Old (USA) - Lo Flux Tube (1991)^{Release ID: 1690}

My nomination of the 1991 sophomore album from New Jersey artist OLD as our monthly The Sphere feature release was very much intended so that I could take a retrospective look at an album that I overlooked at the time. I’d become acquainted with OLD through their 1988 debut full-length “Old Lady Drivers” a short time before the release of “Lo Flux Tube” which was mainly due to the band’s link to the amazingly consistent Earache Records label. Unfortunately, the tongue-in-cheek brand of grindcore that the debut album presented me with hadn’t left a huge impression on me however I noticed that their follow-up effort seemed to be receiving an increased level of attention so gave it a casual once over. It didn’t hit the spot for me on that brief dalliance so I redirected my attentions towards releases that were more in line with my tastes at the time. Listening to the album now, I have to say that I’m not terribly surprised at this outcome given that I was completely obsessed with the darkest & most extreme death/black metal in the world back in the early 1990’s but there were also a couple of obvious obstacles for a young fella to overcome too. My musical palate is much better equipped to navigate those issues these days though so I think it’s time to see whether I’ve missed out on a rewarding artistic experience over the last three decades or not.

The first element that confronted me after pressing that little triangle on my iPhone screen is the weak production job & I was immediately reminded of the reasons for my having initially struggled with “Lo Flux Tube”. The guitars reside in a space that almost sounds like they’re in another room & have a very noisy & treble-heavy tone that reminds me a lot of early 80’s gothic rock & post-punk. In fact, those influences also play a role in the use of the bass guitar throughout the tracklisting with the bass being positioned quite forward in the mix even though it’s not afforded all that much actual bass from an equalization point of view. It took me a full listen to the duration of the album to become accustomed to production flaws but once I returned for my second visit I found that I was able to see past them & the album started to open up a bit. In saying that though, this is an unusually inaccessible record for other reasons too. To be more specific, the vocals of Alan Dubin (who was also in Khanate with band leader James Plotkin during the early 2000’s) take some getting used to as they amount to nothing more than a shrieking black metal scream that at first seems fairly out of place on top of the experimental noise going on beneath it. Again, this issue becomes much easier to deal with over time & I’m now a lot more comfortable with it but there’s no doubt it was a career-limiting move & I can’t help but think that these vocal & production traits are what prevented me from committing to “Lo Flux Tube” a good three decades ago now.

Instrumentally, the album openly highlights a couple of fairly obvious inspirations but utilizes them in a way that amounts to much more than simply being the sum of those influences. The first is that of English industrial metallers Godflesh with the consistent use of artificial harmonics & feedback over the top of mid-paced & mechanical sounding drum machine programming forming the basis of OLD’s sound. But it needs to be said that OLD take that sound to much more bizarre places than Justin Broadrick ever dreamt of with avant-garde Canadian progressive metal outfit Voivod playing a big part in the chaos that ensues at regular intervals across the tracklisting. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to claim "Lo Flux Tube" as a combination of "Streetcleaner" & "Dimension Hatross" really as there’s an unconventional & often alarming psychotic feel to the way that the riffs are structured & it seems like they’ve made a conscious decision to focus on messing with people’s minds as much as creating an enjoyable listening experience. OLD often employ the use of psychedelics in order to further dismantle the listeners mental state which works pretty well for the most part & is a characteristic that was always going to offer me a fair amount of appeal. It doesn’t always work of course but it’s hard not to admire the ambition even when things don’t quite gel.

“Lo Flux Tube” is undeniably a strange listening experience however it’s also an entertaining one with only the misguided instrumental psych-out “Dissassemble” failing to hit the mark. Its flaws were always going to prevent it from reaching the top tiers of the industrial metal genre however there’s a lot to take in here which sees it possessing a strong replay value that’s further enhanced by the sheer intrigue it offers with its avant-garde & cerebral approach.

For fans of Godflesh, Voivod & early Scorn.

Old took a huge leap on this one. Their debut album was a generic Grindcore album that attempted and mostly failed at being edgy and humorous. This is… an Avant-Garde Industrial Metal album with hints of Grindcore, Progressive Metal, and general insanity…

This album is not only much weirder and more unique, but just generally much better. The playing is solid, songwriting is interesting and varied, and the production is much stronger. A great example of a joke band getting serious and making something both interesting and awesome. This thing is filled with manic energy and mutated dystopian future vibes, all done very well. Not always my cup of tea, but always at least preformed with strong execution.

This is a hard record to review, because I feel like this is the sort of thing you compare other records to, not vice-versa. I like this a lot. This is the second LP from Bergenfield, New Jersey’s O.L.D. (a.k.a Old Lady Drivers). Their first was more straightforward grindcore (not a bad thing), and the general sound isn’t all that different, it’s just that they can DO a lot more. They replaced a real drummer with a drum machine, but it sounds like guitarist/programmer Jim Plotkin spent a lot of time with it, because the beats and rhythms are complicated enough to where I could totally believe it was a (very good) real drummer who was just mixed to sound artificial. The bass is handled by Jason Everman, who is famous for being Nirvana’s short-time second guitarist before they hit it big. He and Plotkin both rip on this record, almost every song has interesting bass and guitar parts. The easiest comparison I can make as far as the sound is concerned would be Godflesh if they were into cocaine instead of weed. Very abrasive but melodic and chiming guitar flanked by nasty, spidery bass action. Even though there’s a ton going on, the tracks are mostly very cohesive. There’s a lot of depth and no pretension. The vocals may not be incredibly dynamic, but they fill in the blanks perfectly. I feel like this could have been influential to spazzy post-hardcore bands like Melt Banana. The only thing that’s keeping me from giving this a perfect score is the noise/soundscape track “Disassemble,” which I think is pointless and boring, especially since the epic final track “Z.U.” covers the same ground and much more. Man, these guys wrote some cool riffs. Highly Recommended.