RECOMMENDED

Wall of d-beat/opaque single riff marathon courtesy of Mattin and drummer Drajan (Brainbombs). Apart from the sibilance of some cymbals struck throughout, this is a solid brutalist block of structured interference designed to confuse, built to make you hear things that aren’t there (detuning and some lower frequencies smear themselves in around the middle of side A), and guaranteed to anger someone in your proximity. Put this one on at a party and watch people walk into walls, and form alliances in an effort to get you to turn it the fuck off. A real conversation starter once it’s over, this is precisely what the most overused tactic in the annals of European punk needed – a record that would take its basic parts and cancel them out, a starting over point for the bored and unchallenged. However dense it is, it’s not mechanical or stiff; these are rhythms of aggression, perhaps sexual release, that need to come out one way or another, and they don’t necessarily stay static or unbent. Flip it over for nothing but incidental sounds of the studio: amp hum, stick drops, breathing, humans settling to rest; after negating d-beat, Regler then negates itself. A formula for kinetic energy is positioned against another for potential energy; a concept fulfilled. Can’t say that the record sleeve didn’t warn you, with flowcharts-as-artwork indicating the presence of power and the effects of its removal. Might be the best Mattin recording since the Billy Bao 10”; uncompromisingly realized and perfectly preserved. Edition of 200 copies; 8mm has lost their domain but you know where to find this.
(Doug Mosurock)

What do you get when you cross weirdo Spanish noiseniks Billy Bao with filthy Swedish garage sludge punks the Brainbombs (and by extension, weirdo noise rock minimalists No Balls)?? Apparently you get Regler, a twisted, extremely noisy, high concept, SUPER group, who deliver some seriously difficult listening. Two distinctly different stripes of difficult listening, in fact.
The A side, as is further evidenced by the graphical representation on the jacket, is straight up D-Beat blasting, for the entire side. That's right, furious noise drenched riffing, and frantic, relentless drumming, locked in a continuous frenzy for the entire A side, the result is by turns mesmerizing and infuriating. Folks looking for 'songs' or 'music' (why would you be looking for those on a record like this in the first place?) will definitely be disappointed, but if you're after some dense, heavily layered, modern minimalist metal, this might just push those buttons, cuz really, after a minute or two, it's easy to get lost in sound, much like the trance inducing properties of black metal, the sound here is relentless and totally hypnotic, with the sound changing subtly throughout, the sonic shifts much more dramatic once you're locked in and listening close, the drumming too, seems to phase weirdly, producing still more off kilter weirdness. Needless to say, not for everybody, but for us, we're pretty into it. and that's at 45rpm, slow it down, and suddenly it's a bit more Brainbombsy, still tranced out and repetitive, but sludgier and murkier filthier.
The flipside might even be more frustrating for most folks, the sort of thing that might have been right at home on the recent Sounds Of Silence compilation we made Record of The Week a while back, what we're assuming, is an edit of all the NON-musical elements in the recording of the A side, lots of silence, some blurts of drum freakouts, some weird chordal fadeouts, it's literally like someone grabbed the bits of tape before and after every take and edited them into a single weird near silent it of conceptual sound art. Some breathing, little bits of music here and there, lots of tape buzz and hiss, super weird, but actually very cool. Headphones are required, and then cranking the volume too (although the occasional blast of sound, might freak you out), but then if this wasn't meant to freak you out in the first place, we'd be pretty surprised.
So yeah, while we endeavor to get sufficient copies of the new Brainbombs 2lp, maybe this will tide you over. But really, it probably won't. Recommended for anyone into arty noise, modern minimalism, warped metal experimentation, field recordings, and willful sonic provocateurs of all stripes. Cool cover art, no download, and LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!

Regel #1 (White Side) is an sidelong anarcho-spiritual cacophony. It is the noise punk analogue to what Sunn0)) is to doom metal: all of the noise, dissonance and tempo of their respective genres distilled into a radical, transcendental sonic world of infinite intricacies.

Regel # 2 (Black Side) is the complete antithesis of Regel #1. It is so close to silence, that it is arguably a 4???33 remix. The are brief glimmers of drums, guitar and breathing that escape and are subsequently ensnared into the nothingness with surgical precision. The tension evoked by the silence makes side 2 a great deep listening experience on nice sound equipment. However, if I was listening to it in my car I would probably mistake it for dead air.

Reviewed by thewindow on May 9, 2014 at 3:49 pm

966 - Vital Weekly