June 23, 2014

BLUNTLUST: Tumbleweed Dealer - Western Horror (2014)


Where do you go when you've been shot in the stomach and vultures are already circling your soon-to-be corpse? Where do you hide from the Southern Reaper, who rides upon his skeletal steed, with a scythe in one hand and a shotgun in the other? How much peyote is too much? And how much exactly does an ounce of tumbleweed cost?

Fear not, for the Tumbleweed Dealer has returned stronger and more baked than ever to answer all of these questions. At the border between the Wild West and drug-induced psychedelia stands Seb Painchaud and his gang of ghoulish cowboys, all bearing arms, pipes and enough weed to make Al Cisneros sense a disturbance in the smoke. Western Horror is the band's second album, released just today, and, if you know what's good for you, you have awaited this album with trembling hands and heavy breathing. Was it worth the wait?

HELL YEAH BITCH!

Tumbleweed Dealer might have just perfected a new genre of music that I have decided to call country-doom, even though it reeks of many other delicious flavors. There's a lot of late-Earth influence going on here, as Seb Painchaud conjures an intricate weaving of shamanistic, Wild West-tinged riffing with some bluesy hues and tons of melody, complimented by some insanely groovy bass work and simple yet atmospheric drumming. I sort of knew what to expect, as I have listened to their previous work A LOT. Hitting play on the album's opener, aptly named Bluntlust, has managed to blow me away. The entire song exudes summer vibes through every note and you think you're in for a fun ride, but things quickly take a turn for the sinister with Slow Walk Through A Ghost Town. From that point on, Western Horror constantly changes gears and alternates between moods, but one thing remains constant: the band's penchant for creating mesmerizing tunes that could be the soundtrack to a spaghetti Western horror movies about skeletal cowboys and ghastly rancheros. Repetition and various motives are used with confidence and grace and, by the time the album was over, I realized I ended up loving this band even more.

Tumbleweed Dealer is like the bastard son of Earth - they sucked on Dr. Dylan Carlson's tit enough to get a taste of the country drone they have professed in their recent years, but then they broke into daddy's medicine cabinet, took a few sips of whatever they could find in there, grabbed the family shotgun and went out to terrorize the West. Western Horror is their best work yet and one of the most exciting albums to come out in 2014 so far. Lock'n load!


June 22, 2014

MUSIC NOTES: The Chewers - Chuckle Change And Also (2014)



This is the weirdest thing I've listened to in a while.

This record sounds like The Residents and an early Tom Waits met in a bar, got drunk and had sex in the parking lot. Not sweet and tender love, mind you, but the guilty, awkward, middle-aged kind of fornication that only a mid-season episode of Louie could accurately depict. This is the kind of music you write after spending at least 10 years in a cabin in the middle of some random Louisianan swamp, deprived of any sort of human interaction.

 On Chuckle Change And Also you'll find instances of:
  • folk rock with a southern gothic approach; you can think of it as a trailer-park version of Grateful Dead
  • they striped rock down to its very basics - rudimentary, churned guitars,  mesmerizing drum rhythms and bigger-than-life bass lines that evoke an overall sense of futility and despair
  • everything about this album is raw and untamed
  • dark, twisted lyrics that tackle subjects such as poor hygiene, insomnia, unemployment, boredom and awkward social interactions
  • menacing deadpan delivery
  • wry sense of humor
  • all in all, the purest americana album I've heard in a while

TZEEAC RATING: they'd better include The Chewers' music in the next season of True Detective/10

June 18, 2014

PERTURBATOR "Dangerous Days" LP (2014)


We here at TZEEEAC love the whole new wave of 80s retro-synth, and with PERTURBATOR having ridden this wave to orgasmic proportions in the past with the beautiful "Terror 404" and the darker "I Am The Night", we all knew that his third record was going to be something of serene beauty. He was even cool enough to answer our dumb questions a while back, so we got you pretty much covered on this subject.

