I’ve come to the conclusion that there is some pretty crazy shit coming out of Eastern Europe. First there was Rational Diet, then Ne Zhdali, and now Merde sur le Mere. From the name of this Croatian band and its album cover, my conclusion could be taken literally. Once you get past Merde sur le Mere’s brashness, you end up with some of the wildest experimental / free jazz sounds on the far side of John Zorn.

Pure Clasic is a unrelenting barrage of sounds . In describing the music, it is tempting to use the analogy of throwing enough of something against the wall to make it stick. However, there are plenty of times in which chaos turned into moments of structured beauty. Merde Sul le Mere often strolls the balancing line between free jazz and post-modern classicism much like the music you may hear from the third stream ECM label or Chicago’s AACM. While there are five tracks, I urge the listener to especially concentrate on the first and last. “Zoo Melancholic ftc Anus 2″ is a seven minute free jazz romp reminiscent of the wildest from Albert Ayler or The Art Ensemble of Chicago. “Live in Sezana” is electronic industrial overload that manage to mesmerize of 17 minutes. However I really love “Beautifuly Piece of Depression”, a swampy piece of music with a tortured vocal backed by jazz tinted trumpet, bass, percussion and guitar. The free online album is released by the Benekkea netlabel who calls it “probably the best experimental net album of the year”. I could argue with that statement but it wouldn’t be easy.

The album is available by separate tracks or album zip in 320kbps MP3. Update: Pure Clasic has changed to the NMFSD Netlabel where the album is still freely offered.

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