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Mondo Cada - ST
Live Reviews...
Mondo Cada are an interesting proposition to behold. While confident enough to present their influences front and centre from the outset (previous comparisons to Mudhoney are more than apt), they are careful enough not to let those influences engulf them. This appears to be achieved mostly through sheer volume (an early request to the 'turn everything up to 11' is duly honoured). Tonight they ramp up the hardcore quotient of their set, screeching and squalling through a lightening fast riposte to all the(..)titans that have gone before.
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..a variety of tripped out stoner rock..recalling the cataclysmic power of Part Chimp, or Hey Collosus, or to place it more historically, Black Sabbath, or Black Flag, they're impressively intense and rock out some seriously bizzare melodies and sounds... |
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Sourvein / Blood Island Raiders - Heavyweight Black 7
Limited to 325 Copies - Includes Free stuff. See below.
This 7" brings together 2 previously unreleased tracks from America's Sourvein (Black cloud Revelations) & Great Britain's Blood Island Raiders (Phobia).
Additional to this due to me running out of room to stock any more records, each and every Sourvein / Blood Island Raiders 7" comes with a FREE copy of anything from the "New Releases" section (Excluding Mondo Cada & Sourvein / Blood Island Raiders 7") while stocks last. This is ONLY available through Calculon Records DIRECT. Just put what freebie you want in the paypal notes.
Not got a record player? See the Vinyl CDR option in the menu. |
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Gorse - The Slumber of Artemis
Imagine, if you will, a scuzzy Chicago/San Francisco dive with bits of wee on the walls and piles of sick on the floor. Steve Albini's at the bar, haggling over his Cinzano and soda; Cows' set just ended and you're waiting for Hammerhead to finish setting up. Yup, this is scuzz in a good, old fashioned, scabby AmRep (Amphetamine Reptile Records) style. Having heard frontman James' previous band's treacle thick sludge onslaught, this was not what I was expecting to hear at all.
This sandpaper rough sense of twisted melody permeates the length of the record and serves to puntuate juggernaut riffs and compliments James' angry-pissed-bloke bellow (He seriously sounds like the bloke from X at times). When not being sensitive and whimsical (ok, ok, the quieter, less shouty, more sinister bits), and they hit their jagged, lurching groove, Gorse sound fucking HUGE. Shards of open-string sparkle serve only to make the listener feel lacerated, as well as the subject of an unwanted stepchild style beating. Certainly not nice. In fact, nothing about this release is nice. It's fucking ugly sounding. If amps had a custom "unpleasant" dial, Gorse would have maxxed it out, naturally. |
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UFO Gestapo - ST
Hailing from Marseille, South of France this Hardcore / Sludge outfit have got a massive sound and songs to match. check out the media player on myspace for a sample.
reviews to follow soon |
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Jesus Of Spazzareth - Kill The Blasphemer Tape
See The CD Albums Section Too
Resurrected for the third time, Jesus Of Spazzareth finally present us with their first release 'Kill Him, Kill The Blasphemer' after 4 years of trying, courtesy of Calculon Records. For those not familiar with the band, a couple of members of Bumsnogger started a fun hardcore mob, but were plagued by the joviality and sometimes sloppiness that inhabitated early gigs. Coupled with a revolving cast of drummers and bassists, left them cast in a not so favourable light at times, despite their best efforts and raucous gigs.
However, things are looking up, with a settled line-up, new songs and more serious approach. Mainly dealing with the d-beat, old school hardcore with a filthy sound, a polite nod to thrash (check out the guitar solo that opens 'Stab Twist Kill'), and topped with a rock 'n' roll swagger, Jesus Of Spazzareth dish out 12 tracks that have been trimmed of fat and excess, and get to the point. The 2 vocalists approach works well with both having distinctive voices, and it's great to hear the English accent come through, when many favour to ape that of our friends across the pond. Lyrically, a wide range of subjects are covered including social issues like drinking, friendships and the d.i.y music scene, and also broader issues like military history. Intelligent stuff, indeed. The use of well-chosen samples at the start of each song lighten the mood in between the slabs of raging hardcore too.
