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Here’s another slice of searing ‘n’ sleazed walled noise from Julien Skrobek’s (The Killer Came From The Bronx ,Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp, Ruine, etc) Ecco project. All releases from this project are based around 60’s & 70’s grind house movies, and this release is themed around 1968 roughie sexploitation movie The Curse Of Her Flesh.
Here’s a split CD that brings together two dense & darkly mood yet brutal slices of walled noise from these two USA scene veterans. Featured here is Dubuque Iowa based Boar- whose been active since 2009, and Missouri Mass Graves- whose been active since 2010.
Sky were an English/Australian instrumental progressive rock group who created a approachable brand of classical influenced rock music & fusion. The band were at the height of both thier popularity and artistically between the late 1970’s & the early 1980’s. This is a 2014 reissue of the bands 1979 debut album, and it’s great mix of memorable melodies, rewarding compositions, & virtuoso yet never over showy musicianship.
Blue Öyster Cult are one of the more creative & lyrically clever rock bands to appear from the USA in the 1970’s- moving their sound from early dark & heavy metal , onto prog bound rock/ metal styling's, through to their later pop/ rock sound. This rather wonderful book is the first full length study of this sadly undervalued & underappreciated band- taking in their career in a album by album like layout. Charting the history around each album, lyrical themes, album artwork, etc.
Here’s a cdr utilising the undoubtable talents of two shining lights in HNW: James Killick as Carrie and Julien Skrobek as the owner of Bad Rip Series. Killick is the figure behind such projects as Love Katy and Small Hours, as well the labels Sweet Solitude and Vagary Records; whilst Skrobek has a plethora of notable projects and labels under his belt - Ghost, Static Park, Butch Bag and Ruine, to name a few of the former; with Slow Death Records, Ink Runs Recordings and Corpse Grained Series as the latter. The twenty-six minute long track, “Send An Army Of Angels”, is all Killick’s work, though and, as with his Love Katy persona, the piece is dedicated to a modern pop singer: Carrie Underwood (yes, I had to look her up).
Forged from the ashes of local punk and hardcore bands, Helsinki's Kesä are set to release their self titled debut on Svart Records later this month. Using their shared love of the music they grew up with as their inspiration, Kesä plays a modern take on New Wave, New Romanticism, and other cold, synthy 80's styles. Despite the commitment to colder vibes and textures, Kesä's inspiration and dedication feels true and through this creates something cold, but warm with feeling, and robotic, but still pretty danceable.
Peripheral Records presents The Path to the Black Lodge, a collaborative CD by Fear Konstruktor and Barrikad. To be honest, I’m not really familiar with either artist, but I’ve seen the name Fear Konstruktor around the block. Of course, as a dyed in the wool Twin Peaks fanatic, I was intrigued by the obvious references in the title and the cover art. Over the years many artists have used the cult television show as a theme or source of inspiration, so much so, that some might say that it’s been played out. However, as an obsessive fan of the show, I say give me more.
With its neon cartoon tiger cover art and vaguely edgy band name / title, this album could have been anything from indie or math rock to harsh noise. As it turns out, the music is rather unintrusive lo-fi downtempo instrumentals and loops. It has 6 tracks, which vary in running time from 2 to 10 minutes.
After existing for a decade, slinking amidst the depths of the American underground, Mastery finally unleashed its debut album to the world in February; an LP out from The Flenser titled Valis. The first pressing sold out in a matter of weeks, and the label announced a repress with red jackets was due in May. The press release that accompanies Valis proclaims the album to be “the most extreme record The Flenser has ever released.” And that’s no lie. This is certainly some of the most extreme, distorted music I’ve ever come across.
Parallel Landscapes is a soothing, delicate, yet often texturally detailed electro ambient album. It’s five tracks mix together harmonic vibe/slowed gong like electronics, drifting & mellowed siren pitches, and fragile/ subtle electro noise detail- all to create a album that is both relaxing yet stimulating, and rewarding in it’s subtle detail.
This pro-cd from the reliable rune grammofon label, comes in their apparent house style: abstract, minimal artwork on a card wallet. The album has seven tracks, played by a trio centred around vocals and guitar/keyboards/drums; but the keyboards in question are “moog, mellotron, prophet, ms20, piano” and the whole outfit is supplemented by sundry electronics: its not exactly a “conventional” sound.
