MUTATORS
RELEASES
MUTATORS
Secret Life LP
NOMI005
Mutators lie at the heart of Vancouver's resurrection, spreading the word via multiple North American tours and a variety of releases. Now Secret Life captures them at their most effective and exacting. This set of 13 tightly structured songs is full of venom and surprising hooks. Influences exist without mimicry. Attack and release proves more powerful than unrelenting scree. Sing along at your own peril.
Initial pressing of 820: 408 on blue; 412 on red. Includes full-size, double-sided insert with full color photo printed on recycled paper at Hemlock Printers
23 of the blue vinyl copies are full blue & white marble. SOLD OUT!
Side A:
1. Trick Animals
2. People
3. Black Room
4. Psychic Tapes
5. Hidden Place
6. Get It Clean
7. Bourgeois Fantasy
Side B:
1. Police Eyelash
2. Bent Backwards
3. Soft Pyramid
4. Youth
5. Siamese Skulls
6. Instinct
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V/A
EMERGENCY ROOM VOL 1 LP+BOOK
GROSSMOD07 / NOMI002
this record is to document a year of one of the best alternative spaces currently operating in canada. THE EMERGENCY ROOM is located in vancouver’s rat and drug infested downtown eastside. a literal underground, this basement warehouse is an indestructible fortress of creation, destruction and repair with a philosophy of DANCE or DIE, piss your pants and puke on yourself!!!
from its origins as a free, D.I.Y. all-ages noise/performance art gathering in the basement of the emily carr arts institute parkade, to its current existence in a former fish processing factory, the E.R. has consistently put on some of the weirdest, most elaborate, entertaining and ridiculous art and music shows in vancouver’s recent underground history.
after a year of spray-painted walls, bizarre installations and art works, blood, fights, broken glass, punk rock, noise, art, make-outs and more, here is EMERGENCY ROOM VOL. 1.
- Justin Gradin
SIDE A:
1. DEFEKTORS-Burning Light
2. DEFEKTORS-Kick First One
3. PETROLEUM BY-PRODUCTS-Rat Face
4. PETROLEUM BY-PRODUCTS-Grossest Thing
5. VAPID-Sex Stain
6. VAPID-Die
7. WHITE LUNG-Therapy
SIDE B:
1. MUTATORS-Instinct
2. MUTATORS-VvV
3. TWIN CRYSTALS-Trinity
4. TWIN CRYSTALS-Safety
5. NU SENSAE-Graceland
6. NU SENSAE-Don't Panic
7. NU SENSAE-Peter Tripp
8. SICK BUILDINGS-The Commuter
One time pressing of 924. Includes full-size, 20 page book of photos, art and text printed on recycled paper at Hemlock Printers.
REVIEWS
http://jigsawunderground.blogspot.com/2008/09/vancouver-bcs-punk-trio-mutators-arent.html
THE JIGSAW UNDERGROUND
Vancouver BC's punk trio Mutators aren't your average post-everything screamers punx, though they are of that generation...and what i mean by that (in case you are not getting the grandma lexicon) is those younger adults known as "kids" who are into really cool shit that used to be hella obscure but in the past 10-15 years got integrated into the cool shit underground music canon, ie no wave, avant garde classical music, noise, industrial music, post-punk and just in general regional groups that never toured or put records out so remained unknown to those of us who grew up before the obscure history of everything was so instantly accessible ..(in this case the SCREAMERS are the example of this salvaged punk band that was so obscure that, if i remember correctly, they didn't release anything besides a demo tape and a Target video, which was supposedly their album, and so while their name was fairly well known on the west coast, most people didn't hear them until the late 90's when a well circulated bootleg was released on vinyl; if you wanna google them you'll know more about it than me because untill right now i never did that, but here you go)....well enough about generation gaps...this is all to say that in many ways, most of them formal, punk is better now than it used to be, but it sometimes means less and just seems like pastiche. mutators are one of those groups, but they have amazing energy, presence and possibly the best punk girl singer-i-mean-screamer of all time. you might trace it back to Lydia Lunch's early group, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or a more recent reference like VIKI (LOAD RECORDS/ANIMAL DISGUISE RECORDINGS) from detroit but that's not why you would care.
