(Ox-Op/Amphetamine Reptile)

www.ox-op.com ; www.amphetaminereptile.com

Sweet dreams are made of this: I can still recall with vivid clarity the moment I "got" the Birthday Party. It was a hungover Sunday morning, records strewn all over the apartment floor, including the B.P.'s Junkyard LP. Up until that point I'd resisted the band's twisted, dissonant charms and, in particular, Nick Cave's strangulated vocal bleat, but for some reason I decided to cue up the album, and a few songs in, it all clicked. This feral, primal, guttural noize (with a "Z"), in all its inscrutable ugliness, was my Sunday morning coming down; it was like that moment you've read about, when someone who's been standing upside down on his head long enough suddenly experiences his vision flipping over as his brain compensates for the sensory discombobulation.

That's also a pretty fair description for how I came to love Halo Of Flies, the Minneapolis trio formed in '86 by guitarist Tom Hazelmyer, whose raw, distorted brand of garage rock drew inspiration from such proto-punks as the Stooges, Alice Cooper and the MC5 but transcended those roots to operate (moderately successfully) throughout the rest of the decade within the noize-skronk, pigfuck milieu alongside such peers as Jesus Lizard, The Cows, Killdozer and Boss Hog. The bulk of the band's recorded output appeared on a dizzying array of 7", 12" and cassette-only releases - primarily on Hazelmyer's own Amphetamine Reptile label - although around the time Halo of Flies was winding down in '91, he compiled the material on CD as Music For Insect Minds, still a must-purchase.

Hazelmyer subsequently decided to pursue a career in art and graphic design, calling himself Haze XXL and eventually shuttering the AmRep label. Then out of the blue, a couple of years ago Haze resurfaced as H*O*F and started issuing 45s and Eps again, including a collaboration with Lydia Lunch and split singles with Billy Childish and the Melvins. The artifact at hand - a 7-song, numbered/limited edition of 100 CDs featuring handmade packaging and inserts unique to each disc; more details here - was part of the Haze XXL "100 Disciples" art show in Minneapolis last year, and it's a summit between Haze and Jesse Bottomley (guitar) Shawn Walker (drums) of Minneapolis' Gay Witch Abortion.

The recording smartly resurrects the classic Halo of Flies sound while pushing it into more brutal, at times surreal, territory. Haze barks and blares into the microphone, pushing the VU into the red to achieve a super-distorted megaphone effect not unlike some of Gibby Haynes' classic vocal excursions for the Butthole Surfers. (In fact, one track, "Unicorn Killer," suggests a cross between early period Buttholes and the aforementioned Birthday Party's classic track "Sonny's Burning.") And as the guitars sway and careen, powered by a ferocious rhythmic gallop, the band skillfully navigates the spaces between sepulchral blooze (on "Tunnel Rat"), chaotic garage skronk (the delightfully titled "Drinking With Yow") and pulverizing hardcore punk ("Choking On Vomit"), pretty much everything in the listener's head gets shoved aside forcefully until you're cruising on pure sensory overload. A hangover cure for sure.

The Haze is back, kids. You know that means some trouble.

Standout Tracks: "Drinking With Yow," "Unicorn Killer" FRED MILLS