This Dead C album slipped by in 1997 and didn’t seem to get quite as much attention as precursors like Harsh 70s Reality or Trapdoor Fucking EXIT. Part of the reason for this might be familiarity – The Dead C had been going for over a decade, and their music had started to settle into a broader international context, largely via an underground dedicated to experimental and improvised rock. Listening back, though, it’s notable just how ferocious Tusk sounds – it’s as though they’d grabbed hold of the severity of the live improv-only Repent and applied that energy to their songs. “Head” and “Tuba” are both great examples of what makes their music work – the former starts lethargically but gathers its wings soon enough, intensifying with every fiercely blasted chord change or scrawl of feedback; the latter, at 85 seconds, overwhelms with its near-unchecked fury. Elsewhere, loops collide with stubby-fingered guitar strums, drums thud into deep space, arcs of guitar squall shoot across the horizon.