M Ax Noi Mach 'In the Shadows' LP
After various tours of East Coast basements and Spanish villages, Philadelphia native Rob Francisco has finally
put together his debut album as M Ax Noi Mach, 'In the Shadows'. A notorious live performer, capable of whipping
even the most dormant crowd into a frenzy, Francisco has finally managed to capture that intensity on record, with gnarly anthems like
like "Creeper" and "Creeper Sits" at his disposal. For the uninitiated, imagine the vitriol of Macronympha with a massive homemade
Baltimore Club soundsystem pumping out thuggish beats. It's not all sheer power though, as M Ax Noi Mach conjures the icy discomfort
of Sleep Chamber, German Shepherds and GPJ with "Fetico" and "Hollowed Eyes". Truly a unified statement, 'In the Shadows'
is a contemporary noise album unlike any other.
There are 406 copies pressed, each on black vinyl with printed cardstock jackets. There are 5 test pressings
on black vinyl with plain white sleeves and stamped center stickers.
01 - Creeper
02 - Charlenni's Father
03 - Devil City
04 - Fetico
05 - Hollowed Eyes
06 - Creeper Sits
07 - Sobieski
08 - Enigmatic Cruelty
09 - Suicide is in the Air
Boomkat:
Bloodied ghetto noise provocations from Robert Joseph Antonio Francisco, aka M Ax Noi Mach, for the brilliant White Denim label - home to releases from Tin Man and Aufgehoben. His debut LP 'In The Shadows' is like some feral, alley-raised hybrid of Prurient-strength noise, ballistic Bomb20-style Hiphop beats and poetic moments redolent of Cold Cave/Max G Morton, alternating between blistering noise and impenetrable, blank-eyed industrial insouciance. In case you're still under any illusions, this album ain't nice, but it's brutally arresting stuff, an uncompromising expression of street-level rage articulated with raw and concise emotions. On the likes of the kerb-kicking 'Creeper', anti-establishment anthem 'Devil City' and 'Suicide Is In The Air' he cuts loose with abrasive, pounding, and politicised power, all very masculine and all very bloody hard. The thing is, he's actually scarier when he's quiet, as with the sharply contrasting, sleazy intimacy of 'Feti�o' where his vocals distinctly remind of Wes Eisold (maybe it's a Philly thing?) or the minimalist, Chris & Cosey-esque menace of 'Hollowed Eyes', requiring only a blunted drum machine, bedsit bathroom vox and tape distortion to keep us captivated. Don't miss.
Blastitude:
At the time of his
interview in the most recent issue of Blastitude, Robert Francisco had
yet to release any full-length vinyl as M Ax Noi Mach, but now that
time has come and it fulfills all the promise shown on the 7-inches
and the tapes like Chaser. Not only did quality-driven fellow
Philadelphian label White Denim step up and pay big bucks for
mastering in order to successfully groove the thick frequencies, but
Francisco did his part and showed up with his best series of tunes to
date. His music continues to never settle into any one obvious
subgenre... power electronics would seem to the closest genre
description, although his vocals seem rooted in 90s hardcore/grindcore
more so than 70s/80s industrial... harsh noise doesn't fully work
either, because what might start or otherwise sound like a harsh noise
track is frequently pushed, via driving dance beats and that mastering
job, into a radio-ready club dance feel (just listen to the way the
opening track "Creeper" hits). And the real club hit on this album
should be "Devil City"... I really want White Denim to bankroll an
early 90s style hip-hop video in which Francisco lip-syncs out on the
streets dressed in winter wear. They'll have to cut a censored radio
version due to the gigantic hook based around the phrase "buncha
fucking animals," but it'll be worth it. Side one closer "Fetico" is a
weird quieter 'talking' track that nicely demonstrates that crucial
trait of all music, the ability to change it up a little. (Some call
it dynamics.) Side two is also very heavy and it has another (welcome)
version of "Creeper" called "Creeper Sits." All in all, a perfect and
readily available introduction to what this guy does.
Still Single:
Simple, acid-etched machine beats and mixer treatments from one Rob
Francisco, of Philadelphia, and quite possibly the finest release on
White Denim to date. As M Ax Noi Mach, he pushes the rhythms into
feedback-inducing headspace, generating tones of power and forceful
contact and vocal anger from an overdriven source into an array of
effects and loops, somewhere around the vicinity of Mammal, Dread-era
Wolf Eyes, Deviation Social and what you might expect to hear during
rush hour at the kind of dimly-lit venue where patrons are suspended
from the ceiling of their own volition; it�s sex club industrial noise
that works great on the dance floor, particularly in its more beat
driven moments like �Creeper� and �Creeper Sits.� The second side of
this thing comes together in a way that�s quite magical, getting
noisier and bleaker as it goes on to tell stories of voyeurism and
reports of suicide. The heat and clarity of the mastering, done at
Dubplates & Mastering, separates this product from less
clearly-defined works, pushing the limit on whatever stereo it comes
out of. Whatever world Francisco occupies, you might be better off as
a visitor, but with In the Shadows, he professes himself to be one of
the most dangerous people on his block, which I�m not going to
challenge. This ripped up the floor at the goth night I DJed over the
weekend, and I plan to use it again.
Released November 2010
