STICE

Stice vocalist Caroline Bennett aka Crab (formerly of Kiddy Pool, which would later become Machine Girl), and producer Jake Lichter aka Jark (of Mainer experimental rock trio Lunch Cult) like to imagine they met as teens on the website Chatroulette, and immediately bonded over their mutual interest in the far corners of the Internet.

Stice’s Satyricon (2021) might be the pair’s most unabashedly foul affair yet. Tracks like “I Piss Myself” channel the raw vigor of ‘00s Myspace forumcore and the attendant .jpeg-compressed filth of the unmoderated web. “Screaming like Shittt” sounds like if Atari Teenage Riot had helmed the The Rugrats Movie (1999) soundtrack, while “Ollygoshawda” packs all the desperation and angst of a mutant high school talent show gone off the rails. These songs run a mile a minute, cycling through a torrent of emotions and genres, ranging from the shambolic breakcore of Nero’s Day at Disneyland to the gonzo zolo of Cardiacs to the ADHD mash-ups of 100gecs. In the world of Stice, bodily functions and urges get all mixed up, turned in on one another, repressed one moment and erupted uncontrollably the next. (Per the title track: “Every time I pee, I cum religiously.”) This collection is among the darkest, most putrid, most nutso grab-bag of tunes that the duo has thus far cooked up.