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Befitting its title, this epic double disk ambient release, "The Last Winter" is empty, cold and expansive, always receding into silence. Each of its 12 glacial movements stretches between 3 and 15 minutes. Shambala Networks apparently has an extensive discography including more than 15 digital releases, which I've been unaware of until now.
Rune Grammofon is a good label to peruse, if your ears like the noisier end of jazz and improv and “Krokofant” is another gem in that territory. The line-up is a “simple” guitar/drums/sax trio, fleshed out with some judiciously used guitar loops and full of fire. “Loops” and “fire” perhaps sum up the most powerful parts of the album, with the trio locking in on twisting, angular riffs and pummelling them like a muscular, noisy, stripped-down King Crimson. These monolithic passages are interspersed with more exploratory, soundy sections, allowing the listener (and Krokofant, I imagine) time to catch their breath before the next onslaught. So, some kind of prog-jazz-improv is the order of the day; delivered without pretension or preciousness.
Que le ressac de ta jouissance n’ait lieu qu’au reflux de la douleur is a 3inch CDR release from the infamous master of French walled noise Vomir. The release is part of Corpse-Grained Series, which is a new HNW/Static noise label from the highly prolific Paris based walled noise/harsh noise maker Julien Skrobek( of Butch Bag, Static Park, Sadistic Fall, Flesh Clocks,The Killer Came From The Bronx, Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine).
Portrait Of A Slasher is one of the more recent projects of long-term West Virginia based HNW maker J. Cadle (Foul, ….Massacre, & Oasis Of Fear). All of this projects releases are themed around classic & cult horror movies, and this CDR release is the first physical release from the project after a few download only albums.
Here we have a new vinyl reissue of Death In June’s first 1983 album The Guilty Have No Pride. This version features a new remastering by Douglas P, and comes in either a 200 gram black or 150 gram opaque white vinyl edition- both versions come in a strictly ltd edition of 500 copies. I’m reviewing the black vinyl version
Swedish composer Klara Lewis' debut release comes to us from Editions Mego, a label well known for putting out intelligent electronic music. Ett is no exception and nicely compliments their catalog. Field recordings are reconfigured, looped, and mixed with new textures to create subtle soundscapes, catchy rhythms, and movie soundtrack styled composition.
Crucial Blast presents a pro-cassette reissue of Welcome to My Fucking Misery, by U.K.’s Bagman. Originally self-released in 2008, this recording represents the first statement by this european scum electronics act.
Blut aus Nord is a band I never really got into. Obviously I gave the band another chance when their 777 trilogy rolled out, but that style of weird, dissonant black metal just really does nothing for me. So I was somewhat apprehensive when I received Saturnian Poetry because I was expecting something along the lines of their 777, MoRT, or Odinist albums. But what I found instead on Saturnian Poetry is probably the best piece of melodic black metal of 2014. Maybe it’s unfair, but whenever a band is still producing material twenty years after its inception I automatically assume that they’re well past their prime and are just going through the motions. In this case I was flat out wrong. Saturnian Poetry isn’t necessarily adding anything new to the scene but it’s an excellent example of a band kicking ass well into their career.
The inexplicably named Ich Bin N!ntendo (yes, with a bang) are a noise rock band. From the lackluster packaging and silly name, I admittedly expected to dislike this album, titled "Look". When I put the album on, I heard a number of gritty amplifier textures to my liking, and found a generally pleasant level of energy in the band's freeform excursions.
Here’s a re-issue from the Russian Monochrome Vision label, with a pro-printed inlay adorned with a potted history of Sigillum S in English and Russian. Its a name that I recognise, but the liner notes certainly fill in the gaps in my knowledge. “Studs and Divinity”, one of Sigillum S’s earlier albums, was released on cassette back in 1989; it appears on cd here, digitally remastered and with bonus tracks.
Over the years, I've been called a numb skull, called people numb skulls, and even gotten very drunk and HAD a numb skull, but I've never heard of the metal band NUM SKULL. Originally released on LP by Medusa in 1988, NUM SKULL's Ritually Abused quickly went out of print. 26 years later, Relapse unearthed this criminally underheard thrash classic and reissued it on CD, LP, and Digital formats. What's it take for a lost album to get the Relapse reissue treatment? Let's take a gander.
The 3 Leaves imprint presents Processes & Potentials, a full-length CD-R by Icelandic composer/sound artist Bjarni Gunnarsson. Released in 2013, this offering is the outcome of Gunnarsson’s compositional preoccupations over the span of 3 years of his life.
