Noise for Zeros

Flowers LP
Sacred Bones Records, 2009

Sprouting from the same Seattle weirdpunk nexus that bloomed The Intelligence, A-Frames, and AFCGT comes one of the most mysterious and puzzling bands currently rearranging the sonic DNA of noisenerd earholes worldwide. Pulling together sounds pioneered by early synthpunk groups like Chrome and The Units, and tweaking them with a dose of tranced-out Can and Faust-style krautrock, every element of Factums music is a couple steps removed from normal. I recently picked up the special edition version of their latest LP on the stellar Sacred Bones label, Flowers, and have been trying to decode it for the last week or so. Far more focused than the sputtering soundtrack of A Primitive Future and their early Spells & Charms LP, Flowers kicks out 22 tracks worth of weird jamz with hardly a lull. They didn’t eliminate the blippy experimentation and random cut and paste aesthetic found in their earlier releases, but with Flowers—constructed from recording sessions dating back to 2006 and 2007—they’ve trimmed these excursions just enough to keep the album flowing and interesting. Last year’s LP, The Sistrum, made the NFZ Best of 2008 list and this release at first take seems to be even more finely constructed and dazzling. It’s one of the better releases you’ll hear this year…

LINKS:

Factums on MySpace
Buy Flowers at Sacred Bones

Slug 7″ EP
Magnatone Records, 1990

In this final installment of the Slug singles series, we go back to a massive slab of double-density noise jams, the debut vinyl release from this legendary Los Angeles noise unit. Along with Cop Shoot Cop, they were one of the early adopters of non-traditional rock instrumentation, featuring two bassists, two guitarists, a drummer and a vocalist — a novelty that both piqued the interest of mutant rockers while also overshadowing their interesting musical ideas. Reviews of this 4-song monster often emphasized the quantity of players instead of the quality of the overall sound, reducing them to gimmicky purveyors of sludge. I never got to see them live, but other reviews reflected on the inability to effectively capture the full scope of their sound on vinyl, which I imagine would reveal a whole new level to the massive Slug experience. Still, with proper volume there’s a lot to dig from this souped-up noise rock classic. If you can’t find this somewhat hard-to-find 7″, it’s included on the CD version of their Swingers 10″ release, which I’ve seen in $1 bins from coast to coast.

DOWNLOAD:

Slug - “Sore Thumb”
Slug - “Painbaby”
Slug - “Freak of Nature”
Slug - “Aversion”

Hambone City / King of Ghosts 7″
Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1993

“Streetsweeper” from split 7″ with Unsane
PCP Recordings, 1992

“Borax” from Jabberjaw Compilation 7″ No. 1
Mammoth Records, 1994

Here’s some Slug odds and ends, prompted for you dear reader, by a comment left by this noise-addicted scion of good taste. See how that works? Leave a little feedback and who knows, I might just throw some more pounding tunes your way. Anyhow, here’s a few more tracks from the almighty Slug, each in the focused, rocking style that all of their singles highlight — a Slug singles collection, if you will. If you dig what you hear here, I encourage you to find one of their LPs because Slug, starting from their first 10″ release Swingers, always had a knack for weirdness and the unexpected which you don’t necessarily find with these singles tracks. Without time constraints, Slug playfully tweaks noise rock formulas with wild experimentation and spacious expanses of dub soundscapes, especially on their later releases. They were never content to simply pump out noisy slabs low end pummeling, making them one of the more interesting and art-damaged groups in this genre. Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Slug singles saga for the first 7″ release on Magnatone records…

DOWNLOAD:

Slug - “Hambone City”
Slug - “King of Ghosts”

Slug - “Streetsweeper” (Unsane)
from split 7″ with Unsane

Slug - “Borax”
from Jabberjaw Compilation 7″ No. 1

Breathe The Thing Out 7″
Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1992

Slug was a band that was always pushing the envelope, and therefore was always a couple steps ahead of a huge fanbase. They did manage to get some critical acclaim and a string of records released over their 6-year existence, but those releases, populating used record store bins nationwide, seem to be the only trace remaining of one of the more interesting noise rock groups of the last decade. And to categorize them as noise rock isn’t entirely accurate, since their core sound mutated in so many different directions, so much so that their later records contained long stretches of soothing dub, eerie scratchy tape loops and other sonic experiments far removed from the typical noise rock arsenal. Part of their novelty was the use of 2 bass guitars and loads of unconventional (read: experiemental) instrumentation, including tape loops and multiple drummers. All these elements cook up a sonic stew that sounds something like Crash Worship crashing an Unsane show, or more accurately, like a brutal extension of an earlier forward-thinking L.A. troupe, Savage Republic. One of my favorite Slug releases is this 3-song 45, which captures their early straightforward rock sound, with a loud, dense stomper “Breathe The Thing Out” and the rumbling krautrock trance of “Go Tell” and “Break Neck”.

DOWNLOAD:

Slug - “Breathe The Thing Out”
Slug - “Go Tell”
Slug - “Break Neck”