A sterling début effort that buries the ghosts of Spazzareth's past, and deserving of a spin on your CD players.
White tape limited to 25. This tape is mono |
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Jesus Of Spazzareth - Kill The Blasphemer CD
SOLD OUT SOLD OUT
See the Tapes Section Too
Resurrected for the third time, Jesus Of Spazzareth finally present us with their first release 'Kill Him, Kill The Blasphemer' after 4 years of trying, courtesy of Calculon Records. For those not familiar with the band, a couple of members of Bumsnogger started a fun hardcore mob, but were plagued by the joviality and sometimes sloppiness that inhabitated early gigs. Coupled with a revolving cast of drummers and bassists, left them cast in a not so favourable light at times, despite their best efforts and raucous gigs.
However, things are looking up, with a settled line-up, new songs and more serious approach. Mainly dealing with the d-beat, old school hardcore with a filthy sound, a polite nod to thrash (check out the guitar solo that opens 'Stab Twist Kill'), and topped with a rock 'n' roll swagger, Jesus Of Spazzareth dish out 12 tracks that have been trimmed of fat and excess, and get to the point. The 2 vocalists approach works well with both having distinctive voices, and it's great to hear the English accent come through, when many favour to ape that of our friends across the pond. Lyrically, a wide range of subjects are covered including social issues like drinking, friendships and the d.i.y music scene, and also broader issues like military history. Intelligent stuff, indeed. The use of well-chosen samples at the start of each song lighten the mood in between the slabs of raging hardcore too.
A sterling début effort that buries the ghosts of Spazzareth's past, and deserving of a spin on your CD players. |
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Tiger Warsaw - 7 Track EP
Lincoln's own Tiger Warsaw are incredible, for all of their hard work gigging constantly and their history as part of Stabbed In Autumn, a band more famous for drunkenness than music at times, Dean, Tev and Lurch have shown with this band what they can really do.
Gloomy and introspective but at the same time uplifting and life-affirming, this, their first release on Calculon Records, is nothing short of brilliant.
From the opening delayed notes of 'Totoro' they launch into a post-rock inspired take on the 90s screamo blueprint, in a way that belies that description. The occasional vocals are something rarely seen in this genre, with only a few mumbled phrases and punctuating the end of the song with long screams they build an atmosphere like no other band.
The live shows often see the band playing right through their sets with no pause and the album feels the same, songs linked by split-second gaps or feedback, the production lets the songs shine for themselves.
On 'Endowed Divorce' Dean's vocals come across as though he has been possessed by some wandering savant, grumbling lines into the microphone with a half-detached air that makes him a unique prospect.
The delayed guitar intros are a theme here, starting several songs, building up songs from the foundations, like 'Priests In September' the song takes a quiet, calm introduction and springs a raging riff on the listener when least expected, and the overall epic nature of the band shows its colours, a comatose fug of sound envelopes the release that shows perfectly what you can do with a repetitive theme and an attitude.
The minute-long 'Bars' shows a burst of speed from the three-piece before the general strut is resumed again for closer 'Portugal'.
The band won't thank me for all this praise, their modesty is something they are famed for, but Tiger Warsaw are one of the best UK bands I know, and this release simply shows that. |
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Slomatics / Agent Of Morai - Split CD
SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT
The EP leads in with three tracks from sludged up Irish doomers Slomatics. Having bought last years 'Kalceanna' EP and being pretty much completely blown away by it I was expecting good things here and there's no denying that the three piece have delivered the goods again in spades here. Heavy as you could possibly want with their Matamp driven low end pummeling, the clever use of dynamics within the song writing and refreshing use of an actual singing voice rather than a scream/roar continue where the previous release left off in setting Slomatics apart from the majority of their peers. What you basically have here is a 'slow doom' band a la Stumm and their ilk with their 'three chords a minute' mandate but played twice as fast. that may sound like a total contradiction but I don't really care. The songs are well thought out, never lose your interest and really do make you have to think to come up with a direct comparison as the scope involved stretches well beyond your bog standard quiet bit/loud bit dynamic. Stand out track for me is probably the brilliantly titled EP opener 'Doometronome' although this is probably as it's the most similar in feel to their older material and I have a sneaking suspicion that the slower, more atmospheric parting shot of 'Under Canopy' may be starting to inch ahead in the ratings.
