Things move at such a rapid pace in the heady world of UK noise rock that sometimes it can be quite confusing. It seems like barely a moment has passed since Hey Colossus released RRR and now they have a new drummer and are releasing Dominant Male on vinyl. Castrovalva in Leeds seem to spit out a split 10" with a different band at least once a fortnight. Hawkeyes, commendably, never play less than ten gigs a week. All of this action is at odds with the mental image you may have of flats where the curtains never get opened and the colour of the carpet remains a mystery because of the delicate scattering of torn Rizla papers and flattened Red Stripe cans which spread out into a meniscus where it reaches bare brick walls. The actuality of this scene is less like a Ken Loach film and more like an incomprehensible shark that must move forward or face extinction. In fact Part Chimp may have put back their retirement date three times and released three more 7"s during the time it took me to write this review. (None of this sense of frenzied violent urgency can be attributed to Dethscalator however, who have chosen a different evolutionary path of just staying in one place with their mouths open, waiting for food to swim in – we will be happy to correct this defamation when their long promised album Racial Golf Course – No Bitches arrives at Quietus Towers.)
So in this hail of activity it was perhaps forgivable that we managed to miss the release of a new album by one of our favourite UK noise rock acts late last year. Not that Trencher would claim to be UK noise rock however. Last time we heard from them it was after the release of the scabrous 2006 LP Lips, when they claimed to be Casio grind. This time out the noticeable increase in production quality (Feel the width! Feel the depth!) perhaps now means they should be known as mongers of home-made-poly-synth-grind. The line-up is as follows: a singer and keyboard player in a frightening mask who does synchronized squat dancing called M. Shit; a bassist called Pox who brings the rock and awe and a brilliant but erratic drummer (one of the best in ye olde London town) called Lock Monger.
After a demonic and atmospheric intro, ‘Maggots’ combines the best elements of Daughters!, King Crimson in rock, Bolt Thrower and Cardiacs, and is therefore above criticism on any level. ‘Fucking A Corpse’ is about that old noise rock staple – necrophilia, but the experience is rendered more yearnsome by the Mills & Boon lyrics: "Hair still flows / Nails still grow/ It’s hard to let go / Of the shining white light / At the dawn of your thighs / Still makes me stiff." There is blackened death metal meets Goblin on ‘Vlad Tapas’ about a wistful Nosferatu who dreams of relocating to the Mediterranean and all the culinary delights this will avail him of. You can buy this album for a we’re-all-in-this-together price of £3.50 from Trencher’s band camp (although we prefer the one-sided vinyl that comes with spooky pin hole camera photography of wrong happenings in times gone by). And one look at their band camp page reveals that yes, they have released something else (a remix EP called Shitflip) in the time it’s taken me to write this review. UK noise rock – catch it now while it’s actually happening.
