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After 18 years off, Finnish death metal legends Convulse returned this January with the Inner Evil EP. Ten months later, they're dropping another slab of classic death on us with Evil Prevails. How relevant can a band be after such a hiatus in the constantly changing and evolving music world? In Convulse's case, very. The Finnish foursome isn't breaking any new ground here, but really, when you're getting back on the horse, why reinvent the wheel (it's a horse with wheels)? Classics never die, and that's as true in death metal as it is in GILF porn.
Victimology Records offers up a dense slab of harsh noise from (the now defunct) Churner. Based out the U.S., Churner (aka Dan E) cranked out an impressive body of work over his 6 year span. Exploring virtually every angle of the noise genre, you never know what’s in store for you with a Churner release. Could be drone, could be sci-fi noise, harsh noise, or perhaps all of the above.
This untitled C50 tape presents the listener with two twenty three minute slices of brutalizing ‘n’ dense walled noise from Boar- a Iowa based HNW/Harsh noise/ Power electronics project.
Vàg is a UK based HNW/ANW project that started in January 2013. “Music For Smoke-Filled Elevators” is the project first CDR release, and it takes in four tracks worth of ambient industrial tinged ANW.
PAS is an avant-garde collective named for the French negatory syllable. Their album is hilariously titled "Flanked By Women and Pumpkins". It contains 12 lo-fi atmospheric sketches averaging 5 minutes in length. Each track tends to stay in the same sonic realm for its duration, and though the tracks utilize different sound sources, most of the tones used are smeared, dissonant and murky.
A recent and wonderful trend has been emerging lately, some classical ensembles have been taking to the stage in venues not usually associated with these styles of music. A large majority of the public believes that classical music is somehow an elitist art and understood only by stuffy old antiquated peoples, this couldn't be further from the truth, but the idea has grown out of the system that has been built around classical music. Usually venue specific and expensive, most "common" people have just not been provided with the opportunity to learn about and enjoy these vibrant and very much alive art forms.
Here’s a cdr on the Muzikaal Kabaal label, packaged in the usual, stark house style. We get two tracks from Glasgow Smile, and three from Laboratory Fire; all of which inhabit harsh, abrasive climes.
"Under My Hands….She Dies On The Hospital Bed” finds this highly prolific Serbian HNW project offering up a c20 release. The tape features two just shy of ten minute slices of brutal yet creative walled noise.
The advent of cheap, accessible technology has allowed armchair musicians to record bedroom albums easily for a while now. Get your instruments, mics, mini-studio and record away before using free, readily available software to clean it up and then dump it on the internet. Send it to your friends or post a link on a bulletin board and get your tunes out there. It's so easy, even I have been doing just that for the past twelve years. However, thirty years ago, bedroom recording was much more of an undertaking. This feat becomes even more admirable when the artist builds his own synthesizer to rock out with. Getting your work out there was way harder, too, and exponentially more so if you didn't make copies for anyone! This is the case for T.R.A.S.E. (Tape Recorder and Synthesiser Ensemble), the teenage project of now well respected British tape engineer Andy Popplewell.
Second Language Records presents Mag - Amplitude by sonic experimentalists Constant Light. The Australian duo of Sasha Margolis and James Dean present a follow up to their well received Observations/1. If you can imagine taking Krautrock cranked through the grinder of the early 80’s Manchester scene, then brighten it up with some contemporary synth pop/dream pop (ala Stereolab), add a pinch of noise and you might begin to approximate the Constant Light sound.
"Dedicated To George A. Romero” is a recent CDR release that brings together three out of print releases by this popular La Crosse, Wisconsin HNW project. Each of the releases pay walled noise tribute to Mr Romero Infamous & highly influence original zombie movie trilogy- Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, and Day Of The Dead. With the three tracks been mixed into just shy of eighty minute mini ‘wall-fest’.
The Incredible String Band were one of the most distinctive, original & unequal bands to appear from the 1960’s music scene. The bands sound mixed together elements of psychedelic folk, world music, and other musical genres to create a truly unique & creative sound. 'Be Glad: An Incredible String Band Compendium’ originally appeared back in 2003, and the book charts & discusses the bands career taking in different types of writing, from fan remembrance, ISB & related interviews, album dissections, more scholarly song theme analyse, concert reviews & beyond. This new 2013 edition of the book sees manly of the articles up-dated, and also offers up a selection of new interviews/ pieces.