The final two tracks for your perusal are from Leeds based sludged up groovers Agent Of The Morai. I'm less familiar with these boys having only heard one song previously but again, what I'd heard had left a lasting good impression and they've certainly not let me down anymore than Slomatics have. Both tracks are rollicking sludgeathons from start to finish sounding like a blend of Iron Monkey's stonerish grooving 'Our Problem' best and Charger's slowest, nastiest dirges. It might well be cheap to throw those two names at this band but along with fellow Calculon sludgers A Horse Called War, AOTM aren't just counting off the reference points here but really taking everything to heart and laying it back out as their own with the bouncing Sabbathesque grooves taking the lead much more so than almost any other sludge band I can think of for ages, especially on closing track 'Stained Glass'. The results being a hell of a lot more enjoyable and (arguably more importantly) memorable for it
Slomatics
1 - doometronome
2 - hello megaphone
3 - under canopy
Agent of the Morai
4 - memento mori
5 - stained glass |
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A horse Called War - Stumble At Every Hurdle
Debut EP from A Horse Called War.
SOLD OUT
Another sludge band that sound like Iron Monkey and Eyehategod? Do we need anymore of these bands? Well, when they sound as good as A Horse Called War, then yes, we bloody do. The blueprint is familiar, thick dirty riffs ranging from feedback drenched funeral dirges to foot-stomping fist in the air stuff, vocals full of bile and an overall feel that makes you want to cause serious damage to someone, or something. However, rather than sounded like a band treading over common ground, they deliver something that sounds fresh in a genre that can get bogged down in its own swamp.
The most obvious musical comparison would be Charger, as suggested on the review to their previous EP on this very website, as they have that same knack of knowing how far to push a riff or a passage before it gets mind-numbingly repetitive, and some of the doomier moments bring to mind another fine UK band, Lazarus Blackstar. The 5 tracks on offer weigh in at around 35 minutes, which is just right for this style of music, otherwise you find your attention starts to drift. A special mention must go to the final track 'Bodil Joensen' , in honour of the leading lady who featured in a notoroius underground porn film from the 80s called Animal Farm. The track also features the vocal talents of Martin Ives from Charger, and a feedback ridden ending, where the drums and bass carry on the main riff. Textbook stuff. Highly recommended to all fans of sludge.
Includes Mpeg Video |
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Stumm / Taunt - Split 7" Vinyl
SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT
I originally released this a few months ago but because of the piss poor vinyl quality i had to get it repressed. its now sounding and looking exactly the way it should.
This is over 14 minutes of the most evil thick sounding sludge / doom you will ever hear pressed to heavyweight black vinyl.
Stumm was formed in Turku in the autumn of 2003 to play slow, primitive and hateful sludge. Influences are not limited to sludge alone, but range all the way from punk/hc/crust/grind and death/black/doom metal to drone/post-hardcore and death industrial/power electronics.
After some appearances in different projects back in the days, Taunt was formed early 2006 to play slow and primitive sludge.
Stumm - 2x6
Taunt - I
Pressed on heavyweight black vinyl, limmited to 200
Not got a record player? See the Vinyl CDR option in the menu. |
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Castor Troy - This City Will Destroy Us - CD
"We don't all wear bowler hats, or hire servants, more like 24-hour surveillance and dogshit on the pavements" - 'My London' by Lady Sovereign.
We are in a state of honesty in this country, 'rock and roll' is a propagated myth and people are actually telling the truth; now Lady Sovereign may well be the quintessential brat that garners hate from the general public, but at least she is speaking her mind...
Now why start a review by Coventry grind/fast/hardcore mixed bags Castor Troy, with a quote from what is essentially the opposite end of the musical scale? The reason is Castor Troy are peddling the same message entirely, living in the city or indeed the country is no bed of roses, and the claustrophobic architecture and blitz-smeared history of their hometown has obviously rubbed off on them.