Throne of Sacrilege and Impurium are two new American projects united together on Unleashing a Cacophony of Destruction. This is actually Throne of Sacrilege’s first release whereas Impurium released a demo back in 2012. Given that both bands are brand new; this split offers an excellent opportunity for them to prove their mettle – a trial by fire if you will.
This second volume in the Underworld Transmissions series offers up another two slices of seemingly improvised & eerier ritual ambience from the mysterious Finish based Helixes/Aural Hypnox collective.
France Jobin is an up and coming deep listening and avant garde soundscape artist whose 3rd album was recently released on Baskaru, titled "The Illusion of Infinitesimal". I heard her 2012 album "Valence" a while back, and wasn't entirely able to enjoy or connect with it, giving it a mixed review.
Well, another Altar Of Waste release and thus another professional-looking package from the label. Its quite simple compared to some of the more elaborate items that Altar Of Waste has been recently releasing, but smart and effective, regardless. The imagery establishes that the theme of “Dark Dimensions” is UFOs and alien abductions and, for some reason (which I can’t elaborate on), I want to say that there’s a 1950s “retro” tone to this. The cdr has six tracks: five shorter ones - all below six minutes in length, and one long, twenty-minute plus, closing track.
Nightbringer is without a doubt the biggest and baddest bringer of darkness on the US side of the pond. Unlike the innumerable hordes that espouse their dedication to chaos, there has always been an air of authenticity about this group that sets them apart; an indelible legitimacy that so many other bands attempt in vain to cultivate. And while my tastes never quite lined up with what Nightbringer released in the past, I’ve always admired the sincerity that so clearly birthed their music. This same sincerity is evident on Ego Dominus Tuus, the band’s fourth full-length, but is coupled with a level of musicality and poise that elevates the album far beyond anything the band has previously released.
This two CD set on Cherry Red’s El label brings together five long out of print albums, which move through exotica, ethnic tinged easy listening fare, and exotica tinged lite jazz. The albums on offer here come from between the years 1956 & 1962, and it’s fair to say the quality of the albums is a more than a little mixed-going from: bland & campy, to the enjoyable-if –rather-disposable-novelty, onto genreal rewarding & replay-ble work.
Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation is part noise show memoir, part scholarly debate on the Japanese noise form, and part noise history lesson. The just over 300 page book attempts to tell the story of the Japanese form of noise created by the likes of Merzbow, Incapacitants & Masonna, and it’s effect on American shores. But I’m afraid to say I came away from the book both disappointed & frustrated.
German ambient drone masters and all around experimental wizards, Troum, need no introduction. However, their first release, Dreaming Muzak, may not be as well known as some of their other material. Originally released on cassette in 1998 (post-mainstream usage of cassette and pre-hipster embrace of it), Dreaming Muzak was re-released on a very limited (100) CDr in 2005. Zoharum is making sure that this gem finds its way to more ears by releasing Dreaming Muzak on CD and streaming/download via Bandcamp. After hearing quite a bit of Troum over the past couple of years, it's great to hear where it all began and how close to their original sound they've stayed, and at times, how far they've experimented.
Somnolent Shelter Records presents Kwiat Paproci, a full-length CD by Annna. I couldn’t really find any information on this act other than Annna seemingly hails Poland. Annna plays some crushing harsh, hyper fast cut-up noise that eerily sounds like another Polish act I gave effusive praise earlier this year called Sleep Sessions. It makes me wonder if it’s the same gent that does that project (and more recently Purgist) or if it’s just the Polish waters.
“Watching My Body Burn” offers up a brutal & low-end focused slice of walled noise, which is both intense & sonically descriptive in it’s unfold. This is the fourth Volume in Altar Of wastes suicide themed series 12 Suicides, and it came in an edition of 15 copies.
{ } is a recent addition to the world wide HNW scene , and like a few artists with-in this scene, there is much mystery behind it- so it’s location, origin & personal make-up are all unknown. Open The Faucet is the projects first release, and it comes in the form of a C30 tape- that features two side long tracks. The project brands it’s take on walled noise as ‘Cold Electrocution Static’, but I think it’s best to describe what’s on offer here as (mainly) fixed, dense & brutalizing HNW.
Experimental, often ambient textural guitarist Mike Fazio has been active since the 80's, and recently grabbed my attention with a string of thoughtful, emotional and out of the box recordings under various aliases including orchestramaxfieldparrish, ÆRA and A Guide for Reason. His music is filled with glassy melodious tones of ambiguous origin: if they were truly all sourced from guitar, that is a feat indeed.