Labels: CYTCYB Records – Jezus Factory Records – Triplejump Records
Review by: Laurence Olsen
Moody, low-end whale-seducing noises make up the first 3 minutes of ACKIAHK’s half of this split. Am I turned on? Maybe to the point of a semi-on. It moves towards a fairly engrossing, frizzed-out jam that, while fun, takes an age to find a purposeful bloody direction. It’d be pretty freakin’ fun if you’d just smoked a bowl with Damo, but otherwise it ain’t no great shakes.  Although when it all comes to a head it does kinda hit its stride and flashes some nice Bob Weston basslines with some grainy vocal yelps. Much fun to be had live, I’m sure, but to listen to at home it’s pretty non-descript.
Silent Front, firebrand threesome from London , make a particular racket with more than the occasional nod to Sleepytime Trio. This is no bad thing however as, like “the Sleeps”, they rock. And hard. Theirs is a choppy, dissonant brand of hardcore, which over the course of two tracks pummels its way through with a suitable urgency. More muscular and with less room to breathe than on their 4 track EP, Delete, it doesn’t quite hit the spot in the same way, perhaps due to its slightly more conservative range of dynamics. These guys sound like, and have proven, they can turn their hand to a number of differing styles within the hardcore realm so seems a pity to, in these eyes, be backtracking somewhat in terms of progressive songwriting. Having said that, this is just two songs we get. And they’re two fine songs, no doubt.