DECAYCAST REVIEWS Petridisch – A Fixed Point” CD/Cassette (I Heart Noise, 2017)
Petridisch”A Fixed Point” CD/Cassette are already sold out in physical form (both CD and cassette) but you can get a free download over there at the I Heart Noise Bandcamp Page , which is a label and multimedia platform hosting a rather active blog of the same name. Petridisch’s vocal and percussion forward offerings of multi-layered, slow ambient sonic explosions and chants of densely layered synths, build a wide variety of complex timbral experiments and densely articulated specimens. On “A Fixed Point”, Petridisch begins with slow shimmering waves of ambient, buzzing waves, decaying, cavernous claps and slowly and steadily builds layers of washed over plumes of texture and memory while structures of rhythm and percussion begin to take form. Synthesizers slowly and craftily edge their way in with soft, present swells, mid tempo arpeggiated sines, and layers of ambient noise sustaining bright, shimmering, articulate sonic events.
The voice is an important part of this record and it adds a beautiful cloak around the various track elements and really does gel all of the different elements together as a compositional superglue. Four short, ambient explorations pull equally from The Cocteau Twins, Boards Of Canada, early Eno and so much more, and so much less in the best way possible, as Petridisch truly has cast their own unique sound into the ethos of the word of endless sonic discovery and invention. For fans of ambient, drone, early Tangerine Dream, Terry Riley, and early synthesizer music, Petridisch packs a huge arsenal of sonic weapons in a release that is barely twelve minutes long, Highly recommended.
Oxen label head-honcho Matt Purse is back at it again with another no holds barred harsh noise ripper, released by another veteran in the harsh/death/industrial hellscape, MN based imprint Phage Tapes.
“Pleasure Seeking Pacifists” comes right out of the gate with alienating brutality, not even wasting a second on some unnecessary intro and belts right out of the speakers with crunchy, ear splitting harsh noise with very little variation. To the casual or unsuspecting listener, sections of this cassette could potentially even fall under HNW category, though i think not to the discerning listener as their is some pretty interesting variations happening if you can make them out once the blood crusts over dried crispy inside the listeners ear and an entire dead sea of chaotic violent manipulations of the sounds become more articulated and present .
Thick scraping nails pull against a dead chalk board which shimmers into the listeners ear with a whistle meaning its time to eat the static and then death is the logical next step. This cassette is unrelenting, it;s the style of undulating static, mid-high frequency harsh noise that I would blast on the subway to alienate the morning commute into isolation, Did I say relentless yet? Because it is. Brutal, pummeling and alienating . This is top notch psychedelic noise. Purse holds nothing back with this sonic assault and with each release, further solidifying himself as one of the masters of new North American Harsh noise. Short review for a short but HIGHLY IMPACTFUL release. Highly recommended.
DECAYCAST Reviews : Cadaver In Drag – “People Meant To Die” (HUSK, 2018)
“People Meant To Die” by underground stalwarts Cadaver In Drag is nothing short of a classic reissue from Josh Lay’s longstanding Lexington, KY based imprint, HUSK RECORDS. Underground legendary grind/noise outfit C I D belt through viscous, heart stopping grind core songs which often sound more like machines shutting down than actual music. Menacing, pummeling riffs bleed top spastic, pummeling drums and thick layers of homemade synths and electronics. The vocals oscillate between early Black metal and growling slabs of guttural noise; the perfect glue to seal your ride all the way to hell. Cadaver In Drag belt forth classically atonal offerings of bleeding esoteric heaviness which cannot really be categorized as “grind” , “metal” or even “noise”. It does contain all of these elements however it is a sonic beast all on it’s own and angrily and aggressively defies classification. FAST, ANGRY, CHOPPED, BLEEDING, PULSING, CHURNING, BREAKING, DYING, ACCELERATING. All these things seem to be happening at the same time; this record is the acceleration of anger, chaos, and heaviness into the ear.