"Dangerous Days" starts out smoothly, with the opening track "Welcome Back" setting the game for us. After that the fortunately titled "Perturbator's Theme" kicks you in the nuts all of the sudden, making sure you feel like you're sinking in your chair from the sheer intensity and perfect synth hooks. There's a couple of songs on this LP that have some relaxing vocals added on them for good measure. Now, I haven't enjoyed this sort of experimentation on PERTURBATOR's behalf in the past (some songs come to mind from "I Am The Night" that really didn't do it for me) but shit, man, the vocals here just bring "Dangerous Days" even closed to the top spot on what will be this year's best album list. They really tie the whole thing together, like mayonnaise on some golden shaworma.


This album really stands out on two levels: hooks and emotions, and I'm going to talk about the latter. The fact that the instrumentals on this album give you so much energy and emotion is just something that really can't be that easily achieved using decades-old keyboards and loopers. Then there's the tracks with the vocals on them that bring about 10% of what DAFT PUNK have been doing since forever with the whole "human/robot" deal, they sound like robots playing synths and vocals, but feel very human alltogether and emotion-y, and I find that really really good.

I've enjoyed PERTURBATOR's early albums so much because they sounded very retro and to a certain small degree, pretty cheesy (songs about Linnea Quigley and Josh Holmes.. you know what I'm talking about), but with "Dangerous Days" this is most certainly not the case. The whole LP is way darker and way more deep and mature compared to his other work (this shit sounds straight out of Pitchfork but it's as accurate as I can say it) and for that I hold this album very very high. The evolution that this artist has come through is about as good as it gets.

9.5/10

June 14, 2014

Exit Oz - Impamantenit (2014)



Let me just start off by complementing the artist that worked the cover on this album. I mean gosh darn'it, it might just be one of the coolest things I've seen in the last years, while also complementing very well the nature of the music.

What music you ask? Well, they list themselves as ambient darkjazz and it's probably the most accurate depiction of their sound. Basically, if you can picture Bohren after a prolonged session of ganja, playing on the minimal side, with romanian folk influences thrown around and just a touch of metal here and there by some careful use of blast beat percussion (!!), basically this is Exit Oz. 

Or you could experience it in any way you please, I just know that I've been listening to this LP for the last week and I can't seem to get enough of it. Mandatory listen, regardless of your musical preferences!



June 10, 2014

Cockblues Concerto - A warm playlist on a cold night


Tonight we bring you a masturbation-themed playlist compiled by our buddy Radu. I have no idea how he managed to scavenge all of these songs together, but I'm glad he did. To my absolute surprise, it's not just two hours of horrible pornogrind anthems about jamming jails up your pee-hole, but a really catchy collage of various bands and styles, perfect for turning you on to new music you might like. Here's what the man himself has to say about this:

I compiled a list of masturbation-themed songs, the perfect soundtrack for either sippin' whiskey in the dark or scouring your tower of power (or both at the same time!). Some classics, some not-so-classics, but if you feel like taking a break from strumming the one-string harp, all suggestions are welcome.


- RADU 



Have fun!


June 8, 2014

N. Tesla - Lux Manifesto (2014)


This is a seriously weird name for a band. The simple machismo behind it and the fact that they approach music in such an organic, free flowing yet somewhat 'don't give a rat's ass just as long as we play what we like' type of structure, all that makes me want to put them in their own category, and that is Marco Post Metal. 

Yup, I've said it. This is basically all the things that The Ocean failed to deliver when they downsized to an actual band instead of running things like some small form of music state. Downside of N. Tesla's first LP? It's two short: thirty three minutes of screaming, howling and all around dissonant riffing is not nearly enough to satisfy my need for unpurposeful violence on a prolonged weekend. Upside? They also have a demo entitled 'Misogyny', you might want to check that out also. 

I know I will.



