Art Nada - Rastafarian Maggotfest

Hear The Track Here

Hey, don't blame me! I'm just the reviewer. NO-ONE could make this stuff up. Well, maybe one person could but more on that wily creature later or you'll be stampeded into panic before I can get me review past your eyeballs. As you can imagine, approaching a track with the gaudiness and impact of it's title will not be easy and subsequently proves so. Having this back to back with MJK's superlative production on my playlist probably didn't help. A case of from the sublime to the ridiculous really, and one I'm sure the shadowy characters behind Art Nada will readily agree with. Ridiculous in this case carrying the meaning of 'you can't do that to/with music?' or 'that just isn't natural'.

Well, maybe one word can explain this: Mandible.

Yep, we are looking back in time to the very beginnings of Soundclick's very own Rock's Finest Hour because Art Nada features two founding members of Mandible, Michael Coleman and the shady cove who goes by the name of Pilesar. A further point is that it was recorded at the same time as Acka Fracka (my own introduction to the Mandible entity) and carries much of the same air of menace/chaos/madness that informed that track. Not a track to be approached lightly then and - if of a nervous disposition - probably best not to go there. For the other 99.999% of humanity who like skating on the edge, there follows a short announcement. I can read your mind. Mmmmmm. Would you like to bet? See, you are thinking that at last here is a track that you can truly hate, and guess what....

What really grinds my gears about these artists is that you want to hate them, you feel you should hate them and then they plonk a track like RMF into your inbox and - despite all your best efforts - you find yourself having to admit yet again that there is nothing ridiculous about their music. Even going back so far (this is circa 1998/9) the embryo of musical madness is there, tempting you with its siren song of bleeps, clicks, wailings and whatever, ending up in something that could well have come from Mandible. It certainly feels familiar. Over the years I have been abusing myself with the works of Mandible and all their offshoots and rootlings, I have always come back to the realisation they are different - in a most appealing way. Not for the nervous though, even a Pre-Mandible offering softened by the wash of Time is some pretty hardcore aural abuse but my name is Gilmore and I am an aural abuser - BIG TIME.

Couldn't be more alternative. Recommended for dogs, cats and the odd passing viper. You too, if you have a strong stomach.