Kerosene 454 - Race

Race is a Polyvinyl Records compilation of Kerosene 454's first LP and "flurry of 45's" (Yancey Strickler, Allmusic). That LP, Situation at Hand, is one of my favourite albums in the melodic hardcore/emocore/post-hardcore genre. Boy, that sounded stupid. Let's try again: Kerosene 454 are another heavy guitar band which incorporated a lot of emotion into their songs - and they sound, funnily enough, more like Fuel than Fugazi.

This was one of my earlier discoveries of 'emo' - again, a broad description; sometimes codenamed '90s hardcore', but we know what they mean to say - and I found it on eMusic, although I may have read about it on Epitonic first. The best explanation, however, was on fourfa - that's where the 'emocore' bit comes from. Situation at Hand is listed as one of the top emocore records, along with early releases from Fugazi, Jawbreaker, Hot Water Music, Lifetime, etc. His description of the album has this one absolutely perfect line: "these are all sweet pop songs made impossibly heavy by the crushing weight of the loudest guitars ever recorded". Kerosene 454 is all about the guitar sound, which almost defies description.

At the same time, Kerosene 454 play reasonably straightforward rock songs - albeit layered and twisted into a frenzy of emotion - so that I can imagine almost anybody into modern post-hardcore liking them. The opening riffs of 'Greener', for example, are just as catchy as Leatherface's 'Andy' or Dinosaur Jr.'s 'Almost Ready', and they'll melt your heart as soon as you hear them. The songs are never that smooth - and interestingly, Kerosene 454 go in for quite a bit of ambient guitar noise - but they've got an undeniable rugged charm. Especially the pounding drums - the addition of Darren Zentek as drummer for this album was especially fortuitous. Kerosene 454 is what melodic hardcore should be about - pop songs made impossibly heavy, and loud guitars made incomprehensibly sweet.

Situation at Hand (Art Monk Construction, 1995) "A temple to the DC octave-chord noisy over-distorted SG/Marshall guitar. This is the guitar sound bands dream about. These are all sweet pop songs made impossibly heavy by the crushing weight of the loudest guitars ever recorded." (Andy Radin, fourfa.com)

flurry of 45's

(The two covers above are thanks to spliedt; the folder has 'Two For Fliching' and 'Blown Clean', plus the single 'Down in Three' wrongly marked because I didn't realise it was a separate release)

You can get Race on eMusic, like I did, or you can buy it direct (for only $4!) from Polyvinyl. Kerosene 454 also have two other albums after this as well, if you like what you hear...

Leatherface, Hot Water Music - BYO Split Series Vol. 1

Be prepared for a highly personal eulogy, and for a seriously good record:

This album was the first of a series of split releases from BYO records, pairing up major punk acts. Split releases are always a good way of discovering new artists, and this was the best example of that fact for me.

When I bought this, I was hunting for Hot Water Music albums, having finally - and almost ecstatically - 'got' A Flight and a Crash as well as, I think, having received No Division mail order. (Incidentally, this was also a little after seeing Repeater second-hand and saying to Mr. X "Fugazi - they're meant to be kinda of good, aren't they?" ... shortly after which he bought up their entire catalogue and starting comparing them to Radiohead). I may have already heard of Leatherface, just as another English punk band, but I wasn't too pushed about them either way.

Now, this was not too long ago; long enough for these albums to have been out a while and for me not exactly to be keeping pace with the development of modern post-hardcore. But it was back in the day when I still carried a CD player around with me - MP3? what MP3? - so on the bus back from Tower Records I stuck this straight on to 'Andy', the first track.

I had, literally, never heard a song so good. I had to play it again, just to make sure my ears weren't deceiving me. And right there, I was hooked on Leatherface. 'Andy', from the instant it begins, is pure sublime punk rock. Emotional, rip-roaring, melodic, brash, with more than a deft flick of pop sensibility and lulling, powerful rhythms, all wrapped in a bittersweet joyous catharsis; so beautiful it should break your heart. Infected with a breathless energy which hardly dissipates as the next song, 'Eat Her Face' begins.

Thereafter, with 'Wax Lyrical', the pace is slowed down a bit but keeps the tension and the emotion taut, so that every hook, every surge of melody plays on your nerves like some kind of a tearjerker. It's not just the music - as Stubbs sings the chorus "you open your mouth to move your feet, you open your heart if it's for surgery", you vibrate on some kind of higher plane of emotion.

