Ever since I laid my ears on NON for the first time not so long ago, I became an instant fan. Boyd Rice, along with such quintessential artists as Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse, is the precursor of the modern electronic noise scene. His nihilistic, multi-layered arrangements pierce every little cell of your body, creating, as the man himself once put it, "...something that blanks out your brain, leaving a vacuum and allowing new thoughts to form." "God & Beast" is undeniably NON that Rice's fans know and love. The ungodly, rhythmic noise-sculptures perforate your corpus and resonate deep inside like the side-effects of electroshock therapy. As a gift to the old-time fans, Rice also included the remakes of the old favorites "Out Out Out" and "Total War."

--- A note of caution: Don't get this, or any other NON album, thinking that it will blow away all those extreme, contemporary noisemakers. NON dwells in a different category. People like Merzbow create their electro-magnetic aural assaults with the aim of shocking the hell out of you, attempting to make the most unbearable sounds that are capable of completely destroying your ear-drums. With NON, the degree of extremity is there, but it's not the only factor. There is just as much dependency on rhythms, dynamics and emotional effectiveness, so that the sounds can actually convey feelings and ideas. Noise for the sake of noise it ain't.---

© 2000 boris