Tuesday, January 14, 2014

NO STATIK - "Earhammer Soundsystem" - Tape - 2013


   I decided to take a break from the barrage of top ten lists today and just share a completely badass tape with you. If you're even a casual reader of this blog, my thoughts on NO STATIK are probably no secret to you. In short, I think they are one of the best contemporary hardcore bands that you could possibly have the pleasure of experiencing. I'm aware than many readers don't visit this corner of the internet to get their hardcore fix, but please do yourself a favor today and push the download button at the bottom.
    This tape is the band's 2012 LP "Everywhere You Aren't Looking" remixed and completely fucked with by the band and their engineer, Greg Wilkinson. It starts off innocently enough with the band ripping through their song "Regrettably" , but you quickly know something is different as the guitars start to change tone or just drop out of the mix altogether. From there on out, it just gets weirder and more fucked up to the point where some of the songs don't even resemble their former selves. They incorporate elements of techno, noise and loop effects to tear their songs apart and put them back together anew. I'm still on the fence, but this might be my favorite NO STATIK release to date.
    The download doesn't split up the songs at all because, as you'll see, it's pointless to try. Track one is side A. Side B of the tape is 20 minutes of mostly blank space with a hidden track placed ten minutes in. I was confused if I should leave it as is or edit it down. Luckily for you, I decided to crop it down so that track 2 is just the nutso song featuring mouth drums on side B...no blank space.



Is this tape still available? Fuck if I know. Iron Lung Records had some for about 5-6 seconds, but they're gone now. Go ahead and write to the band. If you ask nicely and send them some cash, they might be able to help you out. 
nostatikhc@gmail.com

1 comment:

aboynamedstew said...

thank you thank you thank you. no statik is far and away the most interesting hardcore band going att he moment, and this is one reason why. deconstruction, not just for its own sake, but to expose the solidity of the music's foundations and relate it sonically to other genres (noise, lo-fi techno, black metal?) instead of just patronizing mentions in interviews or whatever. for those of us not living in the bay area (and not visiting as often as we'd like), being able to hear this stuff is super inspiring. so thank you. and i hope 2014 gives you less grief than the last year.