No Tribute: Music of the Nihilist Spasm Band

• Artist: Various Artists
• Release Date: 2003
• Total Time: 70:01
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Avant-Garde

Review

The Nihilist Spasm Band -- the world's longest-running noise ensemble -- is sure tribute-worthy, but how do you cover noise improvisations? You don't. Instead you imitate, derive, or simply do your best to live up to the NSB's nihilist ideals. Most of all, you cling to Bill Exley's no-nonsense poems, the only element giving the group's tunes the aspect of songs (and warranting the recurrence of song titles). No Tribute was produced by Sunship Records in collaboration with three other small American noise labels. The roster of contributing artists is international, uneven, and impressive. Names you may have previously encountered include sound collagist V/Vm, Miami-based experimenter Carlos Giffoni, South-American weirdos Reynols, stage demons Cock E.S.P. and Wolf Eyes, plus regular NSB supporters and collaborators like Alan Licht, Jason Bellchamber, and Hijokaidan, who gets the honor of delivering the closing anthem, "No Canada." Anything goes on this compilation, from laptop mayhem to basement rehearsal tapes. Highlights include the toys instrumentation in Wrong's "Unlikely," the close-to-home rendition of "It's Not My Fault" by Pengo, and a surprising contribution from saxophonist Jacopo Andreini (of the Italian avant-rock group Bz Bz Ueu) going crazy with a reading of "Forget" in French s'il-vous-plaît. In the course of these 24 tracks, the ethos of the NSB gets fragmented beyond belief -- and most are louder and noisier than anything the group ever recorded. Fans will have fun with all the winks and mistreatment. Others may have a hard time figuring out what the band is really about. Hopefully, they'll get curious enough to seek out their albums. ~ François Couture, Rovi

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