Jenny Piccolo is not like a number of the other speed/grind/thrash bands out on the market. First off, they are not like Agoraphobic Nosebleed in the relative slowness of the band. Jenny Piccolo is an act that uses rock influence over pretty much everything else on this self-titled (discography) disc. The band may be playing fast and cutting tracks that are only twenty or thirty seconds, but there are large chunks of sludge and metal influences that keep things slower than other acts on the market. Now, the fury level between Jenny Piccolo and Job For A Cowboy or The Locust is equivalent, it just seems as if Jenny Piccolo have another way to show that. Each of the tracks feed well into each other, even considering the fact that these were all culled from different points and times of Jenny Piccolo’s existence. The music may be around ten years old but the production of each of the disc’s 52 tracks is solid.
There may be tons of distortion during tracks like “Suicide Cliche”, but at least one can tell exactly what is happening at every single second on that track. The band also puts in more in the way of harmony to their tracks than pretty much any other noise act on the market; the tracks may be brash, loud and noisy but one can just hear strings of harmony that are threaded throughout each of the compositions on this disc. While this discography CD would be helped with a little more explanation about the inspirations and influences present in each of these EPs and CDs, the band does well in collecting all of the bands grasps for notoriety. “Dim Bulb” is an exercise in brutality, with the guitars rending anything that is in their way. Of course, the track is less than a minute, but the authoritative sound of Jenny Piccolo during that track gives listeners the illusion that the song is much longer.
“Tank Om Jag…” is perhaps the most innovative track on this album, for it uses two vocalists in a time where most of the Jenny Piccolo tracks were only using one vocalist. The inclusion of this second vocalist gives the band a fury that is only alluded to a few times on this disc. The band may be dead and gone but the music sure as hell isn’t; pick it up when you can.
Top Tracks: Six, Red Dead
Rating: 7.3/10
Jenny Piccolo – S/T / 2006 Three One G / 52 Tracks / http://www.threeoneg.com / Reviewed 13 August 2006
[JMcQ]