THE ELECTRIC BIBLE | CHAPTER 177

Destroy All Monsters – named after a Toho Godzilla movie and accordingly engaged with trash culture (they even published their own comic) – was a Detroit collective formed in 1973. Low And Warped is an 18-track compilation of experimental music created by Destroy All Monsters between 1974 and 1976, until two of the founding members departed. The group would then move into a more conventional rock sound, but their archival material as represented here comprises a primal noise music, with elements including electric and electronic feedback, tribal percussion, free-jazz reeds and distortion, resulting in a sound which would, a few years later, be identified as “industrial” when purveyed (to lesser effect) by certain artists (the 1974-76 music of Destroy All Monsters would only be released in the 1990s). Buried amidst the sonic debris are two tracks, performed by vocalist Niagara, which more approximate songs – “You Can’t Kill Kill”, a psychotic twist of Manson-inspired noise-pop recorded a decade before Sonic Youth’s more celebrated “Death Valley 69”, and “Evil Works”, a deadpan assertion of Satanic power. The tracks on this compilation were originally released as part of Destroy All Monsters 1974 1976, a 3-CD set from Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label.