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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.
Recouvre La Merde (En Trois Mouvements) is the latest of the larger pressing titles from Frances king Of Walled noise. And fitting it’s title( roughly translated The Shit covers (In Three Movements)), this CD offers up single seventy two minute track- which has three defined changes along it’s crude & all engulfing wall-craft unfold.
One of the oldest, most well known names in Death Metal is Tampa Florida's Obituary. With thirty years in the game, The Tardy boys have influenced countless bands and sold tons of records (well, for a death metal band, that is). Their ninth full length comes to us courtesy of Relapse Records. After all these years, how does Obituary manage to keep it fresh and interesting? Unfortunately, John and Don never figured out the answer to that question.
Here we have the debut album from Amulet, a five piece band out of London, formed in 2010. They haven’t been around long but already there’s a buzz about this band and rightly so. If there is a band more firmly entrenched in the NWOBHM sound they would certainly be Amulet. As a side note, three of the five members are writers for Iron Fist magazine. Raising the flag of British heavy metal high, they have already received accolades for the integrity and focus.
Southern Lord offers up another classic hardcore reissue. A label known for exploring the darkest regions of extreme music, Southern Lord has also been reacquainting the world with some classic hardcore acts. Over the last couple years they’ve released some deluxe reissues by B’last! and now have given a similar treatment to Texas’ Offenders. In this case, we are presented all of the Offenders’ recordings: Endless Struggle, We Must Rebel, & I Hate Myself as a 2XLP in a beautifully constructed gatefold cover. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t at all familiar with Offenders, but as hardcore aficionado I was excited to give this album a spin. Offenders ruled the early 80’s Texas punk scene alongside fellow travellers M.D.C, The Big Boys, D.R.I. and the Dicks. Sadly, two of the founding members: Anthony Johnson and Mikey Offender have passed away in recent years, making this reissue a fitting tribute to the legacy of this furious quartet.
Imperial Triumphant is a relatively new band with just one full-length under their belts released back in 2012. Shrine to the Trident Throne is considered a compilation by the band even though it’s really just their first album Abominamentvm with the previously digital only EP tacked on as a bonus. Hailing from the US and just recently signed to Code666, I was curious to see what warranted essentially a re-release just two years after the album was released. After giving Shrine to the Trident Throne a number of spins I think I know why, and it’s not because the album is good.
From late 2013 Petoviha is the latest release from this atmospheric & genre blurring instrumental project from Finland. Verde is the solo project of Mika Rintala, who’s worked with the likes of Circle and many other underground Finnish bands- the projects been active since 1998, putting out around twenty releases(taking in two collaborations with Circle).
Yûrei offers up a just over eighteen minutes worth of searing yet unsettlingly atmospheric walled noise from this female HNW/Harsh Noise project. Tissa Mawartyassari is all the work of Texas based Mexican Monica Isabel Sanchez, and it’s been active since 2007 releasing sporadically around twenty release in total,which take in stand alone tapes, splits & CDR’s.
This recent two Cd & one DVD set brings together three string quartet work from one of the great avant garde classical /minimalism composers of the 20th century- Morton Feldman. New Yorker Feldman is most known for his slow & quiet compositions, which revolve around steadily evolving asymmetric patterns, angular notation, and moving/deeply sad harmonic patterns. The central piece of this collection- the hour & an half piece String Quartet No 1, is some what of a departure from Feldman’s normal slow/ quiet musical landscape- as it’s mixes together his patterned based music with sudden jarring dwells in loud & dense compositional rises.
"The East Village Other" is a re-issue of a very odd 1966 ESP Disk compilation, which has quite of 'beat' cred right off the bat for including Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground, Allens Ginsberg and others. It's largely a non-musical release: most of the album is comprised of snippets of dialogue or TV programs in fuzzy vintage fidelity. The subject matter discussed is as random a selection as one would get from choosing an article at random from the newspaper.
Jazz drummer, composer and bandleader Barry Romberg and his ensemble Random Access have an extensive history / discography sadly not often heard, and unlisted on such places as discogs. com. They play a smoky, relaxed and open ended flavor of largely improvised electric jazz fusion, generously layered with fluid, ethereal guitar work and extended saxophone rants. Their music is instantly listenable and likeable for extended relaxation and flights of the mind.