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It’s always nice to finally hear material from a band/project you’ve heard mentioned in reference to other acts you like, and that brings us to the Cd in hand Hybryds Mythical Music From The 21st Century. This was the Belgium bands first release from 1986, and it finds the project mix of ritual ambience, industrial tape loops, weird chanting, and genreal sonic unsettlement at its most primal, strange, disorienting, and surreal.
Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio and cellist Arne Deforce have teamed up for an album called "Hephaestus". On the album, one finds an often tonal yet intensely distorted and abrasive sound which I might describe as "extreme drone". The digital grit of Vainio's guitar and the emotive, quavering whine of the distorted cello meld together in a crisp, burnt mass.
This CDR on Hungary’s 3leaves takes us on an hour long sonic journey through the Art Institute of Chicago. And while the idea of a 60 minute sound recording of a Art Institute, museum, or any form of exhibition may sound like it going to be rather point-less, uneventful, & pretentious … I’m surprised/happy to say, that this is quite a compelling & interesting little trip .
Scant is a Richmond, VA. project that flits between Harsh noise, dense electro drone, walled-noise, and noise ambient- behind the project is Matt Boettke(also of Sex Complex,Widow's Bath & Heartstrung). For this CDR release we get a just over half-an-hour journey into grim & bleak ambience/ANW, which has a very deep aquatic quality to it.
This cdr arrives with the visually striking artwork we’ve come to expect from labels run by Julien Skrobek (Slow Death, Ink Runs Recordings…): simple and effective, yet formal, too. The release has one long track, near twenty-one minutes, of adventurous harsh noise wall making. The artist (if I’m not mistaken) is the same person behind the Velfaerd project - one part of a small group of people who’ve notably been taking chances and risks with the traditional hnw “form”. “Ramt” fits into this fringe tradition beautifully, certainly presenting a risk of sorts, but one which pays off wonderfully.
Ruido Horrible presents a limited edition CD-R by a pair of international noise acts: Thirdorgan and Cacophonic Joy. For those unfamiliar, Thirdorgan is the moniker of Japanese noise artist Akihiro Shimizu and Cacophonic Joy is Rodrigo Ambriz hailing from Mexico. As best I can tell, Ambriz also runs Ruido Horrible.
Olympia, Washington's black metal outfit Wolves in the Throne Room are back with their fifth release, Celestite. This new album is not only their first foray into synthesizer driven compositions, but also the first on their new imprint, Artemisia Records. Building on the synth work laid down for their last album, Celestial Lineage, Celestite shows the Wolves moving from operatic black metal to thick, almost video gamey scores. Judging from what I've read, this seems to be the first in an undetermined number to be released in this style.
I’m a huge fan of splits. If you like both bands, it’s like getting two EPs at once.; if you know one, you get introduced to another (hopefully similar) band; if you’re unfamiliar with either band, it provides an opportunity to check out two new bands at once! Illness and Arkona are two Polish black metal bands who have united under the banner of Godz ov War Productions and Third Eye Temple to release a 7” split due in September.
This is a re-issue of a private pressing from 1979, in a digipak with very simple artwork: track titles, a picture-postcard front cover and a photo of a doctor - Mr Medico Doktor Vibes himself, I assume. I’ve crossed paths with him before - the opening track of “Liter Thru Dorker Vibes” was on an excellent private pressing compilation on Sinecure, but other than that I know nothing about him. Often the story behind this kind of venture is just as interesting as the music itself, but for this review I’ll just concern myself with the sounds.
This compilation "Fire Music, Vol. 1" is something like ESP-Disk's attempt at a beginner's guide for what is undoubtedly among the most unapproachable genres, avant garde jazz. It contains 9 classic pieces by some of the genre's most towering, influential figures, from Albert Ayler to Sun Ra, as well as lesser known greats. The music is generally limited to the original era of experimental jazz in the 60's and 70's.
Rudimentary Peni were one of more unique, darkly surreal & at times down-right-weird projects to appear from late 1970’s to 1980’s Anarcho-punk scene. And to my mind Cacophony was the bands most consistent, unhinged & wholly rewarding album- it mixed together elements of Anarcho-punk, Death rock, Hardcore punk, weird & comically unsettling spoken word elements, Art punk ,and deranged yet memorable song craft.
