Science Man – Match Game 7″ (Swimming Faith Records)

During the day, John Toohill is a creative individual who performs with the bands such as Alpha Hopper, The Hamiltons, Night Slaves, Spit Kink, The Midnight Vein, Black & White Cat / Black & White Cake, Cobra Cobra, and I probably forgot some other bands he crossed paths with during his musical endeavors. In the spare time, he becomes a Science Man, the defender of obscure, fuzz distortion-driven, hardcore infused rock’n’roll. John is undoubtfully devoted to his projects, and he regularly publishes his works, followed by eye-peeling visual identities. His installations span over audio, video, visual aesthetics, closely related to classic horror, retro sci-fi, industrial and obscure rock’n’roll. Therefore, each new release delivers a unique audio/visual form. Previously, I wrote a review for his debut self-titled album. In the meantime, he released a Match Game 7” and a second self-titled recording.

Perhaps the Science Man was heavily inspired by the Lament Configuration from the Hellraiser franchise or Pandora box, but one thing is for sure, Match Game is a hellish material. This particular 7” carries nine furious rock’n’roll tunes, decorated by the elements borrowed from other genres. You may notice how genres such as industrial, hardcore punk, garage punk, and noise rock inspired Toohill during the songwriting/composing process. Still, John performs his tunes in a unique Science Man manner. The song’s entirety ranges from thirty seconds to nearly two minutes, so you’ll know what to expect when you purchase this record. The dirtiness, fuzziness, noisiness of the Match Game perfectly goes with the hardcore’n’roll aesthetics of the Science Man.

The guitars are serving generous portions of blistering guitar riffs, appropriately performed to fit with furious rhythmic structures. You’ll hear loads of great rock’n’roll shreds, robust punk rock chord progressions, and some noise rock acrobatics along the way. Besides vigorous rhythmic segments, you may stumble upon some blastbeats, but this particular material avoids any relations to grindcore. Match Game avoids categorizations into any particular genre as well. Quite the contrary, it sounds even more experimental with each composition, but still, you’ll hear the sheer dominance of industrial, hardcore punk, and rock’n’roll.

This material follows the adequate musical and visual aesthetics of Science Man, so if you listened to his previous works, you will love this one even more. This particular comes on a 7” record, accompanied by the wondrously illustrated cover artwork. The inlay reveals another piece of art, but this time is a dotwork illustration of the Science Man. The vinyl is available at the Bandcamp page or at Swimming Faith Records.