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Here’s a recent pro CDR release from this Louisiana based horror themed walled noise project. It features a single track that comes in at just under the fifty four minute mark, and the ‘wall’ offered up here is a suitable dense, dusty & pummelling slice of walled noise. The release is themed around 1959 film which featured Vincent Price as an Eccentric millionaire, who invites a group of people to his house for a ‘haunted house’ party. Whoever stays in the house for the whole night will earn $10,000. As the night progresses, the guests have to endure ghosts, murderers, and other terrors. The film was directed by infamous gimmick loving US B movie director William Castle.
Obscene Death Pulsion offers up two slices of oppressive, grimy, and unrelenting wall craft from this French project. The release comes in either a CDR, or a digital download- I’m reviewing the CDR version.
Here’s a curious release on English Heretic, by English Heretic; and its a picture disc too - always welcome, despite the apparent lower quality of sound. The album contains two long tracks, both short of twenty minutes and both very similar in terms of content and sound. As you may well have ascertained, the tracks concern the attempted kidnap of Princess Anne by Ian Ball; on March 20th, 1974, in London.
Guapo is an instrumental progressive rock band with a sound that exists outside of time and trend, sounding something like a more esoteric take on the most cerebral and austere moments of ELP, shown in the agile unisons between organ and guitar. They've gone through frequent line-up changes since their original album in 1997, making for unpredictable studio albums, sometimes resulting in truly bizarre sounds like the esoteric drone album "Elixirs".
French imprint, Force Majeure, presents Sukellan Tuntemattomiin Syvyyksiin, the latest offering by Finnish industrial noise/power electronics artist Decondition. This full-length CD represents the first release from this project since 2006’s The Universal Nothingness cassette on Freak Animal. What accounts for project runner Arttu Laine’s long slumber is not known to me, but I can say unequivocally that he must have been saving up his artistic ideas, because Sukellan Tuntemattomiin Syvyyksiin is quite the beast of a sophmore effort.
Italian instrumental avant rock band ZU are veterans in the scene, with a massive string of releases since their first album "Bromio" in 1999. Their sound is equally rooted in stoner doom/djent rhythmic chug and the austere math rock absurdism of Ruins or Fantomas. This new album, "Cortar Todo", has fittingly been released by Mike Patton's Ipecac Records.
Bram Gollin's newest release as Kave, Ominousium, is a meditative, dark ambient album that is heavy on atmosphere. Slowly moving and thoroughly enveloping, Ominousium takes the listener on a journey through the darkest recesses of the mind. Dark and somewhat dangerous, the trip is worth it and, having experienced the inner workings of the mind, the listener will emerge changed.
Here we have the first ever CD reissue of Pino Donaggio chilling yet quirky soundtrack for one of the more original & distinctive early slasher films of the late 70’s.
Shadowland is the third in the recent series of live release from this infamous & highly distinctive US collective. Like the other releases in this series Shadowland comes in the form of a CD, and takes in one of the performance from the bands 40th anniversary tour that took place through-out 2013 & 2014.
Of all the many projects of respected & influential Texas Noise maker Richard Ramirez (according to discog’s 60 +) I’d say Fouke stands as one of my favourite- due to it’s great mix of rewarding wall craft & atmosphere all themed around the various Big Foot legends/ sightings/ films. so I was very excited when I saw he had put out this three CDR set of new material- and I’m happy to report it’s up to the quality of the projects past releases.
One Master was always a band I intended on exploring further but never quite found the time. I discovered them some time ago through their sophomore effort The Quiet Eye of Eternity, a seriously good piece of American black metal not unlike Judas Iscariot, but never dug through their back catalogue. Now, with the release of their third album Reclusive Blasphemy, I’m getting an urge to sample their previous works, because this is some foul, hateful stuff.
This collaboration comes on starkly presented vinyl: the artists’ names on the front cover, in black on grey, and the very barest of information on the back cover - and that’s that. Continuing this theme, there’s one track per side of vinyl; with the first piece called ‘UNstable pt. 1’, and the second, ‘UNstable pt. 2’ - both pieces clocking in at exactly seventeen minutes. Thus the presentation is pitched somewhere between the ‘usual’ Vomir fare, and perhaps a more austere electro-acoustic work - which is where the album lies sonically, too.
If there’s one thing blossoming in the black metal scene it’s quality atmospheric black metal. Ranging from the deepest sacred forests to the farthest flung galaxies, bands are capturing the raw spirit of nature in more ways than ever. One of the largest homes to the expanding cosmic black metal scene is I, Voidhanger, with the impressive bands Mare Cognitum, Midnight Odyssey, and Spectral Lore under their wings. With the release of Tome of the Unreplenished’s Innerstanding it seems they have welcomed another strong band to their ranks.
