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ANCIENT CHINESE SECRET  Caveat Emptor  LP   (Slap A Ham)   16.99
Caveat Emptor IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

Back in stock, and cheaper now than before too!

Man, that was a dark day when Slap A Ham Records shut down around the turn of the century; throughout the 90's, Slap A Ham was putting out pretty much the most seminal, mindblowing music in the underground extreme hardcore scene, with now-classic releases from bands like Man Is The Bastard, Spazz, Infest, Discordance Axis, Burning Witch, Noothgrush, Melt Banana, Gasp, and a ton of other extreme, unique, insanely heavy bands. Slap A Ham kept getting cooler and weirder as time went on, too, and it's safe for me to say that the label was a huge influence on the formation of Crucial Blast. Luckily for us, right before the label folded, they put out some of their weirdest releases ever, including this amazing one-shot album from Ancient Chinese Secret, the avant-new wave-powerviolence trio of ex-Spazz dude and Slap A Ham owner Chris Dodge himself on bass, vocals, ring modulator, and keyboards, his wife Lydia on vocals and organ, and former Capitalist Casualties drummer Matt Martin on drums, keyboards, and vocals. This is one of those albums that was criminally overlooked when it came out, and was years ahead of it's time. At least I think so. This post-Spazz project was originally monikered Doctor Bombay before the band changed it's name to Ancient Chinese Secret, and blended the high-speed, bass-heavy grindy Hardcore freakouts of Spazz with Lydia's deadpan shouts and a weird mix of cartoon sound effects, trippy tape loops, and spooky electronic noises. When the band goes full tilt, it's like a playful, minimalist speed metal assault. Imagine a psychedelic mix of Melt Banana, Man Is The Bastard, Wall Of Voodoo's percussive New Wave, and NoMeansNo's complex artpunk instrumentation. Thoroughly weird and fast and amazing, with a similiarly bent mindset as Dodge's subsequent work with Dave Witte on the East West Blast Test project. The CD version of this album is now completely out of print, but I managed to obtain a stash of this killer album on vinyl for anyone interested in blowing their minds with some of the craziest out-thrash to emerge from the heyday of the West Coast extreme hardcore movement!