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Lana Trio is a purely acoustic Norweigen free jazz ensemble consisting of a piano player, a trombonist and a drummer, who released their self titled debut album in 2013. This disk, "Live in Japan" is a recording of a live performance from 2014 at Jazz Spot Candy in Chiba, Japan.
This large, six CD set comes in a DVD case, adorned with suitably bleak, black and white imagery of a woman seemingly trapped in a room. We know that she is indeed trapped in a room, because the release’s title is the same as a book by its dedicatee: Hubert Selby Jr.
Harsh Noise Wall staple, Black Matter Phantasm, returns for another slab of static noise with Persian Black Magick. I’m no stranger to Joseph Szymkowiak’s work, which occupies a choice spot in my HNW collection. Based out of France, Szymkowiak also does ANW as White Matter Phantasm and ran, until recently, Nahàsh Atrym Productions. While he publishes quite a bit of his own work, this full-length CD-R (released in 2015) comes courtesy of Tera-AntiQuo.
Here’s a self titled split C30 that brings together French walled noise act RRR, with Italian project Nascitari. RRR is relative new comer to the scene having only started creating HNW in the last year or so, while Nascitari has been a respected member of the euro wall noise scene since 2011.
The Necrophiles is a C60 split release offering up three slices of punishing & perverse walled noise. The split brings together Serbian wall noise legend Dead Body Collection, and Seattle based Masturbatory Dysfunction- each project offers up a single solo track, and then the pair collaborate on a track together.
Cabaret Du Neant (Tavern of the Dead) is another double CDR’s worth of bleak & darkly perverse walled noise from this Toulouse based project. It follows up from last years Nature Morte- which also appeared as a self release available in both CDR & digital form.
Continuing their line of bringing H.P. Lovecraft stories to life, Cadabra issues their latest, The Lurking Fear. As with their previous releases, narration is handled by actor Andrew Leman, and the score is done by Theologian. The longest of their releases to date, Cadabra's version of 1922's "The Lurking Fear" captures the stark terror of H.P. Lovecraft through adept reading and ominous tones.
For many years Charles Bobuck was one of the main songwriters/ creative minds behind avant pop collective The Residents, in late 2015 he announced he was giving up the band due to ill health. And This is a compilation/collection of some of the best (mainly instrumental) work Charles did with the project(and solo) in the last six years.
Well, here’s a blast from the past: a project and a label that I presumed were both dead - or resting. Both Carrion Black Pit and Urine Soaked Rag produced some superlative HNW some years back, but both seemed to disappear. I haven’t been able to find anything that suggests this is a new release - or even re-issue - so it’s entirely possible that this has been hiding down behind the MM cupboard for a while… Anyway, however it’s arrived here, it’s very welcome. The tape has six tracks split across the two sides, and comes adorned with filthy xeroxed artwork.
Echoes of Yul are an eclectic ambient electronic rock band with a desperate apocalyptic tone not unlike Nine Nails, Massive Attack or Godspeed You, Black Emperor. Since their self titled debut in 2009, the project has shrunk from its original duo line up to become the solo project of Michael Sliwa. “The Healing” is one of several new albums from Sliwa within the last couple of years.
Tocando Fondo brings together two taut ‘n’ airless slices of elector acoustic improv for trumpet & sinewaves. The collaboration brings together Viennese based Klaus Filip(on Sinewaves), and Argentine based Leonel Kaplan(on trumpet)- both parties are season improvisers, and this release sees them creating great edgy tension with the two tautly snaking tracks with-in.
Sonikillage Volume 2 is the second slice of sonic wackiness & crazed retro collage from this Scottish project. Much like the first volume this second CDR release offers up twenty seven tracks that blend & meld together all manner of sonic flotsam & jetsam. This time taking-in a shifting sonic canvas of the following elements: snippets of lo-fi 80’s electronica/ gabba, retro J-Pop, dramatic yet melted film scoring with beats added-on, space invader sounds, melted TV channel themes from 70’s/ 80’s, oriental advert jingles, bland US TV jingles, news samples from around the time of the JFK assignation, and moon landing and all manner on quirky ‘n’ melted sonic silliness .