Originally recorded in 2003 by Trevor Tremaine of Hair Police fame ,re-released in 2018 yet is seems just as fresh and relevant as ever. Additional electronic slabs of chaotic, sputtering noise are laid down by local KY maniac, and psychedelic visual artist Robert Beatty, also of Hair Police fame, add to the general chaos and uneasiness that this recording is known for. Endless layers of quick moving, buzzing, breaking, battling homemade synths clash with pummeling, arrhythmic walls of lightning speed percussion and flying, buzzing, choking guitars assault the listener with a seemingly endless barrage of thick dark, esoteric slabs of heavy grind and noise. All of the instruments blur together in the most desired, intentional way possible to create a truly menacing, abrasive style of heavy music/noise all of their own, which is often replicated but rarely done with this amount of precision, intention, and menace..
Big sounds, violent outburst after violent outburst of bleeding, confusing negative vibes in the best way bring the listener further and further into a pit of chaos- a sonic stew of your last chosen meal. The world needs more bands like Cadaver In Drag, an this reissue is an absolute must own for any and all fans of heavy music. Totally unique and essential listen. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED you go order it HERE. Paypal/E-Mail = huskrecords@yahoo.com.
DECAYCAST Reviews: Choisir Le Pire “-” (LE TOMBEAU DES MUSES, 2018)
Choisir Le Pire is a newer project out of Metz, France focusing on harsh noise / harsh noise wall and this new cassette release is no exception. Released on the newly formed LE TOMBEAU DES MUSES imprint also out of France. “-” as it’s titled wastes no time slicing the listener with sharp, grating, alienating plumes of static filled gut wrenching harsh noise with some HNW and even Power Electronics sections to boot.
The strongest track on this release, “De Charybde en Scylla.“, which is also the opening track on the A side offers the most interesting and dynamic work on the album, featuring an ominous sludgy, fuzzed out thick droning intro which is quickly and swiftly encapsulated by violent throbbing stabs of sonic mayhem; grating, dark, and uncertain. This tape is the perfect soundtrack to a nauseating feeling that comes moments before leaping off a cliff into the black abyss. The closing track, Ce qu’il en rester. is another favorite with it’s blistering shuttering fast paced dynamic stabs and wells, peaks and troughs of a chaotic land, Choisir Le Pire wastes no time and no sound, it’s all said and nothing is said except for the blood running slowly down the side of the listeners neck out of their ear. Focused, sharp and agitated harsh noise release with beautiful design and packaging to boot. Check out more from the label and artist via the links above.
Jasmine Infiniti comes correct with this original production track, titled “Y1” Everything about this track hits in just the right way for an industrial danceclub bomb on the unsuspecting audience. The track opens with just a thudding drum but slowly gains speed and chaos with glitched-out industrial polyrhythms, in the pocket blown out synthesizers, churning bodies melting in the smoke filled room. Jasmine Infiniti is known for her uncanny, heart pounding, leg twisting, room shaking,surrealist sound sorceried mixed genre DJ sets, but these original productions, while informed by her DJ aesthetic take things to a whole different level of body moving bangers; alien voice transmissions and thudding electronic breakdowns, blending sharp, swift vocal stabs, chopping dicing synths, and heavy, funky, abrasive four to the floor clanging percussion, Infiniti creates a sound and aesthetic thats unique, different, important and all her own. Look out for an EP and follow her collective NEW WORLD DYSORDER. Infiniti takes her knowledge of mixing, turntablism, rhythm and density and amplifies it across these original compositions with unique, heavy and promising results.
Infiniti has been setting trends in sound and image long before this track and will be doing so long after, support this important in groundbreaking, unique artist any way you can!
“The Queen of Hell, Jasmine Infiniti is a New York Native whose dj roots started in Oakland, CA. A long time member of the House of Infiniti, Jasmine became the mother of the Bay Area Chapter, though she now resides in Brooklyn, New York. She blends dark and sometimes ambient techno and industrial sounds with break beats and cunty tracks creating a unique soundscape glimpsing into the future.”
