Reviews:

Totally exhilarating high-energy god of dunder noise from the heavy
splat/action duo of Lasse Marhaug (electronics, voice) and T.Keranen
(electronics). Recorded live at Gloria, Avanto Festival November 19th
2005, this is insanely enjoyable, somewhere between
Incapacitants/Hijokaidan and contemporary Whitehouse. Edition of 200
copies in small DVD style cases with colour artwork. Recommended. (Volcanic Tounge catalogue)


Live review:

Testicle Hazard came on at around 9pm. They’re a Scandinavian ‘noise’ electronics duo; although I’m not a connoisseur of this type of music, I’ve seen a few such performances and this one was no disappointment.

One half of Testicle Hazard is Lasse Marhaug, a bald and bearded Norwegian bloke who releases his own material as Jazkammer. The other one is a Finn called Tommi Keränen. Both dudes were set up on separate tables facing the audience. From my position in the crowd, I could mainly see Marhaug, who was using a cheap Behringer mixer, a couple of pedals, and one of these custom-built boxes: http://www.bugbrand.co.uk/pages/sounddevices.htm#weevil

Both of them seemed to be playing what looked like biscuit tins, or perhaps those flat metal canisters that reels of film come in- er, film-canisters, I think they're called. At one point Keränen seemed to be air-soloing on his. Presumably these were contact-mic’ed and run through the electronics, so the performers were able to generate a horrific din by rattling, banging and drumming on the tins while manipulating the gear with the kind of mock strenuousness typical of hair-metal guitarists.

Early on in the performance I felt compelled to use the ratty old complimentary ear- plugs I had salvaged from an Emirates flight – a little while ago I suffered a bout of tinnitus following a Keiji Haino concert and I was not keen to exacerbate the situation.

The general idea behind their performance seemed to be to reference the volume and ferocity of extreme heavy metal, while completely omitting its structure and ‘musicality’. What you’re left with is a kind of subconscious after-image of that genre- rumbling, growling sheets of howling feedback and (literally) metallic distortion, a waterfall of sheer volume abating fairly abruptly after 30 or 40 minutes.

It was quite something to behold live, but I’m not sure I’d bother listening to this stuff on headphones; after the initial shock-and-awe, there’s not much to hold the attention. Interesting though were the responses of the audience; one or two seemed to be moshing, while a couple of drunken revellers attempted to waltz in the midst of the crowd, bumping into people and getting a few dark looks from the other hipsters. I also saw at least one bemused girlfriend being led away by her partner after the first ten minutes- I don’t know why, but this always raises a grin…