Reviews:
(Aiding and Abetting) Now, this is the stuff of wee vinyl. Absolutely wacked out tunage squeezed into a really tight space. This is meant to be played at 33, but first time through I listened to the Ovo at 45 and really liked it. It's a lot meaner at 33. Take your pick. As for the Smut, there are eight (yes, indeed) blasts of agonizing destruction. Think "You Suffer," except more of a no wave feel. And, you know, some of these pieces get close to a minute in length. My eardrums are bleeding. - Jon Worley
(Dead Angel) OvO are an Italian duo (Stefania Pedretti and Brune Dorella) who perform with violin, guitar, and drums, with previous releases on Load, Public Eyesore, and other with-it labels; Smut is an Indiana duo (Keith Wright and Justin Rhody) on drums, guitar, and vocals, who are considerably less arcane (and a lot closer to pure-ass punk than any band I can recall hearing on the label yet) and possessed of a flip, sarcastic sense of humor (embodied in titles like "big business can suck it" and "rock the prostate"). OvO's one long piece, "canaglia," is a slow, throbbing mess of inhuman, ass-quaking bass, clattering drums, and diabolical witch-vocals with a sound so alien that it's at first difficult to tell whether the single should be played at 33 or 45 RPM (the former makes the most sense, I think). Smut's side ("stakes is high") consists of eight incredibly brief bursts of psychotic angst propelled by wind-tunnel drumming, pained shouting, and screechy guitar, with a sound that's somewhere between really primitive punk and early black metal (but without the reverb overkill and eternal crippling obesiance to EEEEEEEEEVIL). The pairing of such an unlikely couple of wildly different bands is either absolutely inspired or totally daft; fortunately both bands have something interesting going for them. Bonus points for the intriguing inserts with cryptic black and white art, including one that appears to have absolutely nothing to do with either band or the label. - RKF
(Dusted) Smut vomits up about eight or so tracks of lo-fi, hyperspeed blastcore, with a live drummer pushing the limits of human exertion for seconds at a time. With nothing but guitar backing them up, they remind me of a more vitriolic, less technical version of Discordance Axis or Conelrad. Two Great song titles on here: “Big Business Can Suck It” (yes, they certainly can) and “My Views (Change Over Time).” Italy's Ovo, one of the strangest noise/performance outfits around, offers up one sluggish, sickening track of throat-curdling punishment, wallowing in its own filth with a dementia normally reserved for the committed. - Doug Mosurak
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