Duchesses - Estupet

Ha, Apop describes this as "black death noise" but these girls know how to rock creating a fine, discordant din that draws upon post-punk and hardcore. These girls have a list of influences as well stocked as your local record store but some pointers might include Rudimentary Peni, Melt-Banana, Stretchheads, Poison Girls. 'The Virgin Monkey' is all thunderous rolling and crashing drums with hyper-guitar woosh and clipped yelps; 'The Cock Block' is full on hyper-thrash and with its low end bass and free-form psych guitars screech fest 'The Pit Bulimia' clatters along like an all girl Skullflower with PMT. The final track 'The Laughing Jaina / Wacko Jackal' - almost snares a loose jazz-feel before plunging into a massive roar of airplane noises. The entire thing is shot through with a queasy production that just adds to the crazed outpourings going on here. It's a chaotic mish mash of attitude and energy over musical competency. Duchesses are an all-girl experimental outfit from Seattle and Estupet was recorded while they were graduating high school. Utterly charming. These are the kind of girls you'd want to take home.

The original issue of Estupet runs for a mere 15 minutes, the remainder of the 31 minutes is taken up with remixes from Weasel Walter, Sunshine Militant Childrens Hour, Ops Spirits, Qulfus, and Blanketship. Weasel Walter transforms 'The Fox Hunt' into a glorious squall of tumultuous rhythms and symphonic bombast like Chicks On Speed, Ops Spirit takes the same source through passages of noise, pulsing bass, machine-gun drum rolls, clipped yelps, while Qulfus dresses up 'Pit Bulimia' with a mass of samples and swingin' film music. For more information go to www.apoprecords.com