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The Ghost of Hope is the first studio album of new material from this infamous avant-pop/sonic-art collective since 2013. It finds the project offering up an often multi-layered, sonically-shifting, and genre-darting concept album based around American train wrecks of 19th Century.
Latvias’ leading industrial group offer a collection of their finest recordings from 1992-1997. Spanning five years and eighteen tracks this limited edition of 250 copies works through dark ambient to neo-classical and darkwave, and a beautiful walk through this projects history it is too.
Sub Rosa imprint presents Desert Tracks by long-running experimentalist Michel Redolfi. To my chagrin, I wasn’t that familiar with Redolfi’s work prior to exploring this release and afterwards I was ready to compare his work to several contemporary soundscapers. However, that would be foolish considering the album at hand was recorded way back in 1987. As the story goes, back in 87’ Redolfi traveled through the California desert trail. He explored the Mojave Desert, Death Valley, and Palm Canyon to capture “hypothetical poly-sensorial desert tones.” Available as CD and LP, Desert Tracks is the sonic representation of his travels.
This pro-CD from Dragon’s Eye is presented in (what I now assume is) the house style: a sombre, formal card wallet. The text on the back cover reveals the starting point of this release, ‘All sounds generated by physical & electronic manipulation of a red flexi disc of the first Dragon’s Eye release: George Winston’s ‘Medley: Bread Baker’s Stomp’.’ Thus the mind is straight away pushed towards certain ideas about what the CD will contain, and in line with this - and the quote - the front cover is a collage of fragments of said flexi. On a more practical level, the album has 11 tracks, interspersing short pieces less than a minute long, with longer pieces up to ten minutes in length.
The K. are an artful hardcore punk 3 piece from Belgium that takes after vital late 80's / early 90's groups like The Jesus Lizard, NoMeansNo and Melvins, who managed to be brutally aggressive yet structurally unpredictable, experimental in approach, reflecting an irreverent intelligence. "Burning Pattern Etiquette", released in 2015, is their 2nd album, following "My Flesh Reveals Millions of Souls" in 2012.
Murderlust is serial killer drama from the mid 80’s that focuses in more on rounded character study, than gore or torture. Here we have a recent DVD reissue of the film- which sees the first ever fully uncut release of the film. Plus a rather bizarre & lo-grade Sci-fi film from the same writer & director team.
Here from Russian wall noise project Train Cemetery we have a C60- bringing together a selection of four brutally moody & texturally interesting ‘walls’. Each of the four tracks have running-times between eleven & nineteen minutes, and each is worthy in both their textural reward & wall enchantment.
Torture Treatment is a Mexican based noise project that blends together a few different noise sub-genres to create a fairly original & distinctive sound. This self titled C22 tape appeared on Stockholm based Ominous Recordings, & is seemingly the projects first release.
From late 2016 Vestiges is the most recent full length release from US ambient legend Robert Rich. And on the whole it finds him returning to the darker & more melancholic waters of his early work- to create a release that is both haunting yet sonically detailed in it’s unfold.
Big Business are an avant garde metal band from Seattle, Washington. The band are a two piece made up of bassist, Jared Warren and drummer, Coady Willis, both of whom also play as members of the Melvins. Command Your Weather, released on Joyful Noise/Gold Metal Records, is the band’s fifth full length outing and features regular collaborator Scott Martin on guitars.
Kurai Keshiki was born in mid 2013 as a side-project by Emanuele Lago of Black Mountains Chronicles, dealing with a type of industrial-ambient more focused on field recordings and experimental sounds. “Tokubetsu No Tokoro” is the latest release from this project.
The fruitful partnership between the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) and Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego has for a number of years been reviving some of the French institution's classic works on lavishly produced LPs, complete with suitably retro sleeve art and Rashad Becker on the knobs at Dubplates & Mastering. This is the second instalment drawing from the much loved corpus of electro-acoustic and tape works of French/Italian composer Luc Ferrari, following on from the collection of 'Presque Rein' compositions issued in 2012. This single LP offers up a real treat, not just in the fact of being the first appearance on vinyl of Petite symphonie intuitive pour un paysage de printemps, but in being paired with Hétérozygote - one of Ferrari's earliest long form compositions utilising what we now tend to call field recordings - it offers the listener a clear-sighted experience of the development of Ferrari's technique and compositional approach.
Subvoice is a relatively recent two CD release from sound artists & contemporary classical composer Yannis Kyriakides. As the releases title suggests all the tracks here focuses in on the connection between voice, language & music.
Der Blutharsch have been making records for over 20 years, releasing their self-titled debut album on Arthurs Round Table records in 1996. The band is the brainchild of Austrian musician Albin Julius.
Science Crazed has to one of the most bizarre, puzzling, and unintentional avant-garde films of the straight-to–video era. Here we have the first ever multi-region DVD release of the film, which is full with extras that try to pick apart both the films appeal & some of it’s meaning.
Klaus Kinski is one of the more recognizable, prolific, genre varied, yet unpredictable actors(both personally & on screen) to appear with-in cinema between the 1940’s & 1980’s. In all he appeared in around one hundred & thirty movies, and this five hundred page plus book reviews each & every film he ever took part in- giving each a thorough, thoughtful, yet never academic critique.
This CDR from Torga Amun comes wrapped in a glossy, A5 card inlay, decorated with collages that juxtapose photographs of old working practices with more rigid imagery that explores texture and pattern. There’s also a similarly adorned small insert inside. The inlay has the barest of text, but there are three tracks, ranging from around 15 minutes to around 19 minutes. All of these are harsh noise walls, and all are quite static and straight-ahead.
La Transhumance Du Vide( English translation The Transhumance of the Void) is a C40/ digital releases that offers up two enjoyable & moody slices of sound-craft. These blend together elements of controlled noise texturing, more formal ambience, bleak-yet-subdued vocal chanting, and skilful composition- to create a most worthy & distinctive release.
Doriana Bridge is collaboration between two of the most respected & influential figures from with-in the HNW/ textured noise based genre. US legend & wall sound originator Richard Ramirez, and Paris based Julien Skrobek- who has touched down on pretty much every flavour of static bound/ wall-crafting in his many projects.
From late 2016 here’s a self released four disc CDR set from always impressive & creative French walled noise project Chier. The release offers up in all eight ‘walls’, and these each have running times between thirty & fifty minutes a piece.
Rutger Hauser is a 'noise rock' band, in the sense that their music is a cacophanous din. In their case, to use of the term 'experimental' to describe the band would be to ignore the high school level musicianship possessed by the band.
Upping their release schedule exponentially over the past year, Sutcliffe Jugend is back (again) with Shame from Hagshadow. Consisting of five introspective tracks. Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor continue to grow Sutcliffe Jugend within the industrial/power electronics framework. Closer in nature to Offal than earlier works, Shame sees SJ stick more toward musical structures than the wailing feedback of power electronics.
Polish industrialists Monopium and K have teamed up to produce this split album for Zoharum records with a decidedly krautrock flavour. I’ve not been able to find out much about K, but Monopium seem to have been around for a little while and have released several albums thus far. I think in the circumstances it’s probably best to dig into the music and see what we have here.
Lawrence English is a well renowned sound artist living in Brisbane, his releases span 12 years and are many and various. Some are issued on his own Room40 label, however he’s had the likes of Touch and 12k play host to his musical output. Moving between Ambient, drone and experimental electronica on Cruel Optimism Lawrence is aided and abetted with contributions from Mats Gustafsson, Mary Rapp and Tony Buck, Norman Westberg to name a few.