British industrial doom duo, Khost, made their official debut on Cold Spring in 2014 with Copper Lock Hell. Their much anticipated follow up, Corrosive Shroud, shows the act once again building an intense link between doom metal and industrial, two acts not often associated together. Heavy, fuzzy guitars, low, metallic drums, and twisted electronics add a level of machine terror not seen quite enough these days. As engaging as it is punishing, Khost's sophomore effort is enough to make even the most jaded fan fairly depressed (in a good way, of course!).
This four disc split brings together two respected walled noise projects for their sonic tribute to a literature & cinematic classic One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.Each project offers up two discs worth of material- with UK’s Small Hours discs been a tribute to the 1975 film, and US based The Ebony Tower been a tribute to the 1962 novel.
Seclusion Room is a c60 release that offers up a side of piece of inclosing & intense HNW from France. Each project offers up a single thirty minute track- on side one we have the black wearing king of walled noise Vomir, and on side two we a track from up & coming wall project Black Matter Phantasm. The release appeared in June 2015, and came in two editions: a C60 tape & book edition, and just a C60 version- I’m reviewing the stand alone cassette version.
Norweigen trumpet player Arve Henriksen, who has played with Supersilent, among others, has released countless albums both solo and collaborative since the year 2000. "The Nature of Connections" is but 1 of 5 releases in 2014.
Here we have a digital release that offers up two tracks worth of engaging & rewarding shifting wall craft from this London based project. The release appears on Maniacal Laugh, which is the digital sub-label of respected British wall noise/ static noise label Vagary Records, which is run by James Killick( Love Katy, Small Hours, ect).
Here’s a triple disc set from Altar Of Waste, delivered in its house style, with - as ever - the smartest of packaging. This artwork collects up images of women, presumably from the porn movies of Andrew Blake: the Raoul Valve of the title, is the primary soundtrack composer for Blake’s films; and these cdrs are a tribute to his works. Miguel Perezin - the man behind La Mancha del Pecado - has taken Valve’s pieces (described in the liner notes as mixing ‘lounge, world music, jazz and ambient’) and subjected them to ‘effects and amps’; resulting in the three discs here. Each disc is dedicated to a specific Blake film: ‘Exhibitionists’, ‘High Heels’ and ‘Girlfriends’, respectively.
Zoharum imprint presents Mantras of Bon, the latest offering from the Russian music collective and performance art group known as Phurpa. This full-length CD presents 70 minutes of live and studio tracks from this musical oddity. The brainchild of Alexey Tagin, Phurpa pushes the human voice into unknown territories, while also using traditional and nontraditional instruments (in particular, making sounds using human bones found in Tibetan wastelands). Their live performances purportedly resemble shamanistic rituals, which doesn’t surprise me as their music is the sonic equivalent of a religious experience.
Bulger was the first physical release from this northern English project who creates intense & bleak walled noise . It appeared in May 2015, and came in two different versions- a pro cdr ltd to 30 copies on Australian Palinopsia Recordings, and a cassette version ltd to ten copies on DeathSex Electronics, which added in an extra track. I’m reviewing the CDR version of the release.
Hearing "late 70's/early 80's compilation" would likely conjure up Punk, Post Punk, or New Wave images, and that's understandable; these genres shaped many lives during that era. However, stuck between the ubiquitous cold pop and booty shakin' disco, a soft, smooth scene full of grooves was chugging along. Whether it was called blue-eyed soul, yacht pop, or any other descriptive name, the music was the same: awesomely chill, softly sung, supremely catchy, and sunny as a California afternoon. It's this scene that has captivated Berlin's DJ Supermarkt. In his second volume of soft, joyous ear candy, DJ Supermarkt presents acts from corners as far flung as L.A. and Cologne, with stops in between.
Black Feast’s history is a short one: formed in 2009, the band released a handful of demos and splits before splitting up by 2012, later to reform as Witchcraft. This isn’t unusual in and of itself. Plenty of bands dissolve after just a few years without completing a full-length. But not many of these short-lived projects end up on the roster of Nuclear War Now!. Released last month on vinyl, Larenuf Jubileum compiles the band’s Worship of Darkness demo, their Abominations of Darkness split, and a few previously unreleased promo tracks.
D.S.W.A.C.V is a HNW/ doom wall project which mixes in the odd bit of ritual ambience here & there. The projects is based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and it started in late 2012- & so far put out around 20 plus releases which take in CDR’s, splits & digital releases. Venus In Furs appeared in late June 2015, and came in edition of twenty five copies- these came in two different editions: a c90 & mini CDR, and just a C90- I’m reviewing just the C90.The release is themed around 1870 S&M/ female dominance novella of the same name- which went onto influence a certain Velvet Underground, and euro sleaze director Jess Franco for his 1969 film of the same name