last night i listened to this record twice in a row, lying on the floor, not doing anything else. this is how i used to listen to music all the time, but rarely does something command my full attention these days. having seen mutators live a few times, i was pleased to be able to hear lief's vocals full force. so many times i have wanted to hear a sound like her voice...to make that sound come out of my own mouth...it is a monstrosity, but so familiar in feeling as to make you wonder where all the other bands are that make rad sounds like this. to be fair, the other musicians in the group are wild and furious too. the music is minimal (a two piece?) noise-core with echoes of black flag my war era type abandon; but with no wave/noise leanings and minus the metal. fucking rad. i wish there was a lyric sheet. this is the best sounding record in awhile, so i wanna know what the songs are about, if they are about more than sound, that would be killer, but if not, this sound itself means a lot to me; it replaces the silence of my own unrecorded screams....which is incredibly comforting. it hurts to make this sound, but it also sucks to never be in a situation where making noise like this is a possibility...you could go in the woods or get on stage and i don't really wanna do either of those things right now, but i do feel like making this sound, or attempting to rather, almost every day all day. ok go listen to them now and try not to be as cynical as i sound about 'the kids these days' because this is an awesome record.
-Tobi Vail
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http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/768
DUSTED - STILL SINGLE: VOL. 4, NO. 14
Mutators
Secret Life LP
(Nominal)
Part of the nth-gen No Wave movement, which crazily enough has survived this long, from a few dozen people milling about downtown New York in the very late ‘70s and very early ‘80s, into the same, and often even smaller, numbers in various patches of youth around the globe. Canada in particular houses a lot of these types of bands, some better than others, and some just not good at all. Mutators, from Vancouver, buck this trend, kids who take this sound from a predominantly punk/agitated perspective, and who don’t rely on weirdness, antics, or obtuse musicianship. They get their punk from geographic proclivities, the guitars, synths, and caffeinated drumming all hand-me-downs from Olympia riot peeps of the ‘90s (everything from Heavens to Betsy’s seasick protests to Unwound’s SY-detuned detournments is accounted for on Secret Life, album #1 following a healthy dose of singles and splits). But the most noticeable aspect of their sound is the harsh, screamy attack of vocalist Lief Hall, who can go from stormy art-school chanteuse to slasher victim like she’s flipping a switch. Those vocals can sometimes overpower the music, and have been a barrier of entry on previous efforts, but here things manage to blend in more successfully, due in no small part to the band learning more about how to groove, and finding joys in syncopation, not just dissonance and squalor. Really good stuff from a band that keeps getting better. Less than 1000 copies pressed, roughly half on red vinyl and the other half on blue.
-Doug Mosurock
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MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #306
THE MUTATORS-"Secret Life" LP
Parts of this record remind me of the late-'80's lived-in, muscled-up, deconstructed garage-no-wave of PUSSY GALORE or early ROYAL TRUX. It just has the sound of the bands that emerged in the post-SST, Manson-obsessed era, with the blankness and venom of the no wave. The vocals are reminiscent of the girl from XYX or Jenna from THE TYRADES - that XYX aggro-sing song-style disintegrating into TYRADES total balls-out-blood-vengeance. Actually, I think the frantic fury of THE TYRADES would be a good reference point for this band, just in terms of energy and bile, but add in some "Death Valley 69" and a definite nod to TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS. It's so easy and dull to make a music a weird period drama - that simulated no wave sound as proven by the so-called revival of the early-'00s. MUTATORS, however, has harnessed the idea, and has so clearly made it their own. It doesn't come off like a stilted theatrical rehearsal of a past sound. This is a really cool and genuinely exciting record, and a sure indication that the Vancouver scene is currently producing some fucked-up, compelling musical combinations... I think the current singer is a new one since the last 7" I got for review, and I have to say she's fucking incredible and makes the band.
- Layla Gibbon
MRR TOP 10's
Layla Gibbon:
MUTATORS-SECRET LIFE LP
Homostupids-Cat Music EP
Cold Sweat-Severed Ties LP
H100s-Dismantle 12"
Dry Rib CD
Question-Insanity EP
Chronic Seizure-Ancient Wound LP
Human Eye-Fragments of the Universe Nurse LP
Vivian Girls CD
Wild Billy Childish and The MBEs LP
Justin Briggs:
Socialcide-Unapproachable LP
Gehenna-Land of Sodom EP
Obliteration-Megatons EP
Vile Nation-No Exit EP
MUTATORS-SECRET LIFE LP
Have Heart-Songs to Scream At the Sun LP
Aaritila-Ennen Huomista, Tana LP
Warcry-The Not So Distant Future LP
Mayyors-Megan's LOLZ EP
Syphilitic Vaginas CD
Carolyn Keddy:
Davilla 666 CD
Eddy Current Suppression Ring LP
Wild Billy Childish and the MBEs LP
MUTATORS-SECRET LIFE LP
Cola Freaks-Dodt Batter I/Nej! 45
Wax Museums-Magnet Part II EP
Dead Ghosts-Holy Ghost EP
Pneumonias-Cheap Fast RNR CD
Homostupids EP/Soldes EP
Ooga Boogas-live
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MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #310
Year End Top Tens
Layla Gibbon:
8. MUTATORS-"Secret Life" LP (Nominal)
The MUTATORS are incredible, with shards of Harry Pussy style vengeance in the vocals, which is what make this band. I said before that the music makes me think of late-'80s art damage like Pussy Galore, Royal Trux, SST-era Sonic Youth, a sound that's post Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Black Flag. Leif Hall's voice is what lifts them up over their generic noize-no-wave-freemo novelty costume counterparts; hopefully this record will silence all that tired trust fund art school bullshit. Seriously bloodcurdling, it's hard to listen to without giving it your full attention, it's not a casual listen and for some reason makes me think of listening to My War. That same totality.