Bay Area queer deathrock stalworts MOIRA SCAR are back with their new full length on CD/CS/ and digital via Oakland’s NEAR DARK imprint, which is run by dark gothic outfit, OTZI whose newest offerings, “Ghosts” was covered HERE a few weeks ago. Moira Scar currently is in trio form with their latest offering with Roxy Monoxide: guitar, sax, vocals, LuLu Gamma Ray: synthesizers, vocals, and Aimee S: drums. Moira Scar’s newest full length, “Wound World Part 1” boasts seven snappy, punchy, femme forward dark punk/death rock cuts, intentionally building upon their unique, sought after, indimable sound of their previously released full lengths, “Psychoid” and “Scarred For Life”. With an augmented lineup, and a slightly darker and more rock forward sound, “Wound World Part 1” might be the most intentionally straight forward, intense and focused sound the outfit has concocted yet, and the recording production suits the sound perfectly. Thick pummeling percussion, wailing, screaching vocals, fuzzed-out chugging, angular guitar riffs and the staple walls of reverb’d saxophone.
“Snap Back” might be the most traditionally “Moira Scar” sounding cut on here blending heavy bass riffs, walls of sax with driving punk inspired hard hitting drumming and the signature layered vocal efx stylings which could take the sonic shape of anything from low distorted growls to high pitched shrieks of intense washes, utilized to great success on the track “Chrysalis Skull” The operatic style walls of vocals blend perfectly over the frantic, manic heavy drumming and thick slabs of guitar and bass work. Slower, more post rock inspired track “Zeta Rainbow” offers chugging, blown up guitar riffs with dragging slagged out bass lines with more traditional breakdowns where the guitar and dual vocal processions shine brightest.
Moira Scar’s sound is thick, violent, present, and demanding of the space it requires and deserves. Death rock, like any “sub-genre” can be formulaic, boring, and predictable, but “Wound World Part 1”is the complete opposite; fierce, unique, cathartic, and nasty!. In a time where we need it most, Moira Scar once again, and perhaps with more force than ever proves they are here to stay with some of the most forward thinking and necessary sonic offerings within the contemporary rock scope. This record rallies against the dying, boring, overdone and under thought droves of CIS white-male “dominated”capitalistic rock scenes, by raising the bar and flushing the boring and inspired rock trends down into the sewer where they have belonged this entire time, and serve as an assault on the normative, re-hashed, uninspired music that often fills the airwaves. Moira Scar is a weapon against a violent, patriarchal system of despair, confusion, and entanglement and “Wound World Part 1”is the next logical step in the bands seemingly endless progression of reinvention. One of the most important contemporary dark rock acts going, period. This record is not to be overlooked.
DECAYCAST Reviews : TODD ANDERSON – KUNERT “A Good Time To Go” (This Is Non Linear,2018)
This little unassuming tape arrived in our mailbox all the way from NZ, where the artist Todd Anderson – Kunert is based. This work titled “A Good Time To Go” boasts the sonic equivalent of finding that perfect moment to ditch out on the show or event or interaction that you’re probably enjoying (or maybe not ) but are suddenly met with that harsh and disorienting wave of uncertain feelings, emotions and sense of space or lack thereof. This album is very much that. the albums opener “No” starts with a slow quiet drone which ascends into a loud, shuttering thud, and steadily breaks up into a more distorted, disorienting, confusing version of itself until the listener is left with their own feelings of confusion about confusion. Dark, crumbling noise swashes give way to more rhythmic patterns which oscillate moments between disappearance and uncertainty while bathing the listener in a sharp bath of loud and overwhelming sounds all to build to a climax and erase themselves to the point where only the distant hum of a sharp bell remains, a single alienating tone tuning and ringing inside the brain of the unsuspecting listener. The overall vibe is dark , disorienting , haunting with spurts of beautiful articulate decay.
