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I think what I have before me is a promo pack, consisting of the CD, and an insert - there’s no track-listing as such. Anyway, the pro CD has six tracks of muscular rock, performed by a conventional trio: Guro Skumsnes Moe - bass/vocals, Håvard Skaset - guitar, and Joakim Heibø Johansen - drums. This line-up is aided and abetted along the way, not least by Pain Jerk on a few tracks. (For a further noise connection, the cover design is by Lasse Marhaug.) The six tracks present a dark, metallic take on noise rock.
In the last months of his life the ageing William S Burroughs, long the undisputed doyen of American literary counter-culture, attended an exhibition of his work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Nova Convention, a literary festival he had inspired and destined to be his last public appearance. Also in attendance were film maker Aes-Nihil and Dr David Woodard who had recently piqued Uncle Bill's interest with his recreations of the primitive brain-wave stimulator pioneered by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville, known as the Dreamachine. The machine itself as Woodard explains in detail is a revolving upright tube with holes cut out, through which the light from an electric bulb or naked flame flickers through. The frequency of this flicker, as modulated by the speed of rotation, is what's purported to cause the machine's hallucinogenic effect. The footage from these events and a conversation with Burroughs at his home forms the significant body of this decidedly lo-fi DVD. Interspersed are several often bizarre monologues by Woodard on the history of the Dreamachine (most of which are fictional) and other less discernable topics.
Black Needle Noise is producer John Fryer. This gentleman needs no introduction to any fan of 4AD, Mute or a host of other indie labels. His work is almost the stuff of legends. Its certainly the stuff of most indie or alternative kids dreams.
Modelbau is one of the projects of Frans De Waard(Captain Black, Freiband, Quests, etc), and Movement is one of it's most recent offering . Released on cassette by Sentimental Productions, this is Modelbau’s 11th release since their debut in 2014. Issued in a limited edition of only 50 copies this cassette has proved to be an interesting listen.
Any new work from always this creative & often progressive UK based walled noise maker is worth check-out and this C60 release from late last year is no exception. The release offers up two just shy of thirty-minute tracks, which blend together well conceived & crafted textured noise elements, with more ambient & eerier experimental sound craft.
Faceless is a C40/ digital release from late last year- it offers up two slices of masterfully tooled walled-noise. The split brings together Werewolf Jerusalem- which is the most known projects of US noise legend & HNW originator Richard Ramirez. And up ‘n’ coming / often creative Swiss wall-noise project Anonymous Masturbaudioum.
German Martin Lang's Todesstoss has been active in the black metal scene since 2000. Employing an avant-garde approach to metal, Todesstoss almost theatrical style pushes the limits of art and metal, and helps to allows Lang to showcase his vision more clearly. On his latest, Ebne Graun, Lang does this in the form of one, long, forty six minute track.
The Art Of The B Movie Poster is a colourful & often garish large format coffee-table book. It takes in a host of largely obscure, often lurid & provocative movie posters from the early exploitation genre of the 1940’s & 50’s. Through to the 1960’s, the 1970’s, and a few from the 1980’s.
Sacred Bones presents Contact, the 3rd full-length by Pharmakon. I rarely get hyped these days in anticipation of a particular release, especially in noise circles, where I’m often feeling overwhelmed with the amount of music I receive through trades and gifts. However, after many, many repeated plays of her previous efforts, Abandon and Bestial Burden, I made a point to pre-order the album at hand. Available in vinyl and digital formats, Contact marks the 10th anniversary of Margaret Chardiet’s Pharmakon. While Chardiet’s efforts have found some deserved acclaim beyond the noise underground, her brand of industrial noise has remained uncompromising and gritty over past decade.
Sumbru is, to my knowledge, the latest incarnation of Julien Skrobek - famous for far too many excellent projects to count. This mini CDR comes in a black envelope with a pasted on cover, and an insert. The cover is different from any other Skrobek artwork that I’ve seen, in that it depicts (what I presume to be) Skrobek himself; his face partially obscured by a hood, and fake vampire teeth in mouth. The vaguely black metal-esque title (and indeed artwork) allude to something that remains a mystery to me. The CDR has two tracks, both ten minutes long, and both either living within HNW territory, or peering over the border.
Duo(DCWM) 2013 is a two-disc CD set that offers up a selection of three vivid, creative & often shifting improvised works for Sax, electronics & 21 String Koto. The release appeared last year on French jazz label Rouge Art, and I must say it’s some of the more captivating & re-playable improv I’ve heard in some time.
