GEISHA
Mondo Dell'Orrore CD
1. How To Kill A Career
2. (Seven Seven Seven)
3. Walt
4. Lesopolosa
5. Accidents
6. Riddle
7. Love Theme From "Reich Here, Reich Now"
8. Geisha Vs. Mechachrist
9. Letterbombs From Lesbians
Devouring/rebirthing the concept of "noise rock" into something frighteningly beautiful and brutally heavy, Geisha deliver crushing blasts of impossibly hyperdistorted rock baked in massive frequency overload and massive hooks and melodies and sinister crushing riffs, all of it slathered in filthy throbbing feedback and white noise horror holocaust, like the early 90's alt rock of Isn't Anything-era My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr. mashed together with the most brutal sort of Unsane/Am Rep style racket and distortion-drenched psych/noise into a sludgy metallic mass, jamming with a small army of pedal-smashing harsh electronics troglodytes playing awesomely catchy/crushing pop songs buried beneath a hellish storm of skree and amp-blowing fuzz. Terrifying. Beautiful.
Limited to 500 CDs.
Co-released with Blood Red Sounds. USA version released by Crucial Blast.
Artwork is from USA version.
Geisha | Sean, Tony, Steve
Reviews
Like Tractor, the "Mondo Dell'orrore" full-length (on SuperFi Records) from Geisha, another UK trio, is infinitely better than the material the band offered up a few years ago on the split 10" between the two. Sparse fits of heavily distorted vocals rest deep in the mix behind dense surges of (at times surprisingly melodic) power chord rhythms, thudding bass/percussion, and subdued wails of intense noise textures (also rather deep in the mix), but you really do have to check this shit out for yourself to get a real feel for what's going on. There's a good dose of "skronk" tucked away in portions of the guitar work, while the pulsing rhythms carry a dingy, sludgy churn to their underbelly, and a dissonant post-hardcore ring or even some rather relaxed clean passages seep forth on occasion. Plus they've got a great recording that perfectly benefits their attack with a really warm and natural set of tones that are certainly rugged - and overtly dirty when necessary - but somehow gel together into one big lump of sound without lacking enough clarity to do the job, so the various atmospheres created by the compositions are communicated just fine. There's definitely somewhat of an "unhinged" sensibility happening, but they totally pull it off and keep the material focused and, well… downright moving at its best. I don't know what else to say. I'm really fucking impressed. There's a truckload of diversity herein, but they manage to come across as completely cohesive and powerful, never once do things feel disjointed or particularly chaotic. Well fucking done, gentlemen. I'm sold. This is an excellent, excellent piece of work.
- Aversionline
This UK bulldozer may be merely a symptom of something bigger, but it’s a mighty potent one. See, the buildup has been there for a few years, but now the evidence is just overwhelming: noise rock is back. Not obtuse/abstract/free/Merzbow/wank noise, which hangs around forever like dandruff and ska, but AmRep/Load/Trance Syndicate junk. Christ, even Noiseville is back. Some of it’s even free of the “I’m male! MALE!!! SUCK MY COCK!!!” thing.
Lots of these bands have been grinding for years, but something seems about to break, and not just Lightning Bolt’s snare heads. Word to Sightings, Silver Daggers, No Things, El Buzzard, Goslings, Coughs, Gorch Fock, No Doctors, New Flesh, Steers, Mouthus, Magic Markers, Impractical Cockpit, the increasing popularity of Boris and Circle, the Comets on Fire massive, the outta-goddamn-nowhere return of Siltbreeze Records with the wonderful Times New Viking album, and a whole mess more.
Included among that “whole mess” are storied crew Geisha, who remember that the “rock” shouldn’t overwhelm the “noise” and vice versa. Nonetheless, everything here is utterly overblown, in the red and distorted like the war on terror. And hey, they’re British, ideal for folks who miss Mogwai playing short songs that caved in walls with their hideous white-hot skree. Again and again, Geisha fail to let up, cool off, take five, or chill out. I’ve been waiting for this scene to come back like Jews for Jesus. Reunited, and it feels so good.
- Decibel
The band Geisha is a trio from Bristol, England who has just recently released their debut album Mondo Dell'Orrore through Crucial Blast. Although being self proclaimed noise rockers, the album opens up with two short vicious pieces that while noisy and full of distortion, it reminds me more so of older dirge rock bands from the early to mid nineties. The only noticeable difference is the heavy amounts of distortion, which is even doused upon the vocals when they are rarely used bringing to mind the great Unsane. However, Geisha employ a very nice sense of melody under all that white noise to keep things moving and interesting. It’s the bands ability to go from quick bursts of assaulting rock to the longer much more melodic pieces like “Love Theme From Reich Here, Reich Now” that really impresses me.
