Friday Full-Length: Various Artists, Escape to Weird Mountain Vol. 9
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
New Year, new label samplers. I’ve seen a few coming out, as one will, as record labels begin to look forward at the year to come, celebrate recent releases and herald their 2024 to be. I’ve found over the last couple years that when I want something weird or different, Forbidden Place Records can reliably intrigue and, even if a given record doesn’t change your life, a rabbit hole to go down isn’t nothing, and the Escape to Weird Mountain Vol. 9 comp. — you’ll note that it’s ‘escape to‘ rather than ‘escape from‘; we’re leaving everything and going to the mountain — has a whopping 19 tracks. If you can’t find something in that for even a momentary distraction, maybe go back to the start and try again.
Let’s go through:
1. RUNT, “The Void” — I think the kids call this style industrial punk. Either way, there are a fair amount of solo dudes-as-bands out there now on either side of the country between RUNT, N8NOFACE, Trace Amount, King Yosef, and so on. The shout reminds of Negative Reaction, and as to “where’s my god now,” he’s in the same place he’s always in: the cheese drawer. Clearly a priority for the label and an immediate ‘something different’ to start. Win.
2. Cani Sciorii, “Ringhia” — Sharply punctuated heavy/noise rock boogie. Reminds a bit of Sandrider in the early going but the vocals take it elsewhere. Brash. Gets trippy in the second half but they bring the sway back around.
3. Tojo Yamamoto, “The Mongolian Stomper” — An apparent homage to Archie Gouldie, who was a professional wrestler, the low start-stop fart-fuzz gets quirky complement by the lead guitar and rough-delivered verses. I don’t know if the song is actually about Gouldie, but there are two old wrestling samples and it ends talking about the stomper, and it’s the tone either way.
4. Death Spa, “Make it Hurt” — Weirdo electronica becomes kind of a thread through Escape to Weird Mountain Vol. 9, as the label has more than dabbled by now in multiple spheres. Death Spa are rawer than RUNT, more intense, with a bridge that sounds Mediterranean and screams to complement that call out the title with an especially pleading sensibility.
5. Molefunken, “Suck Your Thumb” — Starts with a set of ‘na-na-na-na’s that is the hook. Big early Funkadelic vibe here in the gang vocals, ’70s swing, and dance-your-ass-off intent. It’s lo-fi, but it’s a party.
6. Prosthetic Bung, “Breaking the Bung Curse” — Avant vibes and echoing fantasy-epic storytelling captured barebones but with enough echo to give an atmospheric impression either. A bit of hi-hat chicanery behind the vocals, which are mostly spoken and partially decipherable, but which add to the ambience amid all the freak-rock swirl and effects-born chaos. Four weird-ass minutes. Ends with “the end.”
7. Saint Omen, “Destroyer” — Another spoken vocal ties it to the prior bung curse, but Saint Omen are more pointedly riffy, with a hook delivered in harsh vocals after a verse low-rumbled like Mark Lanegan, a sample and a lurching nod with buzzsaw-tone soloing and vibrant crash.
8. Sign of the Sorcerer, “Black Night” — You ain’t gonna hear me complain about the nod. Clearly moving into cult rock territory, “Black Night” is slow, foggy and fuzzed, modern in its ancient cavernousness, and almost cruelly stoned. A record to look for, and not the first so far.
9. Oopsy Dazey, “Regrets” — The grunge sidestep from LáGoon‘s Anthony Gaglia and Jamie Yeats of Wizzerd ticks any ’90s nostalgia box you might have while keeping a foot in the drug-cult spirit. Yeah, it sounds like The Dandy Warhols circa 1996, but it lives in a world where drugs and murder are legal, so look out.
10. Your Gaze, “IDK” — Pretty obviously self-aware, if the name is anything to go by. “IDK” feels like the next stage of post-. Like, it’s post-post-punk. Post-post-heavy, post-Joy Division, with just enough heavy slog underneath all that morose, emotionally-goth float to give it presence when the ‘drums’ speed up at the finish. I promise you it sounds cooler than my description.
11. Land Whales, “Dias de Martes” — Cuba’s Land Whales self-released their Null Days LP in November and were picked up by Forbidden Place no doubt for the strong ’90s alt vibes, not quite retro since the shimmer is so modern, but that way it kind of drifts off at the end then circles back to a fuller hook puts the lie to any lackadaisical positioning.
