Drunkdriver/Mattin
List Of Profound Insecurities
Badmaster BM-0017
Edition of 500 copies collaboration LP that pairs the brutal
single braincell/single riff attack of New York’s sludge/blues/metal
behemoths Drunkdriver with the scalpel sharp noise provocations of
Mattin of Billy Bao etc. Drunkdriver accelerate through a couple of
decades of deformed rock/roll excess like a ten ton juggernaut,
flatlining the furious acid-punk of The Butthole Surfers, the hardcore
holocaust of No Fucker, the sociopathic Stooges-redux of Brainbombs,
the post-Sabbath/imploding universe style of Jutok Kaneko’s Kousokuya
and the extreme No Wave experiments of groups like Demo Moe. Indeed,
Demo Moe’s classic Demolish NYC LP (which you obviously own) is perhaps
the closest comparison to the Industrial-scale free rock violence of
List Of Profound Insecurities. Drunkdriver are at their sludgiest,
their greasiest, with massively heavy riffs nailed to the floor by a
drummer with the attitude of an Asheton, nodding-out behind the beat,
utilising staccato machine-gun repeats, suddenly waking up and charging
at 100mph into the fray. The vocals sound somewhere between Nate Young
of Wolf Eyes and a hardcore remix of something offa Basil Kirchin’s
Worlds Within Worlds and Mattin does his best to further dislocate the
instrumental logic, dropping in bass-heavy tones that make the guitar
assaults sound like torrential bombards and cutting up tracks so they
unfold like mazes, cutting-off in mid-stream, breaking down to slow
vocals, collapsing into stuck grooves. A superbly primitive/complex
punk rock charge. Embossed black-on-black sleeves, mastered and cut by
Rashad Becker in Berlin. Highly recommended.
A pairing only some demented fuck would dream up and one that
totally blows that shit Alec Empire + Brainbombs garbage out of the
fucking lake! Take Drunkdriver's loud, angry, churning riffs and fuck
them by Mattin, this sounds like Billy Bao being shot into outer
fucking space. Excellent. 500 made.
Scott Soriano
A 20 minute juggernaut engineered for maximum destruction. I asked a
friend if he had heard this LP yet and he told me that he was avoiding
it because he felt that drunk driving was nothing to make light of. I
was a bit taken aback by that comment as it's obvious to me that
Drunkdriver are deathly serious about what they're doing, in a total
bloodletting sort of way. I view their stance as one akin to fellow
noise rock deconstructionists The Austerity Program. It seems both of
these bands would push you down a flight of stairs and then sneer at
you from above. This is some mean, sweaty, raging noise ROCK. And
that's just Drunkdriver on their own. On this LP they're collaborating
with whooshing hell-monger Mattin (of his own devices as well as
frontman for Billy Bao) and the result is a similar to the pairing of
Pyramids and Nadja-a pure collaborative effort wherein the individual
contributions become invisible and the whole becomes something larger
and more encompassing than either participant could produce on their
own. In short, these two entities were meant to work together. And
fuck, is it ever an exhausting workout. Two sides of wax that don't
ever let up, offering no mercy and serving up a gurgling torrent of
adrenaline fueled blood and spite, cloaked in blankets of brutal
repetition and howls of unbridled electricity. It's unhinged, totally
chaotic but completely mind-numbing. Think Brainbombs meets Lightning
Bolt and you're almost there. It's that frenzied, that crazy, that
violent, that cathartic, that unnerving and it fucking ROCKS. It's like
some noiseberry crumble served up on a plate of puke and spit and the
moment you take a bite someone's going to hit you over the head with a
hammer. This is revolutionary stuff, and again, much too much too
short, but i don't how much of this you could really withstand. Do you
relish the idea of having your head smashed against a wall over and
over and over until it's a mushed up pulp of gray brain and clotting
blood? Probably not. But those 20 minutes when it's happening are
fucking beautiful.
I
bagged pretty hard on the latest Billy Bao album, and rightfully so,
but Mattin has certainly redeemed himself with this Drunkdriver
collaboration. I haven’t previously heard any Drunkdriver recording
that truly walloped me over the head like I assume was their intent,
but List of Profound Insecurities changes things. The first
side comes in quiet before bursting into a non-stop noise barrage; no
riffs, just wailing feedback and frightening squeals over drummer
Jeremy Villalobos’ freight-train patterns. Sounds like vocalist Michael
Berdan is doing his best “say hello to my lil’ friend!” impression the
whole time, which I dig. About halfway through some thick toneless bass
rudely plops itself into the mix and we’ve graduated from violent
noise-rock to violent noise. The b-side churns things at a slower pace
with equally satisfying results and some high-pitched hearing-test
tones testing your mettle. Imagine a more coherent and dirtier
Aufgehoben or if Air Conditioning stuck with the PSF vibe for more than
their debut. I’ll admit, I was surprised, but it’s really that good.
