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I didn’t catch Laster’s demo when it was released back in 2012, so the band’s first full-length is my first glimpse at what this Netherlands based project has to offer. De verste verte is hier was released in November on CD, tape, and vinyl, as well as being available for “pay what you want” on Bandcamp. I’ve spent the past few days giving this some play time and while it’s not necessarily an album of the year contender, it’s a damn fine piece of atmospheric black metal.
It's been over seven years since Murcof's last studio album Cosmos. Since then the mercurial Mexican electro-acoustic composer has appeared primarily in collaboration, notably on First Chapter with Philippe Petit, and Mexico an EP with trumpet player Truffaz. By far the most fruitful of the collaborations the latter's bluesy tone and willingness to embrace the potential of electronic intervention cried out for a fuller treatment. What we have here is the best bits culled from the duo's multimedia collaboration with celebrated French comic book creator Enki Bilal who also provides the album cover art.
I’ve reviewed a few Richard Chartier releases, but this is the first one I’ve heard under his Pinkcourtesyphone moniker. Indeed, I actually initially mistook the album for a Line release, given the artwork/wallet packaging. “A Ravishment Of Mirrors” has four tracks in all, with two short (in this context) pieces bookended by two longer works.
Winter Songs /Caneuon y Gaeaf brings together folk singer/ songwriter Sharron Kraus, and harpist Harriet Earis for a collection of charming, warming yet earthy renditions of carols, winter songs and seasonal songs.
Here's a recent HWN/static noise compilation from a new British based label that’s set up to focus in on all things ‘wall’ like. The release comes in the form of a CDR, and takes in nine slices of wall-craft that run between just under the seven minute mark, to nearing the 12 minute mark.
Theu Anagnosis offers up a heady, sleek yet mysterious, and often highly memorable mix of: ritual dark ambience, moody & stark piano/ sitar/ koto structures, atmospheric synth/ synth orchestration, & stark electronica, which is all topped off with layers of haunting & mumbled arcane vocals.
Much like 1950's America*, current synthesizer music is focused on the vastness of space and the the long, cold journey between distant destinations. The newest slice of space-faring, cold synthery comes to us from Giuseppe Tillieci, Roman audio engineer using the moniker Neel. Tillieci is not only known for his work behind the boards but also for his role in techno duo Voices From The Lake. Taking a break from techno, Neel's Phobos focuses on cold soundscapes that are as bleak as the Martian moon that shares its name.
French sound artist Frédéric Bigot presents a new EP entitled La Voix De La Route. It’s available as a digital release on Germany’s No School Today imprint and as 10” vinyl on French boutique label Les Disques on Rotin Reúnis. As the story goes, Bigot travelled around America in 2011 funded by Institut Français's research grant 'Hors-les-murs' and Gaite Lyrique in Paris. This album is part of the documentation of his journey.
Voices are made up of former members of noted UK black metal outfit Akercocke whose be-suited image and no less sharply presented vision of satanic metal gained plaudits with a series of albums released during the early to mid 2000s. To some extent Voices continue that band's take on "blackened death metal" while amplifying the progressive elements and toning down the traditional black metal themes and imagery.
From November 2013 Devouement was the 3rd release from Cory Stands Les Legions Noire influenced noise/ambient project. And this four track CDR focused in on a more defined & repetitive drum based sound- which takes the lo-fi blacked metal sound, and filters it into locked down & battering noise jams.
Along Walls is the first full length release in about two years, from this brutal & hopeless walled noise project. Ruine is one of the many projects of French HNW artists Julien Skrobek (The Killer Came From The Bronx ,Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp)- the project started in late 2011, and has so far put out seven releases.
This cd, on Songlines Recordings, comes adorned with photos of sun-drenched, urban housing; presumably, given the album title, taken in California. The seven tracks showcase an unusual jazz line-up: drums, contrabass, bassoon and flute; which in turn, creates an unusual collection of pieces. The quartet performs compositions written by Eisenstadt, the drummer; who quietly guides the group.
The Westerlies' album "Wish the Children Would Come On Home" is a brass tribute to jazz keyboardist Wayne Horvitz. Though Horvitz' name is on the cover, don't buy this album expecting jazz, as the music is played with reserved classical inflections, with focus on perfect intonation and rounded notes. It's a gentle recording with a patient but deliberate energy.
Prolific deep listening electronic composer's latest CD "Lay-By Lullaby" is an unstated upper atmospheric ambient poem. It's one of 3 albums he released this year, the other two being LP only releases.
