The Spider Translator- Spinning in My Grave

Artist: The Spider Translator
CD Title: Spinning In My Grave (My Sodden Bedsheets)
Label: Octopoid Productions
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 5/8/06

The music of the Spider Translator is difficult to quantify, much less evaluate. Is it pop music? Well, some of the time. "The Visitor" is pretty much low-fi pop, with lazy guitar strums and a nice languid feel, and the exuberant, playfully weird "Let's Howl Like Night-Monkeys!" starts off a bit like a pop song with staccato, sing-song vocals before launching into a burst of weird jazzy improvisation in the second half. It's certainly not dance music, despite the presence of electronic beats and industrial percussion, and even though "Dance Fungique" and "Flying Through The Aethyr" are noisy and chaotic, they don't have that sense of confrontation that pervades the early industrial pioneers like Throbbing Gristle or Einsturzende Neubauten. If anything, it's a bit like Nurse With Wound, but only in the sense that it's playful and unpredictable. Any further comparisons or attempts to consign it to one or the other genre ghettos would be merely a disservice. What can be safely said, however, is that The Spider Translator is fun to listen to, and quite different than nearly anything else you've heard, without having to resort to shock value or the deliberate infliction of pain on your eardrums. If you're ready for something that's truly eclectic, as opposed to the obvious crossovers of rap and metal that pass for "innovative" in the mainstream, give the Spider Translator a listen.

Visit https://www.spidertranslator.com for more information.