CJA
ironclad

[Click here for audio sample]

Clayton Noone is yet another one of the key players in the post HCorp NZ scene; going back as far or farther than Birchville Cat Motel; but where others have focused on noisescape and drone, Noone has always been more confrontational.  My first introduction to his music was another CJA release, the appropriately titled 'Headache' (look out!  Soon to be rereleased on CPSIP!) where sidelong slabs of feedback assaulted the listener from tape start to tape end.  Elsewhere Noone has operated under the title of Armpit and accomplished much in the junk-noise vein.  Most significant however are his double CD release 'The Tank' on Pink Skulls and his new Art-Punk project (for lack of a better genre pigeon-hole), The Futurians.

Among all this mess is Ironclad; perhaps the safest of all places to start.  Melodic and often quite subdued, this is like a pleasant, even personal sit-down with Clayton before all the shit breaks loose.  Everything you know about Noone and his various projects is here, just kept at bay enough for the thing to actually resemble music a bit.  Well, I guess wel all need an album that isn't completely out of its mind.  This one is only half out of its mind and subsequently might not piss EVERYONE off.

Here's what Digitalis has to say about the release: cja sceams, "i am a fucking monster." shout it from on high. cja's master opus, "ironclad," reaks of monstrous minimalist genius. these songs are unearthed from a secret place, within the depths of new zealand's green pastures and jagged mountains. this is music that was destroyed and pieced back together so that it can destroy you. "ironclad" is a monolith. hell, it caused cja to stop making solo records. it is that good. don't take it from me, take it from glenn donaldson: "i've already set all my electric guitars ablaze in tribute to cja."

This is one of the first releases by Clayton Noone to be available on CD in the US, alongside Soft Abuse's release of The Futurians.