New York trio
Kill Alters
play jagged, electro-shocked noise rock that jumps between digital hardcore and abstract pop, heavily incorporating home recordings made by leader
Bonnie Baxter
's mother between the 1970s and '90s. Like the band's music, these family snapshots are both gleeful and downright disturbing, and the whole project seems to be equally about processing trauma and artful expression. Following the first two EP-length
releases, both compiled on a 2017 CD,
Baxter
began releasing more techno-influenced solo material, and she collaborated with
Machine Girl
's
Matt Stephenson
as the freewheeling duo
Prolaps
.
also initiated the
Archives
series, consisting of manipulated home recordings rather than the group's songs.
Armed to the Teeth L.M.O.M.M.
is the band's first proper full-length, and it's both a twisted dreamscape and a set of their most focused songs to date. On songs like "Dissect Me,"
is a sleek, commanding emcee over rhythms that merge '90s industrial with trip-hop, while almost subliminal voices float behind her. A few tracks heat up to the hardcore fury of
's other projects, such as the defiant, sexually charged "Cesspit," a collaboration with
Stephenson
that ends in a storm of gabber kicks and screaming. "Phantom Body 2" is less forceful and more ethereal; its rhythm still pounds, but it dissolves in a river of steamy synths and multi-tracked vocals. "Inner Beam" is a frenetic collision of pressurized noise and tenacious pop, suddenly switching to haunting acoustic guitar balladry at the end. The album concludes with "L.M.O.M.M," a six-minute hellscape that sets barely coherent voices acting out some sort of torture scene over steadily babbling drums, culminating in the sinister chant "love me or murder me." ~ Paul Simpson