KATADREUFFE – quel gargantua!
(CD/free download, Narrominded)
Do-it-yourself can be many
things, and some of those include paperwork and scissors and some include
gigantomania, and some include both. The Dutch rock band Katadreuffe is one
of those to combine the two and also the hypermodern act of giving away your
music for free (hoping returns will flow in some other way, be it monetary
in concerts and merchandise, be it as honor and fame via blogrolls, fanlinks
and virtual contacts.) After a full album free to give away Katadreuffe have
chosen to compliment a free foursong EP with a limited edition CD with an
exceptional handmade cover, instructions on how to make the cover yourself
included. I am not sure if the instructions are for people downloading, so
they can give themselves the full experience, or for people buying the CD so
they can rip it off an sell it on ebay as original. And what does the term
“original” mean anyways nowadays?
Aside from the packaging and
marketing idiosyncracies, Katadreuffe play an energetic kind of intriguing,
unique noiserock with heavy banging drums, distorted vocals and a guitar
shrieking and screeching as invasive as a siren synth or electric wires
being plugged directly into your head. From the first bass lead on
“Porlock” the four piece band makes it clear that the next fourteen
minutes will be about wild, unrelentless energy. Like a noise rock version
of Girls Against Boys they burn it down and rip it up. I am not sure what
the basic outset for this band was, but I am pretty sure it includes albums
by Distorted Pony and Brainiac, an excess of distortion pedals and a big
dose of amphetamine. There is just too much distorted energy in these four
songs to let them go unnoticed. They seem to force themselves into the
foreground.
Moreover, Maarten Broekhuizen,
the singer likes to drop the syllabels at the end of words like The Fall’s
Mark E. Smith, which gives them a special Alternative Late Eighties Flavor
on top. Broekhuizen is also responsible for the wildest guitar distortion
and de-tuning since World Domination Enterprises. Or is it the other
guitarist Ruben Braeken, or do the distorted synthie sounds come from
Michiel van Overmeire, who plays bass and keyboards? It is hard to say, for
instance when you take the short but effectively evil, high pitched intro to
“miniature matadors”. None of these guys is older than 30, so where
would they know all these bands that I mentioned from? Maybe they skimmed
through likeminded blogs and other internet platforms, which would mean that
the net is good for something at last.
