Maximum Pelt has managed to put together a scary split. And for entirely different reasons. The duo Foul Tip had me reconsidering the places that Death from Above 1979 never got to. Just when they had started to mark the end game for fuzzy bass, these guys come along to shatter those ideas, pushing that low end in a new math direction. Then Lil Tits go and conjure a truly creepy sounding hardcore punk that feels like it has something in common with extreme subgenre's of metal.
A-Side's Foul Tip starts with "Madness" locking down the most straight forward metronome single bass note rhythm and high hat drum and kick punch. It's all landing on the same down beat in perfect time for a verse or so until they break out into a groove both of the guys yelling background vocals in this chorus that evolves layering lyrics rounding over each other in off set harmony. This thick thundery distorted bass sound has got all the mathy precision of Don Cab with the low end grooves of Death from Above 1979. There's really nothing like that rat pedal bass sound mixed to the very peak center of a track like this. It's as in your face as you can get without that middle range guitar and further proof how the duo has to inherently step up harder than the lazy three piece. There's some kind of swooping keys in the chorus so I don't get the sense they're militant about sticking to that bass and drum formula. Get another arm or something.
B-Side's Lil Tits "New Digs" opens on a three chord crunchy bass line coincidentally enough and it's also the center of this scuzzy evil punk. The guitar is banished off to the high end, smothered in metallic tin, its grating it's way through the upper reaches of the track with feedback and aluminum. They seem to have smashed parts together from completely separated rhythms with a real tortured background vocal that snarls and spits an ungodly amount of lyrics. "Five Finger Grind" is a real minor key carnival satanic sound, a dark choir sound performing that final see saw ritual. The lyrics are chanted together in unnatural rhythms that keep shifting chosen from the leftover chopped up pieces from the A-Side. This is a deafening hardcore Grass Widow cabal at the most frantic pace, the three vocal tracks hailing a punk darkness over an unpredictable and stilted foundation. Frightening.
On dark red vinyl from Maximum Pelt.
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