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“Blood Blind” offers up two slices of fairly simply tonal based, yet searing & industrialized walled noise from this Texas HNW project. The release comes in the form of a C20 cassette tape that features one ‘wall’ per side.
Here’s a cd on Ektro Records, with ten tracks of spacey, prog-ish rock from Finland. It comes wrapped in an elegant sleeve and booklet, dominated by moody photographs of flora. From checking the label website, there would appear to be links between Sudo and Circle - a well-regarded Finnish band I have yet to hear. The label spiel mentions “primitive blues” and “swampy Beefheartian delta”; which is somewhat unfortunate…
Caickuwi Cauwas Walkeus sees this ritual themed ‘n’ charged Finish ambient collective at their most stripped & organic. This release originally appeared back in 2009, in a edition of 29 copies- & this 2014 reissue came in two different forms; A regular cd gatefold edition of 444 copies, and wooden box set edition of 49 copies- I’m reviewing the regular edition.
Joseph Curwen is Newcastle-upon-Tyne based one man project that creates brooding, creepy & foreboding drone matter that themes it’s self around the works of H.P Lovecraft, and horror in genreal. This CDR release offers up two length submersion in eerier drone craft mixed with field recordings.
This split CDR brings together two respected & veteran European walled noise acts. With each act offers up a slice of dense & unrelenting walled noise that hits in around the thirty minute mark.
The Killer Came From The Bronx is yet another new HNW project from hugely talented & of late highly prolific Frenchman Julien Skrobek( Ghost, The Sandman Wears A Mask, Ruine, Butch Bag, Gasp). This project focus in on old school yet moody & homicidal themed walled noise, and “Perspective” is the project debut release.
France Jobin's "Valence" is another understated lowercase opus from the admirably consistent Line label, specializing in detailed deep listening music which is typically uplifting and relaxing without resorting to any obviousness or cliche. This album contains 3 tracks, averaging roughly 20 minutes in length. It was Jobin's debut release in 2012, and she has since released another album this year on Baskaru Records.
Ah, Ildjarn. What an interesting band. A one man band formed in 1991, Ildjarn created most of its work by the mid-nineties in a burst of artistic fury. It remained active until the 2005 release of Ildjarn is Dead, a massive compilation of the band’s material. Ildjarn’s debut album, Ildjarn, limited to just 750 copies on CD, was getting increasingly difficult to find until Season of Mist rereleased it in 2013 with new and improved album art.
From late 2012, this two track CDR offers up two slices of taut ‘n’ tense creative noise making that falls somewhere between HNW & ANW. With the two lengthy tracks giving the listener a runtime of just shy of seventy seven mintues.
This is a promotional copy, so I have the barest of information; in fact, I just have the track titles and a probable front cover (an unenthralling, altered photo of a skeletal-faced figure playing the violin). The album has four pieces, two long, two shorter and all very much cut from the same cloth using the same tools. The key words here are “majestic”, “melancholy” and “drone”; combining acoustic instrumentation with processing. A neat, but crass, description might be a remixed Godspeed You Black Emperor.
This split CDR release brings together two half-an-hour plus slices of unforgiving walled noise. It consists of a track a piece from the following: German based Bone Grinder, which is one of the other projects cannibal & horror movie obsessed Ronald L (Cannibal Ritual, Bloodcraving & Werewolf Women Of The SS). And Russian based super prolific Sleep Column (the project has released around 200 releases since it started in 2011)
“Blind Dead” is the 11th full length release from this Louisiana based HNW project, which focuses most it’s output around old horror movies/ horror figures. This release comes in the form of a double CDR set, which offers up four ‘walls’ that run between fourteen mintues & just under an hour
Pittsburgh's David Graham has been recording and performing as Requiem since 1996. Provenance is Requiem's eighth release and the first release with ConSouling. Musically, the project fuses many genres from doom to neo-classical to noise, and does so in a very grand, movie score like fashion. Provenance has a little something for everyone, and lots for those that like it all.
