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From late 2013 here’s a two way HNW split - it features two tracks from Carrion Black Pit- the often progressive São Paulo based horror themed HNW project, and one lengthy track from Kansas City based Phantom Cadaver. I’m reviewing the CDR version of the release, so I’m guessing this is long out of print, but you can still get a digital download from Excavated Prod bandcamp page.
Here’s a short, wee tape from Tarot - a new name to me. It arrives in very simple packaging: an unprinted tape, with a cleanly designed card insert - the front cover depicting the Ace of Pentacles tarot card. The cassette has a track on each side, both of which are harsh noise walls, around the ten minute mark.
Sleep of Ages, the prolific harsh noise/power electronics project by Elias C from São Paulo, Brazil, returns for another round on Bleeder. In addition to SOA, Elias also does HNW under the Carrion Black Pit moniker and industrial/power electronics as EXU. I’ve been a fan of Elias' projects for quite some time and, full disclosure, have released a number of his recordings myself. However, I’ve kind of lost track of this project’s activity, so I was looking forward to hearing what SOA has been up to lately.
John Chantler's "Still Light, Outside" is an album of subtley textured but often sonically abrasive or distorted drone / deep listening avant garde. Some of the sounds most frequently heard are sustained organ chords, high pitched electronic tones, and distorted guitar noise. The pacing is quite slow, with 4 tracks lasting nearly 10 minutes, each a slowly unfolding space in which the central elements remain largely static, while a murky flotsam of others murmur softly beneath.
Bernard Fevre, better known as Black Devil Disco Club, is oft credited for creating some of the first examples of house music in the late 70's, among the earliest music which focused completely around synthesizers and four on the floor beats made using drum machines. I'd investigated Fevre's music in the past, having listened to the self-titled 1978 "Black Devil Disco Club" EP.
Live In The USA - 13th Anniversary ( aka 13th Anniversary Show) is one of the key & classic live recordings of The Residents from the 1980’s. It features a selection of classic Resident’s tunes, dating back to earliest work all the way to material from the mid 1980’s, and most importantly it featured the distinctive & one off guitar talents of Snakefinger.
This Italian project were one of the more distinctive & creative doom/rock/metal bands to appear from the European music scene of the 1980’s. And it’s fair to say that 4th Opera- the bands second & last second album, saw the band at their most experimental. The album original appeared in 1987, and this CD reissue from 2010 appeared on Minotauro Records.
Ten years since Pär Boström's last release, The Starwheel, 2015 sees him returning with The Nest on Cyclic Law. Dark and vast, the Swede's latest offering will wrap the listener in a sonic vision and take him across time and space. This lush and open album leaves plenty of room for the listener to take from it what he needs without being forced down any particular path. This freedom leaves the album open to interpretation which lends itself very well to repeat listens.
Uncertainty is the second release from this Italian Giallo themed walled noise project from Australian. It comes in the form of C50 cassette, which appeared in a edition of just ten copies on the Needle and Knife label.
Directive is the forth album from this Netherlands based electrionca project, and I must say it’s one of more memorable yet creative electronic albums I’ve heard in sometime. The album mixes together elements of drum & bass, edgy cinematic beat-scapes, IDM, tuneful techno, peppering of none genre elements and razor shape production to create an album that managers to be both memorble & cleverly layered.
Here’s a split from two stalwarts of the hnw scene, Nar and Avmakt (Andreas Brandal). The cdr’s packaging is incredibly simple, with just a glossy card insert and a sprayed disc. The insert is oddly beautiful, with just messy track titles on one side and a fantastically cryptic collage on the other - its a genuinely wonderful image. Nar offers forth one track, whilst Avmakt presents two; all are titled with roman numerals: ‘I’, ‘II’, and ‘III’.
Machinefabriek is a musique concrete / avant garde composer that I already hold in high esteem. He is highly prolific, and yet his work is splendidly rich with detail, gestures layered beneath gestures, variety and precision of sound texture. His latest work "The Measures Taken" is a score designed to accompany a choreographed stage performance.
Gruenrekorder imprint presents Sounds of Iceland, field recordings by Hafdís Bjarnadóttir. For those unfamiliar, Gruenrekorder is a label that specializes in found sounds, audio documentaries, and field recordings. I’ve grown quite fond of this label’s output, but this beautifully presented CD may be their finest offering yet. On this latest album, we are taken on a journey to Iceland. Rather than observe the bustling hub that is ‎Reykjavík, we are treated to natural sites that Iceland has to offer.
Filling their time with solo projects and touring in support of Goblin, it's no surprise that it has taken so long for Zombi to follow up 2011's Escape Velocity. The aforementioned tour brought the duo back to their roots, and for fans of Zombi's earlier work, Shape Shift doesn't disappoint. Dark, heavy, and more rock than recent material, this album shows that Steve and Anthony haven't lost a step in their time on their own.
The rather bizarrely name Tipi & Sylvester Stallone were a Finish two piece who created a quirky & often weird mix of wonky folk oddness, experimental quirkiness & puzzling spoken word. This two disc CD release on Ektro records ( home of the mighty Circle) collects together a selection of the bands out put from when they were active between the 1970’s & 2008.
Street Meat presents the listener with two slices of bleak ‘n’ lengthy wall-craft. The release comes in the form of a CDR on Frances Required Rate Of Return- it was ltd to 30 physical copies, but it’s also available in digital form via the labels band camp site.
Ritual is the second part of this projects trilogy of HNW releases, which appeared in CDR format in late summer 2015 under the banner of Body Connection. As with the other parts to this trilogy this release offers up a single slice of fixed, battering & ugly walled noise.
William Basinski is a renowned electronic ambient/avant garde minimalist whose most famous pieces have all been focused around the repetition of a single tape loop, not to mention very long (30+ minutes). His new album "The Deluge" is another of these piano based tape loop works.
Here’s a double cdr set from Altar of Waste, presented to its usual high standards: colour artwork, smartly designed, in a dvd case. The release is, as its title suggests, a reinterpretation of the Castlevania computer game - this is, for better or worse, where my knowledge ends. The album contains nine tracks.
This C40 is the second split release that has occurred between French wall noise master Vomir, and Austrian based HNW/Harsh noise project Superror.
Here’s the second release from this Florida based walled noise project that takes it’s theme & project name from 1984 family fantasy movie The Neverending Story. The release comes in the form of a double cdr set, and appeared on Minneapolis based Altar Of Waste in 2014.
Here we have a searing & horror-fed slurred doom meets noise collaboration between these two Chicago projects. On offer here is a double disc cdr set, with each disc presenting the listener with two thirty minute slices of intense/ nightmarish jam-outs that blend together blunt, sluggish & seared doom riffing, with pained shouts/ bays, and malevolent/ nasty electro noise matter.
Originally released in 1998 The Fires Of The Borderlands, is seen as an ambient classic & one of the highlights of this respected ethno-ambient/ ambient projects large discography. This 2014 double CD reissue appeared on the great ambient/ experimental label Zoharum, and presents the original album with a unreleased live recording from 1996.
New Zealand three piece, Creeping, are hard to put a label on with their brand of metal that fights its way between the black and doom metal spheres. What is easy to put one's finger on is that it's crushing and well done, and the five tracks creep (!) their tendrils directly into the listener's brain. Their third release, Revenant, is out now on LP from Iron Bonehead productions, and should satisfy any metalhead looking to have a gloomy experience.