Snuffgrinder - Snuffholic

Ever since I decided to include CDs on Lines In Wax about a year and a half ago I have looked forward to reviewing this album. It's purely one of the most unique things I have ever heard, and every time I scanned my shelf for something to listen to whilst at work, Snuffholic would catch my eye, but every single time I'd think to myself "hmmm, maybe next time". Well, finally that "next time" came around and I took this crazy little fuck out to the car with me for 7 hours of raining hell. I'm not sure if it made my shift better or worse! Ha ha!

 

Snuffgrinder is a very unique project with a very unique sound. I guess it falls under the usually-horrendous "gabba-grind" genre, but without the usual ghastly pitfalls of that particular sound. The best (and most alienating) way I can probably describe Snuffgrinder to the uninitiated is to imagine Libido Airbag crossed with Aphex Twin and a DJ in a fetish swingers club or something....Ha ha! Yeah, that's about right. There aren't really "tunes" here as such, any synths or instruments are very mininal, as are the sparse vocal performances, the entire thing is driven by a pile-driving drum machine barrage of pain, death and anguish. Swans' Holy Money-era nail gun experiments ain't got shit on this motherfucker! Some of the drum hits sound like fucking gun shots, I'll just put it that way.

This album isn't very long, but when you think of it as 14 tracks of pummelling drum programming, it's plenty long enough; it's enough to give anyone a permanent fucking headache, in the best way possible, of course. I'm not sure of the rarity of this release as I got it through a trade years ago, but it was put out on Apathic View Records back in 2006. 

 

Some facts to finish up on: Snuffgrinder is/are from Poland, and when he/she/they talk of snuff, they are talking about tobacco, not snuff films (so readeth thy booklet: "SGR has nothing to do with a crap called 'snuff movies'. It's all about tobacco."). Also, QNZ - the guy who runs Rotten Roll Rex - guests vocals on track 2. Check out some Snuffgrinder carnage in the link below!

 

NUH - Remixes Hideous Miscreation

I've not heard the source material for this remix, but I'm not entirely sure if I need to, if I'm honest. The thing with remixes of this nature is that the songs are usually so mutated from their original form that they have become brand new entities in their own right. Mixing gabba techno with awkward synths and nifty, sneaky little drum'n'bass passages, NUH really makes a fucking meal out of whatever source material Hideous Miscreation left to be devoured. Shit, I dunno whether to get up and dance or fucking smash my house to pieces. What a dilemma!

Side B continues the madness, opening straight up with more gabba brutality. Jeez! I'm proper loving this shit! Gonna be checking out more stuff by NUH in the very near future. Out thanks to Legs Akimbo Records, who seem to specialise in this unique brand of gabba-orientated punishment, and limited to 110 copies on evil black wax. Get in!

Venetian Snares - Fool The Detector

I got this nice little EP when HMV still sold vinyl at decent, affordable prices. I think it was fiver, so you can't argue with that (April 2013 Edit: I actually got this from Spillers Records on my birthday last year. Sometimes it's hard keeping track of where I get all this crap). As far as Venetian Snares goes this record is pretty tame, there is a lot more ambiance and nice synth sounds than usual. The spazz-happy beats are still here, but seem a lot more laid back than the usual brain-melting fair of snare rushes and irregular bass drum palpitations.

It reminds me a lot of The Aphex Twin in parts. I know this will get Snares purists' panties all twisted but it really, really does sound rather similar. The way this was put out is also a bit weird. It seems that Aaron Funk has started his own label (on which this is released) called Timesig, but Planet Mu controls it behind the scenes. It seems a similar set up to the deal Bill Steer and Jeff Walker had with Earache Records.

Venetian Snares - Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole Part 2

Initially, I was puzzled to why the WIAFS album was split into 2 parts on vinyl. I could live with it, but it annoyed me nonetheless. When I espied part 2 for cheap on Discogs, I snapped it up. Little did I know until this arrived (go me for researching properly) that these two volumes are just two tracks a piece; one on each side. Man that sucks! I guess it was an easy way to release four singles off the record for DJ consumption, or something. But shit guys, call it something else, will ya!

The tracks here are "Winnipeg Die Die Die Fuckers Die" and "Winnipeg as Mandatory Scat Feed"; excellent tracks in their own right but not the half an album that I was expecting. The tracks on this record seem more gabba orientated than anything. Well, when I say gabba orientated I mean that it's the usual Venetian Snares mindfuck affair with the addition of some phat, distorted 909 kick drums. Bitch please, this is hard work!

Nevertheless, I am a sucker for aural punishment and I enjoy this release, short as it is. This seems to be out on the efforts of Bang A Rang (an imprint of Peace Off records), and I'm pleased to say has full artwork printed, unlike the Planet Mu pressings of most Venetian Snares stuff. If you've never heard Snares, here is probably a good place to start.

Venetian Snares - Miss Balaton

This 12" is absolutely massive! Every time I put it on the bass on this Planet Mu pressing literally shakes my house! This is a prime example of electronic music cut onto vinyl; I would gladly use it to put all the analogue-or-die vinyl fans in their place, that is if I was cool enough to know people who could possibly argue over that thing.   

I was excellently blessed with this for free by someone who was trying to get rid of Snare's Meathole record on Discogs. They were offering this up as a bonus for the purchase. The title track is wicked awesome but my favourite is side B's "CCUK" (one of the highlights of Aaron's set at The Fleece in Bristol recently) which has excellent samples adorning the frantic fuckfest of breakbeats and plaster-loosening bass. 

Chug down some MDMA and have a little rave in your living room to this bastard!