As a whole Mondo Dell'Orrore really sounds like it could have been given birth during the mid nineties when post-hardcore and noise rock were much larger than they are now. However, an album like this just goes to show just how well some of those older acts and albums have stood the test of time and still bare a very large influence on a lot of the things we listen to today. Geisha have done well on utilizing an impressive mix of styles, both old and new.
- Built On A Weak Spot
Super Fi has a good ear for picking out the more raw and noisy bands to populate their label roster. Geisha of course is such a band taking influences from those well known Am Rep, etc bands. But this reference has been made enough already. Geisha is a band which stands totally on it's own. I'm familiar with them because of the Tractor split 10". Which is a great record featuring two bands sounding quite similar. Yet Geisha has a more varied repertoire. Yes, the vocals are buried underneath a shitload of distortion, and the guitars are way up front making lots of noise. But then you come across tracks like "Lespolosa" and especially "Love theme..." which show the intense melodic side of Geisha having epic tendencies. Even leaning towards the post rock of Mogwai and the likes. I'm not saying they should totally shift into softy gear to get my attention. No, there are more than enough interesting riffs and hooks to be found during these 10 tracks. "Mondo dell'orrore" is not at all the record you expect it to be upon hearing the initial tracks. It unfolds itself to be an intense journey without only using the usual power a generic "noiserock" band would. It's getting boring to say this again, but Geisha's full length is another winner on Super Fi records.
- Mashnote
It's as impossible to say whether the folks in Geisha are skilled songwriters as it is irrelevant. This is a band obsessed with one thing: the sound of white noise. There are actual songs on Mondo Dell'Orrore, but they're buried beneath layer upon layer of bristling distortion and blistering feedback. What is the Jesus-Jones-baiting "Love Theme From Reich Here, Reich Now" about? No one but the band knows ("Bondage Death," on the other hand, might be vaguely decodable), at least on a lyrical plane, but what they're really about is treating amps like the Bush administration treats the Constitution. This isn't the first band to look in the mirror and see an angrier My Bloody Valentine staring back (with more blood), but Geisha expertly mixes things, letting us truly savor the varieties of noise; we get some processed, contained bursts of static, and we also get excruciating emissions that could be the most evil pick-scrapes in musical history channeled through fifteen distortion pedals. Somewhere, deep down in the mix, screamed vocals join the fray, and every so often the noise-howl briefly ceases for some spaced-out noodling, but only to allow an illusion of peace before Geisha returns with shattering new levels of abrasion. In other words, highly recommended.
- Stylus
A glance at Geisha’s contact information in Mondo Dell’Orrore’s booklet immediately established them as, perhaps, the best band ever in the history of ever. Preceding the requisite email address and various web sites is this charming little declaration: "If you’d like to book us or fuck us:" followed by said contact info. Well! Direct, to the point, and not without just a wee bit of chutzpah, Geisha certainly doesn’t beat around the bush (ahem) as to their intention(s).
Of course, this avowal brings about a more pressing question to the women — or guys, we don’t want to pigeonhole (double ahem) the Geisha lads without due process — who might consider the band’s offer:
Are they fuckable?
A subjective question, to be sure. Those feeling a twinge of curiosity beginning to stir somewhere south of the bellybutton or fantasizing about rug burns on your inner thighs are advised to jet themselves on over to the band’s MySpace page to determine, first hand, the band’s fuckability quotient. Who knows? A plane ticket to Bristol may well be in your future.
Until someone takes up the band’s offer and reports the results to Maelstrom HQ, we’ll have to judge the band’s attributes strictly on what lays within the ten tracks that comprise Mondo Dell’Orrore. This much is clear, though, if the trio is as adept in the bedroom as they are at creating sonic mayhem and bliss, then be prepared for the monster fuck of your life.
What makes Geisha such an enticing proposition is the steadfast duality of their attack, where they take pop songs rife with alluring melodies and catchy-as-all-hell transitions, and beat them to within an inch of their lives, leaving them sprawled in a filthy back alley, buried under slabs of concrete, distortion and feedback.
If you can imagine a refugee from the ‘90s rosters of Touch and Go or Amphetamine Reptile filtered through the gauzy haze of My Bloody Valentine taking shelter under the heavy/soft post rock umbrella of Mono, Explosions in the Sky or Red Sparrowes, only to be blindsided by skull-pounding, knuckle-dragging rock well, then, you’re only starting to get the idea.
