Does noise have a heart? Whatever.
Netlabel Garbage Men Puking has churned out over two hundred releases of obscure noise/experimental music for nearly a year. Some of it’s probably brilliant. Some of it’s probably forgettable. All GMP is doing is giving it the platform it needs.
2015 Is Puke’s nearly three hour-long running time celebrates 52 weeks with 52 tracks, cut from some of the label’s “stars”, and some newcomers. This compilation simply aims to celebrate GMP’s reign during the year of 2014, with sounds that are both familiar and daunting.
Most GMP compilations prefer to disgust you from the get-go, so it’s refreshing to hear
2015 Is Puke' open up with a distorted sample from the Adult Swim show Space Ghost Coast To Coast (Corporation Liquid’s “Fagus Longipetiolata”) before segueing into a chilled out trip-hop beat reminiscent of
J Dilla’s more sombre stuff (GrAze’s “After You”). The horror then comes with Chemikálie’s “Piss Vomit”, four minutes of bubbling under the surface, murkiness and brooding.
Apex’s “Dead Men (TNT)” features nihilistic rapping over jungle beats. The Power Of Hot Iron Rods’ “Asmus Tietchens Music For Your Favorite Character” displaces odd muzak sounds over TV static. Release The Goddamn Tape’s “Cutting Daniel” takes clear influence from
Flying Lotus’ otherworldly sounds. Industrial Steve’s “Legalize Medicinal Steve” occasionally allows the sample of
Danny Brown rapping to breathe before drowning it in oppressive power electronics and machine gun effects.
What makes Garbage Men Puking is the anonymity all of its artists fall under, a massive obscure cloud where odd sounds blink and fidget for extended periods of time. Tracks start, tracks finish, sometimes you notice, sometimes you don’t. It all becomes a singular, yet constantly warping, experience. What
2015 Is Puke aims to do is simply make this the most daunting experience yet from the label. It’s 2 hours 37 minutes running time both breezes by, and takes forever. As Herr Schmidt Hat Krach’s appropriately titled “Hell Will Hold No Surprises For Us” ends with its cavernous, rumbling bass, you leave perhaps not a changed person, but at least a little different.
