9 Favourite Lastgasp Art Laboratories Full-Flavoured Killer Compacts
As mentioned previously - I meant to feature Lastgasp Art Laboratories (LAL / Lastgasp) quite a while back, but access to pedals from the UK has been rather limited, and most of these therefore fairly hard to come by! I detailed how there were only two properly active current dealers that had most of the range in stock - my good friend Andy Ebsen’s Effekt Boutique in Germany, and Perfect Circuit in the USA. I also was instrumental in getting Joe’s Pedals’ Joe Light to connect with Lastgasp’s Hirofumi Uchino - where Joe is now UK dealer for Lastgasp, and will have substantial stock in place - in just a little over a month’s time!
Hiro’s sound journey started properly all the way back in Tokyo in 1992. He’s for a long time been an experimental noise performance artist - in fact with his performance alter-ego ’Defektro’ founded in 1995 as the sound deparment of Lastgasp Art Laboratories. Where Lastgasp was responsible for manufacturing all the devices and installation pieces for the Defektro ’Machine produced Junk Metal Noise’ Band - which I would classify as a sort of experimental Clang-Drone-Dub genre if you want to be specific! (as per the live performance below) :
Hiro had been manufacturing various devices in Japan originally, but in the lead-up to 2005 decided to transplant himself to Sydney, Australia. After relocating, Hiro had to set up the whole production line again from scratch in Australia - so for most people Lastgasp started in Australia in 2005, while there is quite a lot of Japanese history that precedes that. All the pedals had to be wholly re-tooled and redeveloped in Australia - so 2005 is very much the marquee year for Lastgasp.
Some of the early Lastgasp pedals were very experimental - had pretty narrow ranges, and were often difficult to dial in and operate in general. Where Hiro massively honed his skill set along the way, and evolved his product line to be much more malleable and robustly reliable over the years.
One of Lastgasp's key early successes was the Green Monster Fuzz - where you can see the original Green Monster Ultra Fuzz Edition in the last frame of the LAL GM2 Page.
And for which Hiro writes :
"The Green Monster Ultra Fuzz was my first product. It has 3 knobs only (Level, Sens 1, Sens 2). Pretty bad handling and quite a number were returned, as people thought it was broken! It was sold for a short while and then discontinued - only around 20 units were made. After some years I released the Green Monster Septic Fuzz which was a succession model of the original Green Monster and has 4 knobs (including an additional Sens 3 control)."
There are no demos of the original Ultra edition, but a great demo by Dennis Kayzer (below) of the later Green Monster Septic Fuzz successor. Even that better behaved later version - which still carried the core signature sound of the Ultra - did not have sufficient lasting appeal to remain in the active catalogue. But it remains a great signature calling card which properly helped define the ethos and direction of Lastgasp Art Laboratories.
I think it would be quite cool to reissue that as a sort of commemorative limited edition! I would certainly get in line for one of those!
Nowadays the flagship Lastgasp pedals tend to be the Super Oscillo Fuzz and Mystic Cave Analog Resonance Echo / Reverb which are also the current 2 bestsellers. The fact that the Mystic Cave is a mono device means it's not ideal for my own rig. So my focus on this occasion is entirely on the compact format Lastgasp pedals - where I've picked out my 9 favourites from that range - mostly fuzzes. In fact we have 6 fuzzes, 2 distortions and a tremolo in this overview.
Obviously, and courtesy of Effekt Boutique I now have and have covered the Super Oscillo Fuzz and Sooper Fuzz so far, and once they're in stock at Joe's Pedals - I will be getting at least the Octavella Upper Octave Feedback Fuzz, and the Gomorrah Input Sensitive Subharmonic Fuzz - before picking off the rest of these somewhat more opportunistically. I will likely end up with all 9 eventually, and in fact Hiro has been working on some new models - so we will have further targets to chase fairly imminently!
My favourite list of 9 consists of the following (as pictured) :
- Deviltail Deathtortion Distortion
- Flikrrr Flickering Tremolo
- Gomorrah Input Sensitive Subharmonic Fuzz
- Lluna Oscillo Fuzz Drive with Voltage Dropper
- Octavella Upper Octave Feedback Fuzz
- Sooper Fuzz 46
- Super Oscillo Fuzz 88
- Tone Axe Frequency Divider Fuzz
- Toxic Plant Disharmonic Distortion Pedal
Those are mostly in stock or coming into stock at Effekt Boutique and Perfect Circuit, and will very soon be in stock at Joe's Pedals too. Of course if you're on Oceania or Asia Pacific you can order from the Lastgasp Art Laboratories Webstore too.
I've enjoyed a wonderful journey with Lastgasp thus far, and am really looking forward to getting more of these into my reference collection. These are al properly full-flavour effects - loaded with the most richly textured of outputs. My introduction to this brand has been incredibly strong, and I know I will enjoy many more further frontier sonic adventures onboard the Lastgasp express!
Everyone should of course own the Super Oscillo Fuzz at the very least!
Here follow the usual details per pedal :
Deviltail Deathtortion Distortion - $230 / €219
Controls - Level, Gain.
A really chunky grungy metal style high gain distortion pedal. Has a degree of doominess to it also. While dirty / grungy is probably the best descriptive for these tones! A cool distortion texture for sure.
