Gotta Read The Labels: Nefarious Industries — NEF100: Burn After Hearing
Various Artists
NEF100: Burn After Hearing
Nefarious Industries
Released: 6-14-24
What’s the survivability rate these days for an independent record label? How well do those survivability odds play out when the record label curates and issues metal-centric instrumental prog or thrash-leaning jazz fusion? Since 2010, Nefarious Industries has platformed such bands, celebrating a roster whose most shared musical values revolve around LOUD and COOL.
It’s likely that at some point, the realization set in over the course of simply experiencing high school and chronologically ascending into adulthood that the truly cool individuals you met along the way were the ostracized oddballs whose drive to color outside the lines unfairly sentenced them to “Subdivisions”-level outsider’dom. This is how I’ve viewed Nefarious Industries for as long as I’ve been aware of the label: as sound merchants for intense geeks, purveyors of eccentric aural ferocity. My intro to Nefarious Industries was via the excellent El Drugstore / A Fucking Elephant split, Silver Medals For Everyone / Dope Soaked and Wow. It was a strong enough introduction to the label that I’ve been following the label’s output with earned dedication. I own two copies of it.
My personal opinions aside, Nefarious Industries has issued a compilation of new material from selected artists/bands from its roster titled NEF100: Burn After Hearing. This is the label’s 100th release and follows an influx of featured singles that have been surfacing online for the past few months, which showcase well the variety of sounds the label offers.
NEF100: Burn After Hearing is built from material exclusive to this collection, all of which will either beat up your ears or expand some lanes a little bit in terms of personal taste. As the arpeggiated and charred notes of El Drugstore’s “Rural Ecstasy” introduce the release, the winding loop of calculated instrumentation precedes the off-kilter guttural synth pop of The DRX’s “Diamond Maker.” Arbogast takes things up a notch with the thrashy “Purgative,” which leads into the post-hardcore of Risk Relay’s “Intervention Undivine.”
This compilation really is a thoughtfully sequenced mixtape, combining styles that are challenging (Cinema Cinema), abrasive (Zvi), darkly ambient (Zevious), aggressive (Nequient), or melodic (Humans Etcetera). As further incentive to explore the compilation, there’s even a good-time cover of CCR’s “Green River,” performed with bar band flair by Psychosomatic.
Links:
Nefarious Industries — Official site / Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram / X (formerly Twitter)
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Earsplit PR:
Following several months of steady single drops, the massive NEF100: Burn After Hearing compilation LP from Nefarious Industries is finally out today, delivering new, exclusive tracks from fourteen of the label’s eclectic flagship artists. Each song from NEF100: Burn After Hearing has been systematically released across all digital platforms over the past several months, with the latest four to drop including "Diamond Maker" by THE DRX, "Nose-Level Collision" by CINEMA CINEMA, "Odd Zoom" by HUMANS ETCETERA, and "Death Wind" by ZEVIOUS.
Nefarious Industries proudly celebrates 100 catalog releases with NEF100: Burn After Hearing, a collection of fourteen exclusive tracks that showcase the harrowing sonic landscape of the label’s eclectic roster. Originally founded as a collective of like-minded individuals seeking an outlet to release off-kilter music, Nefarious Industries has grown into a label that exhibits the most adventurous and challenging artists it can manage to locate.
NEF100: Burn After Hearing features new and exclusive songs from instrumental deviants and label co-founders EL DRUGSTORE, freshly reunited sludge thrashers ARBOGAST, D-beat technicians NEQUIENT, dissonant post-punk veterans RISK RELAY, and ambient/dark-hardcore alchemist GRIDFAILURE. The label is especially excited to resurrect long-dormant avant-garde metal ensemble THE DRX and hypnotic doom-jazz trio ZEVIOUS. The stacked track list also includes crossover thrash veterans PSYCHOSOMATIC breathing new life into a well-known classic, as well as fresh material from post-hardcore noise-mongers BEDTIMEMAGIC, esoteric riff-trippers GEMATRIA, ambient drone mastermind ZVI, garage/math rock duo FUCK YOUR BIRTHDAY, art-jazz punks CINEMA CINEMA, and experimental grunge collective HUMANS ETCETERA.
NEF100: Burn After Hearing was mastered at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice, Dysrhythmia) who has handled mastering duties for an array of Nefarious Industries artists. The collage-style artwork was handled by Eric Nyffeler, responsible for many of the label’s releases (East Of The Wall, A Fucking Elephant, El Drugstore, Maid Myriad, among others), and the layout was handled by label head Greg Meisenberg.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
