Aeternal Flux II

Tim Dahl is a New York based bass player and composer with a diverse CV that spans contemporary jazz and art rock. The skewed wit he can display as co-host of Lydia Lunch’s podcast The Lydian Spin spills over into this debut solo release from September 2021 where Dahl acts (?) in a series of skits as the outraged beneficiary of Nandor Nevai’s chaotic production style.   These dialogue tracks on Solo reflect the anarchic spirit of Frank 'Rat Bastard' Falestra’s International Noise Conference to which Nevai and Dahl have contributed. They also suggest Frank Zappa’s clandestine band conversation recordings such as the interludes that link the solos on Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar . ‘The Producer’ and ‘I Ruined It’ are particularly self-reflexive whereas ‘Do You Have’ experiments with backwards vocals in a way that is more formally stimulating. How you feel about this kind of faux verité may depend on whether you believe the comedy music aspect of Zappa’s oeuvre contributed to

This split release on Halfmeltedbrain from TRAPS and Sander Cohen, two noise rock bands from Kent, UK, sand blasts your face with aggregates extracted from sonic aggression’s choicest quarry. Distorted scream vocals and churned riffs out of Unsane meet the kind of drum demolition Lightning Bolt and Hella use to tattoo the statutes proscribing your worst imaginary crimes into the flesh of your back. TRAPS fall more into the post-hardcore camp with their three tracks in contrast to the math sludge and noise ambient directions they’ve taken on earlier releases. Sander Cohen use evangelical samples to breathe atmosphere into four of their tuneful edifices of din, while still retaining serious crossover thrash credentials. TRAPS convey excoriating rants of toxic discontent over a shifting carpet of prog sludge with shades of Melvins. ‘Four Ashfields For Four Twenty-Five’ invokes a teenage depressive gloom stretching into adulthood with heroin and alcohol as the only forms of relief. ‘Back