Mywomanmywomanmyslave by KORPERSCHWACHE

Going back to the mid-90's, the obscure Austin, TX outfit Korperschwache (German for "organic decay") has issued a steady stream of releases into the deep underground that showcased a distinctive sound sitting at the strange nexus between the early UK noise rock scene, the skull-rupturing power of Japan's more extremist noise artists, the massive gravitational pull of the formless guitar crush of bands like Earth and the Melvins at their most art-damaged, and, in more recent years, a filthy, blackened, low-fidelity underbelly that hints at the mutated black metal of bands like Abruptum, Necrofrost, and Vondur. From the beginning, Korperschwache has consisted of mastermind RKF on guitar, noise and vocals, assisted by the loyal mechanical timekeeping of Doktor Omega and occasionally joined by outside contributors. Korperschwache first took form as a side project of RKF's droning industrial rock band Autodidact, but became a primary concern soon thereafter, releasing a steady stream of releases over the years on cassette, Cd-r and digital download on labels like Peasant Magik, Inam Records, Colony, Dark Winter Moon, Public Guilt, Cut Hands and our own sub-label Crucial Bliss, to name a few, usually in extremely limited editions made available to the band's small but loyal cult of followers. The majority of these older releases have long been out of print, especially the extremely limited cassette releases from the early days of the band; a longtime Korperschwache fan, I myself never had an opportunity to get my hands on those early tapes, which featured some of Korper's harshest noise-based material.

Now, in conjunction with the brand new Korperschwache album Evil Walks that has just come out on Crucial Blast, we've assembled a series of reissues of early Korperschwache releases, some of which have never been heard by anyone outside of the band's immediate circle. The early cassette releases that have been excavated here are very different from Korperschwache's newer Loop-meets-Abruptum industrial blackpsych sound, many centering around brutal, high-volume noise assaults heavily influenced by both classic UK power electronics (Whitehouse, Ramleh, etc) and Japanese harsh noise (Merzbow, Masonna, Incapacitants, Contagious Orgasm). The later releases from this period began to creep into more guitar-focused dronepower and hypnotic amplifier bludgeon, with material like that of Night Country Fog (Korperschwache's previously unreleased collaboration with Smolken of Polish avant black metal/doom folk band Dead Raven Choir) beginning to direct the sound into the often melodic, always twisted psychedelic heaviness of it's current incarnation.

The 1997 cassette Mywomanmywomanmyslave was released on the industrial/noise label Castrated Tapes, and contained nine tracks of loop heavy industrial doom-guitar and walls of abrasive noise, ranking it as one of the darkest and heaviest of Korpers late '90s tape title. From howling maelstroms of harsh noise, roaring distorted walls, psychedelic electronics and locomotive guitar-grind loops to brief passages of pounding drum machine rhythms and sped-up chipmunk pop music warped and stretched and run backwards, Mywoman blasts off into vicious storms of apocalyptic noise. On the heavier tracks like "Thrown to the wolves", Korperschwache creeps through industrial doom dirges with Skullflower-esque guitars lurking beneath the hiss and grind of pneumatic presses and buzzing halogen lights, while pieces like "Sand Storm" and "Rats In The Sewer" feature phased electronic drones and horrific screeching noisescapes and looped black ambiance. Rumbling machine noise combines with melodious guitar ambiance on "catastrophic Swarm", and "Spirochete" sculpts an Earth-style slab of disembodied sludge metal guitar and sends it floating through clouds of volcanic ash and sputtering magma, with eerie feedback keening in the distance, all of these sounds gradually melting down into a rumbling, spiraling mass of super heavy drone noise. The bonus track that has been added to the album is titled "Sinister Maggot", and ends it with the constant deathpulse of an iron lung heaving within a blizzard of static.

Crucial Blast is an independent underground label, online shop, and small press specializing in cutting edge, weird, and experimental heavy music and related cultural artifacts, with a particular focus on blackened avant-metal, nihilistic noise/industrial, dark ambiance, infernal psychedelia, hardcore improv/free-jazz, and experimental horror film / literature.

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