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I don't remember exactly where it was that I first discovered Bagman's blackened fusion of misanthropic electronics and oppressive harsh noise (probably the Men Who Solicit Sex disc that came out on Murderabilia), but I know that it had instantly seeped into my brain, infecting me with an utterly malignant atmosphere. This one-man UK outfit has been producing this pitch-black noise since at least 2008, and has already amassed a pretty impressive list of releases since then, each one a sonic representation of abject horror, the residue remaining after one gazes unblinkingly into the bottomless abyss that is humanity's capacity for evil and cruelty. When I throw on one of the few Bagman releases I've been able to track down, it feels like every mote of light in the room is being slowly crushed, leaving behind a caput mortuum of dread and disgust. Bagman's recordings ooze with the unfiltered horror of the human mind, translated into a series of violent audio frequencies. This stuff ain't no fun, that's for sure. Carrying on the tradition of transgression found in the early UK power electronics scene but combining it with a much more brutal and suffocating sonic assault, Bagman's early recordings are rumbling, bestial noisescapes littered with the voices of hate-mongers and murderers, criminals and degenerates and scenes of sexual deviance all suffused into the crushing walls of black static filth, junk metal devastation and monstrous electronics. Previously out of print, three of Bagman's malevolent early CDR releases have now been reissued on limited-edition cassette through the Infernal Machines imprint with all new artwork, recommended only to enthusiasts of the most nihilistic strains of extreme electronic noise and rabid industrial horror.
A gaze into the abyss. Originally released in 2009 as a limited edition CDR on the Greek label Subliminal Recordings, Bagman's In Their Blood And From The Gutter is one of his earliest recordings, a foul, hateful blast of brutal harsh noise and screeching feedback littered with disturbing incoherent samples, recordings of far-right American political extremists, and blasts of garbled verbal hatred. These four tracks stretch out for nearly half an hour, each one an expansive blast of crushing distorted rumble and caustic black static, blasts of howling feedback carved into strange rhythmic forms, the cacophony of collapsing structures often breaking away to reveal a seething core of bestial vocalizations and sputtering low-fi drone. Massive low-end synthesizers growl through the suffocating blizzard of crackling static and roaring distressed vocals, bringing a doom-laden feel to tracks like "Breath Constriction" and "Hunting Ground". Ultra-heavy, hellish electronic noise that often steps into power electronics territory without losing it's chaotic, skin-shredding abrasiveness. It is some of the heaviest material that this project has produced, fueled by a monstrous throbbing black rhythmic power, those distorted rumbling synthesizers pulsating like the core of a dying black star. Bagman strips away the civilized face of humanity, and finds a festering, demonic evil leering back at us.
Limited to two hundred copies on pro-manufactured cassette.
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