With a good few years under their collective belts as a live band, this all-too-brief ten minutes shows what they can do, packing in frankly more riffs than the average band do in an hour, from the opening firework display of 'Love... I'm So Tired' with its accusing pointing-finger raison-d'etre "I've got nothing to show you" hinting at what is to come, which is ten minutes that will scare most.
'We Are As Birds' comes into play before you know what you are doing, and the soaring, almost epic second half is uplifting, bringing to mind a rushed Isis or Converge at a slow point. Before you can really start to feel anything else, they segue into blastbeat-ridden 'The One About The Dead Girl', packing in lines like "we've become everything we hate" showing the general self-loathing that this band exhibit a scary amount (their myspace title reads "Probably the worst live band you'll ever see...").
Next follows the longest track on offer, 'Fourth. First. Sixth.' which is slower paced than the rest but lets go none of the brooding, gravelly loathing that this band are really fucking good at. A swift kick to the balls starts the title track next, with tech-sounding finer tapping on offer, showing the immense production you can really hear everything through, especially the stabbing chorus (if such things exist here).
Personal and live favourite 'Wake Up... Its Starting' follows with its stop/start staccato awesomeness and is gone before you know it. Closer and lyrical summing up of this chaotic and frenzied release - "When people want to say/ Something truthful/ They tend to lie to avoid people thinking/ Different of them just because they are being honest" - now if that is not a statement of intent, I don't know what is. |
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Bumsnogger - Alcohol and swine
SOLD OUT... SOLD OUT...
Kicking of with the scuzzy up-tempo bluster of 'Big In Germany (Still Shit)' the first thing that strikes you about the new material is a certain groove that isn't present in a lot of Stoner/Sludge type stuff. Don't get me wrong it's not like they've diluted the sound, the filthy riffs and screamed/growled vokills are still all present and correct but by the time track two 'Cockfight' rolls around you'll find yourself tapping your toe along with some well handled and just plain rocking riffery. 'Darklord' slows things down a bit starting off with a crawling bass riff and then when the rest of the band kicks in there's still that undeniable sense of dynamics and actual songwriting, rather than the noise for noise sake approach that many Sludge bands adopt to mask a lack of originality. Hell, 'Darklord' even has a chorus that's almost (dare I say it?) sing along, in a 'put on your best Metal face throw the horns and scream yourself hoarse' sort of way. 'How I Became The Town Slut' is next out of the blocks and starts with a subtle melodic progression, into a slow groove, before exploding into a speedy mid section that settles down again for the finale, great stuff. 'Alabama Snakebite' has an undeniable punky edge to it, with it's initial race to the finish pacing that drops to a nice slow grind at the mid point and doesn't let up until the last riffs have been wrenched from the instruments. Closing track 'Whitney's Crack Den' (great title) is 10 seconds shy of 8 minutes and approaches more familiar Sludge territory
if you're after a slab of well recorded, superbly structured Sludge that isn't afraid to throw in a truckload of groove, dynamics and (whisper it) melody into the melting pot then you couldn't go far wrong with picking up a copy of 'Alcohol & Swine'. A fitting epitaph for a UK band unafraid to mess with the sometimes tedious restrictions of genre.
SOLD OUT... SOLD OUT... |
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Church of misery / Sourvein - Split
SOLD OUT - SOLD OUT
An exclusive release to Calculon records
This features two of the biggest sludge / doom names on the planet.
Both contributing 1 track per side:
Sourvein do their best to make everything slow and nasty while Church of misery pick up the pace for their own take on a cover of May Blitz's for mad men only
Pressed on pure white vinyl, limited to 500
Side A - Sourvein - Doldrums
Side B - Church of misery - For mad man only
Europe tour Oct / Nov 2006
Not got a record player? See the Vinyl CDR option in the menu. |
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Lazarus Blackstar - 7" Vinyl
Lazarus Blackstar is the perfect release for the changing of the seasons. As the beach towels are folded for the last time, the familiar smell of sun cream and ice cream becomes a distant memory and while the trees lose their greenery, Calculon records make it all the more bleak with this concrete-like release. Forged from ex-members of Khang (an amazing band) coupled with the recognisable tones of Paul Catten (Murder One, Medulla Nocte, every UK band under the sun), this makes for an incredible combo.
