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art by Todd Brooks
35 tracks in 69 minutes! Rippers and Creepers is an eclectic mixtape and aural document featuring a killer clutch of underground artists, a snapshot of the “grotesque sounds of now”. Each group/artist contributes one short two-minute piece that either "rips" or "creeps" based on their own interpretation. The tracks compiled have been collaged and stitched together to make one long continuous track on each side of the tape resulting in a non-interrupted journey beyond the fringe. Curated and with artwork by Todd Brooks, Rippers and Creepers is a part of Pendu Org’s continued efforts to promote “esoteric ostranenie of contemporary weirdo culture”.
featuring HeteroSkeleton,
Blastocyst, Pukers, Oubliette, Ghost Moth, Vestigial Limb, Kristin Calvarese, Buffle, Pink Canoes, Usurper, Harshcore, Fully Dilated, Wasteland Jazz Unit, Fish & Sheep, Valerio Cosi, Howlin' Magic, Pet Coffins, Family Battle Snake, Pax Titania, Skozey Fetisch, Arachnid Arcade, Josh Lay, Mike Shiflet, Craniopagus, Sons of Bronson, Demonologists, Women in Tragedy, Sorc'henn, Eastern Seaboard, VxPxC, Saints, Lanterns, Nonhorse, Gullwing, and Panicsville
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Various Artists
Rippers and Creepers Mixtape Vol. 1 (2008)
Catalog# PSR-0030
Format: Cassette (C69)
Release date: 4/18/2007
Listen to the entire recording on our Pendu Sound System podcast now!
Tracklist:
Side A
01. HeteroSkeleton - Kaksminsaa 2
Helsinki, Finland
[site] [MySpace]
02. Blastocyst - Untitled
Brooklyn, NY, USA
[site] [MySpace]
Recorded Summer 07' in Philadelphia PA by Marc Zajack
...is Jay Dunbar (bass & vcls), Marc Zajack (guitar & tapes), Brian Osborne (drums & vcls)
03. Pukers - Pizzas
Los Angeles, CA, USA
[MySpace]
Recorded ??? By ??? on drugs
04. Oubliette - Put 'em Off in the Grave
Clyo, GA, USA
[MySpace]
...is Seth Oubliette
05. Ghost Moth - Bataille
Brooklyn, NY
[site] [MySpace]
Recorded live at Zebulon in Brooklyn with a digital video camera
...is Todd Brooks (prepared guitar/electronics) , Daniel Carter (saxophone) , Robbie McDonald
(electronics/tape loops)
06. Vestigial Limb - Untitled
KY, USA
[MySpace]
07. Kristin Calvarese - Crime Wave
Atlanta, GA
[site] [MySpace]
08. Buffle - Viscal
Bruxels, Belgium
[site] [MySpace]
For this recording, Buffle was Emmanuel, Denis, Benjamin, Clément, Xavier.
About the title: some years ago our friend Clément told us he got a phone call that woke him up during the night. The unknown voice on the other side just kept saying "viscal... viscal..." which doesn't mean anything in french by the way but sounds like some strange mix between "fiscal" and "visqueux" ("viscous")... scary... seemed perfect for the compilation.
09. Pink Canoes - Climate
Oakland, CA, USA
[site] [MySpace]
Recorded live in SF, Ca. 12.18.07, edited only for levels and clarity, etc.
...is Noah Phillips, Zachary Watkins, Aram Shelton and Travis Johns.
10. Usurper - A Poke in the Eye With a Shitty Stick
Leith, Edinburgh., United Kingdom
[site] [MySpace]
...is Ali Robertson and Malcy Duff
2-track recording made on a busted 4-track: one mong on each track playing tapeless walkman, head massager, cymbal pieces, and some other detritus.
11. Harshcore - Amy Winehouse
Biella, Italy
[site] [MySpace]
...is Luca Sigurtà and Tommaso Clerico
electronic junk, feedback, tapes, bass.
