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Paris, Do You Speak French? once again finds this highly proflic noise-maker & drone-creator retooling & morphing modern female pop fare into often lengthy experimental sound-scapes, which move between ambience & dense noise-craft. The subject of this multi disc set(5 CDR’s & 2 data DVD’s) is the work of Paris Hilton- the infamous American socialite, actress and pop star.
Founded in 1995, Abazagorath bears the distinction of being one of the oldest American black metal bands still kicking. And despite their lengthy tenure, The Satanic Verses is just the third album put out by this New Jersey based outfit, possibly due to a fair amount of lineup changes (drummer Warhead is the only remaining founding member). Still, I’ll take quality over quantity any day, and quality is something these guys have in spades. This album is about the Satanic Verses, which were a series of verses in the Quran where Mohammed acknowledged the existence of a pagan god. Later, he allegedly recanted, saying that Satan forced him to speak, and the verses were removed.
Saxophonist/composer/bandleader Peter Epstein and his band play a cerebral iteration of classically informed post bop with complex, meandering head melodies inspired by the likes of John Coltrane or Eric Dolphy, whose asymmetrical, oddly composed figures may at first sound improvised, until played again verbatim in their vast entireties. With 9 diverse pieces spanning 65 minutes, Epstein's group covers a huge amount of ground.
Female Paedophile is the walled noise project of Nacogdoches Texas based Josh Doughty - also of downer synth/ noise project Funeral Parlour, and runner of noise label dampster noise. The projects been active for around a year or so, releasing a few splits, a stand alone tape, and a stand alone eight track.
Wallmaster is a Montreal, Québec based HWN project that creates a dense & unforgiving take on walled–noise. The project came about in mid 2013, and has been highly prolific putting around twenty digital only releases, and nine or so cassette releases. This C90 tape appears on the projects own label in a edition of 10 copies, and was the first of the ‘You Exist For Nothing’ series which has now reached vol 6.
Quaternity is the latest release from Sabbath Assembly. Formed in 2009, the project is dedicated to the quest set forth by the Process Church of the Final Judgment; offering their hymns and theology for the current generation. Sabbath Assembly also performs its own material in the spirit of the message of the Church. So what is, or was the Process Church? The Process Church was founded in the mid 60’s and lasted until the late 70’s, starting as a splinter sect from Scientology. Look up The Process Church of the Final Judgment online and you will find a plethora of information, some factual some a bit sketchy but interesting none the least. Lyrics are culled from The Process texts and the Bible (Deuteronomy, Revelations and Psalms.)
Wrekmeister Harmonies is an experimental music collective based out of Chicago, IL. It is lead by JR Robinson and combines elements of drone, post-rock and metal. Various musicians have been associated with Wrekmeister Harmonies such as Wrest of Leviathan, Sanford Parker, Ryley Walker, Bruce Lamont, Chanel Pease and Chris Brokaw. This is Wrekmeister Harmonies second release with Thrill Jockey.
Sleaford Mods probably need no introduction to you, but if you have missed out on their rise, they’re a beats/words duo producing raw, stripped-back, pop-sized barrages. I like to think of them as The Fall relocated to Nottingham, attempting to form a hip-hop project and making a young Mark. E. Smith spit with rage in the process. So, whilst it’s spiky and belligerent in tone, musically its often very straight-ahead; beats and riffs pounded into the ground: “repetition, repetition, repetition”. “Chubbed Up +” physically releases a digital compilation from earlier this year - collecting up tracks from singles - and adds a couple of unreleased songs into the mix.
Electric Shocks was the first full length release from this multi-instrumentalist & former Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band member. The album originally appeared on United Artists Records in 1972- this 2014 reissue brings together the albums original nine tracks along with the four tracks from Spear’s first EP Rebel Trouser.
Crate digging and record collecting have been going on long before the internet became everyone's favorite everything. It did, though, change the way collectors could share their finds with the rest of the community. Blogs, bulletin boards, and other websites allow collectors to spread the joy they get from finding underheard classics or, in the case of Lewis' L'Amour, albums that weren't meant for a mass market. These rare, small batch, private press records are much sought after, and the more obscure, the better. Since no one you know has ever heard them or talked about them, these records have a more personal feel to them, like they were made expressly for you. This is especially true with Light In the Attic's latest re-release, Lewis - L'Amour.
Rauhnact (well Stefan Traunmüller to be exact as it is his one man band) returns with Urzeitgeist, their second full length. Traunmüller is no stranger to black metal as he is also a member of Wallachia and Golden Dawn. Rauhnacht, for the uninitiated, titles their music as Alpine black metal; which is a combination of early Norwegian Black Metal and the alpine philosophy, traditions and folklore. All lyrics are in German (Google translator was stumped by most of them).
Gruenrekorder imprint presents Four Walks Around a Year: Spring by british artist, writer, and lecturer Sebastiane Hegarty.
Steinebach (alias of Martin Steinebach) released this CDr of crackling tape loops and mangled analog static on Sincope in 2013.
I’m going to come out and say it – there isn’t much good about The Deathtrip’s debut album. From the strange goth album cover to the atrocious vocals to the terrible pacing, the album is one mistake after another. This is apparent from the onset of the intro, where Aldrahn and co thought that didgeridoo plus chickens clucking would be a good way to kick off an album. And it really doesn’t get much better than that.
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.