Sissy Spacek

[Minus1]

Blear.

6 tracks / 41+min. A 2022 re-release of some 2016/2017 recordings. (Track 6 is bonus - live.) Mumma/Wiese.

Well, this one starts off different again. It's a hazier/dreamier sound. I feel like I am in a train station. Hundreds of people rushing everywhere. I get dizzy. A whirlwind. Fucking wonderful.

This suddenly gives way to epic junkyard action. Metal sheets are tossed about. Glass breaks.

Then another change of pace - an eerie, spooky thing. Quiet. Sinister. A whole album of this would be cool.

Wow. 3 brillaint, varied tracks.

This is the first of my 14 Sissys where I'm hearing very different tracks within. Up to now all CDs have played rather like singular statements.

Then I'm jolted - explosions!? Gunshots? Track 4 gives me battlefield vibes. A strange and lovely choir type undercurrent. This eventually fades and leaves only the "battlefield" part. Fascinating.

Track 5 is different again. Sparse. Various percussives at random intervals. But a loop? I think. Junk metal action is in the background - a distance away. This becomes hypnotic. Yes - a loop.

(Here endeth the original 27min 5-track album.)

Track 6 seamlessly enters. Staccato type pulses slowly  give way to a soft white noise haze. (This is live? It really feels like part of this album arc, vice an add-on.) Then it morphs into what reminds me of track 4. But it meanders and fades into quiet, spacious, dronage regions, and acts as a perfect closer. (I cannot imagine this album ending at track 5.)

I fucking love this. The "singular statements" up to now really work for me. But so does this varied, dynamic, superb album.

I played it twice.

[Minus1]

Threshold.

5 tracks / 28+min. This seems to be 2013, 2014, and 2022. Mumma-Wiese usually, but also Randall on the newer tracks.

I enjoy these excursions to Sun Ra and Junk Noise territory, but give me fucking Harsh Noise! (ie Threshold delivers!)

The above dates might give off a "compilation" vibe, but this album flows really well. Great job on the sequencing.

This is fucking wonderful. Is it simply Harsh Noise? Noisecore? I don't do labels very well. Harshcore? 😂

It goes 1000mph, but track 5 throws a slight curveball. Things get weird and twisted for the grand finale. I think the machines overheated on tracks 1-4, and now they are eating themselves, self destructing, into a steaming pile.

God what a lovely 28min this is. It might be my fav so far. But I'm fucking dizzy in this Sissython.

I'll play it twice...

(I love the CD artwork - a lovely patio, with flowers, a hot tub, reclining chairs by the pool... Might some unsuspecting Celine Dion fan find this at Value Village (I'm 64 - I might die when VV still takes CDs!) and take it home? The horror...the horror...)

[Minus1]

Mirror Aggressor State.

81 tracks/18:53. 😂

Horne/Mumma/Weise. A 2024 release of a 2023 recording. (In fact, 21 Dec 2023.)

I was surprised that my old-ass CD player calculated 81 tracks.

This is the one I've most looked forward to. Is 81 tracks in 19min a joke? Or is it an experiment that fails?

So, this is Noisecore, right? Or maybe Grindcore? I'm not good with "labels".

I'm surprised that Mumma is NOT the drummer here. I thought this was his gig, vice vocals! Horne is the insane woodpecker at a garbage can here.

Oh! He's the dude in Sulfuric Cautery!

Mumma seems to have precisely 2 vocal styles here - the grunt (I think often with lyrics?) and the crazed, sustained shout. I'm impressed. He mixes the 2 very well, and in many different combinations and permutations.

(It ended at that paragraph. 😂 Replay...)

Many of these 81 tracks really are parts of a longer "song". They cheated a bit. 😂

This really is working for me! Maniacal. Intense. Some variety. Yet another angle in my continuing Sissython.

(Oh fuck, it ended again. One more time...) 😂

On the 3rd play I realize that this really does come across as an epic 19min arc, with many stop/starts, and abrupt turns. The division into 81 really is a bit silly, and fun.

