Rough, shambling guitar riffs, clunky primitive drums, and spitting raw vocals with the minimalist heart-on-sleeve honesty that you’d get from RIVETHEAD and GOD EQUALS GENOCIDE. This EP has the excited spirit and energy that you’d expect from a band’s debut release, but this Fukui, Japan-based band has been releasing records since the mid-’90s, which is inspirational in and of itself.
UNKNOWN RIVER DRIVER are really reaching towards that ’90s alt / college / emo chalice—it’s moody and dark and kinda awesome, even though it fades into the background pretty quickly. Ironically, the drums in slow parts of the last song just remind me of “Everybody Wants Some” from Van Halen III (solid track, btw). An amalgamation of RATIONS dubbed R.A.T.I.O.N.S.N.O.I.S.E, on the flip, delivers manipulations of studio recordings, anti-drone war missives, and general tape loop fuckery. It’s an excellent way to get me hooked, and an excellent listen.
