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Here’s another cd from the Line label, predictably packaged in their usual, minimalist beauty. ‘Forms of Forgetting’ has a front cover depicting flaking, painted wood; whilst the back cover explains the themes of the release as memory and forgetting. The album contains one long track, named as per the album the itself, and running to nearly fifty-six minutes.
Chaosynod imprint presents the debut album by HNW new-comer Walls of Benin. Available as a limited edition CD-R, the self-titled full-length (and project moniker) takes it’s inspiration from the world’s largest man-made structure: the Walls of Benin. At one time a 16,000 km chain of fortifications used a defense for the defunct Kingdom of Benin; its ruins are now found in current day Benin City, Nigeria. Ripe subject matter for wall-riding.
IV is the first physical release from Vagrant- the new ‘static noise meets techno’ project from respected & high prolific French noise maker Julien Skrobek. The release comes in the form of a CDR, and offers up two eighteen minute tracks.
Here we have the 2015 double disc reissue of the 2nd album from British avant-pop meets wonky (off) world music two piece Renaldo and the Loaf. The album originally appeared back in 1983, and it saw the band developing more of a sonically sophisticated & layered sound, which featured a wider sonic pallet, less awkward edger’s & more tuneful element's- yet didn’t lose the projects quirky sonic charm & distinctive feel.
Allseits' (Nina Kernicke) follow-up to 2009's acclaimed Hel, Chimäre, has the artist building a glorious landscape of stacked drones and deep pulses which work to draw the listener into a lush, sonic world. Having worked in the past with the likes of Troum and Aun, it's no surprise that Allseits offers up such luxurious textures. Cyclic Law's release of Chimäre is limited, so don't hesitate on picking it up.
Band Ane is the pseudonym of Ane Ostergaard, a project which began in 2006 with her debut "Anish Music", and continues now with its 3rd LP, titled "Anish Music Caravan" in confusing similarity to her debut.
Here’s a pro-cd, by Nickolas Mohanna, on Run/Off - both new names to me. The sombre, if colourful, artwork depicts a tangled thicket of scaffolding on the front cover; whilst, inside, some text tells us that the album collects work recorded for a ‘touring sound exhibition’. This work amounts to two long tracks, both around the seventeen minute mark.
From April 2015 here we have a double C80 cassette box set that brings together a selection of out-of-print releases from this highly prolific Serbian walled noise project. The set compiles together tracks from nine 3inch CDR releases, which appeared between the years 2010 & 2012 on various underground noise labels.
Here Australians Morte Cammina returns with a recent CDR release. It offers up two twenty to thirty minute examples of taut yet often texturally rewarding wall-craft with a murderous & blood soaked theme.
Flesh Control is a forty minute slice of searing & raging walled noise from this French HNW/ Harsh noise project. The release comes in the form of a CDR, which appears on the French sleaze, violence & noise label Porn Noise Records.
Berlin electronic duo Driftmachine are back with Eis Heauton, their follow up to 2014's debut, Nocturnes. Working with modular synthesis and self-generating patches, the duo present a stark, minimal, electronic daydream. Letting the synth spill its inner thoughts and ideas, the listener is given insight into what makes the machine tick. Sparse, but generally engaging, Eis Heauton has the listener play therapist hearing the robot's confession.
Bertrand Russell once quipped that he couldn't tell the difference between a mysticism that covers over a profound truth and one that was merely nonsense. There is however another possible form of mysticism the Russell didn't consider; that of the type which rather than being plain nonsense or covering over a profound truth merely adds interest to a banal one. This is perhaps worth bearing in mind when approaching the output of Ulver who for the past twenty or so years have been engaged in a knowing and protracted courtship with the mystical and the banal played out across numerous records and multiple styles of music.
Night Of The Bloody Antler is first low-budget feature film from Scottish noise scene duo Lea Cummings & Sarah Glass. The film is a 66 minute mix of micro budget horror, dread filled psychedelic imagery, and the bleak-ness of the Scottish countryside. This two disc set brings together the film on a DVDR, and the films soundtrack on a CDR.
