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It seems like every time you turn around, there's a new dark ambient project rearing its head. Although most tend to cover the same turf without adding anything new, some add a bit of their own touch and create something that stands apart from the pack. Isolator's debut, Culture and Principal of Anti-Human Exaltation, comes as a nice surprise. While not glaringly different, Culture... has enough working within its layers to keep if from being a faceless, dark, drone among a sea of low, drawn out notes.
The Crónica imprint presents Never So Alone, a full-length CD by long-running sound artist Simon Whetham. Based out of Bristol, U.K., Whetham’s sonic vocation since 2005 has been laboring with field recordings. This passion has taken him all over the world in search of sounds, from the Amazon Rain Forest to (in the case of Never So Alone) the streets of Lisbon. This particular album has an interesting story behind it. Whethem experienced an expanded stay in Lisbon after european airspace was shut down because of the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Taking advantage of his time there, he decided to do want any field recordist worth their salt would do; traverse the surrounding geography armed with a variety of microphones to capture the sounds around him.
The Divination of Antiquity is the latest album from British black metal band Winterfylleth, their fourth one since being signed to Candlelight Records. Winterfylleth (which means winter full moon in The old English language) formed in 2007. Their purpose was to honor Englands’ cultural heritage and bring awareness to Englands’ folklore, landscapes and ancestral past. They have also become one of the fore runners of newer British black metal bands along with Wodensthrone and A Forest of Stars.
Auditor is the HNW/doom/Industrial project of Chicago, Illinois based Brandon Elkins. This two disc released on Altar of Waste is themed around the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer. And it offers up two forty minute plus slices of oppressive, chilling & intense walled noise that flirts with a death ambient industrial feel.
This three way HNW split is themed around mythical monsters from each respective artists cultural heritage…so we get a Loup Garou( werewolf) themed wall from New Orleans based Nightmare Castle. A Southern Sasquatch themed one from Texas based Fouke, and a Leshy( a eldritch woodland based spirit) from Serbian based Dead Body Collection.
Sammath’s fifth full-length Godless Arrogance is the band’s first release since their previous album five long years ago. Continuing along the same vein as their earlier output, Sammath marries pummeling death metal with more aggressive elements of Swedish black metal in an effort to wage all-out war against humanity.
Crucial Blast brings us the rerelease of T.O.M.B’s 2009 limited album Pennhurst along with their 12” Xesse. Together it represents a rare collection of black ambient industrial noise. Material for Pennhurst was recorded at Pennhurst State and Norristown State Hospitals, both were (and in Norristown State Hospitals situation, still open) notorious mental institutions that unfortunately didn’t always protect those who desperately needed it.
Psychedelic and krautrock label Hubro have released a number of quality 70's flavored instrumental albums in recent years, including such artists as Bly de Blyant and Astro Sonic. Norweigen improvisatory trio Cakewalk's Hubro debut "Wired" came out in 2012, and this, "Transfixed", is their second album. This is my first experience with the band.
Troller are a rather mysterious Houston Texas based project, who create a dark and reverb heavy brew of: 80’s bleak synth pop, dreary dark wave, slurred Goth music, doomed bass reverberations, shoe gaze, and retro dark ambient dwells. This self titled release is their first( and seemingly only) release-original it appeared in late 2011 in a cassette only form on Los Angeles based tape label Living Tapes, and has gone on to be reissued in Mp3, vinyl & finally CD form…I’m reviewing the most recent release, which is the 2013 CD release on Handmade Birds.
If 2014 is proving to be anything it’s going to be known as the year of releases. Ever since January 1st, it’s been an avalanche of not only new releases but debut releases too. Add to the list Otavan Veret with their self titled album. The band, consisting of Kaarna (of Tervahäät and Slaves Mask) and Kivelä (also of Tervahäät,), come from the mystical magical land of Finland. Their self titled debut is a conceptual piece dealing with the journey into the vastness of the universe. Sectioned into 3 pieces (aptly titled I, II and III) each piece envelopes the listener on a far away expedition.
This 3inch CDR box set offers up three slices of mars themed walled noise from these two German projects. I guess you could say this is some what of a sequel to last years Martian Impressions( also on Vomit Bucket Productions)…with the pair offering up a track a piece, then a collaborative track- all of which shift between HNW & ANW.
Being an Altar of Waste release, “Earth’s Hum, Vol. II” comes in a dvd case with smart graphics and art - the usual standard maintained. Though the artwork is perhaps more austere than most AOW albums I’ve seen, adding an element of science/mysticism to the overall package. Monuments Are No Good To The Dead offer up one long track, thirty-one and a half minutes, of fizzing Harsh Noise Wall textures.
