Friendly Bears / Infidel? Castro!
split 12"
ESS002

ltd. to 350

Tracks:
Friendly Bears 33RPM
Crustacean Nihilist Society
Horse
Daughter Laughter
Sissy

Infidel? Castro! 45RPM
The 49-Day Period Between Lives (Memories and Premonitions)

Technically the first Epicene Sound Systems release, though it's cataloged as release number 2 (where are you number 1?), we shared pressing duties with Forbes' Rice Control Records for this one making this the record with 2 Bands, 2 labels, 2 record speeds, and 2 formats, since you can also purchase the vinyl with an accompanying CDR.

A face off between two of New York City's finest, yet criminally unknown, groups of head rolling subway dementia. Friendly Bears take the long side with 4 songs of juttering, hypnotically repetitive obtuseness. Jarring yet unabrasive, and smoothed over totally by that cool and tax dollar collected trumpet playing by Mr. Tim Barnes, formerly of Candidria. A serious sweatshop workout by these up and comers and their debut release with hopefully much more to come.

Infidel go dark red and polarize your memories of th' Bears spider web sensibilities in a demonstrative, God-like way. Cut up harshness filled with more off-sampling than the last three Matmos albums. This side'll make your neighbors think your parents never treated your right. A remix and combination of both their past album "Case Studies In Bioentropy" and their forth coming full length "Bioentropic Damage Fractal." Musique Concrete meets abstract metal? This is the violence of hygiene.

REVIEWS

Smother
Infidel? / Castro! combine with Friendly Bears for a magnificent split 12" vinyl record sure to increase the value of wax all over the planet. Both offer eclectic oftentimes bizarre musical journeys. Oddly Infidel? / Castro! create a 12 minute track blending a new song with an old song while Friendly Bears keeps things mathematical with their infusion-laden rock. It also features the horn playing of Tim Byrnes who some may remember for his Candiria contributions. Great stuff and guaranteed to make you the coolest kid on the block. -J-Sin

CALAMITY PROJECT
a day or two before i left on my vacation, i got a package in the mail from the guys in infidel?/castro!. what i found was their latest (i dunno if their new full length came out yet or not) release, a split LP with friendly bears. i later learned that this LP is limited to only 125 copies. so of course i'm honored to be one of the 125 people who owns a copy of this LP. if you're familiar with rice control records at all, you know they have a knack for putting out more avant garde and progressive records. they've worked with bands such as dysrhythmia, jerome's dream, xthoughtstreamsx, and others. with that said, it's no surprise that rice control got ahold of these two bands and put out this very cool record.

the friendly bears portion of the split is sort of a jazzy noise/art rock type deal, using lots of odd time signatures and patterns. this is the first time i've heard friendly bears before, so i'm all new to what they do, but what i discovered is that the band tends to keep things on the more conventional side in the aspect that they use all analog instruments to create their songs. the bears create a nice flow to their side of the split, and they don't really get loud or anything like that. there's a lack of low end, and for such a jazzy sound, it was interesting to hear w/out the low end. also playing with friendly bears on this record was trumpet player tim byrnes, who made significant contributions to candiria songs. excellent stuff, i really enjoyed it.

up next is a band i'm not a stranger to, infidel?/castro!. their contribution to this split is one 12+ minute track entitled "the 49 day period between lives (memories and premonitions)", which essentially blends material from their first full length "case studies in bioentropy" with material from their upcoming full length sequel "bioentropic damage fractal". loaded with harsh noise, ambience, deconstructed metal parts not all that unlike that of ISIS or doom metal bands. not only does this give people a proper introduction to the band, it also leaves people like me wanting to hear the new full length really bad. it's one of the records i'm keeping my eye out for.

all in all, an excellent split! i'm glad that it was sent to me, and i'm eagerly awaiting to hear more material from both of these bands. if you're into experimental/avant garde music, this is one you DEFINITELY NEED TO PICK UP.

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