$6 //
Edition of 100 //
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/ad275-fuck-lungs-honeysuckle //
As I look things up surrounding this cassette- research for the review, if you will- I open Blogger and search for the words "Fuck Lungs" and it comes back with nothing. What. This can't be. I know Fuck Lungs has a cassette that came out before this one. It's self-titled. I believe I have it. I look at the Cassette Review page. Not there. Where is it? Do I have this cassette somewhere and didn't review it? Time to do some digging of my own in regards to my past, but until then, I have "Honeysuckle" to listen to at least. (The cover art doesn't look good to me)
This cassette begins with the sound of frequencies and they are twisted and turned, manipulated to play at their normal rate, slower and even faster which causes quite the chaos. It all breaks down and I'm pretty sure there are horns in this destruction now-- even drums. I hear the definite bass of a baritone sax or perhaps tuba and the drums are being played mercilessly. While this began much like a radio station having some broadcasting issues (imagine a cassette being sped up because it was eaten by a tape deck only with a radio sound instead) and then it turns into some jazz. The horns are slower now, more delicate. I do believe I hear jazz flute. But I just checked the Bandcamp page (damn spoilers) and this is all sax plus drums... That can't be right.
What I still say is a flute begins to make this sound as if a bird is fluttering. It fades out just as easily as it brought that certain level of energy, excitement to the cassette. Side B opens with these thundering drums and it reminds me of Dillinger Escape Plan. I can't believe drums and a sax are all that is making these sounds but this gets heavy in a way that makes you feel like this duo is playing to the point where they are leaving it all out there on the stage, nothing is being held back. Even as it slows down a bit and the horns only come out sparingly, the tempo just feels to urgent, so vital.
It's jazz, but it's not. Somewhere between Odd Jazz and the times when Awkward Geisha sounds like jazz, Fuck Lungs have this heaviness to them. It's kind of hardcore but "jazzcore" looks like such a terrible word and it reminds me of when this band Folly existed so I don't want to use it so much. But things do grow quieter, with the sax picking it back up after what might be an intermission but is at the least a moment of rest. "Noise jazz" is an ok term, as the sax comes blaring through with what sounds like not-sax and the drums continue to chip away until there is nothing left.
It would be fair to say that in 2018 (and even for some months leading up to it) I had grown partial to two different aspects of music: 1) Jazz that didn't sound like jazz and 2) Duos. Fuck Lungs is both of these things. And, yes, as someone with asthma I would very much like to wear a shirt that says "Fuck Lungs", for the record. I suppose the only thing I can really do is go see Fuck Lungs play live somehow to prove that this is being made only by the drums and sax because I feel like there are other instruments in play here but regardless this is not one to miss as it is taking that idea of free jazz or improv jazz or whatever you want to call it jazz to the next level.
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