Jazkamer: Cover by Hair Stylistics

Pica021. CD. Released July 2010. Audio sample.

"Cover by Hair Stylstics" is the july edition of Jazkamer's ongoing 2010 monthly Compact Disc series. This month's album finds Hegre and Marhaug joined by Iver Sandøy playing noisecore. Noisecore is a crossover between grindcore and noise music. One could call it improvised grindcore, as its emphasis is on short bursts of blastbeat drumming backed by screaming vocals and heavily distorted guitar. Often the music is improvised on the spot. Early pioneers of noisecore were bands like Gerogerigegege, 7 Minutes of Nausea and Fear of God, and although the genre never flourished like grindcore, it nevertheless has lead a healthy underground life with bands like Sissy Spacek and October Revolution.

Jazkamer ventured into noisecore territory on 2008's "Art Breaker" album (Smalltown Superjazzz), which featured 59 songs in mere 17 minutes. Many reviewers complained that 17 were even too much. Despite this reaction "Cover by Hair Stylstics" ups the ante with 129 songs in 20 minutes. Because of the Compact Disc-format's limited index ability the songs are presented as one continious track. Jazkamer also prefers the album to be experienced as a whole, rather than prominence given to individual songs.

For Jazkamer's monthly 2010 series they have invited one different visual artist to contribute every month. The artwork of "Cover by Hair Stylistics" is by the Japanese actor, author and composer Masaya Nakahara. Nakahara is know for him musical work with projects like Hair Stylistics, Suicidal 10CC and Violent Onsen Geisha. On the front cover Nakarhara can be seen drawing the artwork used on the inside of the cover.

"Cover by Hair Stylstics" was recorded during an excruciating two hours in Duper Studios in Bergen. Editing and mixing the material took even longer to complete and involved several coffee-breaks. Pica Disk hopes that Jazkamer fans across the world will enjoy "Cover by Hair Stylstics" for a long time.