There isn't much I can tell you about THE FRIENDLY BEARS, other than that their contribution on this split EP doesn't do much for me. What we have here is four instrumental tracks that kinda sound like outtakes from the ROLLINS BAND or SONIC YOUTH, with the vocals replaced by trumpet playing. I don't know if this is supposed to be ‘jazzy', but in that case it doesn't succeed since their material is not as ‘out there' as JOHN ZORN's best work, nor is it as good as JOHN COLTRANE or the best works of MILES DAVIS. In other words, I don't really see the point. If you're interested in this kind of thing check out "Scrabbling At The Lock", a collaboration between Dutch art rockers THE EX and cello player TOM CORA which in my humble opinion is a somewhat similar but much more successful meeting between the worlds of rock and the avant garde.

The second band INFIDEL? / CASTRO are an entirely different matter. Their 12-minute track "The 49-day Period Between Lives (Memories and Premonitions)" combines stuff from their album "Case Studies in Bioentropy" with new material. Weird and intense doesn't even begin to describe this. Thundering guitar drones, weird electronic rhythms, buzzsaw noises, snippets of dialogue, dream-like passages, atmospheric strings, more noise it's all there. It's like the soundtrack to some unmade David Lynch movie. Or a psychotic version of FRANK ZAPPA's rock ballet "Lumpy Gravy". People into (let's say) EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN, KAYO DOT, BOREDOMS and maybe even O.L.D. and SKINNY PUPPY will find much to love here. It puts that latest (and IMO very overrated) FANTOMAS record to shame.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/infidelcastro

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