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Krokofant is a Norweigen jazz rock trio with an electric guitarist, alto saxophonist and a drummer. They debuted in 2014, and continued with this, their 2nd album, in 2015. It's 44 minutes of fairly straightforward riff-oriented grooving out.
Swiss black/death merchants Eggs of Gomorrh see their debut release, Rot Prophet, on Toronto's Vault of Dried Bones. Not to be confused with their demo of the same name, Rot Prophet unleashes 26 minutes of hazy, pummeling blackened death on a hungry audience. Having spent five years between demo and debut, Eggs of Gomorrh have had the time to fine tune both their playing and their recording.
Tentacles brings together a selection of bridge based field recordings made on rivers & canals between Berlin and North-East France. The release comes in the form CD, and 44 page colour booklet from respected German field recording/ sound-art label Gruenrekoder.
Lightning The Nations is one of the cornerstone releases of the NWOBHM scene, a great & near perfect début album, and one of the classic metal albums of 1980’s. Here we have a late 2016 double CD reissue of the album; taking-in the albums original seven tracks on disc one, and on disc two a selection of singles from time.
This review is for the reissue of Gehenna’s “Seen Through the Veils of Darkness (The Second Spell)”. Their first full length release, and the follow up to debut EP “First Spell”. Thematically the album delves into the darkness and comes up with certain recurring lyrical tropes, of a satanic and mythological nature. Dark, visceral images of cold, apocalyptic landscapes, war and the occult dominate the album from beginning to end, however it also features the only song the band ever wrote in their native Norwegian language, Vinterriket, which features a guest performance from Ulver’s Garm. The album has been remastered by Danny B in order to highlight the dynamic range of the tracks, and eke out every last detail within.
Normal Bias is a six tape set from Howard Stelzer- the Lowell MA based sound-maker who creates electro-acoustic noise, detailed ambience, and distinctive & often layered drone matter. I’ve always enjoyed Mr Stelzer's work, but I must say this set really is a high water-mark, in both terms variation of track & depth of work on offer here.
Buried Wish is an off-kilter journey through alternative rock, tape manipulation and improv based psychedelic instrumentals. This is like Pavement with Sebadoh meeting Neubauten, with a bit of Beefhearts Magic Band in the background.This album simply shouldn’t work, it should be utterly awful…. but somehow it isn’t.
Unsung Horrors is a glossy, colourfully, yet informative & often enjoyable book focusing in on lesser known horrors films. Moving from black & white campy chillers, though to swinging 60’s shockers, onto to more gore bound 70’s fare, creature features, haunted house movies, obscure Giallo’s and beyond. The book really is perfectly primed for the horror movie fan, who feels they’ve seen it all.
Sakset, the collaboration of Finnish sound artists Läjä Äijälä, Jussi Lehtisalo, and Tomi Leppänen, teamed up with Ektro Releases for their debut album, Lahja. Soft, haunting, and oddly smooth, Sakset's non-traditional approach allows them plenty of leeway in the electronic realm to craft something uniquely them. While there is a certain familiarity to it, it's tough to pin down, and therefore, enjoys a life all of its own.
Here’s a three-way split on Torga Amun, which arrives in a folded, glossy, card inlay; it’s covered in a colourful, scratchy collage of textures and photographs. The CDR has three tracks, one from each participant, and amounts to about an hours worth of wall noise.
We Are Flesh is a Mexican art house horror film from last year that’s been causing a fair bit of a stir. The film blends together a stark post apocalyptic setting, transgressive acts, surreal & deranged womb like imagery, and a general feeling that anything can, and will happen. I’m reviewing the Arrow Video release of the film (both US & UK)- which either comes in DVD or Blu ray format.
Dune was the eleventh album from this respected German electronic composer, Berlin school pioneer and ambient/ Electronica innovator. The album originally appeared back in 1979, and here we have a 2016 CD reissue of the album on the MIG label.
