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Originally released back in 1998 Time Machines was the epitome of brain-altering & perception twisting drone craft. It offered up four lengthy submersions in deep ‘n’ heady synth craft- with each been themed around the effects of specific hallucinogenic chemical or drug.
Synth maven and underground powerhouse Steve Moore brings his "synthpop" act Miracle back for a second helping of tones and grooves. Reuniting with Zombi-mate A.E. Paterra and rock journeyman Daniel O'Sullivan, The Strife of Love in a Dream shows the lighter side of Steve Moore's oeuvre, and explores themes hinted at in previous works. While not exactly what I would be comfortable calling "synthpop," Miracle's second full-length is an entertaining album.
Arkheth are an experimental Black Metal band from Orange, New South Wales in Australia, formed in 2001. Twelve Winter Moons ... is only their third full length album during that time, and their first in eight years. Arkheth consist of one man, multi-instrumentalist Tyrone 'Tyraenos' Kostitch, who plays all of the instruments himself. This may or may not have some bearing on the large gaps between releases, however finding time to record an entire album on your own in between the day to day grind must prove incredibly difficult. Especially when it’s an album as involved and bonkers as this jazzy, psychedelic slice of experimental Black Metal genius.
Here’s a much need & long-awaited CD reissue of one of the classic slices of quirky & often playful indie rock/ punk pop from the 1990’s. Originally released in 1993 the wonderfully titled Casual Sex In The Cineplex offered-up twelve short ‘n’ sharp slices of melody driven, often energetically paced & lyrical playful guitar music.
Of all the european SOV films the German Violent Shit franchise is the most infamous, notorious, often nonsensical, and heavily gory-bound. The films have been hellishly difficult to get hold of for many years, with even the DVD reissues fetching large amounts of money. So it’s great to see this three-disc region-free DVD collection from last year- which brings together the four violent Shit movies, with a bonus lo-if Zombie splatter film from the same director.
Artefact presents the listener with two near on half-an-hour examples of stark-yet-moodily detailed & subtle shifting walled noise; which moves between ANW & dense atmospheric Wall matter. The release appeared late last year on Albuquerque, New Mexico label Modern Tapes- coming in either a cassette edition( which I’m reviewing) or a digital download.
Toe Cleavage is truly epic, classily packaged, and searingly artful statement of fetish themed noise craft. Over the releases seven tapes this Canadian noise master moves from dense harsh noise-scaping, onto moody noise-drone work-outs. Through to walled noise raging's, onto perfectly controlled & crafted static noise texturing, and a selection of audio collages that focusing in on both the distinct kink of toe cleavage, and general toe, feet , shoe & leg fetish.
Thrown To The Wolves. Now Packleader offers up two hellishly thick, terminal oppressive & crushing slabs walled noise. The release comes in the form of a C60 or digital download and was released late last year on Stockholm based Ominous Recordings.
Abstructum is a new project consisting of members Andy Ortmann and Hanna Elliott (Hogg). Their self-titled debut shows the project dabbling in a few different styles, from post-industrial to musique concrète to near sea shanties and folk jazz. An interesting debut with fun electronic flourishes, Abstructum makes the most of its abbreviated run time and is a decidedly different approach than the members' previous projects would suggest.
Psychic Activation Ritual is released on a C-46 tape via Nihilist Recordings and features the sonic talents of Ka Baird, founding member of Spires That in the Sunset Rise, and Andy Ortmann founder of Nihilist Recordings, and musician in his own right who has recorded under various guises throughout the last 28 years, most notably as part of Panicsville with David Forquer and Ryan Kohler. This album appears to represent the pair’s first collaboration together.
Experimental ambient guitarist and composer Mike Fazio has been playing and performing for decades now, really coming into his own during the 2000's with a profific string of soundscape albums under a variety of aliases on his own Faith Strange label.
Pulsing Dot brings together a selection of fairly quirky & at-times surreal examples of modern composition utilizing piano, live sound processing, electronics & voice. The release appears in the form of a CD on demark based Clang Records- who focus in on releasing adventurous & experimental music from a few different genres.
From early summer 2017 Dunkelgraue Lieder is an extremely re-worked & expanded version of Allerseelen’s 1990’s album Sturmlieder. The release shows the Austrian Industrial/Neo-folk innovators bridging the gap between the past, present & future sound of Allerseelen.
