John Olson, giver of so much life to all of us in the noise bunker, once again strengthens his resume outside of Wolf Eyes with a new Henry & Hazel Slaughter LP via ever-reliable Fedora Corpse. H&H threw around some ratchets in the cassette junkyard and now they move on to a vinyl dealership, where, to these ears, they ultimately belong. Endless Power Cycle, considering its title, is an extremely spare venture, with a nervous, hesitant dub beat providing the backbone for a parade of softer drill-bit scrapes that molest, then invade, your ears. Side B gets hairier though, bass rippin’ almost like that Dead Fader EP on Robot Elephant or Metasplice hand-pounded flat, soaked in digital overflow, and laid atop a vicious beat. Much less restraint effects-wise, but it’s still a patient flow that earns every outburst. Not dissimilar to fellow noisenik Aaron Dilloway’s solo stuff, nor many of the artists you’ll find on labels like American Tapes, the imprint that has thus far put out the majority of H&H’s stuff. Soft noise with a dub/electronic undercurrent finds a balance that many veterans of the noise wars gravitate toward, but Power Cycle is a slightly superior battle. If you think 250 copies, on loud-ass ‘I got slime’d’ green vinyl, is a lot, you’re wrong.
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