Diminished Men with Damage Mécanique (2182 RECORDING COMPANY kHz-1009), fine set of guitar instrumentals with added chunks of noise and production malarkey to update the “surf noir” genre for the dark reaches of the 21st century and bring in welcome elements of science fiction, psychological undercurrents, and kosmische-psych aspirations too. First heard this great Seattle combo in 2016 with their Vision In Crime album, but already late to the party us as they had debuted on Abduction Records (home to Sun City Girls, natch) in 2009 with Shadow Instrumentals and were apparently launched to stellardom thereby. Besides the connection with Bishops Rick and Alan, there’s also links to Climax Golden Twins, Seattle’s finest troupe of art rock geniuses, and the mad violin sawyer Eyvind Kang.
Steve Schmitt is the lead guitarist and Dave Abramson the drummer (and also mix engineer on this occasion), plus Simon Henneman on bass…feeling strongly on this outing that the band have a shared “vision” of their musical exploits, and if not that then certainly a clear idea of their image as expressed in group photos and artworks…close-lipped about it they be, harbours of dark urban secrets which can only be played out in these delirious night sweats, these blackened dreams in which the dreamer remains oddly alert and conscious of troubling events spinning out of control. Would like to invoke Chrome and MX-80 Sound at some point, but nearer the mark might be the Sewer Zombies with their second LP Conquer The Galaxy from 1987, an overlooked tiny masterstroke of science-fiction gone wrong art-rock with squiddling synths…and what’s this? Do they also cut-up their own work? “Collaged with menacing electricity…” gushes the press note, while it whispers of musique concrète as they tell us “the raw materials are broken up and reassembled in their crude private facility”.
If this be so, no doubt it’s another factor in the high-intensity excitement factor of this great LP, but first and foremost there’s the superb playing (taut, lean, muscular…like two pounds of fresh bacon) and the imaginative compositions too. What’s not to like? Investigate at once, armed with requisite razor blades, visor, and radioactive haz-mat suits…(28/02/2023)
Satan Is My Brother is an Italian group, possibly a four-piece, who for some reason I get mixed up with Dream Weapon Ritual, another Italian combo who have appeared on this same label and have some overlap with their shared occultist themes. We haven’t heard SIMB since 2008 when they debuted on the Boring Machines label in Treviso. I see they’ve released two other albums since then, but How Far Can You See? (DISSIPATIO diss013) is their latest, with its subdued and symbolic cover art trying to sell us something about the power of vision to see far below the surface of real things and perceive the mind-bending truths hidden within. Although they do use a certain amount of trance-inducing drone and ritualistic whispering voices, this group are mostly an instrumental combo playing trombones, sax and clarinet on top of epic-thrashy bass and drum figures, with liberal amounts of creepulating synth floatery to join the sinews. Their brand of murkoid diablery won’t win any new recruits from more conventional jazz quarters, but the group are learning how to deploy their instruments in a reliably spookoid manner, achieving decent atmospheres and hints of scary things to come. Kind of like a more doom-heavy version of Movietone, without vocals (apart from the required distorted mumbling voice samples, of course).