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“Title In Limbo” is a highly creative, varied, & wonderfully twisted collaboration between San Francisco based avant pop/ art project The Residents, and British avant-pop meets wonky (off) world music two piece Renaldo And The Loaf. The album was originally released back in the early 80’s, when both bands were at the heights of their odd sonic powers, and it stands as a highlight in both projects discographies. Here we have a much deserved CD reissue from late 2014.
Recorded in November of 2014 and released on a super limited, c-46 edition of 10 copies, 2016's Buchla On Tape has Andy Ortmann giving it a go on a Buchla 200 series modular synth. While I feel it's fairly typical for the genre, Ortmann manages to avoid self-indulgence, and produces a sparse, interesting synth piece.
Patton is a French math rock band, unrelated both to Mike Patton and the instrumental Pittsburgh band, who apparently named themselves Patton after the war general. Why this French band used the name is not clear, as none of the band members are named Patton. Their new album, "C", is a concise 8 song record, 35 minutes in length.
I crossed paths with Matmos many years back, but truth be told, this is probably only the second album I’ve heard by them. I’m reviewing a digital copy, and I merely have the sounds and the album cover - not that I should need anything else. Ultimate Care II is one long track, just over 38 minutes long, and it concerns the workings of the common, household washing machine. For the uninitiated, Matmos are best known for taking recordings of non-musical objects or things, and then transforming these sounds into music - often ending up somewhere between danceable electronica and more austere electroacoustics. This curious little album follows a snaking, restless path through these two areas.
Your Skin is another slice of crude ‘n’ sleazed walled noise from this Seattle, Washington project, whose take on HNW adds in hints of PE for that violent & oppressive psycho-sexual edge.
We Also Let Blood is a relatively recent addition to the US wall noise scene- the projects from Rock Island, Illinois, and it seemingly started in 2015. So far the project has put out around six releases; which are most digital releases, and as far as I can see this C90 is the projects first physical release.
Naked Lunch Records presents Metaplasie, a full-length collaborative effort by Maurizio Bianchi & Pharmakustik. Released in 2014, this pro-pressed CD-R comes in a full-color digipak. Bianchi and Siegmar Fricke’s Pharmakustik have worked together a number of times, through mail collaborations I’d gather. So what do we have going here? The back cover has a statement mentioning to the “abnormal environment of electro-cells” and the “sounds for stratified squamous metaplastic emotions,” which truthfully sounds like academic gibberish and means absolutely nothing this intellectual lightweight. So I’ll let the sounds speak for themselves.
Following closely on the heels of their release of Lovecraft's "The Hound" and "The Music of Erich Zahn," Cadabra records offers up a limited 7" featuring 7 of Lovecraft's poems. Again read by Andrew Leman, this release shows the lesser known side of Lovecraft's work. Quick and elegant, this is a fun little listen that will definitely add atmosphere to any Halloween (er, Hallowe'en?) gathering.
Piano, violin, Viola, Cello was the final piece composed by Morton Feldman- one of the great minimalist/modern classical composers of the 20th century. And fittingly for a last work it’s suitable sombre & slow in both it’s pace & atmosphere, with this version of the piece coming in at the seventy five minute mark.
American Horror Project Vol 1 brings together three relatively obscure, often arty, & moody American horror films from the 1970’s. The set features six discs in all- one blu-ray, and one DVD for each film- added to this we get a 60 page booklet, & each film has it’s own case with the whole set coming in a sturdy thick card slip case.
Unter Grund is a two part composition originally produced as a sound installation for the NOW / Parallele Welten festival in 2014 at the Zollverein coal mining site near Gelsenkirchen. The choice of location was apt as the material which makes up this recording is principally derived from underground sources involving mines, pumping stations and other machinic locations associated with the Ruhr area which have some connection to water.
I think it’s fair to say that Morton Feldman stands as one of my favourite modern classic/minimalist composer, as his mostly pattern based compositions managed to really capture haunting moodiness, angular atmospherics, felt emotionality, & creativity . Here we have a 2016 release of one of his pieces from the early 1980’s, and really it works as a great snap-shot of the scope of his work.
