VILE FAITH

 

Hardcore is supposed to be ugly, and VILE FAITH is fucking ugly. This is what hardcore punk is supposed to sounds like.....this is what hardcore punk is supposed to sound like. 

LOW BRED

TAPE FOR '_____' (#1)

 

Do I need to start from scratch and talk about the importance of mix tapes? The brilliance of a well crafted mix tape? This on was made for a specific person by another specific person, which is to say that it's not just a collection of good songs - it's a collection of specific songs by specific artists that a person wanted '_____' to hear in a certain way. Meticulous liner notes with background information where needed....everything is here. A '90s DIY/emo focused and Maryland focused tape that has THE HATED, SPASTIC RATS and (then unreleased tracks from) MOSS ICON sharing space with DON CHERRY, CAN and TALKING HEADS. Also making appearances: tracks from the elusive WFMU set from SLEEPING BODY, ODIE HAWKINS, FUNERAL ORATION, ROBERT FRIPP, RUIN and others. This is why we keep coming back. This is the magic shit. I wonder if there was ever a Number Two....

TAPE FOR '_____' (#1)

TERENCE HANNUM

 

An early solo work from Baltimore's TERENCE HANNUM (of AXEBREAKER, LOCRIAN, CITY OF LIARS and several others) presented as a soundtrack to La Répétition - haunting accordion and painfully deliberate guitars spread out over thirty minutes. It's winter in the Northern Hemisphere...if it's cold where you are or if it's cold in your heart, then you know what to do with these sounds. 

LA RÉPÉTITION

SHITDOGS OF WAR

 

I've been on the hunt for the second tape from Baltimore's SHITDOGS OF WAR ever since the abomination known as Songs Of Shit And Hate graced my earholes nearly twenty years ago. But if you are patient, and if you are open...then you might find it where you were never looking. There aren't many like this, and SHITDOGS OF WAR shine even among the few. Raw, messy, murky, irreverent, fierce....the sound of shit. In your ears. It's the way they did it that made (and still makes) them so special; I guess not giving an actual fuck makes all the difference. 

DISTORT FALSTON 

GREENEARTH TAPES

 

Not going to take up a ton of space talking about how important international tape comps were (read: are) again, instead I'll just let you know what's waiting for you on this 1990 slammer.  RESIST, NUNCA MAS and INSURGENCE representing the US (hard to believe no one has unearthed the INSURGENCE catalog for a fancy reissue...yet), SEDITION and CRITERIA from Scotland, plus European hitters like VERDUN (France),  STRAWBERRY (these Polish punks were new to me), SILENT WATER (Belgium) and AKIE MAU MAUS (Germany). Throw in Canadians HYPOCRICY and English crustlords DISASTER and you've got an hour of fucking rage that starts with "Dismember Nazi Scum" and ends with "Growing Greed." 

DIE FREIHEIT VOL.3

BODY COP

 

This was one of the first "current" tapes I shared in the early days of Terminal Escape. I revisited the band recently and....damn does it still hit. Noise drenched downtuned sludge dirges with vocals that sound like they've....like they've just given up. And this tape was all we got. 

BODY COP

BOY SPIT // EXPERT ALTERATIONS

 

A friend was downsizing recently, and jettisoned a few tapes to lighten his load (I strongly encourage this practice, especially when they are jettisoned into my open arms, because then they won't languish in obscurity....they will be loved and shared). In addition to a few doses of dark and/or sexual noise, this split from Baltimore was in the pile, and I keep returning to it, perhaps because I like hearing things that are different, especially if they are good. Both terms are relative of course, and "different" for me means primarily that this is just not what I listen to - mildly melancholic anti-folk, adolescent and unabashedly sweet. BOY SPIT have built their sound on a foundation of Lou Reed and Adam Green, while EXPERT ALTERATIONS have probably heard THE WEDDING PRESENT more than a few times, and both bands just kinda warm your ears up. "Dear Thomas should have ended the split, because it is rather magical, but I also don't mind a dose of magic in the middle of Side B. That is never something I will complain about. 

BOY EXPERTS

BLOOD RUST

Charm City hardcore punk - fast, churning, loose when they need to be, BLOOD RUST are to the point and in your face. Ten songs, Twelve minutes, zero bullshit. 

BLOOD RUST 

HUMAN MANIA

"Fields Of Destruction" is, straight up, one of the best noiz/DBeat tracks I have ever heard. Four damn chords delivered with just the right combination of starts and stops and hiccups and relentless fukkn noise, plus the requisite desperate howls presented as vokills. 13 minutes of unhinged DBeat noise, this demo is is at once "by the books" and groundbreaking - perhaps just because they execute with such deadly precision. Check the first 15 seconds of "Feigning Life," and then try to have a normal day. 

HUMAN MANIA

ELAGABALUS

At the risk of your world settling into a state of acceptance and/or complacency, I present Baltimore's ELAGABALUS. True freak synth psych/metal - there are guitars in there somewhere, but it's like GOBLIN and MONK MONTGOMERY reinterpreting one of those eyeliner mall metal bands.....dude, it's weird. After several trips on their journey, The Wizard isn't even sure if he likes ELAGABALUS, but still he keeps going back to the lab for more sonic research...and this is worth more than something - it is worth a lot. 