It's kind of hard to keep up this kind of energy for long, but Leatherface's six songs really do succeed. You're talking levels of speed, density, volume and sheer involvement comparable to the Ramones s/t here. This is serious music - for serious people, perhaps, but more likely just for people who really appreciate an immense wall of noisy, emotive punk coming at them from the speakers.

It's not really surprising that these songs are so good - they are probably Leatherface's best, only Mush as a full-length holding any sort of claim over that title. Direct and uncompromising, this is Leatherface's comeback record, after breaking up on a high - see here. They aren't as raw as the earlier work, and they are quite lush and well-produced by some of their standards, but the power of these songs is carried off with ease.

Leatherface was, then, a tough act to follow. I have to say that at the time the Hot Water Music side of this record was quite eclipsed by the Leatherface songs. These kind of mid-period Hot Water Music songs seem a little toned down compared to the unleashed power of the preceding tracks, but they rock pretty heavily too. And over time, I have come to appreciate the introspection and balance of these songs; by now they are pretty much completely rehabilitated, so that I can nearly hold them equal to the Leatherface half. 'Caught Up' and 'Wrong and Righteous' are excellent, but if one song would justify Hot Water Music's claim to equality on this release, it would be the album closer, 'The Bitter End' - anthemic, weighty, visceral and one of the best songs Hot Water Music ever recorded.

BYO Split Series Vol. 1, 'Leatherface together with Hot Water Music' is one of my very favourite albums, and top amongst the peculiarly hardcore sub-genre of split records - along with Shotmaker-Maximillian Colby and Ampere-Sinaloa. I hope I have done it justice in describing its myriad qualities, because it deserves all the praise it can get. But just in case, I've added in a few more words from the liner notes, and some choice excerpts from the lyrics (both bands have great songwriting talents, even if, as they say, I'd listen to them singing the phone book).

Finally, this week has marked the passing of Lance Hahn, singer and songwriter with the well-known band J Church, which was very much in the same axis of 90's punk-pop, post-hardcore bands as these guys, and who often toured together. Check out sweetbabyjaysus's post here; and check out the posts on our fucking boundaries too.

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"When Stubbs and Co. first emerged, pre-Nevermind, before U.S. punk became a new, briefly pathetic plaything for the collegiate, moshing masses, Leatherface was but one of hundreds of brave, hard-working underground bands abroad and here. Now, in a time where there are thousands of faceless, nameless, imagination-less, cookie-cutter "Alternative" bands instead - so much warmed-over metal and 10th-rate punk - Stubbs' tantalizing songwriting, and erudite, generous-heart-on-sleeve lyrics, on top of the band's crisp, explosive playing, and most of all, their outright, undeniable desire, seems a total anomaly as well as an antidote. That this unexpected LP is a reality, and that Leatherface's ardent onslaught will fire of stages here soon, is that rarest of things: a longshot wish fulfilled."

(Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover)

"Their [Hot Water Music's} sound is most often compared to bands like Fuel or Avail - melodic but energetic. In a reviw of their "Fuel For the Hate Game" LP, Mike Kirsch, a member of Fuel and a writer for Maximum Rock'N'Roll, once described their sound as having "in some ways, a very pretty quality, but what sets it apart is a subtle, seething tension boiling just under the surface." Hot Water Music has a powerful, complex sound that pulls you in. Their live show, in particular, lives up to the Avail comparison - you don't truly know this band until you've seen them play and felt the almost electric energy they send out."

(Jen Angel, Fucktooth Fanzine)

"The first second I heard 'Colorado Joe/Leningrad Vlad' exploding from Pat Hughes' speakers, I was hooked. Finding not only a group's music, which picked me up and carried me through anything or anyone that wished to bastardize my life, but a movement of lyrical documentaries I could relate with all too often. This song, 'Springtime,' that we tried not to butcher too horribly is just another one of those songs..."

(Hot Water Music, Never Ender)

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"one mans bet

is another mans debt

one womans love

is another womans violence

one womans style

is anothers chance to be cruel a while

this mans drink

is that mans alcoholic for real

the day won't come

& i'd like to thank someone

for leaving us to get things wrong

i pray that day won't come when all thats wrong

is how much we love everyone..."

