1BOMB>1TARGET

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7“, Hirntrust Grind Media

Amongst a shipload of noise seven inches it is hard to stand out. Ingenuity paired with complete disregard for any kind of convention is one way to go. Of course, one little noise-single don’t do a lot in the history of music. On the other hand it might make all the difference. Within the chaotic swirl of spasmic noise explosions the slap of a butterflies’ wings has the power to start a hellblazing storm of powernoise. While the hellblazing storm of powernoise has the ability to smash that stupid butterfly into oblivion.

When I saw the name of this band / project / whatever / who knows, I instantly had to think of other names of bands or artists that have the little word “Bomb” in them, such as Bomb Disneyland (who became Bomb Everything when the Disney Corporation sued them) or Atombombpocketknife or even Techno Animal’s “Brotherhood of the Bomb”-album. A diverse bunch that all have one trait in common: utter recklessness in trying to find the punch that would hit their listeners.

Viennese noise-project 1Bomb>1Target peruse electric noise heavily and heavy, heaping a spasmic frenzy of interferences in one big bloc on the listener on one side of this seven inch vinyl single, and applying a more diverse approach on the other side. The more monolithic noise approach of said first side (sparing virtually all information when sending out promos it is hard to say what is what, who is who or how and why is such and such, especially when listening to this little slab of plastic repeatedly, in case of which you may start to forget even more important things like your name, time and space or which way is up, but anyway, as long as I can crawl back to my keyboard in the monitor’s fluorescent light I am safe, sort of) roots back to Masonna and Merzbow, so in a way it could be called “retro”. Maybe I am just joking, who knows? The second side is more interesting: starting with a distorted, sort of bass-line that is neither hooky nor catchy, but mangled, spastic and tortured, and things get “worse” from there. Tension and noise builds up with the introduction of a similiarily distorted keyboard and sounds of what might have been people doing something (screaming? A party? Just talking?). Over the course of a few minutes everything gets warbled, mauled and spewed. The party turns sour, the trip goes bad and finally there is the hint of an endless repition of noise that is the burgeouis definition of hell. Yeah, that's a lot of fun to behold.

It sounds as if both sides are the result of live sessions without any overdubs or re-recordings. So what if it is just another incident of fun in the rehearsal space. That’s what rehearsal spaces are for – letting things go wild*. It seems to me as if these dudes (?) had some fun producing these tracks. That is a characteristic often going amiss in electronica as well as noise and stalling the progress of both. But that is a completely different discussion, which I am in no mood to expand on right now. Great stuff indeed. For further info refer to sid@niosecamp.com.

*) I just found after this review was written that these are actually excerpts from a live show. Close enough.

10/2005