303 Committee "s/t" & "Nine Angels" cdrs

Photos stolen from "a closer listen" because I can't get a good photo of these to save my life.
You should check out their review. It's way more researched than mine. 

303 Committee

S/t & Nine Angels

Inam Records

So obviously I haven't been able to keep up with Dead Formats that way I had been able to do over the last couple years. It's a shame really. I really enjoy doing this and I feel completely honored that anyone would think to send me anything in order to have me share my dumb opinion on it. I obviously feel so honored that I am  sent these pieces of people's blood, sweat and pedal chains that I often am pretty easy on most people. Or maybe it just seems like it because most stuff people put effort into is pretty good. Although I am probably pretty easy on people. I think I was born with an enlarged empathy gland. Oh well, I certainly don't mind likin' stud but I certainly don't think it makes me a very good critic. I wonder if I doing any good. The long and short of what I am getting at is that I am going to still continue Dead Formats but on this new inconsistent schedule. 

     Now to the music. 303 Committee is really super good. Seriously. I have been listening to these two cdrs non stop for months in my car now and I am actually pretty jealous. A lot of what i am trying to do in Blsphm is basically perfected by this secret duo. Dark, droning, grinding ambience with really disciplined field recordings. Both cdrs are way limited and way fucking good. The only thing I don't like about this project is the name. I just don't dig it (although I do like where it came from, it just sits weird with me) but the music is miles away from here and it's crushing. 

The packaging for both cdrs is great. Unusual cuts and well set type printed into vellum or card stock.  It's simple but really well handled. 

Holiness Church of the Valley/Pornography split cs

Holiness Church of the Valley/Pornography

split 

Spring Street Records

Did you grow up on a healthy diet of Ebullition and Pessimiser/Theologian records? You should have. You should have got to see John Henry West, Still Life, Grief and Despise You in an afternoon before going to a show that evening with The Locust (when there were 9 people in the band), Downcast and Crom. That should have happened for you because you would be just as miserable as me with the state of heavy music today, but that's another discussion… besides, those shows above never exactly happened that way, exactly…  Holiness Church of the Valley could totally be one of those bands. Like maybe made of of members of Orchid before they decided that they need to be as fast as they were ironic. It's mid-tempo to slow and heavy but in a very noisy way. Not really metal at all and I dig that. It also has this epic quality that Still Life had. Maybe let's say it sounds like End of the Line meets Still Life. Pornography is equally heavy but more in the Melvins/Toadliquor world. Sludge before everyone heard Khanate. It's not tuned so low that it doesn't matter what notes anyone is playing. It's low but not too low. It's slow but not too slow. There needs to be a full length of their stuff that I can listen to today. Simple packaging brings me back to a simpler time. Excellent. Find this. 

Zone Tripper cs

Zone Tripper

s/t

Forever Escaping Boredom Records

I was 15 in 1990. I went to the Alderwood Mall one saturday afternoon and wondered to the movie theater in search of something appropriate for a 15 year old. I saw the poster for Hardware and bought my ticket. I haven't seen Hardware since that day in 1990 but I remember a few things about it—there was Iggy Pop, fighting the extermination robot and something about a poison that smells like apple pie. The most important thing for me was that after the movie I ran to the record store and decided that I needed something that sounded like how that movie made me feel. I wasn't sure what to pick up but I settled on Arise by Sepultura. I was not disappointed. Zone Tripper, the noise trio, seems to have wanted the same thing but they decided to make their own Arise. It's a brutal, brutal assault of noise and samples. Samples used in a way that I can get behind, sparingly. The layout itself looks like it was done in 1990. In that I would say that it's not very attractive but it's very fitting. Definitely worth it for the time travel. 

Jackie-o Motherfucker "Hello" cs

Jackie-o Motherfucker

Hello

Handmade Birds

I have been listening to this cassette on repeat for about an hour now and I gotta tell you. I have yet to get sick of earring this. Jackie-o Motherfucker has improvised into many different genres over their long list of  releases. I'm sure you are familiar with them so I will not bother going into it all, but it's dense. This cassette follows them into a more free jazz type of world. Like Coltrane at his strangest or Sun Ra at his most destructive.  I would recommend picking this up right away and doing what I did—listen to it over and over and over. 

The packaging brings to mind the early 2000's—blank cassette wrapped in paper and sealed with a sticker you have to basically rip apart to get to it. It's worth it.