(Aiding & Abetting no. 264) Anyone who would give their songs names like "Cry Me a River, Elizabeth Nietzsche" and "SS Fuck Puppets of the She-Wolf Ilsa" must be dreadfully interesting. Those titles are funny on too many levels to count. Autodidact caterwauls its way into the senses with the scratchy, power feel of early Godflesh while leaning on distorted melody and mechanistic percussion for wider appeal. My understanding is that this band is from Austin. At least, that's where the thing was recorded. But it could be from anywhere. This music not only sounds antisocial, it veers off on so many arcane paths that even I (who love this sorta thing) get lost now and then. Still, the mechanical rhythm structure generally gets things back on track. And no matter how wiggy things tend to get, there's always something interesting going on behind the wall of sonic disturbances. Trying to pierce that shield of white noise isn't easy, but it can be fun. Yep, another one of those head scratchers I love so much. The 50 or so of my readers who dig this sorta thing are probably chomping at the bit by now. The rest of you can move on, your sanity still intact. - Jon Worley
(Ampersand Etcetera 7/2005) An anthematic progressive-ish rock album, with a propensity to walls of sound. A long rhythm loop under layers of guitar that are rhythm and dirty solo in Antu¹s theme sets the scene. An ebb and flow of feedbacky buzzy solo that forms a ground for more direct guitar and drums in Cry me a river, Elizabeth Nietzsche. Strident aggression in both music and the poem-lyric of Slow morning eyes on fire, then a Joy Division feel to Sonata with a buzzing guitar, growled vocals and faster pace. Dagny vs the aristocracy of pull emerges from slowly unwinding feedback into pulsing guitar, speeding up and swirling becoming industrial and dark and lovely. A slow tune runs through the dense visceral SS puppets, and finally Madame curie¹s illuminating discovery has a JD rhythm again with a high distant guitar and buzzing fuzz under. And finally an un-named track with cymbals, feedback and vocals that is slow and builds and opens as it progresses. A dense album of power-guitar bombast that is a powerful ride. - Jeremy Keens
(Dream no. 6) Some truly evil sounding blends of thickly creepy male witch gutteral intonations and thunderous walls of guitar gravity. Antisocial lyrical themes, and gut curdling rumble. But, any fan of Dagny’s can’t be all bad. - George Parsons
(Neo-Zine) Autodidact play a very booming but gloomy heavy instrumental music with a bit of a mechanical sound to it. They are pretty much unlike any other band that I have heard. (Godflesh may be the closest, but not really.) There is a lot of distortion, and a very moody feel throughout. The percussion can be strong and repetitive. The guitars can get slow and monotonous. That’s all part of the plan to get that heavy industrial feel to the music. This rocks only where it is supposed to. I’d give them a spin if you are up for something completely different. The CD has some sore of feminine theme. I think its worth mentioning all of the curious and inventive song titles: 1) Antu’s Theme (The Great God Anu Commands You) 2) Cry me a river, Elizabeth Nietzche 3) Slow morning eyes on fire 4) Sonata for Lillian Rearden (The politics of Entropy) 5) Dagny vs. the aristocracy of pull 6) SS fuck puppets of the she-wolf Ilsa 7) Madame Curie’s illuminating discovery. See what I mean? Somebody spent a long time on the song titles alone. - C.H.C.
(Empty) Public Eyesore’s a great label. I heard they were the biggest CDR label in the world which I have no means to know for sure (and what kind of a glory is this anyway) but what I do know is they have one of the greatest pair of ears this world has known. Not that I like all their releases, but they’re all likeable if you follow me. This one is super heavy mostly instrumental droning sludgecore (like most sludge is nowadays since I should call this drone metal –ain’t you tired of the 12450th genre name of the week?) that’s as good as Sunn O))) and quite a lot more original and personal than say, yeah, Isis if you wish. And if a title like ‘cry me a river, Elisabeth Nietzsche’ doesn’t convince you then I guess over an hour of quality for such a cheap price will. - Del Nista