(Leatherface - 'Gang Party', track 06)

"i won't change where i stand now.

on leaving hate and keeping warmth.

and i won't take to your cold, because

i believe that there is more to life than

just living. and i don't see how you can

stay so covered with cold. i wish you

would open up and shine the light that i knew."

(Hot Water Music - 'The Bitter End', track 11)

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Leatherface/Hot Water Music - BYO Split Series Vol. 1

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

You asked for it, and here it is. This album I'm posting up in the sincere belief that NOBODY SHOULD EVER ACTUALLY HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS. I did personally, and a reasonable amount too, but it was worth it really. No, really.

Mostly for the novelty, but also because I'm a big fan of Lou Reed's work (through the Velvets). I read his biography, so I know he's a pretty fucked-up guy, and in its time, and possibly still today, the music of the Velvet Underground was and is also pretty unconventional.

Which is why, in a roundabout way, this album didn't come as much of a surprise to me. Whether or not it's surprising that I sat through the whole thing, well, that's up to you to decide.

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, released in 1975, is a tale of contractual obligation gone sour. Reed, an amazingly talented and pioneering rock'n'roll spongwriter, decided to take a right-hand turn into left field and released an album with no songs, vocals or even anything approximating normal instrumentation. (A warning to that effect was, apocryphally, meant to be included on the sleeve) Instead, he mixed layers of random, unattended feedback over each other into over an hour of squealing, formless, agonizing noise. After a while, obviously, you get a little used to it, and in fact Lou Reed began experimenting with feedback as a form of therapy - the actual success of which, unfortunately, is not recorded. "I didn't initially do it with the idea of making a record" he says, "I was doing it for fun".

The record which resulted was hardly a coherent album, although it does have its interesting features. It is separated into four parts (Metal Machine Music I, Metal Machine Music II, etc.) with no apparent reason, and closes on the original vinyl with an infinite loop. Meaning that, with a masterstroke of cruelty, the listener has to physically removed the needle to end the barrage of noise - something Lou apparently found quite amusing. On the CD version, for the sake of approximation, there is included a brief 'locked groove' which, in my opinion, makes for an interesting contrast with the preceding sixty minutes.

(Seagulls)

...that's pretty much what I hear in this record. Oh, that and the nascent sound of every succeeding noise-rock or experimental band to have recorded in the past three decades. But I'm no critic - if you listen carefully, this is what you should hear:

"...The strange thing about the locked groove is that it is the very point at which the squall suddenly becomes structure: a circular lopsided wave of rhythm and distortion. Stranger still, if you go back through the rest of of Metal Machine Music, you start to hear a certain oblique cohesion, patterns and effects that surge in and out of the chaos: shrill pipe-organ-like chords; treble-y shivers of demented surf guitar. And there are moments when the stereo halves of the mix suddenly erupt into a combined burst of feedback sunshine. It is a clarity that hurts; it leaves you blinded and shaken."

(From the liner notes to the Buddha Records CD reissue, written by David Fricke)

One thing I will say for certain is, when you finally finish listening to this, real music sounds SOOO GOOD.

Turn on, tune in, drop out

"In sum, if you want to indulge the pretentious art student residing in that pretentious indie rocker shell that you have constructed so well I'd definitely recommend Metal Machine Music. If all else fails, it's good as a conversation piece. And be sure to remember what Lou Reed said about it, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am."

(From a very good, sympathetic and rather cogent review from Stylus magazine's 'On Second Thought' series)

John Henry West - s/t

Kirsch is a crucial, and alcoholic, ingredient in the making of the Black Forest Gateau dessert. It’s also the surname of one of the most prolific, wide-ranging and creative artists in American hardcore from the 1990s onwards. Mike Kirsch’s bands – later, ‘projects’ – span such household names as the Fugazi-ish yet authentically heartfelt Fuel, the chaotic, subversive aggression of Bread and Circuits, or the media-soaked, sample-heavy and cumbersomely named Please Inform The Captain This Is a Hijack. At the moment, Burning Down the Dreams of Forever are undertaking to posting from all of his (14 and counting) different bands. You can see the specific list here; there’s also been similar posts on ROAWR!. I’ve taken it upon myself to post this particular release; the self-titled John Henry West from 1993.

