♫♪  The Writhing Squares - Out of the Ether

Can you imagine what would happen if Purling Hiss and Ecstatic Vision got together and dropped a collabo record on Siltbreeze? It would be super vicious, lo-fi and distorted, filled with a horrible attitude. It would lurch and leer, and would erupt at the slightest provocation. It would sweep us up in its diabolical whirlwind and deposit us in unpleasant places.

Oh — huh?

Sorry folks, looks like my dream scenario here actually already happened, as it appears that Philadelphia’s the Writhing Squares tick off all the boxes I’ve noted above. Which is great news. Daniel Provenzano (the Purling Hiss, etc.) and Kevin Nickles (the Ecstatic Vision, etc.) released In the Void Above on Siltbreeze back in 2016. I was burrowed beneath a riverbank like a turtle back then, so I missed it, but I can go back and rectify that.

What’s EXTRA great news is that we’ve already got new music from the Writhing Squares, which is why we’re even talking today in the first place. Out of the Ether follows In the Void Above, this time on Trouble in Mind Records out of Chicago. It’s super bloody vicious, lo-fi and distorted, filled with a horrible and venomous snaky-rude attitude. It lurches and leers like an Eagles fan on Broad Street following Super Bowl LII, and it erupts at the slightest provocation, which is almost constantly. It has swept me up in its diabolical whirlwind; once it ends I’ll probably be deposited in an unpleasant place.

Provenzano and Nickles kick up a ruckus like James Chance jamming with the Stooges, flying freak flags in every direction, mixing their punk squarely with their no wave and prog. The result is never anything other than exhilarating, with both musicians growling and grooving at an insane breakneck pace, swaggering with vitriol and probably getting aggressively and uncomfortably close to their audience as they bray and bleat from the stage at Johnny Brenda’s or the Khyber or Kung Fu Necktie or wherever.

But, like, in a good way, because that’s what this kind of band needs — proximity to an audience.

Live recklessly as the Writhing Squares hammer at you with four gut-punk tunes on one side, then blast you into orbit on the twenty-minute shredder on side B. Which manner of pummeling do you prefer? (Hint: there’s no wrong answer.)

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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