ANTIQUARIAN BLACK MIDI

IMPAIRED

Straight talk: "Shitstream" is a certified banger. Period. Such power in simplicity desperation, this song is an absolute crusher. I don't want this fact to overshadow the other five tracks that are about to bowl you over like a ten pin....but fukk that's a good song. IMPAIRED are modern day Singapore DBeat crusters of the highest order, a nod back to a partially forgotten time when folks didn't mind a good formula (who am I kidding? folks still love a good formula, it's just that the kids are globbing onto a different formula now) and we all clenched our fists a little tighter when we heard those Swede-bendies pop up in the verse. Once again, Black Konflik doesn't fukk around. 

MERDEKA

LOTUS FUCKER

You mutants know the drill here, right? Through countless membership changes and mutations, Baltimore's LOTUS FUCKER have been sporadically serving up ferocious noise punk for the better part of a decade...and it still cuts straight through the shit and draws blood. The shit is pure, the shit is weird, and the shit is not for the timid. Maximum volume, please.

THE PLANTED SEED: THIS TIME I WILL SHOW YOU HAPPINESS

CARRIE FUCILE

Vocal manipulations and adaptation presented as art. CARRIE FUCILE can describe her methods and intent far better than I can, so I will let her do so:

My interest lies in exploring what the hidden sounds of vocal recording can possibly tell us about unexpressed desires that constitute part of our attraction to popular music.

SUBTEXT

CARRIE FUCILE can be found here, and here body of aural and conceptual art is nothing if not interesting. I came about this cassette accidentally, but I am very very glad that I did.

STEPHEN BOOTH

A near hour of accordion drone, hesitant vocal trembles and tape hiss has never sounded so good. I got lost in this artist for a few hours upon accidental discovery, feel free to follow my lead. You don't listen to this tape as much as you sink into it, but I suggest you do both. Preferably alone.

ANCIENT BASEMENT

TERRENCE HANNUM

Weird dark drones set to the monotonous rhythm of a distorted hi hat make up the entirety of the first track. But instead of building up to a chaotic crescendo, TERENCE HANNUM spends the remaining three tracks on a tripped out cool down, blending subtle space age keyboards with a background of white distortion and, for one piece, piercing spastic digital frustration. "Final Salt" does its job as the closer, a dozen minutes of trying bliss that will put an end to your day before it gets off the ground.

FINAL SALT

KID KRUSHER

Spastic and challenging heavy synths are treated with heaps of analog disruption and schizophrenic arrangements on this 2009 cassette. Throw some hesitant rhythms that come across more like frantic pulsations than beats (that's when they aren't buried by the weird shit on top of them) and a booklet filled with photographs of aesthetic and/or societal carnage, and you have the soundtrack to a very stressful and challenging listen. KID KRUSHER did a good job, but all I can find from them (her? him?) is a myspace page that has a few songs from this tape. So yeah...get down.

GRINDER

FOUL CRUX

Frenetic hardcore with absolute purpose. Everything goes red (that's an emotional response and a physical description of the input signal) when the mid tempo fierce mosh in the third track is interrupted by a shriek of "PITRIARCH - PITRIARCHY!!" and that unwavering but still tongue in cheek determination personifies all five of these songs. I gather that FOUL CRUX is a side project of sorts, but I hope I'm wrong in this assumption...

FOUL CRUX

STEAMY WOLVES

Electronic percussion and tortured vocals combine to create a total mindfuck reminiscent of late '80s industrial/dance artists like REV CO, NITZER EBB and the like. But Baltimore's STEAMY WOLVES are more sinister sounding, more drenched in noise, and undeniably dark...and I can't shake the comparison to David Yow in the vocals. The music surges with violent intensity, while the vocals provide a tortured low end screech knocking the whole vibe even further off its axis. Fortunately Moist Lord is over in less than ten minutes, because as much as I fukkn love this, I am not sure how much more I could take.

MOIST LORD

SHITDOGS OF WAR

Noise punk shitkrieg, motherfuckers. Baltimore's SHITDOGS OF WAR go more than a few steps beyond pushing the boundaries of what we call music, and enter a realm that borders on pure nonsense. The closest musical comparison I can make is the SECOND AUSCHWITZ tape I shared last year, but more powerviolence and less politics. Most listeners will find the constant battle to find these tunes underneath the wall of hiss perhaps a little frustrating, but for those of you looking for a legitimately inept noise attack...I present to you: Songs Of Shit And Hate.

SONGS OF SHIT AND HATE

DECEIVER

A complete grinding noise assault.  Just guitar and drums, and it honestly doesn't sound like they have known each other all that long, but for some reason I am drawn to demo....it's like noise and powerviolence and grind and hardcore all deconstructed until there is nothing but the most raw energy and frustration left, and that power is being channelled by monkeys; perhaps primal is the word I'm looking for.  There are 11 "songs" here, in a total of just over 6 minutes...mind you, I am not claiming that this is good, in any traditional sense of the word, but Baltimore's DECEIVER are pushing the boundaries of music, and I fully endorse their efforts.

IWASLIED2