DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Rat Licker

Patience is a virtue.

And boy, I had some patience with Dead Neanderthals!

Bought digital EPs, CDs, cassettes, LPs, even checked out numerous other projects in which Rene Aquarius and/or Otto Kokke were involved, all in the naive belief, that one day the Dutch disaster duo might possibly come around, embrace its inherent talents and finally deliver some decent, listenable music.

And now with this seven inch bearing the romantic title "Rat Licker" that day has finally arrived.

Fans of catchy, poppin', swinging (but still moderately performed - so the children can sleep in the next room) barbershop tunes, rejoice!

DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Rat Licker (7" album) (2021)

Nah, I probably had licked on those rodents too long.

So seriously:

On this album, which is disguised as a single (or is it the other way around?), Dead Neanderthals go back to the roots of their own journey and also to the influental classics of the grind jazz genre.

On twelve tracks with lengths from eleven to one hundred and twenty seconds, just sporting drums and saxophone, they pay loving homage to John Zorn's legendary extreme bands, in which he either let jazz musicians play grindcore (Naked City's "Torture Garden") or the pioneer grind drummer Mick Harris of Napalm Death play jazz (PainKiller's "Guts Of A Virgin" and "Buried Secrets").

And what can I say? Even though Dead Neanderthal's instrumentation is a little more stripped down in comparison and they don't even try to get into the ten-genres-in-five-seconds complexity of peak insane Naked City, "Rat Licker" is just pure brazen and unhinged filthy fun.

Ironically this might actually still be one the easiest listenings for anyone who wants to get acquainted with the godfathers of the New Wave of Dutch Heavy Jazz.
For a group which usually tries to stretch minimal concepts to maximum effect, often resulting in monolithic, challenging long tracks, there is quite a lot of changes and shit happening in the snaplike run of this fast little fucker.

Delicious!

"Rat Licker" has been released last Friday by the band plus eight record labels simultanously. So if it's sold out at one source - which it probably already is - maaaybe there's still a chance to find it in another place.