Red Transistor – Not Bite 8.5

When this begins playing, I don’t care what volume you have it at, increase it. Not Bite deserves it; it deserves you sinking your teeth into the spaz madness that’s about to happen. The singer seems to be working through some intense nervous breakdown, not realizing where he’s at. Vampires attack as he shouts “Not Bite”. Or that could be his dreary, boring life he’s rebelling against.

Drums are around; they go this way and that. Guitars freak out, find their place again. That organ that thing is sort of being tortured in the background, gives the closest thing to an anchor. Urgency doesn’t even describe what’s going on, urgency isn’t enough for this. Your full attention and then some is demanded, expected of you. Just go with the flow.

That’s the first track. “We’re Not Crazy” is an understated, low key affair. Nah, I kid. Its bass pinpoints your ears, going at some absurdly fast speed. Maybe it would be driving music if there weren’t any speed limits. Like the previous track, there’s a bunch of intense noise occurring just enough out of focus to keep you curious. For whatever reason, the singer repeats “We’re Not Crazy” despite the sound indicating otherwise. 

If you wanted a better No Wave EP, I’d be very hard pressed to find you one. This positively oozes energy and chaos. VON LIMO, the guitarist, ended up using leftover ideas from this in his solo stuff. Wish he had keep this band together for over a year.

Sister Iodine – Flame Desastre 8.3

Calling this “No Wave” won’t even prepare you for the discordant mess you’re about to encounter. Riffs, sorry there aren’t any. Beats or any semblance of rhythm are immediately obliterated as soon as they are detected. In a way this is more difficult than most noise recordings, in that the sound is very abrupt, there’s tons of random starts and stops out of nowhere.

“Trope” comes across as the most normal song on here. Its bizarre wormy attempt at coherence comes closest to early Black Dice recordings.  Here the drum works as a way to keep a beat. In most instances on this record the drummer’s purpose seems to be to painting the sound and ruining any attempts at a beat. Whenever you here the pounding of the drum you can be assured it won’t be kept in anything resembling a time signature.

Some might say that their work resembles that Brooklyn-based group Sightings. I’d say that’s partly right, but unlike that group no vocalist exists. Also, there isn’t anything to anchor these songs down, no drum machine and no attempt at stability. Structures here exist only for untimely destruction.

Despite the very abrasive textures found here, they are excellent. The amount of effort required to keep something this harsh and abstract engaging is high. Sister Iodine excels at this talent. Noises that would usually be edited out of the process are the main focus. Scraping feedback, random transmissions, drum smashes, and whatever else is going on is the focus. It moves very briskly through these sonic hellscapes. 

Editions Mego released this, so that should give you some indication of the record’s harshness. It is rare that a full-fledged rock band takes on this level of brutality, but Sister Iodine performs beautifully. Not exactly something you’d return to every day, but a wonderful feat nonetheless. Shame these guys don’t get more attention.

Their Website 

Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra – Another Heartbreak 8.4

I guess the name is what happens when there’s too much democracy in a group. You end up with something unruly like that title. No worries though, the music is definitely pretty excellent.

DFA did everyone a favor by reissuing this gem from the far-overlooked Peter Gordon. He worked with people as renowned as Laurie Anderson and Rhys Chatham. Parts of the late 70s/early 80s burst through each piece, especially the saxophone playing which reminds me of Pere Ubu for some reason. 

The first track is a much easier one to wrap your mind around. Even though it is a medley of various bits and pieces (going from lounge to funk to dance) it works as a whole. A few things have been touched up, adding a synthesizer is pretty much expected for any DFA release. Listening to this, and the orchestral underpinnings of what is basically a dance track, I’m pretty glad that DFA gives credit where credit is due for all those bands that have influenced them.

“That Hat” is much stranger. Never before released which is a same. This one has a much harsher vibe to it, kind of like a “No Wave” jam session going on. Of course having Arto Lindsay contributing to the track tends to do that. Out of almost nowhere, from all these random shouts and skronk, comes a reassuring voice about that hat. Worth exploring.