Dead Gods / Dandi Wind
(Rampage) split 7-inch $7.00
Dead Gods' “The Perfect Lie” is polished, new-wavish, angst-ridden and packed with New Order-esque bass lines; swaying melodies and detailed synth arrangements recall something Johnny Marr of The Smiths would whip out. Mope-y lyrics, a touch of glockenspiel and pizzicato strings, Phil Spector-style production, driving and danceable. Guest appearances by Jim Magas (Lake of Dracula), Bobby Conn and Monica Boo Boo, Josh (Majhonng). Dandi Wind are a Vancouver-based duo who consider their peers Glass Candy, Crystal Castles, or SSION. “Incubation” is a trippy blur of pounding, almost tribal music with astonishing and chaotic vocal arrangements, dark lyrics, intricate production, and throbbing lead synth lines. Edition of 300 copies.
K.K. Rampage / Metalux
(Rampage) split LP $16.00
Metalux continues their refinement of creepily serene noise arrangements and free-floating modern psychedelia. Voices are treated as another instrument in an amorphous wash of sound among atmospheric keys and harsh electronics. K.K. Rampage -- Chicago's confrontational, rabble-rousing, NO(w) wave misfits -- replace their piercingly, de-tuned Arab-on-Rabar-esque guitars and “pop” beats with sinister, mechanical chaos and throbbing spastic drumming. A truly fascinating album that improves with repeated listening. Limited to 400 copies.
Tarantismo Summit Volume 1
(Rampage) LP $16.00
Rooted derogatively in the spirit of Nonesuch Records' pioneering steps into the foray of primitive avant garde in the early 1960s, Tarantismo Summit ushers in a new age of reclamation of the broken and damaged arts, coercing the music enthusiasts of the present day to expand their horizons and explore new territories, still unfamiliar, yet unwavering. A satellite of unspeakable desecration in the free-jazz stratosphere of the '70s underground, Smegma is and were a pivotal point of aural disgust to many, and an unrequited love for the rest of the outsider population screaming for dissonance and catastrophe of modern sound. K.K. Rampage have lived in the squalor of Chicago's most egregious forbidden zones for years without sunlight or nourishment, and their inclusion is defaulted in their steadfast stance of perpetuating mental decay, along with an inherent unhinged velocity of self-destruction. The Floridian influence on this damaged crop of poisoned sprouts comes in the larval state of Insect Joy, a duo of crustaceous origin who obliterate the tranquility of a Gulf Coast sunset with a barbaric and drilling groove of mindless gravel-toned noise. The last nail in the coffin, in an electric storm of ghastly proportions, Ghost Moth vilify an age-old premise where confusion of sound and disruption of parallax combine to create a horrendous vision of a world turned inside out. 400 copies.