A fantastic blast!

Edit: I'd like to copy/paste a review from Lactating Tardigrade at S+W:

Mirror Aggressor State is straight-up noisecore with no semblance of song structure outside of drumstick count-offs and blurred grind noise. 81 songs that go by in just 19 minutes. This line-up is John, Charlie on vocals, and Isaac of Sulfuric Cautery on drums. All of the releases with Isaac have been great, but I would say this is the best release they've put out so far. Even in some of the promo material, Isaac has been mentioning this is his favorite thing he's ever drummed on. This is very much in the vein of Arsedestroyer or the Insect Warfare noisecore single-sided 12". I feel like I keep saying this about recent releases, but this is one of the best releases of the band. Excellent and can't recommend it enough. This and Antitheater which I reviewed above are top-tier Sissy Spacek.

[Minus1]

(Interlude: Because Sissy has finally taught me how to enjoy a short CD, I went even further tonight, and purchased a couple more: One is 13min, and one is...gasp...7min! 😳 I truly have seen the light. (Or the dark?)) 😂

[Minus1]

Absorb Wanting Symbols.

5 tracks/38+min. A 2023 release of some live and studio 2022 recordings. Mumma/Wiese, and, at various times Dilloway/Matzus/Nace.

The 2 parts of Alternate Universe offers...erm...alternate soundworlds: 1 is harsh/dense as fuck, and it kicks you in the teeth from the first millisecond, while 2 gets much more "industrial junk drone". The Big Bang followed by expansion and cooling? I'm in!

Unseen, also in 2 parts, follows, and flows beautifully from Alternate Universe. First, a wall. Waves of wall. A hyptnotic white sheet of sound. Various elements burst through here and there. Voice? Feedback? I wish they'd do this for an hour. The Rita would blush at this.

Then the wall crumbles slightly in part 2. I think a firehose is attacking it. Fuck this is epic. As a lover of HNW, I humbly bow to Sissy on Unseen. The sound deconstructs slightly near the end. But the wall hold up under the assault.

That ends and suddenly we are confronted with jazz from hell, in the form of the 13min Orange Autopsy. Drumming is heard. And sax? A complete maelstrom. Borbet+Hijo might blush at this. Voice enters here and there. My head is spinning. It ultimately descends and dies. A fucking masterpiece of "sound snippets floating in space".

Absorb Wanting Symbols is a motherfucking beast. 5 slightly/somewhat dissimilar pieces that add up to a fantastic hole. (Sic). 😂

This Sissython knows no bounds.

[Minus1]

Electric Field In Parallel.

2 tracks/41+min. 2022. Mumma/Randall/Wiese.

The 31min White Car enters like a ton of bricks. HNW, jagged, dense, cut-up, with those milliseconds of silence that I've droned on about above, and which I love so much.

I want to say "awesome, breathtaking, disorienting PE", but perhaps my definition of PE is all wrong? I've noticed that Sissy's latest is being described as "perhaps their first PE album". Huh? I clearly need to look these categories up in more detail. (And get the new one!) 😂

I gotta admit I got lost in this one. I became comatose. (This is a compliment!)

I didn't notice when the much shorter Kaleidoscope kicked in. Like many Sissy albums in my listening thus far, this feels like one singular, grand statement. Subsequent spins might reveal the differences, but as I type, I am happily pummeled by this thing. I submit.

You win, Sissy!

Edit: Meeeh fuckit I played it twice. There is an actual second+ of silence between tracks. And Kaleidoscope does resemble a squelchier, rougher, jumpier cousin to White Car.

(Now I must lie down.)

[Minus1]

Antitheater.

97 tracks/23+min. 😂 (Even discogs doesn't list the tracks.)

Mumma/Wiese.

A 2024 release of 2021 recordings. It seems that this was recorded at many locations over 2 weeks. (Live shows? Studio? Rooms? Fields? Streets?)

