Both bands are way past their 5-year marks, the first has slogged its way deeper into the mines of metal-tinged cacophony while the second has wound its way erratically along the shores of freaked-up sci-fi shrouded electro-rock.
--> Listen: Child Bite - "Smear Where The Face Was"
Child Bite ride a banshee-clawed rollercoaster into the animal midnight, scraping out tones from their guitar(s) and their voices that sound like feasible field recordings from exorcisms. Not that it’s demonic – in fact, as is their signature, they’re able to make the menacing sound so melodic and thus palatable, even pleasing.
They dig minor tones and they bend the shit out of em and that bass drum never stops rolling and those drums will snap your neck if you try keeping in perfect synchronized bob-and-step. That’s the fun of it. Monomania may be their darkest work, in spots, but their strength has always been their energy, hook-dotted, almost-anthemic, but squalls of stridency.
Terrible Twos, meanwhile, are clearing the vaults – and it’s quite a treat for those who have followed this quintet (long on the vanguard of Detroit’s punk renaissance), as majority of their releases have come, fleetingly, in limited edition 7” vinyl sleeves. For many of us, there will be some first listens, not even counting the pair of previously unreleased tracks.
So, this is a bit more valuable than your average retrospective / best-of – and the proofs in the way these 20 tracks display their breadth, experimenting with psychedelic rock, surfy-soaring melodies and a few angular, jittery post-punk jams – though, yes, much of it is keyed-up as hell and belted through throaty, raspy howls. Release some tension – whether you knew you had any or not – these albums will, invigoratingly, unhinge you.
Stream some Twos songs here, via Gold Tapes site
?
-Child Bite performs at the Old Miami on March 30th to mark Monomania's release.
