A record label usually dictates a lot of an album's culture and aesthetics yet is usually not in the spotlight. By the Label is a weekly column that features different labels and the stories behind them.
Comic books and records are a match made in heaven. Take these two and house them under a stomach-turning name and you've got SKiN GRAFT Records (if you thought Luaka Bop's site was difficult to navigate, try deciphering this site of either horrible web design or masterful optical illusions).
Founded in Chicago, the now St. Louis-based label was started by comic enthusiasts Mark Fischer and Rob Syers in 1986, when the first comic was published. SKiN GRAFT released its first proper record in 1991. The inaugural release, a split seven-inch between Dazzling Killmen and Mother's Day, was the result of the former asking Fischer to contribute comics to the release.
Carrying the comics aesthetic to its records, SKiN GRAFT is known for its eccentric packaging (calendars?embossed metal box?metal sleeves?) for limited edition vinyls and special seven-inches. Also in this carefree vein of comics and fanzines, the label has a similar attitude towards music. Focusing on noise rock and a modern twist on No Wave (self-dubbed "Now Wave"), SKiN GRAFT hosts a vast array of the craziest, loudest and most absurd bands.
Starting out with heavier-than-average noise punk that teeters on the edge with hardcore alt-rock, many of SKiN GRAFT's early releases in the '90s had the (in)famous Steve Albini (a Medill alum!) at the helm. And with Albini, "experimental" doesn't say the least. Groups like supergroup Brise-Glace (headed by Chicago giant Jim O'Rourke) and the iconic Tokyo-based Melt-Banana exemplified the crazy punk scene that SKiN GRAFT lovingly embraced.
Yet, it seems that even these early releases of Dazzling Killmen and Mount Shasta are tamer than SKiN GRAFT's later records. Adding more Chicago-based bands later in the '90s, the label expanded to math and prog rock, in addition to even noisier acts. One such group is The Flying Luttenbachers (who's first full-length is a live session at Northwestern's own WNUR from '92), who meshed improvisational free jazz with more abstract noise rock to create a uniquely dissonant sound. CHEER-ACCIDENT, another Chicago staple, made a few appearances on SKiN GRAFT in the early 2000s as well. Good friends of Albini, who produced three CHEER-ACCIDENT albums (one on SKiN GRAFT), the group loves dissonance just as much as its labelmates and has been held among the high pedestals of Chicago institutions like Tortoise and Albini's own Shellac. All this and CHEER-ACCIDENT is known to never take themselves too seriously, a fitting credo for a SKiN GRAFT band.
In addition to featuring a slew of Chicago's underground heroes, SKiN GRAFT released several albums by groundbreaking Japanese experimentalists. Different from Melt-Banana, Ruins and Koenjihyakkei, both projects of renowned Japanese drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, are like the soundtrack to a gag in which a runner can't keep up with the speed of the treadmill he's on. Not only are both key and time signatures out of the question, but the lyrics aren't even a language. Both bands have vocals in Zeuhl, a made-up language originally conceived by Christian Vander of the French band Magma, a large influence on Yoshida, in the '70s.
Notable Releases
Dazzling Killmen - Face of Collapse (1993)
Produced by Steve Albini right here in Chicago, this album has the rough signature of the legendary engineer, and much of Albini's own style bleeds through. "Blown (Face Down)" features a push-and-pull of the tempo to keep listeners on their toes in addition to a great buildup at the end that reels everything together on an abrupt note.
Brise-Glace - When in Vanitas… (1994)
Brise-Glace's debut album When in Vanitas… also happens to the band's only full-length. Jim O'Rouke met Darin Gray of Dazzling Killmen at a concert of the latter's. The rest of the group consists of a member of The Flying Luttenbachers, finalizing Brise-Glace's status as a supergroup of talented Chicago musical vets. Thus, this sole full-length serves as a nostalgia of the height of Chicago experimental rock as the instrumental group offers 50 minutes of dissonant and extreme soundscapes.
The Flying Luttenbachers - Revenge (1996)
This album marks the beginning of the saga that The Flying Luttenbachers follow for subsequent releases. The supposed storyline concerns the self-obliteration of the planet Earth and the events that follow. Musical themes of these albums supposedly reflect the events of the storyline, and here, flourishing rhythms carried out with concise precision along with a tireless percussive backbeat undoubtedly have a catastrophic connotation.
Camp Skin Graft: Now Wave (!) Compilation (1997)
This compilation, originally released in South Africa as three separate albums, features many unreleased tracks by an array of SKiN GRAFT artists. Because of the wide range of the bands, the compilation itself can go from avant-garde (which is really the norm for SKiN GRAFT) to jazz rock to glitchy noise rock all within a couple tracks of each other.
Koenjihyakkei - Angherr Shisspa (2005)
The latest album from one of Yoshida's projects, this album offers a perfect sample of Koenjihyakkei's sound, which, in a feeble attempt, can be described as a fish out of water. On meth. Topped off with an alien-like opera of sorts. Yet, looking past the organized chaos, the band's repertoire is very strongly based in jazz. The title track off the album features this beautifully with a very jazzy break near the end with a saxophone and vocal duet over a swing beat.
AIDS Wolf - March to the Sea (2010)
One of SKiN GRAFT's more recent releases, March to the Sea is AIDS Wolf's fourth on the label. Just as deliciously nonsensical as most of its labelmates, the Canadian noise band offers up its best abrasive cuts on their latest release of No Wave pandemonium.