FIRE-TOOLZ “Rainbow Bridge” (Hausu Mountain)

I don’t even know how to do this anymore. I thought Fire-Toolz peaked last year with Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace), which I gave a glowingly weird (or weirdly glowing) review to over at Tiny Mix Tapes (RIP). But now there’s Rainbow Bridge, and my world has been turned upside down. And by that I mean it’s been turned upside down again, because that’s just my reaction to the work of Angel Marcloid, the mastermind behind the Fire-Toolz brand. I get turned upside down – and twisted, and inverted, and turned inside out – anytime I’ve got a new Fire-Toolz thingy to listen to.

Rainbow Bridge is so fast and so loud and so confrontational and so crisp and so clean, all at the same time. I don’t know how Marcloid got the idea to smash easy listening and death metal together, but she pulls it off so well that it has become its own institution throughout the years. In fact, Marcloid is the ONLY one who pulls this off, there is none like her. She even adds elements of jazz and pop here and there, and the result is a prog-metal masterpiece.

Have I called this a masterpiece yet? I’ll have to go back through and check before I post this.

Thematically, Rainbow Bridge connects us to the afterlife, serving as a conduit for, here, feline companions, specifically Marcloid’s beloved cat Breakfast. The album is an ode to life and love and loss, and it’s shot through with primal intensity and introspective sadness, sometimes curdling at once in the same container, at others splattering outward in all directions, and at even others standing separately and looking at each other from across a crowded gymnasium before doing whatever it is whatever I’m talking about feels like. And when the breakneck pace slackens, when the whiplash induced from changes-on-a-dime recedes, there’s “{Screamographic Memory}” to guide us into that light, guide us across that bridge into the cosmic fireworks. That memory of those who pass doesn’t fade, friends.

This is basically just a gush session. I’m knocked on my ass by Rainbow Bridge. Get knocked on yours as well.

https://fire-toolz.bandcamp.com/

https://hausumountain.bandcamp.com/music

--Ryan

FIRE-TOOLZ “Interbeing Remix Vol. 1” (Suite 309)

Haha, we thought Angel Marcloid’s Fire-Toolz project was crazy enough WITHOUT any help, right? Well listen to this!

[holds up phone in direction of stage from which an insane racket emanates; stunned 1955 teenagers watch in silence]

I’ll save you the googling. That was a reference to the film “Back to the Future.”

“Interbeing Remix Vol. 1” is even more outlandish than “Interbeing,” Marcloid’s 2017 release on Bedlam Tapes, which also had a COMPACT DISC release somehow??? Aren’t those just like beer coasters anymore? I don’t fucking buy CDs.

Anyway, “Interbeing Remix” takes “Interbeing” and runs it through a meat grinder. Everything’s a total clusterfuck, with tracks run through an industrial magnet or maybe just stretched to drone length and allowed to sit there until you know it’s doing it on purpose just to spite you. There’s some crazy pop, some gabber, digital hardcore, hardvapor, mutant disco – dude, you name it, it’s on here. Even the repeat songs sound completely different in one remixer’s hands than another.

And oh – some of my faves cut these tracks to ribbons: More Eaze, Nmesh, Tiger Village … eat a butt, Paul Oakenfold!

All of this is to say that “Interbeing Remix Vol. 1” is not just a perfect companion piece to “Interbeing,” it might actually blow “Interbeing” itself out of the water! Well, OK, I won’t get too hasty here – let’s just say they’re perfect companion pieces to each other, and you should spend IRL money (or bitcoins) to add both tapes to your collection.

Notice I didn’t say “CDs.”

Idiots.

Alright, I’m outta here. I’ve got a date with a clock tower and a weather experiment.

Fire-Toolz
Suite 309

--Ryan