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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.
Anonymous Masturbaudioum's "Pantyhose Rubbing" was released in December, 2015, on the Italian noise label Signora Ward. It was released on white C60 cassettes in a clear casing, with black and white artwork depicting feminine feet in pantyhose. The tape came only a year on from when they had begun a wave of HNW releases focused on the genre's relationship with worship and fetishization. Specifically, Signora Ward is known throughout the HNW realm as the home of the "Nylon HNW". While it can hardly be considered the very first noise vehicle to draw upon these thematics, the determined proclivity of the label was perhaps unmatched once the obsession had spiralled and spiralled- from its inception at the end of 2014 through to this, it's thirtieth release, at the end of the following year- in that time proving beyond all doubt to most listeners that this label had gone furthest in their allegiance to this topic.
This two disk anthology of 21st century classical ('art') music is a state funded project by Music Information Centre Lithuania, which promotes Lithuanian music worldwide. Eastern Europe in general has a strong history of classical music, although there aren't many noted composers to come from Lithuania specifically.
It’s fair to say Mad Foxes is one of the most OTT, depraved, and sleazy shots of exploitation you’ll ever have seen. Originally released in 1981, and pretty much banned in most of the world for many years- the film is a scuzzy blend of biker, kung fu, and vigilante cinema- smeared with liberal amounts of flesh( both male & female), gory death, and very un-PC sentiment. Here from Full Moon Features, we have a recent region free DVD.
Ten Years Under The Earth blends together elements of (mostly) pared back improv, acoustic industrial/ ritual texturing, organic dark ambience & field recordings. The single forty five minute track offered up here moves from the foreboding & eerier, to the building & atmospheric, onto the denser & (semi) noisy.
The Devil’s Rain is a 1975 horror film starring Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner and Tom Skerritt. It is also remembered as the film debut of a young up and coming actor, a pre-Carrie and Grease, John Travolta. The movie was directed by the wonderful English film maker Robert Fuest, he of The Final Programme, and Dr Phibes movies. If you’ve seen these movies you already know to expect something a little different that will challenge its audience, which The Devil’s Rain does in spades.
Swedish industrial stalwart Nordvargr returns to the fold once again with his latest, Metempsychosis. His first on the revered Cyclic Law label, this brutal slab of grim, pounding, ritualistic industrial unleashes Nordvargr's long distant, primitive past, and captures the raw emotion of the human condition. The struggle for survival is not always pretty, and the music on Metempsychosis revels in this grim, uphill battle.
When one considers 80's British Punk music, you often think of spiky angry- focused in on the government, the establishment, or big business. Sunderland based Toys Dolls where one of the first bands to focus in more humorous & comic lyrical themes. Which was backed by the bands often speedy, tuneful, and playful punk sound that brought together elements of pop punk, Oi, & guitar-based pop indie. Here we have a five-CD box set- bringing together all of the band's output between the years 1983 & 1987- taking four studio albums, and a disc of rarer B sides/ alternative track versions.
This self-titled release is the first ‘official’ solo release from Hardy Fox, who has recently revealed himself as one of the key minds behind avant pop/ experimental trickster The Residents. This CD offers up a selection of emotional & at times quite fraught electronica/ minimal synth pop- all topped off with Mr. Fox’s weary, wavering, yet often felt vocals
Muddersten are a Scandinavian trio who create shadowy- yet–darkly playful brand of improv, electro-acoustic texturing, and drone matter. The trio formed in 2015 and Playmates is their second release, after their 2017 debut Karpatklokke.
As it’s title suggests this 1980’s film is a campy ‘n’ cheesy blend of sci-fi, comedy, & horror- paying a hearty tribute to fifties monster movies, but with a healthy dollop of neon & playful 80’s flare running right through the middle. Here we have a new Arrow Video release of the 1988 film- featuring a new 4K scan of the film, and a host of new& older extras alike.
Much like the film its scoring Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack for You Were Never Really Here nicely plays & messes with one's perceptions to create a score that effortless darts from beauty, queasy uneasy & sleek tension. With Greenwood shifting all over the instrumental & genre map, blending together elements of formal & lush string scoring, avant classical texturing, electrionica, pressing ‘n’ sour ambience, and twanging guitar elements.
The Other Russian Tape is a C60/digital download from Stockholm based walled noise project Rien. It presents up two thirty minute slices of extremely tense ‘n’ tight static texturing- these really create both a feeling of airless tension & detailed texturing.
The eponymous split (or should I say the split album entitled "Split"[?] There has tended to be much deliberation within HNW on how to best represent 'lack' in this case, many writing "Untitled", some writing the artist aliases that appear in the release, and other simply writing "split" - or perhaps a combination of these, although I have never seen "Untitled Split by X and Y" so this culmination is ripe for the picking) by Dutch HNW project Uitgetschakeld and Russian HNW alias SP was released as a limited CDr run and digital album on the Russian label Reason Art Records in August 2017. CDr releases have been quite rare for the label, usually preferring tape, although the labelhead Sergey Pakhomov has long shown an interest in expanding the horizons of the label through an experimentation of plausible mediums - having released noise albums on both VHS cassette and DVD!
Forever Escaping Boredom release of a noisy four way split proves that it's not all sun and fun in Florida. With a side each from Novasak, Human Fluid Rot, Fail, and Vasectomy party, this double C42 blasts through the listener's speakers with a loving intensity and varied approach of style. Nicely compiled, this split is a great showcase of four acts from Florida's vibrant noise scene.
Dálava is an ensemble that works to ressurect an ancient style of 'Moravian' (Czech) folk song, augmenting traditional melodies with modern instrumentation. The group created one other album, self titled, in 2014, prior to this album "The Book of Transfigurations", which has been released on contemporary jazz label Songlines.
From the rather derivative title of this 2014 documentary, you’d expect it to be a fairly run-of-the-mill live concert footage doc. But instead it’s a touching & often charming film about friendship, family, and origin- sure you get some of your standard ‘concert’ footage, but this is only a facet of the film. Here we have a 2017 region free Blu ray of the film from MVD Visual.
Meet The Residents is one of the most unpredictable, outlandish & deranged debut releases of all times. The 1974 album is a decidedly lopsided, haphazard, and dada focused mix of wonky easy listening, show music, rudimental avant rock, off-color funk & other avant filtered genre blends. Here from Cherry Red/ MVD Audio, we have the double-disc reissue of the album- which presents both the mono & stereo versions of the album, alongside a slew of never released material from the time.