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The past two years have been very good for Poison Idea fans. Southern Lord and TKO records brought us Darby Crash Rides Again: The Early Years and The Fatal Erection Years (respectively). Add to this a small US tour (that I missed because I was too busy being lazy...what a douche) and you'd be sitting pretty. However, Southern Lord ups the ante even further by re-releasing Kings of Punk with three additional live sets. This two disc set is chock full of classic, fast, fun hardcore.
Monochrome Vision presents Ama_Zone 1:Black-Waters by long-running sound artist, Artificial Memory Trace. Artificial Memory Trace is the project name of Czech-born experimental artist and composer, Slavek Kwi. Kwi’s own fascination with “sound environments” started over 30 years and he began recording under the Artificial Memory Trace moniker in the early 90’s. On this 2011 offering, we are presented with an audio travel diary of Kwi’s journeys to a remote area of Brazil in 2007 and 2008.
Norwegian black metal band Throne of Katarsis has been bringing us hell since 2002. Originally a two piece, the group now consist of four players and their latest album "The Three Transcendental Keys" recorded live in studio shows the power of this line-up change. The fact that this album is recorded live removes it from any of the trite over-production that much recent black metal has fallen victim to, and provides us with a raw and heady listening experience. The record is in three acts, each labeled as one of the three "Transcendental Keys".
G’mork is the new(ish) project from Florida based Hal Harmon(of HNW/ Harsh Noise project Vasectomy Party, HNW project Man With The Icy Eyes & runner of the excellent noise/ experimental label Forever Escaping Boredom). The project is HNW based, and takes it’s theme & project name from 1984 family fantasy movie The Neverending Story.
In recent years, there’s been a hive of activity in the area of historical re-issues, especially in the area of gospel blues; and its something that has unearthed some wonderful recordings.
PGA's "Corrections" is the sort of album most any listener would be unsure of what to make of. It is a recording which enthusiastically rejects all forms of known musical organization, and indeed embraces many of the sounds musicians tend to painstakingly iron out of their performances with years of practice, as evidenced by song titles like "Out of Tune" in association the blatant cacophany found within.
Poland's Abandoned Asylum has the honor of putting out its debut on Malignant Records. You may have heard Abandoned Asylum from its appearance on Kalpamantra's massive compilation, The Black Death. If so, you know that Abandoned Asylum rocks some quality, vast dark ambient. If not, HEY! Abandoned Asylum rocks some quality, vast dark ambient.
Phage Tapes and Dismantle Records presents Reverberating Forest, a collaborative effort by 2 titans in the experimental underground: Astro and Winters in Osaka. Astro is the legendary Japan-based harsh noise project of Hiroshi Hasegawa and Winters in Osaka are heavy drone wizards from Chicago.
"Ensepulchred Under The Weight of The Void:Compressed To Nothing" offers up a mix of psychotically sludge bound & stretched blacked metal, suffocating & disorientating doom drone hazes, & buzzing dark drone matter. Behind the project is Evan Craig of creative HNW project Ritual Stance, and the project came about in late 2011 to early 2012.
“Songs Of Aiwass” presents the listener with three fairly lengthy submersions in lo-if & retro electronic focused psychedelic & blackly curdled horror themed drone matter. The Dead End Street Band are a three piece project from North East of England, and they’ve been active since 2011, and have so far released around 3 or 4 full length CDR’s, & a few split releases.
Fantome de Sang is the new project from the super prolific HNW/ ambient artist Cory Strand – who releases under his own name, as well as under other solo project names such as Lethe, Necronom IV, and Lindskold. This new project sees him creating darkly seared & intense HNW, blacked harsh noise & bleak ambience that’s themed around the work of French underground black metal/ dark ambient collective Les Legions Noire- this group of projects existenced between 1993 & 1997, and brought together the likes of: mournful ‘n’ grim black metal of Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes & their raw, minimal and atmospheric take on black metal, and wonky/sinister black grim ambience of Moevot.