The albums strongest track “It’s Taking Forever” is an honest, heavy take on what could be best described as digital power drone. Lots of dark and articulate textures exist throughout, crawling and wringing out dark, alienating slime into the ear, especially on this second stand out track which really carves out a lonely and confusing sonic space, oscillating between traditional takes on drone, ambient noise, “power ambient” some might say. Overall a solid release with a wide interpretation on what could be considered psychoacoustic drone music.
SEA MOSS is a perfect example of why duos are sometimes the most engaging for heavy and experimental music. SEA MOSS, splice all of the specific aspects that make duo’s so special; tension, dynamics, a call and response/push pull type of dynamic, (that often gets lost or muddled once a third or forth voice is added), into a fever dream ritual of distorted noise rock, and rhythmic, percussion heavy noise. When contrasting voices push and pull, interesting and chaotic things can happen, and that’s exactly what this Seattle duo does, on their freshman album “Bread Bored”. For one, the sound is a perfect blend of Noa Ver homemade, noisy, chaotic, dynamic home-brewed synthesizers, which she popularized in her solo project Mulva Myasis and Zach D’Agostino percussion and live sequencing which meld together perfectly to create a raw, cacophonous blend of abstracted, cut up, angular noise / rock. Noa Ver create walls of glitched-out, sputtering, chirping, regurgitating bent and mangled waveforms blending together to create rhythmic walls of unique, raw synthesized noise over D’Agostino, who belts forth a seemingly endless array of broken rhythms, fusing both analog and digital sources to create a chaotic, chopped up, backbone of heavy, flipped out perscussion. Also we couldn’t really talk about this release without mentioning the intricate, dense, psychedelic collaged cover art/Layout done by Liz Pavlovic, offering the perfect visual counterpart to the dense, tripped out, broken sounds of SEA MOSS.
Having seen SEA MOSS live in 2017 (and BTW this project is barely a year old, and has already toured, released this album on CRASH SYMBOLS and self-released several live recordings) I had a rough idea of what to expect from this tape, and it really represents their live sound well. The aptly titled “Bread Bored” oscillates between more noise, even free jazz styled works, using more chopped, off timed rhythm tracks, and the synths are sputtering more like a trumped or saxophone than a synthesizer, such on the second track “Infernal Stutter”, whereas the very next song, “Wanna See A Trick?”, perhaps my personal favorite on the album falls much more into an early Load Records style of noise rock where the synths and walls of noise act as a heavy low end for the pummeling 4/4 breakdowns which dominate the song, or similarly styled and varied is the finale “Sea Sickness”, which blends thudding drums, more buzzing, screaming oscillators and time/tempo changes that will leave your head spinning, There’s also a whole lot varied vocal styles which range from long swelled, yelling to short, antagonistic bursts of sound, yelling, fighting , screaming, screaming, threatening, impactful, and sharp in unique ways even though the lyrics are rather indistinguishable from each other. Despite this, the vocals provide an additional layer of tension and chaos, especially when complimenting the heavy, smashed out percussion riffs in a sort of call in response type of way. At times, it’s as if all the instruments are being played as their opposites; or something they’re totally unreleased to; synths are played as horns, drums are played as basses, vocals are an additional layer of percussion, but also so much more.
SEA MOSS stands above and beyond a lot of other offerings in noise rock camp so far for 2017 that have pummeled my ears. SEA MOSS has a seemingly uncanny ability to pack three or four different styles and feelings, even within a single track (and mind you most of the tracks are under four minutes, some even in the one to two-minute range). This music could be from 1999 or it could be from 2199, we haven’t totally figured that out yet, and that’s part of why it’s intriguing. The cassette is sold out; however, you can grip the digital album for five dollars from the Crash Symbols band camp page. Be sure to check out a myriad of other releases from the West Virginia based imprint, while you’re on the band camp and make sure to follow SEA MOSS here!