No roadway is off limits during the album’s forty plus minutes. The only guarantee is that if it isn’t swathed under a layer or ten of noise and fuzz, it will be at some point.
Delicate, shoe-gazing meandering falls under the weight of monolithic riffs and vicious drum hits; those same fragile passages continue to draw breath though, even after the fight has long since gone out of their eyes. A towering stoner rock rhythm gallops along at unsafe speeds, briefly yielding to crystalline, melodic intrusions that find themselves swept up and absorbed in those rhythms’ drift. Vocals so faint you have to strain to hear them emerge like staticky radio transmissions in the middle of a starless night. Determined post rock dynamics build to an epic mournfulness that couples rage and despair in a cloak of buzzing, sustained notes, submerged melodies and chest beating crescendos.
Elsewhere, sweeping passages share space with indie rock flourishes, clean guitar breaks give respite from the pervasive distortion, a new wave song structure flails haplessly against hefty bass and outsized riffs, and a serial killer expounds on his origins over a sorrowful piano piece that turns horror movie jittery by song’s end.
Heavy, fragile, crushing, pretty and ugly. Mondo Dell’Orrore is a roadtrip chained to a companion whose multiple personalities materialize simultaneously and without warning. The ride is unsettling, the threat of damage palpable. And never less than exhilarating. (8/10)
- Maelstrom
The publicity for Geisha’s Mondo Dell’Orrore reads “for fans of: Wolf Eyes, Lightning Bolt, Boris, Unsane, Psychic Paramount.” The most accurate comparison from this list is the one to Boris. Much like the Japanese stoner/doom trio, Geisha successfully marries the noisy chaos of modern/doom drone with an almost playful, catchy self-awareness that echoes bands ranging from Blue Cheer to Helmet.
Despite the band’s description as “noise rock,” these guys have less outbursts of pure noise than, say, the average Melvins studio album. Geisha displays its noisy side dynamically and shows a great deal of restraint, letting the almighty riff do most of the talking. Vocals are used sparingly, and when they do come in, the growls are buried under walls of guitar feedback.
Tracks like "How to Kill a Career" and "(sevensevenseven)" are vicious, ripping aural assaults that sound like Helmet and Melt-Banana’s three-headed lovechild. The meat of the album is in Geisha’s short, riffy metal tunes that shoot first and ask questions later. However, the band’s welcome use of dynamics throughout makes the experience more listenable and, indeed, more interesting. Even post-rock dynamics come into play, such as on the track "Love Theme From ‘Reich Here, Reich Now’," which is reminiscent of Red Sparrowes’ 2005 album "At the Soundless Dawn." The epic closer "Letterbombs from Lesbians" balances rocking heavy metal, noise, and more of those welcome dynamics.
Mondo Dell’Orrore has enough variety packed into its 44-minute length to please even the most jaded rocker. The band refreshingly combines influences both new and old into an intriguing and original package that shows great potential for future growth and development.
- Delusions Of Adequacy
Grit, feedback, noise, and - melody. Uh huh. Leave it to a bunch of guys from fancy pants England to implant some "musicality" to an otherwise beautifully sledgehammerish outing. Ok, for those who can't read between the lines, |I'm obviously being a little sarcastic|. Honestly, I'd be way more excited about heavy music if more people put actual thought into the music as far as including aesthetically pleasing writing such as this. There are chords and progressions here that just don't arise in similar music: Grief, for instance, would still be brutal beyond belief and yet a thousand times more appealing to me were they to include a glint of delicately cafted ethereality before they brought down their sonic axe upon it.
What you find here are some short blasting songs of Unsane-ish noisy hardcore bludgeoning (like the first two tracks, "How to Kill a Career" and "(Sevensevenseven)") mixed with some really nice progressions utilizing enough suspended chords to even evoke Downward Is Heavenward-era Hum and some latter day My Bloody Valentine at times. The only passage that felt a bit samey to me was the last minute or so of "Walt", which just kind of kept going. The otherwise interesting portions outweigh that one passage heavily, though. "Lesopolosa" has a great feel all through it, with a more mid-paced tempo and brooding guitar passages that flesh out into a cool song with a nice build up into Geisha's now-usual crushing, feedback-y guitars that just doesn't have any words until about the third minute. "Love Theme from Reich Here, Reich Now" is a prime example of the melodious song structures used in a building fashion to create a 7-minute noisy yet tuneful piece that certainly doesn't feel like 7 minutes. "Letterbombs from Lesbians" is also a longer piece that uses more varied textures, ranging from rocking, rhythmic riffs to swirling electronic (almost video game) noise, to a quiet, eerie, echo-y piano over a recording of a serial killer speaking about his life.