June 6, 2014

RECITATION - Recitation (2014)

A couple of days ago, I got an e-mail from my old friend Jeppe. He was in the amazing Obstacles, I tattooed him, he tattooed me, so yes... we go way back and I love him to pieces. In this e-mail, he told me about his new band and I clicked the link, expecting technical and jazzy instrumental music along the lines of his old band, but oh how wrong I was...

An ominous incantation over heavy as fuck downtuned dissonant riffs and cymbals crashing like the chains on a medieval torture device creeps up to me... unsettling, claustophobic, terrifying. This sure as hell isn't your mordern run of the mill occult doom, this shit is fucking EVIL! Khanate comes to my mind, Grief of course, even the insanity of Corrupted, all those pillars of gut wrenching heaviness - but as strange as it might seem, the band that I am most reminded of (even though Recitation sound nothing like them) is Goatlord. Recitation have the same fucked up atmosphere that evokes images of Hammer Horror mist, absolutely demented Lovecraft-ian madness instead of a watered down cartoon version.

The music of Recitation is very simplistic (as opposed to a sheer "simple"), yet very effective. Each instrument gets equal space, like lines of graves in an old cemetery, and this includes the vocals. Instead of "leading" the song somewhere, it's just another device in the ritual. The songs flow like ectoplasm from the mouth of a possessed person, like a spirit photography set to music. If you like your music dark and heavy, look no further. Recitation is the real shit.



http://recitation.bandcamp.com/
http://unholyrecitation.tumblr.com/

June 1, 2014

Tzeeeac Interview: NEKROFILTH


US scumfucks NEKROFILTH are the driving force in decadent, deprived and delicious death metal music slammed together with some of the uglies punk tunes this side of the sewer. They've finally got around to answering our questions, so get a bucket nearby 'cause this shit's getting nastier by the minute...


1. What do you consider to be the worst smelling thing in the universe?

Your mother's cooking.

2. How do you take your krocodil?

After eating your mother's cooking.

3. What is a “degenerate” in your book? What are some influential famous degenerates?

A person with no common decency, and severely lacking in morals. Famous and respectable degenerates would be Charles Bukowski, El Duce, and anyone who likes your mother's cooking.

4. What sound does a volcanic zit make when you pop it? What shades of color would come out of it?

Probably sounds a lot like the first CARCASS album, and would be the same color as your mother's cooking.

5. Name three of your favorite disco acts.

THE BEE GEES, that one KISS record, and GHOST.

6. How does a blind man know when to stop wiping his ass?

Ass wiping is for friggin wimps!


7. I am a superlatively scumbag European tourist planning to travel the US. I like drugs, cheap junkie street hookers and I worship destruction. What cities, streets, places would Nekrofilth recommend me for my decadent pilgrimage?

If you're a fan of this sort of thing, you're in luck. There are many scummy and dirty places in US. Obviously I'd recommend my hometown of Cleveland, but Detroit, MI really takes the cake. There are very few places in the world as depraved and hopeless.

8. I invited this girl over for movie night. I don’t know what movies to pick. Can you recommend me some movies to add some romance? I want to make a good impression here, guys.

I would say Death Wish III, but it's a little sappy. How about Rosemary's Baby? That will keep her from getting any weird ideas.

9. How about a game of pick one and why…

Who hid the roofies?

Jack or Jim? Tequila.

Miller, PBR or Bud?  Moonshine.

AUTOPSY "Shitfun" or ABSCESS "Urine Junkies"? NME "Unholy Death",

Taxi Driver (1976) or Maniac (1980)? Taxi Driver. But both are great.

Tits or Ass? At this point I'll pretty much fuck anything.

10. What can we expect from Nekrofilth in the future?

We are gonna be pressing our second demo “Filling My Blood With Poison...” on LP. Then hopefully doing a US tour and then Europe for a tour with REPUKED this fall. After that we will continue to bum the world out with our retarded music.

NEKROFILTH "Devil's Breath" LP on HellsHeadbanger's Records OUT NOW.
Questions by A. Headcheese.
Art by D. Witchfinder.