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Heart Shaped Box Productions presents Abstract Expressionism, Part 1 by Vitaly Maklakov. The Russia-based sound sculptor is perhaps better known for his HNW output under the guise Light Collapse. This pro-pressed CD-R was released last November with only a slim 15 copies made.
Here we have the 31st album from long running, highly distinctive & influential English post punk band The Fall. And I’m happy to report this time around the band are in fine, often challenging, yet rewarding form.
This cd release offers up two albums worth of prog bound & often lined bass synth music from the late 1970’s & early 1980’s. On offer here are two rare albums from the Bruton music group- a British music library company who released some of the more creative & varied works of the music library genre in the 70’s & 80’s.
Here’s the second in series of recent reissues of Sky releases 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. Here we have the bands second album, which originally appeared in the form of a double vinyl album back in 1980- reissued as a cd / DVD double set.
You know those days where you wake up and then go to bed without accomplishing anything at all? That’s basically the feeling you get from Nahtrunar’s Symbolismus, which is especially disappointing, considering the album is thematically about the time of year when the world of the spirits connects with ours.
Extreme electronic minimalist / Line label founder Richard Chartier and Australian avant garde composer / field recordist have teamed up for "Built Through", something of a bizarre take on a 'remix album'. Each has taken sound material recorded by the other and processed it through a number of experimental means. Focused primarily around droning, synthetic hums, the result goes beyond ambient or soundscape music into some kind of experimental sound research.
For the duo's 3rd album on art ambient / deep listening label 12k, titled "Akari", Iluha brings intimate, domestic soundscapes sourced primarily from piano and guitar, characteristic of the label. This is my first experience with Iluha, so I can't compare it to their previous albums.
Two years ago, ritual dark ambient master Harlow MacFarlane released the first part of an ambitious interpretation of the Tree of Death. The second and final installment of this wonderfully dark and sparse production comes to us on a limited edition (500), 6 panel Digi Sleeve from 77th Cycle. While similar in tone to the opening piece, Part II takes a less familiar route to get its message across. Funerary Call is one of the most solid projects out there, so it's no surprise that, despite the near minimal, unorthodox approach, he manages to hammer another one out of the park.
Profound Lore Records presents Frozen Niagara Falls, the new massive full-length by Prurient. Currently available as a 2xCD and digital release (with 3xLP and cassette versions to follow), at 91 minutes it’s quite the beast to digest. Dominick Fernow, the mind behind Prurient, should need no introduction. Fernow has been toiling in the noise underground since the 90’s and is one of the few acts of the genre to attain a modicum of mainstream attention. In addition to Prurient, he runs the label Hospital Productions, spent a spell in Cold Cave and has more recently been performing dark minimal techno under the guise Vatican Shadow.
Marching To The See( yes See, not Sea) offers up a selection of prime live recordings from The Resident’s 40th anniversary tour that took place through-out 2013/2014. The CD offers up twelve of tracks culled from their length & odd career, and as you’d expect from The Resident's this is far from a safe or nostalgic look back that most projects would do at this point in their career.
Valborg are a German project who blend together elements melodic yet chugging doom, simmering & slow 80’s synth moodiness, theatrical yet dark metal craft, and a pinch of gloomy pop. Romantik is the bands 5th full length.
Reviewing legends like Gorgoroth always presents difficulties. On the one hand, everyone knows that they’ll never top their unholy trio of Pentagram, Antichrist, and Under the Sign of Hell, so naturally everything following is, by extension, the band not living up to their own greatness. On the other hand, the albums that made them legends were released almost two decades ago, so expecting them to equal those heights is bound to be met with failure. Gorgoroth is well aware of the fact that they can’t create an album in the style of their first three albums, and have been moving away from that sound for years now. Instinctus Bestialis furthers that trend, taking a route curiously taken by Mayhem the year earlier: adding death metal to their repertoire.
Mental Martyrdom offers up a sixty minute slice of urgent, manically swirling & intense walled noise from this long running & highly prolific Siberian based HNW project.
Here’s a three inch cdr from this Denton Texas based walled noise project. The release offers up a just under twenty minute slice taut, searing, & sadistic yet rewardingly detailed wall making.
Vialca's "A l'Abri des regards indiscrets." is the CD release of a somewhat avant garde musical theater performance, packaged in a rough fabric-bound 54 page book.
Here’s a three track digital release that brings together eerier wall craft with an under carriage of uneasy ambience. Static Park is another one of the projects of high prolific & multi project linked French noise maker Julien Skrobek (Ecco, The Killer Came From The Bronx ,Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp, Ruine, etc)- and with this project he adds in more experimental elements to his wall craft, such as ambience, beats, ect.
Following his 2013 debut, Lost Corridors, Steven Burroughs once again teams up with Cold Spring to release a droney, looped, fuzzed out dark ambient album. Showing a lot of growth since his first release, Tunnels of Ah have upped the ante on the musical front. However, the common pitfalls of looping and emphasis on creepy vocals and lyrics are still present, and, much like Pitfall Harry, Steven still times his jumps improperly from time to time, and lands fully in the alligator's mouth.
I love bands that can release material with titles like Grinding Christian Flesh with a straight face. Uncouth black-thrashing maniacs Infernus are of this special breed. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Infernus just recently released their second album through Moribund under the moniker Grinding Christian Flesh, a 40 minute barrage on all that is holy. Previously unbeknownst to me, this blasphemous outfit has left an impression far greater than most black/thrash groups. Refusing to lean on tired, recycled riffs, these Americans have forged a strong blade, poised to spear the heart of any Christian foolish enough to stand in their way.
Snuff Prom is one of the many projects of highly respected & influential Texas based noise artists Richard Ramirez- the project has been active since 2002, and describes it’s self as a Harsh noise project of various members. But for this release it’s seemingly a solo venture, with Ramirez offering up three slices murderous, moody, yet searing noise matter which brings together walled noise with yet thick murky drone matter.
Asleep In The Lake is Massachusetts based project who creates atmospheric walled noise with gothic horror & dark legend themes. This CDR release on Tera-AntiQu is the projects first full length physical release, after a few splits & digital albums.
“Transmissions” comes in a card wallet, simply and elegantly adorned with a close-up of machinery workings; this is very apt, since thats precisely the content of the disc, too. The cd has four tracks, ranging in duration from near three minutes, to a mammoth near-forty. All the pieces use the sounds of machines: “Part 1” and ”Part 2“ utilise loom sounds as source material, whereas “Part 3” and Part 4” are more broadly based on “machine-tools sounds”. This truly industrial material is fashioned by Delplanque into collaged constructions, flitting between raw sounds and processing.
This c80 tape offers up a searing yet creative walled noise tribute to infamous video nasty Day of the Woman ( aka I spit On Your Grave). It was released back in 2014 in an edition of 50 copies- so hopefully you’ll still be able to get your hands on a copy.
When one thinks of walled noise, they don’t normally think of types of skin disease- but that’s exactly the theme/ focus of this five track CDR. Extreme Chafing is another project from Florida based Joe The Stache whose known for a few quirk themed walled noise projects such as: Hoggle( based around 80’s puppet fantasy family movie The Labyrinth), Pig Shrapnel (based around pork products & their preparation), and Heavy Metal Vomit Party(which sees classic 1980’s hair/glam metal fare, converted into a dense, searing, truly overloaded & intense walled noise).
Kartet is a Parisian quartet with a long history of live performance and a discography including several albums of dense, cerebral albums of highly composed and technical jazz.