12. Brunsten, “Gamechanger” — A proggy two and a half minutes with semi-spoken lyrics and a so-British-it’s-British-even-if-it-isn’t vibe, but it turns jet-engine buzz and shoutier in its second half and makes its short-ass runtime count for every second. Builds like this take some bands three times as long.
13. NAQOY (vs. planetDAMAGE), “White Rat” — Low volume, moody, drity techno, heavy in its underpinning but actively not trying to be rock and roll, and so not. The beats are hypnotic in their pulsation and the song establishes itself and remains on a linear course for its four minutes, almost like an aside to another dimension coming out of Brunsten, but sharing an exploratory aspect with a lot of what’s included here.
14. Veuve Scarron, “MMDCN” — Something about the gang chorus here reminds me of some ancient Marilyn Manson hook, and I can’t quite place it. Once the hook takes off circa 1:15, the way it’s both caustic and melodic. The whole spirit in this one is pretty despondent, malevolent, but I’d have to dig further to know if it’s the standard self-loathing or what thematically. There’s nothing else here that sounds like this though, so “dig further” absolutely will happen.
15. Under the Clothesline, “Speed Only” — You’re sitting there thinking “Wow this has really gone on for a long time. When’s the garage rock gonna show up?” Here you go.
16. Dark Shaman, “Horror Night” — Rolling out cultish nod with full, classic doom riffing and a groove that goes from Black to Sabbath in scope, I’m calling this one a victory outright and keeping that bass buzz in the second half shuffle all for myself, thank you very much. I don’t know this band but I like them now, so that’s what a label sampler gets you.
17. Buskas, “Desiderium” — Be it heretofore known that Buskas are not fucking around. “Desiderium” is the longest song on this compilation at 6:46 and it fills that time building into a rumbling assault of distortion and aggression. Vocals are harsh-throated and positioned to cut through the mix, but the nastiness infects even the nod itself, so that even the crash cymbal hits mean. Don’t be surprised when you hear about this band again.
18. Ash Eater, “Any Port in the Storm” — I’m apparently doing a track premiere for this Portland band next week. Timing is everything. Quicker than it seems, their “Any Port in the Storm” shouts in echo and twists itself up mightily without losing its course. At least until it decides to shred itself into oblivion, that is. Fair enough. See you Wednesday, bruhs.
19. Basic Shapes, “A Quiet Place” — Well clearly not. Bringing together electronica and a stark, punkish riff, Basic Shapes underscore the curated feel of Escape to Weird Mountain Vol. 9 by bringing together multiple sides shown across various bands prior. That’s context rather than their artistic intent, but true nonetheless. Basic Shapes‘ obvious bent toward individualism is no less a vital representation.
Well, that’s it. Used to be I’d get label samplers in CD sleeves in parking lots at club shows, or like band demos, or whathaveyou. It’s not quite the same being on Bandcamp — don’t have to pay for parking — but I’ll be curious to see a few years from now which of these bands and who else under the Forbidden Place banner I might be covering more in-depth in a few years’ time. Either way, you could do far worse than being the go-to when someone wants something fresh, and I hope you find something in here you never heard before that you dig, because that’s the point of the whole thing to start with.
Thanks for reading.
—
After avoiding the cold that ransacked the house for the last two weeks passed back and forth between my wife and daughter, I would seem to have succumbed. Or at least I seem to be succumbing. I’ve been developing a cough over the last 36 hours like it’s a finely-tuned prog metal riff, and have been feeling generally like what an old friend once referred to as a, “bag of bashed assholes.” So be it.
But it was a week. It had ups, it had downs. I’m going to see Elder tonight at Madison Square Garden. That kind of rocks. I think I’ll have a photo pass? I hope I will? But even if not, it’ll be a trip to be in the building when that happens. Will write about it of course blah blah.
Monday is a day off from school, so kid’s home. MLK. Legit. That’ll make writing for Tuesday a challenge, but the week is packed so I’ll need to figure it out. Pyramid, Saturna, Ash Eater, Kungens Man, maybe something next Friday. Then the week after is more of the same. This thing just keeps going.
Have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head. I’ll be posting on Monday, because what’s a holiday anyhow, and seemingly into perpetuity thereafter. Thank you for reading and being part of it.
FRM.