12. Fully Dilated - The Big Other Does Not Exist
Malvern, United Kingdom
[site] [MySpace]
13. Wasteland Jazz Unit- Untitled
Cincinatti, OH, USA
[MySpace]
...is Jon Lorenz on Sax and
John Rich on Clarinet
14. Fish & Sheep - Last Live
Barreiro/Ourém, Portugal
[site] [MySpace]
Recorded live in Lisbon to dat tape and mixed with audio video that was shot simultaneously
15. Valerio Cosi - Ripper
Lizzano (Taranto), Italy
[site] [MySpace]
Recorded in February 2008. Instruments: saxoloop, delay, fuzz
16. Howlin' Magic - Smile Sun (edit)
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
[site] [MySpace]
"The track 'smile sun' was created in the autumn of 2007 when micah aka "wendy stonehenge" enacted the ritual of the the moon god on drums and steve "aka steve" of the new thrill parade accompanied on the bass attempting and ultimately failing to make a sound representative of wind . i, howlin magic, played guitar with intentions to invoke the sun god."
17. Pet Coffins - New York
South Bend, IN, USA
[MySpace]
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Side B
18. Family Battle Snake - Stripper
London, United Kingdom
[MySpace]
...is Bill Kouligas
recorded in London, January 2008. All Analog Synths
19. Pax Titania - Terminal Implant
Tallahasse, FL, USA
[site] [MySpace]
...is Christopher Cprek
Recorded February 2008 using a bunch of unnamed handmade analog synth gear.
20. Skozey Fetisch - Successive Horizontal Cognizance
San Francisco, CA, USA
[MySpace]
21. Arachnid Arcade - Hives and Then
WA, USA
[MySpace]
22. Josh Lay - Bad Mirror
KY, USA
[site] [MySpace]
23. Mike Shiflet - Kintestu
Columbus, OH, USA
[site] [MySpace]
24. Craniopagus - Blisters
Boston, MA, USA
[MySpace]
...is Jesse and Luke on electroncis and vocals.
25. Sons of Bronson - 2 Minutes to Midnight
Barcelona, Spain
[MySpace]
26. Demonologists - Creeping Sickness
OH, USA
[site] [MySpace]
27. Women in Tragedy - Untitled
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
[MySpace]
Recorded by Bob McCully, February 2008 @ The Home.
28. Sorc'henn - La chambre verte (The Green Lodge)
Ifern, Bretagne France
[site] [MySpace]
sounds from an interview of Jean Cocteau and some fields/whispers recordings
29. Eastern Seaboard - Under the Red White and Blue
New York, NY
[site] [MySpace]
...is Brent Bagwell on Tenor Sax, Seth Nanaa on Drums, Jordon Schranz on Bass, Ben Kennedy on Cello
Recorded by Mark Ospovat at Emandee Studios - February 2007
30. VxPxC - Dripping Reaper
Los Angeles, CA, USA
[site] [MySpace]
...is Grant Capes, Tim Goodwillie, Justin Mcinteer
Recorded in East Los Angeles early 2007
31. Saints - Untitled
Goleta, CA, USA
[MySpace]
Recorded on an endless ear shifting morning in august 2007 by Jason Bannon and Sean McCann.
32. Lanterns - Untitled
Leeds/Glasgow, United Kingdom
[site] [MySpace]
Recorded in dir tup cottage, Cumbria, UK in June 2007 by Rhid Williams, Luke Vollar, Jo Penny, and Andreas Jonsson.
33. Nonhorse - Ceasar Shift
Brooklyn, NY, USA
[MySpace]
34. Gullwing - The Only Way Out Is Up
Baltimore, MD, USA
[MySpace]
Recorded and assembled throughout Decemeber 2007 by Bryan B. Rhodes.
35. Panicsville - The Ripper
Chicago, Illinois
[site] [MySpace]
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Review from Tape Hiss #32 at Foxy Digitalis
"This one is a reviewer’s nightmare! Rippers and Creepers not only features over 30 artists spanning a host of styles and locales—which right off the bat eliminates a couple of handy classification systems—but every track is mixed directly into the next, as if the nuances of each noisemonger’s style weren’t difficult enough to detect already. And to crown his caper, Pendu curator Todd Brooks has deliberately chosen an almost-unknown set of artists—a decision I wholly admire, but one which complicates this task even further.
