I say it again - Actuary are all over the place right now. Just looking at this week's new arrivals, I've got at least three recent releases of theirs that have been added to the shop, and then there's the full-length Actuary disc that is coming out in the near future on my own Crucial Blaze imprint. This prolific work schedule has produced some really cool noise-assaults that range from horrific black industrial experiments, surreal ambience and brutal scrap yard noise assaults, the latter being their preferred mode of attack on this new 7" split with improv/noise/pranksters Cock ESP. The Cali industrial noise group offer up a single track of possessed junk-noise called "Depersonalization OF Settings" that summons a gruesome, lumbering nightmare of screeching metal, heavily distorted sine wave fuckery, extreme feedback, and juddering mechanical rhythms that are obscured underneath all of the brutal scrape and shriek. It's sort of along the lines of the extreme junknoise constructs of K2 and Ahlzagailzehguh, but with more emphasis placed on the loud bass tones that swoop and dive over the avalanche-crunch of collapsing metal.

On Cock ESP's side, the notorious Minneapolis noise group present three new tracks that are both incredibly vicious and supremely weird, all of which appears to have been recorded live (and are all titled with drug references like "Meth Wish III", "The Correct Use Of Dope", "I Would Do Anything For Drugs"). The songs careen through ultra-violent power electronics with shrieking female vocals, short bursts of almost-noisecore mayhem, random chatter from audience members, and lots of weird effects. Their side is over with pretty quickly, which is too bad - it's some of the most intense new stuff that I've heard from Cock ESP lately. I've always been a big fan of the band when they lock in to their more vicious, physically intimidating brand of improvised noise, and this lands squarely in that style...