This 7inch, on very attractive red and black marble splatter-effect vinyl is a brilliant follow up to the recent album 'Revelations', it sounds incredible and manages to squeeze two long dirges into its thick grooves.
A-side, 'Make Believe Master' is a triumph in slowed down, stripped-bare doom, the guitar tone is a trademark of theirs and fully vibrates its way into your psyche. Although Catten's half-screamed, half-moaned lyrics feature very high in the mix, and tend to be the main focus, they do not detract from a band hell-bent on denting your frontal lobes.
Even more slowness presides over the second side for the mental-asylum moan of 'The Anaesthetic Stopped Me Screaming' which drags and drags, but in the way you'd want music like this to. Go any slower next time lads, and you'll be falling asleep mid-riff!
www.ninehertz.co.uk
Pressed on black/red marble effect vinyl, limmited to 300
Not got a record player? See the Vinyl CDR option in the menu. |
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The Legion Of Doom / MotherTrucker - 5 Track Split CD
SOLD OUT
Who needs singers? Prancing about stages the world over, tossing their proverbial orb about like they're God's gift to microphones... "Bollocks to that!" is the almighty war cry this towering split CD issues to us all. Take heed, readers.
Nottingham's very own Legion Of Doom (possibly the most straightforwardly metal band name ever conceived) open proceedings with the delightfully titled 'Brown For John'. This insistent fury of riffage drills its merry way into your skull right from the off, bringing to mind the monstrous likes of Mastodon and Keelhaul. Not once do you expect to hear a croon or a roar throughout 'Manifesto The First' or ahem, 'Tennis Bastard'. And with shredding like this on offer, why would you want to?
Mothertrucker might sound like a revved-up Fu Manchu songtitle, but this Birmingham quartet promise nothing of the sort - this is thick, lumpen, doom-laden steel of the heaviest order. The first of their offerings, 'Creeping Leffe', does just that - a quirky, QOTSA-esque riff slowly builds over a solid beat before dropping several tons of metal on to your poor, unsuspecting head. 'Smooth Vulture' looms for even longer, psychedelic waves of effects-drenched guitars swoop and dive over an ominous tom pattern, leading up to another unusual riff onslaught. Heavy.
This CD is a mighty fine example of how the underground can surprise you - the instru-metal revolution might leave several hundred vocalists kicking their heels, but when it sounds this good, fuck 'em! |
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Charger / Black Eye Riot - Split 7" Vinyl
Split 7" Vinyl On Transparent Red
This limited coloured vinyl brings together Stoke-On-Trent sludge giants Charger and the harsh-punk of Swansea's Black Eye Riot.
- Charger's "the amputee" opens at a furious pace which is opposed to their usual lurching sludge. The cacophonous vocals rage over the raw production before the song devolves into a dirge that reminds me of Fistula and gives me the sensation of being crushed. after the song has ended it is like a bomb has gone off and feedback is all that remains in the smoky aftermath.
- Black Eye Riot's two tracks are pure unadulterated hardcore punk violence - a collision of aggro, bruises and bitterness. "Battered by elephants" is like Discharge on crack trying to control a gas tanker with no brakes - loud and lethal. the production is of similar quality to their full length and couldn't be more suited to the band's style. i made some notes while listening to this and the final comment was "ear holes have been raped"... Load of Noise Magazine.
Pressed on transparent red vinyl, limmited to 500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6TZc14bvAU (Bitchslap Vid)
Not got a record player? See the Vinyl CDR option in the menu. |
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Among The Missing / Bumsnogger - Bum The Missing - 7" Vinyl
Done especially for the "Bum the missing tour 2005"
Two great examples of how a combination of strong booze and a bad attitude can result in gloriously loud and filthy music. Bumsnogger may have an appalling name, but their twisted sludge is guaranteed to send you creaming towards the off-licence. Among The Missing are altogether darker and more unhinged, like a council estate Black Flag whacked out on 'ludes. Doom-laden fun for all the family. Catch them on the 'Bum The Missing' tour now... Kerrang magazine
Pressed on transparent pink vinyl, limited to 300
Not got a record player? See the Vinyl CDR option in the menu. |
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