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After three self-financed albums, Dark Buddha Rising is back with a fourth, but this time put out by Finnish label Svart. And, like most doom bands, DBR doesn't know the meaning of restraint. Dakhmandal is released as 3x12" EP and 2xCD. Is there really an hour and twenty minutes worth of quality material here?
Cthulhu Detonator is the moniker of Canadian Noise artist Eric Hogg. “Frequency Of The Multivibrator” is the second release from this project, following last year’s “Infernal Machines”. It’s extremely limited to 25 tapes with art by Derek Setzer. Truth be told, I was a little underwhelmed by Mr. Hogg’s debut album which I found to be rather uneven. However there were enough interesting nuggets on “Infernal Machines,” for me to give Cthulhu Detonator another try.
Franck Vigroux is a pretty well known sound artist and multi-instrumentist with lots of important collaborations (Mika Vainio, Zeena Parkins and the infamous Kenji Siratori for example) on his shoulders. I'm usually a bit sceptic about this "genre" and I often find its products pretty boring and unrewarding, but I hope my prejudice will not influence my review too much.
The Tokyo-based "psychedelic solid free attack group" Mainliner first emerged in the mid 90's. The lineup included Kawabata Makoto of the Acid Mothers Temple, and Koji Shimura on drums, both of whom are still in today's incarnation, which they are calling 'Kawabata Makoto's Mainliner'. The original bassist/vocalist Asahito Nanjo, who played with them until they disbanded in 2001, does not appear on this new release, "Revelation Space", being replaced instead by Taigen Kawabe.
Forms of religious worship, and the places where they take place-in are varied & sometimes unique- from the scared & mystical, to the arcane & timeless, onto the seemingly mundane yet still intriguing. “Sacred & Profane” finds British sound artists & composer Iain Armstrong offering up a collection of fifteen field recordings made in various religious sites around the world over a twelve year period.
Horrible Mess is a Canadian based HNW/Harsh noise project that has been active since seemingly 2011, putting out around twenty or so releases- which take in split tapes, compilation appearances, and a few stand alone tape releases. "The Well" appears on American wall noise label Breaching Static, (run by Alex Nowacki of HNW/HN project Boar), and the release offers up a rewarding selection of moody, brutal & often quite sonically descriptive HNW, oh & it’s also the first stand alone CDR release from this project.
House Of Bats is a collaboration between two dependable figures on the noise scene: Andreas Brandal (Flesh Coffin, Hour of the Wolf) and Robert Meldrum (Unearthed, Spider Tapes); and this first release, on the equally dependable Lighten Up Sounds label, is a c40 cassette of slurring, creepy horror music. Horror music in the sense of taking its cues from horror soundtrack devices and sounds, and horror music in the more literal sense of being full of dread, unease and approaching violence. Its packaged in the usual, colourful Lighten Up Sounds style; with a cover possibly taken from some old, trashy horror novel - very reminiscent of the Men Of Science lathe cut I reviewed recently, on the same label. The tape has four tracks of slow-burning, lo-fi, horror drones.
Necrotic Disgorgement's 2004 debut, Suffocated in Shrink Wrap, was well received, so it comes as a surprise that they would wait nine years for their follow up, Documentaries of Dementia. The former three piece expanded to five members, and this is evidenced by the extra focus on guitars. So, did this brutal death metal band lose any of their chops during their hiatus?
Contrary to the what the name would suggest, the project Jacob is actually a duo, consisting of David Cordero (also known as 'Ursula') and Marco Serrato (elsewhere called 'Orthodox'). Their new album on Utech, the simply yet aptly titled "The Ominous", falls comfortably within the spectrum of blackened ambience, placing the listener adrift in imagined subterranean depths by way of ghostly metallic glimmers, howling gusts of reverberation and ashen downtuned guitar sludge.
Mare Di Dirac are an Italian collective who create lo-fi, morbid, and sometimes ritual based sound that mixers together elements field recordings, natural & creepy reverb, human voices, subtle electronics, and selection of instrumental/ percussion matter taking in: old church organ, didgeridoo, Tibetan bells, marine trumpet, rain drum & other elements. I guess you’d say their sound falls somewhere between crude ritual ambience, murky grim drone matter, and dark ‘n’ dank sound art.
Stoned To Death is a Dallas Texas based HNW/ ANW project who create a lo-fi, bleak & drone based sound. "All Earth" is a CDR release that consists of two tracks- one fairly short (by HNW standards), and one longer track
“Manner” is the 20th studio album from creative Finish multi-genre lined locked rock groove project Circle. It finds the band offering up a more compact & focused selection of six fairly short songs( by Circle standards), that nicely present the bands sound in a more approachable light, yet still hold in the bands quirky/ distinctive edges. The album originally appeared in late spring 2012 on cult US label Hydra Head, and I’m reviewing the January 2013 CD reissue of the album.