Here’s a recent cassette release from Dead Body Collection- an extremely prolific & (mostly) uncompromisingly brutal walled noise project from Serbian. It comes in the form of a C46 tape on Australia’s Palinopsia Recordings- with each side of tape featuring a single slice of intense & unmoving HNW.
This is the 5th Volume in Altar Of Wastes' Blue Velvet themed releases. Each part in this open ended series sees an underground sound artist putting their own sonic take on David Lynch’s cult classic movie. For this release we find Greece based Otomo Hava offering a up a just under thirty minute track, which moves from oppressive & tense looped string based dense ambience and seared walled noise.
Here’s a CDR release from late 2014 that finds this Newcastle Upon Tyne HNW project offering up a 69 minute slice of brutally dense yet slowly morphing & blacked walled noise storm, which sometimes has a brooding drone undercurrent to it.
Denver doom trio, Primitive Man, is back with Home Is Where the Hatred Is, a limited 12" EP on Relapse Records. Black and bleak, Primitive Man mixes heavy, slow sludge and propulsive, headbanging speed with engaging results. Stretching the limits of an EP, Home Is Where the Hatred Is clocks in at over a half hour of pure metal mayhem.
Big Plastic Finger are a 4 piece psychedelic noise rock band with a freeform, improvisatory approach and frequent twangs of surf. This album "Up From Under" came out on Starry Night Records in 2014, and has two tracks, the first being 15 minutes and the second more than 30.
Ninkharsag, a relatively new horde of UK black metallers signed to Candlelight for their debut album Blood of Celestial Kings, due later this month.
This professionally assembled package, on Ektro Records, comes dressed in very stark black and white robes. The thick booklet comes with two mini-essays by the protagonists and one photo of them playing together; the rest of the pages are made up with “QR” codes - those square “barcodes”. These codes, also to be found on the front cover, reveal sections from The Epic Of Gilgamesh when scanned (or rather, I have to assume they do: the front cover reveals text and two later ones reveal Polgar and Valy’s websites - in between, I had difficulty scanning…). The album has twelve pieces, all (bar one) piano-dominated; amounting to nearly an hour.
Here’s the forth volume of Altar Of Waste's Blue Velvet themed releases- each part of this series sees a underground sound artist putting their own take on David Lynch’s cult classic. For this volume Missouri based Oblive offers up two lengthy slices of entrance & engrossingly walled noise craft.
On Minneapolis based Altar Of Waste here's the second volume of noise/drone releases that are themed around David Lynch’s 1986 movie Blue Velvet. Each part of this series sees a underground sound artist putting their own take on Lynch’s disturbing yet haunting tale of small town USA evil 'n' oddness. For this volume Springfield, Oregon based Earthenwomb offers up two nearing half an hour slices of walled noise, which mix together searing wall-craft with some slightly atmospheric & harmonic undertones.
Subtext has slowly built a reputation for bass heavy avant-garde electronic composition with releases from the likes of Roly Porter, Emptyset, and label owner Paul Jebanasam. With Eric Holm's Andøya they add another string to their already impressive bow.
Satan’s Host returns once again to deliver a duo of cd’s aptly titled Pre-Dating God Part I and II. The band have been around since 1986, creating classic metal with flourishes (depending on who is in the band at the time) of blackened death and doom metal. The lineup this time consists of long time member Patrick Evil on guitars, Leviathan Thisiren (also known as Harry Conklin of Jag Panzer) on vocals, Anthony “Evil Hobbit” Lopez on drums and Margar on bass.
Portland, Oregon duo, Teeth Engraved With the Names of the Dead, see their formal debut coming in a limited to 500, DVD case package from Malignant Records. This low, dirgy slice of death industrial is very reminiscent of Steel Hook Prostheses, and happens to be mastered by John Stillings (of SHP). Oppressive but accessible, Starving the Fires is an excellent debut and shows a strong, new group firing on all cylinders.
Robin Storey's Rapoon project has gone through many an iteration since the early 90's, generally representing the peaceful ethno-ambient side of the artist's often mysterious and primitive soundscapes. Hand drums, gentle pads and indefinite repetition are the central elements of most Rapoon recordings. This 2014 recording "Cultural Forgeries" has a direct, untreated acoustic sound at times, which contrasts classic recordings like 1993's "Vernal Crossing".