From the early 1970’s Dark Dreams was an attempt to blend together hardcore action, with unsettling & horror fed atmospherics. And it does so to fairly mixed results- not fully satisfying as an arousing skin flick due to the unsettling mood, and lacking enough depth of story to be an effective chiller. Though that said it does summon up so quite effective moments of unease & puzzlement- making it worth a look, for those looking for something a little unusual in their 70’s sleaze hit. Here from Vinegar Syndrome, we have the first official DVD of this cross-breed oddity.
Megalophobe debut release spans four tracks of somewhat unusual ambience mixed with synths, percussion and theramin. There’s a vaguely musique concrete feel to the spartan nature of these recordings, that add a beautifully haunting nature to the proceedings.
Long running, Swedish ambient juggernaut raison d'être is back once again with his newest release, Alchymeia. Making his debut on Cyclic Law, Peter Andersson's latest journey bases itself in the works of Carl Jung and his work with human archetypes. Intriguing subject matter aside, this long slice of ambient goodness provides a lovely soundtrack to contemplating life over a cup of tea and a long stare out over a snowy landscape.
Bloodway are a three-piece progressive Black Metal band hailing from Romania, the country renowned for being home to Transylvania, the Carpathian Mountains and of course count Dracula himself. A Fragile Riddle Crypting Clues is the third release for the band on I, Voidhanger Records, and their second full length album following on from debut EP Sunstone Voyager and the Clandestine Horizon, and their first full length album Mapping the Moment with the Logic of Dreams. The band are led by the incredibly talented graphic artist Costin Chioreanu, on guitar and vocals, this three piece certainly know a thing or two about making a metal record.
I Said, She Said, Ah Cid is a CD box set celebrating Alshire Records- one of the more groovy & quirky exploitation record labels to appear in the late 1960’s. This three-disc set brings together a selection of the label's output from between the years 1967-71, when the label was trying to cash-in on the growth & interest in both psychedelic & Acid rock.
Originally released back 1986 Truth Or Dare is one of the more creative & unhinged low-budget horror films of the 80’s. Blending together slasher tropes, with original & total un-PC killings, inside-the-killers mind reality, and mixes in tone of unsettlement & humor. On SRS cinema here we have the most recent region free DVD release of the film.
Here we have a great OTT, campy, and fun celebration of heavy metal in movies. This truly huge tome nears six hundred page mark, and takes in everything from head-banging documentaries & fist pumping concert films. To a host of metal related horror films, onto tacky & lo-rent Mad max rip-offs, through to crazed creature features & monster movies, onto campy muscle-bound barbarian films, and beyond.
This short, single track collaboration between Richard Chartier’s queasy, somnambulistic Pinkcourtesyphone and Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink is something of an oddity in the former’s discography. Chartier’s project has been associated with coldly anaesthetised ambient music, with a strong thematic focus on contemporary feminine subjectivity. All releases under the name have similar pink artwork and usually feature sampled female voices at some point threaded through complex drones and microtonal experiments. Central to the listening experience is the feeling that amid the tense, vaguely paranoid minimal electronics there’s something like a medically coshed Freudian Id struggling to break free. Elision however is striking for the lack of these sensations, exchanging anxiety for beatific panorama.
Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed is the fifth full length release from doom/death masters Hooded Menace. It is also the first to feature new vocalist Harri Kuokkanen, whose addition has allowed Lasse Pyykkö to concentrate his time on his guitar playing and songwriting. Kuokkanen’s vocals are a perfect fit for Hooded Menace, they are brutal and guttural but with a quality that sets them aside from the vast majority of generic death metal vocalists working today. This is an important point for me as Hooded Menace are certainly no generic doom/death band. The album is released in late January via Season of Mist records and represents the band’s first release for the label having split with Relapse who released their previous album Darkness Drips Forth.
Ténèbres Des Marais is a tar black 'n' greyly moody mixture of bass heavy walled noise bombardment, & barren noised-up dark ambient elements. It comes in the form of either a C6o tape or digital download- and features four fifteen minute examples of stark & bleakly battering noise making.
Statichor is a meditative & therapeutic focused walled-noise project from Corona, California. As far I can make out the project started sometime in 2017, and Smolder is the projects first physical release- though it has also released a few digital only releases.