Avery McKenzie is an electronic artist – but a musical one… not a noise one. Everyone knows by now that I don’t care about noise. I lost interest 500 “bands” into it and everyone’s stuff starts to sound like static. I have soft spots for certain pioneers of the genre and for artists who come from a more musical bent with their noise instead of “wow this is harsh.”
“Flesh Eaters” is not harsh. It’s a nice listen for meditating and relaxing but when you listen you may think I am completely insane by saying this relaxes me.
Track 1: Sunrise. This actually does sound like a sunrise. Nothing to say except this is the sun rising. Have you ever watched it rise? Go out in the woods and watch it. Then come home and listen to this with the memory of watching your mind. I’ve seen so many that this track is pretty perfect for me.
Track 2: Catching the Green Butterfly. Is the title a reference to absinthe? It comes off as a demented Turbografx-16 game soundtrack. Something like Alien Crush if the demons in Devil’s Crush programmed Alien Crush. I don’t get why Avery isn’t currently making music for games. He should be getting paid to do it.
Track 3: Back to the Mundane. Holy shit this thing takes a turn right at the beginning. My mind has a tough time wrapping around this kind of jittery thing. Holy fuck! Ok this is if your arcade machine was broken, in a room with a bunch of other machines that were turned on with volumes on 10. I used to frequent the arcade when I was in the city and this is what it sounded like. It’s the one that’s broken, but louder than the ones next to it, but in the background, you still hear that god damn loud Congo Bongo and Mr. Do music trying to make it’s way to your ear before Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back does.
Track 4: Birth Death Cycle. And it begins, what Avery is best at, taking simple little melodies that are really nice and perverting the living fuck out of them. What the Hell, Avery? It’s fucking Pac-Man! I swear he’s in this song. Perverted noises that aren’t noises. Reflects the pain of birth, life, and death with the screaming and assorted moaning in the background. Pretty sure that’s what he’s going for here.
Track 5: Magic. A song that should be on a video game now, especially one of those retro style racing video games people make now. I love the robotic voice in here. Why isn’t this guy making money doing music for video games? What I really love about this song is it reminds me of a faster, in the same style of, electro fantasy fuck tune like the main theme of “Tomie.” Kind of disarming but not.
Track 6: Wheel Of Time. Nintendo music from a Puzzle RPG like Lolo III. Only done with an off-putting twist like maybe Avery snorted a bunch of coke before making this one. I get visions of Lolo and Yoshi trying to have sex, but they can’t figure out how to. 10/10 for the wrestling game style breakdown midway through it.
Track 7: Climbing the Great Mountain. This song reminds me of Avery’s older works like Roadkill Sodomizer. It’s insane really. Some people may hear it and say “Yeah electronic bullshit whatever” but the cultured ear (as mine truly are) can hear the murder. This is, what I can surmise at least, a song about a human being climbing that great mountain to murder/suicide. Bear with me on that one, but have a listen. It’s an homage to how much shit you’d have to put yourself through – you, the normal person – to actually pull something that disgusting off. It builds up to the “Oh, just relax” but then is like no fuck you! You just fucked up!
Track 8: Falling Off Said Mountain. Obviously this is the continuation of the previous track and it reflects that Avery might actually be a crazy man.
Track 9: Lobotomy. More stuff that reminds me of Roadkill Sodomizer. That’s an endorsement, in case you don’t know. What I like about this song is it clearly is an unused song from a Gauntlet style video game. It is purely Gauntlet, in fact. Avery. Get a fucking manager. Get into the video game business, you will be heralded as the next true electro master. There is no reason this shit shouldn’t be in a game right now getting royalties for you.
Track 10: Sunset. I get the distinct feeling that Avery has watched many sunrises and many sunsets, as have I. And this does indeed, sound just like a sunset. I can not put that into any better words so I should leave it at that.
In closing, 99% of electronic music – and 90% of music in general – is complete trash to me. I hate it. I think it’s fucking stupid and I hate the internet age where any tool can sit and think he or she is now an artist. Since we’re on Soundcloud, immediately after Avery’s music was finished (Sunset features some silence at the end so it was nice…) another shitty electronic noise idiot’s attempt at making “sounds” comes blaring through my speakers and I won’t mention the name but please just fuck off. Listen to Flesh Eaters if you have any sort of intelligence left in you after that 18th burrito.
