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Tojikome Raremashita is a decidedly atmospheric, at times almost creepy walled noise release- bringing together murky industrial walling, with moody textural detail. It’s a two thirty minute track affair that comes in either the form of a pro-pressed CDR or digital download.
Recorded over two days last summer in a rural English church Dethick is a ten track album of noise bound-yet often-acoustic improv, and brooding-to-angular modern composition. As a release it rather brought to mind the work of Steve Parry, and his project Hwyl Nofio- in the way it sonically recreates the barren, worn, weathered, and at times sinister landscapes/ buildings of abandoned industrial & rural British island- with its blend of yawning & sawing string work, grim pitch shifting drone work, and manic-to-skewed noise making utilizing various found items.
Untitled finds this Stockholm based walled noise project rendering up two twenty minute examples of thick-yet- quietly captured static studies, which bring together blunt low-end with hazed crackle, crunch and subtle textural detail. This release appeared in March of this year on Ominous Recordings in both tape & digital edition- the tape came in an edition of eight copies which are sadly all gone now- so the digital version is the only option.
Who? Is a 1974 thriller starring Elliott Gould and Trevor Howard and directed by Jack Gold, the man most famous for directing John Hurt in the Quentin Crisp penned, The Naked Civil Servant (1975) and Aces High (1976) starring Malcolm McDowell and Christopher Plummer.
Robin Storey's Rapoon project has existed since the early 90's, formed after his departure from industrial soundscape collective Zoviet France. Rapoon's music is renowned for its surreal dream-like feeling and convincing tribal atmosphere. As I generally prefer Storey's classic earlier work, it is with great pleasure that I approach the task of reviewing this 1996 album, Darker By Light, now re-issued in remastered form by Zoharum. As Rapoon's discography is quite vast, this album is one that I had never previously listened to.
I first encountered Leafcutter John (John Burton) as a member of Seb Rochford's freewheeling jazz group Polar Bear. I subsequently became familiar with him as a solo artist of rare stylistic breadth and creativity. One moment he's playing the accordion, the next he's improvising on a system that integrates MAX MSP with a light activated interface that looks like a chess board covered in snakeskin. Yes! Come Parade with Us is the follow-up to his Resurrection LP from 2015.
Optimistic Modernism is fairly varied; at times unnerving and unsettling improv record- which finds these three seasoned improvisers severing an eight track release that apt shifts from sinister & dramatic, through to quirky & dada influenced, onto mysterious & busy. The release comes in the form of either a physical CD release, with 48-page booklet, or a digital download- we were sent just the download for review.
Now here’s something you don’t often get- a punchy, varied, well-recorded & wholly enjoyable live record. Long Time Coming sonically chronicles the first every concert from British avant pop two-piece Renaldo & The Loaf, that happened last year in Vienna. The CD brings together the bands complete live set of fourteen tracks- it works perfectly as both a primer/ celebration of this band's fairly unique sound, as well as a effective flowing album- live or otherwise!.
On the surface & from its plot description of ‘horny Teens going to a lake location to be stalked by a killer’, Blood Lake may seem like your run-of-the-mill 80’s slasher. But in reality there’s nothing run-of-the-mill, or normal about this slice of SOV madness- like the best of the genre, it drops you in an almost parallel bad-movie universe- where we find mumbling mulleted teens, extremely stilted acting, way over-long shots of water skiing, extreme fleeting & to darkly shot gore, and general bad pacing- which often makes the whole thing as a lost family VHS from the 80’s- all soundtrack by a decidedly haphazard blend of wonky Hair metal, mawkish piano & synth wonders, and more pulsing-though-very monotonous horror focused synth ‘n’ beats. Here from AGFA & Bleeding Skull is a much needed new region free DVD of this Brain melting SOV classic- which features a new print, a directors commentary, and a few neat extras.
From Vinegar Syndrome here’s another late 80’s film that’s difficult to pin down into one genre. It starts off as a sort-of teen mystery/ melodrama, later adding in elements of comedic/ quirky characters, then moves towards being a thriller/ bloodless stalking action, before having a WTH & grim ending. As we’ve come to expect from VS releases we get a nice new scan, a handful of extras, reversible cover, and a duel Blu Ray & DVD- featuring multi-region discs.
All Things Quite brings together the first three albums from Steeleye Span- we have Hark! The Village Wait from 1970, Please To See The King from 1971 , and also from 71 Ten Man Mop Or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again - each of these 1970’s albums highlighting the projects authentic-yet- often creative take on the folk-rock/ electric folk genre. The set is presented in the form of a three CD set, which takes in a most informative thirty-one-page booklet- all packaged in a flip top cardboard box.
Over the years the Italian experimental music scene has given birth to many sub-genres. In fact, the very concept of experimental music originated in Italy. Therefore, it is not surprising that the country has a huge number of interesting, original and legendary projects. Claudio Dondo is the leader and the only participant of the famous Italian project Runes Order. However, in the late 80s - early 90s, before this project was his first sonic venture Order 1968, which existed from 1989 to 1992. Over the years, Order 1968 released six albums, which are subsequently been revaluated by many fans as a classic of experimental electronics.
