JK Flesh - Nothing Is Free EP

Dense, thick, industrial beat loops is the order of the day, from the excellent JK Flesh project. Nothing Is Free seems to have dropped completely the guitar elements that so heavily caressed the beatwork on recordings such as Posthuman, in favour of bringing the beat entirely to the centre-stage. Nothing Is Free is not dissimilar to the work produced by Mick Harris in some of the more transitional and experimental eras of his excellent project Scorn.

This record is, ultimately, an experiment in distortion; which not only cloaks the proceedings in a sinister air of mystery, but allows the songs to breathe and expand; allowing much more interesting patterns to emerge from the aural fog. Expect throbbing, rhythmical progressions, sometimes accompanied by sparse synths, although most of the time the beats stand alone, demanding all of your attention. Brilliant stuff. 

Favourite track: "They Own You"

Necro Deathmort - Martian Cartography

Martian Cartography is an excellent album release by the criminally under-rated experimental duo Necro Deathmort. Mixing catastrophically heavy atmosphere with intelligent, progressive electronic work has always been ND's forte, but on Martian Cartography, I find that this approach to sound design has finally had chance to spread its wings and fly. In some respects that means that this record isn't as hard-hitting or droning as something off Music Of Bleak Origin or earlier, but the duo more than make up for it on the journey that they help take us on.

The opening track "Repeat-O" - and also, I'm sure not coincidentally, my favourite track, "The Ultimate Testament (Remix)" - both have pulsating beats carrying them; a clinical industrial backbone to a sparse electronic worldview. Other stand outs for me include "Cold Sleeps" and the muted closer, "Terra Cimmeria", which has a relaxed, almost deep house feel. 

Originally released as a download by the band themselves, this was eventually pressed onto CD by Extreme Ultimate.

Libido Airbag - Sleaze Servant

Sleaze Servant is the new EP from long-time techno-gore-grind filth mongers, Libido Airbag; a "band" so balls deep in scum and vulgar sounds that even your gran loves a dance to some of their older tunes. They've hardly pumped out volumes of material in their long existence, but the fact that they can still develop and spew out fresh sounds in such a restrictive genre is a testament to gore and porno grind, especially the latter, which often gets bogged down with oceans of crap digi-bedroom projects. Please ladies and gentlemen, just because you've found out how to work a drum machine, it doesn't mean you can't start a fuckin' grindcore band.

But I digress. Sleaze Servant is exactly what the title promises it will be. Whilst a layer of filth has definitely been peeled away from The Airbag as they have progressed into the HD world; those old, minging recordings from the past were a lot sketchier than the pristine techno instrumentation on this record. Don't get me wrong though, it's still mankin' as absolute fuck; the title track and "Black Mark Of The Iron Phallus" are examples of Libido Airbag at their titty-clamping best (edit: what?), whilst "Rectum Ritual" and "Praise The Placentagram" are filthy, delicious, and I guess in a really twisted way, just pure fucking genius. 10/10 for nastiness!

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

Caustic layer upon layer. Saxaphone meets blastbeat. Noisecore meets lounge. Rumba, oompah, slide, shake, swing, mosh, grind, kill. Disco Volante; secret songs, leftfield, experimental, techno, disco, rock, electronica. Sophomore, confusion, exclamation, subtlety, song within a song within a groove within a phrase within a suite. 

Mr. Bungle's second record is by far their most difficult to get into. It offers a level of inaccessibility that is surprising even for a band whose sole purpose seemed to be to experiment and push boundaries. The tracklist reveals that there are somewhere in the region of eleven or twelve songs on this record, but to me the entire thing just sounds like one trip, where, for the most part, "songs" are indistinguishable from each other as they either blur into one or are broken down into so many parts it's hard to keep track of what is what. A perfect example would be "Carry Stress In The Jaw", a loungy jazz number that collapses head-on into speeding thrash and irritating noise rock, before closing out completely for the geriatric-sounding waltzing of the innate "Secret Song" (which is also part of the same song). Yeah.

