Ryan Page's(Robocop/Body Hammer) Favorite Releases of 2011

In keeping with the ubiquitous preamble and qualification before every year end list in 2011, let me to briefly pretend that most Operation Grindcore readers are not intelligent, understanding people and pander to the "I can't believe you left _____ off the list! what the fuck?!" crowd:

This is not any official list, and it is not intended to represent OP's take on the best albums of the year. If you see any glaring admissions, take comfort in the fact that not only do I not care, but the internet exists, and it is begging for numbered lists.

Without further justification for the fact that I was only barely aware of new music this year, I'll thank Andrew for asking me to do this, and get around the arbitrary ordering.

8. Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Despise You: and on and on…

While I am generally more of, for lack of a better word, a traditional ANB fan (my favorite release is still 'Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope'), of the recent crop of releases my favorites have been decidedly mid tempo. This l.p. and their split with Insect Warfare display interesting, self contained concepts, and, to a certain extent, a sense of theatricality that becomes more difficult at faster tempos. 'And on and on…' is not particularly different from Agorapocalypse, but, I have to say I was much more interested in this material. Maybe I am simply getting weaker of stomach but Agorapocalypse becomes too much for me to take as a full length (which is not to say I don't respect the album). I also felt that with this split the production became a bit less sterile; there seems to be less compression and processing.

Despise You's career I've followed less closely than that of ANB, but everything I've heard previously has impressed me. With that said, I quite enjoyed the changes to their sound on this release. I actually feel like both bands came a little closer to each other's style, adding consistency to the split. Both of the bands vocalists assert wildly divergent styles that compliment each other well. I especially liked the high pitched vocals occasionally bursting through, it serves as an aural dead ringer for the squealing whammy bar slayerisms of ANB's side.

7. Wadge: Grindcore Luau

Wadge is a great example of humor in extreme music done well. Grindcore Luau is a perfect distillation of this. The album opens with ANB vocalist and (excellent/underrated) Drugs of Faith frontman Richard Johnson tearing through the first of many Napalm Death tributes/parodies. I think part of the reason this album stuck with me is that it seems like a degree of care was taken with the lyrics, art and music, so that the theme was executed in a fairly clever way, with minimal emphasis on the usual misogynist/gore/br00tal stupidity that often substitutes for humor in post carcass/internet extreme music.

6. Weekend Nachos: Worthless

Weekend Nachos have consistently, despite what is perhaps the worst moniker in extreme music (yeah, I know 'look who's talking') have consistently delivered as heirs to Infest. Its the kind of music that gets termed jocky that no jocks would ever listen to. While their previous releases were less contained and much more jagged in tone, this album offers another interesting variation on what is perhaps the greatest concentration of pure mongo anger in hardcore. It doesn't hurt that much of the finger pointing happens to be pointing in the right direction.

5. Gridlink: Orphan

This is a release that I probably should have liked more than I did. The album blends together some of the best elements from Discordance Axis and Hayaino Daisuki and contains the fastest, most articulate performances in grindcore in many years. The dynamics are great, and the album is considerably fuller sounding than 'Amber Grey'.

With that said, I honestly haven't listened to it that much. I hasn't really stuck with me in the way it has for others. For a period, I thought it was simply because of the hype surrounding it (not to mention the general shittiness of GrindToDeathGate), but now I am not quite sure. Regardless of my personal relationship to the album, I felt that it would be foolish not place Orphan somewhere on my list.

4. Autopsy: Macabre Eternal

Someone once told me that compared to Despised Icon and Suicide Silence, Autopsy sounded like lounge jazz. That person was a fucking idiot.

3. Toxic Holocaust: Conjure and Command.

I can see this as somewhat of a controversial choice considering that everyone is back to hating thrash metal. I'm not going to apologize for it, but if it helps, think of it as a d-beat record (if Deathwish/Southern Lord hasn't soured you to that particular genre tag yet).

I've always liked Toxic Holocaust and main man Joel Grind's unassuming nature. I've come to think that the contrast between the exaggerated misanthropy in his lyrics and his affable nature in person makes the self aware absurdity of his lyrics easier to take. I also find that it is apparent when someone is having fun in a genre they care about, rather than using pastiche to deflect insincerity.

All of which would matter very little, except that while ignoring trends for over a decade Grind has consistently improved with every release, peaking with this release or An Overdose of Death. Perhaps the biggest improvement is the use of a full band on the recording (previous albums were almost entirely recorded by Grind). This allowed for a greater range of tempo variation, a trait immediately apparent in the speed of album opener "Judgement Awaits You". The guitars also underwent a major improvement tonally, and in general the record sounds more natural than the occasionally dull sounding "Overdose".

