Genghis Tron - "Triple Black Diamond" EP

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth (Epeirogenesis) (Crucial Bliss 2007)

Genghis Tron - Triple Black Diamond EP / Crucial Bliss

I'll never forget the time I saw Genghis Tron play Columbia's old Immaginarium on Bull Street a few years ago. I really had no idea what I was in for and, not being partial to tech-metal or grindcore at the time, felt particularly out of place among Columbia's wiser and less "refined" youth. One set later and I was sold; they had to shut the place down because it was too loud and not long afterward the Immaginarium moved elsewhere. The indelible imprint of Genghis Tron live had won me over. Genghis Tron. What a fucking fabulous name. To think it came from three modest gentlemen native to Poughkeepsie, New York and you have on your hands a genuine success story of the highest order. If they're not the hottest thing in "extreme" music, they ought to be.

Triple Black Diamond, a limited tour-only EP (from their recent run with Ed Gein and Gaza) released on Crucial Blast's CD-R imprint Crucial Bliss, is another example of the band's versatility. It's not the first time they've done this tour-only shorthand thing: Last year they released Cape of Hate in anticipation of one of 2006's most overlooked (and most underrated) albums, Dead Mountain Mouth. This time around, the anticipation is for their second full-length to be released on Relapse. We're not in the kiddie pool anymore.

Why should the average person care about Triple Black Diamond? The short answer is "Colony Collapse" and the future it holds, and that translates to Kurt Ballou. Better known for his work in seminal hardcore architects Converge, Ballou's reputation as a first-rate producer has been building since he established Godcity Recording Studio. This is the same guy who literally thought My Bloody Valentine's Loveless was "a great record but sounds like shit." And when a man has managed to make Swarm of the Lotus sound coherent, I guess he can get away with saying that. What he will do with Genghis Tron is not for us to know just yet, but this EP gives at least one indication of what kind of material he'll be working with.

Having written new stuff over the course of the past year, the trio have allowed fans the opportunity to hear a working version of "Colony Collapse," the only new song on the album and competently self-recorded this past spring. It starts with a dulled guitar played at lightning speed before exploding in typical Genghis Tron fashion into a Mookie Singerman-led blast of electro-grind. Elements of shoegaze are in the first bridge, while glitchy electro take over in the second as a dreamy guitar line of Hamilton Jordan's creation are brewed and Michael Sochynsky's keyboard programming works a quiet magic. This is one of Genghis Tron's best songs and who knows what will happen when Ballou gets his hands on it, but I for one am very excited.

Appropriately, "Colony Collapse" is the final song on the EP. The other seven songs are either remixes by friends or reinterpretations by the band themselves of their own material from both the Cloak of Love EP and Dead Mountain Mouth. The opening tracks, "Ride the Steambolt," "Chapels" and "The Folding Road," are all live versions from a Montreal radio session. You can get a pretty good feel for what was going on that night at the Immaginarium three years ago from these recordings, but while they serve as an interesting addition to the tracklisting, they're not the best songs on here.

Remixes can either be fruitful or frustrating depending on how liberal you want to be. Some people just throw a lazy hi-hat-addled 4/4 over an otherwise unchanged song and call 'er finished; that doesn't happen here. The "Carwash Climax" remix of "The Folding Road" almost sounds like I Am the World Trade Center or maybe a Big Country song with synths instead of those genuine bagpipes, but another harmony sounding either like a manipulated vocal or another synth quivers in and out to give this track beauty where you wouldn't expect it. The "Greek Beds" remix proves the group has a sense of humor in that it is exactly what the title suggests it is: A 1993 industrial dance remix of the creepiest kind. Trent Reznor would approve if he weren't so worried about the apocalypse or whatever it is he's doing now. In fact, that's a good idea. Somebody get a vocal track of his and put it over this song to see what it sounds like.

While all these tracks are brilliant, I've selected "Dead Mountain Mouth (Epeirogenesis)" because it has struck a cord with me that Marnie Stern didn't earlier this year. It's not a typical 'Tron track: There are no Alec Empire-esque beats. There's none of Mookie's shot-in-the-arm vocal screeching. There are only two guitars, working against each other for over 10 minutes to uplift and depress the crust at a third the speed and three times the length of the original. Its colossal tensioning is the stuff of greatness and if Battles were less into crisp guitar tones, they would sound like this.

We've had a lot of hip-hop here this week, but balance is a beautiful thing and though cybergrind isn't quite related, the electronic beats of Gouseion or Kid606 are just a few steps removed from Shape of Broad Minds when they're not a few steps removed from Converge or Pig Destroyer. Genghis Tron represent a unique intersection in music: They are impossibly hard rockers, they are impossibly soft electro-poppers, they are beatsmiths and they are six-string shredders. Everyone can relate to at least one aspect of their sound, and while Triple Black Diamond is realistically only a stopgap between Dead Mountain Mouth and their untitled forthcoming fuller, its demonstration of the group's massive potential is a good reason to continue caring about this band. They may be moving on to Relapse, but Crucial Blast certainly didn't get the short end of the stick. Here are eight reasons why, eight reasons why Genghis Tron are not only one of the most "extreme" bands in extreme music, but also one of the most mercilessly intriguing.