Fathom Codex - Fathom Codex EP

Billed as ‘The first new musical collaboration from Dazzling Killmen's Nick Sakes and Blake Fleming in more than 30 years!’ Fathom Codex were first conceived in 2024 with this S/T EP marking their debut release.

For those not in the know, Dazzling Killmen are the godfathers of Math-Rocky Noise-Rock, so if you’re a fan of Botch, Dillinger Escape Plan, Deadguy...there’s a very good chance they were influenced by these guys. The band put out two full-length albums, several singles, a live LP and a compilation during their initial run in the early to mid 90’s before venturing off into other projects, Nick Sakes went onto Colossamite, Dazzling Killmen, Sicbay, Xaddax and more recently Upright Forms, while Blake Fleming went onto perform with the likes of Zeni Geva, Laddio Bolocko, The Mars Volta, Electric Turn To Me, Omar Rodríguez-López, as well as putting out a couple of solo albums. I was excited that this project popped up on my Instagram feed, (I follow Nick Sakes on there) and there wasn’t a chance in hell that I wasn’t not going to cover this for Clean Sheets. So here we are.

‘Wolves on the Lawn’ sounds like an extension of Sakes’ aforementioned band Upright Form, with the Post-Hardcore angularity (despite all the music being composed by Blake Fleming, Sakes handles all the Vocals and lyrics – according to the EP’s bandcamp page). However the whole affair is stripped back and heavily experimental along the lines of bands such as Deerhoof and/or Xiu Xiu. There’s danceable Hip-Hop quality present which is a far cry from the ferocity of Dazzling Killmen, in this respect Ian Miller of Kowloon Walled City’s side project Interesting Times Gang came to mind, not directly on a musical level but in how he created something so distinctly different to the monstrously heavy Sludge laden Post-Metal of his day job. A superb opener. ‘Loud Moon’ features Dub with some smooth Jazz, while the whispered Vocals recall that of Mike Patton’s work on Faith No More’s underrated Album of the Year. In fact the icy vibes of tracks such as ‘Stripsearch’ from that record came immediately to mind. One could say there’s a Trip-Hop influence with a little Roxy Music slipped in along the way, the eerie sparseness of records such as For Your Pleasure for instance is another comparison. This is intelligent, heavily sophisticated music performed by artists at the absolute top of their game and which puts to bed any concerns as to whether the duo would be able to produce anything significant due to the decades long recording hiatus. ‘Walking Fences’ is another wonderfully inventive piece, introducing as it does African tribal rhythms ala Here Lies Man, a Stoner Rock band who inject heavy doses of Afrobeat into their sound. Of course, there’s no Fuzz or Sabbath present here, just pure percussion with spoken word Vocals, its like a more engrossing version of a Jah Wobble solo album or PIL were they to be remixed by Fela Kuti or Lee Scratch Perry. This is possibly the most divisive number on the record and those expecting ‘Blown (Face Down)’ and ‘Torture’ part 2 will be left disappointed and wanting. I personally think there’s nothing more Punk Rock then fucking with people’s expectations and this track certainly does that. A great way to conclude proceedings.

This was a fascinating piece of work which warrants repeated listens, the project was reportedly the catalyst which got the ball rolling on Dazzling Killmen’s recent reformation. I’ll be seeing them in Leeds in October so I’m of course eternally thankful.