Slowdime shut down years ago, and I had naturally thought that the Crom-Tech Lp that the label released in 1999 had been out of print, but we just found a stack of this record from one of our suppliers that has allowed us to list the lp for the first time ever.

This was the second and last 12" that Crom-Tech released (the first being the similarly self-titled record that came out two years prior on Gravity) and featured twelve songs of hyperactive proggy shred-thrash from guitarist Mick Barr and drummer Malcolm McDuffie. Barr would go on to play in the acclaimed duo Orthrelm after Crom-Tech disbanded, but fans of Orthrelm (and any of Barr's other myriad bands including Octis, Krallice, Older, Ocrilim, etc...) who haven't listened to his late 90s duo will find a similar kind of complex, shreddy speed-prog that has Barr's signature tremolo riffing style all over the songs, his spiraling, spastic guitar playing and death metal-esque soloing foreshadowing the extreme shredscapes of Orthrelm. Crom-Tech were a rawer, more frantic outfit though, and the ferocious attack on this record is derived both from hardcore punk and the most abrasive fringes of free-jazz, along with shorter song lengths and the chirpy yelping vocals from Mick that are delivered in his own weird invented language. Those high pitched vocals and the weird cadence in which he belts them out makes this sound a lot like a stripped-down version of Melt Banana at times. There's also a weird kind of jazz/funk-damaged grooviness that appears in Crom-Tech's music, a lot of which you can chalk up to McDuffie's wild drumming. Essential listening for Mick Barr fans, and just as manic and crazy as the Gravity Lp - we won't have this record in stock forever, so here's your chance to pick it up if you missed out back when Slowdime was active.