I Praise The Scars On Your Body is a C30, which offers up two prime 'n' brutal slabs of walled noise from this highly prolific Serbian based project. The release appears on Canadian Noir Sur Noir – a Harsh Noise, HNW, Power Electronics label, and the release comes in a great pro looking & grimly arty sleeve that features black in on black card packaging.
Originally released in 1984, Structures From Silence was the third album from US ambient legend Steve Roach. The album is often considered oneof Roach’s most influential, respected and celebrated albums- it conists of three lengthy tracks that are built around simplistic interlocking textural synth patterns, which are both soothing, melodic & atmospheric.
NYC's Serpentine Path is, as Relapse Records calls them, a "doom super group." Consisting of members of Electric Wizard, Unearthly Trance, and Ramesses, their claim to the title is definitely warranted. However, output trumps pedigree, so does Serpentine Path have the chops to remain "super?"
Legendary Japanoise musician Kazuyuki Kishino presents Extropy Zero 1, a full length CD, under his Null moniker. Released on his own imprint Nux Organization, the Extropy series is designed to showcase Kishino’s progress in both the studio and live performance. The material on this release was created between 2009 and 2010 in Kishino’s home studio in Japan (called “Prima Natura”) and then performed and recorded live in Hamburg, Germany.
I guess you could call Blood of Kingu a supergroup of sorts. Except instead of the members coming from various other bands they basically all come from Drudkh. We have Roman Saenko pulling guitar and vocal duties, Krechet on bass, Thurios on guitar, and Vlad playing keys. The only member of Blood of Kingu to come from outside of Drudkh is drummer Yuriy. Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon is the band’s third opus, released just a couple weeks ago.
Codgers On The Moon is a collection of mainly up-beat, moody, and ethnic tinged electro instrumental pieces from one of the main minds behind The Residents. I guess if you were to compare this to anything in the Residents forty year catalogue, it would be their soundtrack or PC game soundtrack work, which they’ve released on & off over the last twenty or so years….so really this is not a new/ full Residents albums, but more of a sonic side thought.
Bly de Blyant is a jazzy psychedelic math rock trio from Norway, whose first album "ABC" on Hubro I gave a mildly positive review, thinking them incredibly talented but unfocused. With their new album "Hindsight Bias", also on Hubro, they correct many of the issues I had with them on their first recording, and deliver a stunning piece of work.
This lengthy, rigorous compilation is a digital only release, arriving accompanied with a short pdf of liner notes. Its also a really interesting concept for a release, blending interview extracts from pertinent persons with passages of music. I’ve seen this kind of thing before, but often on cd; whereas it seems to me that the mp3 route is perfect for this idea: you can arrange files/playlists to just listen to the music tracks (for example), given that you might want to skip the interview tracks over time. The release, as it says in the title, tells the story of Albert Ayler; a key figure in free jazz, and arguably the most “out there” of the major players. If you’re unaware of Ayler’s work, this compilation is made for you. Personally, I sit in an awkward limbo, where I’ve heard a few recordings but can’t pretend to any great knowledge or even appreciation of the man; so listening to this has been an education as well as a spur to further listening.
Augmented Studies offers up four (mainly) lengthy studies in angular, off-kilter & sometimes balance effecting flute pieces by Austrian composer Peter Ablinger.
Noise collaborations have always been very common, and the internet has definitely helped to make these collaborations easier. Russell Haswell and Kohei Gomi (Pain Jerk) met at the 20000 Volt Club in 1997, and the two decided to collaborate in the future. Fifteen years later, the stars re-aligned, and both Haswell and Pain Jerk were asked to play together in Nottingham. Digital files of their solo work were traded, the show was recorded, and the pair walked away with loads of material to transform into their collaboration. Two years and many edits later, Editions Mego presents us this collaboration via the 2 CD set, Electroacoustic Sludge Dither Transformation Smear Grind Decomposition nO!se File Exchange Mega Edit.
Gruenrekorder presents Elegy For Bangalore, a full-length CD by Indian born (now Denmark-based) multi-media artist Budhaditya Chattopadhyay.
There aren’t many bands as archetypically black metal as Tsjuder. From the two inverted crosses and goat heads in the logo to the straightforward second-wave sound, Tsjuder revels in their unabashedly stereotypical approach to black metal. Demonic Possession is the band’s second full-length, and it serves as the perfect stepping stone to Desert Northern Hell.