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From late 2014 here’s a rather splendid & wholly consistent compilation of quirky, odd, charming, and strange home studio work from Germany’s 1980 underground tape scene. The CD brings together twenty five tracks, and just shy of seventy two mintues playing time- all making one of the most fascinating & rewarding compilation I can think of in recent years.
Chlorophyll Labyrinth is a lengthy yet highly compelling mix of ANW, HNW, bleak ambient weaves, subtle shifting noise texturing & dark/slurred psychedelic drone mater. This cdr is a collaboration between highly prolific Russian HN/HNW project Light Collapse (aka Vitaliy Maklakov), and German HNW/ moody noise project Ego God.
Legendary industrial and experimental Cold Spring has put out another compilation of their current and forthcoming releases. Treatment of the Dead features tracks by high profile acts such as Merzbow, Skullflower, Iron Fist of the Sun, and Coil. While there's a little something for everyone on this disc, it's well put together and a pretty coherent compilation. Cold Spring has a nice price on it, and it's even being packaged with orders over £20! It's a good time to load up on Cold Spring titles and get a solid freebie in the process.
The Cobweb Hotel is a newish 3” CD-R by HNW duo Tales of the Bloody Bloody Killer. The release is part of Julien Skrobek’s Corpse-Grained Series, which may or may not have run it’s course (the website seems to be dead at the moment). I’m not sure what the theme of this particular series entails, as I couldn’t find much information on it, but each release appears to be: a 3” CD-R, in an envelope, and of the HNW variety. Some of the other artists that have appeared in the series are: Vormir, Nascitari, and some of Richard Ramirez’s projects.
You know those guys who think about moving to Scandinavia because the metal is so much better on the other side of the fence? Dødsfall is that guy. Originally from Mexico, guitarist Ishtar relocated to Norway to begin his black metal band. After a few full-lengths on Obsure Abhorrence and plenty of lineup changes, Dødsfall found its way onto Osmose Production’s rosters for its latest album, titled Kaosmakt.
This split tape arrives in a small cardboard box, with a stick-on, colour cover and insert. The orange cassette houses the work of two (apparently) swedish projects, Jurko Haltuu and Miljoner Doda; with two quite different sounds and approaches. Both contribute long tracks just over twenty minutes in length.
Exhumed has become one of the most legendary names in death metal, but that had to start somewhere. In 1998, Relapse Records released their debut, Gore Metal. If the name wasn't enough, the cover, consisting of a poorly phototshopped chainsaw massacre, was there to show you about the death powered gore slop that was inside. Fast, gross, and pummeling, Gore Metal quickly became a classic of the genre. Not content with the original production and having almost twenty years to stew on it, Exhumed re-recorded their punishing debut. Packaged along with the untouched original, this re-recording comes in a 2xCD set from Relapse Records.
As this releases title suggest it features purely field recordings made in & around metal objects. Over a five year period this Australian sound artists, field recordist, & designer visited various different places & environments around the world to capture the twelve tracks on offer here.
Obsidian Kingdom are a Barcelona based folksy/ethereal metal band that derives most of their ideas from Opeth, from the waltz-like heavier sections in 3 to the extended acoustic passages filled with chorused clean singing.
The almighty Cold Spring Records presents Nezumimochi, the new album from the one and only Merzbow. This new studio recording is presented in a picture disc LP and CD set. Each format contains their own tracks, so in other words, the CD is not just the same as the vinyl for sake of convenience.
The Wicked Warden is the second release from Julien Skrobek’s (The Killer Came From The Bronx ,Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp, Ruine, etc) from 60’s & 70’s grind house themed walled noise project. This CDR on Dubuque Iowa based Breaching Static, takes in two lengthy slabs of raw walled noise.
Pig Shrapnel is one of the more bizarrely themed walled noise projects I can think of- all of their releases are themed around pork related cuts ‘n’ meat,and this full length CDR is themed around cutting a side of ham!.
With Sigh’s more recent albums it’s easy to forget that they too had their beginnings in black metal’s primitive second wave. But even among the host of black metal’s progenitors Sigh was unique. Where Mayhem and Darkthrone were naturally evolving out of the likes of Bathory, Venom, and Celtic Frost, Sigh was taking liberal influence from them and then throwing in a whole host of their own experimentation that would come to define their sound. Still, even with all of this experimentation there was enough of a black metal foundation to catch the eye of Euronymous and get the band’s first album released by the coveted Deathlike Silence. Then in 2014 Scorn Defeat was re-released by Hammerheart Records along with a host of bonus material.
