Almost two years ago Belgian’s high-voltage noise turbo SKISKA SKOOPER released their freakish debut album Universal Space Shifter with only 4 songs, including an apocalyptic 46-minutes (eat your heart out, Pink Floyd) escapade, titled ‘Introvert Party‘ as the brain-cracking closer.
The three-piece is gearing up now to launch their second longplayer SURREALITY
CHECK on 3 April. Ahead of it they just launched new single PLASTIC MASTERMIND.
A wall-of-crushing-sound outburst. The rackety banger is about “a sort of twisted Alice In Wonderland on LSD with a serious plot twist like in Martin Scorsese‘s 2010 neo-noir thriller Shutter Island” says frontman Matthias Bex.
The sonic hysteria is built around a scary riff that reminds me of the creepy theme
of 1978 horror movie Halloween. Soon this monstrous slam turns into a nasty metal sledgehammer with tons of guitar layers and a mean pulverizing drum/bass machine. Frontman Bex‘s hair-raising voice sounds like if he is trapped in a psychiatric isolation
cell in a straitjacket roaring like a Slipknot addict to get out. Alert your neighbourhood before you start playing this volcanic blast.
Breath in, breath out and start the frenzy right here…
ELEVEN KNOCKOUTS on repeat in APRIL!
A red-hot cocktail of stupendous rippers
and vivid grooves energizing body & soul!
Go berserk with TURN UP THE VOLUME‘s
smoking April knockout team! Hell yeah!
.
1/ ‘Broken Algorithms’ by MANIC STREET PREACHERS (Wales)
A vintage Manics rocker / “Remember the mission to own your dreams”… Album: ‘Resistance Is Futile’ – listen here
2/ ‘Odessey’ by MIEN(Texas, US)
Killer track from this experienced, mind-expanding supergroup’s debut LP… Album: self-titled debut out now – stream here
3/ ‘Biker Song’ by ALCABEAN (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Amplified Danish firework thundering mercilessly from start to finish….
From New EP ‘Head Down‘ – stream here
4/ ‘Better With Age’ by NIGHT OWLS (Leeds, UK)
Razor-sharp electro uppercut pushed by manic drums and jigsaw guitars…
5/ ‘3AM Lullaby’ by HOTEL MIRA ((Vancouver, Canada)
This passionate cracker resonates like an intense Dinosaur JR roller coaster…
6/ ‘Under The Moon’ by REBECCA LOU (Danmark)
A dazzling guitar firecracker that will make your blood stream faster – titanic score…
7/ ‘Spree’ by ALTAR FLOWERS (Manchester, UK)
Irresistible electro groove with a goth twist and tempting male/female vocals… EP: stream 5-track ‘Performance’ EP right here
8/ ‘Pink Harlot’ by Skiska Skooper (Belgium)
When Black Sabbath jam with Sonic Youth you get schizophrenic racket… Album: debut ‘Universal Space Shifter’ out now – stream/buy right here
9/ ‘Waxmage’ by SCHOOL DISCO (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Psych-o-delic and insane jam with a paranoid Suicide touch… EP: new 4-track titled ‘Look To The Sky‘ out now – stream/buy on Bandcamp
10/ ‘In The Street’ by RICH GIRLS (New York, NY, US)
Gripping mixed emotions pop with a darksome twist… Album: debut ‘Black City‘ out now – stream/purchase on Bandcamp
11/ ‘Lost In The Light’ by NIGHT HAZE (Athens, Greece)
Haunting, obscure, mysterious and catchy as bloody hell…
Belgian’s rowdy high-voltage powerhouse SKISKA SKOOPER just launched their deranged
debut album, titled UNIVERSAL SPACE SHIFTER. Only 4 songs, including an apocalyptic
46-minutes escapade, titled ‘Introvert Party‘ as the brain-cracking closer. Either you have nasty anticommerce balls or you just hate making a boring career in music, or both of course, in order to release such an otherworldly & demonic record. Their raw racket is certainly not as shocking and alien as Lou Reed‘s Metal Music Machine but I’m sure this wicked three-piece had the same psychotic mindset as the late King Of New York when creating their anarchist pandemonium. Only, compared to Reed‘s arty farty cock-up, you
can actually listen and even lose yourself completely in Skiska Skooper‘s fucked-up, sonic disorder. Hallelujah, I really dig this mind-crashing shit! Next to Skiska Skooper‘s digital chaos Sonic Youth sound like harmonious pussies. Let’s try to find out some more about these noiseniks and talk to manic frontman Mathias. But first, to start the acquaintance properly, we will watch/hear the group’s hair-raising steamroller ‘Pink Harlot‘ right here…
Hello Mathias, welcome at Turn Up The Volume!
1/ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
“We wanted to make a tribute to Siska Schoeters (note: a Belgian radio DJ) by using her name, but our violinist is quite spastic, so when trying to type in the name on Facebook,
it all went horribly wrong.”
2/ I read on your Facebook: “SKISKA SKOOPER is the musical
equivalent to a kick in the face.“ Should we be scared?
“Yes.”
3/ Your brand new debut album is titled ‘UNIVERSAL SPACE SHIFTER’.
Who or what is that shifter?
“A shifter is the mechanism under the stage in an arena that makes everything spin around. That way all the people get a chance to look at us from our good side.”
4/ What’s the LP’s front sleeve image about?
“We tried to combine all the topics from the songs in a single image.
Failing that, we just picked the last drawing in our friendship booklet.”
5/ What the hell is going on? on last track, the 40+ minutes
‘INTROVERT PARTY’ jam?
“We tried to create the absolute radio hit. Guess we failed.”
6/ Which movie would you pick to visualize your music
on a big screen when playing a concert?
“‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, because everything
can be a love story with a bit of imagination.”
Introvert party massacre…
7/ Your number one artist/band to do a world tour with?
“Aqua. That way when we start playing our cover of ‘Barbie Girl‘,
she can get on stage with us and sing along.”
8/ Any special rituals before going on stage for a show?
“I always drip gasoline over my guitar, so, at the highlight of the set,
when I ask people to put up their lighters, the show really gets lit.”
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front
door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together?
“John Lennon. When he opens the door, I’ll just shout “Here’s Johnny!”
and run away screaming, leaving him standing in awe.”
10/ Future plans for SKIKSA SKOOPER?
“We are about to release our greatest hits vol. 9 next month. If you’d like to pre-order it, you can always send us 5 cents and a yellow popsicle and we’ll put it in the mail for you.”
Thank you, Mathias, for the horror-ific chat.
May the road rise with SKISKA SKOOPER!
Leatherface… unmasked
Time to smash your old furniture to pieces
Here’s the accompanying soundtrack in full
Stream/buy UNIVERSAL SPACE SHIFTER…
Sonic havoc that thrills us in a way we want to scream out loud…
11 February 2018
The alternative music scene in my hometown Ghent, Belgium is just exploding the last few years. It feels like thousands among us are in a band. Not only to get free drinks, not only to seduce adoring company and not only to scream their heart out without being arrested. No, I’m talking about some really quality gangs that will mess up your head, your brain and the rest of your hungry body the way you like it 24/7. Like this loud 3-piece named SKISKA SKOOPER. I never heard of this high-voltage noiseniks until yesterday when they played one of Ghent‘s cool bars, called De Kleine Kunst (‘The Small Art‘ in English). These havoc junks delivered a smashing set that almost blew the roof of the place and with new single ‘PINK HARLOT’ they prove that their sonic ambition is to break the sound barrier on their upcoming debut album. Discover here why my head is still buzzing…
