Crash Worship – Asesinos

1992 • Cold Spring Records

Crash Worship was an interesting band. When they were active in the '90s they were very well-known for their concerts, which bordered more on the improvisational stage-performance side of things which were chaotic to the point where the police would shut down many of their shows. I was of course too young to attend any of these shows, but whatever it was about their shows that made them so (in)famous has become utterly lost in their studio output (despite the studio being where the band started).

Asesinos is a compilation of excerpts of various tapes and EPs that came out at the very start of Crash Worship's existence which have been remixed and edited. While these sorts of compilations often serve as a great way to show off a band's better output, if that is the case here then Crash Worship's earliest material must have been truly dismal, because Asesinos is a pretty boring release.

As is typical for Crash Worship it generally has a sort of tribal-industrial sound going on, with lots of repetitive drums (some drum machines), electronics/synths, weird bass guitar, studio dubbing and other effects, the occasional incomprehensible shouted vocal, and the like. Even though I've heard this compilation several times and have gotten pretty used to the band's sound, though, it still comnes off as nothing special. Each track has a very distinct sound and atmosphere (mostly along the lines of claustrophobic / stuffy / distant) but there isn't any development, just the same beats and sounds repeated for minutes at a time. Additionally, most of the time there isn't a lot ever going on, just a simple drum beat and a couple of synths or samples over top, and that's it. These songs would probably be pretty interesting in a live setting, but listening to them in the album format is kind of dull.

There are some cool sounds here and there, but ultimately nothing grabs my attention and I find it really difficult to pay attention to the music, even for a little while. It just doesn't interest me, which is unfortunate because it's not that bad of a release. It's just something I don't find myself wanting to listen to. On the other hand, I imagine that this music would be really good sampling fodder due to the aforementioned drum beats and interesting sounds. Unfortunately that isn't what I'm looking for in a good listen, and Asesinos doesn't really deliver. (Note that they did get better studio material, and Espontáneo! and Triple Mania II are both pretty decent.)

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