
Utero Zzzaaa - Rush [Lips Infection - 2010]“Rush” is the most succinct and suitable of descriptions for this otherwise bewildering release from Osaka’s Utero Zzzaaa, a one-man sonic assault squad blending distorted gabba and drill ‘n’ bass beats with loops of speed metal, TV theme tunes and the explosive sound effects of warfare while angrily screeching and rallying in the style of Discharge’s long-serving vocalist, Cal. As they all follow this same basic recipe, the sixteen short tracks compressed onto this cassette are hard to distinguish from each other. The effect is like speeding through a rioting city in a train carriage as a fellow passenger listens to an old Metallica album on badly-spilling headphones and another continuously receives several calls on a mobile using random Venetian Snares tracks as ringtones while someone else at the other end of the carriage catches some daytime television on their cheap laptop. This combined hi-speed barrage is achieved through a wilfully tinny production that is painfully thin lacking any punch from the bottom end, rendering the results as harsh and brittle. It all starts somewhat amusingly, though, as the air is peppered with layers of distorting loops stuttering and fidgeting around snippets of thrash metal soloing creating a nightmarish cartoon cacophony the equivalent to a morphing monster anime movie. But the joke wears thin as the tape stubbornly sticks to the same strategy of layered hyperactive loops and samples played through an anorexic dynamic range that leaves you with a craving for warm bass tones and kicks, if not a migraine.      Russell Cuzner
|