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Anima Nostra is a ritualistic, dark ambient release from Henrik Nordvargr Björkk and Margaux Renaudin. Coming from industrial juggernaut Cold Spring, the duo crafts a thick, hypnotic soundscape that unfolds further with each successive listen. With a prolific catalog already behind him, Henrik Nordvargr continues to add impressive releases to his resume with the likes of Anima Nostra.
VOMIR ::: is a recent C40 from the prolific, always intense & unforgiving French wall noise legend Vomir. Each side of tape features a single slab of seared noise-craft, and each is as punishing & crude as each other.
Monument Filth is the very first release from this Mexican noise project. And it certainly lives up to its title as it offers up seven slices of thick, brutalizing, and grimy noise-matter that blurs the lines between harsh noise, bleak ‘n’ overloaded synth-craft, extremely muffled/ slurred beats, unwell industrial elements, and buried ‘n’ searing-yet depraved vocal elements.
Jacek Doroszenko is an artist active in the area of visual and sound arts. The core of his practice is to treat sound phenomena as a legitimate material of a field of visual art. Soundreaming has been produced through a framework of Artist-in-Residence program at Hangarin Barcelona, Spain. Inspired by location, experience and memory and motivated by the inversion of the traditional roles of photography and sound in the media and art worlds.
Principal Edwards Magic Theatre where one of the more colourful & creative bands to appear from out of the UK in the 1960’s. The project mixed together an often wordy & psychedelic blend of folk & rock, with trippy & theatrical live performances. This recent three-disc set brings together the band's two albums from the late sixties/ early seventies, plus a third disc of demos, live recordings, and BBC sessions.
Placid Faces brings together elements of off-colour post-punk, wonky 80’s synth pop, Garage Rock, Riot Grrrl like vocals, and a keen sense of trying to entertain-yet-unbalance the listener. The Staches are a four piece from Geneva, Switzerland- bringing together two guys & two girls. Placid Faces is the bands second full-length release, after their 2014 debut & a few Ep’s.
Witchfynde are one of the bands who rose to prominence during the heady days of the NWOBHM scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Alongside such luminaries as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Witchfinder General and Venom, Witchfynde made a name for themselves through their brand of occult tinged heavy metal. The band were formed as early as 1973, recorded their first demo tape in 1975, and released their debut album, Give ‘Em Hell in 1980. This box set brings together that debut and the two albums that followed it, 1980s Stagefright, and 1983s Cloak and Dagger. All three have been lovingly remastered and expanded with bonus tracks, including a BBC Friday Rock Show session recorded for Tommy Vance in 1981.
Cupio Dissolvi sees the most welcome return of this Brazilian project, who summons up a horror themed blend of atmospheric & sometimes progressive walled noise/noise texturing/ANW. This release comes in the form of C60 tape- featuring one track per side of tape- it appeared on Swedish noise label Ominous Records early 2017.
Here’s a smartly designed cassette from Sumbru and Ciel Bleu Et Petits Oiseaux Records, with an inlay printed on nicely textured card, utilising a couple of ancient woodcuts. The release has two tracks, both harsh noise walls, and both around the 20 minute mark - though the tape itself is a C60.
Phurpa is a prolific Russian group that plays ancient Tibetan spiritual music from the Bon religion. They have existed since 2003. This music is characterized by gutteral resonant throat singing in unbelievable low registers, mesmerizing single note chanting separated into odd, asymmetrical phrases. This new double album "Gyer Ro" on dark ambient label Cyclic Law is one of several releases in 2017.
Following a demo and two EPs, French death metal duo, Skelethal, unleashed their debut LP on Hell's Headbangers this June. Channeling old school American and Swedish death, Skelethal's Of the Depths... pummels the audience with no frills, classic death metal. Don your leather, strap on your bullet belt, and thrash your way through this solid debut LP.
Nightbringer were formed in Colorado in 1999 by vocalist/guitarist Naas Alcameth and former guitarist/drummer Nox Corvus. Terra Damnata is their fifth full length release, however the band have released a number of splits with the likes of Aluk Todolo, Dodsengel and Abigor to name just a few. Their last album 'Ego Dominus Tuus' was heavily influenced by the big guns of the Scandinavian Black Metal scene, and whilst those classic influences remain, they have toned their sound into something more uniquely their own.