2. Yob: Atma

I only recently picked up (read downloaded) this release, but Yob deserves all of its current (read overdue) acclaim. There are not many metaphors left to describe the album's sound, so I will simply point to the numerous glowing reviews and its high placement on numerous year end lists.



1. Column of Heaven: Ecstatically Embracing All that we Habitually Suppress

One of the difficulties in creating this list was that, as many records as I liked this year, few have drawn me in to repeated listens. There is a sense with many albums that everything that is contained is apparent on the surface. After listening to thousands of grindcore/metal/power violence tracks the form becomes fairly obvious, and far too often the the content becomes a matter of connecting dots.

By contrast (and poorly constructed dichotomy) Column of Heaven's debut e.p. has rewarded numerous listens and revisitations of the themes and concepts. Much like The Endless Blockade (the band from which COH is derived) Column of Heaven utilizes noise and power violence, along with intelligent lyrics and carefully considered artwork to create a gestalt of musical ritual evoking unease and paranoia that fragments into complexity upon close examination.

What was particularly interesting to me, as a musician within similar genre confines, was the massive leap towards the synthesis of influences. No longer do we have what has become (at least partially in the wake of TEB's influence) the nearly cliched organization of "hardcore song, noise track, etc." where the styles merely contrast each other. Instead the entire release blends together, with various elements disappearing or bubbling to the surface throughout the tape's short, but well-suited nine minute running time.

It is perhaps odd that my top album for this year is a band's first release, especially one that is shorter than most of the songs off my number 2 pick, I can only offer that it I personally consider this the first step beyond the confines of power violence that other bands (including my own) have only hinted at.

~Ryan Page

Robocop Premier "Psychic Transferal"!

Check out this awesome new Robocop song called "Psychic Transferal" from their upcoming split with Detroit. Here is what Ryan had to say about it:

"This song is about Issei Sagawa, the Japanese murder, cannibal, and food critic. If one takes a Freudian perspective, there is inherently this linkage between sex and death, and I suppose if you've seen Juzo Itami's Tampopo, you can guess where food wedges its way in there. There is also an interest in the possibility of transmitting (transmuting?) knowledge through consumption. Finally there's this thread that runs through the album about hidden codes in language and other forms of communication. In this case there is a sense in which if we find a way to decode this, and commit an act provocative enough it may provide cultural immortality.

The track I've sent is unmastered, but in most respects it is in it's final form."

Listen to Robocop here

~Andrew Lipscomb

Robocop Post New Track Preview

New Robocop Preview Mix In Progress by ryanpage

Maine grinders Robocop just posted a track from their last release(their guitar player/vocalist Ryan is moving to California), which is a split with the band Detroit. Here is their description of the track "The mix is in progress, but its somewhat close to its final form, with the exception of the vocals. Keep in mind that this a sample from a five minute song." This preview is sick! This song definitely sounds more straight forward, and seems to have a more grind influence from their previous stuff! As of right now Robocop II is my favorite release from 2011 and I am really stoked to hear some new stuff from these guys! What do you think about it?

~Andrew Lipscomb

Lyrics of The Week:Robocop-Assassination Markets

Robocop-Assassination Markets

Amphetamine psychosis, cyber-terrorist

Endless illumination, victim by victim
This excavation of flesh will cause none to yield
He insists he’s a miner of truth
Crypto-Anarchism
Assassination markets
Provisions can be made if you’re feeling lucky
Expiration dates of leaders and CEOs
Sent to a void of encrypted binary
A stealth accumulation of wealth and knowledge
The last known location of your family
“Good business is where you find it.”
The fundamentals of capitalism:
The high price of your life
Versus the low cost of bullets

Labeled: Grindcore Karaoke

J. Randall's label Grindcore Karaoke has only been around for a few months, but they have already released 35 albums, ep's, demo's, etc. All of GK's releases are awesome ,but here are some of my favorites:

Romero-Solitaire

Romero may not be a grindcore band, but they still rock. Romero are a doomy rock band(their sound kinda reminds me of Torche's first album), both of these two songs are excellent and Romero are an awesome band!

Cloud Rat-S/T LP

This album is amazingly awesome. Cloud Rat play a style of grind that is melodic, without losing any of the intensity. This is one of the best things I have heard from Grindcore Karaoke. Cloud Rat are a breath of fresh air and they are one of the most unique grind bands I have heard. The vocals are very emotional(in a good way), and unlike some grind bands whose albums just sound like a blur, where all the songs sound the same, all of the songs on this album are unique and they standout! I really love that Some of my favorite songs are "Yama", "Canine", and "Pill Birth". This album demands repeated listens and if you haven't heard Cloud Rat you need to download this right now!

