Had thought that this 12" was way out of print, never had any luck trying to contact the label that released it (which seems to have quietly shut down in the past year), but persistent digging has turned up some of the last copies of this weird little record from 2001. The nom de guerre of author/indie publisher Ian Christe (whose imprint Bazillion Points is fueling my read-time at the moment with that new Hellhammer/Celtic Frost book Only Death Is Real and the reprint of Daniel Ekeroth's essential tome Swedish Death Metal), Dark Noerd was one of the few black metal breakbeat outfits I've heard.

Probably best known for an appearance on the soundtrack for Harmony Korine's Gummo, this 12" was the only other official appearance from Dark Noerd, pressed up on translucent green vinyl and packaged in a clear mylar sleeve with just a pink label on the corner.

And it's a weird one. The six tracks move from dark apocalyptic drum n' bass (think Metalheadz / Photek) to bizarre noise experiments to mangy, damaged low-fi black metal, sometimes combining all three together into a mess of mutant blackened jungle and mangled BM riffs. It's an interesting mashup, with bizarre vocal effects, lots of warped, chopped-up electronic weirdness, and faltering industrial noise loops, both sides ending in hypnotic lock-grooves. It's definitely more "alien" sounding than evil and probably of more interest to noise freaks and industrial/jungle weirdos than black metal fans, though it is hard not to notice the Abruptum/Aborym influences at work here... This record has been rocking it constantly in the C-Blast office. Doesn't really sound like anything else I've ever heard, that's for sure.