OLD
Lo Flux Tube

LA RECENSIONE

From the Earache catalog, we happily dust off one of the most shocking sound products ever released on the market. It was 1991 when OLD printed this second work that at the time did not fail to arouse a certain interest among fans of the genre.

OLD's musical proposal is a dangerous mix in which suggestions from multiple sources converge: from Godflesh to the more "industrial" Voivod, from Scorn to Naked City, not to mention certain psychedelic ambitions that surface here and there. Speaking of Naked City, the comparison is anything but accidental since one of the album's most engaging tracks, the title track “Lo Flux Tube,” is enhanced by none other than the wild riffs of John Zorn's “turbo-sax,” who also lends a hand in post-production. “Who am I? Who are we? Why do we exist? I don’t know why. But in the meantime, as I wait, I will take flight, explore my mind, destroy my mind.” So sing OLD in “Disassemble,” a title that leaves no doubt about the real intentions of the American band. And so it is that end-of-millennium guitar dissonances pivot on schizoid rhythms punctuated with icy and precise ferocity by a drum machine programmed to chart impossible paths onto which distorted and nervous bass lines break with millimeter precision. Completing the whole is a piercing voice that at times, allow me the comparison, might remind one of Emperor's “In the Nightside Eclipse.” Stranger than this…

Overall a sonic experience on the edge of tolerable, irreverent and provocative, yet it retains its load of depraved irony even after years. A special mention for the artwork, an intelligent allegory of a sneering violence in multicolored shades, a violence that only similar music can exorcise. Finally, an interesting fact: bassist Jason Everman was part of Nirvana in the “Bleach” era. It is said that it was thanks to him that the record could be recorded, as he paid the recording costs out of his own pocket. In the end, he did not play on the album but was still credited. For a short period, he also played with Soundgarden. Happy disassembly…