The best thing about this record is the balance in writing. They cover many areas, from super heavy bashing slabs to dark, reverberating clean guitar textures and enveloping seas of blinding white light feedback, and while everything is very well constructed, the noisy feedback aspect presence gives the record a feeling of looseness. Vocals are largely absent, only coming in the form of distorted, processed screaming and speaking. The instrumentation does a great job of carrying the focus because the tunes are interestingly written. The way some tuneful, quiet guitar passages build into crushing feedback riffage, combined with the way the vocals are recorded actually brings Converge to mind quite a bit throughout the record. Geisha tend to use more equal parts brutality and ethereality than Converge do, though. A truly interesting record for those looking for an adventuresome mix of noise/hardcore and melancholic pop.
- Indie Workshop
Noise is a funny term. Not "ha ha" funny, but highly prone to linguistic slippage: its connotations cover everything from the stylized squawk of Lightning Bolt to the Pacific Rim blasts of Incapacitants or Masonna. The mutant term “noisecore” has been beaten virtually beyond recognition, referring to everything from the nitroglycerin airbursts of World and Final Exit to the unrelated sonics of Isis and The Dillinger Escape Plan. To some, such descriptive terms might seem to have outlived their usefulness; it's apparently so difficult to articulate a generic theory of noise that it often only confuses, much like the word “fascism.”
But it's almost impossible to discuss Geisha without talking about noise. Make no mistake; Geisha is a rock band, with a bracing, headfirst aesthetic worthy of The Melvins or The Jesus Lizard at their most unglued and time distorting. But their sound wears thick, anesthetic distortion like a cloak, embracing both the rock impulse and the raw sensory pleasure of hissing, apocalyptic distortion with a fervor that rivals Unsane. That said, Geisha are also much more than mere revivalists smitten with the gun-toting golden age of AmRep - their music conveys a breed of eerie, forlorn elegance all its own.
Unlike many would-be noisemongers, Geisha have an actual sense of dynamics. Mondo Dell'Orrore isn't just a monochromatic fuzztone blast, as the band frequently swirls in brushstrokes of clean/ dirty guitar melodies that almost conjure up Mogwai at their best (read: circa Young Team). Between the chokehold of “(SevenSevenSeven)” and the mournful, oceanic grandeur of “Love Theme from Reich Here, Reich Now” (song titles in the cutesy vein of clever, without going overboard), Geisha demonstrates a full range of expression - something often lacking in bands that stitch together their rock transubstantiation with static cling. They deftly temper beauty with terror, and the album evokes this balancing act in its epilogue: gorgeous, echoing piano overlaid with a forthright confession from a serial murderer. It's unusual to see a band operating such familiar instruments - guitars, distortion pedals, amps that we can easily imagine belching choking, black smoke -with this level of innovative expertise.
Both rock music and noise have seen much abuse at the hands of pretenders to their respective thrones. This is why Geisha so deserves recognition and awe: they intuitively grasp the basic properties of each aesthetic and wield them with simultaneous mastery, like a doctor simultaneously performing open-heart surgery and cloning a Komodo Dragon, but doing it so fast that it all blends into one big, scaly, blood-soaked revelation. Geisha are a rare bird; ignore them at your peril. 9.3/10
- Scene Point Blank
It’s becoming increasingly rarer in today’s musical climate of interbreeding, mixing and matching and “everything but the kitchen sink” computations for new sounds/combinations emerge. But when they do, they are that much more notable because of it. True, London, UK’s Geisha haven’t reinvented the wheel (or, music, for that matter) but much like the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, have combined two tried and true but disparate musical styles for a unique and affecting result that makes you wonder: this is so awesome, why the hell hasn’t someone done this before? Mondo Dell’Orrore (“World of Horror”) seamlessly and effortlessly fuses the metallic grind and abrasion of the most ferocious noise rock purveyors (early Helmet, the Melvins, Am-Rep’s most notable exports, etc.) with the swirling indie rock explorations of the ’90s (i.e. My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr.) for a sound that — while always distorted and aggressive — fuses moments of melody with madness to glorious results. While more than competent and damaging with their aggression, it’s Geisha’s proficiency with this seamless blending and the competency in delivering their building, cascading, semi-melodic freak-outs that make Mondo Dell’Orrore so special and captivating.
- Exclaim