The terse, one-word description of Last Rights would be scary. This album scared the shit out of me the first time I listened to it. The second time I wasn’t as scared, just disturbed. The third time I thought it was the most original thing I’d ever heard.
Blasts of pure noise, pounding drums, church organs, and static all add to the unsettling atmosphere. Disembodied screams and distorted samples randomly appear in songs. My personal favorites are Love In Vein, Mirror Saw, and Download, which is an 11 minute song that’s very chaotic and random. It actually hurt my ears the first few times. Any band that can do that deserves a place in my all-time favorite artists list.
Serpentine Gallery is the long awaited debut from this San Francisco band. There is not one weak song out of the whole bunch. Serpentine Gallery quickly became one of my favorite albums.
The first thing you notice about this album is that it isn’t happy. The songs are all sad and melancholy. On this album, minor scales rule. Tina Root has this cool voice that can be really high and pretty or really low and wicked. And, for those of you who like electric guitar, there’s lots of it here, although it’s not out front and in your face. The electric guitars in Serpentine Gallery are rather subdued and quiet, kind of like "Oh yeah, the guitars. Um, let’s stick them in the background." If you thought London Bridge was a really happy kids song, wait till you hear it sung here.
I think this album is something to be in awe of for a long time. The songs on the Eyes of Stanley Pain are magnificent masterpieces of noise. Don’t expect anything that resembles a melody: Download’s music is purely improvisational and spontaneous. Totally chaotic. I get the impression they don’t have sheet music for these songs. Be prepared for sudden tempo changes in the middle of songs, noises where you wouldn’t expect them to be, and seemingly random samples. The vocals, when there are any, are haunting and sometimes so distorted to the point of being unintelligible. Awesome.
This is the weirdest stuff I've heard yet, and if you know the kind of music I like, that's really saying something. Late at night with all the lights off, this album becomes very creepy. Thunder Perfect Mind only has 2 songs, but they're both really long. It's also the companion album to Current 93's Thunder Perfect Mind, but I can't find that album anywhere so I don't know how it compares.
The first piece, Cold, begins slowly, with an odd chugging like a steam train engine. Then it explodes into a shrill horn going off before receding into a low, rapid pulsing. A high pitched tone joins in, followed by a smoke detector going off. More horns come in, and it starts to feel like a railroad crossing. The tension builds up, but then everything stops like the machine is broken. Finally someone fixes it; the pulsing continues and more sounds are layered on top. The song goes on like this for 23 minutes. A xylophone, a metal bar striking a metal bar, a dog barking, children playing, giant sheets of metal rubbing against each other. Random sounds mesh together into one big composition.
Colder Still isn't as intense, but it's still quite random. Lots of low bass rumbling and strange echoes, like the original sound was removed and only the echo remains. Slight, shifting tones over very rapid pulsing, while a bass drum slowly beats far in the background. Finally a tribal drum beat emerges. There are even vocals in this song.
There's a sticker on the jewel case that says "Uneasy Listening". Damn right. This is some crazy stuff. The first song, Innerwar, practically blew my subwoofer as a low bass tone was exhaled from it. A scratchy voice repeats "I have got to keep myself together, I have got to stay calm, I've got to keep my presence of mind, because as long as I do that, I'm gonna beat them." Then an invasion of metallic screaming, either tortured humans or a saw grinding away at metal.
This album is filled with unsettling bass rumblings and distorted voices. Lots of static and wailing. Happy Baby begins with a girl talking about her dad raping her, her tone of voice sounding rather non-chalant, and immediately after her monologue the song explodes into pulsing screams and evil voices yelling about something, as if showing the girl's real feelings.
Innerwar is an intense sonic experience. It easily rivals the infamous Japanese noise acts like Merzbow and Dissecting Table. It's also a cathartic experience, as anger will be relieved through listening to this. I can't imagine what Brighter Death Now's live performances are like.