Mectpyo/Blut is a 2015 double CD reissue of two early tape releases from respected Italian noisemaker Maurizio Bianchi. The release takes in four twenty minute plus tracks from the year 1980, and each is a prime example of lo-fi, crude & dense tape loop & noise based sound scaping.
Here’s a 2015 DVD reissue of a US 2008 documentary about Snuff. The film runs for around seventy five minutes, and features a selection of talking heads, infamous movie footage, and discussion about possible real snuff films.
Here's a late 2015 release from prolific veteran ambient electronic musician Steve Roach. The faint, cosmic scale space ambience found on this recording strikes a contrast to last year's "Skeleton Keys", which was a tapestry of interlocking melodic arpeggios owing much to the original Berlin style of ambient as created by Klaus Schulze. Roach has many albums of this kind in his long discography, however, notably the "Immersion" series.Roach has historically been a very patient musician, unafraid to dwell for long hours in cloudy, nearly static tonal spaces, with countless albums containing unbroken 70 minute tracks.
Infinite Fog Productions presents Ritualer, Blot & Botgöring by Trepaneringsritualen. Released in the waning days of 2014, this full-length CD is a reissue of Trepaneringsritualen’s (or T x R x P x for short) first album. Originally released in 2008 as a cassette on Harsh Head Rituals imprint and later on vinyl, this particular reissue gets the fully remastered treatment along with two bonus tracks not found on the first go around. For those unfamiliar, T x R x Px is the moniker of Thomas Ekelund, Sweden’s dark master of ritualistic death industrial music. I was completely enthralled by his previous works Veil the World and Perfection & Permanence, which both ended up on my best of list for the respective years they were released. Needless to say, I’ve been following this artist quite intently over the last couple years, so a this album in my review stack was eagerly received.
Here’s a cd from Dragons Eye Recordings, presented in a cleanly designed card wallet. It’s austere without being overly formal: there’s something a little bit polite about it, actually. The album contains three long tracks; the shortest is ten minutes, the next longest twice that, and the longest nearly half an hour. ‘Drones’ are the order of the day.
Brooding, droning, dark ambient legends Yen Pox & Troum see a long awaited, re-mastered re-issue of their 2002 collaborative release, Mnemonic Induction. Coming to us on an 8-panel digipack from Transgredient Records, this lush, sonic dreamscape captures two brilliant acts working together from 1996-2002. With only four tracks making up this 63+ opus, one is invited into a churning, slowly moving, skillfully evolving LP that will allow the mind to roam and explore previously undiscovered caverns of the subconscious.
Santos Productions presents yet another full-length CD-R by the ubiquitous Sleep of Ages. Released in 2012, Failure Made Flesh is an early entry in the SOA cannon. Based out of São Paulo, Brazil, Elias Cheika Jr. has been releasing “low budget exploitation harsh noise” since 2011. Cheika also toils in HNW under the Carrion Black Pit moniker and industrial/power electronics as EXU. Any avid reader of this publication will have seen his name and projects bandied about quite liberally. I actually spun this a while back, but since I had reviewed his Bleeder album recently as well as a 4-way split that CBP appeared on, I thought I’d meditate on this one for a bit before putting in my 2 cents.
Here’s a monstrous six cdr set from Black Matter Phantasm, on Ensemble Vide Records. It arrives in a large, painted envelope, with a stuck on cover depicting a circuit diagram for a white and pink noise generator. Beyond the title, we are offered no other information regarding the six tracks - each on one disc and coming in at around fifty minutes in length, at the shortest; and just shy of an hour, at the longest.
The self titled album by "The Twentieth Century" is 37 minutes of music, one lengthy piece divided into 3 movements. The greyscale photographs of hurricane annihilated houses and dirty garages pair well with the desolate and lonely, yet quaintly beautiful soundscapes on the album.
This C90 tape brings together two lengthy, punishing, yet rewarding slices of walled noise, which are themed around the films of euro sleaze master Jess Franco. The release appeared in September 2015, and as of writing copies are still available from Ensemble Vide Records website.
Here’s a C40 tape from this UK based walled noise project - it appeared in late summer 2015 on Australian noise lable Palinopsia Recordings. The tape offers up two twenty minute slabs of entrancing, oddly comforting, yet brutal wall craft.