I can't get enough of this messed-up throwback hardcore stuff. Condominium have been around for a couple of years (this 7� is their fourth), but this new Ep is the first exposure I've had to them. Sounds like something I'd hear on Parts Unknown, and if yer into the sort of fucked-up, weirdo hardcore punk that Frich releases through that label (Violent Students, Pissed Jeans, Homostupids, Dry-Rot), you'll probably dig these guys too. Hailing from Minneapolis, Condominium serve up three new songs on this platter, the first "Gag" taking up the a-side with a simmering seven-minute dirge that starts off with a single jangly guitar strumming out an eerie chord progression before being joined by another lead guitar and bass, then drums, the tension slowly being dialed up as the singer comes in with his laconic drawl, bits of backwards sound surfacing, the vocals becoming warped, then suddenly erupting into a pounding sludgy dirge, the melody laced with some dark Western twang, kinda like Flipper mixed with a bit of warped country-punk. Heavy stuff.

On the other side, the band cranks up the speed. "Redemption Song" alternately lunges and withdraws, a furious clot of dissonant guitar mangle, snarling threats and manic drumming that's equal parts Void and Black Flag, and just as crazed as that comparison makes it sound; the third song "The Entire Human Body" starts off with another ominous dirgey riff like the band trudged out on side one, but wanders off into a weirder new direction with strange random percussion, watery slide guitar slipping over the backing bass line, forming into a kind of atonal Gothic blues, getting trippier as the guitar slides further out of form and deeper into humming free-noise. I really dig this stuff. Disturbing lyrics (the lines for "Redemption Song" almost read as notes from Michael Gira's journal), deranged noise-splattered punk dirge, creepy artwork...really looking forward to digging up more from these guys.