Noise for Zeros

Brazilian Post-Punk 1982-1988
Man Recordings, 2005

This excellent compilation came out a few years back when Brazilian rock was hot stuff in the indie world, as evidenced by the resurrection of legendary rockers Mercenarias and Os Mutantes, and top-notch collections from the Soul-Jazz label like Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revoluton in Sound and The Sexual Life of the Savages: Underground Post-Punk from Sao Paula Brasil. While the tracks on this CD definitely feel dated with synths galore and vocal styles clearly inspired by their UK counterparts (Joy Division, The Cure, Killing Joke, Public Image Limited, etc) you can also hear an era when the possibilities were wide open and passionate bands weren’t afraid to take new ideas a run with ’em. There’s a freshness and originality captured here that breathes new life into what your ideas of what “post-punk” and “new wave” sound like. There’s a real charm in these bands and period of time, where synthesizers are treated like something new to experiment with and not as an ironic, empty gesture. Check out the Killing Joke-style percussive drive in Musak’s “Ilha Urbana” or the hypercool atmosphere of Chance that’s something like Tangerine Dream covering Suicide, or the intensity of Vzyodaq Moe‘s Tragic Figures-era Savage Republic sound. It’s one of the best comps to come out in the last 5 years, and if you like what you find here, you can find more on the also great Soul-Jazz comp mentioned above, with plenty more choice cuts and only a couple duplicate songs.

DOWNLOAD:

Muzak – “Ilha Urbana”
Chance – “Samba Do Morro”
Vzydaq Moe – “Redencão”

LINKS:

More info at the Man Recordings website
Buy CD at Forced Exposure

The Warming / Your Spaceman 7″
Amphetamine Reptile, 1991

No self-respecting blog with the word “noise” in its title would lack at least some mention of one of the most mind-blowing noise-centric brainfry guitar gurus ever to drift across this mortal coil. Grandiose introductions aside, the contributions, or more accurately, distortions, to the rock music form that Helios Creed made starting from the late 1970s are nothing short of legendary. And while his radically inventive work in Chrome rightly overshadows his long and prolific solo career, the slew of releases he cranked out throughout the 1990s are worth taking a closer look at. Some of my favorites came out in the early part of the decade, after his first tinny and weaker solo records X-rated Fairy Tales and Superior Catholic Finger — both listenable, but synth-heavy and staid compared to the blown-out fuzz of his following records, starting with 1989’s The Last Laugh. This single, released between 1990’s Boxing the Clown and 1992’s Lactating Purple perfectly captures the best elements of the Helios Creed oeuvre: overblown effects-ridden guitar, synthetic alien vox, and swirling psychpunk riffs that practically ignite speaker cones.

DOWNLOAD:

Helios Creed – “The Warming”
Helios Creed – “Your Spaceman”