Record Review - 2 April 23 2003

Truncated mania and an overwhelming sense of confusion are the ties that bind this remix project. Offering an artful approach to a brutal sound, Blame Game’s grinding hardcore assault is built around moments of improvised intensity. Though the group’s indecipherable vocals and driving rhythms cloud any discernable message, the music’s general demeanor makes the band’s angst-ridden intentions plain.

But when Blame Game is jostled by the digital bump-and-grind of Airoes’ Jeph Burgoon, things stop making sense. Songs jolt to life and die without warning. Rhythms swell and screech to a halt before fully taking shape as corrosive electronic sprinkles burst from between the cracks in each song. Volume levels rise and fall as deceptive lo-fi rock excursions are consumed by blips and static. The effect is to reduce Blame Game’s recognizable parts to a quivering, sludgy mass.

Through purely electronic means, Airoes taps into many of the same energies that keep Blame Game moving along, but Burgoon is less concerned with fulfilling his hardcore obligations. As a result, any rules of conduct Blame Game may have clung to in the past are moot on these eight untitled tracks, which total a mere 17 minutes. “Harder, faster, louder” may be the m.o. for both groups as they plow headfirst into each other. But sifting through the wreckage to make sense of the senselessness is not a task for the sound of mind.

Airoes and Blame Game play The Neutron Bomb Sat., April 26.