With that, where to begin? I don’t know if Brooks is cluing us in with the title, but for a first approximation of order, let’s call the A-side “Rippers” and the B-side “Creepers.” Rippers wisely begins with the eccentric quasi-jazz of HeteroSkeleton, a choice born as much of necessity as preference, since there’s no way Brooks could maintain a consistent flow with this head-scratcher gumming up the works. The following two tracks are compatible, beyond-gutter, half-aborted punk tracks by Blastocyst and the Pukers, which move at absolutely full throttle with an admirable hostility towards purpose and form. The Rippers title makes even more sense as we enter the alley of straight noise, with four pieces of angry rumbles blurring into one another. I recognized the odd, abused saxophone of Ghost Moth gasping for air and was pleasantly surprised by the brooding quality of newcomer Kristin Calvarese’s piece, but otherwise, no matter how hard I try to distinguish the different contributors, my mind melts into the onrush. The quirky no-budget dance of Buffle briefly dethrones the noise, only to be usurped by Usurper, whose brooding, understated piece of cut-up darkness further establishes him as one of the most distinctive voices in harsh noise world. After his piece, unfortunately, I lose track of the next several artists, surfacing again to note the psychedelic bombast of Howlin’ Magic, probably the most recognizable name on the comp. Rippers eases into Creepers with the pleasant, if not distinctive, ambience of Pet Coffins.
After the white-knuckle ride of Rippers, Creepers is a bit more soothing. Family Battlesnake drapes the tape in a troubled Twilight Zone swirl, which is ably followed by a masterful proggy suite of post-Tangerine synthetic pulse from Pax Titania. Skozey Fetisch then crash lands like a malfunctioning satellite, coming off like the sound of robotic consciousness going slowly offline. Arachnid Arcade inaugurates another stretch of noise, though with a sci-fi bent in keeping with the spirit of preceding tracks. Josh Lay follows with an utterly depressing piece of fetid drift, one of my favorites on the whole comp. Next, ex-pat Mike Shiflet goes digital (I think), drumming up his inner Kevin Drumm with a deep field of flickering figures, before Sons of Bronson upsets the pacing with a disruptive piece of mutilated wankery. Women in Tragedy show up soon enough with a hallucinatory killer, followed by a winning slab of mysterious black ritual from new kids Sorc’henn. A multi-artist string-fueled fugue follows, capped by the glorious non-logic of Nonhorse. Finally, Panicsville concludes with an appropriately bizarre, flatulent piece.
So, uh…there you have it. I think all the preceding can be summarized as follows: Rippers and Creepers is not an easy listen, but there’s a lot of meat on its bones." - by Bryan Berge from Tape Hiss #32 at Foxy Digitalis
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Review from Smooth Assailing
"rippers and creepers does a good job of gathering artists from all over the place: france, the united kingdom, spain, italy, canada, finland, belgium, portugal as well as the united states. when it comes to the u.s., there's more than a slight bias towards the eastern states, with california being the only one west of illinois that's represented, though it does have the most contributors, with seven, and one of those, arachnid arcade, used to be in seattle.
the idea behind this was to have artists submit a two minute long piece of music (give or take) which would either "rip" or "creep", based on how the artist chose to define those adjectives. obviously, your rippers are going to be the blown-out instrumental jams and harsh noise tracks, while the creepers favor mood and subtlety. with that interpretation in mind, the music adheres to these idioms well, for the most part. all of the tracks are intertwined with each other, rather than having one side be devoted to a singular theme, and todd mixed everything together really well, which made it kind of a bitch to separate, but i figured it out, eventually.
