Saturday 23 November 2013

Brutal Truth/Bastard Noise - The Axiom of Post Inhumanity Split


If you like your fast music, particularly grind and powerviolence, then chances are you'll be more than familiar with these two protagonists. Brutal Trust just keep on going. Since their inception in 1990, they've been releasing EP's, LP's and split that have held them aloft of their peers and Bastard Noise, the power electronics band that co-existed with PV legends Man Is The Bastard are no different. They've joined forces to release a split that is different across both CD and LP mediums, in that both feature completely different songs, while a digital version collects all the songs together. They've also stepped away from the grind too, collaborating instead on a noise record. I'm reviewing the digital copy.

Tracklist:-

1. Bastard Noise - The Duel Of The Ant And The Dragonfly
2. Bastard Noise - The Horizon On Lynx
3. Bastard Noise - Horned Beetle Conflict
4. Bastard Noise - Mantis Colony
5. Bastard Noise - Preemptive Epitaph For The Living
6. Bastard Noise - The Antenna Galaxies (NGC 4038-4039)
7. Bastard Noise - Frack Baby Frack
8. Brutal Truth - Control Room: Peace Is The Victory Mix
9. Brutal Truth - Control Room: Smoke Grind And Sleep Mix
10. Brutal Truth - The Stroy

If you were expecting straight-forward grind or something, you’ve come to the wrong place with this. Bastard Noise open things with The Duel of The Ant And The Dragonfly, which uses some strange noises that sound like people letting the air out of balloons. That’s my scientific assessment of it anyway.  Thankfully things take a more ambient turn with The Horizon on Lynx. It still has harsh-noise in it, but thanks to occasional droning elements in the background that phase in and out, it at least sounds more musical. Also, like the opener, it’s lengthy at over eight minutes. It’s actually strangely trippy. That ambience disappears again in time for Horned Beetle Conflict and in it’s place comes more glitch-like, high-pitched frequencies. It’s unsettling and somehow manages to put you on edge. I guess that’s what Bastard Noise were aiming for. 

The songs on the Bastard Noise side seem to merge into one, especially as Mantis Colony picks up where Horned Beetle Conflict left off. More of that high-pitched, nails-down-a-blackboard noise, the sort that puts your teeth on edge. At this point, you will have decided whether you want to carry on and I am, because I’m pretty curious about the rest of this split and to see what Brutal Truth conjure up. After Mantis Colony, Bastard Noises’s songs begin to reduce in length. Preemptive Epitaph of The Living sees the band adding disconcertingly low and crazy high-pitched vocals, along with screams in the background for good measure. The electronics swirl around and create and threaten to leave you in a catatonic state of withdrawal. The further you get into BN’s side of this split, the more it seems to become interstellar. On The Antenna Galaxies (ngc 4038-4039), it seems like they’re trying to communicate with extraterrestrial beings, such are the frequencies and effects they use. Their contribution ends with the amusingly titled Frack Baby Frack. It could be a play on words based on the recent controversial energy drilling method that causes earthquakes, but then again it might not be. It features more unnerving vocals that remind that Bastard Noise aren’t just some soulless machine.

Next up are three tracks from Brutal Truth, which also include contribution from Winters In Osaka and Rich Hoak’s power electronics outfit Peacemaker. Control Room - Peace Is The Victory Mix is somewhat sedate compared to what Bastard Noise presented, but it’s drone does build in intensity throughout it’s eighteen minutes.  Control Room is a two-parter, with Control Room - Smoke Grind and Sleep Mix following on. Again, it keep things subtle, with quiet guitar and ambience getting things going. It sounds like there’s some spoken word vocals hidden within the noise, but that could be my ears playing tricks on me. Again, it builds in intensity and the further in you get, the less it resembles anything of a truly musical nature.  Ending with The Stroy, Brutal Truth finally reach their most weirded-out point. It’s brief compared to their previous offerings here, but no less strange. Like the previous two tracks, it does feature sporadic drumming and is the closest you’ll get to a grind song on this split.  

I’ll be honest, this was not what i was expecting when I first put it on. I know though that there will be a fair amount of people who will dig this and it does sit neatly alongside grind in it’s thought and delivery. if you’re after something to play in the background when watching psychological horror movies, then you might have just found it.

If you're intrigued after reading that, you can listen to it here:-



You can buy the full split digitally from the above bandcamp page.

If you want the CD, LP or both, head to Relapse Records here - http://www.relapse.com/label/releases.html

Brutal Truth Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brutaltruth
Bastard Noise Website - http://www.bastardnoise.com

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