I thought "Mirror Aggressor State" as soon as my old-ass CD player shockingly revealed the tracks/duration. But unlike that one, where "songs" seemed to be divvied up, this one really is playing like 97 different bits, all sequenced into a mesmerizing, thrilling whole.   

Ah fuckit...here's the official blurb:

"Sissy Spacek expands its Antipodean discography with 'Antitheater', recorded over two weeks in December 2021. Blown-out grindcore and frayed improvisations are crisped with distortion until their original forms distend and melt, chunks of noise-soaked saturations then cut into a series of short-form grotesqueries—each allocated its own CD track. Play it in sequence, or play it on random for a new listening experience each play."

Yeah, I think this is mainly from shows. I fucking adore it. I'm convinced that this is the best one yet, in my Sissython. It's absolutely fucking insane.

(I'm absolutely fucking insane: I played it thrice.)

(RYM lists the tracks! But nobody fucking reviewed it.) 😂

[Minus1]

(Interlude: I've been wondering... Did Wiese have to get permission from Sissy Spacek Herself for this name? I would love to have been in on the conversation if that happened.) 😂

Edit: I found the answer at Dazed:

DD: Why did you name the band after Sissy Spacek?
John Wiese: The combination of of those two words is really weird! It wasn't necessarily named after the actress - although she does mention us in her autobiography! She says "if you look for my music online you can't find it, but there is another band called Sissy Spacek, who probably use my name ironically." That's not true - our use of her name isn't ironic! But I thought it was funny that she mentioned it.

[Minus1]

Mechanical Abstraction.

3 tracks/69+min! 2022.

Wiese only on track 1, otherwise Goudreau/Randall/Wiese. (No Mumma! It's explained in the booklet.)

This is 3 live tracks.

It's very impressive what Wiese does solo! Merzbow would blush.

I was getting used to these short-ass EP like things with 500 tracks. But it's good to get something expansive too. Those short/sharp cut-up blasts are ice-cream. But I need my meat and potatoes!

I am quite reminded of the Merz on this solo track. Akasha Gulva's little brother. Brilliant layering of the various white and grey sheets of sound. This has a very "studio" feel. Did they fuck with it afterwards? It's epic and breath-taking. I still love the long-form stuff the most. I can get lost in these works.

Percussives enter near the end...

...Wait...fuck...I'm deep into track 2. 😂 See? I got lost! This thing is playing like a single 69min monster. Wiese somehow set it up perfectly, and I never noticed when the other two entered.

(I think The Oscars are on as I type. Grammys, Oscars...it's all quite hilarious isn't it? 😂 Our little world here is hidden from all of that "nice" stuff. If only they knew! Sissy Spacek Herself should give this a chance!)

Well, this album has (obviously!) pummelled my brain. It's fantastic. It's epic. I love the cut-up works, and, I love this - longform, dense, dynamic harsh noise, which flows like a river.

I think I detected track 3! Voice enters the maelstrom. Things do get a little more chaotic, if that's possible. But this is a cohesive, monumental, 69min work in three very related parts.

Fucking wonderful. My fav so far! 😂

***Hyperbole Alert***

This is one of the very greatest Noise albums ever made.

[Minus1]

Harm 2.

6 tracks/18+min. A 2020 (re)release of a 2013 LP / 2011 recordings.

Blankenship/Jackson/Mumma/Ronnau/Wiese.

Well now, this is different. I get Metal Machine Music vibes. A lot of guitar feedback sounds...on top of and inbetween other Noiselectronics. (See what I did there?)

Ronnau periodically shouts something deep into the mix...he's crying for help? It's hopeless!

Mumma/drums is also very hazy/fuzzy. I think I detect them. But this is a thick soup of electronics/guitar/drums/vocals/bass/tape.

I suppose 2011 is the oldest Sissy I've heard so far? The crystal clear / sharp / layered production that I love so much is somewhat missing / muddied here.

Don't get me wrong: This is fucking great. I'm loving it. I'm playing it thrice. But I know that, in my current 17-album Sissython, this is in the bottom third for me. That's how fucking great Sissy is! 😂

The official blurb mentions "An anti-fidelity swarm of hysteric helltrash..." Sure! I can get behind that! 😂

Once again I sense a cohesive (18min) piece, vice (6) distinct tracks.

