Cassette
See also: Triple Negative - Return of the Living Dirt
Two new gnarled dispatches from the excellent Knotwilg stable. New Zealand's L$D Fundraiser actually sneaked this one out in the final months of 2022, though it would be a huge shame to leave it there without a little attention being cast its way. The work of Dunedin's Dene Barnes, L$D are torch carriers for that great tradition of New Zealand noise & drone music, a free-thinking set up that seems to draw from a multitude of sources but is possessed of a rampaging spirit that makes it feel its own wicked mind. A reimagining of Krautrock is the cited reference point, though i'm not sure i would have got to that conclusion myself. More likely is that if you were recently feeling the Surface of the Earth and Sandoz Lab Technicians reissues then you'll be on to another winner here, free and uneasy experimental noise rock with no little respect for the faintly absurd. And speaking of which, let's talk about Triple Negative. OOOF what a band we have here. Return of the Living Dirt was first issued as a highly limited lathe which even the most diligent amongst us would have missed during the Xmas shuffle. Leave it to Knotwilg to do the good thing of bringing these sub 25 mins of unanchored noise experimentations to tape. Triple Negative utilise the tools of rock, though their attitude towards improvisation and form feels a good distance from it, something much more akin to free-minded explorations of Organic Music Society or LAFMS put through the metallic filter of Health and Efficiency era This Heat. I kinda wanna call it psychedelic, though that's very much an ideological assessment as it is aesthetic, beautifully untethered expression that it is.