Anni Hogan is a composer, musician and record producer, most well known for her long association with marc Almond. Anni studied at Leeds University around the same time that Marc Almond and Dave Ball were starting out as Soft Cell. Anni took a year out of her course in 1980 to work as a promoter, booking bands around the city, most notably Soft Cell and The Human League. After Soft Cell split Anni developed her close working relationship with Marc Almond, appearing on both albums from Marc and the Mambas, and continuing on to work with Marc on his solo material. Hogan has also worked with a diverse range of talents over the years including the incredible Barry Adamson and the even more legendary Nick Cave.
A Midsummer's Night, released in 2016, is three years later still the most recent work from avant-ambient guitarist Mike Fazio's orchestramaxfieldparrish alias. Like all of Fazio's music, it is self released on his own Faith Strange label in a limited edition, an edition of 100 copies in this case. As a long time fan of Fazio's experimental guitarscapes, I am honored to own a copy.
The Substance of Perception is the debut offering from Italian artist Alessio Antoni and his project NERATERRÆ. For this album he put together a stunning collaborative effort with some of the best contemporary names in the field of dark ambient /drone/ritual music ...collaborators here are Northaunt, Alexey Tegin from Phurpa, Treha Sektori, New Risen Throne, Flowers For Bodysnatchers, Taphephobia, Ugasanie, Xerxes The Dark and Infinexhuma-which is a pretty heavy hitting line up.
Hot on the heels of Croatian Amor's latest record comes fellow Posh Isolation denizen Varg (Jonas Rönnberg) with Evanescence (A Love Letter). The Swedish producer has had a particularly prolific last year or so; putting out the fifth instalment of his Nordic Flora series, in addition to collaborations with AnnaMelina and the aforementioned Croatian Amor. Collaboration and cross pollination have been at the heart of Varg's music during the few years he's produced under that name, racking up a good three dozen releases in the process. On Evanescence, his previous experiments with drone, darkside techno and industrial are further augmented with down-tempo R&B and Vaporwave sonics.
A Century Of Horror- A Pictorial History Of Cinefantastique is a glossy, poster & film still heavy study of the horror film genre moving from the silent movies, on through the 1930s, ending in the 1990s. It the latest book from the We Belong Dead team, who brought us the books Unsung Horrors & its sequel Son of Unsung Horrors, We’re British Y’ Know!"-A Celebration of Peter Cushing, and of course We Belong Dead Magazine.
Species is an hours worth of dense & subtle shifting sonics, that sits somewhere between subdued wall noise, grim & grey ambience, and what sounds like looped/ layered field recording ebb & flow- all to create decidedly organic & uneasy hours listening. The release appeared in the form of a CDR on Russian label Torga Anum- back in 2017- in an edition of 36 copies- so you may still be able to hook a copy of this.
Drowning In The Wall is one of the more recent releases from one of the walled noise scenes most talented figures Elektrostal, Russia based Sergey Pakhomov- here under his Train Cemetery banner. The release consists of an art edition CDR( or digital download), that features an hour-long ‘wall’ of creatively textured & layered noise, which is all wrapped in a wonderful defined & detailed production- so you can make out ever element & pattern within this wall-noise masterwork.
Climax Denial is the brainchild of American musician Alex Kmet, working in the genre of experimental electronics, and specifically - Power Electronics. The project started in 2005, with it's opening release been a C30 Self-Released Tape entitled A Wood Rose For Little Love Knife. For the projects last fourteen years, Kmet has added forty-two releases to the discography of his project, fourteen of which (if the information on the Discogs is correct) are full-length albums.
A title like Invasion of the Blood Farmers literally screams low budget cheesy schlock, and this 1972 film pretty much lives up to its promise. With its scattershot blend of Z grade 1950’s Sci-Fi camp, OTT 1960’s gore & leering killers ala Hershel Gordon Lewis, and 1970’s rural grimness- all wrapped up in often unbalancing at times dense orchestral stock music. From the folks over at Severin here we have a recent Blu Ray reissue of the film- featuring a bright & buoyant new scan, new commentary track, and more.
Here we have a double CDR split bringing together two lengthy slabs of searing & unforgiving walled noise- offering up the tracks we have Uk based E.E.E.E., and Hungarian project Necrotik Fissure. The pro-pressed CDR's come in a jewel case packaging, having an edition of 15 copies, and appear on the UK walled noise label Void Singularity Recordings.
Plate Tectonics finds this Oregon Portland-based wall-noise project severing up a single fifty-five minute of buffeting ‘n’ bothersome HNW. The release comes in the form of a pro- pressed CDR, that takes in pictures of lava cracked earth, lakes of flaming & flowing red hot molten rock- it came in an edition of ten copies, and as of writing half of this stock is left for sale.
Magna Carta are an English progressive/folk rock band formed in 1969 by Chris Simpson (guitar, vocals), Lyell Tranter (guitar, vocals), and Glen Stuart (vocals). No Truth in the Rumour was the band’s eighth full length album, originally released in 1979 on Ariola records. By the time of this release only Chris Simpson remained from the original line-up, he was joined on this release by a host of top class musicians including guitarist Doug Morter, who has worked with amongst others, Richard Thompson and Maddy Prior, and violinist Tom McConville who has played on hundreds of albums from a wide range of popular artists including the aforementioned Richard Thompson and Newcastle folk rock legends Lindisfarne.