Following up the surprise critical hit that was Soft-Bodied Humans’ debut EP - Kaiju Kitala, a collaboration with Ugandan MC Swordman Kitala - are the next two instalments in a planned series.
Like Kaiju Kitala, the new EPs – Silver Kaiju, a collaboration with art-pop auteur Silver Pyre; and Kaiju Growls, which features one-man extreme-metal army Abysmal Growls of Despair – use samples from vintage Japanese monster movies as the building blocks of a sort of abrasive, psychedelic not-quite grime.
On the Silver Kaiju side of this tape, Silver Pyre sounds like a post-punk seer, propelled by sub-bass explosions and riding crests of synths, cruising through a cosmos of his own imagination and reporting in detail on the myriad truths he’s uncovered there.
On the Kaiju Growls side, Abysmal Growl of Despair’s throat-singing incantations sound like he’s summoning smoke-wreathed Lovecraftian kaiju into being from a surreal dimension of weird gods.
Neck-snapping beats and pulverising, searching drones create a musical space that sometimes verges on a sort of industrial doom-gqom. In this universe, nothing moves quite like it’s supposed to. Monsters might be real. They might be us.
Praise for Soft-Bodied Humans
“Samples of Japanese monster films and unmatchable lyrical prowess accompany infectiously energetic instrumentals.” – The Wire
“Fuck-the-club up mid-00s grime riffs and late-00s dubstep kickdrums that gobble up all the
air in the room” – The Quietus
“Just like the kaiju that inspired them, these beats clang and scrape when they don’t rock the earth beneath their feet, blazing like towering infernos at the mercy of the gigantic beasts whose presence is clear in the snippets of newsreel that occasionally force their way through the maelstrom.” – Underscore Magazine
“Wonky, acerbic, bass-heavy hip-hop” – Pan African Music
“Kaiju Kitala is an impactful take on the 00s UK grime and bass sound which allows Swordman Kitala to introduce his flexing, argumentative flow in an appropriately gritty way. The splashy, fleshy, and full-body production, which partially lends Kitala his strength on this release, was bred and released by the capable bass-demon tamer Soft-Bodied Humans.” – I Thought I Heard A Sound
“A gnarly volley of industrial grime rap infused with Japanese monster movie samples” – Boomkat
Praise for Abysmal Growls of Despair
“It’s immensely heavy - the level of distortion applied to the string instruments is extreme enough to vibrate buildings into dust despite how glacially slow the notes crawl forth. The vocals also give new meaning to the term ‘cavernous’.” - No Clean Singing
“When one is at a loss for rational words to describe inner turmoil, music is often the most adequate outlet for expression. Hangsvart was diagnosed with schizophrenia a couple of years ago, and after having heard his diagnosis, he started to write poems and create songs to come to terms with his illness. Since 2013, Abysmal Growls of Despair has been his primary outlet for alleviating the negativity surrounding that diagnosis, through which he focuses on a mixture of funeral doom and dark ambient.” - Heathen Harvest
“This is not happy music but it is magnificent.” - Merchants of Air
“Abysmal Growls Of Despair dwell in a dimension that isn’t meant for the ‘average’ listener (or musician), but within their specific league, thy are winners! Consider it as a ‘me like’…” - Concrete Web
“Pretty devastating.” - Doom Metal Heaven
“I can’t find anything emotionally positive in this music.” - Monarch Magazine
“With a name like ABYSMAL GROWLS OF DESPAIR you can bet your sweet ass that this isn’t going to be a hair band of any kind.” - Battle Helm
credits
released May 15, 2022
Tracks 1-6
Silver Kaiju EP
Music and instruments: David McNamee
Words, vocals, editing and mixing: Gary Fawle
Mastering: Angel Marcloid
Tracks 7-9
Kaiju Growls EP
Music and instruments: David McNamee
Words, vocals and mixing: Hangsvart
Mastering: Angel Marcloid
For more than 10 years, Blue Tapes has curated a numbered series of releases emphasising different aspects of minimal music -
from grime to gugak, American primitivism to Japanese ambient - presented with appropriately minimal and often abstract cyanotype artwork....more
supported by 7 fans who also own “blue forty-five”
During the final days of writing my thesis I listened to this album on repeat for hours at a time. It was like being suspended in one eternal moment while all that changed around me were the ripples and eddies of a slowly meandering river. catharina_bee
A stellar compilation featuring shoegaze and indie favorites like Drowse, Midwife, and Mount Eerie benefitting Project Onward in Chicago. Bandcamp New & Notable May 11, 2023
