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Paul Chain Violet Theatre were one of the more distinctive & creative doom/rock/ metal bands to appear from the 1980’s European scene. The Italian project mixed together doom, dark psychedelic rock, death rock, and a few more experimental edges. In The Darkness is the debut full from 1986, and this is the 2013 cd reissue of the album.
Templum N.R. is one of the more obscure projects to appear from out of the mysterious Finish ritual ambient collective/ label Aural Hypnox. This C45 release is the projects one & only release, but according to the labels website the material here dates to over a decade ago.
Here’s a recent self published book that looks into the world of modern underground horror films. The 400 plus page book comes in a large A4 format, and mainly consists of interviews with a selection of underground film makers, with often lengthy chapters(20 page plus) for each subject.
The mighty Cold Spring imprint presents Rumspringa, the debut CD by She Spread Sorrow. SSS is the moniker of Italian sound artist Alice Kundalini, perhaps better known for her work in Deviated Sister TV. While I’m not particularly familiar with Kundalini’s work, I’ve yet to be disappointed by a Cold Spring release.
Spanish duo, Poligono Hindu Astral, have teamed with Verlag System for their first full length release. Through their use of analog instruments, Joni & Julio (of Antiguo Regimen) do their best to revive the classic, Krautrock "kosmische sound." Not pigeonholing their style to one distinct sound, P.H.A. runs the gamut from John Carpenter-esque slow burners to near rave-worthy head nodders. While rekindling the sound in their own way, P.H.A. fit right along side other contemporaries in today's synth scene, and continue to grow fans' interest in the wonderfully cosmic world of synthesizers.
Here’s a recent release from Inanition- a mysterious walled noise who has been active since 2009. This release comes in the form of a pro pressed CDR on Australian walled noise label Needle and Knife- it features one long track that comes in at just over the 78 minute mark.
Here’s quite an impressive package from Dot Dot Dot Music: a black plastic box, containing four 7”s - and apparently tailored to do so. The minimal insert tells you that the four discs (all pressed in red) are the work of Torturing Nurse, The Rita, Safe and Vomir, respectively. The title of the compilation, which roughly translates as ‘the virgin of Nuremberg’, is another name for the iron maiden torture device; though, curiously, nothing else in the release (track titles, for example) makes obvious reference to this.
Sigh are a Japanese operatic metal band which has existed since the 90's, with an extensive discography of more than 10 albums under their belt, including an entire disk of Venom covers. "Graveward", their latest album, came out in May 2015.
The Virgin Suicides is a four disc CDR set that offers up five lengthy slices of dense, yet texturally rewarding walled noise from this Greeley Colorado project. As with pretty much everything put out by this project, this set is themed around works of literature, and this time the focus is 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides by American writer Jeffrey Eugenides- the book is set in the 1970’s, and tells of five sisters who commit suicide in the Michigan costal city of Grosse Pointe.
Here we have another slice of Horror/ sci-fi B movie themed walled noise from Louisiana based Nightmare Castle. This release comes in the form of a CDR on French label Required Rate of Return, and it offers up a single track that comes in just under the fifty minute mark.
Fast Break! Records presents Dream, the new full-length by New Jersey’s metallic hardcore unit: LIFELESS. Released in the Spring of 2015, Dream is available on 12” vinyl, CD, and digital formats. As history goes, LIFELESS rose from the ashes of Dead and Buried and When These Days End and they’ve been busy recording, playing high profile festivals, touring and even crossing the Atlantic since their inception in 2008. Dream represents the band’s second LP.
Eugene, Oregon's Juice Machine and Andrew Quitter (Regosphere, Dumpsterscore) have teamed up for this two track, drifting, droning piece of electronics. With Andrew manning the synthesizers and Juice Machine handling the electronics, the effort shows two acts playing well with each other to produce an engaging release that grows with each listen. Whether in the background or getting one's full attention, this self-titled collaboration makes for an enjoyable 45 or so minutes.
Aktor pull the listener back into the late 70’s/ early 80’s with their synth/ keyboard heavy blend of pop rock, AOR, & buoyant yet moody metal, with slight edges of more prog/psychedelic matter. Paranoia is the project first full length, and it offers up ten shots fairly short, tuneful & highly retro styled sonic fare.
