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Rabies Caste, Black Leather Jesus, and the Incapacitants…

Rabies Caste - s/tIt's great to see Dada Drumming continuing to branch out from the experimental noise realms, and what a way to continue that expansion! This seven-track, 38-minute, self-titled affair is (sadly) the final posthumous release from Israel's sorely underrated Rabies Caste—containing "Timeless", from their split 7" with Sourvein, as well as two other "new" tracks (recorded back in 2003); a couple of live songs from that same year, and two dusty old unreleased tunes from way back in 1997. For those unfamiliar, the trio's approach tends towards the pulsing, sludgy variety with plenty of eerie dissonance and gritty distortion/feedback—not to mention sick, strained vocals and some pretty damn solid drum work. Certain elements of these songs feel a little weirder than some of the band's earlier material, unloading some pretty fucked up riffs and textures within the general framework of slow-paced rhythms and spurts of samples and whatnot, and since this material spans three recording sessions and six years' time there's a good range of the band's experimentation documented herein.

Rabies Caste "Mind Eruption"

Pick it up straight from the label for just $8 if you're down:

@ Dada Drumming

You'll notice that the Dada Drumming website mentions "unrepairable damage from the original studio master" in one track on the disc, but it's really not as bad as that might sound at all. There are a few spurts of subtly clicky noise along the final stretch of the track, but I'm extremely picky about that shit and didn't particularly find it to be a distraction at all, so...

Black Leather Jesus/Incapacitants - A Purpose Not NecessaryAlso on Dada Drumming and back to the noise is "A Purpose Not Necessary", which sees Black Leather Jesus and the Incapacitants each offering up one long slab of harsh noise—with the two compositions totaling damn near 50 minutes. Black Leather Jesus starts off with the 18+ minute "Shelter", which basically tears through various forms of hissy and unrelenting distortion with generally constant movement through subtle swells of low-end, quickly looped stutters, bursts of piercing feedback, or grating higher-end swells. "Yellow Silk Buddha", from Japan's Incapacitants, closes things out with over a half-hour of live-in-the-studio madness that's a pretty good match for the Black Leather Jesus track in terms of overall consistency and tonality. The range and attack is rather similar, though somewhat more singular, and with a recording that favors a barely muddier mix and a ringing sense of background treble that's actually sort of cool. This isn't generally the kind of experimental noise—harsh or otherwise—that really grabs me, but I haven't been listening to much of this stuff in the past year at all to be honest, so I'm definitely enjoying this split for what it is. Oh, and I have to point out that I really dig the layout and awesome front/back cover photography on this thing. Nicely done.

Black Leather Jesus "Shelter" (excerpt)
Incapacitants "Yellow Silk Buddha" (excerpt)

This one's a mere $7 straight from the label, which is cheap as hell, so make the grab if this is your thing:

@ Dada Drumming

Comments

  1. That Rabies Caste is fucking awesome, thatt split is sort of so-so.  What else did Rabies Caste put out?  Is it this good?  Anyone?

    9.21.2006 | By Anonymous

  2. Rabies Caste did two full-lengths, “Let the Soul Out and Cut the Vein”, and “For the Vomiting Tractor Drivers”.  Both are indeed good.  “Let the Soul Out…” is my personal favorite.

    9.22.2006 | By Andrew Aversionline

  3. I have to respectfully disagree that “Let the Soul Out” is the better of the two full-lengths.  “For the Vomiting Tractor Drivers” is by far the better of the two and I’m not just saying that because I co-produced the US (and only wide release) of the CD.  I’ll grant you that “Let the Soul Out” is cleaner and easier to understand in terms of vocal.  The sound on “For the Vomiting…”, however, is so…much…fucking…heavier.  True it’s not as polished but it’s much more true to the band’s molten lead energy.  Just listen to “Now I Crush You” or “Rhino and Croc” and tell me it doesn’t measure up to anything on “Let the Soul Out” and I’ll call bullshit it on you - just saying, one old fan to another.

    7.23.2010 | By Ed Ballinger

  4. First of all, RC was one hell of a band, even their first gig was awesome (I happened to be there) and I recommend everything they’ve recorded. “Let The Soul…” is probably the most focused release, and the easiest to understand, totally agree with Ed from the previous post. Their first recording is not mentioned here, it was not released and as far as I know there was one master CD and several handmade cassette copies. It was called “Children can fall into bucket and drown” if my memory serves me well and contained about 5-6 tracks. Sort of EP. Their last CD contains one last song from that EP (Goddamn). I have a cassette of that thing and it is almost as good as the later releases, although not as mature.

    It’s sad there was no interest in what they were doing and I’m afraid it was one of the main reasons for their split. If you can cheer ‘em up it might help as they are planning to return (maybe not under the same name), but there’s still too much frustration, they don’t even want to play gigs at all.

    10.11.2010 | By Sergey Engel

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