Big Naturals and Anthroprophh - Big Naturals and Anthroprophh

From Cardinal Fuzz and Captcha Records comes a split record from good chums and masters of the freak-out The Big Naturals and Anthroprophh.

Side One consists of The Big Naturals' 21-minute God-Shaped Hole, a Kosmische Noise show-down between Jesse Webb on drums and Gareth Turner on bass and electronics. It starts out like early '80s Industrial/Ritualistic music, drums pound and electronics howl, until a drone of ever-increasing intensity leads to extreme fuzz bass entering like an evil Om. From here on out The Big Naturals maintain this balance of Stoner Rock, Kosmische music and early Industrial, meandering between all-out attack, drone build-ups and lighter jams. Webb and Turner taking it in turns to be the more expansive player. Other bands undoubtedly have the same influences as The Big Naturals but not many combine them as successfully.

Paul Allen's Anthroprophh bring three songs to side two. Farce Without End is a nasty-sounding, one chord punch in the face that teeters somewhere in between insanity and Heavy Psych. Allen's guitar is an unreasonably noisy tribute to Blue Cheer and The Savage Resurrection, moving between a number of effects, all equally troublesome to the ears. It's a lot of fun, especially when a wandering keyboard unexpectedly arrives. Narwhallian Social Purge begins with another pummelling. The bass is so overdriven that it just sits on the other instruments like a fat hen. No notes are discernible. Allen's talk-singing, familiar to fans of The Heads, makes its only appearance here and is also shoved through an effects pedal. If anything, despite the more welcoming presence of a vocal, this song is more unhinged than Farce Without End. Chubbuck's Last Tape (Another Nail), with its nod to Beckett in the title, is a less noisy, more experimental piece. Quite similar to God-Shaped Hole in the way it builds and then backs down. It, almost inevitably, ends in extreme, guitar abuse.

This record showcases two bands with two equally effective but contrasting approaches to psychedelic noise. Despite the 21-minute track, The Big Naturals are the more structured. Anthroprophh, the more unhinged - mainly due to their use of extreme distortion. The record works as a whole, with both bands complimenting each other and as an encouragement to check out both bands' back catalogues. Excellent, noisy fun.