This split CDR release brings together the work of two of the most creative & consistent figures working in today’s uk/euro HNW scene. We have Small Hours,which is one of the projects of Northampton based wall-maker James Killick, and this projects work focuses in on a fairly progressive mix of HNW & ANW. And then we Southampton based Clive Henry, who also creates an often quite progressive mixture of HNW/ANW.
Hrizg is a name I’ve seen thrown around a fair bit on YouTube, Facebook, forums, etc. so I’m actually pretty surprised that Individualism is only Hrizg’s third album. Like the album title would suggest, Hrizg is a one man band. Not a huge fan of one man black metal, I approached Individualism with a large amount of caution, which was totally unnecessary as the album is an easily digestible piece of black metal.
Spider Tapes presents Internal Voices, a 30 minute tape by German-based harsh noise/HNW act Ptomain. This tape was actually released in 2011, and since then it appears that both the label and artist may be defunct at this point. And such is the life of most noise labels and artists, come and gone is the blink of an eye. Of course, unlike the flash in the pan ephemera that is mainstream music, experimental music is ripe to be discovered and enjoyed many, many years after the fact.
Ostara returns to us with their sixth release, Paradise Down South in 2013. What is Ostara, well it is the musical creation of Richard Leviathan, also know from his project Strength Through Joy. The meaning of the projects name; Ostara is an old Germanic word that meant dawn, but it is also associated with the coming of spring (spring equinox) and the goddess of dawn.
This C40 tape is a collaboration between infamous Serbian walled noise brutalists Dead Body Collection, and atmospheric German noise-maker J.Adolphe. The release is seemingly themed around either an abounded metal asylum or hospital, and it nice shifts between creepy atmosphere lined wall battering, more subdued & eerier industrialized noise drifts, and dips into creepy field recordings
Marketed as 'jazz with the energy of punk', Led Bib are an instrumental quintet that play fuzzed out, groovy stoner riffs with generous doses of harmonized saxophone. They often imitate the sludgy timbres of doom metal using a distorted bass guitar, but have no lead guitarist.
This two disc CD reissue offers up three 1970’s albums from respected US Sax player/ band-leader Tom Scott. The tone/vibe through out each of three albums is very much approachable, often groovy, and memorable Jazz fusion. And each album gets a new 2014 digital remastering.
2011 brought us the debut from Preterite, the Montreal based collaboration of Genevieve Beaulieu (of Menance Ruine) and multi-instrumentalist James Hamilton (Colum, Annihilist and Nebris). So by now they’ve already released a newer album (2013’s From The Wells) but for right now we’re interested in what their debut had to say.
This double cd album is quite a sumptuous package, containing an essay (reprinted with French and German translations) as well as numerous photographs. As you will no doubt have guessed from the title, the release concerns the geography of Nazi Germany’s attempts to eradicate undesirables: the camps and industrial apparatus that transported victims to death or imprisonment.
Headless Eyes is the latest release from New York’s Blood Farmers. The band started back in 1989, releasing the demo “Permanent Brain Damage” with much acclaim. The album “Blood Farmers” followed a few years later, again with much praise. The band had split up for a 10 years and now return with their new opus Headless Eyes.
Experimental musician and curator of Nihilist Records, Andy Ortmann, delivers an eclectic compilation to help raise money for WFMU. Andy hosts The Eternal Now on WFMU, and this compilation shows how eclectic his show is. Whether it's scathing harsh noise or goofy wackadoos, everyone has a home at The Eternal Now.
Originally released in late 1975 Heaven & Hell was the 5th album from this celebrated & respected Greek electronic composer & musician. The album saw him mixing his banks of synths & electronics, with the sound of English chamber choir, rising & dramatic classical influenced composition, showy yet emotional piano lines, and the voice of singing prog legend John Anderson( this is the first time the pair collaborated)….all to create a very epic & grand work that mixers together elements of various genres- taking in classical styling’s, grand sound tracking, 70’s electronica, new age music, and more lush/grand prog hints.
After to been somewhat frustrated & torn by Re-Mit- the last full length Fall album. I approached this EP with great caution, wondering if this would be another mixed ride…so I’m happy to report for the most part this is a fairly consistent six track affair, which finds the band mixing together edgy & experimental flourishers with often memorable song craft.