Robocop-Robocop II

If you read Operation Grindcore, you know I love Robocop, my love has been documented here and here. This album is awesome 'nuff said!

Inerds-Choice Cuts

Inerds are a grindcore band, who have a lot of influence from early powerviolence. This six song e.p. that comes from a split with the band Coworkers, is a fast, all out attack on the ears. Much like Cloud Rat, Inerds are a breath of fresh air in the grindcore genre. My favorite songs off of Choice Cuts are "Bebo", "Counting Seconds", and "Humans Being".

Death-Cult Jock-West End Blast

Death-Cult Jock are a grindcore band! They play a style of grindcore that has a lot of influences from other cool genres such as death metal and doom metal, which I think is really cool. Even with all of these unique influences they probably still are the most straight up grind band on my list, which is not a bad thing. The thing I love most about Death-Cult Jock are their great riffs/guitar playing, which makes this album very memorable. My favorite songs are "Fast", "Virus/Plague", and "Numb".

~Andrew Lipscomb

Interview:Robocop

Can you introduce yourself and what your role is in Robocop?

My name is Ryan Page. I play guitar, along with various electronic instruments (mainly wave form oscillators) and one of the three vocalists. I also write the lyrics for the most part, and do the design work for the band.



How did Robocop form?

I was in a super market getting something to eat, and Tom came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play in a power-violence band. I immediately said yes, even though I didn't know who this guy was. I honestly didn't think anything would come of it, but in a few weeks he got in touch with me.

At the time, I was trying to get a live version of my other project, Body Hammer, going, but something about it wasn't working for me. Anyway, I had been trying to do that with Luke, so when our band needed a bass player, I thought it would be a chance to play in a band with him, which I had wanted to do for a while. A month later we recorded our demo.

What is it like being a band in Maine?

It's pretty difficult. Most of the support exists for bands that emulate popular bands. I'm sure its similar everywhere, but because most nationally recognized bands don't come up here, the next best thing for people are bands that sounds like them.

The way I see it, there's essentially three or four camps as far as punk/metal/hardcore goes: The stereotypical punks who spell it with the letter 'x', the hardcore guys, the metal crowd who's goal is to be sponsored by monster energy drinks and tour with trivium, and the “arty” portland scene that's sort of the exclusive hipster thing that imagines its cool because its only a year behind the curve rather than the 10-years-past-its-expiration-date metalcore that gets played up here.

That said there are good people in the scene. Some of the people into hardcore are exceptionally nice guys, and for a while there was an attempt to build some kind of community up here.

Essentially though, we kind of fall through the cracks because we're not really committed to any scene or aesthetic other than our own internal ideas about what does and doesn't work.

You released “Robocop II” on J. Randall’s label Grindcore Karaoke, how did that come about?

I'm not really sure how Jay first heard us, but basically, I received an email one day where he mentioned that he had been following Robocop and Body Hammer, and offered to release something for me. At that time we were coming to the tail end of the process for Robocop II, so it was perfect timing in that sense. I've always been a fan of ANB and from what I can tell Jay and I have similar interests, especially in regards to noise. We've talked about doing a noise recording, I think that would be really cool if that worked out.


What was the writing process like for “Robocop II”?

About half of the songs written for Robocop II came from our demo, and on the demo a few of the songs were partially written by Tom for another project. So it was somewhat complicated. I believe the demo was written before Luke joined, but of course he writes bass lines that are different from what I'm playing on the guitar. Its difficult to say when these songs were fully formed. “Fed to the Wolves” and “Maine is The Bastard” were written after he joined, but I believe everything except the noise tracks was written in 2009.


What was the recording process like for “Robocop II”?

The recording and mixing process was really hard on Luke and I. It took over a year, and we never felt completely satisfied with the results. We recorded it ourselves, by using our own equipment or borrowing it without asking from the school we're attending. Unfortunately we had a lot of equipment failures, and the computer we were recording on had errors throughout the process. We lost an entire session because of this. We tried again, and had similar errors, but somehow we got through it. The process was complicated because we had to record extra percussion for the record (gongs, timpanis, etc), and electronics for certain songs. We also were tracking the guitars for most of the songs because the recorded guitars didn't sound great. It look a long time to get the recording in decent shape and there were times when I wasn't sure we were going to finish it.

What are some of the lyrical themes on “Robocop II”?

