Bob Bellerue
Butcher’s Broom [LP; Prison Tatt]

Bob Bellerue’s been around for a bit now. In fact, one of his other releases, a double-tape on Cerbs titan Los Discos Enfantasmes, landed in my mailbox a bit ago. But that’s not why we’re here; Butcher’s Broom is a 100-run, numbered full-length LP that stands proud next to the lofi, often black-metal clientele of the Prison Tatt label. Bellerue, however, is an experimentalist, plain and simple. And yes, he dabbles in noise. And drone. And drill-bits. If you’re going to step into the butcher’s room be ready for some hard-ass throbs and long, sustained bouts of black moodiness that roll by like death clouds. The Broom is every bit as heavy/ominous as yr standard black-metal exercise without a riff nor scream in sight. Bellerue sticks to the script stubbornly, subscribing to scrubbed-out swaths of low-end burnt at the corners by sly manipulations only he could explain the origins of. I would stop short of stuffing Butcher’s Broom into the harsh category, but there’s nothing mild about the majority of its contents. It’s just the way Bellerue sculpts his sound. He’s out to blow your mind not bash your teeth in after scraping them on the pavement (I might be wayyy off there.) Then again maybe I’m desensitized to the sounds of machinery and death rattles and high-pitched squeals, as there is ample evidence of each. Beneath the grinding, about halfway through Side A, however, is a layer that holds even more intrigue if you can train your ears to hone in on it. It’s like using a decoder-ring to read a secret message, minus the instant results. You’ll have to listen a few times to straighten your head out. Then you can start dealing with the distant toms you think you hear amid the throbs…

Links: Prison Tatt

Cerberus

Cerberus seeks to document the spate of home recorders and backyard labels pressing limited-run LPs, 7-inches, cassettes, and objet d’art with unique packaging and unknown sound. We love everything about the overlooked or unappreciated. If you feel you fit such a category, email us here.

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