hot Tarmac” 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone)

For all the blathering I did about I Dischi Del Barone last year, I stopped short of grabbing the Komare 7″ the second it came out. Komare is 2/3 of Mosquitoes, taking the fractured dynamics of the latter and bending them toward more industrial ends. Their tape on Round Bale Recordings was good, but it seems that they saved the two best tracks for IDDB, both sides full of dripping drum machines, shadowy disembodied voices, and, on “Hot Tarmac,” the death-hum of a synth. While different in approach, the murk on this single reminds me of my other favorite record from this group, Mosquitoes’ MOS-002 single-sided 12″ - and if you know how fast that one disappeared, you know to scoop this Komare 7″ right away. Samples of the two tracks can be found here; grab a copy in the US from Careful Catalog.

More Klementines, s/t LP (Feeding Tube/Twin Lakes)

All-instrumental affair described as “Appalachian Krautrock” by the band, and nothing I write after that is gonna get you anywhere closer to understanding the far-reaching sound on More Klementines. It’s a nominally acoustic affair across the two side-long tracks, but the specter of electronics hangs overhead, at times smothering the whole trio. The album has the lived-in feel of music made by people that have a preternatural connection: there’s no rush, movements falling gently into and out of place, momentum optional. The A-side is the better of the two pieces on the LP, but both sides are a fitting soundtrack to the dazzling cold white days and early coalblack nights. Sold out from Feeding Tube, but Twin Lakes has a couple copies of the limited-to-124 LP left.

Itchy Bugger, Done One LP (Low Company)

Confession time: I’d not actually checked out Diät until these last few weeks. (Better late than never - new track “We” is a total banger.) Consequently, I’ve also been blind to the likes of Heavy Metal and Itchy Bugger, the latter being the solo project of a member of both of the aforementioned. Done One is full of earworms disguised as sketches or quick takes, like “Just a Minute, Man” or “La Vida Es Un Freak,” such that more traditionally structured songs like “Good For Nothin’ Man” and “Next Time I Fall In Love (I Won’t)” just about bowled me over the first spin through. The Bugger owes plenty to the Aus/NZ regional pop cuisine (I hear lots of Peter Gutteridge myself), right on down to how a well-placed falsetto refuses to let the surface-sad songs slump into self-pity. This record would’ve forced some room near the top of my own 2018 year-end list, but I’m making up for the unforced error by frothily recommending it to anyone who makes eye contact with me now.

Hissing, Permanent Destitution LP (Profound Lore)

The death metal resurgence ‘round the world is real. For my money, Copenhagen sports the best scene, but the western US has been bringing some serious heat. Seattle’s Hissing is one of the finest practitioners, melding the dizzying technicality of Portal with the lumbering, crushing riffs of Northless (see: two and a half minutes into “Cascading Failures”). They don’t lean too far in either direction, and having only three members ensures that things never get too claustrophobic or muddy, a problem that tends to plague death metal. Permanent Destitution is almost spare in its balanced approach - check the space the frantic drums are given at the end of “It Without More” - but leaves one aching, like an undetectable assailant. The scene in Seattle seems pretty grim, heroin abuse on one extreme and swarms of tech bros on the other, so Hissing waste no time on theatrics. Instead the band obscured themselves behind what was likely the most tightly executed death metal album of last year, the soundtrack to a sinkhole big enough to solve the problem. Sick logo, too.

Gong Gong Gong, “Siren” b/w “Something’s Happening” 7” (Wharf Cat)

Shout out to Matt K. for his regular updates to Yellow Green Red, and for alerting me to the fact that someone (Tom Ng, the guitarist) from the Offset: Spectacles is still kicking around. The lone LP from the Offset: Spectacles is a prized possession here, and luckily the first vinyl release from Gong Gong Gong keeps up the Velvets-without-percussion sound perfected on that album. The urgency is upped significantly with this new project: “Siren” is a droolworthy Bo Diddley rip, spinning off its axis around the three minute mark and never making it back down. The tempered attack continues on the all-instrumental flip, losing little of the savage energy provided by the vocals on “Siren.” It’s a brilliant niche the duo has carved out for themselves, so it’s an easy decision to part with $11 to step foot on the new terrain. The air’s real fresh over here. Can’t wait to see what else is in the tank from these guys.

#Komare #More Klementines #Itchy Bugger #Hissing #Gong Gong Gong #I Dischi Del Barone #Feeding Tube Records #Twin Lakes Records #Low Company #Profound Lore #Wharf Cat Records

Absolutely brilliant new LP from Komare, out now via Penultimate Press. The band, consisting of Dominic Goodman and Peter Blundell, is 2/3 of Mosquitoes, and until now have mostly been living in the shadow of their sister band. The self-titled tape by Komare was good, and I liked the waterlogged Suicide vibe of the 7″ on IDDB better, but neither prepared me for the immersive and melted The Sense of Hearing. The sound falls somewhere in between the more abstract songs from C.I.A. Debutante’s The Landlord and Maurizio Bianchi’s Regel or Endometrio. Unlike C.I.A. Debutante, there aren’t really beats to keep things afloat, and it’s not a full fledged grey-out like Bianchi provides. What emerges is a deceivingly precise and measured album of mind-bending electronic density. Clipped moans hover to the surface, and static swirls and dissipates as deep bass tones drone beneath. Single out any track and the effect is muted; sit through an entire side and it’s smothering, almost calming in how The Sense of Hearing distorts reality and provides an audial dose of secondhand weed smoke. Each side builds up with an almost maddening patience, and if you blink you’ll miss the point; attention is rewarded, as is volume, and if you wanna get high that’ll only help, but Komare’s got plenty to go ‘round. The erudite approach and execution of the band is impressive, but the effect of their music is as mentally freeing as it is demanding. It’s been the sound of summer 2020 around here, the most reliable way to unwind after days increasingly filled with and defined by uncertainty. Like the label says, The Sense of Hearing isn’t “necessarily one for the beauty seekers,” but for those in dire need of a truly deep trip, look no further. Stunner!

Listen to side one of Komare’s The Sense of Hearing on Bandcamp, and grab the LP there or direct through Penultimate Press (scope that limited-to-30 “reverse edition” LP!). Digital Regress also has copies in the US. Mosquitoes put out a new record, Minus Objects, this year, too, and in my estimation it’s their best yet; listen and buy that direct from the tastemakers at ever/never records.

#Komare #Penultimate Press #Mosquitoes