The lyrics and extracted quotations are a variety of perspectives that range from fairly straightforward songs like Skramz and CBMP to quotes from Baudrillard and Ballard, and songs with more complicated and compressed ideas like Feminism Uber Alles.

Initially when I first joined the band, I was writing lyrics to fit the simplicity of the music we were writing, and to a certain extent what is expected in hardcore. I think initially playing this kind of music was a bit of a stress relief, and was a break from the more serious works I was doing, and to a certain extent, in Body Hammer. However, the full length became such an extended and painful experience that the lyrics and designs shifted to match that. Because the recording process was so fragmented, I wanted to take advantage of that, so that the album would at the very least be consistent in its sporadic nature.

I guess I will summarize, I think the lyrics reflect a general paranoia, and distrust, especially in regards to codified scenes or ideologies and those that use them to define themselves. There is also a sense trying to make sense of the large number of symbols we are constantly bombarded with, and maybe an attempt to find patterns in the chaos.

I think the best way to listen to this album is pattern recognition. There are a large number of allusions to other works and ideas from a variety of sources with the intent to overwhelm the listener. I think this was partially to match the effect of the music. In a way they are very similar, the music is a large number of sounds compressed into a short time frame, and the lyrically there are a lot of concepts compressed into a small number of words.

I've heard it described in various ways, but I tend to think of writing lyrics as similar to the act of computer compression. The idea being that if you have access to the same information it is easier to communicate a vast number of ideas merely by invoking a reference to them.



What music influenced “Robocop II”?

The Endless Blockade, Sleep, Japanese Torture Comedy Hour, Discordance Axis, Black Sabbath, Napalm Death, etc.

Who are some of your biggest personal musical influences?

I enjoy twentieth century composers like Stockhausen, Cage, Iannis Xenakis, etc. I also like a lot of metal; Doom, Black Metal, some death metal, a bit of thrash, etc. I'm a big fan of older hardcore bands, I enjoy powerviolence quite a bit. There are quite a few grindcore bands I like. Italian soundtrack music... I could go on for days.

I'm not really sure where the influences come from musically. I don't like the pretense that somehow my band was influenced by music that it clearly doesn't sound like, or doesn't share a philosophy with, but there are a variety of artists who have influenced me indirectly.

What albums are you listening to now?

Big Black's first couple 7”s. The new Gridlink. The Endless Blockade. Kool Keith. The sub-bass hits coming from my jock neighbors' apartment.


Are the members of Robocop in any other bands?

As I've mentioned before, I have Body Hammer. I also compose music for film soundtracks, and create electroacoustic compositions. Luke is in GiantGiant, and Tom plays in We Are, The Vulture and Divide and Conquer.

Does Robocop have any plans for the future?

We're currently working on a new split with Detroit. After that we'll be playing a few local shows and possibly doing a short tour. In August I'm moving to California to work on my masters degree.

Any other comments?

Thank you for setting this up. I believe this is our first interview as a band.

Thanks to Ryan for the interview! You can buy "Robocop II" here and download it for free here. Also thanks to Luke Kegley for the awesome original artwork, you can check out more of his work here.

My Favorite Albums of 2011(so far)

1.KEN Mode-Venerable(Profound Lore)
When I first got this album I wasn't really into it. Then a few days later I picked it up again and gave it another shot and began to love it. This album is definitely a grower and after hearing Venerable I am stoked to hear more from them.






2.Victims-A Dissident(Tankcrimes/Deathwish Inc.)
I hadn't ever heard Victims before this album, but they were always on my "Bands To Check Out" list. So when I saw that they released their album on Tankcrimes/Deathwish Inc. I knew I had to get it. This album is some great Hardcore/Crust and once again this album is a grower.








3.Robocop-Robocop II(Grindcore Karaoke/Name Like His Master)
Man, this album is great. It's sick powerviolence with some awesome sludge/noise parts mixed in. It is a perfect balance of powerviolence/noise, think of The Endless Blockade.








4.Noisear-Subvert the Dominant Paradigm (Relapse) This is another great grindcore album, which features Bryan Fajardo, who also plays drums in Gridlink and Kill the Client. This album sort of reminds me of Discordance Axis and Brutal Truth mixed, which is definitely a good thing! Another great thing about this album is the twenty minute noise track by J. Randall(Agoraphobic Nosebleed) called Noisearuption.



5.Mitochondrion-Parasignosis(Profound Lore)
This is a very good ambient death metal album. Mitochondrion sort of remind me of Portal but a little more straight forward. This album is best experienced while listening to it in headphones. It's one of those albums that just takes you to another place and I can't help but get lost in this album.

~Andrew Lipscomb