Essentially all the tracks on this album are noise, noise and more noise.
What I found surprising though was the rich variety of forms that feedback
can come in. From Bomb 20’s distressed & warped Hip Hop anthem ‘Mighty
Dulla’ Through to Atari Teenage Riots cartoon crazy digital hard-core
. and U-ziq maestro Mike Paradinas donning his Kid Spatula alter ego for
the gabba-tastic gem that is ‘Hard Love’. Hard love is playing now and
causing both myself and my monitor picture to shake in sympathy.
Temporary respite
from the noise fest is offered by The Fighting Cocks but even they only
manage to resist stamping on the overdrive for under a minute before launching
into the catchy grunge core meets sleaze core punk-hop that is ‘Kings
Of The Street "You’re going under, pick a number…"
With top tunes from Atari Teenage Riot, DJ Scud, 2nd Gen and Bomb 20,
hard-core workouts from Kid 606 and Hellfish & Producer, grunge-hop manoeuvres
from Slang & Medusa and funked up gabba from Kid Spatula. No More Rock
And Roll exposes the distorted seam running through the global digital
underground. Tune in, Turn On and Go Deaf !!!
BEWARE THIS
ALBUM SHOULD COME WITH AN AURAL ENEMA WARNING !!!
bimble@freeradicalsounds.com
Artist
: ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION
Title
: FRONTLINE 93 - 97 - Rarities & Remixes
Label
: NATION RECORDS
Format
: CD
Best of Re- mix
time already? Surely, not so? But hell yeah, time has moved on, as did
ADF when they left Nation for the London Records posse. Billed as a rarities
and remixes album this has come out prior to the long awaited new Sherwood
/ ADF album which has recently been recorded. The album features early
EP releases as well as remixes from the digital punk arena. ! ”Witness”
is superbly twisted by D.J Scud, he of Mash the place up." fame and that’s
exactly what he does as well as all the other remixes do…They mash up
ADF in a digi punk stylee.
For those who
missed ADF at their inception it’s a great album to catch up on tracks
such as, “Change a gonna come,” it’s prophetic lines of “Freedom is a
conquest never a bequest.” sure to shape up your attitude. The one remix
exception to mashing up ADF comes from Little Tempo and Dry and Heavy
producer Uchider who descends into the valley of dub with “PKNB” a treat
and a respite from the rest. Loved it. Smart
Monkey
Artist
: TECHNO ANIMAL
Title
: The Brotherhood Of The Bomb
Label
: Matador Records
Format
: CD
A tour-de-force of
industrial strength Hip Hop and subsonic rumblings from Godflesh and God
men - Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin.
In
a similar vein to Earache Records 'Grindcore' ethos, Techno Animal employ
a slow and deliberate approach to heaviness, relying on crunching beats
and extreme low-end bass as opposed to the speed-core antics of contemporaries
in the DHR and Ambush Records camps.
With compelling left-of-centre
raps from collaborators Anti-Pop Consortium on 'Glass Prism Enclosure'
and Dalek plus the superb futuristic ragga of Toastie Taylor on 'Pirahna',
the variety of vocal, adds a texture and depth to this release which requires
repeated listening. Elsewhere there are some surprisingly dubbed out breaks
excursions in the form of 'Hypertension' and 'Freefall' which have a grainy
quality and atmosphere akin to Poles other worldly dub-scapes.
Top
tracks: Pirahna, Hypertension
Clive
Subculture
Artist :
Various
Title : Mash Up
The Place
Label : Ambush
Records
Format : CD
South London based
Ambush, home to underground beat manglers such as DJ Scud & Aphasic are
'hardcore' both in the junglist - rave sense and 'no skool' noise merchant
style. Experimental hip-hop noise - punk from Germanys Shizuo, scatters
beats in a satisfyingly lo-fi manner, whilst in the interludes someone
whispers 'Moshi Moshi' - the title, while a cat mews in the background.
Classic 'drum & noise' cuts from the numerous Ambush 12" releases are
also featured including Scud's 'Mash The Place' up with its reggaefied
bad boy toasting, 'MTV Generation's' breakneck consumerist dissing alongside
the fried jazz - funk apocalypse of Shizuo's now imploded side project,
Give Up. An exhilarating ride.
