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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.
Returning to Cold Spring for the third time, Tunnels of Ah's Surgical Fires sees the project change direction slightly and head for darker vibes and less vocal interference. Following pretty hot on the heels of their last release, Tunnels' newest is eight tracks of low, creeping misery. Dark and fairly hypnotic, Surgical Fires will draw the listener into a bleak world on the edge of destruction.
Formed in 1998 and inspired by such luminaries as Abruptum, Gnaw Their Tongues, Sunn O))) and Wardruna, T.O.M.B. are a US based, occult, blackened metal project, who have birthed a total of 13 different releases including splits, E.Ps and LPs during that time. The band recently signed to Peaceville Records and this, their most recent release, Fury Nocturnus, was released in October of 2016.
Sam Kidel is perhaps better known as a member of Bristolian abstract techno outfit Killing Sound, whose superb 2014 eponymous EP on Blackest Ever Black has sadly yet to be followed up. Outside of his duties with Killing Sound Kidel spent much of 2015 researching the notorious Muzak corporation, now rebranded as the suitably dystopic sounding Mood Media. As Kidel's sleeve notes emphasise, the corporation produces music to be deployed by companies towards clients, employees and the public at large to encourage co-operation and an upbeat attitude.
Female Japanese art ambient composer Sawako Kato's 2014 album "nu.it" is a gentle, understated record. Though her first album in 3 years, it is the continuation of a long string of more than 10 albums dating back to 2000.
Killing for Culture is an extremely thorough, at times unsettling, yet often fascinating book about the history of death on film. Covering both simulated & real deaths- taking in Mondo movies, Snuff, televised deaths, internet killings /executions, films, books(about snuff), video games, fetish porn, and beyond
Here we have a ltd & deluxe CD/7inch vinyl/ box set of rare material from respected & cult Italian musician Paul Chain; whose known for his fairly unique & distinctive mix of doom metal, psychedelic rock, and gothic flavoured experimentation.
Jana Irmert is a Berlin-based sound and media artist. Being interested in the vague, irrational, less tangible aspects of existence. Having produced both solo pieces and numerous collaborations, her work features electroacoustic multichannel compositions, audiovisual installations and joint projects with filmmakers, dancers and visual artists.
The Four Stages of Enlightenment is a four disc CDR set, with each disc offering a lengthy submersion in dense wall- craft from this up & coming Dutch project. Fitting the releases title, the theme behind all the ‘walls’ here is ancient Eastern philosophy & mediation.
This concise little album holds a whole world within. The professionally printed, and pressed release is colourful without being garish - and that applies to the sounds as well as the artwork. We have three elements here, all entwined: sounds, image, and text - and all revolving around the figure of Richard Hugo.
Continuing to release at a break-neck pace, Cadabra Records just unleashed another limited LP of spoken word horror. Their third Clark Ashton Smith vehicle, The Muse of Hyperborea sees 18 of Smith's poems deftly read once again by horror literature scholar S.T. Joshi. Paired again with the sonic meanderings of Theologian, Smith's poems are given a vibrant new life by this focused and inspired label.
It’s fair to say that Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf has to one of the great OTT, campy, & fun horror movies of the 1980’s. Here we have a reissue of the film from late 2016 on Arrow Video.
Loscil, is the ambient/electronic project of prolific Canadian producer, Scott Morgan. “Monument Builders” is the 16th album of a career dating back as far as 1999 at which time he released his debut as Loscil, “A New Demonstration of Thermodynamic Tendencies.”
Genetic Transmission have been active for 20 years, issuing a wealth of material over their career, in fact they put a new album out only last year. They straddle the industrial and power electronics genre’s and yet, I never felt they got the recognition they deserved. And issuing this album in an edition of 200 units won’t promote their standing any time soon either.
Here we have a recent DVD reissue of a long out-print horror movie from the early 1970’s. Hollywood Horror House( aka Savage Intruder) is a haphazard, though enjoyable blend of psycho-chillier, Old Hag Horror, and Herschell Gordon Lewis gore, with hints of deranged psychedelics & a setting of Hollywood decline in the 1970’s.
Here’s a fancy, professional affair from 4iB Records/Decimation Sociale, with a pro-pressed CD, in a full colour digipak. The album contains four tracks from Free As Dead, the organ-heavy project of Romain Perrot - better known in his Vomir guise. He is aided and abetted here by Andy Bolus (of Evil Moisture), whose contributions are described as ‘Background Squelch Sounds’ on the inlay. The CD amounts to over 70 minutes, and unfortunately, it does feel that lengthy.
Previously released at the end of 2015 in a small print run in their native Colombia, Trap the Witch is the fourth full length from Witchtrap. A Latin American power trio with a penchant for classic, old school thrash metal of the Teutonic variety. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at Dirty Sound Studios in Medellín, Colombia.
Modern jazz composer Michael Blake caught my attention in 2012 with the album "In the Grand Scheme of Things", an adventurous and heartfelt slice of melodic jazz which explored an entirely new approach to music with each piece. With his newest album, "Fulfillment", his horizons have expanded even further, though his music remains sweetly tuneful and lounge friendly.
In their ongoing campaign of re-releasing hard to find and out of print AUBE albums, Iris Light have done their best to keep the public (well, the noise listening public, at least) reminded of the brilliance of Akifumi Nakajima. As a surprise to AUBE fans, Iris Light has released Nakajima's SIAN project. Recently discovered after nineteen years, Setting/Another shows AUBE's more restrained side. Still harnessing all the creativity and wonderful experimentalism he was known for, SIAN's Setting/Another will be a welcome release for fans of AUBE's catalog.
Here we have a two disc CD reissue from late 2016, bringing together three 1970’s albums from this highly respected jazz/funk pianist, keyboardist & band leader. All three albums here sit (fairly) firmly in the funk/ jazz-funk/ Jazz-fusion side of Mr Hancock’s out put.Featured here we have 1974’s Trust, 1975’s Man-child, and 1976’s Secrets, plus a selection of shorter single versions from over all three albums.
From early Summer 2016 here’s another four way split wall noise release from Spokane, Washington based label. Back in 2015 the label put out a most worth/similar cassette box set- which purely featured US artists; this second set brings together a mix of HNW artists from the US & Euro scenes.
Teksti TV 666 hail form Finland, apparently they employ a wealth of guitars and have only formed 3 years ago. Described as kind of a cross between Neu!, Ramones and shoegazing Hellacopters…my mind was a blur. What the hell will that sound like? More to the point, Why?Finish shoegazing?Christ I’m not looking forward to this. That’s what my mind told me.
The Weaver's Daughter is a yin yang album blending together rich harmonic elements, with more soured & out of tune matter. And the project’s sound is very difficult to pin down into just one genre too. As it’s a slurred, jarring, and at times difficult blend of: wydfolk, neo-classical, moody avant composition, world music, stripped gothic composition, the blues, stripped-back Americana folk and ambience. With female vocals that move from lush & angelic, onto stark spoken, through to sensual & dark.
Here’s another release from the esteemed Line label, presented in its usual format: a simple, sombre, card wallet. The front has an odd, black and white image - perhaps a collage, perhaps a magnification of cells - whilst the back contains track details, and a short spiel on the release from Jobin. The spiel explains that the album was created by putting field recordings ‘through a series of editing and manipulation processes’. Singulum has four tracks, ranging from six and a half minutes in length, to nearly 17 minutes.