John Wiese is a well known LA based composer creating abrasive avant garde somewhere between free jazz, noise and modern classical, active since 2000. "Deviate From Balance" is an otherworldly musique concrete and ambient recording with a variety of approaches and sound sources from track to track, though consistently embracing free rhythm chaos and a surreal, occultish tension not unlike Naked City's "Absinthe" or "Heretic". Looking at the liner notes, these pieces span more than a decade previous, some being studio recordings while others originally parts of installations, etc.
In a recent review, I bemoaned the run of poor Gruenrekorder releases I had written about; before submitting deservedly glowing words about Peter Kutin’s ‘Burmese Days’. ‘Series invisible - Collection II’, by Christoph Korn and Lasse-Marc Riek, doesn’t so much drag Gruenrekorder back down again, as take it to a different world altogether.
Triangle Records and Somnolent Shelter Records presents Hard Panning: The Ultimate Contemporary Cut-Up Harsh Noise International Compilation. Whew...that was a mouthful! As the title implies, this CD offers 16 tracks of harsh noise, cut n’ paste mayhem. While not quite a comprehensive who’s who of noisers toiling with the cut-up aesthetic, it is nevertheless a really good showing. Featured are a collection of some of heavy hitters of the sub-genre: Developer, K2, Facialmess, Ahlzagailzeguh, Purgist, and T.E.F. along with some artists I‘m less familiar with. That said, this compilation is all killer no filler! There’s not a single dud to be found from beginning to end.
Oregon grind two piece, Nekro Drunkz, are back with their third offering and first on Moribund Records. With their Slade-esque spelling and over the top song titles, it's pretty tough to take this band seriously. And with the monikers Crystal Seth and Disgustor, it's pretty obvious that they don't take themselves seriously, either. And really, there's nothing wrong with that as long as the music holds its own and stands up to the ridicule a goofy project receives.
Since the late 1980’s Austrian project Allerseelen have been creating their own distinctive brand of Folk & Industrial music, which along the way has seen the band dip its toe in many different genre waters taking in elements of Metal, traditional Germanic folk, world music influences, avant garde pop, jazz and many others. With their new album Terra Incogninta, the band offer up a selection of old & new tracks which highlight the bands unequal sound & their seemingly effortless ability to mix in varied musical genre traits into their trademark sound, and make them their own.
Here we have the third in series of recent reissues of Sky back catalogue on Esoteric Recordings/Cherry Red. Sky were an English/Australian instrumental progressive rock group who existed (in one form or another) between the late 70’s & mid 90’s, and created an often approachable brand of classical influenced rock music & fusion. This is the bands third album, & it originally appeared in 1981 – it’s reissued here as a definitive cd & DVD double set.
W.W.W was the firth album from this highly creative Danish collective, who mixed together elements of :jazz-rock, R&B, blues, psychedelic rock, early prog rock, and pop rock into an often memorable & rewarding whole. The album originally appeared back in 1971 on John Peels label Dandelion Records- this CD reissue appeared in 2015, and found the album getting an remastering.
French-man Romain Perrot is most known for his intense, unchanging & highly prolific wall noise project Vomir, but he has also stepped out into other genres of sound/ art. This 106 page art-zine brings together a collection of his derange, perverse & child-like art- taking in crude drawings, manic scribbles, hand written texts, rough collages, ect. It originally appeared back in 2013 in very small numbers on Perrot’s label Maison Brut Maisonbruit- this reissue appeared in February 2015 in an edition of 80 copies on Black Blood Press( the small press part of Portuguese sleaze ‘n’ depravity & noise label Narcolepsia)
Here we have a recent reissue of an distinctive, often dungeon bound, & fairly undated slice of dark ambience. Originally released in 1999, Far Beyond, Before The Time was the first album from this project. Behind Kerovnian was one Vlad K, who in the past had been a member of a few Croatian black metal bands, such as Ashes You Leave.
Eliane Radigue is a name well-known to me, but until this point I’d never heard a note of her work. Admittedly, a three cd set - containing three long tracks - is a somewhat daunting way to make her acquaintance; but actually the set isn’t as monolithic as you might think. The strikingly presented release, comes in a foldout cardboard wallet; holding the three cds and a small booklet about the pieces and Radigue herself. Rather than any text, the booklet reproduces letters, posters and performance notes from around the period of composition; giving an insight into the composer and works without prescription.
Charlotte Braun is a new collaborative walled noise project, that brings together two of the scenes most creative & detailed textural noise creators. We have Uk’s James Killick(Small Hours, Love Katy, Flood, etc), and he’s joined by Canadian noise maker Chris Garant of Horrible Mess( whose 2013 release The Well was one of the wall-noise highlights of that year).