There are several reasons for liking this record. For a start, it’s a Gravity Records release. If you don’t know what that means, it is the label of Angel Hair, Clikatat Ikatowi, Heroin etc. Intense, noisy, emotional and abrasive hardcore punk mostly from the earlier part of the 90’s, based around San Diego. John Henry West is one of the more abrasive works of this genre that I know – Clikatat’s River of Souls would be an example of the sound stretched out a bit. This, however, is raw and direct.

It’s raw especially because of the inclusion on guitar of a certain Cory Linstrum. This is second reason for liking this record. Cory went on, one year after this record, to release the Han Shan 7” which kicked off this blog. On both he contributes a particularly dense guitar sound, part typical of the Gravity of discordancy but also of the Black Flag/Pissed Jeans sort of sludgy texture; the perfect kind of sonic anarchism to blend with Kirsch’s tortured vocals.

Finally, John Henry West is another one of those encapsulatory records which concisely sums up a moment in musical history; more generous than just a 7”, it still packs the brevity and potency of a typical Gravity release. Short, but not that sweet.

John Henry West - s/t

YouTube video of the song 'Avoiding' (thanks to sweetbabyjaysus)

Peel Sessions II - Dinosaur Jr., Timber

I

Some of you will have already heard this, since I mixed up the two Peel sessions I was planning on posting. Anyway, Leatherface is back in its rightful place and for those of you who weren't able to take advantage of that happy accident, here's Dinosaur Jr. in a proper post...

I never really knew this band until I heard their latest single, 'Crumble', on heavy rotation on my local radio. Soon I went out and bought the album, Beyond, and boy, is it good. So good that it's still on heavy rotation on my stereo; so good that the first 3 seconds of 'Almost Ready' contains the sum of all human emotion ever expressed through the electric guitar. Yes, it's that good.

These recordings are about two decades previous, but despite differing production values and a somewhat rawer sound, they're recognisably by the same band. In any case, J. Mascis's voice is pretty distinctive; it's charm for me now rivals that of the almighty Stubbs of Leatherface. Dinosaur Jr. straddle the sounds of punk and grunge, hence their anaemic categorization as 'alternative rock': someone commented on my Husker Du post that they were the band "Nirvana stole from"; perhaps, but Dinosaur Jr. did the same and with more authentic flair. Dinosaur Jr. embody the anarchy and the emotion of that notorious strand of post-punk, emo; they are subversive of grunge in their tender gruffness, and defiantly SST-style hardcore in their gritty sonic assault.

These four songs, again like the Leatherface session, are split over two studio albums. A pretty good snapshot of the band in earlier days, and one which more than reflects their current sound:

Dinosaur Jr. - 11/88

II

Now, I'm no John Peel, but this nice guy from the States did e-mail me his band's demo tape. Already in Mediafire format, nonetheless - cassette tapes are so old-fashioned. He also sent to me a while ago, and for that I apologise.

Timber are a three-piece from Gaithersburg, MD, with a wide range of influences (Neu!, Drive Like Jehu, Wire, Brian Eno, amongst others), a good hardcore sound and the possibility of a 7" due out in the spring. Check out their demo here or stream their songs on this site. Enjoy!

Blog Action Day 2007

'Jet Set Ready'

"So I ask myself, are we too far gone?

Because ever since we put our hands on the mill, we’ve been cutting strong.

Blind to life and the consequences of taking life.

We’re not jet set ready. We’re sinking with the ship we built too quickly.

But we’ll shift and reshift the blame to keep it off our conscience that we helped to build it.

So long to the simple song, the balanced one that’s long gone forgotten by more than some.

Minds burned while young by pioneers gone wrong.

Who won’t cease to live without oppressing life…

And so long to the ways that we knew fit with the world that we lived in.

They didn’t generate enough wealth or power when we can take and take until we have it all.

We live in a gracious world, a forgiving world, and show our thanks with industry.

Open eyes can see while open mouths could speak to change or rearrange what should not be taken."

