Album Review: “Do the Fright Thing Vol. 8” compilation

So here it is over a month after Halloween.  Thanksgiving has passed, and it’s already the Christmas season.  So why, you might rightfully ask, am I reviewing and still listening to the Super Dark Collective’s Halloween compilation “Do the Fright Thing Volume 8”?  Because it kicks SO MUCH ASS!

If one were unfamiliar with the deep, vast currents of the American underground, one could easily listen to the “Do the Fright Thing, Vol. 8” compilation and assume it’s scary, dark, and weird solely because of the fact that it’s a Halloween album. However, anyone that has been paying attention to, or is interested in, the underground music scene (especially that of the Capital District) should hear this record and understand how much more representative, important, and vital it is to defining the breadth and depth of the avant-garde in the Capital District, the Northeast, and beyond.  

The album is filled with hard rocking hip hop beats, overdriven noisy guitars, and plain straight up harsh electronic noise.  Vocals are typically loud, angry and even downright vicious.  This is a terrific cross section of the kind of sounds you hear if you go to local small club shows pretty much anywhere in America, but especially upstate New York and the Northeast.  So if you ARE a fan of indigenous, original, non-commercial music, you’re going to love this. If you aren’t, it’s an excellent lesson in where underground music is right now AND where it’s most likely going in the next 25 years or so.

It begins with an aptly dark and spooky intro by local hip hop artist Mundy, filled with samples, dark organs, screams, and cries of those that sound like they’re about to be tortured.  And if that’s too genuinely scary for you, it’s immediately followed by a harsh-sounds-meets-campy-horror-songs track by ‘Professor Bloodfiend’, someone even those of us that are big fans of the local scene and Super Dark shows aren’t familiar with. (There are a lot of noms de guerres on this comp but most of the others either include a famous name or two, or a clever hint to let you know who it’s by.)  

And then the comp is kicked into the stratosphere with the almost unbearably terrific “Theme to Howling II” by the long running power electronic duo ToUGH, made up of local glam punk king Drew Benton (Haunted Cat, Complicated Shirt) and former Trojan Chris Skinner (Denim and Diamonds). This spooky hard hitting drum machine track walks a comfortable line between old school Run-D.M.C. style hip hop — including the phenomenal glam thrash guitar attack featured on said — and postmodern noisecore electroclash.  And to be blunt, it fucking rocks so hard it’s Queen-like in its eminent superlatives.  

The rest of the comp contains so many tracks it’s hard to keep up, moving from style to style, hip hop to dark wave, indie rock to thrash punk, everything that the underground has been serving up to local crowds since the late seventies. Yet throughout there are definite strands of connectivity, most of which is provided by the excellent production work of Shane Sanchez and Paul Coleman, both in the choices of tracks to include, order, transitions, and especially mixing and mastering an album that’s both punishingly noisy and eerie enough to serve as any horror movie soundtrack, yet catchy and interesting enough to be listened to quietly in its own right (over and over if you’re like me).  

Much as I’d like to praise the remaining 31 tracks in depth, there’s so much here that I think I’d break some kind of Nippertown record… either for the longest review, or the article that the most people stop reading by the 16th paragraph.  

Some tracks should to be highlighted for various reasons; for example, the excellent collaboration between Jason (‘Wolfman’) Martin and 100 Psychic Dreams (Shane Sanchez). This is a dream team up between the lo-fi horror electronics of the Psychic Dreams and the typically self conscious intellectual rapid fire lines of Jason Martin, that always include an elusive yet overwhelming sense of humor if you’re paying attention. And I’m not just talking about the “performance enhancing sportswear” or “attack moondog the Protector” lyrics, but how the rant degrades into the echoes of Captain Beefheart’s Dropout Boogie with the “adapt her adapt her!” lines…

And then there’s the incredible fast thrash of phenomenal local post-hardcore group Wet Specimens that, as always, hits you so hard in the head (and the raised fist) that it’s not only terrifying but enervating and inspiring.  There’s the prescient talents of Aunt Lonely’s “Mini Dungeon” that sounds like future hyper video game music.  And the juxtaposition of laid back beats and horrifying stream of consciousness lyrics of local hip hop Soo do koo’s “jackolanterns”…

And so much more… where to begin, where to end?  We’ve got tracks from overly prolific constantly performing local legends like Sinkcharmer, Steve Hammond, and Mr. Cancelled all in a block…. and later on other prolific lo-fi recorders like k. Sonin (who’s track “Amber” was unexpectedly loved by everyone other than this writer) and Asa Morris.  And of course there’s the omnipresent E.S. Cormac with an excellent lo-fi noise rock track AND a performance from new trio Merci Van whose shoegaze stylings he lays down the beats for, Super Dark Collective superstar Christopher Brown featured in four tracks and four different groups on the record (Couples Costume, King of Nothing Nowhere..), up and coming hard partying surf group the Sugar Hold early on the record and bookended by its visionary drummer and soundman, John Olander, later in his guise as avant-garde abstract electronic waves dealer ‘Art Class Warfare’…

One could write several articles alone on all the local greats collected here and still miss so much that the author would be hung in effigy (this writer knows what he thinks is a good deal, but is unfamiliar enough with fully half of the groups on the album). Suffice it to say that in addition to collecting all the great legends, this is an eclectic collection of locals not often associated with the avant-garde noise scene; like the U2-like Rhoseway, lo-fi folk of Ryan Stewart, the equally lo-fi extra spooky track by the Headless Relatives, the quirky, undeniably catchy pop tune about the Jewish Golem of Prague by Nathan Meltz (House of Tomorrow, Machine Music).

And have I mentioned the track where Scum Couch’s Mark O’Brien sings a devastating (and devastatingly catchy — especially that rolling bassline into the chorus!) tune about the escape from the prison at Dannemora backed by a group called Off Hours?

There simply isn’t enough time or ink to describe how terrific, eclectic, diverse, inclusive, and yet all somehow of a similar stripe this compilation of tracks is.  So the best thing to say is get yourself a copy!  There is literally something here for everyone, and even if you’re not particularly interested in some of the music or are intimidated by electronic noise or avant-garde it’s a terrific education on the local scene past and present!  There are a million reasons to listen to every fine track on this groundbreaking compilation, but only one reason not to. Because you’re too FRIGHTENED to. You’re not frightened, are you??!!!  Then DO THE FRIGHT THING!