Gorillaz - Gorillaz

The Gorillaz self-titled record was the first album that I ever owned. Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory (unfortunately) holds the title for first record ever bought, but Gorillaz was the first thing that I seriously jammed, and it was instrumental in developing my interest in music as a serious hobby. Back in the day I had this terrible transparent blue Aiwa tape walkman / radio combo, and I played the livin' fuckin' guts out of my crappy tape copy of this.

Most people are surprised I love Gorillaz so much simply because I can't fucking abide Blur. But, what drew me to Gorillaz first album was the thick dubby aspect underneath the pop sensibilities of the band's songs; the thick spine of bass and chunky, dusty drum programming. The dirty, mechanical rumbling holding together the melancholic "Tomorrow Comes Today" is a perfect example of the grimey, almost-VHS-like vibe of the rhythm section on this album.

Then there's, obviously, "Clint Eastwood", with all that bagged up sunshine, and the bizarre first appearance of Del Tha Funky Homosapien, the rabid "Punk", the epic "Sound Check (Gravity)" and the downright fucking awful "Latin Simone". From the raucious rock of "M1 A1" to the introspective, arcade machine tomfoolery of "Double Bass", the whole thing is dripping in dirty dub vibes, a trend which unfortunately did not continue on later Gorillaz recordings (despite the fucking glorious Spacemonkeys spin-off dub remix album, Laika Come Home).

Don't forget, kids - it's the music that we choose.

Joe Pesci - At Our Expense!

Joe Pesci play really blurry sounding fastcore, somewhere along the grind highway between sounding like Anal Cunt and (really) early Magrudergrind. At Our Expense! sounds like more of a demo than anything, but it is a great, yet sadly quite short, trip through a grinding world of total speed. Bones Brigade released this CD back in 2009 after some self-released splits/demos and a 12" four-way which the band appeared on around 2007. After the release of this album, 4 years ago now, Joe Pesci seems to have dissappeared into thin air. It might have something to do with The Afternoon Gentlemen being rather busy, but, hey, what do I know?

 

The first thing I notice about the sound here is that the drums are oddly panned to one side, with a slight echo of the track on the other side a split-second later. I'm not sure if the guitars and drums were recorded separately in a rehearsal environment and what I'm hearing is the drums bleeding through on the guitar track, but it takes a while to get my head around this confusing anomaly. Oddities aside, this CD is a fucking animal! The guitars are an endless blur, rarely stopping to break into the odd riff, and with the drums the standard speed is "blast, motherfuckers!", sometimes slowing down to a crust-punk kinda speed and sometimes even speeding up into gravity blasts. What is this, a death metal record? Ha! Check it out in the link belowwww.

Anal Cunt - Top 40 Hits

According to the ever-reliable source for information that is the internet, Top 40 Hits is considered a bit of a disappointment in the worldwide circles of AxCx fans (or at least it was upon it’s initial release date back in 1996). But, you know me, I don’t give a fuck about what the internet says (lawls, hardcore) because for me, Top 40 Hits shows AxCx at their messiest, blurriest best. Granted, this record is missing the offensive content that the band would become so well-known for (well, if you discount the fact that the band is called Anal Cunt, that is), but this is still a stone cold noisecore classic.

The first few times I heard this in my teens I wasn’t too sure what to make of the whole thing. Seth had it up for free download (possibly against Earache’s permission?) off his old website, back before AxCx reformed for a final time and Seth replaced his personal webpage with that of Wicked Sick Records. The first few songs are mixed so low that the first thing the record will have you doing is reaching for the volume control with a confused expression on your face. I have come to learn that these tracks were mixed this way in order to rumble the living fuck out of speaker cones, and maybe even damage them in the process. Cheers, Anal Cunt!

Despite the mushy, low-fi blur tracks that carried over from the previous LP (only on a much lower frequency, ha ha), we see the first budding AxCx jokey tracks. Tracks such as “Art Fag” and “Shut Up Mike” are a nod to what type of stuff was to dominate on future AxCx records. The best thing about Top 40 Hits however, is the full and amazing production that the band finally dedicated to their small selection of sludgey, doom-metal paced tracks. Some of the best Anal Cunt tracks are their slow, Eyehategod-esque sludge epics. Seth Putnam is a fantastic vocalist, and to confine listening of his talents to just Anal Cunt is definitely a waste; the guy was an absolute legend, there is no doubt.

So all in all, Top 40 Hits does seem like a bit of a jumbled up mix of styles that don’t really go together; it doesn’t help that it seems that the sludge songs, jokey songs and blurry, old school noisecore songs all seem to have come from different recording sessions, which totally annihilates any chance this album had at attaining a flow. I think maybe that this is what put a lot of people off when it first come out; that AxCx had literally just thrown out a whole bunch of shit on one CD and called it a new album. But once you get over the flow issues, you can appreciate each parts for what they really are; fucking amazing! Ha ha! This was released on Earache back in 1996. 

I dunno why this vid has the old artwork for the Fuckin' A album attached to it - perhaps the uploader is a cretinous swine ;)

Anal Cunt - 5643 Song Ep 7"

What a horrible, horrible record! This is Anal Cunt's ridiculous 5643 Song EP, self-released by Seth and put out in Europe by TNT & Records and Stridecore Records. This is one of the European pressings, which is identifiable by it's slightly odd and perplexing rude artwork. According to scarce info available, this release was pressed continuously in 10 different colours, causing insane overlapping effects on some extremely rare copies. One obscenely rare version of a creamy marble effect is currently for sale on Discogs for £3800 (no joke, but the link might die if some idiot buys it)! I was lucky and I managed to get this for £25.

Musically, side A starts off with a sinister slow riff before bursting into a barrage of Anal Cunt's old school noise attack, multiplied sixteen fold. For those not in the know, there are sixteen tracks playing "songs" at any one time. AxCx recorded all drums, vocals and guitars into one track and then repeated the process fifteen more times. How else would you fit 5643 songs on one 7" spinning at 33?

It's easy to pass this off as a novelty but do not forget that this is a piece of noisecore history; Anal Cunt's good effect on grind and noise stems from these years, and while they were to canter into more questionable territory later on in their career, people need to stop and not forget about this era of AxCx's music - they were once more than that band with the nasty / hilarious song titles, they were helping to shape genres.