Svart Records presents Our Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre by Sami Albert Hynninen’s March 15 project. Hynninen, best known for his work in such acts as: REVEREND BIZARRE, THE PURITAN, OPIUM WARLORDS, SPIRITUS MORTIS, AZRAEL RISING and TÄHTIPORTTI, has his roots in extreme noise and avant garde music and March 15 is his vessel for these sounds.
Grunt is the 'black industrial' or atmospheric power electronics project of Mikko Aspa, active since the early 90's with an extremely prolific release schedule (as is common within the noise genre). "Europe After Storm" was first released as a 4 track cassette in 1998, and finally saw this expanded re-issue in 2011 on Force Majeure Records.
When it comes to black metal, I wouldn’t consider myself a traditionalist by any means. As much as I love Emperor, Taake, and Dissection, I also really enjoy some of the bands that eschew the typical formula. From Sigh’s use of Saxophone to Necromantia using two bassists instead of guitarists, simply switching it up can be quite a draw. This hasn’t gone unnoticed, and there are plenty of bands that use gimmicky instruments to further their popularity. Italian black metallers Profezia are one of such bands.
This is the second of volume of tracks based around manipulated recordings of the charming & deadly US Serial killer Ted Bundy. And for the two tracks on offer here we’re squarely in greyed, hopeless, disturbing & stripped ambient territory.
“Medusa’s Bed” is a brooding ‘n’ dread filled mix of electro fed ambience, stark & nightmarish violin drift, and foreboding ‘n’ sinister female spoken word elements. This release brings together Vienna based Violinist & sound artist Mia Zabelka. Austria and Croatia based composer and multi-instrumentalist Zahra Mani, and New York based new wave legend, singer & poet Lydia Lunch.
At the risk of becoming a mouthpiece for its work - I recently wrote a glowing review of Richard Chartier’s “Recurrence” - here’s another incredible release from the Line label. Packaged in the house-style card wallet and adorned with digitally processed imagery, the cd contains six pieces of vocal-based constructions from AGF. AGF, or Antye Greie-Ripatti, is someone I’ve come across in the past with interest; but this is the first album I’ve actually heard: I haven’t been disappointed.
This seven disc box-set brings together the full studio out-put of Rush- from the between years 1989 & 2007. And the set shows the bands sound shifting from the prog tinged & synth heavy AOR of late 1980’s albums like Presto & Roll The Bones, through to the more guitar & rock driven sounds of early 1990’s to early 2000’s albums.
Self-Inflicted Violence is the depressive harsh noise project of Tomasz Piotrowicz, who also uses the alias I Am A Slut. While I've heard in passing of the man's work, I'd never listened to any of his output prior to hearing this latest CDr "Defeated". The album runs just under a half hour, and contains 6 tracks.
GOL member Xavier Roux is better known by his alias, Ravi Shardja. This pseudonym isn't surprising considering Xavier's passion for Carnatic music. The combination of Indian and experimental music makes sense, too, given the heavy use of drone in both styles. In addition to his solo project and releases with GOL, Ravi keeps busy by scoring films and theatrical performances.
On “...between…”, Parmar & Colohan offer up 10 thought-provoking, sonic excursions. The tracks incorporate and meld various sounds and techniques, relying predominantly on field recordings, electro-acoustic manipulations, ambient drone, and some solid (though often subtle) instrumentation. This blending of techniques is exemplified by the opening track, “Hilltop, Surrounded by the City.” Beautifully played piano and an undefinable ambient sound, mingle with wildlife recordings, to create a track that is equally majestic and meditative.
What’s with French bands taking German names? If I had to guess, I’d wager it’s because German is just simply more metal than French. Anyway, this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of listening to Folge dem Wind, or “Follow the Wind” in English. They’ve been active since 2005 and until now, they’ve remained relatively underground despite releasing a demo, two full-length albums, and being signed by a reasonably well known label. Based on their stellar performance on To Summon Twilight, this is likely going to change.