"Desert Search For Techno Allah" and "Violenza Domestica" seem to be a ten minute suite of weird noises rather than coherent songs. In the latter, Patton yells random Italian phrases over a classico Italiano composizione (and I just racially stereotyped far worse than this track itself) before the rest of the record blurs together into a mush of spazzy outbursts and meandering background noise. Just as any hope of getting into a particular groove or nuance arises, the entire thing uproots and shakes off the previous approach, delving into something new before your tiny mind can comprehend it. 

Endless, morose, insane, distant. Close. In your face. Loud, quiet, fast, slow. Intense, soft, lush, abrasive. It's like bugs crawling around inside your head it's like bugs crawling around inside your head it's like bugs crawling around inside your head it's like bugs craw}}..'[[=]////////////___

Ahumado Granujo - Splatter-Tekk

Now this is a weird one... 

Ahumado Granujo (which translates as "smoked pimple" in Google Translate) are a band that I was turned on to after seeing their mental live performance at OEF 2013. They play dirgy, pig-snorting goregrind along the lines of RazorRape, Eardelete and fellow Czech countrymen Destructive Explosion Of Anal Garland (who might actually share members with this band, their sound is very similar). The biggest stand-out difference with Ahumado Granujo from other goregrind stuff is the fact that the tracks are interspersed with maddeningly unusual (and perhaps unnecessary) bouts of techno music. 

I don't really get it; it works live but on a record the techno parts seem to serve only as breaks from the goregrind, and are fairly worthless beyond that purpose. Anyways, if you farking love goregrind then you'll farking love this, techno or no techno. Bonus points to those who can pick out the sneaky Twin Peaks sample in the first few tracks.

Libido Airbag - Knee Deep In Her Pussy

Welcome to the album that got me banned from the Vinyl Junkies group on Facebook! Haha! 

There was some spat happening on there over the use of the nude female form as album artwork. The usual pros and cons were discussed, where the line between pornography and art lies etc. etc., and I argued (quite sensibly, I would like to think) that no matter what the image may be, if the band or artist has chosen that image to represent their sound, it becomes art. It is irrelevant if the image is crass, offensive, moving, beautiful or plain boring. It is now art. A lot of people argreed with me so I posted this record sleeve as a kind of hamfisted example – and was promptly booted from the group. LOL!

But fuck those prudes, this is German techno porno gore grind, bitches! I’m here to dance, not moan about nudity! This is by far the most lo-fi of all Libido Airbag releases, and it is often mistaken for the band’s debut album, but it’s actually a collection of two tape demos. It was released on CD and went out of print many, many moons ago, but Goatgrind Records did the scene a massive service and re-issued the collection on vinyl record for the first time.

Side B has a much better sound than side A, as it’s from a different session. All in all I listen to this album much more now that I have a decent pressing of it; the already muddy sound was crapified even further in dodgy mp3 downloads that I’ve possessed in the past. This pressing was fairly limited to, I think 200 copies, so if you’re gonna get it, I’d get it sooner rather than later (you ever seen the price on out of print Libido Airbag vinyl?).

Rock out with yer cock out!

Alec Empire Vs. Merzbow - Live CBGB's NYC 1998

Christ, who's idea was this? Mixing gabba-techno / industrial kingpin Alec Empire with the father of harsh noise, Akita Masami would surely result in a cacophonous cocktail that would make the world end in any other given circumstance. Somehow the earth didn't stop turning, and instead we are treated to one of the craziest collaborations in musical history in all it's glory. This is quite probably the most coherent thing I've heard Merzbow being involved in. Empire's spastic beat programming and bass warbles dominate the forefront of the performance, with Merzbow's harsh noise attacks bringing up the rear, fleshing out the higher echelons of the audio canvas. 

It's kinda like what Libido Airbag would sound like if their members were originally from Ramleh instead of GUT. I've not heard awkward synths and industrial terror mashed together so uncertainly since Greed-era Swans. Obviously, the 'harshness' of the harsh noise has to be a little scaled back for Empire's parts to even get a look in, but even when it's Merzbow's time to shine, he seems to focus on broken, stuttering loops and staccato, stabbing distortion in lieu of punishing walls of wailing static. There are some clever references in the song titles here, such as "606: The Number Of The Beast" and "Curse Of The Golden Angel". In case you didn't know, this references Curse Of The Golden Vampire, which was another short-lived bat-shit-crazy-random supergroup featuring Alec Empire, Godflesh's Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin of The Bug / King Midas Sound fame (I know, right?).

