Two sides of extreme jazz/prog blastage come together on this split Lp, featuring the extreme improv-jazz/thrash fury of French newcomers Artemisia Absinthium and some older unreleased material from Flying Luttenbachers leader and ugEXPLODE boss Weasel Walter,, released on limited edition colored vinyl by the Israeli label Heart & Crossbone in concert with a host of other small labels (Wee Wee, Saucisse + Lentilles R.E.C.O.R.D.S., Electric Junk, Amertume and Bande Noire Records).
The a-side introduces eight tracks from the French quartet Artemisia Absinthium, a gang of free-jazz thrashers who mix together squealing Ayler/Brotzmann style sax bleat over slack distorted bass that slips and groans like the roar of a revving engine, and frantic, fast-paced drumming that races between manic fills and blast beats, with a muddled chaos of electronic toy noises hovering in the background. Their aggressive blastjazz assaults are obviously influenced by bands like Last Exit, Painkiller and Flying Luttenbachers, but the shrieking high-pitched vocals sound like something from a more modern grind outfit.
AA whip up a bad-ass din that just gets heavier and grindier as they tear through their side, the screeching free-jazz-punk-grind freak outs occasionally slipping into brief sections of slower, grinding heaviness, slithering percussive rattle, and bizarre tandem vocal/sax grunts. Moments of relative calm are rare, such as on the last track where the band skulks through a creepy improv piece of horror noise ambience, backwards sound, and skittery looped percussion. It�s killer stuff, like something that could have come out on Amanita a decade ago; the high pitched yowls and chaotic drumming also reminds me of Total Fucking Destruction quite a bit, albeit mixed up in Painkiller-style jazzgrind.
Most folks know Weasel Walter for his louder, more aggressive group recordings with Flying Luttenbachers, 7000 Dying Rats, XBXRX and Hatewave, but he�s also an accomplished solo artist with a bunch of great recordings under his belt that tend to gravitate more towards the prog end of the spectrum. Here, he dusts off some previously unheard recordings that are definitely less brutal than what Artemisia Absinthium had to offer, but it�s also much creepier sounding stuff, the four tracks all recorded between 1999 and 2009 and appearing here for the first time, a mix of psychedelic improv and evil prog workouts. The first track "Decay Of The Species" is a creepy free-jazz/prog jam with propulsive drumming, mangled guitar blurt, and droning ascending synth; I'm hearing a RIO influence here at first, hints of Magma and UZ and Present, but then it turns into a heavy duty free-improv percussion wig-out with rioting analogue synths spewing space gas overhead. "Composition For Woodwinds And Solo Percussion" is my favorite piece here, a highly dark and sinister sounding chamber prog piece with dissonant woodwinds and low growling tones that's somewhere in between the demonic prog of Shub Niggurath/early Univers Zero and the film score work of composer Leonard Rosenman. This track is one of the best things that I've heard from Weasel, and would love to hear him explore this sort of creepy avant chamber music more in the future. The next track "Descension" is another heavy, evil-sounding prog piece, this one sounding even more like Shub Niggurath with atonal guitar lines scuttling over distorted rumbling bass and lurching rhythms. Closer "I'm Never Coming Back" combines eerie tape-speed manipulated strings, busy drumwork, hallucinatory clusters of percussion, extended bleating horns and howling orchestral elements, with Weasel's drumming becoming more chaotic and speedy until the piece turns into a blur of sound at the end.
Nicely packaged in a full color sleeve with a printed inner sleeve, pressed on clear green vinyl and limited to 500 copies.