Nihilistic Stench

Nadiwrath

Nihilistic Stench is a solid first official full-length from Greek band Nadiwrath. The album has a sleazy vibe, opening with an invective wail of, “Fuck You!” before launching into an interesting mix of thrash/punk, and black metal. Songs have nasty titles like “Two Face Shit Fuckers” and “Another Pimping Whore” that give some clue to the band’s grimy, antisocial vibe.

The production is good: it has a clear, warm sound with milky guitars riffing away at relatively modest tempos – the band has a sound resembling old school thrash and punk. The vocals, on the other hand, are very much in line with the black metal sound, and are doubled/layered to good effect.

Sure, Nadiwrath isn’t doing anything startlingly new but Nihilistic Stench has an interesting mix of sounds that work well together and this will be a very enjoyable listen for fans of black metal and thrash/punk.

- Gordon B. Isnor

The Living Breathing Organ Summer

Child Bite

Child Bite’s The Living Breathing Organ Summer is a pleasant surprise. Starting out sounding somewhat stock-standard art-punk on the first track, “Manacles”, the band really caught me off guard on the second track “Odd Inn”. There, things begin to get far more interesting: sixties Farfisa organ sounds kick in, the discordant vocal yelps of the first track here give way to pop harmonies and melodies – and yet the song manages to sound at home next to the opening track. My shock at this second track was repeated a number of times as the album unfolded.

By the fourth track, “Paws Perilous”, the band starts to sound like they’ve been listening to Lyrichord or Sublime Frequencies releases. They use dynamics to good effect. The musicianship is impressive. Brilliant saxophones parts are dropped into the mix, and the saxes spar with the lead guitars elegantly… my respect for this band and their sound continues to grow.

The vocals conjure up memories of David Yow, Jello Biafra and Carey Mercer. The guitars at times have a melancholy sixties instrumental sound – dripping in vibrato and reverb – takes me back to the old Ventures record Walk Don’t Run that my father had that I was really into as a kid. Awesome psych/garage organ parts pop up here and there and are somewhat ill-fitting and uncomfortable in a really cool way.

There are a lot of familiar elements at work here, but they are so foreign to each other and yet blend together so seamlessly that you can’t help be impressed. The way Child Bite is able to combine this singular mix of disparate influences to create a cohesive new sound, it makes me think back to when Six Finger Satellite first started plying their strange brew. Surreal and disorienting. Really interesting band, well worth checking out.

- Gordon B. Isnor

Klang!

Motorik

I suppose the best way to talk about Klang! Is to call it a sort of funky-punk new wave throw back. As that is pretty much what it sounds like post-punk fun falling right out of the 1980s. With maybe a tiny bit of shoegazer thrown in here and there just for colour. Well done but at the same time there is nothing to really make it stand out above the pack of bands currently, well at least in the last few years, doing this sort of music.

I mean, as I once heard some stranger on a bus describe her new love interest, it gets all the right things in all the right places. Well actually what she had said was he was in all the right places on all the right issues but that was way harder to try to use in this sense so I just conveniently changed it, not like anyone would have known had I not just spilled the beans right there. But essentially, I think she meant it as a really good thing, but to me I’m interested in something that gets all the right colours on the right numbers so to speak.

Motorik does grow on you a bit as the album moves along though, and I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with this album. no not at all, more like when you buy fruit in the middle of winter. You know what I mean, a strawberry still tastes like a strawberry and it has all the right nutritional value, but you know there is something not quite right about it. There is that level of freshness in the taste gone, and some how it comes a cross as dirty and plastic. That is sort of how I feel about Motorik like it is a winter version of something I really like.

All the elements that make up a decent album, but just in the end lacking something unquantifiable. It just needs a little bit more organic fluids to it or something. And you know I’m trying to come up with something awesome to say here, but I’ve decided this review needs to imitate this album I that it will provide everything you need to know, but there is not going to be any flair whatsoever to keep you reading. Maybe here I will just talk about puppy dogs for a few minutes. Or kitties, I don’t really want to talk about either one, but what do you want me to do I have been driven to this. Puppies are cute and they lie, okay I’m even bored of that topic. Feelings… nothing more than feelings. Are you getting the idea yet? Can I stop? No, probably not. I don’t know if I can ever stop.

I’m really trying to step outside for a minute and look for something great in this here Klang!, but klangity bang I really can’t. and it’s not even terrible, if it was terrible we could have some real fun maybe, I could say all kinds of terrible things but Motorik doesn’t deserve that. So yeah decent. Just plain decent.

- Matthew Rich