Where's fucking Harm 1 then?

Edit: Oh!

https://www.discogs.com/release/3323092-Sissy-Spacek-Harm?srsltid=AfmBOopLCYu1DFte2oSx_jvb8MfiKpyQFzsJJR2B2yLOSX_SnfOW_v47

[Minus1]

Bolero Shield.

2CD!! A 2024 release of 2021-2023 recordings from mumerous locations. All live, I think.

Often Mumma/Wiese, but sometimes with parts of Blankenship/Daniel/Nace/Schmidt. And there's one Wiese solo.

CD1 = 17 tracks/53+min.

Well fuck! Here we have yet a different beast. Not just in terms of album length. But the feel/mood of this one is completely new in this Sissython. There's been a few albums where live recordings are sequenced together into a stunning concept/whole. I'm really impressed at how they've done these - be it 10sec snippets of craziness, or this album - which has some lengthy  pieces - which is some kind of spacious avant found-junk jazz...

...Initially, anyway! 😂 Things get heavier towards the CD's end. But the overall mood is retained. I know it's silly to bring in a Beatles reference, but is this Sissy's White Album? (The cover is white!) 😂

The 17min final track on this disc seems to sum up the proceedings nicely. A rough sound collage - musique concrete feel. A foggy mood throughout. It's like they are 5km away. Vice in-your-fucking-face. 😂

It's fucking brilliant and strange. I hope CD2 sustains this arc...

[Minus1]

...Bolero Shield CD2.

5 tracks/54+min.

Now, my memory might be a little fuzzy regarding the start of CD1, but I believe CD2 starts in a similar vein. The New Blockaders on shrooms. A shuffle. Snippets of jazzy bits and pieces gently floating in the air. I think Pharoah Sanders might have blushed at this. Cup of tea, anyone?

But track 2 is a more jagged / uptempo version. In fact, it's called Ascend. It does exactly that. But this disc really is a very strange and wondrous jazz affair so far.

Then shit speeds up dramatically on track 3. Mumma goes to town on drums and voice. Put that tea down!

Because after some applause, shit gets real on track 4. This ain't jazzy no more! I think both discs have this arc - although I'm brand new to this and my view of it may change - but both start gently, light, jazzy, shuffling, and track by track we gradually get to heavy, dense work. But it all seems to flow.

Yikes...cancel that! 😂 I expected the Wiese solo 18min closing track to bring us full circle - to land this plane. Fuck. No. He ups the ante considerably. This reminds me of...those 18min albums with 500 tracks. Dare I say...it seems out of place considering the previous 90min. Even though, as a standalone work, it's great. Classic noisecore/harsh/jarring Sissy. Now it's in-my-fucking-face. 😂

So this disc Ascends from start to finish!

I love this album. I'm not 100% sold on the sequencing at the end. But maybe I can learn to appreciate this decision. It might be genius!

[Minus1]

Raiser.

13 tracks/27+min. A 2025 release of 2013 recordings. Blankenship/Mumma/Wiese.

Now why the fuck did they sit on this for 12 years? Was the world just not ready for it in 2013? Have we grown bolder? Because this thing is a fucking beast. I dunno...I think it might be the most intense / hellish one yet, but of course I will revisit all of these releases and reappraise.

And this one is FUCKING LOUD!!! (I had to adjust my normal volume.)

I'm going to be incredibly lazy here and cut/paste what I found at Soundohm, because: a) This fucker fried my brain, and b) I fully agree with it. (And c) It's so much better than what I could possibly do.) 😂

"Raiser captures a 2013 Bronson session of Sissy Spacek—Phil Blankenship, Charlie Mumma, and John Wiese—in Los Angeles, channeling an intense fusion of harsh noise and noisecore. The album is a relentless, cathartic experience: shriek-laced blasts, searing electronics, and disintegrating metal fragments, all reassembled into monstrous, meticulously pieced sound collages. The result is sonic destruction made compositional, a full-spectrum assault that melts into jittery static and transformed debris.