Marissa Magic:
MUTATORS-"Secret Life" LP (Nominal)
Ahhhh, Mutators on my year end list again. I kind of like the Paper Words 7" more than this, but that's probably just because I have a short attention span. Again, #1 girl screamer ever. I don't understand how they make such an all-encompassing wall f terrifying fuzz with just three people.
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http://lightningsgirl.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-dont-feel-like-posting-about-metal.html
LIGHTNING'S GIRL
I dont feel like posting about metal today...I give you Mutators - Secret Life instead
Son of a gun. I thought I had my favorite records of 2008 all figures out and then this record rises to the surface of a pile of 12"ers in my living room that I have been meaning to get around to. I was cleaning up the apartment when I put the needle on side A but I stopped cleaning just a few seconds into the record. The music was too good, too distracting to do something as lame as sweeping up scattered cat litter. (Do I know how to party on a Thursday night or what?) I suddenly felt more inclined to kung fu bricks in half with my bare feet. You have to respect a record that literally is the audio equivalent of an adrenalin shot or 10 cups of coffee.
The Mutators sound like a band that would be in the opening slot of a Sonic Youth / Bikini Kill tour in the early 90s. In fact I am pretty sure that Thurston Moore wishes he put out this record. Secret Life is P. U. N. K. A. S. F. U. C. K. with a female vocalist who is a master of the perfect and ongoing scream. Vancouver is lucky to have this band and Nominal Records - I owe you one for sending me this slab of noisy genius.
It even gets a Tobi Vail approval...and it is wicked limited (820 pressed) so don't snooze on this or you will be sorry. In fact I feel a little sorry for you right now because I have it and you probably don't.
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http://www.lightningsgirl.com/2009/01/top-tens-of-2008.html
LIGHTNING'S GIRL
Top 10 Albums
1) Bottomless Pit – Hammer of the Gods (came out in Oct 2007 but I missed it) – Comedy Minus One
2) The Acorn – Glory Hope Mountain – Paper Bag
3) Pretty & Nice - Get Young – Hardly Art
4) MUTATORS – SECRET LIFE - NOMINAL
5) Love is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night – Whats Your Rupture?
6) Je Suis Animal – Self-Taught Magic From A Book – Perfect Pop
7) Jean on Jean – S/T – Kanine Records
8) Torche – Meanderthal - HHI
9) King Khan & the Shrines – The Supreme Genius Of - Vice
10) The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion – Sub Pop
Label To Watch – Nominal
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RAZORCAKE #46
MUTATORS:
Secret Life: LP
Disjointed and minimalist compositions that reside in a midnight world of awkward creatures and desperate individuals. If this were NYC 1979 / 1980, the Mutators would have a home with the likes of Mars, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, and other no wave luminaries. Their music is ugly and noisy, filled with shrieks, yelps, punchy bass lines over a scratching at the door guitar, and dry beat. Once you’re in, you can’t turn away.
–Matt Average
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ROCKET REDUCER MAILORDER
A Critical History of Pat Reisinger and the Mutators
or: Love Requited by Splits
by Pat Reisinger
My buddy Sam first turned me on to the Mutators after he saw (and I missed) a show they played at Reversible Eye with Daily Void. He played me their second single (first with Leif) on The Broadway to Boundary, prefacing it with, "The chick sorta sounds like that Tyrades chick and is a mega babe." He's right on both counts. I wasn't all that impressed with my first listen to the single, but I've grown to sort of, like, need new Mutators releases. Song titles? I know one: "Paper Words," which is the title of that single. The way I identify the songs is by how exactly I rock out to them. There's the one where the chick goes, "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH" etc. until the side ends (I'm pretty sure it's on the split with Shearing Pinx); there's that one where the guitar does a straightup three-note punque attack (they're Canadian; gotta get the Francais in there) that I could hum to you but wouldn't be able to do it without shaking like I was dancing to the sun god; there's the rhythmic one that the vox is basically overshadowed in favor of just figuring out exactly which beat you're going to rage on--you know the one.