Here we have another release from this up & coming Denton Texas based walled noise project. The release comes in the form of a CDR, and takes in two thirty six minute slices of moodily simmering & searing walled noise, which is seemingly themed around the Heaven’s Gate cult who committed mass suicide in 1997.
I’ve seen the moniker Distorted Souls Within A Corrupt Vision (D.S.W.A.C.V.) mentioned on the usual noise forums and internet channels, though I can’t recall if I’ve given this U.K. wall artist the time of day or not. However, affiliations with solid physical and net labels such as: Altar of Waste, Maniacal Laugh, and Nahàsh Atrym Productions, certainly had my interest piqued. Sophia, Flora Series ~ Part II is a self-released CD-R that I’m assuming is part of a series dedicated to plants from different geographies or something (the artist’s website didn’t offer much information).
Prolific American experimental musician Mark Bradley is back with his latest from Reverb Worship. A History of Silence is nine tracks of ambient, electronic joy that explores synthesized textures, drones, and other sonic noodling goodness. Focusing on a whole and going for atmosphere over bleeps and bloops, Mark's latest is a thoughtful approach to electronic composition.
Yui Onodera is a soundscape composer active since 2005, with a sporadic stream of releases. This new Baskaru release "Semi Lattice", as well as two other new albums in 2015, break a 4 year silence. This is my first experience with Onodera's work.
Sincope presents Primitive Future, a full-length cassette by Jabber Garland. Sincope, based out of Italy, has produced quite a number of top notch releases over the last few years. I always get a little giddy to see one of their releases in my review pile. Admittedly, Jabber Garland was not a project familiar to me. After some quick investigation, I see that this is one of Andreas Brandal’s many, many, many side projects. One this collaborative venture, he teams up with Norway’s Sindre Bjerga.
This meticulous compilation details some of the rock music recorded by Nigerian bands, in the years following a devastating civil war which lasted thirty months. This material is collected up in a nice package - a cd in a hardback book, or a double vinyl album with softback - however, I’m reviewing a digital version here. The booklet is quite a tome: over a hundred pages of band histories and discussion, as well as endless amazing photos of the bands, their records and the people of Nigeria.
Composed of ex-members of Death Squad, Pulverizer, Deifecation, Bloody Remains, and Caedere, the Netherlands' Rotten Casket spew forth unabashed Swedish, HM-2, death metal worship. Emerged From Beyond sees both of the band's sold-out cassette EPs remixed and presented on one disc. While no new ground is being broken, the drums are pummeling, and the riffage is tight, so the experience is enjoyable, even if it's a bit familiar.
Gorguts' new release, the first since the well received re-union album "Colored Sands" in 2013, is an EP with one lengthy, epic song on it, in the tradition of Meshuggah's "I". "Pleiades' Dust" is even longer than "I", at 33 minutes, and is easily as densely composed and intricate as any other Gorguts material.
This tape from the reliable Flesh Coffin, comes simply and starkly presented by the Imperial.Noir label: an all black inlay, with xerox-esque falterings into grey and white, and the barest of album/recording details. The tape has two tracks, one on each side, both just short of the 20-minute mark. The material itself is actually quite old, recorded in the winter of 2010-2011.
Hen Llan Recordings is the latest release from respected British folk singer/songwriter Sharron Kraus- it’s a Ep, both in physical CDR form on Reverb Worship, and digital download from Sharron’s bandcamp
Now here’s a collaborative release that has one of the more unusual & slightly queasy concept I’ve come across. The four tracks here are all a blend of field recordings taken from inside a four separate women, and (mainly subtle) static noise texturing/ pared back walled noise.
Here’s a 2014 CD reissue of Chrome’s second album from 1977 Alien Soundtracks, plus its sequel album Alien Soundtracks II from 1988. The project were a San Francisco collective whose Sci-fi themed & often muddled blend of chaotic ‘n’ chugging punk riffing, space-rock, synths, electro beats, and sonic flotsam & jetsam was both very distinctive & a big influential on industrial rock.