You know, in this “business” of music journalism, I have found that it's usually the “small” labels which keep coming up with rather nice surprises...and the last one on that list is this album by the South-of-France Noise-Hardcore act Stuntman, who turn out to have been around already since the autumn of 2002! The band hails from Sète, which is situated in the Herault region (Languedoc-Roussillon), and somewhere between Montpellier and Beziers.
The guys at Mandaï delved into their closets, and got some of their not too recent items out for us to appraise. One of those, was the debut full-length of experimental outfit [sic], who are not to be confused with the Hardcore/ Thrash/ Death Metal act SIC from the Faroe Islands of Iceland!.
In a further move to get rid of some older releases (see also reviews of albums by [sic], Bad Guys, Héautontimorouménos, Morse, and Daughters), Mandaï Distribution now presents us with the second full-length album by Montellier, South of Fance, Heavy Stoner Rockers Mudweiser, whom we personally came across thanks to the in-between release of the 2011 EP Drug Queens, and as the review posted 17/07 of that year is still available in our “Archive” section, I
A further catch-up movement from the part of Mandaï Distribution (very possibly, the guys got the albums only rather recently) brings us a bit closer in time with the sophomore release of Montpellier based French band Morse (not to be confused with equally French band Mörse from Lille, in the North of the country, who play a Punk-Hardcore style of music) which takes its name from the french word for walrus.
Freakin' weird name for a band, ain't it (the first 3 times you try to pronounce it, you'll probably tumble over your tongue some, but after that you'll find the word difficult to expel from your mind)? But it's got a history, seen as it is a poem of of the Spleen et Idéal part of Charles Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal. The Greek title literally translates as “one's own henchman”, and the poem reflects an emotion of solitude of its author.
This Providence, Rhode Island based band is was, or rather, is once again...one of the somewhat aberrant acts in the New England Hardcore and Noise scenes from the latter decade. Intro sounding a bit weird? Well, that's in character with the band's music and vocal approach then!
Although this Heavy Psych Rock band is based in London (England), there isn't one Londoner among its members, one being an Hungarian, another being of Canadian extract, and the two Britons in the band hailing from the South and Midlands of England.
Do not mistake this French band for any of the other acts by the same name, in fact, do also not mistake this band from the Montpellier region with the one from Lyon, who play a Wave version of a Black Metal and Punk hybrid.
Some bands can be so obscure, there's hardly any info to be found on 'em on the Internet. Here's another case.
Brooklyn based guitar-drum duo Xaddax is yet another great band in the list of stuff distributed by Mandaï (like, I daresay, most of their stuff), bringing us the band's debut full-length 10-track album which was released on the Skin Graft label back in May 2012.
