Balf Quarry

Brain damaging noise rock. Noisy guitars, tight drumming, and extremely sensual female vocals. Mostly heavy and dark, though sometimes exposes some of the poppier undertones that characterize this type of music. Good use of samples and effects. This Brooklyn based duo channels a good dose of raw energy into ten incredible tracks. Guest appearance by Ben Chasny (Six Organs) among others. Play this! Sounds like Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore is a huge fan of this band), Religious Knives, Raccoo-oo-oon.

Picks: 1,8,2,3,6,9 *** FCCs: 9 ***

**1. Whoah! Way to open an album! Dark americana ambience, with an addition of stoner like heaviness. I love the swagger in her voice and the guitars...
*2. Another stone solid heavy tune. Good segue from first track.
*3. Short, fast, raw. Sonic Youth when they are rocking out.
4. Here's the sugary pop undertone... Doesn't fail to get weird soon enough (what else would it do with a title like "psychosomatic"?)
5. Weird percussive sound gives a sort of industrial feel to this one, but in a semi-pop way (is this even possible?). Nice one.
*6. Ominous, dark, morose. Messed up gurgling background noise (wizard wind?) Song about the dangers of gambling. Very good!
7. Noisy instrumental noodling, gets louder towards the end
**8. Fast, frantic, urgent... Raw power, sounds so much like Kim Gordon fronted Sonic Youth. Lyrics critical of the hippies.
*9. FCC shit (imperceptible). Sounds like a psyche ballad. Really nice and smooth.
10. Long and dark instrumental intro, then the vocals join in... Sounds like funeral music. Midway through piano enters and song turns into a bright little ballad (wow her voice is beautiful)... again ends in a morose tone