Whoever thought up this collab might have possibly been smoking a lot of meth at the time, but it fucking works. If you loved Masami's Merzbeat, Aqua Necromancer or Door Opens At 8am albums, or even his Merzdub collaboration with Jamie Saft, then you've probably already heard this. If you're an Alec Empire fan, I don't see why you wouldn't love this either. Everyone is a winner! 

Data Shit - Reconstruction Deformation

Now this is really nice - imagine combining the sounds of gabba techno drum programming (but slowed down a touch) with the random ambience of early Warp Records electronic music like The Aphex Twin. It's kinda like a drum'n'bassy Venetian Snares making sweet, sweet love to Optimus Prime, at varying BPM.

"Time Is A Disease" is a beast of an opener, with moody synths and epic piano lines, before it bursts this EP open with a flurry of garbled electronica and blasting 909 beats. "At Least We Have McDonalds" is a scatterfuck of a track, incorporating elements of dubstep into an already chaotic sound. "The Ghost Of My Girlfriend's House" is as close to straight-up Snares worship Data Shit can get, before closer "Hypertrophy" is a simmering mirage of operatic samples and grindcore-grade drum programming. What more do you need?

I've tried looking up more about Data Shit but have so far been unsuccessful. You can stream and download the entire EP over on Torn Flesh Records. 

Crowbar Abortion - MK Ultra

This is a classic of the Myspace days, recently revisited by myself as it's now been uploaded to Torn Flesh Records' first Bandcamp page (they have four Bandcamps (is that a word? lol) loaded to the gills with all sorts of crazy shit). The world of Crowbar Abortion is a strange one: dancable beats and random electronics mash somewhat excellently with flat-out drum machine grindcore, raspy, distorted vocals and shredding guitar solos (yes!). 

Don't let the shitty cover artwork put you off, this is one hell of a record. It kinda reminds me of The Kovenant, if you crossed them with Enemy Soil and, I dunno...Invasion-era Gigantic Brain? It's all a bit mental and can be a lot to take in on the first listen. I don't really know how well this has aged seeing as I loved it when I was a young 'un and I might be a little bit biased, but if you like your music sporadic, challenging and quite simply dripping with insanity, then I'd look no further for the time being. 

Press play, I dare you.

DJ Senator - The Bassline / Roll Down Bass

Excuse my carpet.

This is a sticky-labelled 12" that I bought 2nd hand when I was experimenting with scratching back in the day (lol). I'd gotten a Ministry of Sound deck for Christmas and I needed some 90s-to-the-max shit to scratch and test pitch correction / matching on. As expected, I failed triumphantly at this shit and gave it up pretty quickly, although I did find it fun to scratch random records now and then, something which I have given up entirely since I've gained a serious respect for the vinyl medium.

The music on this 12" isn't particularly challenging or interesting in any way (both songs are based around THAT d'n'b beat - you know what I'm talking about), and if it wasn't for the school disco female vocals, the tracks could be ambiguously played at either 33 or 45 for a myraid of different atmospheres and effects. At 33, and devoid of vocals, it isn't a million miles away from Gyral / Stairway era Scorn. 

For some reason I can't bring myself to throw this away, although it has absolutely no value whatsoever. There is no Youtube available for this, so instead I'll offer you this useless tidbit of information: this was released on a Earache sub-label called Sub Bass Records in the early 90s when Earache was trying desperately to break into the d'n'b and rave scenes. Drastic.

Mortiis - The Grudge

Whilst this is entirely on the other end of the industrial metal spectrum that I prefer not to get too close to, The Grudge was one of favourite records as a teenager. Over the last few years I have learned that there is a lot more to industrial than crappy guitars layered with crappy dance music and ripping off old Nine Inch Nails tracks, but that's another story. Mortiis' first Era 3 release was a puzzling mix of awkward techno and fuzzy metal, not a hundred million miles away from The Smell Of Rain, but so far removed from any of his Era 1 music you'd swear it was a totally different musical genius at the helm. Nope. Mortiis is one of those artists that has evolved in sheer leaps over the last 20 years.

