John Dwyer Surprise-Drops Heathen Axe, a Six-Song Blast of Tape Hiss and Controlled Chaos

John Dwyer has released a new EP, Heathen Axe, with almost no runway, framing it as a fast, raw side project built around process rather than polish. Issued as a solo release, the six-track set still feels deeply connected to the live-wire intensity that has defined Dwyer’s work across Osees, Damaged Bug, and Coachwhips.

In a note sent to Bandcamp subscribers, Dwyer said he set out to make “a totally fried recording, quick and dirty,” describing the sessions as “sort of a cathartic expulsion” meant to “clean the cobwebs.” The key piece of gear was a newly acquired Vestax MR44 four-track, which he called “the best sounding 4 track ever,” and notably the same model he used on earlier Coachwhips and OCS recordings. That detail matters: Heathen Axe doesn’t just borrow the aesthetic of those records, it pulls from the same machinery and workflow that shaped them.

Dwyer wrote riffs over the course of a week, then brought them to Tom Dolas and John Hodge. The trio reportedly ran each idea once and recorded on the second pass, keeping takes loose, improvised, and loud. Everything turned all the way up, as Dwyer put it, and the EP sounds like exactly that—clipped edges, blown-out textures, and the kind of momentum that comes from committing before overthinking.

The release also lands as a useful reminder of how Dwyer’s catalog functions in 2020s underground rock: not as a sequence of carefully spaced campaign albums, but as an ongoing lab of formats, aliases, and recording constraints. If recent Osees records have leaned into precision and rhythmic complexity, Heathen Axe swings back toward instinct and abrasion, with clear nods to the Japanese psych-noise lineage Dwyer cites directly—Mainliner and High Rise—as well as Comets on Fire and Hair Police.

ATENNNNNTION HUUUUMANOIDS
I WANTED TO MAKE A TOTALLY FRIED RECORDING, QUICK AND DIRTY. SORT OF A CATHARTIC EXPULSION. CLEAN THE COBWEBS.
I RECENTLY BOUGHT A VESTAX MR44 (THE BEST SOUNDING 4 TRACK EVER IMHO)
THE SAME 4 TRACK I RECORDED SOME COACHWHIPS, EARLY OCS ETC ON.
NOW WE HAD THE TOOLS WE NEEDED.SO I SPENT A WEEK WRITING RIFFS AND BROUGHT THEM TO TOM DOLAS AND JOHN HODGE.
WE RAN THEM ONE TIME AND THEN RECORDED THEM ON THE SECOND GO.
LOOSELY IMPROVISED AND UNHINGED. EVERYTHING TURNED ALL THE WAY UP.
HOPE YOU DIG
PLAY LOUD

Listen below.