Sister Iodine

Sister Iodine are an experimental rock band from Paris. As a trio, they've been creating a cacophony of savage noise and primal free rock exploration since the early 90's, releasing two albums on the French imprint Semantic before taking a ten year hiatus to return in 2007 with the brutal 'Helle' LP. 'Flame Desastre' was originally a vinyl only release on the Premier Sang label earlier this year, but has been picked up for a CD reissue backed with extra tracks by Peter Rehberg's noble Editions Mego. And it's easy to hear why. Over 12 tracks the group create a maelstrom of scorched earth sonics, driving every element far into the red with a muscular display of noisily psychedelic intentions comparable to the coarse textures of Russell Haswell's nastiest material, Prurient in a foul mood or Melt Banana on a bad trip.

This quite obviously isn't for the casual listener, but if you're prone to succumbing to the visceral bliss of a band in apocalypse mode, this is a heavy experience.