♫♪  Neglected Tomogatchi - Torn Muscle

I started grade school a few years too late to have lived through the Tamagotchi craze of the late Clinton administration. In fact, my memories of the product’s many imitators are much more vivid than those of the original line of keychain-sized pets, which may have only been falsely implanted by years of listening to PC Music and Black Kray.

Well into my kindergarten career, a family trip to Toys “R” Us lead me to adopt my own Aquapet: a rubbery alien no larger than a lima bean, suspended in a water-filled tube. At the base of the canister, a two-button control panel allowed the extraterrestrial’s owner to feed and pet their pal, while a microphone provided a channel for communication. Catering to your Aquapet’s needs took more than just supplying the bare essentials. It needed to engage in meaningful conversation to survive.

It wasn’t until I misplaced my new companion in some unseen crevice of my bedroom that I fully understood the importance of keeping in touch with loved ones.

After my search efforts proved fruitless, I turned in for the night, crawling under the covers and attempting to sleep. It wasn’t long before I was awakened by the harrowing cry of the forsaken Aquapet, its howls of pixelated agony gurgling from the shadows.

Despite daily efforts to find the source of the screams, I never found the lost pet, sentencing me to sleepless nights filled with terrible, glitched out sounds, until the toy’s batteries ran out of juice.

I still feel guilty.

I’d like to imagine that Neglected Tomogatchi (sic) are inclusive enough defend the rights of all virtual pets, the project’s blast-beats and power-electronic warble a call to liberate all denizens of the 8-bit world.

Aesthetically, the Ohioan hardcore outfit’s debut single, Torn Muscle wouldn’t feel out of place among the early discographies of Minor Threat and Black Flag, save for the occasional synth solo and burst of sampled Tamagotchi-talk. The digital 7” is imbued with the same sense of raw, creative rage that fueled the DIY punk of the early 80’s, pummeling listener’s earbuds with blunt snare drum thwacks and oppressive walls of bass.

This is some of the most bizzare, hard-hitting Bandcamp-era noise I’ve peeped this side of NEO-NEOS and Perfect Pussy. Definitely worth multiple spins in a row.

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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