Along with Giovanni Giorgio Moroder, Marc Cerrone is one of the most influential & respected European figures to come out of the 1970’s & 1980’s disco scene. Between 1976 & 1989 the French disco drummer, producer & composer released 13 albums, and many singles, that are now thought of as prime & creative examples of Euro disco, post disco & funk electronics. “Supernature-Cerrone III”, his third album from 1977, is often considered as his masterpiece. This 2011 reissue of the album offers up the albums original six tracks, and some new extensive linear notes along with a new interview with Cerrone himself.
Saskatchewan dark lords Wold present a double-vinyl reissue of “Freemasonry,” previously only available on CD. With Fortress Crookedjaw at the helm, Wold have made quite a name for themselves, fusing lo-fi black metal, noise, and drone. Wold rolled through my neck of the woods on the 2012 Scion Rock Fest, but unfortunately I missed them due to having to scurry from venue to venue with artists playing in a variety of locations. I just missed them, but overheard effusive praise of their live performance. Needless to say, I was looking forward to giving “Freemasonry” a spin.
Botanist; the solo-project of R Otrebor cuts a sharp farrow through genre pigeon-holing and, here, manages to combine elements of Doom / Black Metal and post-rock into a rich cocktail of percussive styles - blast-beats, kick-drums, snappy snares and tom-toms and the eclectic, shattered feedbacks and sustained vibrations of a hammered dulcimer. Naturally the hammered dulcimer being a percussive instrument while overlapping that of strings almost mimics the distorted BM guitar sound while still retaining a unique sound. Rather than detracting from the compositions the hammered dulcimer actually blends well with them because Martinelli makes it a central part of the percussion.
Surprise, another Norwegian (even if the members are not Norwegian) black metal band!. Tortorum formed in Bergen in 2010 and this "Extictionist" album released by busy German label WTC is I believe their debut full length.
For his latest album, multitalented band leader and virtuoso jazz pianist Bruno Heinen has attempted the daunting task of performing a jazz flavored orchestration of the austere Karlheinz Stockhausen's piece for 12 music boxes, "Tierkreis".
Packaged in the house style of Muzikaal Kabaal, we have an eight track cdr from Cult Of The Smiling Jesus; amounting to nearly an hour of well crafted and considered wall noise. Muzikaal Kabaal has quickly become a label of real quality in the scene, and “Songs Of Love” is another solid release. It’s a follow up to “Songs Of Hate”, which I reviewed favourably almost exactly a year ago.
From October 2012, this is one of the early soundtrack reinterpretation from Minneapolis based Cory Strand. After reviewing a few of Strand's more ambient reinterpretation’s I thought it be interesting to look back at one of his more brutal/ hopeless & unrelenting release’s- this four disc set sees Strand focusing mostly in on dense & unwavering walled noise batterings.
“New York Glyptic” is a long form piece of sound art which utilizes field recordings from in & around New York City- sometimes the recordings are left fairly untouched, but at other times their morphed into atmospheric ambient textures & drone currents. Scott Sherk is an American sound artistic who resides in rural Pennsylvania, and for several years now he’s been building sound sculptors from his various walks around New York City, Los Angeles, and rural Pennsylvania.
Missouri based Jute Gyte have never been a project that fits into any one musical genre box- their past work has dipped down in: progressive ‘n’ unbalancing polyrhythm lined black metal, wonky ‘n’ unhinged IDM/ electronica, doomed guitar work-outs, digital and analogue fed harsh noise, and beyond. With “Noctis Labyrinthus” the projects trying it’s hand at yet another genre- wavering & desolate medieval space ambience.
Light Collapse are fast becoming one of the more rewarding & prolific artists with-in the euro HNW scene. The Russian based project formed in 2005, and has since released around 40 or so releases, taking splits with respected & recognized scene names like Vomir & Clive Henry. The project is one of the three or four projects of Russian industrial/noise/ambient artist’s Vitaly Maklakov
It’s been two or so years since anything by this Italian HNW project has appeared, so it’s nice to see this CDR offering up just shy of sixty five minutes worth of industrial/ junk seared walled noise. Fragile is all the work of Alessio Mininel (of stripped and often futuristic HNW project TFT, and HNW labels TTM Incisioni Musicali & Mediterranea)
This 2010 soundtrack reissue brings together two very sonically & thematic different soundtracks from the respected film score, British TV, and library music composer James Clarke. We have the soundtrack for the 5th St. Trinian’s film “The Wildcats of St Trinian's” from 1980, and the soundtrack from 1974 erotic horror movie “Vampyes”. Both soundtracks here are well conceived, workman like but often creative pieces of soundtracking, and both here are rewarding sonic trips back to the 1980’s & 1970’s respectively.