OFF! - FREE LSD
Hardcore supergroup delivers a corking jazzcore OST that works as a standalone album.
I’m pretty loyal to artists I appreciate, even when they move on from the bands that I first knew them in. So how have I only now discovered Off!? See, Off! include Keith Morris of Circle Jerks and Black Flag, both of whom had a big impact on me back in my youth (yeah, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth). I may be late to the party but what an introduction Free LSD is.
Along with Morris on vox, Off! feature Dmitri Coats of Burning Brides on guitar and vox, Autry Fulbright II of … Trail of Dead on bass and Justin Brown of Thundercat and Herbie Hancock on drums. Free LSD is the soundtrack to a forthcoming feature film which, based on the promo videos I’ve seen so far, may well be batshit mental. Whatever the merits of the movie, the album stands up as a standalone work.
The music is predominantly raging hardcore with a metallic edge but there are plenty of experimental and jazz-inflected moments to lift this well above run-off-mill, hardcore by numbers. It is, at times, PHENOMENAL. Guest sax player Jon (Claw Hammer) Wahl contributes to that in no small part. If not my tune of the year so far, War Above Los Angeles is certainly in my top five. Suck The Bones Dry is almost as great.
As with pretty much everything I love, this won’t be for everyone but bloody hell anyone that likes heavy, challenging but catchy, experimental music should give this a go.
9/10