Stadium is the most recent release from this Australian sound artists & field recordist. It comes in the form of a CDR, and offers up eleven tracks taking-in field recordings captured over a five year period in & around the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) stadium.
Snake Goddess is a C60 split bringing together two Euro walled-noise acts. We have Toulouse based Chier, and Stockholm based Gamiani- both acts are fairly new additions to the scene with Chier starting in 2015, and Gamiani starting last year. The tape features a single track per side, and each are dense/ layered examples of HNW.
Opollo's "Stone Tapes" is the debut of a new alias of melodic guitar drone/ambient musician Jarek Leskiewicz, a former member of Echoes of Yul (whose album "The Healing" I also reviewed on this site last year) and other projects such as Blurred City Lights and Naked On My Own. This particular album is themed after space exploration, and more specifically the moon landing, with pictures of astronauts and the surface of the moon all through the packaging.
Bill Moseley has been a hero of mine since the first time I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 as an impressionable teenager. His character Chop Top remains my favourite member of the crazed Sawyer clan. His appearance in the movie sporting a metal plate in his head and experiencing what can only be described as some of the most wicked acid flashbacks, endeared him to myself and thousands of other young gore hounds. His recent revival under the guidance of Rob Zombie was a pleasure to see, starring in the messy but fun House of 1,000 Corpses and the eminently more impressive Devil’s Rejects seems to have brought him back into vogue.
Here we have the third in the series of reissues of early releases from Austrian industrial innovators Allerseelen-this new CD release follows on from 2014’s Schwartzer Rab, and 2015’s Requiem.
Steel Hook Prostheses have been knocking about the death industrial scene for 15 years now – a fact that makes me feel bloody old! - and have belted out 9 albums during that period.Calm Morbidity, their latest 10 track release, takes their level of despair to an otherwise unfounded level.
Bloodshock is the second chapter in the American version of the Guinea Pig series- which of course started off as a sequence of short Japanese of films back in the 80’s. Featuring extreme & intense special effects, prolonged torture, and little or no story. As a long term fan of all forms of extreme art( be it music, sound, art, or film)- I was aware of, and had read about the series. But had never really felt the urge to investigate them, due to the real lack of story/point to these films…so when I read Bloodshock was attempting to inject more story/ depth into the series I decided I’d give it a look.
Floodlines is the document of a live performance by former Slowdive member Simon Scott at Cafe Oto in January of last year. Despite the beloved status of his former band I can't help but feel Scott has by now earned the right to be defined in relation to his own quite considerable body of solo work. Starting out with two gloomy dark ambient cum shoegaze records on Erik Skodvin's Miasmah label, Scott's recent output has focussed more on processed field recordings, minimalism and even sound ecology.
Well, here’s a monster tome from Mural: a three CD set, in a fold-out digipak. It documents a performance at the Rothko Chapel in Texas, in 2013, which lasted over four hours. The trio consist of: Jim Denley - wind instruments, Kim Myhr - twelve-string guitar, zither, and Ingar Zach - gran casa, percussion.
La Proie Pour L'Ombre is a two way split bringing together two tracks a piece from two of the most respected & praised acts from with in the French walled noise scene. The release appeared in the form of CDR back in October of last year- it’s sadly now sold-out in physical form, but is well worth downloading from the labels bandcamp, or searching for on discogs, as it offers up four well made & appealing slices of wall-matter.
From September 2016 here we have a C60 release from Serbian walled-noise project Dosis Letalis. The tape takes in two side long slices of taut, suffocating, and thickly weaved wall-matter. The release came in an edition of 15 copies, and as of writing the label still has 5 copies left.
Though this once highly prolific Serbian walled noise project stopped creating new work in early 2016, there is still a large backlog of unreleased material. And this C20 tape on Swish noise label Ominous Recordings is one such release. On offer here are two side long slices of unforgiving, brain-drilling, & stark walled noise.