With the rise of accessibility for artists and producers to create sound, music, art and the ability for those artists to contextualize, and re contextualize their work in a seemingly often dizzying whirlwind of labels, sub-labels, sub-labels of sub-labels, through, you guessed it, the INTERNET; questioning the role or necessity of a small independent record label in these weird, confusing post-post modern days of malleability of meaning, format and intention, seems like probably a good idea. How many of them are genuine, how many of them truly put the artist first, and in priority, how many of them believe and stand behind their “product”, behind both the “artist” and the “artwork”. Derek Rush‘s New York – based imprint, Chthonic Streams does just that, and they do it with style, focus, and intention, as exemplified by the labels’ most ambitious and potentially most conceptual release to date, at least in its packaging and form, is the “No Workers Paradise” boxset. You should keep reading, but what I also recommend is that you stop what you’re doing and instantly ORDER THE BOXSET HERE!
We are fans of boxsets, we are fans of conceptual art, and we are fans of toolboxes and ridiculously ambitious projects here at Decaycast, and Chthonic Streams exhaustive 8 hour cassette boxset titled, “V/A: NO WORKERS PARADISE” covers all of these bases and more, in one, mechanical, maniacal offering. Boxsets are awesome, and they’re even more compelling when they actually contain new material, by, gasp, even living artists. No shade on the myriad of Miles Davis and John Coltrane CD reissue boxsets that we have all seen and probably purchased, but eight hours of new material, from eight heavy hitters in the noise/industrial/power electronics scene enclosed in a matte black tool box, accompanied by a zine and customized time card to boot, is not really something we could (or should ignore). We received a rather large media mail box from New York and upon opening, the “No Workers Paradise” boxset emerged, a sleek matte black toolbox with a shiny chrome latch and basic font that reads “No Workers Paradise” is affixed to the top. Its interior reveals eight 60-minute cassettes and a zine/accompanying booklet for the release, and customized time card emerge as the tools for the job, so to speak. It was time to clock in.
As with all of the labels’ releases, the artwork is done by label head honcho Derek Rush who also books shows, is an active DJ, and works in graphic design and photography, so it comes as no surprise that all of the artwork included looks stunning and professional, accented by the printed booklet and cassette artwork itself. We haven’t even gotten into the sounds and this is already worth the $75 price tag without question, a truly beautifully put together collection. Now into the meat and bones of these disgruntled, bloody and beaten-down workers, we will delve into the sounds in reaction to the tormented work day!
The boxset starts with the label owner’s project, COMPACTOR, offering a strong, mechanically styled “old school” feeling industrial track with clanging rhythms, backed with the tick tock tick tock of the overlord’s clock. The panopticon is omnipresent and the worker must continue. Wake up. Work! Time To Work! Until you DIE, and DIE, until you can clock out at the end of the day and do it all again. Compactor’s sounds generally fall within a more mechanized style of industrial, there is soul, but it’s the soul of a robot programed to destroy itself, through repeated, violent, senseless rhythms, yet Rush’s sound and sample choices are powerful and intentional. The, slow, churning blown out percussion blends perfectly with the high squelching feedback of industry/insanity and multi-layered, multi-timbral synth workings. Compactor’s offering is the perfect opening to the project, cold, alienating, mechanized, and dense; the perfect ramp up to the more fuzzed out, abstracted works of some of the other contributors to the boxset, The Vomit Arsonist, Redrot, Gnawed, and Filth, amongst others.
Another standout sound work in this massive offering comes from Denton, TX’s FILTH, who offers up his own interpretation of an hour slice of the standard american work day. Rob Buttrum’s FILTH project is known for his menacing cacophony of industrialized noise, power electronics and analog psychedelic compositions. FILTH brings his A game to work for with a dark, brooding, menacing stitching of fuzzed out, psychedelic noise and drenched in feedback power electronics, in what can only be described as the FILTH sound, which we have covered in the past HERE in an interview with Buttrum and his label OUT OF BODY RECORDS. Buttrum does offer a rhythmic backing at times, but in a different, slightly more diffused, muffled style than COMPACTOR, but don’t skimp on the manual, because there is a harsh reality in store if you don’t, and you’re likely to get gobbled up into the machine and spat out as puny remains, but FILTH’s sound is not exclusively harsh, tripped out noise, there are abstracted broken rhythms, there is intention, it is planned, and panned, it IS the sound of the second hour of the day forcing itself into the negative space of your brain, that may in fact, prove to be your last of the day, of your life. FILTH is the sound of a rusted, dilapidated, unstable, harsh machine taking its unknowing operator with it to an early grave. Planned obsolescence, like user, like machine.
