Viking's Choice: Post-Apocalyptic House, Big Twinkle Energy, Binary Code Metal

By Lars Gotrich

Published August 27, 2019 at 11:10 AM EDT

The slamming brutal death metal of 01101111011101100110111001101001 — that's binary for "ovni," or UFO — will make your gut drop.

Viking's Choice prides itself on playlists that zonk instead of zag. A good mix should be a journey, like a troll-y recipe video that shreds, bakes, sauces, layers, cheeses, chills, slices, breads, fries, sauces again, tops with cheese and pepperoni, grills, and sauces a dang third time making a Rube Goldberg machine of a deep-fried pizza. (Best not to think about it too hard.)

This week, we begin with Zonal's creeping metallic dub — a new project from Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (The Bug, King Midas Sound) — featuring Moor Mother. DAWN's robotic pop ballad "Forget About Me / Visions" segues into Eartheater's "High Tide," a hypnagogic vision of a trap-Enya. Ducts' "Carhatt" is a shambling blues howl worthy of The Afghan Whigs' most down-trodden don't-call-it-grunge distorted soul, and a promising trajectory for The Laughing Man's Brandon Moses. Oh, and eccentric YouTube star/pop singer Poppy apparently got into Babymetal and the punch-me-in-the-face discourse: to wit, "Bury me six feet deep / Cover me in concrete / Turn me into a street." (Again, best not to think about it too hard.)

Meanwhile, I'm over here saucin' some primo slices found on Bandcamp. (Note: Some of these tracks can only be found on Bandcamp.)

Moor Mother, "After Images"

"After Images" — the throbbing first single from Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes — is a post-apocalyptic house banger, bedded with destructo synths and old spirituals. Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh) provides the ominous guest production as Moor Mother's Camae Ayewa, an enthralling spoken-word artist and adventurous musician, warns, "After they come after me, they're gonna come for you."

Knocked Loose, "Trapped in the Grasp of a Memory"

Genetically-engineered hardcore to make you lose your mind in the mosh pit. Slayer, Entombed and Botch fans need apply, but this has some next-level spin-kick heft.

Overo, "Pact"

Now this sets my emo heart aflame with big twinkle energy. Overo features members of Perfect Future and personal favorite Football, etc., channeling the heavy, interlocking guitar histrionics of Indian Summer and Dahlia Seed with a yelping screamer and a melodic singer.

Leo Svirsky, "Rain, Rivers, Forest, Corn, Wind, Sand"

Leo Svirsky's piano-based compositions illuminate Heraclitus' oft-repeated phrase: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." Its endlessness ripples through the meditative torrent of life, ever-moving, ever-changing.

Ripper, "The Unreal"

All hail the hulking space-thrash of Chile's Ripper! Ugly, technical and revved to the cosmos of hell.

Vastum, "Reveries in Autophagia"

[Extremely Will Ferrell-as-Harry-Caray voice] Hey, if you were a death-metal hot dog with autophagia, would you eat yourself?

E L U C I D, "Spiderz"

Hotel-made instrumentals from the Afrofuturist rapper/producer that paint a fractured and splattered vision that floats skyward.

HAVE A NICE LIFE, "Sea of Worry"

HAVE A NICE LIFE's bleak and stylish post-punk sets a creeping unease to the happy-go-lucky drum beat from That Thing You Do!, with a helluva opening line: "If the soul survives / like I do every summer / and I'm still a f****** bummer?"

01101111011101100110111001101001, "LHA 120-N55"

I don't know if the Argentine death-metal band (of the slamming brutal varietal) intentionally blows out the production during its nastiest moments, but my gut drops below sea level every time. In case you're wondering, 01101111011101100110111001101001 in binary code means "ovni," which is the English equivalent of UFO.