Modern Purveyors of Filth and Degradation (in a time of peace and understanding) is the debut of East Coast (Brian Pitt) / Midwest (Ira Rat) experimental rock duo Neon Lushell. Brought to life with assistance from such musicians as Christopher Padula (Thunder Bunny), Gregory Lee (Switchblade Cheetah), A.J. Herring (Velma and the Happy Campers) as well as Casey Jones (The Cryogenic Strawberries / DustPlanet) Modern Purveyors is a technicolor foray into spectral worlds that William S. Burroughs might even find harrowing. "Neon Lushell is a duo of Ira Rat and Switchblade Cheetah lead singer and poet Brian Pitt. Ira backs up Pitt’s disturbing imagery with fittingly disturbing sounds, a mix of bad-trip-hop and cold ambient nausea that smells like a dank old basement with bloodstained granite walls. Pitt’s performances are phoned-in — literally: he submits his vocal tracks via voice-mail from Tallahassee, Florida. Ira edits these into the final creations in Ames, Iowa, making the most of the distant, disconnected feel with which this process endows Pitt’s varied contributions of aggressive rapping, distracted crooning, madman raving, spoken-word storytelling, and stream-of-consciousness. Although “Leave Me Alone” and “Sammy’s Rap” build their dark atmospheres around groovy beats, the rest of the album is rhythmically impressionistic, a series of mixtures of floating processed sounds that blur the distinctions between “real” instruments and abstract synthesized ones, even when something recognizable as, say, a mandolin or an acoustic guitar appears, and stubbornly refuse to completely cohere, leaving the listener helplessly adrift. “Everybody Died, I Survived” backs a dreamlike ghost story about a shipwreck with throbbing electronic bass sounds that will threaten to blow your speakers. Various Workerbee figures make guest appearances, including Thunder Bunny on “Grave Bells,” where an wince-worthy abrasive metallic scrape grows to dominate the mix. Even if you’re already into the experimental/noise music milieu, Modern Purveyors of Filth and Degradation probably sounds like nothing else in your collection, and is likely to be one of the more unsettling sonic trips you will take." - Centipede Farm "Depending on which track you listen to, you’re going to get undertones of the Misfits, Lou Reed, Chumbawumba, Joy Division and some of those tracks the Beatles stuck on the “White Album” that nobody listens to." - Cityview