Review - Phyllomedusa

Phyllomedusa
Puddle Dependency

Oh my frog. This is really something. I...I don't even know how to describe this album. There are elements I recognise - slamming, pit-freindly riffs from metal, gurgling vocals from goregrind, extreme speed from grindcore - but over the top of it all, there's this layer of slimy, sickeningly compelling weirdness that makes the record sound like nothing you've ever heard before, unless you're into the very nastiest areas of noise.

Phyllomedusa is a one-man noise/grind/metal project that produces exclusively frog-themed material, and if you don't think that sounds like the best thing ever then I don't want to know you. Seriously, this guy really loves frogs. Here's an excerpt from his bandcamp page:

Why do people take themselves so seriously? I want nothing more then to shatter you and all of your being. Anything I do is not for you, but for them. I just post stuff because I can. Otherwise I'd have nothing to do with you. This is for them.
And just so it's known, Los Langeros had an EP and a song entitled "Killing Frogs", so I took it upon myself to cover it and change it to the correct way. Killing them instead. Fuck them.
I also re-recorded some older Phyllomedusa tracks as well, but whatever. I've croaked too much. Download it, don't download it. Leave me alone. I'm more concerned about my puddle dependencies. You know, like all the streams that dry out, or deep enough pools of rain water disappearing when it gets too dry. What the fuck are they supposed to do when they lay eggs in those puddles that dry out?

Yeah, it's green. Frogs, motherfucker. 

Ok, the music. First off, this will be the heaviet thing you listen to today. I like to think that I'm not easily shocked, musically speaking, but it's been a long time since I heard anything as brutal as this. First off, the most obvious thing - the vocals.  There are recognisable harsh vocals in there - high screams, growls, a lot of fry - but mostly Phyllomedusa deals in the kind o rumbling-stomac gurgles that you'll find in most gorenoise. If you like that, then cool - most of the time I'm not that into it, but here I think it works. Secondly, the bass - I haven't heard bass this crushing since the last Gets Worse album. This is as heavy as it gets - it's really distorted, much more than I've ever heard from any other artist. This album is intense - no matter what kind of music you're into, nothing prepares  you for a listening experience of this kind. 

 9/10

Breaking Bad and Women

First of all, I’m not here to slag off Breaking Bad – it’s one of the best TV programmes ever made. The acting is phenomenal, the writing is brilliant, the storylines are always engaging, and the characters are brilliantly thought-out and developed. There’s a problem, though – the women. Let’s check out the female characters in the show: there’s Walter’s wife, Skyler, who initially appears to be a solid, dependable person, not to mention extremely likeable, but gradually deteriorates into a neurotic mess; there’s Skyler’s sister, Marie, whose heart is in the right place but who is shrill, nagging and, in the words of her husband, “not exactly an example of perfect mental health; there’s Jesse’s landlady/girlfriend Jane, who originally appears to be a clean-cut, trustworthy recovering drug addict, but who backslides (with Jesse’s assistance) and leads Jesse into a spiral of drugs and self-destruction, culminating in the blackmail of Walter, following which she overdoses. Finally, there’s Gus’ old methylamine provider, whom we meet in season five – she’s a complete mess who gets several people killed through her paranoia and instability. Are you seeing a pattern here?

The word “hysteria” derives from the Greek word “hystera,” meaning uterus. It comes from the belief that mental instability in women is caused by the womb moving around in the body. In Breaking Bad, every major female character is hysterical. That’s not an exaggeration – literally every single one is mentally unstable. The male characters have their fair share of problems, but none of them are quivering wrecks like Skyler. Mike never breaks down, Walter just becomes steadily more aggressive, Jesse has serious wobbles but always gets back on his feet, Gus is a stone-cold badass who it’s impossible to imagine on a psychiatrist’s couch – the list goes on.

To clarify, I’m not saying that the writers of Breaking Bad are misogynists, but there is a misogynist undercurrent present in the presentation of women in the programme. Its always annoying when a TV programme falls back on stale clichés, but especially so when the clichés are sexist, and especially especially when the programme in question is something like Breaking Bad, which is never clichéd in any other way.