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Speaking of the more mongrel side of the rock, always fine to see the Dead C back in the game, this time sharing a split 12" with Congolese street jazz / noise ensemble Konono No. 1. They're new to me, but they?ve been around over 20 years and the buzz is rightly reverberating around these ethno-drones, chants and polyrhythmic metallic percussive flows. The two tracks here, slightly altered takes of songs found on their ?Congotronics? album, are a beautifully twisted world music that?s as clanging, kinetic and freely orgasmic as anything blowing in the avant winds today. If you aren?t instantly gyrating after hearing the opening bars of ?Masikulu,? you probably don?t have a pulse. The Dead C, on the other hand, delivers three more brilliant slabs of clangy stomp and skree that alternate between nutty tape manipulations and more rhythmic sonic quagmires. Raw, seething noise blues is the end result, and Robbie Yeats is still the best hard rock drummer since Neil Peart. All in all, a very nice little surprise, and Fat Cat?s price is right! 8/10 -- Lee Jackson (5 September, 2005)