I love when a band encompasses all aspects of their aesthetic, and with a name like Rectal Hygienics, you can only imagine how this gift would be wrapped; the music sounds like the symptoms of Ebola, the lyrics/vocals are filthy and depraved, the album cover is some urine stained collage of images from old periodicals (that for some reason always look creepy), and Ultimate Purity sounds like it was recorded live in of one of those houses on Hoarders, where there is a mummified cat under every pile of phone books and a Cockroach Coachella under every pizza box-sardine can mountain.
Rectal Hygienics recently played here in Providence with Total Abuse. I couldn’t go, but I heard from quite a few people that Rectal Hygienics, like Cher, stole the show. After hearing all the praise I checked them out and really liked it. They sound like they would all look like the dude in Robocop that crashes into the vat of toxic waste and fit somewhere in the septicemic vein of Drunkdriver, early Clockcleaner, Brainbombs, Cherubs, some of the sludgier Pissed Jeans songs and The Sunglasses.
Ultimate Purity is mostly down tempo noise/sludge rock moving at the pace of raking a lake for a dead body, as heard in “Addicted to Filth”, “Dirty As Fuck”, and “When I’m Alone”. The guitars are crunched the fuck out and are constantly feeding back and squealing more than PETA footage; adding another layer of discourse to this audio slime. There are a few upbeat tracks on the record, the title track “Ultimate Purity” being my favorite, and “Suffocating”, that will surely get the party started, and when I say party, I mean when you’re at a basement show and you don’t step on broken glass, trip over a dog with a hemp collar or get face-whipped by a stinky dreadlock. (I took one in the mouth at a Melt Banana show back in 2003 and still can taste it).
I like Rectal Hygienics and Ultimate Purity, but would like to see more variance in the music, as some of the song structures and tempo got a little repetitive along with the same guitar sound. Rectal Hygienics have a lot of potential and I will definitely go see them if they come back here and will be keeping an eye out for more releases. To sum it all up, Ultimate Purity is the soundtrack to making a snow angel in medical waste to get rid of some of your scabies.
Rating: 4.5 out of 6 Doves While in the midst of sniffing his favorite Vanity 3 glove, Prince heard something that he thought he might like. Over the sound of wind chimes, Tibetan prayer bells, girls orgasming, and peacocks; Ultimate Purity was playing and it tickled him.