Cheveu/Crash Normal split 7" (Rococo)

Crash Normal's side erupts with a blast of manic, industrial punk, with careful attention paid to get a sharp, metallic guitar tone. But barely a minute in, we hear the sound of a stylus streaking across a record and the music changes into something much more Cheveu-like. By which I mean, synth drums, and distorted, mostly spoken vocals. So which band are we actually listening to? The third song on the side also confuses me - both of these are slower and almost a bit loungier than Cheveu usually sound. But both bands are from France and probably have some member overlap. The end of (what I think is) the Crash Normal side descends into a collapsing mess -- well, a 'crash', I guess -- which could pass for Nihilist Spasm Band on a good day. The Cheveu side (we're pretty sure of that, as there's a certain twang to the vocalist that we've come to recognise by now) has a howdown feel, with a twangy riff accelerating, smashing into a brick wall, backing up, and doing it again over and over. The vocals are more like barks and it's hard to imagine all of this energy coming from a line-in recording aesthetic. The guitar is clean here and I like the way it rises above the tide. There's great things afoot in France now, as the legacy of Metal Urbain lives on.