An intense and thoroughly out-there split from two Japanese bands. Granule start with a collage of mumbles and noise before tumbling into a mix of huge, lumbering riffs, caustic vocals and eyeball-rupturing feedback. While the guitar parts and crumpled bass lines make a rough sort of sense, there’s a strange quality at the sound’s periphery that lends things a funny vibe – kinda like how your vision might start to crinkle and glimmer at the edges to warn you of an impending migraine. Friendship, Corrupted and Su19b all spring to mind, and their half of the cover reminds me of something that Sloth might perpetrate. Klonns are easier to understand if not easier on the ear, scything through two tracks (three, if you count the ambient intro) that whisk together feral black metal and the dirty, antisocial hardcore of a band like Dead In The Dirt. All in all it’s some pretty great stuff, and I’d be more than keen to hear either band tear through something a bit longer in duration.
