Friday, January 24, 2014

Strange Matter - The Ennui Actuation Dissolver EP on Dirty Hippy Barn Records



About five years ago now Tim Triplett sent me a bunch of his releases from his own Trigger on the Dutendoo Records. Tim has been involved in a huge number of projects over the years in Milwaukee and single handedly pressed a shitton of vinyl with members of Pink Reason (Hell on Earth) or a blast punk metal project Prunalogsusan. Never one to tease out extended jam tracks with meandering solo's or leaving an inch of room to breathe, this latest project with Anthony Dean and Brian on drums is called Strange Matter. Originally recorded in 2011 with out of tune guitar tracks they rerecorded and pressed this one up recently to finally finish the chapter on this seven song EP.

Tim isn't kidding when he mentions his short attention span and there isn't a song break on the A-Side whatsoever. the title track "Ennui Actuation Dissolver" has a thin, tiny, sweaty room guitar sound that's all metallic and Tim's vocal is somewhere between growly and screamy breaking down yelling. Brian's frantic thousand mile an hour drums are a free jazz nightmare pounding platform for the pair of devolving guitars to latch onto some kind of rhythm but then just crank out feedback. Brian's out there in his own personal time signatures, but when everything is flying along at this kind of speed it doesn't even have to traditionally 'come together' it just works on sheer interia. "Strawberry Oatmeal" has the toughest chorus thud and vocal 'CHOP THE BERRIES / THROW THEM IN THE MIX' on the record. It's a perfect example of something that could be pulled out but I respect that Strange Matter respects your time. Here's the song, you can figure out the rest. "Strange Matter" squeezes out thick beefy chord changes over manic, spazzy drums, Tim gets talky for a second before turning demonic. There's no bass I just figured out (give me a break it's only been a minute tops) just two guitars split across the channels. It's a real catharsis shit show that happens when you get three dudes together with some guitars and beer and this tight rage comes out. No lyric sheet to further confuse things, keep this mysterious and metal.
"Erase Me for Real Dudes" has mental patient whisper vocals and a bassline (?), huge riffs, and these things are really flying, there's no sort of speed limit observed here. Serious dedicated fingerwork, the kind of stuff Mikey from American Movie does blindfolded. An experimental metal ending, just wish there was a lot more lower end cut into this pressing. They would benefit from those rumbling lows when this slows down and starts to really punish your ears...so maybe their doing me a favor? Slow down isn't in their vocabulary anyway and this EP basically functions as an LP shrunk down in their demented mind. Like the opposite of The Fucking Champs who get intellectual about their chords and mathy changes, these guys seem to be working straight from the gut.

B-Side opens with "WWYD" (what would you do? - ed) that jumps right into more of that cinder block and mattresses sounding rehearsal space with slower high pitch grumbling. The guitars are at the other end at the top of the neck screeching and trying to put together some kind of rhythm but there's nothing here that you'd be able to bottle and sell. "Lollypopped" Drum fills and smoking finger changes work right into a slower metal. Are they even repeating anything I have to ask myself sometimes? Total screaming "Piled High" sounds pop with Tim on vocals groaning and getting to the talky chorus about how much he hates it being piled high like a complete maniac. Railing about the bullshit piling up everyday. The advertising. Fuck the government.

get this from the band direct at their bandcmp page.

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