Flikrrr Flickering Tremolo - $228 / €219
Controls - Level, Depth, Shape : Sine > Square .
A fascinating somewhat glitchy / lo-fi tremolo with the pedal name incredibly descriptive as to how its output sounds. Sort of flickering in and out existence. An incredibly moody ambient sort of tremolo - great for emotive performance pieces - has a really organic nature in how the tremolo constantly sort of flickers in and out.
"You can make volume changes reminiscent of the soft sway of a candle flame, or the flicker of a fluorescent lamp."
Gomorrah Input Sensitive Subharmonic Fuzz - $199 / €199
Controls - Level, Tone, Sensitivity, Mode : SB (Subharmonic) / OT (Overtone).
Dual-mode Subharmonic / Overtone Fuzz with superb gritty square wave fuzz textures. At times quite synthy sounding, while also pretty grungy and gritty. This is one of my 4 essential Lastgasp fuzzes - which I'm looking to add to the reference collection very soon. All the pedals in this list are highly impressive, but the quartet of Super Oscillo Fuzz, Sooper Fuzz, Gomorrah and Octavella still stands out - those are for sure the first 4 must buys from the range that I'm recommending!
Lluna Oscillo Fuzz Drive with Voltage Dropper - $229 / €219
Conrols - Level, Tone, Volt, Gain / Oscillation.
Another beautifully texturally voiced fuzz - probably my 5th favourite here, could even be 4th - so many of these are great sounding. I guess it depends what sounds you're seeking at any particular time. The growl of the oscillation here just sounds superb. I love interestingly textured fuzzes - and this one most definitely takes you into interesting territories. This is several people's favourite Lastgasp fuzz - which is also quite understandable. Sounds immense!
Octavella Upper Octave Feedback Fuzz - $199 / €199
Controls - Level, Tone, Gain, F.Back.
This superbly calibrated Upper Octave Feedback Fuzz has already been secured, and is coming to me onboard the Joe's Pedals stock-up - where I will probably grab either a Gomorrah or Lluna at the same time - possibly both even! Definitely one of the most interesting sounding octave fuzzes out there.
Sooper Fuzz 46 - $249 / €229
Controls - Level, Tone, Gain, Mode (Tone) : 1 MidBoost / 2 MidScoop.
"The '46' variety is a succession model to the 'Yongo shiki kebarade hizumaseki - super fuzz (45)' whose roots lie in the Japanese fuzz pedals of the 1960s. It is one of the most exciting and aggressive upper octave fuzz pedals currently available."
As reported in my review, this has a very interesting circuit topology / design, and delivers the most beautifully textured of super fuzzes - really working that whole ebb and bloom dynamic that super fuzzes are so well known for. A somewhat unconventional circuit design that really delivers the goods. The control topology is pretty much standard Super Fuzz - while there is a huge amount of range on all those knobs. This was the second Lastgasp pedal that I acquired.
Super Oscillo Fuzz 88 - $350 / €269
Controls - Level, Adjust, Mode Switches : 1-6 (Tone / Distortion / Oscillation).
Probably the current flagship and standard-bearer for Lastgasp Art Laboraties. This experimental circuit-bending fuzz is everything we genuine hardcore fuzz fans adore. Seeking out interesting textures and tonalities, and like many of the truly great fuzzes - this one makes you work for it a little. But when you hit a particular sweetspot it's so very worth it!. Be careful with the gain here, which at higher levels can be quite prone to delivering squealing feedback - for some settings you can't avoid it, and it actually becomes a feature of your playback. While as at other times you probably want to dial it out. A great sounding fuzz every which way - with lots of cool and different tones and textures onboard. It does require some modicum of patience though! This was my first Lasgasp fuzz - and should definitely be in any serious fuzz collection.
Tone Axe Frequency Divider plus Manual Jetlizer and Fuzz with Gate - $230 / €209
Controls - Level, Sensitivity, Divide.
It's incredible how many interesting fuzzes there are in the Lasgasp range - and this is another amazingly textured example. Sort of glitchy in places, but so full of flavour. Another one for the genuine fuzz fan - who is seeking interesting tones and textures. I always refer to myself as a 'Noise-Maker' in fact not too differently to how Hiro often describes himself. I love nasty grungy discordant noises - and the Tone Axe certainly fits that profile. These 9 were obviously very well chosen as I keep flipping the priority in which to acquire these. All offer something different and each very much has its own appeal - depending on your prevailing mood at the time. At one stage I thought I would be happy with just say 4 or 5 of these, while I'm really looking to acquire them all now!
Toxic Plant Disharmonic Distortion Pedal - $260 / €219
Controls - Level, Frequency, Gain.
A nasty sounding distortion specifically designed for creating discordant sounds. Has a sort of synthy vibe to it too. Very industrial and at times quite harsh sounding - but in the best possible way. This selection starts and ends with two amazing distortion pedals - which I find very difficult to prioritise. I really like both of these - but cannot quite decide yet which one should come first! Often when I do these roundups I get at least 1 pedal which is sort of a filler - they're to complete the number symmetry, but obviously a weak link overall. In this Lastgasp selection of 9 there are no weak links. As a fuzz fanatic I typically go for the fuzzes first, but I do love highly textured distortions in all their guises and yes the Deviltail Deathtortion and Toxic Plant will definitely be in the reference collection!
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