All this said, I haven't listened to this record. I just got it today. But you need it. I need it. We need it as music fans to remind us why we collect, why we go to shows (Mutators' live set earlier this summer at People Projects was, as I hoped in the back of my mind, the best thing I've seen since, you guessed it, the Tyrades), and why we scour the internet and grill our friends looking for bands. Vancouver is just the most recent scene to show us that rock and roll still matters. Columbus did it for a bit last year, but let's just say that Mutators' commercial prospects are significantly more limited than those of TNV, and as such, we might possibly hope for our love to be further requited by splits. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that we like Mutators.
(Okay, I just listened to it, and it's everything I wanted.)
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http://discorder.ca/discorder-magazine/index.php/2009/11/30/best-of-the-decade-10-1/
DISCORDER Vancouver Best of the Decade
8. Mutators
In the annals of No Wave-revivalist noise music, the Mutators exploits are writ large. Coming into their terrifying own with the addition of singer Lief Hall, the trio’s 2008 full length Secret Life is perhaps the most fully-realized statement of the scene that emerged from the East Side’s fly-by-night Emergency Room. They called it quits in 2009, much to the chagrin of the rest of us; during their run, they were the best band in Vancouver. There, I said it. The Mutators were without comparison in their ferocious energy, combining ear-shattering blasts of noise with remarkable songwriting, and Hall’s Lydia Lunch-on-steroids bellowing was both genuinely frightening and kind of mind-blowing, given her small stature. With several North American tours under their belts, the Mutators were like noise-punk evangelists, preaching from ratty basement pulpits across the continent. Drummer Justin Gradin’s new project, Random Cuts, is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
—Al Smith
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JIGSAW UNDERGROUND
Best of 2008 by Marissa Magic
some records:
1. nu sensae 12" (grrrrruuuuuuuunnnnnggggggeeeee)
2. vivian girls - wild eyes 7" (it's kind of sweet but totally full of danger)
3. modern creatures - thick thick black 7" (new/no wave, bedroom dance)
4. new bloods - secret life (this band kills me everytime)
5. vapid - do the earthquake 7" (I love girl scream rave-ups)
6. grass widow tape (pretty much my favorite local band)
7. u.s. girls - introducing (it's like neil young but a girl fuzzed out alone in her room)
8. explode into colors tape (ok, I haven't actually heard it but I know I'm getting one, I know I'm going to like it, and it happened in 2008)
9. free kitten - inherit (FREE FUCKING KITTEN!!!!!!!)
10. mutators - secret life (#1 girl screamer.)
http://jigsawunderground.blogspot.com/2009/01/best-of-2008-by-marissa-magic.html
Best of 2008 by Tobi Vail
Pete Molinari-A Virtual Landslide LP
The New Bloods-The Secret Life LP
Fucked Up-the chemistry of modern life LP
Vivian Girls-S/T LP
Comet Gain-Broken Record Prayers LP
Earth-the Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull LP
Deerhoof-Offend Maggie LP
Marnie Stern-This Is...LP
Blatz/ Filth Shit Split reissue LP
Magnetic Fields-Distortion LP
White Lung 7"
Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis LP
Melvins-Nude with Boots LP
Estelle-Wait A Minute single
Love is All-A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night LP
Free Kitten-Inherit LP
Extreme Animals-Let the Magic Take You There LP
Aids Wolf-Cities of Glass LP
Finally Punk 7" on M'Lady
(non-2008) recordings of all Jenny Hoyston's bands
Santogold S/T LP
Alecia Keys-As I Am LP (even though this came out in 2007)
Rye Rye & DJ Blaqstarr Shake it to the ground 12" (also 2007 i think)
Madonna-Give It To Me single
Explode Into Colors demo
Mutators LP
Malaria Compiled CD reissue
new Joey Casio recordings (unreleased)
Cheap Time-S/T LP
White Magic-New Egypt EP
Vivian Girls-Tell the World 7"
Hunx and his Punks-You Don't Like Rock-n-Roll 7"
Comet Gain-Love w/o Lies 7"
Cometbus #51 The Lonliness of the Electric Menorah
Wild Billy Childish and the MBE's-Thatcher's Children 7"
Cat Power-Jukebox LP
Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs-Dirt Don't Hurt LP
Shop Assistants reissue
http://jigsawunderground.blogspot.com/2009/01/best-of-2008_01.html