Evol: Punani Shell
Scarcelight Recordings

Created in 2002 and edited a year later, Punani Shell is the first release from Evol (Barcelona-based Alku label-heads Roc, Anna, and, apparently, their chinchilla Perkele) since the group's 3-inch 1999 Principio. That the latter was issued by Mego is telling as the new EP (though issued on Scarcelight) distills the Mego sound into a single 22-minute piece of seething, convulsive splatter. In what can only be a classic example of humour at its driest, a liner note instructs the listener to “Play Loud!!!” but even a lowered volume won't contain the ferocious brutality of its blistering shards and blasts, fractured pinprick clatter, and grinding noise. Cold and merciless, Evol allows merciful moments of silence to sunder the music's fractal fury.

February 2005