Ghostly Disconnected

The first two albums from Indiana static-heavy post-punk nihilists TV Ghost Cold Fish and Mass Dream are ground out evil slugs of things, insidious dream worms that shudder and shake (I gave them both a wrap back in 2011). They are prepping a third release, Disconnect, for tomorrow. The first two tracks to be released for it, 'Elevator' and 'Siren', are much slicker, more approachable - its gloss somehow evokes early Interpol if they were drugged out and listened to Girls Against Boys slowed down 200%. It's certainly a marked shift in pace - but not of purpose, because the black ooze sticks to the arteries of this beast. I'm not sure how I feel about this so far, but I'm interested to hear the rest of this. So far I kind of feel disappointed, yet at the same time I can't stop listening. I'm plugged into the machine.

Disconnect can be bought through In The Red tomorrow from here.

Your Sex Grows Over In This Church...

There was a time late last year when everyone seemed to be losing their shit over Sex Church, the Vancouver outfit whose music dealt in masochistic mayhem of the rustiest variety. Their Six Songs release was raw, brutal, and inherently enervating. Since then though, we have seen a surge of acts drink at the same fetid pond - namely TV Ghost and Brisbane's own Slug Guts. But where TV Ghost embrace a more indie-centric viewpoint to the industrial malaise (and I mean no disrespect - I think it is this pop aesthetic that elevates these guys to a much higher realm than most others plying their trade) and Slug Guts are more style over substance, Sex Church really seem to inhabit the rabid viscera contained within their performances. That's not to say these guys are worse than trash humpers - I'm sure they are lovely tea-sipping fellows? Or maybe THAT will be offensive to them? Maybe humping trash is their ultimate pastime? Whatever, the point is that this is REAL.


And on Growing Over, their latest on Load, Sex Church feel a little more cosy amongst the shards of jagged glass and broken syringes. Its insidious. It sometimes feels like Disappears headed by Rowland S Howard, at others like a freebasing Iceage. But comparisons are useless, like they always invariably are. All's can be said is that Growing Over is exactly that - Sex Church have just let the ether take them over to spew forth whatever it sees fit. Such abandon means that tracks either start with intent before tangentially chugging into the shadows, morph from garage staple to oozing wretch, or thrash you with a thousand hammers before kissing you deeply. Its skewed, somewhat brutal and a more than a little unhinged - and very, very real.

Sex Church - Waking Up
Sex Church - Beneath The Bottom

Ghost In The TV

I can't really claim that either of these albums are new (well, one kinda is), or that I discovered them on my lonesome - Si pointed me in the direction - but goddamn if I haven't embraced the buzzsaw tenacity and grimy dirge of Lafayette, Indiana's TV Ghost. Their two main releases - 2009's Cold Fish and Mass Dream from this year, both through In The Red - uphold a series of ace underground reference points - The Monks, Drive Like Jehu, Jesus Lizard - and churns them out in a druggy, dark as fuck aesthetic that is equal parts terrifying and revitalising. It echoes down the halls of your mind like an amphethamine riddled zombie, lurching forth in fits and bursts that defy characterisation. Ive been hooked on Mass Dream for a while, and just recently picked up Cold Fish at the local rekkid store, and have since been caught between the incessant rock force they propel forth, and the hard place that such music inevitably leads me to. See me gnash my teeth in the bowels of the fire - see me grin maniacally - this is the kind of roiling depravity that should be legal. (Well all of it should be, but this should be sold in fun-sized chunks at schools around the world). Fucking ace. Grab the albums here.

TV Ghost - The Recluse (off Cold Fish)
TV Ghost - The Inheritors (off Mass Dream)