TRENCHER / ESQUILAX
Split 10"
T1. Attack Of The sXe Attackers
T2. Delusions Of Grindeur
T3. Blondes Of Meth
T4. Déjà Pooh
T5. Row Upon Row Of Leper Skulls
T6. I Lost All My Hair In A Skiing Accident (orig. by The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg.
T7. Trapped Under A Train... Alive!
E1. Thirteen Deer In Seven Weeks
E2. When I Listen To You
E3. Daily Affirmation
E4. Every Nipple, 100%
E5. Wiping My Ass With The Mona Lisa
E6. Bibleland
E7. Beyond Batshit
E8. Wanking With Chopsticks
E9. During The Mating Season The Kentucky Warbird Stands On One Leg
E10. Powerballad
E11. Why Does Everything Have To End In A Group Suicide With You?
E12. It's Hard To Do Evil Bidding On An Empty Stomach
E13. Cash For Kidneys
E14. Captain Hypocrite Strikes Again!
E15. One More Hour In This Town And I'm Gonna Kill Someone
The Trencher tracks are from the session they did for John Peel's Radio 1 show, which was first broadcast on the 24th May, 2004. On the flip we have 15 songs of completely unhinged circus-grind gabba hardcore from Birmingham's Esquilax.
Ltd. to 1030 10"'s on black & clear vinyl.
Co-released with:
Crucificados Pelo Sistema
Midmarch
Monotreme
Transgressive
Upset The Rhythm
Reviews
It’s a disgusting world out there. Some pretty messed up shit goes on daily and this might just be the soundtrack to the whole goddamn mess. After a few years of low-sound-quality releases, London 3 piece Trencher use a side of vinyl and a session recorded for John Peel to further prove how much damage can be done with a sore throat, a perverted sense of fun and a tiny keyboard. They drag Birmingham noisy bastards Esquilax along to make their debut on the other side. Although recorded live, Trencher sound better than they ever have before. Fast and loud, ambitious but awkward, frantic stop-start-stops and frightening noise spasms that make Converge look formulaic, their ugly grinding everything-core genuinely pushes for the boundaries of extremity and even the borders of listenability. They describe their live shows as “violent, therapeutic catharsis”, a feeling translated into the high-speed drums, droning, relentless bass and ringing Casio squawk of tracks like ‘Blondes Of Meth’ and ‘Attack Of The SXE Attackers’ here. And whoever the hell is screaming must be getting some huge personal demons out. Or a killer headache. Esquilax sound like that headache, or like an alien being pulled backwards through a tiny hole in a spaceship window by the vacuum beyond. Branded ‘terror pop’, they fire through 15 tracks of their piercing digital hardcore in just over nine minutes. Like disco music played backwards too fast and mixed with the theme from some obscure 80’s cartoon, there are bubbling circus effects, a shattering drum-machine stomp and desperate, clawing vocals. Bouts of apparent randomness, some near-silent lows followed by shrill, scathing highs…this is probably what murderers hear when they close their eyes. This is definitely all challenging stuff, but not a challenge like staying awake at a prog-rock concert; a challenge like escaping from a Terminator. Trying to kill you with a power drill. Much closer to the dictionary definition of noise than that of music; for some, this will be genius at work, the captured sound of two twisted bands on fine form. For everybody else it could be enough to make them never listen to music again, in case something like this ever slips through the speakers for a second time.
- New Noise
I am so glad that I heard the vinyl of this release, rather than just the cd-r I got sent, before reviewing this. Fair play to MidMarch for sending out copies on cd to review – thumbs up for that – however this sounds a bit flat and quiet on the cd-r. What with these recordings being mastered etc for vinyl however – this sounds awesome on the black/clear vinyl it comes on.
Trencher contribute the Peel sessions they recorded last year – their first significant batch of new songs since their debut LP. Whilst it is a little rough around the edges – what with it being recorded live in a studio, these are certainly some of Trencher’s best songs to date. More expansive and catchier than any previous material, whilst never losing any of the intensity that they are renowned for, Trencher deliver the goods here – with previously unheard death growls thrown in for good measure.
The other side of this release comes from Birmingham’s very own Esquilax. Their contribution consists of the electro-gabba-grind set that the band initially became infamous for. Whilst lacking the live guitar/bass (all of the instrumentation you hear on these recordings was made/sequenced/programmed through ‘Music’ on the Playstation), Esquilax still blast with a disgusting intensity. Sounding something akin to Agoraphobic Nosebleed being remixed by the keyboard player from Horse the Band whilst Soft Cell scheme murderously in the background, Esquilax are not only a total headfuck, but also one of the most original bands to have emerged from the UK underground in sometime. It’s been said many times before, but it’s still a shame that they don’t sometimes delve back into this material.
9/10
- The Communion