Dazzling Killmen – Dig Out The Switch (Skin Graft) – Now this one has not been easily available for the longest of long times. Did we review it when it originally came out back in 1992? Probably? Although at that point they probably were a little lost in the onslaught of the alt.noise crowd and we (probably) couldn’t really see the wood for the way too many trees or those glorious homage freaks as those scissormen swished and milk was spilt ? Dig Out the Switch captures Dazzling Killmen in their rawest of volatile early days, never that raw though, this isn’t the sound of a band finding their feet, by this point they already had their boots on, they were fully formed and ready to go, they were already pushing at the edges of hardcore and alt.noise a little more than we probably knew at the time, all the signs were and are here on this debut album engineered by Steve Albini and produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

This is an album that breaths, that masticates, that hasn’t quite found that anthemic thing that later on had us wanting to spend our whole live listening to (their) sound.  There is more space here than on 1994’s genre-defining (or maybe defying?) Face of Collapse – it was already all there, the geometry, the bite, the grip starting to slip but never letting go, never slipping away. Nick Sakes’ guitar anchored so well by the those more that colourful drums and nailed down bass lines, nothing anywhere near the bottom of the river or the heap, never in too deep, no bottom feeding here as the wheel not so slowly turns. This burns. Says here that  “the rhythm section’s jazz schooling is evident, but thanks to Sakes’ untrained attack, so is the post-punk impulse to destroy what you’ve just built” – yes, it was already there and we can go with that along withe the urgent need to get to the paint shop and my second cup of teas strews as much as the first one did, third time lucky, too little too late?  

And so, after being lost for the longest of times, this excellent album, an album that sounds very might right here and now, this classic debut album is born again and about to be re-issued in fully remastered and repackaged form, this classic album is waiting for the acknowledgement it probably never quite got back in those frustrating times;  “This edition of Dig Out the Switch brings a landmark album back into focus – restoring the tension, grime, and urgency that influenced a generation of math rock, noise, and experimental hardcore acts to come. Essential for fans of Craw, Shellac, Blind Idiot God, and the parts of your record collection you don’t show to strangers”. Hey, I’m perfectly happy to let you see all of my record collection, the Bay City Rollers albums are over there (ask the Ramones) although no strangers ever get to come in here, this place is just for the pigeons and this debut 1992 album, without anyone really knowing it at the time, probably did light a few fuses. We didn’t really know it at the time, it was a slow burner, there was a lot of noise that year and our money was on Rosa Mota and the rest of them in the back room of the Falcon or over at the Moonlight Club. Actually was this ahead of the curveball? Was it a couple of years too early for anyone’s good? It does sound damn good now, if this was A  new arrival, from a new band, something freshly brewed for 2025 then we’d be raving and drooling about this exciting abrasive vital new album. Dazzling indeed as as Root drives one to the boundary and I need to get to the paint shop, no time for the art of noise, excellent long lost debut album from an always more than excellent band and I could spend my whole life listening to sound and yes, it did quietly ignite things, let it loudly remind us and did someone sat they had reformed, oh yes, this is the here and now…  (sw)

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