Hand & Knee/Mallard Theory - Basic Instincts (Tribe Tapes)
The noise split; an easy format to make, a tricky one to pull off. I dunno. Splits are great, but they also can be a big old bag of disappointment. How many splits have you gotten where one artist absolutely delivers and the other says "eh. I forgot I agreed to do this. I guess I have a little bit from this last recording session?" Or worse; neither artist delivers the hype that their name garners. God...
Well, this split is not one of those cases. As a matter of fact, I would say this split should be referenced on how to format one in the current age. Tracks flow between these two artists seamlessly once the collaborative intro ends. This avoids skipping over one whole slab of one artist if they bore you. You don't like what one is doing? Go to the next quick without waiting 20 more minutes! I doubt anyone who listens will have that problem, as the kinship between these two for dystopian noise beauty is this discs greatest strength.
I think this split was the moment that I started seeing both artists not just as contemporaries/"pretty good rippers." No, they are artists in my eyes. Hand & Knee has carved out a niche in his sound that blurs the lines of industrial, junk noise and power electronics in a way that I find hard to pin down or compare it to. I hear remnants of some artists, but no apt comparison. These tracks creep at their own speed. Hand & Knee does only what Hand & Knee does. And a track like "White Washed" ... OH MAN
Mallard Theory rips harsh noise and you know that. But I never saw Henry's ripping to have so much intricacy as I have seen it since this disc. He found a way to combine the red hot harsh sounds with alien electronics that would make the likes of James Ferraro & Damon Edge proud. But like I said with Hand & Knee, there is no one you can say Mallard Theory is biting from; this is its own thing. This is what life on the farm is like. This is what it means to be a duck. I was blasting this disc on the way home with a friend the other week and he said "Mallard is so harsh, yet so peaceful, like a duck floating in the pond." Yup, my thoughts exactly.
Fantastic disc; one of the best things to ever emerge from the continuously impressive roster of Tribe Tapes. If you needed a modern harsh noise disc to sink your teeth into after some time away from the artform, I would give you this. No one will do it better.
