it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. yeah, that might seem like obvious advice, but you’ll often hear people argue [me included] about “style” and “substance”, not recognizing that the two are completely intertwined. this is something that punks have always understood. punk music, in its rebellion (whether that’s anarchy, nihilism, or both), sounds rebellious because of its disinterest and antipathy towards musical conventions. and hey, that’s about the least punk sentence ever written. okay, chances are if you’re reading this, then you know all this stuff (or have thought about it before), but i wanted to make sure that you knew where i was coming from when i say that Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop’s new ep, Extreme Creep is an ugly piece of work. a thoughtful, considered piece of work, but a hideous one. and that’s why it’s awesome.
Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop (hereby referred to as “Chop7x”) is an anonymous musician living somewhere in connecticut, and their bandcamp specifies it as somewhere in new haven. Extreme Creep is their first release, which comes as a surprise — the ep arrives fully-formed and realized, complete with consistent sounds and themes. as the name suggests, it is both creepy and extreme. it’s loud, abrasive, gnarled, and uncomfortable. and pretty much everything about the project, from the name to the noise, works to flesh out those descriptors. the album art (see above), a black-and-white, high-contrast close-up of someone’s rictus grin, makes you feel uncomfortable. the project’s obtuse name makes you feel uncomfortable, not just in its length and repetition, but in its implicit meaning. and the music, the music definitely makes you feel uncomfortable.
Chop7x has described itself as a “cybergrind” project, which is perfectly fitting, but it could just as easily be a punk record. it’s mixed loud with tons of compression, as if the speakers have been blown out. Chop7x’s voice comes out like a throaty howl, a blackened scream. the drums and percussion sound like they come form a snare drum that is so tight you could confuse them with someone rapping their knuckles on a table. in its speed, brevity, and delivery, Extreme Creep is easily a grind record, and the lyrical content call upon lots of gruesome, unsettling images. but its in that arena that Extreme Creep becomes a punk record. because while Chop7x sounds like a grind musician (almost like a digital grind black metal musician), the project is decidedly rebellious towards some of the more upsetting facets of today’s american society — it’s anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian, anti-tradition. but for all of the ways that Chop7x may push against audience’s comfort zones, Extreme Creep is very aware of your willingness to participate. and for that reason, it’s laden with strong melodies and grooves. it’s noisy, sure, and you’re going to feel uncomfortable, but there’s a prickly, bizarre pleasure that makes it a compelling, fascinating, and enjoyable listen.
here are my three favorite moments of Extreme Creep:
“cattle”: the first single for Extreme Creep, this song has one of the ep’s strongest hooks. this is a delightful sentiment, that you might be walking down the sidewalk humming to yourself “we are all meat” or “we are / all cattle for the slaughter house”.
“suicidal thoughts”: after “cattle”, there is a full two minutes of (comparatively) soft noise that rings out, repeating. it’s a short break from the explosive “cattle”, but this repetitious noise starts to become foreboding, as it sounds more and more like an alarm being set off. as the anxiety slowly builds, you get a feeling of claustrophobia — the sound won’t stop, and there are no signs that it is set to stop soon. it’s the part of the album that made me most uncomfortable, and i loved having my feelings so deftly manipulated with a simple idea like this.
“swimming with leeches”: there are a number of vocal samples on Extreme Creep. for example, at the beginning of “cattle”, a young girl says “if you’re lonely on a friday night, just remember that ten out of ten people… die.” these samples give listeners a short break from the music, which could have quickly become oppressive in less capable hands. but they also bring in different voices, forcing the listener to imagine Chop7x as an entity that exists out in the world and not just on a digital computer stream. in these samples, the thoroughly immersive music of Extreme Creep head-butts the barrier of its world and ours. in “swimming with leeches”, those voices (which come from unrecognizable sources) are just vague enough that they set your mind reeling about the context. and that only lasts a second before the music kicks in and we realize that we are the stand-ins for those voices.
