1. The Red Box
2. Gary's Rotting Corpse [mp3]
3. Angel Dusted
4. Hassan's Rumpus Room [mp3]
5. The Acid King [mp3]
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6. Sellers
7. Blank Space
8. Aztakea Woods [mp3] |
Erik Amlee & David Gilden: Guitars, Tapes, Noise
Recorded at various locations 1989-1990
Re-issue of the 2nd CrackHouse tape released in 1990.
An auditory excursion into Satanic Drug Murder. Dense clouds of sound choke improvised noise guitar invoked during black magick rituals. Howling metal meets atonal pre-industrial grunge, dusted burnouts bark at the moon and play hymns to their Main Man. Total psycho mayhem.
REVIEWS:
Crucial Blast.com - 3/17/06
http://www.crucialblast.net/webstore/titles_c.html
"More gruesome improv from the duo of Erik Amlee and David Gilden, originally released on cassette back in 1990. This was the second CRACKHOUSE tape, a largely horrific 74 minute blast of drugged feedback, mangled acid guitar, and fried tape loops. Ricky Kasso's grisly mug stares out atcha from from the dingy grey cover of the CD sleeve, promising nothing but psychotic mayhem. Less blacklight psych and more filthy metal than their first tape, these 8 jams still latch on a scuzzy SKULLFLOWER/HENDRIX noise guitar blowout mode, albeit tempered with more proto-grunge bass-sludge riffery and some real hammering mongo-drumming propelling this freakout into the big void. Pretty crucial for anyone into BRAINBOMBS, SKULLFLOWER, COSMONAUTS HAIL SATAN, and all of that wonderful Midwestern noise damage like WOLF EYES and HAIR POLICE, although these CRACKHOUSE jams def lean more towards the LSD/psychedelic bad-vibes end of that spectrum."
Dead Angel #57 - 7/03
http://www.monotremata.com/dead/issues/da58.html
"Since it's called THE ACID KING and it has a picture of Ricky "Say You Love Satan!" Kasso (or whatever his name is) on the cover, with several titles referencing the Acid King's gruesome crime, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this is their "concept album." As concepts go, it's pretty loose, and so are the lo-fi sounds that abound on this disc -- Erik Amlee and David Gilden employ guitar, loops, and noise to create screeching, groaning piles of sonic filth that are at times reminiscent of a dirtier, noisier Beme Seed (only without Kathleen to make everything sound even vaguely human). Given that this is all about "the terrifying mind of an LSD user," it's plenty psychedelic (and a dark kind of psych at that). Bad juju and violent mood swings abound, deliberately jarring and unsettling variations in sound density and volume level jump out at you, and the pure blind noise content is sufficient in places to scare off all but the seriously devoted. Are you man (or woman) enough to enter the realm of the Acid King and return unscarred? Who knows, but it wouldn't hurt for you to find out (well, you might go deaf from all this violent crashing about, but what's life without a little risk, right?)." - RKF
Indieville.com - 7/8/02
http://www.indieville.com
"Crackhouse was a collaboration between Erik Amlee and David Gilden that took place in the late eighties and early nineties. The duo got together to record experimental soundscapes onto tape. Comprised of guitar noises and tape manipulation, they came up with a number of pieces that were later reissued on the Mandragora label. Thus, two albums were born - the first, I, and now, The Acid King.
The Acid King contains eight tracks, ranging from the (surprisingly "accessible") guitar terror of "Gary's Rotting Corpse" to the crazed sampling antics of "Hassan's Rumpus Room". While the noisy experimentalism may be a strain on the ears to those who aren't familiar with the style, those who are interested in it will find this to be a treat. Influences range from Merzbow to If, Bwana, from Mammal to MSBR, and, of course, everything in between.
My favourite piece was definitely the title-track, a haunting soundscape that slides through distorted crashes and electronic roars, constantly shifting the pitch and ringing imaginary bells. During the course of the piece, the duo show their true love for intergalactic soundscapes. It is this lust for sounds and noises that fuels Crackhouse's music. Although there's nothing accessible on The Acid King, and there certainly isn't anything remotely catchy, Amlee and Gilden excel through mood - completely abstract, yet insanely powerful noise emotions. While they aren't the next Merzbow, they're noise masters in their own right." - Matt Shimmer
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