side a starts with the weirdo sounds of heteroskeleton (which features arttu from avarus); strange vocals, intermittent sax blurts and random noises coming together in a patchworked blanket of oddball experimentation. that's followed by two blown-out instrumental tantrums, first of which is brooklynites blastocyst with their noisy jamming that i hesitate to even call lo-fi, but i've gotta give the nod to la's pukers, though. it's a little bit easier to hear and the constant whirl of feedback with the terrific drumming does it for me. the feedback love fest continues wonderfully with oubliette's put 'em off in the grave, which easily wins the title of most abrasive track. i love it. ghost moth carries oubliette's noisy drone undercurrent, but heavily sedates it and adds daniel carter's meandering sax blurts over the top of it. this one both rips and creeps. vestigial limb continues to impress with his untitled track. i dig ray's dynamic here between the rumbling clatter, muffled moans and high-pitched whines. atlanta's kristin calvarese serves up a terrific, loud, humming creeper with hidden electronic screams lurking about in the background. buffle's viscal, hmm, neither creeps nor rips, but their catchy, upbeat folk guitar and rhythmic percussion is one of the compilation's high points. climate, by oakland's pink canoes,brings back the stark mood with sparse instrumentation, random electronic buzzes, chiming guitar, drone and chilling ambiance. it's more atmospheric than anything else, but does set a distinct tone. scotland's usurper turn in a fantastic bit of lurching noise with a poke in the eye with a shitty stick. minimal and scratchy, initially, it will eventually turn into a gallop of clattering chaos that increases to a startling amplitude, before dropping back off into choked distortion. italians harshcore provide a droner with understated distorted noise in their amy winehouse; less troubled than the singer herself. fully dilated's the big other does not exist shares its time between digital spew, a high-pitched background whine, distortion and a slow rumble. i like that they really made the most out of their two minutes. the amplified sax and clarinet duo of cincinnati's wasteland jazz unit provides a nice high and low juxtaposition over a complimentary bed of distortion. last live, by portugal's fish & sheep, unfortunately, sounds like it was recorded by someone who couldn't actually get inside of the venue. the jammy free-rock chaos of it was good, though. valerio cosi's ripper is a great piece of overpowering drone which attempts to relegate the saxoloop to a minor supporting role, but the haunting faintness of it makes ripper memorable. santa cruz, ca's howlin' magic urge us to "take a hit of this" with their stoned out rocker, smilesun, and then indiana's pet coffins provide the perfect comedown music with the blissful new york.
bill kouligas's family battle snake kicks off a fantastic side b that comes across as being more focused than the first side was. fbs's repetitious analog synth lines, while mellow, gives rippers and creepers the catchiness than it hadn't really shown up until this point. tallahasse's pax titania follows bill's synth lead and gives us the great, haunted terminal implant. in addition to being more memorable, the track sequencing for this side was absolutely flawless. successive horizontal cognizance by skozey fetisch is an exercise in near locked-groove repetitious bay area oddness. that's followed by another san franciscan group, arachnid arcade, and their soupy distortion and whistling synth tones. it sounds like a monster eating an ice cream truck. josh lay's bad mirror is a pleasant transitory piece of sparse layered drones which lead to someone known for sparse layered drones, mike shiflet. not so much the case this time. shiflet has a good foundation of bubbling distortion, which slowly increases in virility, and random drawn out beeps. when it seems like it's about to get calmer, he hits us with a sheet of shrill noise. ugly, yet, a lovely surprise. kintestu's ending cacophony proves to be the perfect segue to boston's craniopagus, and their track blisters. high-pitch electronic screams, and distorted human ones reek havoc over a throbbing hum. i like! 2 minutes to midnight, by spain's sons of bronson starts out deceptively with distant droning behind light static before shifting into some great waves of mutilated noise before closing out with a series of good staccato tones. ohio's demonologists' (one dude) rad creeping sickness is like the noisy drone of too many people talking at once, combined with more drone and low, wavy undercurrents. i really like the slight rumbling base and haunting spatial synthesizer of toronto's women in tragedy. la chambre verte by france's sorc'henn is beautiful, too, with its lulling sample, minimal field recordings and persistent mechanical hum. nyc's eastern seaboard bring about a return to non-electronic instrumentation with under the red white and blue. despite having a sax, drums, upright bass and cello, this is a bit of a departure from their jazziness. the fast, steady, but not screechy, cello bowing is what wins me over. la's vxpxc make for some nice psychedelia with their warm ambient drone, violin and vocals. californian duo saints begin with minimal droning whines before briefly transforming into warm synth, then abruptly into blown out hum before settling on blown out percussion, which beautifully eases in lanterns' sun-soaked drum n' clang circle. ceasar shift, from nonhorse, is a heavenly track of softly moaning (vocal?) drones and delayed analog manipulations. baltimore's gullwing brings some unique psychedelic experimentation featuring warbling, liquid-like affections and fluttering drone. the compilation ends with panicsville's humorous take on what rippers really are with farting sounds, a giggling female and playful music, à la nihilist youth movement. silly, yes, but i dug the way ortmann decided to go off in his own different direction, while still staying very much on topic.
overall, this was a really good compilation. there wasn't anything that i didn't like and the tracks that didn't make much of an impression on me were definitely in the minority. i had my reservations about the fact that all of the tracks were so short, but i rarely felt like i was getting an incomplete glimpse of something, and also, the shortness helped make it seem like the album was quickly progressing instead of dragging on endlessly, which was nice." - by avant gardening from Smooth Assailing |
