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ABOUT CHILD ABUSE:
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"...keeping the "fuck you" spirit of punk rock alive, actualizing their very own genre defying, almost avant-garde psychosis .." - EXCLAIM!
"The math-y riffs and beats could sound clinical (the band cites composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Charles Ives as influences ), but the sweat and grime it takes to execute them is wisely left intact. Let your pupils dilate and your brain liquefy… " - PITCHFORK
"New York's Child Abuse is a gloriously confrontational band, mixing the incoherent glugs of death metal, the dissonant meander of 12-tone composition, the atonal squonk of free-jazz, blasts of ucky noise, and a wet gob of old fashioned punk rock.” - VILLAGE VOICE
“The fits and starts and electronic buzzsaw effects are not unlike their labelmates HEALTH, and it lends the paradoxical appeal of being both grotesquely hardcore and liable for a Crystal Castles remix.” - POPMATTERS
“The Brooklyn noise mongers blew me away opening for The Flying Luttenbachers and their full-length delivers the same relentlessly technical, bruising wallop of their live show. Imagine a combination of Foetus, Whitehouse and The Locust, and you will have a pretty vivid sense of the aural beating you're in for.” - BIG TAKEOVER
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ABOUT THE NAME:
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"Oran Canfield (musician, author and son of Jack Canfield of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series - which has more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print in over 40 languages) writes that his birth in 1974 was presided over by 10 Buddhist monks who chanted throughout the 72-hour delivery. His parents, Timothy Leary-types who ran a holistic health centre in Massachusetts, dined on the placenta. For the first year of his life, as Canfield describes in his memoir of growing up in a dysfunctional family, he was cared for by "a community of weird therapists, early self-help freaks and drug-experimenting hippies". - THE GUARDIAN
"Child Abuse? Well, what monster is in favor of that? Some victims of it will recoil at the phrase; others can deal with it just fine. The band Child Abuse has been around for a decade and plays a noisy, jazzy brand of metal. They’re not a bunch of juvenile fools, but rather a serious group who feature Tim Dahl, a member also of Lydia Lunch Retrovirus. The thing is, provocative, puerile names have for decades inhabited punk and other styles of rock, as well as hiphop. And those of dainty sensibilities should probably never venture into extreme metal, where monikers like Anal Cunt, Goatwhore, and Napalm Death reign. These names usually serve as blatant code for a certain type of person who fancies him/herself a nonconformist, a connoisseur of shock..." - THE STRANGER
"When we started, Oran was playing a real small drum set and I was playing this crappy Casio keyboard, which I’m still playing, and it seemed really descriptive. It was like this real brutal children’s music. I don’t think we realized the weight behind the name in terms of the varying responses we have gotten,” he says. “But there’s no escaping it now. It would be a cop-out if we changed the name." - THE WASHINGTON POST
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In their 15 years of existence, CHILD ABUSE have become much more than a jarring name. The NY trio has fused elements of Noise, Death Metal, Free Jazz, Modern Classical and Grind (among other things) into something entirely their own, all the while becoming one of the most innovative, and polarizing bands in New York. "Imaginary Enemy”, the band's 4th full-length album, expands on their forays into previously uncharted musical territory, while remaining true to their unmistakable sound.
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HIGHLIGHTS:
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(+) CHILD ABUSE is bassist / vocalist Tim Dahl (renowned for his work with the likes of Lydia Lunch, The Flying Luttenbachers, Eugene Chadbourne and Tatsuya Yoshida), multi-instrumentalist Eric Lau, drummer / author Oran Canfield (whose Memoire: “Long Past Stopping ” was released by Harper Collins) - plus guest vocalist Eric Paul (of Psychic Graveyard / Arab On Radar).
(+) Cover art by Albert Oehlen / “The foremost painter of the era." - The NEW YORKER
(+) Ultimate Edition includes a 4 x 4 inch square High Gloss Vinyl Magnet insert bundled with the MOD Compact Disc and Vinyl LP.
(+) CHILD ABUSE have recently performed in both North and South America and will begin their support of “Imaginary Enemy” with a European tour.
credits
released October 18, 2019
Oran Canfield: drums, synth
Eric Lau: keyboards, vocals
Tim Dahl: bass, lead vocals
with
Eric Paul: Guest vocals on "Child Support"
Recorded and mixed by Eli Crews at Figure 8 Studios, Brooklyn, New York
Additional vocal tracking and productions recorded by NN at the Psykomanteum
Mastered by Alex Theoret at TurtleTone Mastering, New York, New York
Cover art by Albert Oehlen
Graphic Design by Oran Canfield
supported by 38 fans who also own “Imaginary Enemy”
One of the coolest bands from my hometown, this record is a quick ride through cerebral and dare I say, FUN noise/math rock. Do yourself a favor and give these guys your money, they deserve it. GodIsChad
Infusing live drums with glitched-out guitar fuzz and politically charged bars, Youniss reckons with a world still entrenched in anti-Blackness. Bandcamp Album of the Day Mar 8, 2023
