Skrapez is a crew from San Diego that's bringing some of the hardest and rawest drums to ever be recorded. Label head Tenshun and compadre Deth Shepherd compose the instrumentals and are sometimes accompanied by the lyrics of the Creatures and Kilowattz crew extensions. They also tear up needles with seriously deadly scratching skills. These beats are on some corrupt, adulterated, b-movie horror tip. Experimental noise, distortion, haunted rock and blues loops, death bells, heavy low end…it's a halloween bag full of razor apples and poisoned taffy. The music is pressed in extreme low fidelity to make sure you'll get the most abrasive, grungiest sound possible. Your ears will feel pain.
The Skrapez catalogue runs deep and mostly consist of singles and EPs. Tenshun cuts his plates with his own mono lathe and designs the inner sheets with psychedelic patterns and ink sketches. In the end you get a nice custom, handmade package. It's real dedication and shows how the combination of art and vinyl should be done. The runs are numbered and almost always come in very small, limited quantities. He doesn't believe in represses so once they're gone, i'm afraid they're really gone.
No one's doing this type of thing so you should look out for Skrapez crew if and when they roll through your spot. Samples are provided below in hopes that you'll throw your support their way.
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1. Tenshun: Deformed Bodies (7", 2008)
This wax here is cut by Peter King who apparently invented the process of polycarbonate lathe cutting in the '80s. Really dope piece altogether. The caption below the art reads "A freak with legs instead of arms." Very ogreish indeed. A constant low pitch drone carries the track into the mountain of purgatory where 10shun sits, letting loose on the drums.
2. Tenshun: Sight & Sound (Cassette, 2009)
It's very old school of 10shun to continually release music on vinyl AND tape. Both sides are continuous mixes and also re-appear on the accompanying DVD as backing tracks to the visuals. The snippet posted is the grim concluding segment of the track entitled "Coldwind." Beware, the decibels are off the scale.
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3. Tenshun and Myself: Skrapez 4 (7", 2006)
The 4th in the series of untitled Skrapez 7"'s is also one of my favorites. Side A contains a hefty load of eardrum terror. The re-occurring piano loop is disturbingly creepy and induces you further into psychosis as the song progresses. This is murder etched into microgrooves.
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4. Deth Shepherd: Nam (CD, 2006)
Nam is a mini CD from Deth Shepherd where he proves to match the percussive ability of front man Tenshun. In fact, much of the music provided from Skrapez comes from this symbiotic pairing of disordered brains. Clicks and pops are inherent in the song, providing a billowy fog where a doomed organ repeats itself.
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5. Tenshun B/W Psychopop: Skrapez 5 (7", 2008)
The sample posted here is from Psychopop, who is one and the same as Deth Shepherd. The side B track "Heavy Machinery Drogg" is a certified banger, with a middle eastern melody looped over pounding bass. The second part of the song is equally as hard, with the Shepherd going old testament on the drums.
You can purchase Skrapez music from the following sites:
1. Drum rhythm is similar to your grandpa's heart after a Halloween scare gone wrong. Possibly what a surfer hears after hitting his head on coral.
ReplyDelete2. If Friday the 13th for NES had a sequel, this would play in forest level 3-2 as you searched for the torch item.
3. Beethoven just had a violent seizure and fell down the stairs. No, not the dog.
4. This plays in the mind of a criminal who dares to steal a 7-11 hotdog with two strikes on their record.
5. Aladdin just discovered Iago the parrot just ate his last pack of Ritz. He is not amused.