Noise for Zeros

Complete Discography CD
Sacred Bones Records, 2010

One of the amazing things about music fandom is that no matter how far you explore a music genre there’s always a hidden gem that comes out of nowhere and instantly gives you a fresh perspective on a scene that you thought you knew so well. Granted, you always pay your dues snatching up lesser records that don’t quite have the magic of albums that pull you into a scene, satisfied to just find something that approaches the greatness of landmark records in your collection. But every once and a while a band will come along and make you wonder how the fuck you’d never heard of ’em. Such is the case of UK postpunk band 13th Chime who apparently had a bit of success during the early 1980s, touring with groups like The Addicts, The Meteors, Spear of Destiny, and The Enid, getting some airplay from John Peel, and releasing a few solid 7-inches and recording an unreleased LP. The quality level of 13th Chime’s recorded output exceeds many of their peers, with a gnashing style of darkwave postpunk that exists somewhere between the pounding throb of Killing Joke and the stark histrionics of Christian Death, tempered with the synthetic whine of Siouxsie, Tubeway Army, and Bauhaus. Yet those are just reference points, as 13th Chime had a harrowing sound that was distinctly their own. Huge props to Sacred Bones for bringing their unreleased LP to light decades later and packaging it up with their solid singles collection, demanding that this unheard band get its due.

LINKS

Buy 13th Chime at Sacred Bones Records
13th Chime on MySpace

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