Labels: self released
Review by: Danny Parsons
I swear, opening the sleeve to this records, I felt like a kid at shitting Christmas. All manner of goodies fell out on to my lap. There’s a dvd of tour footage, a few inserts, a poster and the cover’s all shiny and stenciled. Then the record….*sob*. This whacking great slap of clear vinyl all covered in pictures of horses and only one side of it’s got effing songs on, and it’s A TWELVE INCH. What a waste. Anyhoo, the first band on the split is Moldar and I had heard and enjoyed their last five songs on a cdr a while ago. The track featured on this release is some sort of live re-hash by the sounds of it, and it doesn’t sounds half as good as I wished it would. It’s a long, drawn-out affair and sounds an itsy bit like City of Caterpillar. HOWEVER, there’s this noise on the vinyl that rings out almost as loud as the instruments themselves; I shit you not, it sounds like glass being crushed. I mean, it’s not surface noise or anything, they’ve actually put this in there on purpose for cris’sakes. Horrible. So, the Matsuri side is a tad reminiscent of Hot Cross or something similar, but also of Moldar funnily enough! They share the same members apparently. Their song is nigh on the five minute mark too and gets progressively better as it goes on with this awesome pounding instrumental bit at the end. If you like ‘aesthetics’ or are massive on either of these bands then you should buy this; these kids are obviously into their DIY big-time, but, as much as I quite like the bands, the recording sucks. It’s a total shame since this is Moldar’s last release too. What a downer.