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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).
Miasmic Corrosion offers up just under an hours worth of taut, tense yet highly compelling walled noise. Paul DVR is one of the recently active projects of long time & respected US HNW artist Paul Dever( of Griz+zlor, Cursed Aether, & Dhusk).
Originally released on a limited edition cassette by Annihilvs (12 copies!!) in 2012, Malignant Records' re-release of Theologian & STROM.ec's Hubrizine is long overdue. Given the names involved, it seems strange that the original release was such a limited run. Regardless, Malignant once again delivers the goods to the experimental community. Basing their works on a shared appreciation of Philip K. Dick, the two genre stalwarts work together to produce an engaging work that is very different from their original styles.
Handmade Birds imprint presents Wrong Intersection by Kevin Drumm. Kevin Drumm is a long-running experimental musician, hailing from the windy city. He’s been releasing solo and collaborative output since the late 90’s, working with such artists as: Jim O’Rourke, Prurient, and Aaron Dilloway. This full-length CD, released in 2014, is my first foray into the artist’s work. It is to my surprise that I’ve managed to make it this far into my avant garde, musical vocabulary without having crossed paths with Mr. Drumm yet, but Wrong Intersection is as good a place as any to start.
Barren Harvest is a two piece neofolk group comprised of Jessica Way and Lenny Smith, both veterans of the scene. They've released a pair of albums to christen the project during 2014, one of which is this album, "Subtle Cruelties".
Along with Black Leather Jesus & Werewolf Jerusalem, Last Rape is one of the more known projects of multi project linked Texas Noise Legend Richard Ramirez. The project is known for it's often giallo & horror movie themed walled noise, and it started in 1995. On offer here is a recent release- that either comes as a C30, or a digital download- I’m reviewing the tape version.
Avid readers of my reviews (its ok - I’m being facetious), will have noticed that the last few Gruenrekorder releases I’ve written on, have received fairly short shrift from me. I’m pleased to announce an end to this run, with Peter Kutin’s wonderful album, “Burmese Days’. It comes in a very low-key package, with minimal artwork and information - most notably, a distinct lack of ‘field-recording text’: praise the Lord. The album has eleven tracks across two sides of vinyl.
Here we have the third volume in the Underworld Transmissions series. Offered up here is a C20 cassette tape- it takes in two side long slices of seemingly improvised & eerier ritual ambience from the mysterious Finish based Helixes/Aural Hypnox collective.
I Am In Hell, Help Me is another sonic brain scramble from this Southern California project - it mixes together wonky & wavering electronica, slurred synth melodies, psychedelic noise, layers of weird sounds, samples, melted ad jingles, and all manner of puzzling/ deranged fare that’s fed into a often dense & twisted mass of sound.
Emmanuel Allard's "Nouvelles Upanishads Du Yoga" is an album of often abrasive digital synthesizer texture which moves about the stereo space in erratic quasi-cyclical spasms. Described in the liner notes as 'investigations of various feedback circuits', it's comparable to the homemade synthesizer experiments of Japanese noise legend KK Null.
The fun and inventive debut of Floridan death metallers, Orbweaver, has been reissued on vinyl by Corpse Flower Records. Originally released in 2013 and available on tape and CD, this reissue has been remastered by James Plotkin, and is limited to 300 colorful editions. Featuring Randy Piro (ex-Gigan & Hate Eternal) and Sally Gates (ex-Gigan), the band definitely has some scene cred. Although they haven't released anything since this debut, the band is still active and Strange Transmissions From the Neuralnomicon is still garnering a lot of praise.
U.K. based imprint KIKS/Girlfriend presents XXX Colder, by HNW mainstay Clive Henry. Colder was released in 2014 as a C60 cassette, in what I can only assume was a really limited edition. Clive Henry hails from the U.K. and is a rather prolific figure in HNW circles. I’ve often seen him referenced as a “progressive” HNW, which I’m not really sure what that means giving that wall noise is a genre dedicated to static sound. With that said, Colder is one hell of an odd duck.
Abominor is a black metal band out of Iceland. Although the band eschews the scene’s rather incestuous mix of members (apart from a brief stint from drummer Bjarni Einarsson of Sinmara) they share an undeniably similar musical palate.
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.