Top Tunes: DJ Scud - Mash The Place Up / Shizuo - Moshi Moshi
Clive Subculture
Artist
: Panic Stepper
Title : 'I Maybe
Phat But I Still Need Lovin' EP
Label : Flo Records
Format : 12"
Following on from the excellent, but under exposed 'Hyper Urban Hardcore
Erotics' album, 'I Maybe Phat...' is perhaps a taster for the forthcoming
Panicstepper LP, and is a masterful blast of frantic distorto drill n
bass glitch beats & eerie urban atmospherics. In fact you find yourself
pressing the pause button more than once during this four tracker and
saying to yourself "what the fuck was that". Panicstepper reaches the
parts most hardcore drum n bassists have long since failed to reach, managing
to clear the mental cobwebs in a genuinely mind blowing way, yet retaining
enough fractured funk to enable you to nod your head ( just! ).
Top Tune - Humid.
Runner Up - Dromonic
Clive Subculture
Artist : Panic Stepper
Title : Agro Jazz
Label : Flo Records
: ( Flo 013 )
Format : CD"
Agro
Jazz is a marginally more 'noodly' offering than Panicsteppers
'Hyper Urban Hardcore Erotics' LP, and initially sounds a little easier
on the ears with some vaguely funky, yet mashed breaks. 'Clap hands, here
comes panic' is the superbly titled 2nd track, which could find feet moving
on the more alternative dancefloors, but then things move progressively
towards insanity. As various 'real jazz' type instruments get spliced through
Panicsteppers digital mangler your brain is gradually fried by disorienting,
off - kilter rhythms and fractured musical interludes.
A triumph of erratic
humanity over digital technology, 'Agro Jazz' will probably have you reaching
for the pause button at certain points, purely to prevent yourself from
losing the plot. An album to scare and alienate your friends with.
Top Tune: Grind
Zero
Runner Up: How
Hard Is Hard
Artist
: Lolita Storm
Title :Sick Slits
E.P
Label : Digital
Hardcore (DHR MCD33)
Format : 12"
DHR's Brighton - based signings, push forward with their mutant punk-pop
songs, proving that you can be on Digital Hardcore and release tunes with
sing along choruses. Lolita Storm still retain the thunderous, chaotic
rhythms associated with other artists on the label, and on Sick Slits
there's a definite jungloid feel to some of the tracks. The E.P features
six tracks about six girls meeting unpleasant ends, and amazingly enough,
its pretty good time shit, perfect for 21st century pogoing at your local
deviant disco.
Top Tune: Suzy
Runner - Up: Annabelle
Clive Subculture
Artist : Various Artists
Title :RIOT ZONE
Label : Digital
Hardcore (DHR CD 10)
Format : CD"
Late
90s DHR selection featuring all the seminal tracks from DHRs early years.
Atari Teenage Riots 'Sick To Death' and 'Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture',
Shizuo's bizarrely dysfunctional anthem 'New Kick', EC80R's punktastic digital
thumper 'I Don't Want To Be A Part Of This' and anti-cokehead rant 'Cocaine
Ducks'. Elsewhere there are examples of
DHR's rave and jungle origins with dark, but danceable cuts from Alec Empires
solo projects, and the particulary fine, lo-fi ragga / jungle hybrid from
DJ Mowgly.
Riot Zone still
sounds far fresher than a large percentage of current dance and guitar
music.
Top Tune: Shizuo 'New Kick'
Runner Up: DJ
Mowgly 'Cook Cook'
Clive Subculture
Artist : PATRIC C
Title : 'Attitude
PC8'
Label : Digital
Hardcore (DHR CD 26)
Format : CD"
For reasons know only to DHR's marketing department 'Attitudes' original
title of 'Hitler 2000' (vinyl pressing only) has been PC'd for the CD
release. Kicking off with H2K's Boys From Brazil samples of Laurence Oliver,
as the crazed, Adolf cloning scientist, Patric does a great job of ridiculing
the neo-nazi movement, while at the same time proving that he's got as
many fucked up beats as Alec Empire.
If you're looking
for tunes you have the wrong department, but if you want distorted raps,
broken beats and ultra rough video game soundtracks, 'Attitude' provides.
