The new album from USA/Mexico is a motherfucker. It's an absolute beast. Following on from Laredo and Matamoros, Del Rio is a regression, even if the band's got another member now. It is simple, primal, and powerful and it's out as of yesterday on 12XU.
Guitarist Craig Clouse (Shit and Shine), bassist Nate Cross (Marriage, Expensive Shit) and drummer King Coffey (Butthole Surfers) are joined by vocalist Colby Brinkman (Taverner) but, oddly, the sound here has gone backwards in time. If cavemen had had amps (and electricity, I guess), they'd have made a record like this. "Chorizo" is a roar into the void, Sabbath's "Supernaut" pushed into overdrive, while "Soft Taco" alternates between exhilirating sheets of feedback, and bursts of corrosive noise, and pounding and thumping percussion. The pieces of the composition are basic, the song barely existent, but the whole thing lurchs forward with real bad intent for more than 13 minutes. The closer here, the even longer epic title cut, adds a guttural roar to the mix, and skirts territory first mapped by Merzbow.
If USA/Mexico have rocker instincts, they are still more interested in how to punish a listener while delivering the most rudimentary of riffs. And if that riff happens to last more than 16 minutes, it's all the better as the whole performance turns into a kind of endurance test. A listener should rightly find this abrasive but it's thrilling to have abrasive music around again because far too few are too scared to make this sort of stuff anymore.
Del Rio is out now via 12XU.