Tapeworms 7"
Endless Melt, 2010 (150 copies)
This however is a damaged lo-fi noise punk record. There are hints of a no-wave influence, in the harsh stinging guitars and the occasional stubborn drum rhythm, but the staunchly anti-conventional ideals of the no-wave thought process have been refreshingly balanced out with some primitive backbeat and rock-isms.
‘Tapeworms’ is an effectively ugly start to proceedings. Its hook is a descending guitar line that sounds depressed and defeated, and really nags at you for it. Abrasive blasts of string mangling act as choruses. There’s a lot of guitar on this recording in general, but not in a gratuitous way; several of them will make contrasting but equally uncomfortable noises at the same time. Late in the song, one of my personal favourite guitar sounds appears, that whirring, hyper-strummed dissonance heard in bands like U.S. Maple, some Arab On Radar and Sonic Youth. Hard to describe in print but easily recognised aurally.
Second A-side track ‘Weak Eyelids’ is more bass driven and swaggers along, with plenty of wild guitar squalls buzzing around like annoyingly persistent insects. Bone-headed drumming stops and starts in a likeably delinquent manner, and a few chanted vocals fight their way through the mess.
These songs have a loose jam feel to them, but kept concise in average song lengths. As I assume all the instruments were played by Duncan, there must be some degree of preconceived plan of where he was going to take these jams, but if that’s the case, it isn’t really evident. If mostly improvised, the way the overdubbed guitars have filled out the random spaces is perfect. This kind of consequential, elusively-structured chaos is always an achievement to my ears.
The second side opens with the only genuinely pleasant reprieve on the record… a hypnotic floor tom and bass pulse backing watery guitars drifting in reverb and chiming surf-tones. It could almost appear on a much more palatable album, and does a good job of segueing sharply into the most obnoxious track, ‘Willworker’. With only one drumstick-click’s warning, a huge wall of screeching guitars pound through the speakers, setting your frontal lobe shuddering. It’s almost funny how overblown this racket is, at times drowning out the thump of the drums.
Being a 33rpm 7”, the sound quality has gone awry, and whether this was a conscious decision or just not a concern, it works out well. You might find elements of Hex Enduction Hour period Fall, Confusion Is Sex-era Sonic Youth, the aforementioned U.S. Maple, as well as the experimental side of Swell Maps shown on Jane From Occupied Europe. This record has a more belligerent vibe to those albums, as it’s less calculated than SY and more malicious than Swell Maps. The amazing guitar playing is of note, successfully reaching painfully screeching peaks while suitably simple bass and drums provide the rolling drunk momentum.
‘Tapeworms’ is an effectively ugly start to proceedings. Its hook is a descending guitar line that sounds depressed and defeated, and really nags at you for it. Abrasive blasts of string mangling act as choruses. There’s a lot of guitar on this recording in general, but not in a gratuitous way; several of them will make contrasting but equally uncomfortable noises at the same time. Late in the song, one of my personal favourite guitar sounds appears, that whirring, hyper-strummed dissonance heard in bands like U.S. Maple, some Arab On Radar and Sonic Youth. Hard to describe in print but easily recognised aurally.
Second A-side track ‘Weak Eyelids’ is more bass driven and swaggers along, with plenty of wild guitar squalls buzzing around like annoyingly persistent insects. Bone-headed drumming stops and starts in a likeably delinquent manner, and a few chanted vocals fight their way through the mess.
These songs have a loose jam feel to them, but kept concise in average song lengths. As I assume all the instruments were played by Duncan, there must be some degree of preconceived plan of where he was going to take these jams, but if that’s the case, it isn’t really evident. If mostly improvised, the way the overdubbed guitars have filled out the random spaces is perfect. This kind of consequential, elusively-structured chaos is always an achievement to my ears.
The second side opens with the only genuinely pleasant reprieve on the record… a hypnotic floor tom and bass pulse backing watery guitars drifting in reverb and chiming surf-tones. It could almost appear on a much more palatable album, and does a good job of segueing sharply into the most obnoxious track, ‘Willworker’. With only one drumstick-click’s warning, a huge wall of screeching guitars pound through the speakers, setting your frontal lobe shuddering. It’s almost funny how overblown this racket is, at times drowning out the thump of the drums.
Being a 33rpm 7”, the sound quality has gone awry, and whether this was a conscious decision or just not a concern, it works out well. You might find elements of Hex Enduction Hour period Fall, Confusion Is Sex-era Sonic Youth, the aforementioned U.S. Maple, as well as the experimental side of Swell Maps shown on Jane From Occupied Europe. This record has a more belligerent vibe to those albums, as it’s less calculated than SY and more malicious than Swell Maps. The amazing guitar playing is of note, successfully reaching painfully screeching peaks while suitably simple bass and drums provide the rolling drunk momentum.
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