Twin Stumps - Seedbed

The Ridgewood neighborhood of New York is a barren slum nestled between Brooklyn and Queens. It has been described an American version of some dilapidated, forgotten Eastern-European factory town. It is also the home of Twin Stumps; a raucous, grimy collection of fuckers who play mid-tempo, post-hardcore-influenced, noisy, dread-loving hate mantras that should scare the shit out of you if you aren’t a total sociopath. Their recent full-length, Seedbed, is a more focused offering of their 2009 self-titled 12” that juggles the hardcore-punk of the later years of Black Flag, that being nightmarish noise squalls and sheer, relentless sonic filth. Songs like “Missing Persons” and “Child Republic” play like a cranked Amphetamine Reptile record blasted through severely damaged speakers while tracks like “Lungs” and “Business Class” crackle forth like a punk rock Wolf Eyes. Noise and (brave) hardcore fans should take note of things to come from Twin Stumps. They show promise to become an even bigger and gangrenous itch to scratch as they continue to hone their dreadful hate-fuck fests.

Black To Comm - Alphabet 1968

Black To Comm is the avant-guard, audio-experimental outlet of Dekorder label owner Marc Richter. BTC exists somewhere between minimal techno (like Gas or The Sight Below), noise, and ambient music by way of electro-acoustic field and studio recordings, traditional acoustic, and electric instrumentation, looped-damaged vinyl, as well as something that Richter refers to as “kitchen gamelan.” Alphabet 1968 is the latest 45-minute journey to BTC’s ever-growing discography and is a gentle trip to places both afar and in your mind. “Jonathan” starts off the album with field recordings of rain and distant children and slowly oscillates into a submarine drone before slipping into a dark-colored piano passage that is complimented by tape hiss and playful loops of unrecognizable instruments. “Forst” is the album's longest (and strongest) track, which is fortunate given the piece’s sprawling build of, looped, backwards guitar. The track melts into a muffled 4/4 kick underneath a wash of swirling melodies and vinyl crackles. The album's center tracks mostly play with looped arpeggios while “Houdini Rites” is a cacophony of percussion on household objects. Alphabet 1968 finishes with two tracks: “Void” with its drone feast of heavy bass and background free-jazz skronk, and the deep and sweet “Hotel Freund,“which drifts off into the far reaches of some past pleasure made possible by the warm hiss of old, looped vaudeville orchestration. Alphabet is all over the map, but never fails to sound like one cohesive collection. It is a fine record that serves as a happy medium between rich sound collages and ambient minimalism.

Growing - PUMPS!

For most of its life, Growing has been Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria — two guys with loud amps and a pile of looper and fuzz pedals blasting blissed-out pysch drones to infinity. Across a myriad of impressive recordings, the Brooklyn pair has covered a wide pallet of sounds ranging from the metal-influenced drone worship of The Sky Returns Into the Sea to the psych-glitch mantras of Color Wheel and All the Way. Implementing ambient, drone-based slabs of guitar, fogged landscapes, and as of late, rhythmic, beat-laden jams, the group has steadily morphed their sound without alienating their core base. With the addition of samplist Sadie Laska, Growing has again upped the bar on their latest effort PUMPS! by adding a multitude of new layers to its thickly woven sonic blanket. Manipulated vocals, programmed beats, and other non-guitar effects are present and pushing the three-piece closer to the likes of Black Dice and Fuck Buttons with the album oscillating from active listen to total zone-out without ever tiring. Songs such as “Massive Dropout” and “Camera 84” plod along playfully like a jazzercise workout tape set to glitch overload, while “Highlight” and “Mind Eraser” unfurl in a more Kraftwerk-ish semblance. The album’s eight songs are unassuming and carefree and can be interpreted however the listener feels it needs to be at that moment. This has always been true of most of Growing’s work, but PUMPS! takes that notion to a higher plane.