Michigan’sREDROT (Chondritic Sound, Bloodlust, Slaughter Productions)aka Ryan Oppermannoffers another standout track on “No Worker’s Paradise” with one of their tracks titled, “Work Release Program Terminations”. REDROT is blackened, harsh noise/PE, with slices of blown out beats, and angular rhythmic structures over a sea of dense power electronics and industrial. The machine has already regurgitated the one time worker into a mess of fleshy, red, sacks of rotting remains, and REDROT is the absolute perfect soundtrack to the coworkers slowly and confusingly sweeping the bloody bits into a bag for disposal. Redrot carries a white noise sword which swiftly and steadily shaves away at the listeners inner ear canal, until a drop of blood leaks out, and starts a mechanical frenzy leaving the workers, along, confused, and scared as the drop turns into a red pool where music dies.
Another standout offering on this project is Minneapolis, MN’s GNAWED, aka Grant Richardson. We’ve covered one of GNAWED’s previous releases HERE on Decaycast.
GNAWED‘s track for “No Worker’s Paradise” is similar to his other industrial, harsh noise, power electronics hybrid funeral stylings; chaotic, yet restrained, busy yet articulate, harsh but at times even beautiful. Much like FILTH, GNAWED uses homemade analog electronics to create a brooding, dark, cavernous sound all of his own. His “Terminal Epoch” album from Phage Tapes, would be the closest style wise that I’ve heard for the track for this boxset. GNAWED is a master of tension through intentional and articulate dynamics, balancing sharp, harsh sounds with lower, more brooding under swellings of terror; the track slowly and painfully oscillates between violent shudders, chaotic, dense, noise blasts and distorted, broken voice swells.
THE VOMIT ARSONIST,EXISTENCE IN DECLINE, BLSPHMand WORK/DEATH also punch in with powerful sound works blending industrial, harsh/blackened noise, power/electronics and dark, experimental moods of the harsher, angular style.
The boxset as a whole is a lengthy listen clocking in at the 8 hour mark, but when one thinks of the slow, grudging, unrelenting time clock of the american work day, this tour de force of harsh industrial / PE serves as a warm, relaxing day on the beach as a vacation, even for a day, from the alienating, hellscape robotic world that is American capitalism. Rush does right by all of the artists involved with stunningly beautiful and appropriate artwork and packaging as with all of the labels releases. A must for any noise collector, and/or hater of capitalism.
