The avant-garde violinist Aranos is a confederate of perennial industrial weirdoes Nurse With Wound, and that group's screwy aesthetic shines through clearly on his two oddball tracks here. "No Religion" takes its title a bit too literally, consisting mainly of a pounding bass beat with simplistic chanted vocals over the top ("I've got no religion, and I'm glad, glad, glad"). There's a brief interlude in the middle for a very angry faux-square-dance violin solo; at the end, the chanters are swallowed up in waves of moaning and shimmering digital noise, a welcome relief from the track's monotony. The B-side, fortunately, isn't quite so preachy, consisting instead of a sparse, tense collage of scraped metal, ear-piercing violin abuse, and electronic processing. If Aranos were aiming to express outrage and absurdity, this glorious racket--and not the literal-minded soliloquy of the flipside--would be the perfect way to do it. "Spitting Revivalist Dreams" is infinitely more effective as a pure visceral piece of music, proving once again that musicians should focus on making sound, not manifestos. - Ed Howard, Grooves

The liner notes to this installment of the Brainwashed 7" series explain that both songs are an expression of Aranos' dismay at the hypocrisy of religions - particularly those founded on the Bible. Citing it as the source of the constant warfare between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, it's a "seductively beautifully written justification of violence." Most of "No Religion" is very repetitive, comprised of a drum (?) pulse and a chant: "I've got no religion and I'm glad," with a treated / filtered noise loop bit at the end. Side B, "Spitting Revivalist Dreams of Everlasting Pain" is much less orchestrated and obvious. Instead, it bares its teeth and honestly approaches the anger and frustration called for in the proposed goal of these tracks. Violent shrieks, jarring feedback and overloaded inputs are interspersed with harsh scrapes, groans and explosive bursts. The A side eases into the theme while the B side claws hungrily into its core. - Dick Baldwin, FakeJazz

An angry Czech Irish growls out a folky singalong about the abuses forced on us by our organised religions with the chorus I've got no religion and I'm glad, glad, glad, I'm so glad that I don't have to hate. Accompanied only by a light Suicide tribal type beat the song grinds into your head only to be split in two by a startling unexpected gypsy fiddle. It ends as you might have guessed with an anarchic feast of sound and the sharpening of metal on metal over buried dog growls. The epically titled b-side is the sound of a Violin with an STD, repeated listens are unnecessary in order to get his point. - Scott McKeating, Stylus

..."No Religion / Spitting Revivalist Dreams of Everlasting Pain" by the Czech / Irish maniac Aranos, probably best known for his Nurse With Wound collaborations. The A side is a sharp slap in the face of organised dogmatic ecstasy (and the horrors that are committed in its name), the flip is a candy-centred, electroacoustic dip into the trauma noise trough. Very worth a swig. - Byron Coley, The Wire

Some of you may recognize Aranos from his ties to Nurse With Wound although for most this is probably the first youve heard of him. This is the first of a bunch of 7 singles that he is planning to release this year, and this single is by far the most out there of these three. Where to begin? Side As No Religion is a million miles away from Side Bs Spitting Revivalist Dreams of Everlasting Pain. No Religion begins with a quick, light beat and minor percussion. Aranos sing-speaks all over it about, well, religion, and how much trouble it actually creates in the world. He sings I got no religion and Im glad, glad, glad while dropping stories of hypocrisy and persecution. Aside from a very brief section of violin the song follows a similar pattern until it degrades into looping abstractness at the end. Where Side A held a repetitive beat, no such structure is found on Spitting Revivalist Dreams. The song is a pure affair with noise. Metallic screeching permeates this songs core; what sounds like sheet metal is rubbed against the edge of another metallic surface. An echo effect is kicked in to add some (unneeded) dissonance to the proceedings. There may also be some type of drilling or welding tool in there as well. Congratulations on making one of the most difficult songs to endure this year, Aranos. - Andrew Iliadis, Only Angels Have Wings