Check out 'Commando' which quite possibly samples the glorious 8 bit theme
tune from the ancient computer game - from around the era of the Commodore
64 and ZX Spectrum.
Top Tracks: 'Don't
Go Blowing No Smoke Up My Ass'
Runner Up: 'Commando'
Clive Subculture
Artist : ATARI
TEENAGE RIOT 
Title : 'The Future
Of War'
Label : Digital
Hardcore (DHR CD 6)
Format : CD"
Ataris 'Future
Of War' album has reportedly sold 200,000 copies since its release - amazing
when you consider how uncompromisingly harsh it it. Full of distorted,
breakneck beats, sick rave noises and alternate screams / raps from Alec,
Hanin and Carl Crack. With track titles such as 'Fuck All', 'Sick To Death'
and the top, slowburning and menacing grunge-hop of 'Destroy 2000 Years
Of Culture'.
Single-handedly
responsible for dragging punks corpse into the digital age, ATR take its
nihilistic energy and D.I.Y, anti-corporate ethics, and wind things up
to the max.
Top Track: 'Destroy
2000 Years Of Culture'
Runner Up: 'Redefine
The Enemy'
Clive Subculture
Artist
: COBRA KILLER
Title : 'Cobra
Killer'
Label : Digital
Hardcore (DHR CD 18)
Format : CD"
Supremely warped DHR style pop from EC80R's Gina V D'Orio and friends.
Splicing kitsch film samples, ultra lo-fi beats, lounge-core and various
bits from charity shop records with their own screams and shouts, Cobra
Killer revel in an unconventional approach to music making. Apparently
composed almost entirely on tiny Yamaha SU10 samplers, 'Cobra Killer'
rock in a strange and disjointed manner, and most closely resemble the
outer reaches of Japan's 'up-side-down-pop' scene, or some of the more
obscure and noisy moments from kings of the leftfield, the now sadly defunct
Bongwater.
Top Track: 'Six
Secs'
Runner Up: 'Merry
Go Round'
Clive Subculture
Artist
: PANIC STEPPER
Title : 'Hyper
Urban Hardcore Erotics'
Label : FLO (Flo
CD 010)
Format : CD"
Possibly the definative
record of a new sub-genre - if Shizuo managed to devise the 'Fuck Step'
sound, then 'Hyper Urban.' defines the 'Panic Step'. A mashing rhythmic
chaos, out of which both beats and structures emerge, yet continuously
mutate - a little akin to being sucked through the musical equivalent
of a black hole and emerging the other side in a rearranged form.
Panicstepper approximates
the idea of 'fractal music', constantly manipulating the listeners sense
of time and place. The physicality of the sound is such that it could
as easily be termed sonic sculpture as music. Flo don't care if you 'like'this
music or not - its out there and it messes with your head, now what about
the hidden satanic messages? To quote one of the sampled interludes on
the album "Hopefully my head won't catch fire if I listen to it on a walkman".
Top
Track: Biter
Runner Up: Runs Miles Down The Voodoo
Clive Subculture
Artist : 2ND GEN
Title : ' Irony
is '
Label :Novamute
Format : CD"
Wajid Naseen, the brains behind 2nd Gen (and formerly of Fundamental),
released this CD on Novamute. It's got balls. There's variety here - heavy
guitar riffs and rock drums, slide geetar and harmonica, vocoded spoken
word and synthesised Mongolian throat music. and then there's anonymous
bleeps, squeals and squelches. Analogue and digital
get
fed through the FX rack, splintered and reformed. And talking of feeding.
Most of the tracks are lyric-free, but on track 2 ('Slow Burn') there is
a disturbingly surreal sequence that includes this gem:-
"I want to see my
body fall in front of a train
I want a beautiful girl to catch my brain
Take it home, preserve it in a fishbowl
Feed it fish feed."
Yum.
Although
the tracks are not particularly fast-paced or frenetic, it's adrenalin-rich
material. It will scrape your brain of sleep cells if you need a wake-up
call. Your neighbours might not appreciate the squalling feedback from
your Walkman's phones on your way to a dull day at the office. But don't
let that stop you getting your fix.
Top Track: 'And/Or'
Runner Up: 'Slow
Burn'
Aych
