So this group have a badly bent/majorly skewed/acutely kinked set-up/member ratio that stages them apart from the first foot through the stain-glass…I forget it off-the-cuff but will retrieve it from the label notes by the end of the review.
‘Band From Reality’ consists of fifteen tracks… the first few are a bluster of CyberMachine Blur & Blast with digital distortion, reverb-doused shout n’ scream crank that sounds like they have been subjected to Asscavern or Crovac pathogens & the more die-hard-Drum-Machine/Blur-centric Intestinal Disgorge or Jet Jaguar KR3 Kill Spree mega virals. It’s shortly after these ultra-brusque twangs of belabor that more, shall we say ‘conceptual’ miens, themes & sounds start to distill – with some IDM, Electronics, alternative Noise (less obvious, non-Harsh, phonetically divergent) experimentalism taking the reins. Difficult to capture really … Europe in particular has this massive, totally & utterly disaggregated patch-work of weirdo, left-field, odd-fuck Noise practitioners who exist, by & large, in total isolation, mostly evanescently or in extremely sporadic & irregular formation/productivity. Eccentrics, recluses, eremites, whack-jobs, intellectuals, literati, village-nutters & generally interesting souls, they occasionally surface through mostly the odd aperture in the Post Punk, Noise, Experimental or the digital/IDM landscape, but regularly just run out of steam or find more rewarding, consistent or satiating ways to exercise & stimulate their constructive cravings & creative agitations. This shit lolls in that category (if such a category actually exists?) – somewhere between, like, fuckin’ Lux Nigra, Death$ucker, some cool pre Conservatives 2010 cock-sucking squatting restriction act Art-House squat collective, hinterland loons united town-message-board link-up, university student knock-about appendage, early 00’s Cybergrind forum, scene shunning para-Noise go-aloners who either binged on John Peel, or think John Peel was an overrated fuck-scuff that got way’ way too much attention simply because the standard was already so low & most people have to be prescribed intake. Man I love these fucks! Imagine if they were actually linked-up? Had a platform? Or would that ruin it? defy the point? There’s lots of them, but they are submerged, obscure. You have to sift. It’s a shame in one-way cos’ they almost always miss much of their audience. But by the very same token, the process of hunting/trawling & nerd-crawling is good…like a fuckin’ car boot sale, bazaar or old antique specialist. Purity in obscurity & all. Did you ever hear those Anomalous Silencer compilations? Especially series 5 & 6. Who the fuck are these guys? Where did they come from? Where have 95% of them gone?
Back to Band From Reality. Beside the extremely arduous & doggedly binary final track (“Never Die”, a treacle bog of ten minute plus repetition & linear obstinacy), this is some pretty goddamn tasty blat. & even if it doesn’t quite claw my lungs out in one swish…it certainly makes me want to hear more/what’s coming next from this coven, who rather brazenly demonstrate a whole heap of acumen & shit sizzlery that could patently split the seams something ferocious.
“The Verboden Boys is an international punk band, co-founded by Dennis Tyfus (Ultra Eczema) in Antwerp in 2015.
The Verboden Boys operates as a chapter-network franchise, with variations of the band existing in different cities, countries or continents. All chapters work from the same list of song titles, but are free to interpret the content and meaning of those songs as they see fit.
Band From Reality collects all known recordings made by the Belfast chapter of The Verboden Boys during their brief two-year existence. DIY synthetic hypergrind is the best description we could come up with (which doesn’t help anyone), but if you love Smegma and you love blast beats, just dive straight in. With 15 songs in 18 minutes, it’ll be over before you know it.”
The Unseens-shut in & leper water:
Billed to me as “Glasgow’s most reclusive band”. Just two short tracks… sounds like funny fucks that are into surrealist art, arcania, assorted Electronica, 1930’s French Avant-garde cinema & being difficult. Low tempo, languid, verging on minimalist with hints of Dead Husbands over an aftertaste of Bio-Chip & scratches of those weird fuckers from Bath that deal in rare books. It’s very’ very fleeting (not even 5 minutes between them) so difficult to appoint a conclusion? I like the first track, the second is less memorable but nothing bad. It’s too small really though, come on!? They need a good slap round the kisser with a rare book on summoning dead Tudors through hydromancy.
Worth mentioning the label that stuck this on the stand…. Doggy Bag Records from Glasgow. This is the first two dishes I have heard from the label – but it’s looking pretty damn good so far!
Doggy Bag – 2018