Wicked Crafts / Braindamage – Split 7”
This most unlikely union could only come from somewhere like the pleasingly obscure Skrot Up stable. Geographically diverse, Montréal’s Wicked Crafts and Sweden’s Braindamage make for strange bedfellows in many ways, yet this split, their shared progeny, shows the same omnipresent appreciation for sound as does their anything-goes label. Happily, quality control also remains on form for this release.
The cavalier bass that prowls through Wicked Crafts’ morsel “Geraldine (Curse Of The Wicked Crafts)” does most of the track’s talking, albeit buried beneath tinny recording. From there, the band’s perverted, black-hearted surf-garage simmers menacingly in its own narcotic fug to dangerous effect.
On the flip, and sounding for all the world like soon-to-be tastemakers, Braindamage ply a fizzy run of static-filled synth squelches on their “Hot Pachuco Love”. They suggest at the recent 80s Italo-disco retrospective of Heartbreak , while elsewhere we find waves of DAF -like minimalism and healthy doses of glitch that make the heart sing.
It would appear then, as I’m sure you already know, that strange bedfellows can good times make.
~The fine split 7” is limited to a run of 200 and is out now via Skrot Up.~