Testswitch Isolator Fail to Entertain. At All.
When describing your music to an awaiting and hopefully eager listener it is not wise to describe your music as "Jazz Spazz Grindcore" at all, really. Aside from the obvious offensive implications of the word "Spazz" the mere idea, though bold and inventive, of mixing the genres of Jazz and Grindcore is enough to make Jesus weep. Unfortunately, this is what Testswitch Isolator have done, I would genuinely like to say they have managed to pull this off in an interesting and enjoyable manner but regrettably both for myself and probably for them, I cannot. This Leeds based band and this latest release 'Let's Dance' (Hey, let's not!) are really not worth looking into unless you want your Grindcore truly grinding and your music truly un-enjoyable.
Musically this is like all the Grindcore music you, myself and perhaps even your grandmother will have heard. Fuzzy distorted guitar parts over a thundering rhythm section with horrible grunted vocals over the top. Curiously this band, as per their own mildly offensive description, do try and shake things up a bit. A liberal use of clean vocals and a few jazz style breakdowns do provide food for thought and give this reviewer hope they will improve in the future, as although what they do is interesting enough it cannot be claimed that at the moment what they do is enjoyable.
That is not to say there is nothing completely un-enjoyable about the CD, why I found myself chuckling at the song titles for all of one minute! Unfortunately although titles like '4ft Tash' and 'Overwhelming like a Necrophiliac's Tea Party' may elicit the odd chortle they do not have the actual music to back up their... inventive names.
Thankfully checking in at twenty-five minutes, about the time it took me to cook my dinner (Note: I do not recommend making pasta to Grindcore) this was a mercifully short release. With the longest track 'Now you see it, Now it's been shot in the head by an AK47' clocking in at an epic five minutes and the vast majority of the tracks being at roughly 2 minutes in length this album does not really go into some of the ideas it presents deep enough for this reviewers liking. Even though on the whole I found the music on 'Let's Dance' turgid and unmemorable there were some parts which intrigued me and I am happy to say that the band have a very proficient bassist. Unfortunately this is not enough to suffice.
Apparently Testswitch Isolator have a fiery live reputation and it pleases me to hear this, I genuinely hope that what sounds truly poor on 'Let's Dance' experiences some sort of magical transformation in the live environment, but until then we can only hope that Testswitch Isolator grow up and put more effort into their song writing.