In
this week’s Freak Scene, Jamie Johns takes on three new records that
have captured her attention—slabs by Drunkdriver, perennial Freak Scene
favorites Emeralds and Li Jianhong.
Drunkdriver and Mattin – A List of Profound Insecurities
12-inch (Badmaster/Suicide Tax)
The prospect of Mattin and Drunkdriver joining together, two groups
with decidedly divisive live experiences, made me almost uncomfortably
giddy. Park Slope parents probably felt the same amount of glee when
they heard Pavement was getting back together. A List of Profound
Insecurities
is far from being a feel good record but I must admit that it felt
incredibly good putting this record on and having it be so loud. That a
vinyl record can be mixed so loudly bodes well for the future of this
world and I do not think this record would be as successful as it is if
it didn’t abuse and blow out your speakers the way it does. The volume
is as essential as the music. Side A, where the vitriol really flows,
is as harsh and caustic (and good) as any “noise” recording I have
heard this year. Kristy Greene’s guitar playing mixes in with whatever
it is Mattin is doing here to create a heavy wall of noise din, which
is at times almost physically overwhelming. How Jeremy Villalobos
played this fast will remain a mystery in my mind. Drunkdriver singer
Michael Berdan retches out words, if they can be called that. The cover
is adorned with what we can assume are the list of profound
insecurities mentioned in the title. These range from the typical –
death of parents, addiction – to the startling – true autonomy,
reliance on the hope of a complete social/economic collapse as reason
to not do anything of real substance. This adds a whole layer of
discomfort to an already intense listening experience. For some,
including myself, the uncomfortable music experience is the most
rewarding and this record lives up to that. I am sure someone somewhere
is playing this to annoy their neighbors.
Drunkdriver almost caused me physical harm at WFMU Fest
and lead singer Michael Berdan’s microphone was cut off, while Mattin,
also in Billy Bao, berated the audience at No Fun Fest for their
sexism, racism, and white nerdism. You can purchase A List of
Profound Insecurities from Badmaster Recordshere. They
are playing with Pissed Jeans on October 30th at Le Pouisson Rouge. I
hope someone flips over one of those fancy tables.
The best noise/heavy rock collaboration, from a time in history
where power electronics and rock bands were not often commonplace, from
an Alchemy Records compilation entitled Arijigoku Battle Royal
that, at one point, finds Subvert Blaze flanked by Hijokaidan for a
live cover of “21st
Century Schizoid Man.” At the time change, it sounds like someone is
being electrocuted, and this noise persists throughout most of the rest
of the track; a brutal derailment but a miracle to watch as it crashes.
One would figure more bands would try this, but most realize that it’s
difficult to harness one in the service of the other, and the noise
usually wins out anyway. These two releases celebrate modern success
within this endeavor, something that has been simmering in the
collective consciousness of the hyper-aware for some time and is
finally bearing sick, gray, rotted fruit.
Throughout late last year and early into this one, Brooklyn’s
Drunkdriver had temporarily shacked up with conceptual musician Mattin
(responsible for those Billy Bao records), who had manipulated the band
somewhat in their work together. I’ve never seen their shows be more
violent or full of darkness as when Mattin joined them, be it smearing
his blood on audience members, or watching Berdan separate all the
muscles from his shoulder to chest from jumping up on a PA column. The
rock approach to Kristy Greene’s guitar playing had been subsumed by
uglified black waves of churn and it felt like the ground was going to
open up under them. The bad vibes are more cleanly merged on A List
of Profound Insecurities,
a 20-minute exploration which finds the band more locked in than ever,
and skirting around volume shifts, laptop noise explosion, and guitar
piercing through it. There is a little more method here than may need
to be, but it’s so goddamn bleak and nihilistic, loaded with good parts
scattered Chrome-like all over the record, that it’s hard to ignore
something so disturbed. Not much else out there sounds like these two
right now, and if there are, they probably can’t play as well as either
of them.
