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Returning to Malignant for their second release, American duo Shock Frontier's Tumult mixes the grim soundscapes of dark industrial with the menacing doom of death industrial. Over nine, cold tracks, Shock Frontier reveals a bleak soundscape for the listener, rife with post-apocalyptic furor. For those days when one is feeling that the sun is too bright, and the air is too warm, Tumult will remind him or her that it won't last for long, and a grim end is still within reach.
Waiting For Life To Get Better... is a two-way walled-noise split, bringing together Austria based Bruising Pattern & US/ Texas-based No123noise. Each party offers up a single twenty-minute track, and the releases comes in the form of a CDR in a slim DVD case.
Untitled 00001 is the debut release from this Florida based project. It comes in the form of a 3inc CDR, which offers up a single twenty-minute slice of buffeting, grinding, and battering wall-matter.
This rather strangely named walled noise project is from Columbia, Missouri- and here we have a 3inc CDR that is seemingly the projects first ever physical release. The disc offers up a single twenty one minute slice of wall-matter, that’s both bluntly bothersome & barrenly muffled.
Satanic warmaster are a one-man black metal band from Lappeenranta in Finland. The project was instigated in 1998 by “Werewolf” the band’s only mainstay during their 20 years of existence. Other musicians have dropped in to help him out during that time, but he remains the only actual member of the band. The band’s lyrical content focuses heavily on folklore and Satanism, and despite claims from some quarters Werewolf maintains that his beliefs are not in line with those of the NSBM. The band have had an incredible amount of success in their native Finland even reaching the top ten in the album charts. Five full length albums and a slew of EPs means the band have a huge back catalogue from which to draw, and this particular album as can be seen from its subtitle is A Compendium of Past Crimes, or a compilation of material from the band’s split EPs.
The organicist metaphor of society as like that of bees has a long history in Western thought, predating the better known bodily metaphor - which is the foundation of modern corporational doctrine - by several centuries. Originating in Antiquity, the notion that human society should imitate nature as best it can slowly came into question during the later European middle ages, under pressure from developing mercantile economy and advances in legal and political organisation. In the modern era the hive metaphor was increasing viewed as anti-democratic, suppressive of the individual and hive-like societies almost inevitably malevolent; think of the Borg in Star Trek or caricatures of Communism (particularly Chinese) during the Cold War. Nevertheless the beehive society metaphor never entirely vanished and in the Modern period was most often invoked as an embellishment to holistic economic thought. George Cruikshank's remarkable British Beehive image is paradigmatic in this respect, not least in its overall schematic similarity to medieval overviews of the hierarchical world such as those of Honorius of Autun. Tobias Schmitt's intriguing Parvenu appears to be an attempt to capture something of these ideas and their continuing relevance for modernity. Schmitt has form for this kind of leftfield enterprise with his previous Gruenrekorder release being the suitably labyrinthine Fauna and Flora of the Vatican City , put out in 2008 under his Suspicion Breeds Confidence moniker.
Shurayuki-hime's "Mori" is the third release from the project on the Minneapolis label Altar of Waste. The release comes as a c20 cassette, the casing is a nice pastel lavender and it was released in an edition of twenty, presumably long-sold-out, copies. This will be the second time I've reviewed the project for this site and, where as with other projects I might feel that it is unwarranted to return to a project when I could be devoting review time to so many other amazing artists who are yet to be given proper attention, this project has proven itself to be a powerhouse of mindblowing HNW that deserves all of the spotlight thrown its way.
Goatkraft are newcomers to Norwegian black metal scene. They have one demo and this mini-album to their name thus far. Released by the German label Iron Bonehead Productions, Angel Slaughter comes as either an MCD, 12"MLP, or digital download.
Veteran German electronic musician/producer Arovane began in 2000, with his debut album "Atol Scrap", an emotive and solidly composed, if rather straightforward, entry into the subdued side of the IDM genre, defined by catchy, symmetrical melodies and downtempo energy levels coupled with glitchy, complex drum programming. He has come a long way since the music of his debut, and the 'thoughtful noise' found in this latest collaboration with Portya Hatami (with whom I am otherwise unfamiliar) is closer to musique concrete than IDM.
Here we have a recent rendition of the Philip Glass’s Music With Changing Parts from this ten piece electronic ensemble. And boy is it a sonically thick, layer shifting, and sonically complex take on the piece- that comes in somewhere between dense minimalism, meaty modern composition, and rich ‘n’ cascading Berlin style electrionica.
My Friend Dahmer is a part coming-of-age story, part domestic drama, & part subtly psycho study telling the teenage story of US serial killer/cannibal Jeffery Dahmer.The film is a talky, at times arty slow burn- which along the way adds in elements of sly dark humor, moments of building uneasy, and extremely fleeting moments of gore/ violence. If you’re looking for a grim & bloody serial killer flick, with lots of tension/ threat- this isn’t the film for you. But if you after a well acted, intelligent & thought-provoking film about the growth of a human monster- you’ll find much to like here.
