(written by Islander)
If the Russian maniacs in Byonoisegenerator churned out records at the usual velocity of their music, they’d have released about 1,000 albums by now. But the pace of their releases has been much slower. First came Turbulent Biogenesis in 2015 (available here), then Neuromechanica in 2018 (reviewed here at our site), and now, seven years later, we’re going to get a third album, Subnormal Dives. It’s set for discharge on June 13th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
That seven-year wait means that many (most?) people trespassing on our site today will likely have no idea what they’re about to hear. This is a good thing. Being unprepared for what Byonoisegenerator are doing now makes it more likely that listeners’ heads will explode, and it’s fun to imagine that.
Some people do have an idea, because Byonoisegenerator released a video single about a year ago (a song named “5mgInspiredVibes” that’s included as a bonus track on the new record), and more recently Transcending Obscurity has released two other songs from Subnormal Dives. Today we’ve bringing a third one, “UVB-76“.
In addition to providing those previous bursts of bamboozling sound, T.O. has provided a linguistic preview, excerpted here:
“The music is highly intricate, even technical, and despite the short length of the songs, it might require multiple listens for it to be fully deciphered and for the unsuspecting listeners to get its odd appeal. They’ve used the free-style spirit to concoct music that’s outstanding…. [T]hey’ve been able to masterfully meld the seemingly contradictory influences and have created songs that are more than just ideas, with each having their own identity and charm.”
What are those “contradictory influences”? Well, as you’re about to discover if you don’t already know, Byonoisegenerator have concocted a freakish form of brutalizing and mathy deathgrind and then further mutated that with the contributions of a jazz saxophonist (augmented with jazzy rhythm-section work). The results are both discombobulating and dazzling.
With the snap of a finger, or more like the fast opening and closing of a teleportation portal, “UVB-76” whips listeners back and forth between an alien warzone and a smoky jazz lounge.
The warzone episodes are violently berserk — breathtakingly fast, bizarre in their intricacies, disorienting in their collage of dissonant and devastating tones, indeed like a cacophonous conflict among hyper-accelerated cyber-enhanced inhuman combatants. The drums fire like automatic weaponry in unpredictable bursts; other instruments maniacally scream and screech, bludgeon and clang; and furious death growls bark just as fast.
But without warning (except you’ve already been warned), the saxophone starts dreamily weaving and warbling, accompanied by a groovy bass and what seems to be a xylophone. The second time this happens, the saxophone phases from dreaminess into dementia.
It’s one thing to hear this kind of mind-blowing spectacle, it’s another to see the band actually doing it, despite the disappointment of realizing they’re actually not from another planet. So, watch these videos (the second one might be risky for people with photosensitive epilepsy):
BYONOISEGENERATOR:
Tim – Vox
Hal° – Guitar
M1t – Bass
Sh3la – Saxophone
NOx – Drums
Subnormal Dives includes not only 9 new songs and the bonus track mentioned above but also all the songs from the band’s last release, Neuromechanica (they appear as tracks 11-20 on the new album). It features crazy cover art by Dmitry Rogatnev, and T.O. will release it in every imaginable format along with apparel and other merch.
As a further inducement, we’ve included the other previously released song (“Eb(D#)“) below the links.
PRE-ORDER:
https://byonoisegenerator-label.bandcamp.com/album/subnormal-dives
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
BYONOISEGENERATOR:
http://facebook.com/byonoisegenerator