Gomata is the third part of the ‘Merzcow’ trilogy released by UK-based noise label Hypnagogia. The series started off in 2011 with Kamadhenu, then later that year we got Surabhi, and here some six years on we get Gomata. The other two parts of the ‘Merzcow’ series really saw this Japanese noise legend focus in on the more psychedelic noise scaping side of his sound, and this third part really carries on that focus- offering up four quarter-of-an-hour plus examples of searing, shifting, and spacey examples of psychedelic noise craft.
Still is one lengthy slice of dense-yet- bleakly contemplative walled-noise craft from Dutch project Uitgeschakeld. The release came in form of CDR on Minneapolis based Altar Of waste. And featured the labels house style clear DVD case- and this time around the doubled–sided cover takes in moody black & white photo’s on vast snow top mountain scapes, and mist enshrouded forest scapes.
Canadian David Berezan has since 2003 been director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios and the Manchester Theatre of Sound (MANTIS), both based at The University of Manchester UK. His work tends towards a radicalising of the aesthetic and techniques first pioneered by Pierre Schaeffer and the GRM during the first wave of Musique Concrete. He describes his music as acousmatic and has travelled extensively collecting material for his compositions. Allusions Sonores appears to be the first collection of his recorded works to be released.
Hidden Persuaders is one of numerous projects from the incredibly prolific Andreas Brandal. This cassette is the work of Leeds based label, A Giant Fern. The album was recorded at The Station, in Bergen, between April and August of 2014.
Eternal Distance brings together warped & aged ambient matter, microtextural detail, and predominant feeling of haunted out-of-time-ness…like the soundtrack for a time trapped & slowly decaying reality. The release comes in the form of an either a C60, or digital download- it appeared 2017 on Minimalist Recs, which is the recent set more ambient/ experimental label of Sergey Pakhomov, whose behind the excellent Russian wall noise project Train Cemetery, and runs the more ‘wall-noise’ focused Reason Art Label.
Animus Retinentia, the 3rd full length album, by Arcana & Sophia mastermind Peter Bjärgö picks up where the previous two left off. A heavy blend of cold wave and neoclassical styles mix with dark ambience to provide every Projekt / Cold Meat fan with everything they could wish for in one handy album.
Here’s a recent reissue of Say It Again- the third album from US pop bound R&B/ soul/ funk singer Jermaine Stewart. Who will be most known to folks for his 1985 hit single “We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off”- which was memorable, yet slightly cheeky shot of 80’s pop R&B.
Here’s another release from the ever dependable Another Timbre, arriving in a sombre white, card wallet, adorned with a cryptically beautiful photograph of a windowed room. The album has four tracks, two longer pieces which outlast 13 minutes, and two shorter, at four and six minutes. The trio divide up thusly: Cremaschi on double bass, Kepl on violin, and Vrba on trumpet and clarinet. Each also plays the mysterious ‘and electronics’ - it would be nice to have these devices or set-ups further elaborated, but they do remain a mystery. The tracks were recorded in a monastery, and hall, both in Czech Republic, so (as is often a feature of Another Timbre releases) we are listening to the space as much as to the musicians.
Diverse Norwiegen experimental music outfit Ulver began playing black metal in the early 90's before exploring a multitude of other genres in the last 20 years, from dark ambient to art rock.
Here we have a recent dual format reissue of two obscure 1970’s exploitation films that sold themselves as horror films, but in reality were more of a blend of soapy drama, thriller, and light soft-core- with very slight horror elements. If you enjoy the more chatty/campy elements of Russ Meyer films, or more chatty-yet-trashy 70’s exploration fare- I think you could well enjoy what’s on offer here…but if you are expecting horror, then you will be sorely disappointed.
Not needing an introduction on these pages, Skullflower returns once again with a double disc of hypnotic drones, layers of noise, and evocative tones. Following in step with Draconis, 2017's The Spirals of Great Harm's drawn out, 2xCD approach gives Matt and Samantha adequate time to let their noise unfold. And, basing their work on Dante's Inferno 17, Skullflower uses grim sounds to convey the descent into the abyss.
Soft White Damn offers up two slices of brisk, battering, and seared walled noise from Texas Huston based Servant Girl Annihilator. The release came as either a C47 tape, or a deluxe, ltd & now sold-out box set that took in the C47 plus a 3inch CDR with an extra track, and lastly a digital download from the labels website.
Formed in 1967, Agitation Free are one of the originators of the German Kosmische scene along with the likes of Amon Duul and Can. Sadly Agitation Free have never received the same level of praise for their ground-breaking albums, as their peers, so when a retrospective like this comes along it’s great to get the chance re-evaluate their work.