In addition to putting out the best in extreme sound on his long-running label Dada Drumming, Greg Babbitt contributes to it himself as A Fail Association. Alongside Kevin Novak of T.E.F. his early work in the mid aughts carved key contours in the exploding harsh noise tradition in the Lone Star State and beyond, honing the strain of muscular, virtuosic cut-up that we’re still hearing rip two decades later. After a ten-year break Babbitt doesn’t seem to have lost any steam, releasing material at least yearly since 2018. The slung-together “Only Connect” Sessions C30 doesn’t concern itself with the crystal-clear production of East V. or This Will Hurt You More Than It Will Hurt Me; the first track was recorded with a mobile phone, the second with a handheld Tascam, all live and uncut. But as Texas friends have told me, that’s where AFA shines, which I finally got to see for myself at Red Light District last weekend. Both of these recordings are fair and accurate representations of the ear-shredding assault he hurls through the speakers. His style feels less surgical, more of a free-associative brute force surge—even if he rehearses it doesn’t sound like he does, and that’s a huge compliment. The blasts hit in all the right places, the rapid-fire loops capture and amplify the momentum like lightning in a bottle. Side B wrestles with piercing feedback squeals that probably would have euthanized the dying PA used for the flip. The honest “postscript” Babbitt leaves in between is the cherry on top. The stakes are low, the reward (clearly) is high as can be.
Copies are available from the label via email—limitedhangoutrecordings@gmail.com—or eventually from Tobira.
Noise Not Music 
Thank you for reviewing this! It was a pleasure to work with Greg on it! I want to add that copies are now available at White Centipede in Germany, Scream and Writhe at home here in Canada, Tobira in Japan and Cipher Productions in Australia, as well as our other label offerings from Mo*Te, Garlands x Tense Relative and God Pussy x Damno Te.
LikeLike