Ayreon is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen. This, their ninth and most recent album, The Source represents the latest in the Forever/ Planet Y saga that was originally thought to have reached its conclusion with the album 01011001, which was released in January 2008. The Source is best described as a prequel to that album and is the first album in the saga chronologically.
Five tracks, one minute per track made up of noises from guitar pedals and the mixing board. My first thought prior to hearing this was “this is Soliloquy For Lilith, as covered by Napalm Death”. And that thought was correct, and its good. However, this is apparently part of a series (five in five) from the label Silber Records, and just the latest release in that series.
June 2017 sees one of Norway's long time metal stars (Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved) changing gears and releasing an ambient album. Under the moniker BardSpec, Ivar's transcendent vision is brought to the world by By Norse, which is his own label, too. Ambient has many flavors, and because of this, often times artists making the jump often eschew the subtleties and miss their point completely. Fortunately, Ivar's passion can be easily seen on Hydrogen, and the drifting, zoning out with pleasure that comes along with good ambient is very present.
Here’s a pro-printed and (I presume) pro-duplicated tape from No Rent Records. The front cover has a close-up of an eye, whilst the inside features a nicely confused photo of what looks like a ruined building. This sense of microscopic viewing, but also obscured vision, is something that carries over to the contents of the cassette. The release has two long tracks, one each side, amounting to about 30 minutes of music.
In keeping with Gruenrekorder's pedigree in curating immersive multi-media experiences centred on field recordings, Angus Carlyle's In the Shadow of the Mountain does not disappoint. The work consists of fifty 100 word texts and 33 split page photographs (presented in two accompanying booklets) and a composed series of field recordings captured over a three year period in the Picentini mountain area of Southern Italy.
This is a very smartly presented package: 2 CDs in a fold-out digipak, complete with a glossy booklet. The Westerlies are a brass quartet, two trumpets (Mulherkar and Hensler), and two trombones (Clausen and de Koch), and the discs contain a mix of compositions from the individual members, plus pieces by Ellington and Ives (for example).
Mother of Abominations, Angelic Foe’s second album, follows the critically acclaimed debut Oppressed by the Heavens released in 2012. Written by Annmari (Arcana and Sophia) and video games sound designer Samuel Lidström, this nine track album sountracks a dramatic and melodious invitation to worlds of mysticism, haunted by otherworldly creatures.
Cadabra records continues its pummeling release schedule this month with their recording of Robert W. Chambers' The Yellow Sign. Once again teaming up the vocal talents of Anthony D.P. Mann and the musical skills of Goblin's Maurizio Guarini, The Yellow Sign is once again resurrected through current media. With both the retail and deluxe versions containing liner notes from scholar S.T. Joshi, this release is sure to please any horror fan.
Originally released in 1981 Madhouse was Italian produced US shot slasher film, which here gets it’s first ever blu ray release from Arrow Video(both in the UK & US). It’s certainly a curious, though not completely successful blend slasher, euro gore, deranged priests & killer dogs with a US southern gothic setting. Oh and it also landed up on the UK's video nasty list in the 80’s
The Chap are a British avant pop rock band formed in 2000. Their 8th and most recent album, "The Show Must Go" came out in 2015. This is my first time hearing the band.
The Doctors Of Madness where a 1970’s British band that never really fitted in, with their heady & often haphazard blend of art rock, proto-punk, & pub rock. So as a result during their initial lifetime (between 1974- 1978) they never got the recognition or praise they truly deserved. Perfect Past is a recent CD box set that remedies this issue as it brings together the band's first three albums, plus bonus tracks, and a fairly thick inlay booklet
When you think of animation- what comes to mind?-maybe the many films of the Disney studios, or possibly the more edgy & cult out-put of Japanese anime. I’m sure when you think of animation you don’t think of shock, horror or revulsion. Sure you had adult cartoons like Fritz The Cat, and of course the more extreme horror anmie of the likes of the Urotsukidoji series or Wicked City- but at the end of the day these lightly shock, and in reality they where just cartoons, which as a art form does seem somewhat removed from both shock & any feeling of reality. Where The Dead Go To Die, is a feature length animated film, that bloody rips-up, brutally rapes, then spews–up what you expect from the form, and creates one of the most unrelenting, disturbing, and wholly depraved things you’ll ever have seen.