I like The Grudge, don't get me wrong, but compared to The Smell Of Rain before it, it pales in comparison. The Smell Of Rain had such a distinct and wonderful sound, but The Grudge, whilst it has it's moments of sheer brilliance, is for the most part clumsy, badly mixed and lacking direction. It is equal parts amazing and awful. The over-all vibe is much more angsty and rougher around the edges (it's almost like this album should have been made first, and The Smell Of Rain should be it's more focused and chilled-out follow up) but some of my favourite Mortiis songs are on here. Opener "Broken Skin" sounds like it's been mixed by a 4 year old, but that doesn't stop it being one of the greatest Mortiis songs, writing wise. "The Grudge" is the song that got me hooked into this album with it's constant rotation on Scuzz TV; a clanking dancey nightmare that unfolds into some serious industrial metal heaviness.

 

The longest track here, "The Worst In Me" is a brooding nightmare of riffs and synths, and the first few minutes of "The Loneliest Thing" is by far the best shit on this record; it starts with a cool, semi-acoustic opening with resonant chords fighting over fluttering hi-hats, leading into some heavy drumming and haunting vocal performances. Sheer, sheer brilliance. Closing track "Asthma", is a quick nod back to the days of old, fading the record out with a couple of minutes of nothing more than meandering, hollow ambience. Bliss.

I originally bought this on CD with my first ever paycheck back in 2005 (who can forget what they bought with their first paycheck?). I got the "Mortiis pack" off Earache Records, which was the entire Mortiis-on-Earache discography and a crappy Earache t-shirt, but they made a mistake and sent me two copies of The Grudge (one being the special edition) instead of a copy of The Stargate, and I had to send it back for a swap. In hindsight, I probably should have said it was missing, flogged it, and got a free copy of The Stargate. Oh well. Recently the label have been selling these old vinyl copies of The Grudge off for £7 including postage, so I couldn't resist picking one up. I was hoping for the bright purple but I got the clear.

Check out "The Loneliest Thing" below; the first few minutes are just beautiful.

Scatman John - Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)

SKI BA BOP BA DOP DA FUCKIN' BOP NIKKA

A bit of a jokey post for you, considering it's April Fools and all. Despite the ridiculousness of the content, this is a genuinely canon Lines In Wax post and has been added to the Collection page and everything. Ho ho! I got this alllll the way back on January the 2nd when I was helping my buddy Phil out at his job recycling textiles, and I saw it sitting on the shelf in a charity shop for 50p. For the sheer lulz that followed in the van for the next 5 minutes or so it was worth the money, especially since I wouldn't tell him what I'd bought; I guess he thought it'd be really heavy or something. Ha!

 

I remember back in the day when this was on every radio station and in rotation at every school disco the length and breadth of the UK. I don't particularly like the song, I'll be honest, but there's something about that cheap 90s dance vibe that really takes me back, y'know? Next thing I'll have the 12" of Cotton Eye Joe or something. Shit. That'll do. Fuck this. I'll see y'all tomorrow!

Total Fucking Destruction / Skat Injector - Split 7"

Wowzers, what a noise! Ha ha! I got this split because I am slowly making my way through collecting the Total Fucking Destruction stuff. I'm not've really been that familiar with Skat Injector, up until now that is. Neil from Legs Akimbo was a legend in finding an unsold copy of this split for me, as this shit is pretty limited now. The TFD stuff here is just some live versions of well known tracks of theirs, but it's the Skat Injector side that really shines.

It's got a centre-hole like Amy Brooke's arse.

Skat Injector is some crazy shit. I don't really know how to describe it; it's like a mix of every possible electronic genre in one big jumbled bag of super-fast, dancable insanity. I'm not sure if the record is supposed to be spinning at 33 or 45 until the vocals come in; it really works both ways, but the correct speed is 33 1/3. 

Released as a collab between Binjuice Erotica, Hirntrust Grind Media and Legs Akimbo Records. Check it out below!

Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do

Gah, don't you just hate it when 2 x 12"s are rammed into one non-gatefold jacket? Something about this just gets right on my fucking wick, son. If you're gonna fork out for a double album repress on heavy-as-shit vinyl then you might as well go the full hog and be good enough to include a gatefold jacket. This poor bastard is loaded to the gills with discs! Blinkin' heck Warp, it's not like you haven't got the financial clout to do so ;D

Anyway, on with the music! Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do is a mammoth electronic record of brain damaging proportions. What the hell is going on here then? Ha ha! You would literally be hard pushed to put anymore weirdness into this mixed bag of jarringly different tunes, "songs" and collages of noise. Equal parts relaxing, confusing, uplifting, inspiring and introspective, I Care... runs the gamut of the electronic music genre; pushing the envelope in all four corners at once. People tell me that the Aphex Twin is boring or not challenging enough...well I think those people have had a few too many knocks to the head! This shit is utter genius, hands down!

Boo! Hiss! Get it in a gatefold!

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die (Box Set)

Hello and welcome to the Lines In Wax 250th post extravaganza! It's taken just over two years (and just under 20k hits), but we got there in the end, eh? It only seems like yesterday that I was doing the 100th post special; I can't believe how fast time goes. Anyway, here's to the next 250 posts...it's safe to say I already know what I'm gonna do for the big 500th - now that's thinking ahead. Cheers all!

Holy mother, look at the size of this package! (That's what she definitely did not say). Whilst I question the point in splitting an entire album over a series of 7"s (didn't Botch do something like this once?) I gotta admit that it looks absolutely fucking cool as fuck. Granted, it is a massive potch changing the disc over after every single song, but I did play them all through once just for the sheer fuck of it. The Prodigy seem to release all their own stuff these days through the oddly-named Take Me To The Hospital label, which is a sub-label of the UK independent Cooking Vinyl. This box is a walloper of a collector's item as you can probably tell from the photos, and it includes 5 orange 7"s, a CD/DVD version of the album, a bonus CD entitled Lost Beats, a poster and a bunch of graffiti stencils in case you love The Prodigy a little bit too much and have to tag that shit all up over the neighbourhood.

 

 

Invaders Must Die is a strong record. I'm not sure if it really is the logical progression for Liam Howlett and co., but there are plenty of absolute facking bangers in this little box. "Omen" I'm sure you've all heard a hundred thousand times on the tele; on music channels, as background music on TV programs from 2009 and as the theme song for every single fucking cage fighter this side of the fucking atlantic ocean. "Thunder" brings massive dub wup wups and ragga-man talky-talking to the table, whilst "Colours" is catchy and fast enough to still be played to the sweat-drenched, ecstasy-guzzling rave crowd. 

 

My favourite song on this album though would have to be "Warrior's Dance", which opens up all epic and grandiose as fuck, before breaking into a filthy beat led by a squeaky-voiced female that seems to have fallen out of  a crappy hardsytle mp3 mix and onto this record. As a rule I normally hate the squeaky-voiced shite that is slathered all over bedroom-grade dance music, but we all know that this vocal style was stolen from the rave scene and guess who were big leaders back then....The fuckin' Prodigy! So it's ok for them to use squeaky voices in songs. That's logical right? My second favourite song is actually the mostly-instrumental "Omen Reprise", that for a bit, almost sounds like latter-day Gary Numan. Unfortunately for purists, this short track is excluded from the orange 7"s for some pointless fucking reason. 

Just as unfortunately, Lost Beats isn't up to much, but it does make for some half-decent background music. I think that the beats should have stayed just that; lost. Despite that, this package is absolutely awesome as piss, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless they were a ginormous Prodigy fan. But, if that were the case, they'd probably own this anyway. I would severely recommend picking up the simple CD version though; if you love a bit of electronic music, that is. Right then, time to wrap this up. I've got an evening of snorting charlie and driving my Kappa-wearing slut of a girlfriend around the Gurnos estate in my Vauxhall Nova to attend to. 

Adrenalin Junkies - Outcry

As I am sure many of you are aware, Earache Records went through a puzzling phase in the 90s, signing all sorts of rave, dance, gabba and electronic music to the label. One such short-lived act was Adrenalin Junkies. There isn't much to say about this bog-standard dance record, other than I got it for next to nothing one day when I was buying a whole bunch of shit from Earache. I'm not even sure if this is collectable to fans of the genre this is associated with, but if anyone wants it just give me a shout as I am willing to sell / trade this as it is of no value to me whatsoever.