Spasm - Smear (1997)

The end of the month is coming up once again, so let's close it with a bang!

Bringing the bang for your buck is Spasm, a group consisting of Mark Spybey (Dead Voices On Air, ex-Zoviet France), Eric Pounder (Pounder, ex-Lab Report), Curse Mackey (Pigface, ex-Evil Mothers) and Invisible Records-owner Martin Atkins (Pigface, ex-The Killing Joke).

This collective goes for an hourlong attack with improvised noise rock. The tracks are constructed around Martin Atkins's somewhat unorthodox drumming, with a barrage of odd vocalisations provided by Mark Spybey. The main building blocks are the fragments of sound taken from the recording session; everything from guitar drones, blurred howls and feedback to the oddly timed speech sample.

I bet the drugs which were consumed before the recording session kicked in somewhere around the fifth track, as Ignorance is bliss marks the beginning of a psychedelic fuzzfest for the rest of the disc.

Although the improvisation is a key element of the band, it never spirals totally out of control and I think everything holds together really well. Although this big psychedelic mess can be a bit overwhelming at times, I still have to admit enjoying every second of the organised chaos. Distorted space rock ritual for the industrial age? Fuck if I know. It's atmospheric, "out there" and loud. What else do you possibly need in life?

Hope you enjoy!

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(95+45MB/320CBR)

James Plotkin - The joy of disease (1996)

The annual Midsummer's festival is up during the weekend. The Finnish people have a funny way of leaving their urban environment behind once a year, because Juhannus "can only be celebrated and experienced correctly at the countryside". Popular activities include lighting bonfires and consuming dubious amounts of alcohol. When you combine The Land of the Thousand Lakes with heavy drinking you end up with another highly popular activity: people drowning in those said lakes.

"So what's that got to do with anything?" I call bullshit on this highly popular holiday. I am staying at home. For once, Helsinki and it's surroundings are almost deserted. Time to dedicate my time to those good things in life.

If you've sampled any of the previous Plotkin-related releases I've shared, you've perhaps become somewhat acquainted with his guitar playing and sound deconstruction. Combining forces with Plotkin are Franz Treichler of The Young Gods and Mick Harris, providing additional samples and "atmospheres", with Ruth Collins contributing her ethereal voice in sung and spoken form.

It's hard to file this album under one particular genre, as it features such a broad spectrum of influences and different soundscapes.

Starting with the cold mechanized beats and heavy riffs of Casual murder, transforming into an almost cheerful vibe halfway through the track, which somehow reminds me of The love of life-era Swans, and ending with the looped guitar strumming and the menacing calmness of Disease as a child. This album has it all. Scattered throughout the nine songs is everything from trippy guitar loops, feedback manipulations, subtle drones and looped beats to dark ambience in the vein of Lull.

It all comes down to a form of escapism, really. I like to imagine myself and a few friends on a silent beach with the album playing in the background. Zoning out to this psychedelic and colorful album is a much better alternative than taking that final plunge into a dirty pond.

Hope you enjoy!

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(95+39MB/320CBR)

Terminal Cheesecake - Angels in pigtails (1990)

Don't worry, it can't get much crazier than 'Angels in pigtails'. This is another colorful acid freakout of epic proportions; A riff-filled wall of psychedelic noise, Funkadelic beats over a chorus consisting of hand drills, the right amount of crunch and punch covered with those human howls and wails bouncing all over the place. It even features a cover by the Residents, Hello Skinny.

As on the original CD, there are 11 songs (the ninth track consists of three parts) crammed into one track with 43 minutes in length. Because I'm a decent bloke, I've even included my version of a cue sheet for your listening pleasure (Feel free to split the tunes into individual tracks for portable players). Hope you enjoy!

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(94MB/320CBR)

PS: Once you're done here, this bloke has V.C.L. in decent quality, go and grab it!

Terminal Cheesecake - Pearlesque kings of the Jewmost (1992)

Often called the "love child of Butthole Surfers and Godflesh", Terminal Cheesecake are really hard to pin down and describe. Most of the time they are bouncing all over the place: heavy and relentless bass, massive amount of reverb, plenty of drug references and accompanying samples.

So if you have no problems with the aforementioned drug slang, a freaky TV evangelist, late-night radio talk show-recordings, heavy use of the delay-effect and a healthy dose of that "industrial feel", I recommend you grab this now.

Before you dive headfirst into the sounds, I would also recommend smoking some of your favourite herb. It just might make the digestion of this monster a wee bit easier. Hope you enjoy!

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(95+23MB/320CBR)