Erwin continues his incursion in the realm of bizarre rave music splattering tons of inhuman gabber/techno sonorities with characteristically bull frog vocals in this brilliant new Cd. The Schijten Met Een Stijve project has been active for some time now, with a load of releases that include a rather strong partnership with Topon Das of Fuck The Facts. I admit my favorite Schijten Met Een Stijve stuff is still probably the split they did with Lymphatic Phlegm, maybe a bit more contaminated by silly computer game effects than this Gory Gory thing, but this shit is still excellent (and has plenty of ignorant samples as well). You can really tell when one can handle the mixer pads and sound editing programs, this shit has a sick touch which is absent in many other bedroom projects I have heard recently. The sound is in overall quite dense, with a kind of machinery-like chain factory sound going in the background. The beats are pure acid nightmares, the kind that must be quite fun to hear at a party with lots of stroboscopic lights and amphetamines gnawing the back of the brain. The fun element in the project is still showing through the song titles, although I doubt there is any kind of relationship between these names and the concept between each song. It might be my impression only but the second half of the album slowly tends to sound a bit more relaxed with jungle-like sonorities. The layout is minimalistic and sadly mediocre in the usual Bizarre Leprous vein, Roman should really consider investing a bit more in the packaging of the albums instead of releasing dozens of half improvised covers, while his releases are usually super, the layout always looks to me cheap and hurried. Actually Schijten Met Een Stijve is one of the bands which can possibly live without any layout at all maybe, but the realm of psychedelic in which this band lives is also ripe with so many cool ideas (using glow effects and transparency are two cool examples) for the packaging any good artist could go on experimenting for days. As usual, you have to take this music with a pinch of salt, it s obvious you can t compare S.M.E.S. with Last Days of Humanity, as they re totally different concepts. My take is that this stuff rules at the right time of the day. But this is exactly the kind of shit you either love or hate. If one has to make some cleansing, S.M.E.S. are sure to stay in my playlist.

 

Tracks (13): 1 - Gory Gory Halleluja 2 - Cozy Nostra 3 - Sucker On My Pucker 4 - Total Abdomination 5 - A Muse Sick 6 - Nibble on a Nipple 7 - The S.M.E.S. Army Knife 8 - In Fact: Infect 9 - Your Own Fault 10 - It s Raining 11 - Turtleturd 12 - Suicide Against Old Age 13 - Surprisefarty