Label Spotlight: Killer Pimp

Label Spotlight is another new thing on Jukebox Heart. This is a place to celebrate the labels whose oeuvre has been transformational. These will include labels from the past and those currently in operation. Jukebox Heart will select representative tracks from the label’s catalog and present a full length mix, with a little back story as well.

[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/labelspotlight/killerpimp/KillerPimp2.mp3]
66.6 MB | 66.6 minutes

Starting off Label Spotlight on Jukebox Heart is the Killer Pimp imprint from Boston. Run by Brainwashed.com genius Jon Whitney, Killer Pimp is a separate beast from Jon’s Brainwashed activity. Killer Pimp offers up some of the most aggressive and low-punching music ever, and yet all of it has an engaging intellectual element which sets it all apart from literally everything else. Jukebox Heart has selected single tracks from the majority of the Killer Pimp catalog and pulled them all together as an hour-plus mix for you. Click on the arrow above to hear it.

Also included at the top of the page are four videos from artists appearing on Killer Pimp. These are outside of the Killer Pimp catalog, and presented as a sidebar to this podcast.

Killer Pimp embraces aggression.

Adjectives to describe music of Killer Pimp:
Intense, obscene, unavoidable, unlubricated, unapologetic, caustic, pungent, degenerate, virulent, severe, carcinogenic, corrosive, salacious, fetishable, toxic, chalky, venemous.

Killer Pimp says:
[There is a sea of mediocrity out there we will not be part of.]

Jon has done an amazing job of documenting his releases on http://www.killerpimp.com, so I’ll just include some capsule impressions, all below the cut. Make sure you visit the Killer Pimp site, and keep him in business for a long long time by buying something.

Playlist:

Ulterior “15”
A Place To Bury Strangers “Missing You”
Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words “This Room Seems Empty Without You”
Lithops “Mound Magnet, Part 1” remixed by The Allophons
Noise/Girl “Discopathology” Fit To Screen remix by Jukebox Heart
Soundpool “Makes No Sense”
Aiden Baker & Thisquietarmy “Negative Space”
All The Saints “Shadow, Shadow” & “Sheffield”
Ceremony “Leave Alone”
Envenomist “The Eleventh Hour”
Blood Money “Damascus”
Scratoa! “IX”

Images, links and more info below the cut.

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Ulterior “15”
(Kempers Heads – PIMPK008 CD 2009)

Ulterior has been described as “the ultimate return of cool”, a steaming cocktail of two parts Sisters of Mercy, one part ’80s-era Killing Joke and one part Gary Numan [circa Replicas]. I’ll let you decide for yourself, but here’s a hint: I wouldn’t have mentioned all that if I didn’t agree. Heavy drum machines and the driving beat of late 80’s post-industrial, this has as much in common with Roy Orbison as it does with anything Wax Trax ever dreamed of. This CD compiles earlier UK only 12″ singles, and I thought “15” would be great to open this up with.

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A Place To Bury Strangers “Missing You”
(A Place To Bury Strangers – PIMPK004 CD 2007)

I hate the fact that whenever you mention this band to anyone, the immediate response is the media tag “oh yeah, The Loudest Band In New York.” OK, so that in itself is no small feat, but it would suggest loud-for-the-sake-of-loud, and that is just a gross injustice. This band rocks, OK, that’s undeniable. But the volume is one variable of a much more complicated formula. Think of the fury of Sink Manhattan, the snot-nosed wit of the Nightingales, and the passion of Missing Foundation, who, just this once, have allowed My Bloody Valentine to do their makeup and lighting. 😉

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Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words “This Room Seems Empty Without You”
(Lost in Reflections – PIMPK010 CD 2008)

This is some of the most beautiful experimental music I’ve heard, and I’ve listened to a LOT of beautiful experimental music. It is but one name used to host the work of Thomas Ekelund, and his entire body of work is astounding. Thomas tells us through various interviews that he has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, and goes on to describe the isolation he experiences as a result, and how he never looks into mirrors. So it is not surprising that the artwork, designed by Thomas, brings to mind being in a house of mirrors with all of the mirrors replaced by backdrops of black. The image repeats just as the multiple reflections would, but each image of the man appears to have his eyes averted from each of the others. Just gorgeous.

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Lithops “Mound Magnet, Part 1” remixed by The Allophons
(Mound Magnet Pt. 2: Elevations Above Sea Level – PIMPK006 CD 2008)

Every time Jan St. Werner open his virtual electronic mouth, he speaks in tongues even the Apostles wouldn’t recognize as god-sent. But don’t fret. The fact that your faith isn’t strong enough to recognize that either is simply not the point. The flames atop his head are more like those cheap wire-based flickering votive lights at church, where you drop in a quarter and push down the button to light a phony candle that is always safe and will never burn down your cathedral. Or maybe it will, if you fake the lights out just right and make them do things they weren’t designed to do. I know if *I* were a pastor, I wouldn’t sleep easy knowing he was planning a visit to *my* parish…

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Noise/Girl “Discopathology” Fit To Screen remix by Jukebox Heart
(Discopathology – PIMPK002 cd 2005)

Oh my fucking GAWD. Just…Yes. And the cover art? Perfect. I selected this particular track for the sheer overdrive and over[the-top powerful vocal treatment, which makes Courtney Love look like Sister Angelica. Absolutely Appalling. Essential.