(Hot Water Music - No Division)

‘Kyoto Now’

"it’s a matter of prescience but not the science fiction kind it’s all about ignorance, and greed, and miracles for the blind the media parading, disjointed politics founded on petro-chemical plunder and we’re its hostages

if you stand to reason you’re in the game the rules may be elusive but our pieces are the same and you know if one goes down we all go down as well the balance is precarious as anyone can tell this world’s going to hell

Don’t allow this mythologic hopeful monster to exact it’s price Kyoto now! We can’t do nothing and think someone else will make it right

You might not think it matters now but what if you are wrong you might not think there’s any wisdom in a fucked up punk rock song but the way it is cannot persist for long, a brutal sun is rising on our sick horizon it’s in the way we live our lives exactly like the double edge of a cold familiar knife and supremacy weighs heavy on the day it’s never really what you own but what you threw away and how much did you pay? in your dreams you saw a steady state a bounty for eternity

- silent screams –

but now the wisdom that sustains us is in full retreat

Don’t allow this mythologic hopeful monster isn’t worth the risk Kyoto now! We can’t have vision for the future if it can’t be fixed

Alien

We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives

Hand in hand

The arid torpor of our lives will be our demise"

(Bad Religion - The Process of Belief)

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Download the Hardcore for Nerds special Blog Action Day 2007 release: Jet Set Ready b/w Kyoto Now

Peel Sessions - Leatherface

It seems today is John Peel Day, it being the anniversary of his last live broadcast on October 11, 2004. RIP John Peel.

I've had this post in the works for a while, chiefly as an another alternative to posting another full album. Something short and sweet being required, these 10-20 minute sessions fit the bill nicely. I never really listened to John Peel on the radio (although I could always get the BBC stations on cable) but we are all, I reckon, familiar with the concept of radio sessions. If one were to be grandiose, they could be classed as a pre-Internet equivalent of the music blog. Highlighting a particular band, usually at a particular defined point in their career, in a short and accessible format.

So without any further ado, here is one excellent example of British broadcasting at its finest...

Leatherface - 12/93 [It's actually Leatherface; I accidentally posted the Dinosaur Jr. session, but that's fixed now]

Leatherface shouldn't need much of an introduction - abysmally gruff, tenderly fragile post-punk/hardcore from Sunderland. Contemporary UK punk at its best, and with a slight reggae inflection. Come to think of it, that makes them sound like a British Fugazi... suffice to say, I think they could probably hold their own.

This session features four songs, 'Heaven Sent', 'In My Life', 'Do the Right Thing' and 'Little White God'. The first and the third are from the album Minx, the other two from their (at the time) final album, The Last. The latter was released, effectively posthumously, after this session - although the group subsequently reformed (more of which later... see 'Coming Soon'). These songs are perhaps Leatherface at their pinnacle, challenged only by either (in my opinion) the B.Y.O. split, or their classic Mush album. Words fail me in describing the heartache, emotion, viscera and soul of these songs. They are simply liquid gold in aural form, electric tears vibrating in the carotid pulse of drumbeats...

These songs are all, as I say, album tracks, but here the radio-quality sound, all shifting volumes and muddied frequencies, adds an extra layer of mystery to their sound. Their real quality doesn't suffer from it, but rather makes it feel distinctly immediate. You can imagine that you are actually listening to them play on the radio, hearing the angular chimes of Dickie Hammond's guitar and the gravelly lyricisms of the wonderful Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs. (Yep. That's British names for you).

Finally, as an added bonus, this recording (which I think I got from the Leatherface fansite, www.x1984x.com/shipyards, although I'm not exactly sure where) contains snippets of John Peel talking between songs. On this day, I think it is particularly poignant that he announces Leatherface's "final session for us, or indeed for anybody else... they broke up the day after apparently"

And on that note, I'd just like to say, "don't worry... we got more coming". I just had to get the start of this post up on the 11th...

Envy - 'Scene' (video)

I particularly wanted to post this video, not because it’s all that good in quality, but because of what it signified when I saw it first: the arrival of a new Envy album. Insomniac Doze, as indeed this song shows, proved to be quite a different beast from A Dead Sinking Story. Which album, in turn, was significantly different from the preceding one – a fact that allows some people to portray Envy as a ‘maturing’ screamo band, abandoning the chaos and brutality of their earlier work for a calmer, more reflective post-rock sound. They’ve quietened down, into the epic, cinematic musicians they always wanted to be, into the next stage of artistic achievement. While, equally, for some people the idea of a ‘maturing’ screamo band is by definition a sad decline – a crying shame, one might say, rather than a screaming pride…

What I’ve just sketched is I think a pretty straightforward account of Envy’s current musical evolution; however, it’s too pat, too mean and too dull. Because, above all, it makes it too easy to write off Insomniac Doze as Envy’s boring, late album.

And that’s a shame, because Insomniac Doze could quite possibly be Envy’s most beautiful, authentic record yet.

