Us local kids would spend a lot of time constructing dangerously unsafe fortresses in the slimy trees that sprouted over the stream from it's ochre banks.
But there was this one tree.
Must have been dead straight going up the trunk for about 20 feet and then the tree suddenly fanned out, and sat there in that bristled crown was the shack of the Hippy Man.
Us local kids were very scared of the Hippy Man: a shadowy figure for whom it was alleged clothing held no interest. The Hippy man: beleaguered mental shambles taken flight from an asylum. The Hippy Man: he who had shown his willy to a young Timmy down the road, who was ever since a mute.
I never saw the Hippy Man, and being scared of heights never made to climb up that tree in order that I might observe his rotten shack.
Although one particularly strange summer I began to see him in my dreams. All us local kids did.
Many years later I would hear the sludgey, gorey deathgrind of Japanese brutalist BUTCHER ABC, and this would lead me to dramatically betray my readership by admitting the these two events have no relation whatsoever.
ABOVE: well it looks like the guy from that documentary, so fuck it.
BUTCHER ABC makes Satanically groovy filth, often with a wee tot of 'grindrock' thrown in as well for good measure (singer 'analtoshit' also handles/d vocals is my faves CSSO). On this particular release almost every track has a meaty riff to stab into your carcass (it's a butcher joke, get it? GET IT?) often paired with especially glottal throatings that may or may not be pitch-shifted at various points, when the tempo picks up the vocals take on more of a Japanese hardcore flavour.
It is formulaic but successful; following this pleasing pattern to produce proven output.
And like a lot of Japanese extremity BABC is infused with a lively sense of fun throughout, very much seasoned in character and left to mature for 21 days (yeah, getting tenuous now). In fact often I am reminded of Coffins only more upbeat (there's probably some kind if relation between these two groups, they were both in that same documentary I mentioned in the caption) and with a less bass-heavy sound that focuses more on the vocal and drum dynamic.
For me the slightly different cultural references found in JapBrutal music like BABC produce a somewhat incongruous effect: it all seems slightly fresher due to being that little bit different to the hundreds of euro goregrind groups, I don't immediately understand where they are coming from and exactly where they are going so the music still has the ability to surprise and entertain me.
Butcher ABC are just on the edge of this world and in being so remain interesting due to being forever out of reach.
Just like the Hippy Man.
Perhaps there is a relationship after all.
Have a LINKS
