Lip Critic/Omnibael split CS/LP
The pairing of New York City’s Lip Critic and Stoke-on-Trent’s Omnibael is truly inspired. The two acts are certainly more contrasting than overtly complimentary, but that’s the key to the success of this release. Lip Critic fully embrace the electronic, using it to construct a car spray-painted with all shades of hip-hop which they then proceed to drive headlong into a wall. Repeatedly. It may be a rather clumsy analogy, but on hearing this, it will make sense. From industrial jungle to electroskapunk drum ‘n’ bass, Lip Critic pack a lot of insanity into five short songs. Omnibael’s darker industrial leanings are a whole lot more serious, and a whole lot bleaker, evoking vintage Pitch Shifter and Godflesh: hard, heavy, and propelled by clanging metallic beats, theirs is the sound of rage, of fury, of powerlessness and nihilism.