The Japanese born, Belgium resident, Hitoshi Kojo describes himself as a 'sound-painter'. It suggests an audio exploratory form of abstract expressionism - a far less cluttered and confused realm than the more constricting, less meaningful tribal genre tags he undoubtedly encounters such as drone or dark ambient.
Christ(aka Chris Horne) is a Scottish project that shimmer up an enjoyable & often cinematic mix of electronica, IDM, and ambience. The project has been active since 1996, releasing seven albums, and five or so Eps. This 2012 full length is the projects first release in three or so years.
Mt. Stromboli, or the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, is a small volcanic island off of the north coast of Sicily. It has been erupting almost continuously for a several millennium and has regular small eruptions every twenty minutes. Nature has a way of making beautiful music provided you are listening. From recordings from deep space to field recordings of wind in the trees we find stark beauty everywhere as if nature herself was a composer. For most of us the sounds that a volcano makes are completely out of reach and foreign, but now we are lucky, safe at home and far from the heat we can experience them, for Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere) has brought them to us.
Well, this is one of those releases that I could possibly never stop writing about - but instead, I’m going to say very little indeed.
"Y'Anbessaw Tezeta" is a double album of truly unique and fascinating jazz by Ethiopian saxophonist Getachew Mekuria, his band The Ex, and other accompanying ensembles. The first disk contains new studio material, largely instrumental, recorded within the last two years, while the second features live performances with various ensembles. This release comes in either Vinyl or CD format, I'm reviewing the CD version
"Sähkö-shokki-ilta" (Electro-Shock-Evening ) is a fairly bizarre & unequal release from Finland’s Ektro Records(home of all things Circle related, Muscular 80’s metal Thor, and all manner of quirky reissue fare). The CD takes in a seventy minute performance of “Sähkö-shokki-ilta”- which is a mix of Finish & Swedish spoken word poetry, psychedelic effects, and electronics.
Chicago trio Locrian are back with another drony slab of synth and guitar matter. Return to Annihilation is their debut on the legendary Relapse label. Over the years, Relapse have expanded their roster to include many different genres of metal and punk, so it's no surprise that a newer, genre blending act like Locrian would be in their crosshairs. While Return to Annihilation may not sound like Locrian's typical output, it fits very well on Relapse's ever expanding discography.
Ukrainian label ~taqueOT presents Matter by Sphagný. Sphagný is the moniker of Russian sonic artist Anton Auster, who is also responsible for the experimental label Swollen Beam.
English HNW/PE label Kafkex Rex presents My War (Tone Obsession I) by HNW act Catholic. As the title suggests, this c45 offers 2 side long tracks of wall noise dedicated to Black Flag’s album of the same name. Truthfully, I know very little about Catholic, only that they have a few releases on Kafkex, which leads me to believe that it’s likely the project of the label-runner. As with most Kafkex releases, this is extremely limited to 5 pieces, and being released in 2012 I’m most certain this is long gone.
East Of Eden were a progressive/jazz rock project that were in existence between 1967 & 1978. The band had a very versatile & at times experimental sound that mixed together prog/ jazz rock with elements of folk, gypsy music, world music melodies, with dips into free jazz & disorientating tape loop structures. “Snafu” original appeared in 1970, and it’s one of the projects more experimental releases.
“Traurer” brings together one lengthy ambient work, and eleven slices of stark blacked metal meets lo-fi goth rock from this highly prolific Ukraine based one man Black Metal & dark ambient project.
From 2012, this two track release finds ATM offering up two lengthy, mind expanding & krautrock tinged take on the classic space/ psychedelic rock jam-out that is Gong’s “'Om Riff/Master Builder". This release comes in either CD or vinyl format, and it offers up two just shy of twenty minute tracks.
This new split vinyl release from Cold Spring brings us recordings from the UK based industrial veterans Skullflower, and San Francisco based one man black metal project Mastery. The acts couldn't be much more different from each other although the common thread that weaves its way through this disc is defiantly strange breeds of metal. Skullflower has been doing its thing off and on since the 80's and their experience shows itself with the waves of post industrial nausea that flow from this record. Mastery on the other hand started in 2005 and is utterly modern in its approach to musical mangling.