A nice split-shot of the Sylvester Anfang II/Burial Hex split on Aurora Borealis Records
I have so many things I want to tell you about right now. There’s the Get Killed / The Body split 7-inch on Corleone from a few years back that I’m suddenly smitten by. There’s the *In a Cloud compilation, with songs from Tim Cohen AND The Fresh & Onlys, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall and many more. There’s the 7-inch I recently found on Romulan Records that collects four unknown bands on baby-blue vinyl.
For some reason, I always want me some Anfang, and so I must follow that path at this moment. Sylvester Anfang II, I mean. Their split with Burial Hex is so brute/beautiful I couldn’t ignore it any longer. It was staring at me from across the room like a mean mental monkey at a juke joint.
I’ll start with Burial Hex because they, for all intents and purposes, own this fuckin’ thing. Their cut “Throne” is “I Want to Fuck You Like an Animal” shaved of all its desperate layers and attempted melodies, a lone bass figure carrying the proceeding while guillotines “sh-shang” and echo-dipped mics fizzle and fry.
Wolf Eyes howls, noise-scene nob-jobs you’ve heard from countless n-gangs, from Gang Wizard to Raccoo-oo-oon to Hair Police to fucking, fucking Skaters … that’s really all this is, draped over the aforementioned bottom-end … but it’s a striking piece of work nonetheless.
So many don’t truly understand how hard it is to craft melted-plastic industrial-noise-scum-fuck this seamless, so abrasive-warm it bites your neck then hugs you close, and you forgive it that. Deep-thrum drones are almost NEVER this tip-top from head-to-toe; it takes skill to smash skulls, glue them back together, and then smash them again.
S. Anfang the Second are a bit rustier, albeit in a completely different — and more technically complex — medium. A tom-driven psych-rock moon-howler in the vein of — dare I say — Amon Duul II, Ghost and whichever Acid Mothers Temple incarnation is being put out this week, “Offerbloed Van De Maansekte” flows reasonably well but never quite lifts from the ground.
That said, it’s still more interesting than most; Anfang are always good for a pop in the park. The bassline is snaky, the wah-wah theatrics make sense in this context and the ghostly howls bring to mind Spires In The Sunset Rise — I was just chattin’ about them the other night — after the moon has well established its dark dominance of the sky, or early Constellation stuff, or Psychic Paramout, or many others.
I got #265 out of this 500-run record. Get yrs quick.
