Mutation

The debut release from the newest weirdoes on Ipecac's eccentric roster has chosen cacophonous din as its dominant feature. Error 500, by experimental group Mutation — who count Shame Embury (Napalm Death), Ginger Wildheart (the Wildhearts) and John Poole (Cardiacs) among their members, as well as Merzbow as one of their guests — is a layered, complex soundscape that creates a carnivalesque environment the listener must stumble through. It 's a concerted attempt to overwhelm, to create a deranged and unpredictable space that constantly threatens to pitch the listener off-balance. It's anchored by relentless heaviness — the core of an iron-gutted low end that gives the songs a nucleus to secure the wild, electric jelly and noise. Error 500 conveys the evolving impression that the music, and technology used to create it, is somehow turning against both its creators and listener, attempting to overthrow the former and drive the latter to madness, which is especially true for "Computer, This Is Not What I..." Often records that attempt to come across as demented are self-conscious instead, trying too hard, but Error 500 genuinely feels like sentient, suppurating music beginning to leak and degrade into something weird and wrong.