Lighthealer
Stalking Flashplayer, the newest LP from the German noise rock trio
Nicoffeine is a disorienting, amphetamine-fueled black mass followed by the
world’s hardest coming down. Any sort of gentle introduction is an alien concept
to these guys. There is no quiet guitar part, no gradual intensification or at
least a fade-in. The very first track, “Holy Hell of a Himmel” throws the
listener into the ultra-distorted, breakdown-filled mental breakdown of highest
order, changing pitches and shifts with mathematical precision, obscuring the
guitar tones to the point it becomes a thunderous bass propelled, sludgy
shoegaze. Free noise units such as Gravitar, Heavy Winged or pre-Boss era Magik Markers might be used as
points of reference, but while for most of the time there were elements of
post-rock, free improv or straight-down psychedelic beauty hidden under walls
of feedback and distortion those bands so abundantly use (or used), there is
none of that in Nicoffeine’s music. The Germans’ music is infused with a sort
of nihilist, hardcore punk or maybe even grindcore negativity, which they
cleverly deconstruct and re-shape for their needs.
It
takes a few listens to notice that most of the tracks are actually constructed
and well thought out compositions and not just carnage for the sake of carnage.
Once we get over the incredibly overdriven, high-pitched guitar destruction, one
can notice how tight the bass is with the brutal, fast notes and the seemingly
anarchist drumming isn’t all that anarchist after all and the only thing
keeping the album from becoming a possible noise punk gem is the length of the
tracks and the lack of vocals. The shorter, 3-4 minute tracks share space with
three monsters, each well over 10 minutes long, with the very last track, the
16-minute noise/drone behemoth “I Always Shine When You Say Nein” devolving
into a monstrous, cavernous amplifier hangover not far away from The Dead C’s “Bury
(Refutatio Omnium Haeresium)” off their Trapdoor
Fucking Exit.
The
brutal and chaotic music of Nicoffeine is accompanied with a simple, yet
effective packaging: what you see above is not the actual LP cover, but rather
one of two inserts containing
information about the tracks, the record label and a few photos of the band.
The cover itself is black on both sides, with a white vinyl inside. The pure
blackness of the cover reflects the pure blackness of the sound and the white
vinyl signifies the amphetamine craze of the music on the format, echoing
Velvet Underground’s White Light/White
Heat, which indeed was a hymn to the white powder. The possible VU
inspirations are further reflected by the track titles, which often allude to
the darker/more twisted sides of the human sexual psyche, cleverly referencing
fetishes (“Milf & Honey”, “Handjobs & Runaways”, or “Motocrossdress”
off their Admiring Those Artholes
LP). Nicoffeine is something to be watched and heard – the ferocity of their
sound really puts them somewhere above most of their contemporaries in a scene
where it’s hard to be harsher, louder and noisier.
1 comment:
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