Midwest hardcore has always perplexed and floored me – those bands have an awe-inspiring capacity for weirdness, a beautiful gift for laying down tracks that make you scrunch up your face a little bit and whisper “Damn…that’s gross”. And that’s exactly the type of tunes that Big Zit has collected on this demo tape: lightning-fast jams saturated with grit and frenzy. At first the singer’s vocals reminded me of Bad Brains’ brays, but they get even more obscure as the tape progresses (imagine a man-sized baby whining through a mouthful of mashed peas and drool). And the band sets up the perfect platform for that slippery crooning with spastic, off-kilter d-beats and freakout riffage reminiscent of the Rotcore crews of the late 2000s. And it’s the little jokey flourishes that keep me hooked on this tape: the third track’s fall into a Shepard Tone of self-advertisement; the nightmarish vortex of wailing (or chanting?) that guides the first track into that peppy guitar lick and onwards to the chugging finale; the molten, foot-possessing syncopation of “Yer Moshing” and those step-wise heavy slides. Keep an eye out for this slimey setup, stream the demo tape below, and snag a download here.