'The Slaughterhouse' is like no other release found on the pages of this site. The clues we're initially presented with (its title and label) inspire presumptions that suggest it's a field recording that, like many works in this area, highlights some aural properties of found sounds that would otherwise be filtered out without us being persuaded to listen in a suitably focussed way by lovely labels such as Gruenrekorder.
This CD double disc 2010 reissue brings together two early 1970’s albums by The Incredible String Band- the highly creative psychedelic folk, meets world music, mixed genre project, which was in existence between 1966 & 1974, with a sporadic re-groupings between 1999 & 2006. On offer here are the bands first two albums on Island Records, which both appeared in the year 1971- “Be Glad The song Has No End”, and “Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air”.
Welter In Thy Blood are a three piece LA based project who create a truly nightmarish & tar black mixture clunking ‘n’ churning percussion, stretched-out & bleak doom, and blacked ribbed noise dark ambience. “Todestrieb” is the bands third releases, and it truly takes the listener to a very hellish & darkly curdling sonic place.
This is a nice looking package, which combines a simple sticker with a hand-printed outer and insert to make a noticeably “different” release. I must admit I got quite excited from reading said sticker: “david font: electronics/ jose luis rodriguez: guitar”; because my immediate thoughts were that this would be an album of electronics and flamenco guitar improv, which sounded like a fascinating meet-up. However, rather than the electronics being a separate instrument as such, they take the form of realtime processing.
The Chinese duo VagusNerve has returned with their second album "Go Back to the Sirius" on Utech records, a full 65 minutes of dense and heavy drone split into 3 tracks, averaging a little over 20 minutes in length. Their debut, "Lo Pan", was also released on Utech, in 2009.
Bored Bear Recordings presents Ondes Pures(meaning Pure Waves in english ) by minimalist French drone artist Alois Richter. I couldn’t really find much info on this mysterious act other than this is a project by ½ of the HNW outfit The Sandman Wears a Mask. On Ondes Pures, Alois Richter offers 4 “textures” clocking in at around 80 minutes.
“Jerusalem” sees this Uk based progressive HNW/ ANW project offering up a textural detailed & subtle shifting slice of dense textured noise-making. The release is themed around 1099 of Jerusalem, which claimed the lives 11,000 of the 13,500 crusades.
"This Star Teaches Bending" is a manipulated field recording release that’s themed around incurable diseases. And it takes influence from both the sound recordists personal experience (his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer), and that of Expressionistic & cubism Swedish artists Paul Klee- who died in 1879 from the rare skin disease scleroderma.
It is no secret that the last decade has brought music and recording away from the studio and into the bedroom. This paradigm shift has had the wonderful effect of democratizing music and truly putting it in the hands of the people, and for this I am grateful. Yet there is a downfall to this scenario, all musicians who have participated in this shift have involuntarily become recording engineers. While at first this does not seem a problem it has lead to an overall decrease in sonic quality and I would argue that the time spent by musicians to learn this highly skilled craft has taken away from the time that at one point would have been used to learn the instruments being recorded.
This latest work from Australian artist Lawrence English was created as an homage to John Cage and originally began as a re-scoring of the film "One11". Somewhat ashamed I must admit that I am less familiar with Cage's work than I should be, but I do have the distinct impression from familiarity with some of his work that one composition differs form the next as much conceptually than they do sonically. That being said although the catalyst for the creation of this album was the centenary of Cage it is not reminiscent of any of the Cage works of which I am familiar, and pleasantly surprised by this was able to view the album without this preexisting filter, such a danger for any tribute work.
Scandinavia is known for its black metal scenes yet we don't hear much from Iceland. Apparently the same themes run deep no matter what part of the world you come from. Norse and Christian mythos all wrapped up into one misanthropic roar with lyrics unintelligible yet filled with philosophy, one that takes the back seat to the sheer power and fervor of blast beats and thunderous guitars.
Phelios is back with with his much anticipated follow up to 2010's Astral Unity. Martin Stürtzer picked up where he left off and didn't miss a step. Gates of Atlantis comes to us on the continuously awesome Malignant label, and it's a well thought-out dark ambient with industrial flourishes. The almost primordial drumming and the interstellar drone give the listener strong soundtrack vibes. This is good, too, because it plays as a loose soundtrack to H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time."