medieval teeth

I can tell you now that of all the Christmas messages received here, not counting a delightful seasonal postcard from Scary Cherry and the bang bangs whose ‘girl’ album pops up later this missive, was a note from Mikee formerly of sonic terrorists Tayside Mental Health informing us of new recordings afoot via a new project Medieval Teeth. Now old school readers of these musings will no doubt be shuddering and I dare say making a bolt for the nearest place of safety / sanctuary at the mere mention of Tayside Mental Health. For was it not they that set ablaze these musings once upon a time with their incendiary assault of skree gouged power electronics. Releases came thick and fast from the esteemed and much missed scotch tapes imprint. Apart from a limited outing by you don’t masturbate – a short lived off shoot – which if I recall where every bit as ear shredding as Tayside – things have been a tad quiet on the TMH front. Until now that is. Released via the Vatican Analog imprint ’a new tapeworm diet’ is a study in micro sound, here you’ll find the strange and the surreal rubbing shoulders with the harsh and the harmonic, across fourteen suites Mr Gordon applies the trademark precepts of old – manipulating of sonic cycles (’horsemen‘), warping of sound waves, extreme distortion and the degrading of sound frequencies, though on this occasion its done in a more considered and measured way so as to appear more accessible to those whose comfort zone on the noise spectrum is somewhat centralist. that’s not to say that ’a new tapeworm diet’ doesn’t have it moments of flippant fright wigged awkwardness both ’burlap blues’ with its scuzzed burnt belches impishly navigates a no wave oddness while ’lunch time botox’ is pure drone psychosis that sounds not unlike an extreme EAR experiment hoodwinked by Atari Teenage Riot. Somewhere else ‘tropical ulcer’ whilst not being the hallmark nails down a blackboard extremity of his former charges does sound like a nightmarish dental visit. ‘love stench’ extent its palette to veer Radiophonic spheres albeit abruptly dissected and recalibrated by Autechre The dubtronic technoid bit blip of ‘digital goat on triangle mountain’ is as weird and wired as anything you’ll find on the tigerbeat6 catalogue. If anything the stricken with menace ‘small horns’ is enough to elicit shivers given its adorned in a creping macabre while the radio friendly titled ‘my head is a shithole’ is a warping slice of ambient kookiness that in truth wouldn’t look to far out of place on the much beloved bearsuit imprint with ‘wizzleteat’ pursuing fast with the same distractively wiring that might well easily pass for a cassette recording of the Barron’s ‘forbidden planet’ soundtrack foolishly left out on a ledge and subjected to sun baking. That said there’s an almost comical Clangers like vibe ruminating about ‘Cancer Piano’ which soon sheds its skin to emerge as a sweetly demurring chime choreographed lunar lullaby before rupturing and splintering into a darkly foreboding Dadaist skree squeal. Very strange indeed.
http://www.vaticananalog.bandcamp.com/releases/va-43-medieval-teeth-a-new-tapeworm-diet