What I want to talk about today is shoegaze. Why? Because in the overwhelming beauty of, say, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless (one of the best albums ever made) is the key to understanding Insomniac Doze. Or at least, since ‘key’ sounds a bit too dogmatic, another approach to the appreciation of Envy’s music.

Genres are always ambiguous, and I don’t wish to confuse post-rock with shoegaze. If you’ve watched the video above, no, ‘Scene’ isn’t a shoegaze song. (But the following song on the album, ‘Crystallize’, takes the same melody, adds in a few dance-y steps, drapes itself in shimmering guitar distortion… and you’re halfway to MBV’s ‘Soon’. In my opinion). A liking for shoegaze is not a direct correlation with enjoying Insomniac Doze, but it helps to get the feel of the album - its slowness of sound and its sheer density.

Further on this point, there is already a band which has been combining the elements of post-rock and shoegaze – Justin Broadrick’s Jesu. I was very interested in hearing Conqueror or Sun Down/Sun Rise, just on the basis of their apparent synthesis of styles. And don't get me wrong - they are all pretty good records. However, in my opinion they don’t quite live up to their potential – or rather, I should say I find them frankly a little bit dull. Which is why, by contrast, Insomniac Doze proves to be such an enjoyable album. Envy are still, when it comes down to it, a great screamo band.

Insomniac Doze takes the poise of post-rock, the tenderness of shoegaze, and combines it all with the power and dynamics of screamo. Japanese screamo, nonetheless, which might also be considered innately epic.

Insomniac Doze is a great album – beautiful, deep, moving and viscerally dynamic. So sit back and enjoy the blue clouds, rain and post-industrial trucks. Not quite Envy at their best, perhaps, but close enough.

Links:

- A bunch of lesser-known, but rather good, shoegaze albums posted on someone's livejournal. I recommend Bleach - s/t and Air Formation - Feel Everything.

- A bunch of Jesu on ROAWR!. It may be everything, actually. ROAWR! tends to be that way...

- A bunch/everything of Envy on ROAWR!. There's also a similar mega-post in the archives on (where else?) Zen and the Art of Face Punching...

...which, incidentally, is a year old this month (October). Happy birthday, blend!

Dan Deacon - 'Crystal Cat' (video) - New & Improved Post

Gabbagabbahey likes the Ramones. So does this guy.

In fact, if you go by Pitchfork (which isn't always such a great idea), Dan Deacon connects "at various points with... happy hardcore and gabba techno... the Ramones, Koji Kondo (composer-in-residence for the Nintendo Entertainment System)," amongst others. Really, the Ramones and Nintendo comparison are the only ones which stick in my head, and mainly because they describe this particular song so well. The rest of the album, Spiderman of the Rings, is more than very good, if somewhat of an acquired taste at times (Wooody Wooodpecker, anyone?). But this song is fantastic.

'Crystal Cat' is my new favourite song. It's so good that it could be a 21st century B-side to 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. It should be a hit pop song, like many other songs before it (see the post below). Unfortunately, that's not the way the world works.

You can get the album here on Arpeggi, a Music Blog; but I for one (still) intend buying it.

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And if you want to hear more 'music' from crazy individuals, here's some stuff I came across recently:

Italian Horn

Courtesy of the amazingly named Jeff Chord over at Zen and the Art of Face Punching. It's just this one guy from Brooklyn, NY, making a lot of classy, classy noise... it's hard to describe - "somewhere between post-rock melodic repetition and Today is the Day's dark ambience" is one attempt, which is somewhat lost on me! Seriously though, it's really good music. Check it out - you can download the 6-track EP from Jeff's post, and although 'Aspirin Headband' from the Myspace is pretty good, 'Skinhead With a Bluetooth Earpiece' from the EP is really the standout track.

gtuk

I recently discovered a lot of exciting music on this site, Believes in Patterns, which fits very well into a bit of an offbeat look at the already strange world of hardcore and noise. This writer, Walt, did a previous post about 'alternative screamo' and then goes on to describe gtuk as one of those bands but "on Speed or Crack or both with a healthy dose of crystal meth to make things work out". So, yeah, it's pretty wild.

Anyway, gtuk is a German one-man screamo band, heavily influenced by electronic sounds. Check it out - Wir Sind Glucklich? is probably the better of the two albums, but they're both pretty good.