about this shit band's 2009 demo, and some links to better things

REVIEWS:

ATOMÇK

NEWS 2010 We just added veteran Czech-core drummer Marzenna; finally pulling us out of being some drummachine band and into the new vista of reality that is just being an unpopular band.

Atomçk are a duo from South Wales who, since 2006, have made fast and intense and scarcely comprehensible music, before going out and performing it to audiences in whichever venues will accommodate them. Some magazines’ reviews have a bit that says FOR FANS OF: and then some bands. If you are a reviewer, or hold some other position that might compel you to write fancypants sentences about music for an inspecific public, you can steal these with no threat of repercussion from me: Agoraphobic Nosebleed, The Locust, Man Is The Bastard, Coalesce, Today Is The Day, Slayer, Pig Destroyer. Grind and sludge and neo-noisecore and unabashed thrash guitar wail and electronics. Those last two sentences go out to the skimreading crew. Alright! Let’s tackle specifics.

They are called Linus (short hair) and Luke (long hair) and their backgrounds are in noise, metal and experimenting. Sometimes they are joined by a couple of friends called Lt Meat and Dr Age, who are both keen to make things odder and more digital, which they achieve. Live, Atomçk are a banner ad for minimalism in metal: lurching guitar heroics (yes, HEROICS), a drum machine sweating blood somewhere behind them, Linus rolling around on the floor and making like he’s going to choke himself with a mic lead. It’s best when they play in small spaces, as people have less chance to inch backwards. It’s good when they play in larger spaces as well, and make an absurdity of the rolling expanses in front of them by darting around them like a pigeon that’s got in via an air vent.

Where rafts of electronically-augmented grind ensembles attempt shock and awe via schlock and gore, Atomçk pleasingly take the high road – hinting at and prodding towards matters cold-sweaty and unsavoury, instead of songtitles that read like Fred and Rose West’s pillow talk. Of the collection of songs concerning us here, the shortest song is 19 seconds long and the longest one minute and 19 seconds long, although their dedication to brevity is sometimes upturned by long, slow-riffing sludgy epics.

Another thing to note: these songs sound like they deserve to. Digital grindcore is a micro-genre that’s swelled in numbers over the last few years; a lot of it is recorded in pokey bedrooms, as per the DIY nature of the enterprise, and uploaded straight to Myspace. All well and good, but this inevitably means a dilution or reduction of what the creator wants to achieve. The two Atomçk fellows, while from fairly lo-fi origins – and certainly not working in 48-track studios at this point –have taken pains here to ensure that their really quite badass future-grind jams get something like the sonic showcase they warrant. It sounds like the real deal and it sounds like it’s ready to start asserting itself when it’s given the signal, or quite possibly before.

Noel Gardner

STUFF:

Cementimental

Spider Kitten

Sharp Noodle Recordings

Zonderhoof

Team Brick

Ghast