"Well,
Schizo-Tech is here. And woe to you, Old Earth and Sea.
I've been waiting on this monster since the summer, when I heard first
whispers of it. Received an early dubbed cassette copy, which I clung
and listened to like a crystal egg in my front yard in the dark at 3am
with headphones and beer under a titanic willow tree. There were several
sessions like this, accidentally scaring roommates while hiding in the
late night, sneaking smokes with a dying 90s Walkman, oblivious to
everything accept the oblivion on tape.
Black Kaspar's latest cassette is an invitation to the bewitching giants of
Bill Zink's
mind, all made reality with the inclusion of a pedigree that is just
as giant in the scopes of experimental music. These roots surrounding
Zink come from a
musical family tree
that run extensive and long, both in magnitude of bands, as well as
time. Black Kaspar is a culmination of years borne of members of
The Belgian Waffles and
Sick City Four, and all three bands of musicians deserve as much as respect devoted to the legends of
Borbetomagus, and as much popularity accorded to the revitalization of harsh noise that
Hair Police participated in during the earlier 2000s.
The album itself is Zink's commemoration of the layers of sound. He said
as much, when I interviewed him in September (see this archived episode
of
Club El Rancho: The Spooky and Spectacular Sounds of Cropped Out 2013 for a recording of that talk)
"It's sound that I hear in my head," Zink said, "...It's all about
sound...It's one of the first times my improv playing has gone back to
my heavy metal years....I'll never be at home about rock music unless I
can feel it in my body..."
That need to feel a pummeling in your chest is thoroughly examined on
Schizo-Tech. The lead-off track "Space-Truckin' Part II" is that layered
volume, and is the hypnotic impetus that kept me crouched until far too
late in the dark. Beastly electronics, savage guitars, aggressive
horns, frantic drums; it's the mammoth descent led by Dan Willems on a
Hawkwindish bass guitar riff occurring near the seven minute mark that
shifts my mind into my palms and restructures my spine, making
everything indeed sound like a helicopter chewing its blades through a
freight truck.
The title track is a communication with dimensions Unknown, Unnamed,
Feared. A unity of electronics and distortion that I imagine one hears
when crossing to the other side after death by electric shock. The last
track, "Burrowing," triggers riffs through stratums that lead to dusky
places that defy seams.
This Black Kaspar swallows the village of Louisville, as well as the
year of '13 in just these last weeks, pounding out The End for all of
us.
Really, really, really recommended.
Released by Adept Recordings and
Loin Seepage. Available at at least
Astro Black Records and the bandcamp, if not other fine establishments in Louisville."-
American Gloam