Slitch

"So Peter, Perhaps It's Not Gangrene Caught Under New Tires" CD

DarkRealm Multimedia, Inc.

Genres: experimental electronics, experimental goth

DarkRealm
PO Box 8521
Atlanta, GA 31106
USA

Feb 17 - 23 2003

Slitch's So Peter, Perhaps It's Not Gangrene Caught Under New Tires is an interesting album.  Described by their label as "somewhere between avant-garde and mutant electronica," the band construct gruesome, death-oriented tunes that fall somewhere under the experimental goth banner.  It's no surprise to hear mysterious, dark voices calling out bizarre lyrics like "Rotting corpse parade the apocalypse has passed blood smeared out of furred lips like a shower of dark water drooling at the mouth sick of skin disorder sequence despair" on a track called "Orgy Of The Dead."

The band does what they do well, I guess, although my primary concern would be how many people are actually interested in what they do.  Lots of their music is experimental to the point of being questionably listenable, and the few melodies - when there are melodies - are usually simple synth patterns that help build the mood, but become too repetitive to actually be appreciated on a higher level.  Other tunes, like "Army Of Synths" are too scattered to be enjoyed - "Army" starts off with one idea, but can't seem to stay on it, changing multiple times without concern for anything keeping the different styles together.  "Sepadriniate," meanwhile, is just a noisy sound structure that has nothing tying it together - it sounds something like a silly computer sound experiment gone wrong.  Even when Slitch finds a simple beat to tie the music together, the results seem to sound hokey - "Pig Drug," for example, has potential, but instead sounds like an amateur loop-software project using dentist drills as its source.

Altogether, Slitch's style is one that relies heavily on mood.  While this will be fine for some listeners, especially goths who are looking for simple dark, creepy music to chill out to, many audiences will likely find themselves looking for melodies that aren't there.

67%

Fun Fact: If there's one thing goth bands love to do, it's use long and obscure words and phrases.  Here are a few of the ones that Slitch use:
prevaricate: to deviate from the truth
obscurant: tending to make obscure
rancor: bitter deep-seated ill will
quid pro quo: something given or received for something else

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 15 songs, distributed by CD Baby, released 2001]