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Soundpool “Makes No Sense”
(B Side Vinyl 7″ – PIMPK014 2010)

When acclaimed musician Ulrich Schnauss declares Soundpool as “The best fucking band in the world!” what then is there left to say? Both songs are from their album “Mirrors In Your Eyes”, their third full length, and the first for Killer Pimp. Of course, the fact that Killer Pimp has issued these two perfect songs on 45, and has designed the 45 to be absolutely classic looking, this is just sublime.

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Aidan Baker & Thisquietarmy “Negative Space”
(A Picture is a Picture – PIMPK009 CD 2009)

This is not drone. These are the microsounds of breathing, up close and personal, when the breath escapes the body and the body gathers fresh oxygen to repeat the cycle. Magic.

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All The Saints “Shadow, Shadow” & “Sheffield”
(Fire on Corridor X – PIMPK005 cd 2008)

What I like most bout All The Saints is their ability to find balance in the thick density of their sound. They are like a controlled burn used to contain their own wildfire, a boom to contain their own free-flowing spill. Did someone say this was a debut?

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Ceremony “Leave Alone”
(A Side Vinyl 7″ – PIMPK013 2010)

Perfect. And how else could you improve on perfection but by providing a limited (60 copies) handmade cover for the single, made by the band. The two tracks on this seven inch are not included on the band’s newly released full length LP or CD, making this all the more necessary. It’s brilliant. It’s exhilarating. It’s shoe-gazey, but only if you’re wearing a big muthafuckin pair of Wescos. It’s jangly, but only if your guitar is strung with barbed wire. It’s electro, but then, so is the freakin Hoover Dam. Like I already said, perfect.

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Envenomist “The Eleventh Hour”
(The Helix – PIMPK007 CD 2009)

This is reminding me of the better moments of latter day Maurizio Bianchi, after he recovered from Colori and reconvened with his dark side. The analog synth sound adds an early 70’s Sky Records influence to this as well.
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Blood Money “Damascus”
(Blood Brotherhood – PIMPK011 CD 2009)

This is, perhaps, the most challenging stuff on the label. Not because of any kind of sheer sonic attack, which by now you’ve almost certainly come to expect when anyone says “challenging” in regard to any kind of noise music. We’ve all had our share of endurance tests by now, and they are hardly challenging anymore. Instead, with clear compositional (*not* cultural) references to early Power Electronics, the band embraces an aesthetic similar to the early Jim O’Rourke solo works, where wavefront after wavefront of growing tension build slowly into a precarious and imminent threat and eventually, thankfully culminate in a freefall release. As these mechanized sonic devices back you into a corner, the vocals inject you with a paralyzing venom. You have no place to go, and no way to get there anyway, so just kneel down, asshole, and enjoy the ride.

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Scratoa! “IX”
(Live En San Anton – PIMPK012 CD 2010)

You know the list. Everyone does. It’s that list of obscure artists that was included in the earliest Nurse With Wound records that set off a wave of collectors scurrying to find them all. (Were all of them even real? Stapleton says he invented many of them, Fothergill says he’s lying!) Nevermind that. I’ve been making my own list, for that fateful day I release my own first record. Of course, that is becoming less and less likely with each trip around the sun. But no matter, that list is what matters in this discussion, and it now officially contains this recording. It’s not because it is particularly original. It’s not. If you’ve been listening to this music for the past 30 years, you’ll agree. It’s not because it is especially engaging. But it is endearing, and there are moments of brilliance throughout, but there are also temptations to fast-forward through the obligatory metal-scraping-sounding parts as well. But the entire experience, from first glance at the neo-surreal cover, to unfolding the jacket to reveal a brilliant narrative triptych of imagery set off by stark whitespace and utilitarian typesetting, all credited to Marc Nguyen Tan, really sets you up for very relevant and enjoyable experience overall. Live en San Anton is the product of three days of improvised music performed by Marc Nguyen Tan, of Colder fame, and Guillaume Ollendorff recorded in the barrio San Anton, in Spain in 2008. Marck and Guillaume go back eons, apparently, and share a lot of life experiences. Guillaume has even contributed to Colder, but until now, the two have never collaborated on this level. If you were expecting the next big Colder thing…LOL; I only wish I was to see the look on your face when you popped this in your boom box!