Scar 022

Reclusa is an abstract mix of doom, industrial, and ambient. A twisted, surreal take on Godflesh, Wormphlegm and Beherit.

Degenerate Slug is the new project from POISON TONGUE creator Paul Von Aphid. Influenced by Dissecting Table, Sleep Disorder, Swans, Abruptum, cheap wine, Goblin, Havohej and drugs.

Full color/black and white front and back covers plus insert in 6 x 9 re-closeable poly bag. Limited quantities featured black and white sticker facings.


"Reclusa is aberrant minimal sludge coalesced with a primitive Godflesh industrial flavor that’s as much a pallete wrecker as it is easy to ingest. “Penetrate” invokes an industrialized psychoti-delic ambience with a Skinny Puppy-like prodding drum machine backdrop that has that certain echoing stomp that’s distinctly mechanical and deliberate, while underneath flows fluorescent oozes of fucked up spoken words mashed up and melting along with hints of bassy synth and other basic electronic tid bits that’s fluid and sliming along like a nuclear fallout sewer. Every so often there’s also this great minimal synth/string overtone, some effect saturated vocal spews that are almost intelligible, and a documentary like sound caption of someone saying about “…an intelligent man that doesn’t believe in anything but himself…” “Life From Lifelessness” is more of an 80’s industrial foundation where the sounds/synth tones are very repetitive and basic, almost Kraftwerkish without the electro rhythms, but yet again there’s something more fluid and daunting slightly underneath that initial impression. The somewhat sludge/doom distortion of sounds like chords being drawn out and tortured serve as yet another piece of this interesting puzzle. You start out expecting this analog synth, horror soundtrack style then suddenly it tweaks and morphs into something slightly more aggressive and unique while doing two things: Leads you with blackened eyes down a rotting primrose path into a pit of horror that at first seemed like something familiar and almost “normal”, thus adding a bit of spice; takes simple and traditional industrial/electronic fundamentals and creates something that is exceedingly complex underneath as it unravels like a basilisk around your neck. The minimal use of vocals and vocal effects, lack of traditional melody or even attempts at creating any, and the way the tracks just unwind like some alien/cyborg version of 70’s-early 80’s horror film soundtracks being heard in a sedated and hallucinogenic state just completely wins me over. If you like the weirder side of kraut rock, Throbbing Gristle, and the analog electronic soundtracks to classic horror cinema you’d be well advised to check out Reclusa, especially on this release (other times Reclusa can be more metallic and vary with each release).

Degenerate Slug delivers an innervating dose of power electronics and almost danceable industrial. “Are You Receiving” which proudly boasts a thunderous mechanical percussion rhythm that makes you want to start smashing things and pounding your fist, but what there’s also this power electronics screeching whir over the top and unpredictable pauses in everything for the raspy vocal interrogation of “Are you Receiving?”. It’s still somewhat reminiscent of early industrial and electronic music with horror/supernatural themes, but definitely sounds modern and shows that depth and creativity still exist in the electronic realms raped by neo-goth/rave/club feces for the last 10-15 years. Degenerate Slug would be ideal for a Friday/Saturday night in a bar made to look like a giant meat locker complete with S&M imagery and weird videos. Stainless steel surfaces, meat hooks, fog, and a temperature kept below room temp for a nice chill. “Deranged” is the standout DS contribution on here, as it’s not only infectiously rhythmic but the vocals are spoken industrial style rants of a psychopath with a sense of humor, “La la …la la la… I’m deranged…”. It’s like a Hannibal Lector quote warped and looped into a pseudo-psychedelic anthem, it’ll have you addicted and high faster than crack, and laughing hysterically at the same time.
“I Smell the Stench of Your Menstrual Blood at My Fingers” speaks for itself, seriously sick and debauched stuff here. If anything DS has done on here is guaranteed to make you squirm from discomfort it’ll be this one and only due to that title phrase being repeated throughout the four-minutes of post-modern horror menagerie of electronic sounds. Seriously, whether you like industrial or not, this split ,as do most of NVS releases, truly redefines art in the audio sense and is one for those who can appreciate the horrific, trippy, unusual, and classic at the same time. It’s damn near impossible for me to turn this one off in favor of anything else once I put this on, and THAT’s a huge statement to make publicly, so let it be known…”Hi my name is Janet and I’m an NVS addict!!!!!" hellridemusicforums.com

"Split cassette from Reclusa and Degenerate Slug. Reclusa sounds fucking impossible- and I mean that in a good way. Doom influences the industrial/ambient noise mix here. Really excellent. And Degenerate Slug has a pretty obvious Dissecting Table influence, which is always a good thing. Another excellent cassette that you must have." www.hammersmashedsound.com/2011/11/huge-no-visible-scars-update.html

"Crude but compelling sounds emanate like clotted blood from both sides of this split cassette. On the Reclusa side, the five tracks come across like a twisted venture into surreal, devolved sounds influenced by the more clanking parts of early Godflesh and (really) early Beherit -- pounding machine beats, murky sonic textures, pained vocal bleating, and howling, reverb-heavy slo-mo tornado guitar create the perfect mix of lo-fi necro black metal mating with first-wave industrial grindcore. Between the Recluse's psychotic vocalizing and the gruesome sludge wafting around the spooky keyboards, this is pretty unhinged stuff very much on par with Beherit's initial stabs at audio demoncy, only with more precision. (Of course, given the messiness that is early Beherit, this is hardly a difficult feat.) On the flip side of the tape, the diseased sounds of Degenerate Slug aren't any nicer; the liner notes helpfully lists influences including Dissecting Table, Abruptum, and Swans, among other things, and these things, I am happy to report, are all entirely true. The Abruptum influence is particularly prominent, especially on the first track, "Are You Receiving," which sounds like a Swans track playing back at half-speed on a warped tape deck. The tracks that follow -- including one with the absolutely swell title "I Smell the Stench of Your Menstrual Blood At My Fingers" (which also happens to be the track most obviously influenced by Dissecting Table) -- are big on grinding, clanking percussion, debased sonic stinkiness, and other forms of vile ugliness. As tasteful as a bloated corpse in your driveway but far more entertaining, and limited to 50 copies."
theonetruedeadangel.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-turkeys-were-harmed-in-making-of.html