Song of the Day: 夢遊病者, “Black Ribbon,” from 5772 (Self-Released, 2016)

If you don't already, go follow Starkweather on Facebook. Their frontman, Rennie Resmini, has had his ear to the underground for decades, and is constantly throwing out obscure and off-the-wall recommendations like this one: mysterious trio 夢遊病者.

Allegedly from Osaka, Japan; Tver, Russia; and New York City. Yet, according to Google, the band name is Chinese for "Sleepwalkers." Recorded, mixed, and mastered at studios for which no other references exist beyond the Bandcamp page for this band. Two EPs allegedly being released on limited edition cassettes, but not until 2037 (though both are for sale now for $66 each).

Weird.

But the music is weirder. I don't even know how to describe it. The drumming is (generally, but not always) kind of laidback and jazzy. The vocals are indecipherable, heavily reverberated wails that essentially resonate as textured noise. The guitars are all over the place from fuzzed-out jams or droning melodic runs, to gnashing tremolo-picked masses of gurgling dissonance or passages that sound like semi-chaotic Morbid Angel solos slowed down to half-speed.

There's no genre for this. It's an improvisational-sounding mindfuck.