Tengo que admitir que cuando recibi este paquete con todos estos vinilos mi reaccion primera fue una cierta leve decepcion. En casa no tengo ningun tipo de tocadiscos con el cual podia escucharlos. Pero cuando hice coincidir el lugar, la hora, el aparato y las ganas, todo fue maravilloso. Asisti por vez primera a un evento tan importante como lo es la romatica escucha de un long play. Los oidos se concentran, los ojos se cierran y todo apunta al medio de la recta trazada por los dos parlantes. En este caso, los ejemplos son variados y los estilos diferentes para tamanos descubrimientos: Aranos es un viejo, padre o abuelo de la vanguardia chescoslovaca que no se ha cansado de protestar en todos estos anos mediante los sonidos que insesantemente emanan de sus poros, ahora un tanto cerrados. "No religion" (tema con el cual se abre el single) tiene un bajo semi cuartetero y una voz repitente que clama con la acidez necesaria y la ironia reinante "Yo no tengo religion / y estoy contento / porque no necesito odiar", manifestando la principal virtud del ateismo en estos tiempos en que corren, post 11 de septiembre. Y es que la protesta del viejo es muchisimo mas totalizadora que la anarquia de muchos manifestantes de Seattle. La energia se siente presente en las venas y esa violencia se transforma de a poco en amor. "Spitting Revivalist Dreams of Everlasting Pain", se tranforma en su segundo tema electroacusticamente hablando, hiriente y supurante como corte de cuchillo, en donde el silencio cobra (a pesar de su poca predominancia) un papel chocante - pavlo picco, deVelvet

"No Religion" starts out as a long and very repetitive, croaking rant against Christianity, Islam and Judaism, blaming the Old Testament as the root of all the world's crises of faith, and the need to defend one's own worldview against such corrupt documents. He digs into it with a fast polka/gypsy beat and comes off not unlike how the Sun City Girls might with the same inspiration. On the flip, we're presented with a screeching, atonal piece for violin and (I'm assuming) contact mics, building nicely in form and structure as the track unwinds. - Doug Mosurak, Dusted

The two pieces on Aranos's green disc are as eccentric as his other work (Tangomango, Bering Sea). The A side's "No Religion" is dominated by the Czech-born Bohemian Irish resident's defiant rant ("I got no religion and I'm glad") with the briefest of violin appearances dropped into its middle. (Describing the Old Testament as "a seductively beautifully written justification of violence and abhorrent behaviour mainly perpetrated by God and his followers" will leave no one guessing Aranos's thoughts on the matter.) The B side's "Spitting Revivalist Dreams of Everlasting Pain" continues his "expression of dismay" in a writhing instrumental exercise of violin scrapes and clanging noise. - Ron Schepper, Textura

This is right odd. A plodding techno beat with lyrics and twisted folk-esque music that you'd expect to find in some local pub being dished out by the resident nutter! Flip for abrasive electronic oddness - cacophonous even... - Smallfish

Of the three 7" records released by Brainwashed this month, Aranos' two songs stand out as shocking and strange, even with his already strange discography considered. "No Religion" gets straight to the point as a thumping bass drum and tambourine fade in, Aranos sings, "Oh, I've got no religion and I'm glad." Where many of his lyrical outings have been ethereal and surrealist in many ways, for this song Aranos has come down to earth with a definite and unmistakable message: religion, hate, and violence seem to go hand in hand. It's not a revolutionary thought, but Aranos is obviously pissed off. His delivery cannot be mistaken for sarcasm and there's no hint of metaphor nor a sign of symbolism anywhere in his words; this is a direct voice speaking exactly as its source feels. "No Religion" feels like it should belong at a party, too, the bouncing bass and drum rhythms are joyous sounding and Aranos' slash of violin playing is upbeat and bright, betraying the seriousness of the lyrics. I've found myself singing this on my way to work so as to pick my mood up, "I've got no religion and I'm glad, glad, glad, I'm so glad that I don't have to hate." "Spitting Revivalist Dreams of Everlasting Pain" picks up where "No Religion" leaves off. The mechanical, sputtering sound of dying industry that closed up side A are enhanced and pumped up a thousand-fold on side B. It's a noise track in every sense of the word, ringing with piercing shrieks, heavy metallic crashes, and buzzing electronics. Aranos processes these sounds, turning the volume up, along with intensity, at some points, and letting the sounds rumble on the horizon at others. It's like a sonic fit, tossing everything about the room in a sudden and fierce display of absolute frustration. The intensity, at some points, is frightening and, as the song continues to churn on, never giving up, it becomes quite clear why this was coupled with "No Religion." Sometimes talking or singing about a feeling or idea isn't enough, sometimes sound translates the ideas with such clarity that a word might spoil everything. - Lucas Schleicher