5.0 out of 5 stars
Glorious Noise, January 11, 2011
This review is from: Barbed Wire Maggots (Audio CD)
Okay. This is glorious noise. Borbetomagus: Barbed Wire Maggots. The music sounds just like the title suggests. Reedmen Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich torture their saxophones mercilessly while guitarist Donald Miller flays his six string with a red hot dull ax. At times you'd swear they are ripping old doors off rusted barn hinges, at times you will hear the death throes of wounded elephants. Did I mention there are no drums or bass? Believe me, you won't miss the "rhythm section bottom end." The bottom of this music is endless, sort of like the pit to Hell. Only it snakes up high, too. This is God music, but not the sort that Palestrina or Bach ever wrote. And you won't confuse this for Brahms, the Beatles, or anybody else you've heard lately ... unless you're familiar with the guy who likes to scrape his metal-shod fingernails over a rough slate blackboard while behind him a slew of old tubed radios spill out static while the neighborhood hounds (or are they cats?) howl in some demon provoked agony. Yes, I love this stuff. And you will too. Especially when Aunt Bertie drops over and overstays her welcome. Play this for dinner music. She'll soon be heading out the door. This ain't "Kumbaya"! Did I mention I like this album? Do the words "the cacaphony of armageddon" have any meaning to you? In fact, I'm listening to side one of my 1983 Agaric Records black vinyl copy (recorded May 7, 1982 in New York) as I write, and I notice the sound has not yet damaged my ability to write prose. (Though I suspect it is damaging my speakers, amp, and Maestro Wood phono cartridge!) Time to turn to side two. That's where the "real" crucifixion is to be had. Don't ask me to write then. I'll just hang onto the sides of my listening chair and hope I don't drop into the abyss. Or maybe hope I do.
You gotta hear this record. Glorious noise, magnified to the nth degree, and then some. Borbetomagus: Barbed Wire Maggots. Three musicians redefining their art. They don't make music like this anymore ... if they even ever did!
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