BUM GRAVY – EXCRETION 2000 (ANTIGEN RECORDS)

BUM GRAVY – EXCRETION 2000 (ANTIGEN RECORDS)

This was a whole Colchester music phenomenon that passed me by first time round.  Where was I?  I truly missed out; this is not normal music or local scene fodder.  It is the sound of destruction and hell.

For the longest time Colchester’s music scene thrived on metal.  When grunge hit bands adopted such leanings but took more the route of the Kerrang version of proceedings rather than indie element.  It was just about being loud.

There isn’t much known about Bum Gravy.  Investigating online it would seem for most it was all about the name first and the music second.  And this was a sentiment that popped up in both the pages of the NME and on the airwaves of Radio One.  This was notoriety for all the wrong reasons.

Excretion 2000 is a sixteen track compilation released in 2001 by Antigen Records collating their entire output which was three and a half cassettes (including the titles “01” and “Smear Campaign”) and one seven inch single.

Brutal from the beginning this music is a rattling chain riot incurring distortion coupled with relentless guitar whistle and crazed, echoed vocals being used as weaponry.  There is nothing subtle or intricate about this noise, it is the sound of technology being abused and maimed.  Here rides a swamp where only the grandest of gestures are able to steer the ship.

The first comparison that springs to mind is The Jesus And Mary Chain considering the painful trough of feedback and distortion the listener is being dragged through.  And on that vibe the vocals are very much in The Jesus Lizard territory sounding like David Yow raging in a hall of mirrors.  Added to the mix is a blunt metal percussion that coasts both a high wave of Big Black as well as sunken punk atrocities and a breadbin/tin can din.

This music is devoid of hook.  There is an attitude which screams Einstuerzende Neubauten and that of collapsing new buildings while the apparent dark sense of humour reminds of Al Jourgensen and Ministry sans salvation.

Listening to Bum Gravy is a pneumatic experience, it will drill your arse.  In a rare piece of info found online they are said to have existed between 1991 and 1995 and were “6 or so people from Colchester who were bored with what constituted independent music around that time”.  Listed as a career highlight is supporting Silverfish at Clapham Grand, which feels a suitable pairing as both acts existed to express similar snaps.

This material is ugly stuff.  “NeR” provides the aforementioned Jesus And Mary Chain experience before “NeR (Version)” follows doing the same in an even more extreme manner.  Then there is the total destruction of “Bum Gravy Bum Dub” which is relentless and basically the sound of things going wrong as interpreted by heavily distorted guitar.

The single “Fat Digester” is a tank of a track which pummels its why through existence for six minutes before “Super M” takes over on the flipside in slightly more driven fashion while remaining a hammer all the same.  Imagine “Silver Machine” done on a very bad and angry day.

The amazingly entitled “Anal Tap” is pure fraggle rock while the equally well-christened “3^rd Degree Sperm Bum” heavily echoes the spine of “Suck You Dry” by Mudhoney while inhabited all kinds of sparkling baubles hung from the branches.

There appears a brief obsession with Japan as the nine second long “Tokyo Sex Wall” farts seemingly in a gesture to uncover the brown note before the less subtly named “Tokyo Fuck Loop” puts more effort into being greasy.

Songs such as “OCS” and “Swamp Donkey” prove pure Butthole Surfers, the latter beginning with A Clockwork Orange like intro and crazy religious sample, which remains beneath the radar for the full six minutes in what is quite the subversive gesture.  Little is coherent or convenient about this band.

It all remains dense until the end as “Rock-U” serves a painful drum march for 5.55 minutes and the previously unreleased “Mercury Rising” reverberates for some time after the disc has finished.

How green was my fucking valley and by valley I mean the Colchester music scene.  Not many acts ever made it out of the town.  Some deserved to but most didn’t.  Bum Gravy served up something superior.  Their place is history should be cement even if that cement be used as shoes.

They broke my stereo.

Thesaurus moment: despoil.

Bum Gravy

Antigen Records