From 2013 here’s a double CD reissue of two early releases from Us ambient legend Robert Rich. The release brings together (most of) Robert’s first ever release 1982’s Sunyata on the first disc, and on the second disc we have all of 1987’s Inner Landscapes(which conists of live recordings from 1985).
This tape from WHERE is THIS comes in smartly striking, monochrome artwork; black on white and professionally printed. The tape, in matching monochrome, has three tracks across its duration. These pieces are actually quite old now, having been recorded in early 2011 and all three have a similar form and modus operandi.
Raster-Noton presents Sinn + Form, the full-length CD debut of Frank Bretschneider’s new project, Sinn + Form (Meaning and Form). Bretschneider is a long-running sound artist from Germany who also releases music under the name Komet. The album was recorded in July 2014 at EMS, Stockholm, using the Buchla and Serge Analog Synthesizer Systems.
Polish experimental musician, and man of a thousand band names, Robert Skrzyñski is back with his second release as ForrrestDrones. This CD comes to us from Zoharum in a limited release of 300. Najas Flexilis Exequiae consists of one album long track (~ 1 hr) that takes the listener on a quiet, somewhat eerie trek through the nighttime wilderness
The LP release "Unfolding Luxury Beyond the City of Dreams" is one of 3 albums the highly prolific Janek Schaefer in 2014, and the 2nd I've had the pleasure of hearing. "Lay By Lullaby", released on 12k earlier this year, perfectly exemplified the intelligent and detailed upper atmosphere ambient sound typical of that label. This album has been released on Dekorder, another prominent avant garde label that has released such diverse artists as Machinefabriek, Failing Lights and The Hafler Trio.
What better way to kick off a new year than with a new Marduk album? And better yet, these Swedes have returned to the WW2 theme teased at by their 2011 EP Iron Dawn, a theme most fitting for black metal if there ever was one. The name Frontschwein (literally “front pig”) is an old German term referring to soldiers on the frontline and gives you an idea of what to expect: pure fucking war.
Here’s a split walled noise release that’s based around two of novels by Aleister Crowley- the infamous British occultist, Ceremonial magician, and writer. The two CDR set offers up two hour plus slices of walled noise matter from two different HNW project- on disc one there's US based The Ebony Tower, and on disc two there's Uk based D.S.W.A.C.V.
It's hard to believe it's seventeen years since these two artists collaborated on their tribute to Arne Nordheim. Since then Biosphere has released a steady stream of acclaimed records while Deathprod's solo output has been maddeningly rare. His last solo album appeared over ten years ago and has lent this member of Supersilent a particularly cult following. This new release of original material is thus something of a treat.
Here is a smartly presented tape on Gerauschmanufaktur, with a long fold-out inlay featuring stark images of Perrot, Wittmer and Meirino. These are all names familiar to me (to varying degrees) and the short tape documents a live performance by the trio at Brooklyn’s End Of Tymes Festival, in 2013. The first side has that performance in full, whilst the second has a “Studio <<reverse-engineered>> version”; both come in at the nine-minute mark.
Gnaw Their Tongues commenced their existence back in 2005. The project of Mories, (also of Aderlating, Cloak of Altering, Pompidou and Pyriphlegethon) is a stimulating mix of noise, black metal, electronics and funeral doom. Collected Atrocities is a double cd compiled of early and out of print EPs including Horse Drawn Hearse, For All Slaves…A Song of False Hope, Preferring Human Skin Over Animal Fur and the Gnaw Their Tongues/Lunar Miasma/Mrtyu/Xela split.
Here we have a four CDR drone/ambient reinterpretation of one of John Carpenter’s more simple & stripped back soundtracks. Minneapolis based HNW & stark ambient artist Cory Strand has a fair release history at doing film soundtrack reinterpretation, and in particular he’s done more than a few Carpenter soundtracks in the past- taking in the likes of Halloween (both deep drone & walled noise versions), The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China, Christine, & The Village of the Damned.