3 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Producer: Scott Hull, James Randall

Hydra Head treats ANb to their delicious repackaging of the PCP Torpedo 6″… including extras in the form of a secret track on disc 1 (the original release… but maybe that track was on the 6″ somehow?), and a disc 2 or “remixes” which not only sounds wholly different from disc 1 but is about 5 times as long.  Because ANb is grindcore, folks, blessed attacks of noise and growls for, generally, less than a minute per song, clocking the original release’s 10 tracks at less than 7 minutes.

I’ve read a share of things about Scott Hull and Nosebleed, now, because grindcore normally isn’t my bag, and I was curious what the history was here.  So there were plenty of references to Hull’s “Earache-schooled guitar riffs”, and hey, he was in A.C., and that ANb ditched the normal guitar/drums concept for a drum-machine to up the pummeling to inhuman levels and allow for, apparently, very concise programming designed to never let the listener sit still with a groove or hook.  It was also helpful, in reading one of the allmusic reviews, to hear that there’s a need – with music this short and blistering and random – to sit with it a while with several repeats, as the vibe might not sink in after just 6 minutes.  And I whole-heartedly agree.  While my initial listen of PCP Torpedo left me with a “yup, that’s grindcore” and I leaned more on digging the remixes, after several, several listens, the album actual wins me over.  Yes, designed to offend, but it is absolutely a composition when taken as a whole, as compared to the remixes, which are honestly hit or miss.

Happily, when I ripped the CD to my player, it grabbed the secret tracks that are on both discs.  Thus, you get this really excellently varied ten-minute noise track leading in to PCP’s thrash.  Once you get used to the vocals (if you’re not used to growls by your listening library), this shit’s mad impressive.  It’s not madness – there is a very purposeful feeling to the way things speed up and slow down, to when songs decide to break, to when the vocals get pushed into overdrive, to when it slows down, for a few seconds, into sludge.  Also via allmusic’s review, I must agree that the inclusion of the lyric sheet is nice but totally unhelpful, as all the words are white noise and could be matched to almost any track, but the song titles and samples are enough to get the vibe across, which is nails on chalkboards but without the sort of smiling crotch-kick of A.C.  Rather, they’re just kicking you in the crotch.  Unfortunately, it’s not all gold – some of the desire to just go insane on the tracks actually can’t be matched by the vocals, which seem at a rush to keep pace in some spots.

The remixes – as, yet again, another review, I think on Pitchfork, mentions – is almost like a de-mixing, as beats are slowed, lightest elements of guitar lines taken, maybe samples are chopped up.  But new samples, new beats are introduced, making it more of an “inspired-by” feeling, but who knows.  Taken separately, all of the tracks are pretty good – some are great, like the harsh ambient opener by Vidna Obama, or Jansky Noise and AUEK’s more rocking tracks – but the album overall lacks the cohesion of what came before.  Some tracks just start and stop (like Merzbow’s), without consideration for how it blends into the whole.  You could say that’s fitting for a collection of noise, but there’s always something to be said for how an album is taken as a whole, and it really distracts from the listening experience of the remixes.  Perhaps a bit better sequencing could’ve spruced that up, who knows.

Regardless, amazing art as usual by A. Turner and crew, and kudos to the label for exposing me – and getting me to dig – something I’d never have checked out otherwise.  4 stars for PCP, 3 for the remixes.  Pip pip.