Hiya!
New review going online tommorow by mark at the sunday experience via losingtoday.com.
loves tmh +xxxx
We were drawn to this lot would you believe by their MS logo which is a bastardisation of Le Elvis which you can view for yourselves in the safety of your own home via ..www. myspace.com/taysidementalhealth.. - obviously the work of deranged souls, three as it happens - Mike, Claire and Stu are the reprobates responsible, who from a secret sound bunker located in Perth (the Scotland one) that’s equipped for all manner of torturous laboratory practices for extracting the extremities of sound. Of course they should in reality have been featured in these pages a lot sooner when we did our I blame the parents (yep them again - and no we ain’t on a retainer) extravaganza - alas the folks at IBTP forgot to include their single and we totally overlooked their apparent connection to the labels release roster. How best then to describe Tayside Mental Health - fuckin mental would be a good start, demented aural labotomists would be another - ultimately defying category though what they do to electronic equipment for the sake of aural art may well be questionable and indeed in some territories of the civilized world - illegal. Aside being loud, schizoid noise terrorists what sets this trio aside from the usual searing sonic surgeons currently having their work lurking in record racks labelled experimental is the sense of subtle impishness that they bring to the table, a kind of playful wilfulness which seems sadly lacking on similar outings by like minded noise niks, tracks such as the excellently named ’mosquito breeding hotline’ sound like some nightmarish Melt Banana meets BBC Radiophonic Workshop aberration - all at once threatening and quaintly creepy though loveable all the same. Likewise with ’warburzum cover’ - shoehorned with all manner of sinister slash attack motifs, screams, general unease and deranged disharmony, claustrophobia and riddled with a mental as fu** gridlocked stalking key motif that could easily have been swiped from an early Add N to X record. Mind you that’s not to say that they aren’t prone to the odd cerebral scrambling atrocity as the white out sand stormed ‘oor demons’ so ably provides - merzbow eat your heart out while ‘nerve herder’ appears for now to be edging things in the play count proceedings - pure evil drone manipulations not so dissimilar it has to be said from early career work by the Vernon Arts Lab - alas our enjoyment was a tad ruined by the fact that the track keeps cutting out. Those wanting to hear more - well lucky you because they appear to have a shed load of releases kicking about which I can tell you now we will be issuing begging letters for while those of you with sterner constitutions may do well to check out their appearance on the Self Raising Flour Hour show courtesy of Glasgow’s Sub City radio - be honest isn’t that a radio station you’d love to work for. Suspect it won’t be the last time they’ll feature here.
Mark