G&P review: Antigama/Nyia split

Antigama/Nyia
Split
Selfmadegod Records
Smoking Poles Antigama and Nyia hopped into the creative sack on this split, but this slight EP somehow fails to build up to a satisfying climax.
Antigama follow up their solid but occasionally grating Relapse debut, Resonance, with six more tracks of twitchy, electrocuted grind but fail to deliver anything substantially different from what we’ve heard from them before.
“Torture’s” title comes off as more warning than advertisement as its 90 seconds of blurring electro babble seem to drag on interminably before giving way to the satisfying, blast beat laden “ADV.” That song, with its stop/start tempos, is one of the EP’s easy highlights, but unfortunately, it gives way to more pointless rambling in “The Trio Infernal,” a pointless mix of jazzy bass, cymbal rolls and twittering birds. Song birds are many things, but infernal they are not.
Antigama, with their clear willingness to experiment, have true potential to give the staid grind scene a much needed jolt to the ‘nads, but the trio just never seems to fully incorporate their left field potential into consistently listenable tunes.
Fellow travelers Nyia suffer from the same affliction. The Polish band’s three tracks meander all over the musical landscape, channeling Justin Broadrick circa Messiah (“Of the Will”) and otherwise sounding like a cut rate Antigama.
Both bands feature talented musicians capable of wringing impressive skronks and screeches from their instruments, but the bleeps, bloops and blasts fail to gel into a listenable whole.