REGLER – “REGEL #9 (BLUES)” LP

Blues For Western Civilization (For Audience And Tape). Regel #9 (Blues) is the latest release from the power duo Regler. On their previous two records on At War With False Noise, Regler have tackled harsh noise and heavy metal. Regler doing the blues? What the fuck is that gonna sound like? Well, it doesn't sound like Howlin' Wolf, that's for sure. But then, Anders Bryngelsson and Mattin are less about representing a sound and more about getting to the bottom of a genre, usually by taking it apart, or getting to the fulcrum of the style... or in this case, aggressively smashing the shit out of it until it surrenders. On one long track over two sides of an LP, Regler haven't produced a deconstruction of the blues, but rather a horrid bastardization of the blues: playing an open riff and caveman drum beat over and over... and over... and over... and over again, post-produced with samples representing the multitude of fucked-up things going on in the world in 2017. It's nearly an hour of unrelentingly bleak vibes. Is that not what the blues, in essence, is all about? The blues is -- at root -- reality, and this is what's shown bare here. Is it more horrible to hear a seemingly endless, turgid cacophony of guitar and drums with little variation or finesse, or to hear the death, pain, and suffering that is casually present at six o'clock every night with your egg and chips? Well, this record unsubtly asks that question. The sound of the record is massive, and has been mastered beautifully to vinyl. Utterly heavy and taking no prisoners, it's like the first track on From Enslavement To Obliteration by Napalm Death (1988) just kept going for the whole album. This isn't for the casual listener, but if you're a casual listener, of anything, you either a.) won't be reading about a new Regler record, and b.) won't be on this website. Unjoy! Edition of 120.