Black Leather Jesus — A. N. T. I.

Originally released back in 1993 A. N. T. I. is not only an important early Black Leather Jesus release. It’s also a great example of textured focused harsh noise and a prime slice of proto- walled noise. Here is a much-deserved CD reissue of the album by Stockholm based Ominous Recording.

The CD comes presented monochrome digipak, which features on it’s front cover red typewriter text over a ripped black and white picture collage. Inside we get a new write up about the release by The Rita’s Sam Mckinlay, which is both worthy/ interesting- finding him discussing both his personal history with A. N. T. I. , and the importance of the release. This CD is Ltd to just 200 copies, and I’d imagine these will disappear fairly quick- so I’d sooner than later.

A. N. T. I. originally appeared back in 1993 as a C60 on Deadline Recordings, and has since received three other tape and CDR releases over the years- each once again been fairly ltd, so it’s good this new reissue has a slightly larger pressing. For the release, the line-up was  Richard Ramirez- electronics, Scott Houston- electronics, and  David Gilden- guitar. The original edition of the release took in two self-titled track, for this new CD release we get a single self-titled track that runs at 57.59 mark- with the whole thing getting a 2020 remastering by Grant Richardson.

The track kicks straight in been built around a dense blend of rapidly hacking mid-ranged noise textures, which are weaved by stretching ‘n’ pulling bass purrs- this creates both a muffled, manic and oppressive textural sound map.  As we progress the tonal range and textural patterns remain fairly similar- we get shifts from blunter and pared-back billow ‘n’ drone, onto cluttering mid-range static pelts and lashers,  and roaming & grinding drones. There is also a sluggish ‘n’ sludgy feel here, that brought to mind the likes of Mouthus- but of course with much more of an electro/ noise grounding to it.  Throughout Ramirez and Houston manage to keep the whole thing tight and oppressively hacking. 

It’s great to see classic recordings like A. N. T. I. been reissued from this legendary US noise collective, and let's hope there are more planned in the not too distant future. If you have any interest in dense textured  US noise, or where walled noise started- this most certainly is a must-have item!.