Neutral Is Truly Mental

One of the craziest percussive noise acts to have assaulted our senses would have to be LA's Foot Village. Their batshit manic mantras have divided audiences wider than the Red Sea (see that? Total Biblical reference!!) with some proclaiming their noisy rackets as compulsory listening, and others deeming it more inhumane than water torture. My verdict? Foot Village rock all kinds of balls. So when one of their members Brian Miller ventures out on his own, under the moniker True Neutral (I'm guessing in reference to RPGs), then I'm all over it like a venereal rash. Miller himself sees True Neutral as being ideas that don't translate in the chaotic world of Foot Village, as the expansive nature of the compositions benefit from instruments other than drums. Before you start quaking at the idea of Miller doing "real" songs (his work on Back To The Future The Ride, whilst ambient in nature, still swirls around a vortex of nuts), he also describes them as "sci-fi visions". Crisis averted then...

But as if he would leave the percussive nightmares in the closet. One of the tracks, 'A Few Lights On The Wall', is a collaboration with the ever-brilliant Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt/Black Pus).


These tracks are being used as a soundtrack to accompany an audiobook of author Patrick Wensink's Broken Piano For President, and the blurb sounds suitably surreal - "'Broken Piano for President' is read by the author, Patrick Wensink. It is the story of a noise band caught up in a conspiracy involving fast food moguls, international space programs, and of course, their own insane music." The audiobook is abridged and read by the author himself, with side A being the novel and score and side B score only. The theme tune (yes, a theme tune to a book, genius!) is 'Call To The Herd', which is also below. You can grab this incredible piece of literature/music/art from Miller's own Deathbomb Arc label here.

True Neutral - Call To The Herd
True Neutral - A Few Lights On The Wall (ft Brian Chippendale)

I Found A Lightning Bolt In My Head

This has been floating around for the best part of a month now, but seeing as their show in London a couple years ago goes down as one of my all-time favourites, it'd be remiss of me not to let you know about the new Lightning Bolt tune. It's a 20+ minute madness mantra recorded directly to tape as is, and whilst Chippendale's amazing drum skills are as ever on display, it's the diseased swirling bass work from Brian Gibson that holds sway here. Seriously, how the fuck is that NOT a guitar? The man's a genius (yeah, fuck you Les Claypool). It is actually a nausea inducing piece, which is a success in every way. Just like waking up after a night out with a ring in your ear, I guess...


Apparently the first of a list of songs that the band come up with at practice, you can do the right thing and actually buy the thing here. Follow the Bandcamp religiously - when the next one comes, you can be the first in line to get you face melted onto your perineum.

Lightning Bolt - I Found A Ring In My Ear

Speaking In Numbers To Three Trapped Tigers

So we have the new offerings from the ever excellent excitable electro executioners Three Trapped Tigers (yep, a lot of alliteration in there...). Well, it's not exactly new per se - Numbers 1-13 is the combination of . I'm only guessing here, but Lightning Bolt plays a more pressing impression in their earlier work, especially on elements of the opening track, evocatively titled '1'. The 13 tracks span their three year evolution across three limited edition (now sold out) EPs from 2008-2010, thus the reason for the remastered and repackaged full length player. It is so worth it though - whilst their Route One Or Die LP from last year was killer, there is something about their short form releases that captured their essence in a better light, so having them all in one place is an incredible coup.

Numbers 1-13 is out now via Blood & Biscuits. They are currently touring the UK, playing Cambridge tonight. GO!