Bell Barrow - Corecore Pulp
Bell Barrow is the latest evolution of the Washington D.C. non-profit label The Saccharine Underground, featuring sole member and label curator Jeremy Moore (guitars, fretless bass, drums, noise/synthesis). Released on 10 April 2025, Bell Barrow’s album debut, CoreCore Pulp, is a 12-track record fusing the prominent noise and power electronics of Merzbow and Throbbing Gristle with free jazz psychedelia and avant-garde black metal.
“This new project … is one of visual chaos, mixing images of destructive personality and the excess authority of social media in such a way that it becomes aurally addictive, an impact that finds a kind of feral distribution that does much to explain the way our society has become its own damnation… CoreCore Pulp is the devouring of flesh and tissue of modern deceptions offered by those with crushing intent and in which a few like Bell Barrow offer resistance in the form of experimental art and one that requires visiting.”
– Ian D. Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision, UK
“An imposing monument to experimental music, drawing from the confrontational power electronics of Merzbow and Throbbing Gristle, the free jazz improvisations reminiscent of John Zorn, and the blackened textures that recall Skullflower. 75 minutes of instrumental soundscapes that exist in the disturbing liminal space between pure noise assault and methodical sonic exploration… temporal displacement serves as a metaphor for the machine-flesh hybrid etched within this music; music that sounds simultaneously primordial and futuristic... equal parts intergalactic communication and clinical torment…the album’s true strength lies sonically in its lack of rigid structure. This deliberate formlessness creates a canvas where noise, free jazz, power electronics, and psychedelic elements can coexist and mutate freely. Most impressive is Moore’s multifaceted musicianship… This ability to create such a varied yet coherent sonic landscape whilst handling all instrumental duties speaks to both technical proficiency and clear artistic vision.”
– Daniel de Jongh, Discipline Mag, Australia
“Bell Barrow delivers transmissions from the future of a ruined world… Jeremy Moore offering his commentary on a society desensitized by its own permissive lawlessness. Beginning as a thematic twist on social media trends, the album presents 12 tracks of noisy genre-clashing, each intended as a “message” from the “tachyonic antitelephone” to communicate dissonant themes through dissonant sound – those familiar with John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness will surely recognize the concept of transmissions from the future, showing us the end result of victim exploitation, inequality of power dynamics, self-obsession, and emotional detachment and apathy…”
– Ilker Yücel, ReGen Magazine, USA
“It is mostly abstract noises, slashes, bites, throbs, experiments, sound art, kind of like it on the days that it catches me in the right frame of mind as it is doing now on this latest visit…”
– Sean Worrall, ORGAN,UK
“Vivid dystopia and noise as pure freedom of expression… with hints of everything from metal to jazz infusion via confusion and something so original that one feels compelled to listen as an exploration as much as curiosity… twelve tracks of sonic bliss and audio audacity.”
– Ryan Martin, Jammerzine, USA
The Saccharine Underground label has been home to many of Moore’s avant-garde and experimental projects, including the dark ambient and occult rock act Gorazde, psychedelic free improvisational band Zero Swann, and the recently-formed progressive post-punk band Zabus. Whereas many of Moore’s previous projects featured prominent rock, post-punk and proto-goth influences, with voice as the centerpiece and anchor for the songs, Bell Barrow assumes an identity distinct from previous groups, relying on freely improvised, fully instrumental textured soundscapes and guitar and rhythm passages, rooted in serialism and marked by tempered cacophony. Moore explains:
“The idea for CoreCore Pulp began with a thematic twist on the social media trend “Corecore”, a form of visual poetry and social commentary utilizing collages of images and videos paired with ambient music to elicit a specific emotional impact. What if we received messages from the future that showed us the result of society’s lawless worship of primal desire and widespread unbridled fetishism? Mutual consent is what separates (ethically and legally) the tenets of BDSM from criminality. The inequality in power dynamics is condoned and understood; but if perverted and normalized by society through lower order group think and collective desensitization, we become a deranged civilization that thrives on victim exploitation. CoreCore Pulp is a mirror of our future selves, where self-obsession, malice, apathy and detachment devolve into sentient deviance—all catalyzed by rapid advancements in technology.”
When listening to CoreCore Pulp, one can envision “messages” or transmissions from the “tachyonic antitelephone”, where information from the future reaches us in the present, violating causality. Each track is a separate message, with dissonance and melody providing essential echo and contrast—a future hell communicated through sound and sublimated in the present through artistic expression.
CoreCore Pulp was engineered by Andy Baldwin at Metropolis Studios and produced by Bell Barrow, with artwork designed by Jeremy Moore.
CoreCore Pulp by Bell Barrow is out now as a download from Bandcamp, and streaming on Spotify and other digital music stores.