Veteran jazz pianist and composer Wayne Horvitz has returned with a new band of players called 'The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble', and a brand new album of his sweetly melodic jazz compositions, with their generally light and upbeat tone, and flambouyant, almost cinematic expressiveness. The attitude of his music could not be further contrasted from the jaded anti-musicality and genre parody performed by Zorn's Naked City, ironically still the group for which Horvitz is most often recognized.
Here’s a good, old-fashioned jewel case cd (it’s been a while), from the Touch label. It features the work of Bruce Gilbert and BAW (A. David Crawforth and Naomi Siderfin); whilst BAW are new to me, Gilbert is, of course, the Bruce from Wire - the seminal 1970s punk band. Here, the three collaborate on an album of subtle, low-key electronics; mixed in with field recordings and more rhythmic passages. There’s seven tracks, ranging from around nine minutes to over thirteen, and they run into each other; so it’s a lengthy listen.
Thomas Ekelund’s (Trepaneringsritualen) Beläten label presents Deceivers, the debut album by Swedish duo Alvar. Released in the summer of 2015 on cassette, you can all be rest assured that this mini album has already gone the way of the dodo. However, it can still be acquired digitally through the label’s bandcamp site. Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing? So in case you’re wondering, the name Alvar is the name of a mysterious spectre found to haunt a barren plain off the east coast of Sweden. Spooky right?
Formed by Autopsy guitarist Eric Cutler, Necrosic is a five piece made up of members of Impaled, Scolex, Ascended Dead, and Gravehill. Proving that solid, no frills, riff centered death metal always entertains, their debut EP, Putrid Decimation, will hammer its way into your heart through skillful guitar work, pounding drums, and rough vocals. And, at under twenty minutes, you can fit a listen into even the tightest of schedules.
Akagi is a recent release from prolific & respected one man Us ambient project Celer. It comes in either the form of a CD, or a digital download, and features just a single seventy nine minute slice of soothing, golden, and life affirming ambience.
Here we have the DVD/Blue-ray release of Theory of Obscurity- the rather wonderful & justifiable praised/ celebrated documentary about the mysterious sound & art collective known as The Residents. And just to clarify I’m reviewing the DVD version of the release- so I’ll be discussing the extras etc of this version of the release.
Rapoon is the ritualized soundscape project of Robin Storey, veteran of industrial/surrealist sound collage group Zoviet France. His music is known for its primitivist 'found music' feeling, and highly evocative, transporting quality. Zoharum is re-issuing Rapoon's 1999 album "What Do You Suppose? (The Alien Question)" in deluxe form, with an extra disk of material included as well, titled "Project Blue Book".
I reviewed a Tim Olive collaboration a while back, on 845 Audio, and Dominion Mills comes packaged in a similar manner: a cardboard wallet, sparsely printed, with a simple drawing of concentric circles and the barest of details. The cd inside contains three pieces, all towards the shorter side of things - by improv standards - and all cut from the same cloth. Here, Olive plays ‘magnetic pickups’, whilst Jacques performs with ‘rotating devices’ - if this sounds obtuse and austere, well… you’d be right.
Japanese ambient pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto has paired with art ambient soundscape artists Iluha and Taylor Deupree for something of a 12k supergroup. "Perpetual", the resulting album, is a rich and complex sound environment, containing a deeper density of sound and wider range of timbres than most 12k releases.
To most extreme music fans, the Swedes have become pretty synonymous with death and black metal. Their tell tale tones have influenced many while making a sound that is clearly their own. Growing alongside these movements was the Swedish industrial scene. Much like their metal counterparts, these acts created a sound uniquely theirs, and boldly inspirational. Stemming from legendary labels like Cold Meat Industry, this sound continues today, and is still a large part of the death industrial genre. Analfabetism's newest continues the strong Swedish industrial tradition of cold, grim, rough music.
This is a recent release from one of less frequent projects of respected, prolific & multi project linked French wall-noise maker Julien Skrobek. For this project he focuses in on old school yet moody walled noise with a homicidal theme. And for this C30 release the theme is Jess Franco’s 1976 movie Jack The Ripper, which saw respected yet often unbalanced German actor Klaus Kinsk taking on the role of the Whitechapel murder who butchered five women in Victorian London.
Here we have a double CDR release from Widow Park; which is one of the walled noise projects of Australian based noise maker Shaun Mack-also of Morte Cammina, Girl On The Bridge, and Bleak August. And runner of the great wall noise only label Needle & Knife, who put out this release.