Doug Mosurock
drunkdriver/mattin is most definitely
real. so is the list: physical deterioration, intellectual /
emotional
stagnation, continuation of a defective gene pool, death of parents,
addiction, forgetting everything, remembering it all in a flash,
finding love only to lose it, inevitable failure…
which is a fine way to apply an
intellectual / emotional sheen to a record that is utterly relentless
in its quest to brutalise.
a one chord repeato-monster at times
spunking out the harshest noise i’ve heard (see the speaker
raping,
fractured whiteout, halfway through side
b) over monged bellows and vocal retchings like rusted
shut’s don walsh chewing hypodermics.
there’s a nice (nice?!) to and fro
between mattins damaged industrialisms and drunkdrivers monolithic
sludge; some new wave jump-cut take on nate youngs factory
noise. it
stops and starts breaks down incoherent before dragging it’s ravaged
carcass back to life. there is some kindof buggered groove in
here of
the deformed dislocating butthole surfers / brainbombs variety.
one
that lurches and leers confused with the wrath of a narcotic addled
yahweh.
it’s a twenty minute overloaded
overwhelming shriek of existential horror you really should fucking
hear.
Drunkdriver
returns with their most uncompromising release to date, a 12"
collaboration with noise provocateur and key member of Billy Bao,
Mattin. Each side of List Of Profound Insecurities
is comprised of a piece that combines the dilapidated blues-riffs and
masterful, driving drumwork of Drunkdriver and marries it to the
conceptual noise of Mattin. As wild and relentless as Drunkdriver may
seem at times, there is still a fairly standard structure to their
work, but Mattin's influence allows the band to strip themselves from
these confines and create something more free-form.
As
for the actual music? It takes the nosiest parts of Drunkdriver and
stretches them out, all while Mattin adds low volume, high pitched
analog squelches and a frenetic, buzzing wall-of-sound throughout the
entire work. Add to this Berdan's lunatic ramblings to complete the
package. This 12", particularly, the B-side, also emanates a feeling of
rot. It both sounds and feels like the tape is literally decaying and
falling apart as the record spins and it's wondrous.
I've
been playing this multiple times a day since I've received it and while
I can't make any ridiculous claims about it yet, I can definitely say
that List
Of Profound Insecurities is yet another gem from the Drunkdriver
camp. The 12" has been released on Badmaster Records in a
limited pressing of 500 copies. The number of available copies is
dwindling, so make sure to pick this up A.S.A.P.
Throughout late last year and early into this one, Brooklyn’s
Drunkdriver had temporarily shacked up with conceptual musician Mattin
(responsible for those Billy Bao records), who had manipulated the band
somewhat in their work together. I’ve never seen their shows be more
violent or full of darkness as when Mattin joined them, be it smearing
his blood on audience members, or watching Berdan separate all the
muscles from his shoulder to chest from jumping up on a PA column. The
rock approach to Kristy Greene’s guitar playing had been subsumed by
uglified black waves of churn and it felt like the ground was going to
open up under them. The bad vibes are more cleanly merged on A List of Profound Insecurities,
a 20-minute exploration which finds the band more locked in than ever,
and skirting around volume shifts, laptop noise explosion, and guitar
piercing through it. There is a little more method here than may need
to be, but it’s so goddamn bleak and nihilistic, loaded with good parts
scattered Chrome-like all over the record, that it’s hard to ignore
something so disturbed. Not much else out there sounds like these two
right now, and if there are, they probably can’t play as well as either
of them. Public Humiliation sold out in just a few days from
the source, but Iron Lung will have copies on its current East Coast
tour (Nov 1-8), with a repress forthcoming, and the 500 copies of the
Drunkdriver/Mattin record are steadily dwindling. (Doug Mosurock)
This was released as a vinyl only, 45rpm 12" in an edition of 540,
so chances are, you might have missed it had you even realized is was
out. It's sold out, so unless you want to scour the eBays...don't
bother.
Musically, if you've heard Drunkdriver before, you
should be prepared for their particularly abrasive and confrontational
approach to noise rock, with a big, repeat b-i-g, emphasis on the
"noise" part of that descriptor. If you've heard Billy Bao before, you
should be prepared for Mattin's high volume screech and unsettling
rumble version of pure noise.
Now, imagine Drunkdriver
playing their primal noise/sludge and having Mattin wrestle these riffs
into screaming submission. It's as if there is a knob on the mixing
board that says "Fucked", and they have turned it all the way right,
and left the building.
H 'λιστα με τις βαθυστοχαστες ανασφαλειες' του 21st Century Schizoid Man μελοποιειται απο τους Drunkdriver με
τη λεπτοτητα ενος εξοργισμενου οχλου. Το ενα και μοναδικο riff του
group γκρεμιζεται σταδιακα απο τις παρεμβασεις του αρχιπροβοκατορα Mattin μεχρι
τη πληρη ισοπεδωση του σε μπαζα λευκου θορυβου και ουρλιαχτων. Τι
περιμενατε απο ενα κειμενο που αναφερει σωματικη/πνευματικη αλλοιωση,
εθισμο, αδυναμια ανεξαρτητοποιησης, εμπιστοσυνη σε νεκρα συστηματα και
αναποφευκτη αποτυχια.