This three CD box set brings together the soundtrack work of British keyboard wiz & progressive rock legend Keith Emerson(ELP, The Nice, and solo work). In all the set takes tracks from seven soundtracks- which where composed between the early 80’s & early 00’s. And all in all it’s an expectedly showy 'n' flamboyant set, that mangers to be mostly rewarding & at times quite surprising in some of it's quirky genre twists.
Light Through Dead Glass is the 2014 EP from Epistasis. The band began in 2008, this is their second EP. Their music is a provoking mix of death/black metal, avant garde and jazz. Members are Amy Mills (vocals and trumpet), Kevin Wunderlich (guitar), Alex Cohen (drums, also a member of Pyrrhon) and Doug Berns (bass).
UK noise artist Hal Hutchinson is known for his "Factory of Metal Sound" technique. Layers of dense, heavy metal on metal fill his recordings, and vary from thick metal soundscapes to uncompromising noisestravaganzas. Hal's latest, Wreckage Installations & Metalworks, comes to us from Crucial Blast as part of their Crucial Blaze series. This run of limited (400), hand numbered, DVD-size cases come with full sleeve art, liner notes from Hal, and a set of six B&W photography prints. The special packaging and art that holds Wreckage Installations & Metalworks plays a nice visual complement to the wonderful aural art contained within.
"70 Years of Sunshine" is a sprawling double disk compilation of LSD themed exploratory soundscape music, at times intensely emotional and heartbreakingly universal, and all the better for the diversity brought by its eclectic cast. Several of the creative voices heard here are familiar to me, from Rapoon to The Legendary Pink Dots to Kawabata Makoto, but most of the artists featured here are virtually unknown. Their styles sewn together in a slow-drifting quilt of ideas, this a far-flying trip that leaves plenty of room for personal doubts, and pulls the listener by the hand through many revelatory (though not always reassuring or comfortable) climes.
Massed in Black Shadows is the 2012 release from Los Angeles’ Deathstench. Formed in 2009, members include John Paul Whetzel and Darea Plantin (both of Pro-Death and The Slaughtered Lamb); their music is described as occult black ambient. While that’s a good description, you could throw influences of power electronics and raw black metal too.
They say there’s no rest for the wicked and in Full of Hell’s case that saying rings particularly true. The Maryland/Pennsylvania quartet has been busy as all hell (no pun intended) with releases and touring over the last few years. Now they’re back at it with a new full length album. This time they’re collaborating with none other than one of the most prolific figures in noise: Merzbow (a.k.a. Masami Akita). The full length, appropriately titled Full of Hell & Merzbow is out now on Profound Lore Records and is available as a digital release and 2xCD digipak edition.It should be noted that the 2xCD digipak edition features a bonus disc entitled Sister Faun, which is predominantly Merzbow’s handiwork. Unfortunately, the version I’m reviewing is sans the bonus disc.
One man black metal has a reputation for being extremely simple, sub-Darkthrone or Burzum worship. Adam Kalmbach, the man behind Jute Gyte, aims to destroy that stereotype by creating some of the most bizarre and complicated black metal – scratch that – music I’ve ever come across. This project has the distinction of being the first black metal band to play with microtonality extensively. The gist of microtonal music is that it’s music played in anything smaller than a half tone, resulting in extremely off the wall stuff, and it lends itself to dissonance quite easily. Despite releasing a whopping 20 albums before Vast Chains (and one since this album’s release), I had never heard of Jute Gyte until very recently. Truth be told, I’m still not sure what to make of the project. It’s very interesting but difficult to digest.
Here’s a digipak from Sub Rosa, which is curiously short on words, given the idea-packed brief. To summarise crudely, Novi_sad has taken commissioned tracks by four artists and then applied audio analysis from “rare sonic phenomena” on other planets, as well as “data and numerical elements” from neuroscientific studies.
Speaking in Tongues is a C90 release from one of Richard Ramirezfs many walled noise projects. The tape offers up two side long tracks worth of rewarding & entrancing wall-craft from this Texas based master of the form.
This recent double CD reissue highlights both the versatility, moody-setting ability and scope of Ennio Morricone’s late 1960’s–to-early 1970’s score work. Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna (aka A Lizard in a Woman's Skin) was a 1971 psychedelic tinged Giallo film directed by Italian gore master Lucio Fulci.