Bristol label Avon Terror Corps hits the city’s rich sound system culture from more extreme angles. Think Mark Stewart or Tackhead’s rusty, distorted take on dub and noise rather than Massive Attack and The Wild Bunch’s amniotic sub-bass tones.
They’ve said before that they’re spurred on “the total destruction of ‘deconstructed club”, and a bit of the old sonic ultraviolence — with industrial, EBM, noise, clanking dub and deranging samples racing through their cassette samplers, albums and EPs. Bristol has for decades been a hub for underground experimental sounds, but ATC just take it a few feet deeper.
Their first release of 2021 is another sampler of sorts, but it’s more than a mere primer for the label. It’s a 21-track charity compilation, with all proceeds go to BASE and Roses, a food-based collective providing food for free to people in Bristol.
It rattles between wicked harsh noise, wrong-turn electronic dub, retching vocals, body horror, industrial spoken word horror stories, dirgy psychedelia and even twisted reggaeton — and you can do a good deed while indulging in a dose of sonic nihilism. You can buy the cassette for £6.99, or name your price for the digital album.
Moo Kid 