Here we have a Blu Ray issue of two decidedly quirky, deranged, though fairly tame martial arts/action films from the 1970’s. Featured here is Turkish made The Sword And The Claw, and South Korean made The Brawl Busters.
Shortly after the Melvins released The Maggot back in 1999, which contained their absolutely monolithic cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown),” I remarked to a friend that I’d really love to hear the band do a proper, stripped-down rock n’ roll record. Given their penchant for covering songs by KISS, Queen, Ted Nugent, the MC5, the Mac, Black Sabbath, the Kinks, and a whole bunch of others, I thought Buzz and Dale could easily turn in something fierce, a whirlwind of sleazily obvious riffage and simplistic, perhaps regressive, youthful aggression adhering to a classic template. I’m pleased to say that “Pinkus Abortion Technician,” the Melvins’ 27th (or so) studio album, comes pretty damn close to the realization of my wish.
Here from BGO, we have a double CD reissue bringing together four mid-to-late 70’s album’s from this respected & prolific Chicago based pianist & composer. And each album highlights both Mr. Lewis versatility & skill- over the four albums moving from between P-Funk like work-outs & groovy-to-romantic soul, onto more African and Latin-styled jazz fusion. Through to horn-laden & funk lined easy listening, onto more dramatic & dynamic sound-tracking/ work-outs with a keyboard/ piano lead.
Do Nothing offers up a suite of six pieces for guitar & percussion. And the sound here is (mostly) best described as very minimal & bare bone modern composition, with some slight jazz bound & ritual like flavors mixed in.
Since their foundation in the mid-80s, the Fossil Aerosol Mining Project have experienced several stops and revivals, through thorough-out they have remained consistently devoted to the ambient sound collage style. Using old films, audio cassettes, records, old equipment and much more, the project produces interesting, but at times strange sound works, which could easily be the soundtrack to some post-apocalyptic movie or game.
Originally composed in 1982 For John Cage is one of the more angular, urgent & flightily moody compositions from the great Morton Feldman. Here from Bridge Records, we have a recent release of 2017 playing of the piece.
Less than a year after the fourth installment of the stellar Too Slow to Disco series, How Do You Are? heads to the tropical climes of Brazil for their latest compilation. Enlisting the help of Brazilian artist and musical curator, Ed Motta, this newest collection features many hard to find funk, soul, and AOR gems from a diverse scene. Whether very familiar with the acts on display, or a new comer to the Brazilian scene, every fan of slow, smooth disco owes him or herself the treat of spinning this release and welcoming in the great weather.
Hungarian label The Level of Invulnerability presents a split between Necrotik Fissure and The Rita. Available as both a C40 cassette and digital download, the split offers up two varying takes on the HNW idiom.
A decade since their debut release I, Dark Buddha Rising have returned with the widely anticipated blackened, psychedelic, doom of their 7th release II. The band hail from the town of Tampere in Finland, their lineup consisting of of J. Ramanen on drums, P. Ramanen on bass, V Ajomo on guitar, J. Saarivouri on synth and vocalist M Neuman. II represents the band’s first release for their new lable Neurot Recordings, with whom they signed two years ago.
Here we have a rather satisfying & enjoyable walled noise split from June last year. The CDR offers up three fairly different examples of the form going from the unrelenting grinding crude-ness of Vomir. Through to atmospherically focused-yet- pelting wall craft of Asleep In The Lake. Onto the lo-fi & muffled hazed textured persistence of Duplo Chat.
Octopus are the soon to be crowned overlords of Detroit doom metal. Their sound is a unique amalgam of psychedelic doom, classic NWOBHM and progressive rock. Freshly signed to Rise Above Records this is their debut release, formed in 2008 by guitarist J. Frezzato, and vocalist Masha Marjieh the band have taken ten years to hone their craft which is why this debut record is so damn good. Not many bands can mix up the influences the way these guys do without sounding like a pastiche, these guys can. The lineup is completed by bassist Matt O’Brien, drummer Chuck Burns and keyboard wizard Adam Cox.
Your Blonde Wife presents the listener with two ten minute examples of sourly sleazed, extremely searing & often shifting walled noise. This C20/ digital release appeared in February of this year on ominous Recordings- and as of this review the label still have copies of the tape left.
From October last year here, we have a C39/ digital release from California based She Walks Crooked, who since 2013 have been slowly but surely been releasing a quality bound selection of walled noise releases. Pink Foot Bandage Volume 1 offers up two side-long tracks that nicely blur between building & tonally varied wall-craft, and densely buffeting drone craft.