Usurp Synapse "Disinformation Fix" 2xCD
[Alone]
This is the complete discography from this caustic and abrasive band that I suppose would be best referred to as "screamo" with a little bit of extra melody and metal on occasion. Included are six new songs that I believe were recorded specifically for this release, the band's self-titled CD EP, the "Witching Hour" 6", several compilation appearances, and their splits with Mara Akate, Hassan I Sabbah, Jerome's Dream, Index for Potential Suicide, Neil Perry, Rep Seki, and Emotion Zero. The discs are full of short tracks (generally less than two minutes) crammed with lots of frantic rhythms and layered screaming/shouting vocals, tons of wacky guitar interaction with various noisy textures and dissonant chords, a sample here and there, some goofy keyboards in the background on sparse occasions (very "hip"... sarcasm), etc. It's really nothing new. I don't have much of an opinion about it. It's not overtly annoying per se, but it's rare for anything to really strike me as above average. The six new tracks are a bit more honed and subtly melodic, which I like, but the older tracks are rawer in the recording department, and can be a bit more grindingly in your face in tempo and delivery. That being said, I'm mildly confused as to why this band received so many opportunities to release split records and such... but then again, I'm not all that into this whole scene, so I guess there are lots of kids with tight clothes and bad haircuts that eat this shit for breakfast. Most of the recordings are rugged but tolerable, with fairly even mixes and dry tones that have a lot of dirty textures and varying degrees of thickness. Of course some of the newer tracks sound cripser, while some of the older pieces are sloppier and harder to handle... but I'm generally okay with the production quality. The discs come in a simple package - a foldout digipack that's almost entirely black with some green flatlines running across it, and then there's some text listing the various band lineups, and a onecard insert that lists the tracks and what releases they came from. That's it. I guess it would be a pain in the ass to try and include lyrics for 60 songs (61 are actually present, but only 60 are listed). I don't know, if you ask me, there a ton of other bands out there that deserve double CD discographies more than Usurp Synapse, but if you're into this stuff I guess this would be a cool collection. If I try to be impartial about it, my main complaint with this collection is that it's not informative enough to be much of a retrospective document of the band, but at least all of the songs are here... (5/10)
Running time - 1:33:16, Tracks: 61
[Notable tracks: Beard of Remoras, Muscle on the Wolf, Good Luck With Your Book, Doin' the Backwards, Talk to Tucker, When Good Pets Go Bad, My Spidey Sense is Going Fucking Nuts]
Alone Records - http://www.alonerecords.com

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