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Brian Chippendale returns as one-man noise pop act, Black Pus. Chippendale is best known as the drummer for noise rock duo, Lightning Bolt, but this time around, the artist arms himself with a drum kit, a noise oscillator, and primal vocals. His newest release, All My Relations, is the first to be recorded in a studio, and is a follow up to a series of self-released EP’s recorded on a four-track player. The resulting album is blissfully chaotic, exposing listeners to new sounds and nauseating textures in every track.
The opener, “Marauder,” starts with Chippendale wildly beating the drums and drone singing into a reverb-induced mic. Enter the dive-bomb oscillator and meet it with ghostly vocals that hover above the music. Throw it all together and it makes for a washy, disorienting, strangely fulfilling mayhem. As expected from Chippendale, the music is always skirting the edge of insanity. Yet there seems to be a more coherent, melodic element to this music when compared to Lightning Bolt. It seems to focus more on songwriting rather than noisy energy.
Track three, “1000 Years” confirms this notion. The beat is a standard four-four, with minimal fills and messiness. Chippendale’s vocals are sing-songy, following a catchy melody. The oscillator fluctuates between fat bass tones and high-pitched screams. And the track as a whole comes off as accessible, danceable even, thrash dancing in a mosh pit perhaps, but always against a discernible beat.
Just when the album seems to be leaning mainstream, Chippendale launches rock-horror epic, “Word on the Street.” This time, the oscillator is at the forefront, drenching listeners with waves of feedback and dissonance. Tribal yelps pierce the chaos with unusual clarity, while the drumming is punchy and consistent. This track is possessed by an unyielding energy, but is also overly redundant. Listeners can only be pounded by high volumes and vulgar bass tones for so long before getting used to the patterns.
It’s important to question how different the music of Black Pus is when compared to Lightning bolt. Chippendale fills the space of bassist Brian Gibson with his oscillator, and the sounds heard from the oscillator are often quite similar to those created by Gibson’s bass. One marked difference is that the layered, harmonized vocals in Black Pus play a more prominent role in defining the music, while Chippendale’s vocals in Lightning Bolt are often distant, distorted, even humorous. But is Black Pus different enough to function as a separate entity?
Track six, “Hear no Evil,” proves Black Pus as unique enough to stand on its own. Multi-layered vocals clash and harmonize with no recognizable pattern. The oscillator covers only basic bass tones needed to drive the song. While the drumming is poppy and straightforward, it gains a clearer voice, fills space with well-measured beats within a coherent time signature. This combination of musical elements is refreshing and unique for the normally messy Chippendale, revealing that the artist can restrain and solidify his energies when he chooses to do so.
The closer “A Better Man,” is a ten-minute noise apocalypse, and while this is initially intimidating (especially considering the promised onslaught of volume and repetition) this track manages to remain engaging throughout. It has distinct sections revolving around varying oscillator patterns and purposely sloppy drumming. The oscillator is used to its full extent, snarling and shifting pitch with nauseating frequency. At a certain point, the music diverts from any semblance of order and burns up in a pit harsh noise. The track rehashes into a sludge metal breakdown, eventually drowning in its own swampy mess.
All My Relations is an album not easily forgotten. Chippendale’s drumming is furious as ever, but acts on a certain restraint when needed. The vocals are dense and expressive, and establish a unique element not often heard in Chippendale’s other work. The oscillator has its moments of greatness, but its tones are not diverse or expressive enough to act as a driving force. In many ways, Brian Gibson’s bass playing is needed to establish melody, or at the very least, a sense of musical conversation. Much of the time, Black Pus turns into something that isn’t quite music. Rather, it’s an alienating mess of noise and volume. And this is great, but placing Black Pus next to Lightning Bolt, the former is lacking in structure and voice. One the whole however, when this music does come together, it’s some of the most colorful and creative music to be heard in a while, and it’s worth returning to in the days to come.
Black Pus – All My Relations tracklist:
- “Marauder”
- “Fly on the Wall”
- “1000 Years”
- “Word on the Street”
- “All Out of Sorts”
- “Hear no Evil”
- “Nowhere to Run”
- “A Better Man”