DECAYCAST#036: NIHAR BHATT : V/A: ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE DJ Mix on RATSKIN RECORDS, 2017
IMA “Meshes” TERROR APART “Perfectly Nowhere” BIG DEBBIE “E.P. Hypnosis” AH MER AH SU “Write This Off” SNEAX (LaTron + Obsidian Blade) “Till The End 100%” Piano Rain “Last Year” Remastered PRIST “Still Movin'” FORBIDDEN COLORS “Green Smiley Face Sticker” BONUS BEAST “Direct Dive” ZEEK SHECK “7777-01-07 Son” JOSHUA KIT CLAYTON “Morning Rasp” HIROSHI HASEGAWA “Homeobox” MALOCCULSION “Walk Of The Dead, Part One” S.B.S.M. “Godzilla” POD BLOTZ “The Current” MOOR MOTHER “CTM Five” BRIAN TESTER “Chrono People” GOLDEN DONNA “Wired For The Worst” THE CREATRIX “D B No Moral Universe” CIARRA BLACK “Don’t Say It, Volume 1” RUSSELL E.L. BUTLER “Technofeminism House” ZANNA NERA “In My Veins” JASMINE INFINITI “Scratchy A” ELROND “Hart Start” DIMENTIA “Specimen Identity” PARALYCYST “Untitled” SHARON TATE FETUS EXPLOSION “Personal Brand” V.E.X. “Ride The Time” arc “Breathe Couplings Undulation Map”
On The Origin Of Rogue Pulse / Gravity Collapse:About two weeks to the day before Ghostship, we returned home after days of protests; as always feeling defeated, BEING defeated another day of violence enacted upon the communities’ consciousness; Witnessing the beautiful families of oakland wading through never ending rivers of trauma enacted on all marginalized communities through state sanctioned violence and racism in Oakland, and the Bay Area at large. A compilation will not solve this, a thousand compilations will not solve this, but we have done nothing to combat this and we have to start somewhere. ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE is an uncertain yet thorough attempt to demonstrate to propose a restructuring of how artists, labels, promoters, venues and other “institutions” and INSTITUTIONS use their privilege, time, talents, and resources. But before we could do that, and begin to unpack the complexities around all of these issues, in one single night, the community lost thirty six souls, including founding members of our collective, artists on our label, family members, and so much more in Ghostship and then months after RP/GC was released, almost a dozen more in the San Pablo Fire months later which displaced hundreds of longstanding Black members of the community, and lastly the North Bay fires. There is only so many ways to process or not process this stuff, but we came up with a compilation. We weren’t sure how long it would be, who would be included, how we would present it to the public without exacerbating the commodification of grief, and without taking visibility away from traumas enacted against the Oakland community at large, outside of the “artistic” community. We weren’t really at all sure how we would divide up the money, how we would promote it, but sometimes you don’t have any other fucking choice, even if it raised $100 you never know how far that could go.. Ghostship was, and still is a horrendous blow to our local creative community, many of whom had already been resisting against the structural wrath and chaos of a white supremacist, sexist, capitalist culture, and therefore already just struggling to create and survive, day by day hour by hour minute by minute. In short, many communities were fragmented and tormented long before Ghostship, and Ghostship, for many of us, brought a blade of mass trauma slicing through reality, grief, chaos, distrust and confusion that uprooted the community in so many different ways. The Immediate Fire relief fund literally saved people’s lives by the way and all the love should be given to them and those working on the periphery as well.
What was crucial for us was linking in those deeply affected and lost in Ghostship fire while also keeping the financial and conceptual focus on the organizations we chose to support before the fire, Black Lives Matter and St James Infirmary in San Francisco. Before we knew it, it was out. It was like the best and worst possible distraction, and in MANY ways, postponed a lot of the mental and physical healing that members of the collective needed to do for ourselves but at the same time it was, and still very much is an entry point for beginning the process. For me personally, this has easily been the single most important release I have ever been a part of for numerous reasons, but the single biggest reason is because it saved my life, literally, so many times I cannot even count and it did that by showing me the undeniable ferociousness of our community. Every track on ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE, came as a blessing, a hug, a shoulder to cry on, but also they came as weapons, one hundred and eighty seven weapons, and we couldn’t be happier with the finished offering, as it strives to demonstrate the unrelenting power through all of the trauma and grief that our community and the people of Oakland, through various intersections possess and present with every moment that they exist. Nihar’s essential, heartfelt, and nearly perfect distillation of the thirteen hours of Rogue Pulse / Gravity Collapse, carefully and masterfully sharpens heavy stones of grief into razor blades of warmth, love, creativity, and determination of our community like daggers to the throat of a broken, corrupt system. Every tear shed will eventually freeze to form an icicle to thrust into the socket of a system which has cast away so many amazing, beautiful, creative, people.
This mix is one for everyone who has lost a loved one at the hands of systemic violence. Your tears will not go unnoticed, and this is just the beginning.
This mix is one for everyone who has lost a loved one at the hands of systemic violence. Your tears will not go unnoticed, and this is just the beginning.
This little unassuming tape arrived in our mailbox all the way from NZ, where the artist
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 