Raiser documents a high-water mark in Sissy Spacek's ever-challenging discography—a work that crystallizes everything volatile and deeply considered in the band's approach to experimental noise. Since their inception, Sissy Spacek has been singular in pushing the limits where harsh noise, noisegrind, and electro-acoustic experimentation overlap, carving a space that is both violently physical and conceptually sophisticated. Here, the trio crafts a maelstrom of deconstructed sound: cut-up aesthetics meld with turbulent swathes of feedback, collapsing scrap metal, and abrasive lo-fi textures. Every gesture is subject to sudden rupture or dissolution—sheets of distortion jitter and squall, bass rumbles coagulate into dense fields, and electronic blurts surface through surges of hiss and decomposing signal. Scream fragments are disassembled and rebuilt in real time, locked into churns of sonic rubble with a precision that feels nearly architectural in its brutality.

Yet within this din, the record never loses grip on compositional intent. Raiser's noise is not only primal but planned—each eruption and abrasion mapped within a shifting electro-acoustic landscape, reminiscent at times of The Haters or the abstract onslaughts of Incapacitants. There's a constant sense of oncoming collapse: the music devours itself, only to reconstitute in waves of unexpected form, creating both terror and catharsis in its wake. Sissy Spacek's Raiser is a formidable entry in their catalogue, representing the band at their most uncompromising and unpredictable. For listeners drawn to the extremes of sonic art, it remains a testament to the group's commitment to pushing the boundaries of possibility in noise and improvisation."

I played it twice.

[Minus1]

Live In Hong Kong.

57 tracks/27+min. 😂

A 2023 release of 2017 recordings. Mumma/Wiese.

The first thing I noticed was a much murkier sound. I get the crowded, smokey basement feel. I've been surprised by how crisp and clear many live Sissys feel. But perhaps they went for a different sound on this one. Or perhaps the recording space/equipment was what it was.

But wait! Clearly we depart the show and do "additional recordings in HK", which leaves the murk behind, and adds quite an interesting dimension/twist to this "live album". Very collage/field/cutup. Different in nature to all the Sissy I have heard thus far.

And then we go back to the basement for more straight up Noisecore. The crowd is happy!

Mixing these two things on this CD really does paint a more complete picture of "Live In Hong Kong". We are pulled in two directions, and what's impressed upon the listener is the essence of the almighty city.

Fucking brilliant!

Still, I'll put this in bottom-third Sissy. It doesn't melt my brain, quite. The murky sounding show isn't hugely compelling, to my ears.

And strangely, 27min seems to "linger" here, whereas many other Sissydiscs of similar length just fly by. Supersonic, like.

(Or maybe my mood is all wrong tonight? I've been fucking spoiled, ok?) 😂

I played it twice.

[Minus1]

Hunter Killer.

29 tracks/13+min. 😂

A 2024 release of a 2015 recording. DuBose/Mumma/Wiese.

I'm intrigued at the many instances of excellent work sitting hidden for 10+ years. What's going on there, Sissy?

Also, I got used to the idea of 27min albums...then 18min...but 13min? (Or 7min?) 😳 Will these last two work for me? Or are they novelty items?

All I know as I type on this first spin of Hunter Killer is that I am really enjoying this intense blast of Grindcore. (Mixed with Noisecore? I'm terrible with these categories.)

I think I hear both Mumma and Du Bose "singing". Mumma is absolutely insane on drums here. I don't think I've heard him quite like this.

I got into Grindcore recently. Some great albums - Melt Banana, Pig Destroyer, Wormrot, etc.

But this one takes the fucking cake! 😂

I like queenoftension's review at Musicboards:

"I like grindcore when it pushes the boundary of just being harsh noise, and this record tears right through that boundary and then sets the boundary on fire and then pisses on the boundary's ashes."

And 13min works for me...especially when I play it 4x. 😂