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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.
Zolle is a new Italian duo comprised of Marcello (Morkobot) and Stefano. With other great Italian duos coming before them (Augustus and Agrippa, spaghetti and meatballs, Monica Bellucci's boobs, etc), Zolle is in good company. Having Marcello on guitars and Stefano on drums, their hands are a bit full, so pals Urlo (Ufomammut) and Roberto Rizzo (Quasiviri/Runi) help out with some synth action. The resulting combination leads to a fun, heavy, although somewhat lacking album.
Facialmess is one of the (few) masters of extremely dynamic stop-and-go harsh noise and one of my favorite active noise acts, while Sleep Sessions is a harsh noise project from Poland that has come up with really good material during the last few years. I think the two projects involved are quite close to each other in spirit and delivery so I immediately imagined that this CDr would be a good match.
“Sun Storm Rampage” is over 45 minutes of concert footage taken on Christmas Day 2011 by Ukrainian experimental artist, Edward Sol.
“Anywhere” is the new full-length cassette by Tile on Florida’s Lava Church Records. For those unfamiliar, Tile is the side-project of Jeff Busko, perhaps better known for his work under the Sky Stadium moniker.
This latest album in Luis Couto’s canon as ‘Joy of Nature’ lifts from Poe’s ‘A Dream within a Dream’, exploring the unceasing flight of Time’s Arrow and the, at times, fleeting and dreamlike quality of life.
“Drown Yourself" finds Boar moving father away from the projects purely HNW origins to create a hopeless & brutal mixture of: atmospheric noise craft, enclosing & terrifying Power electronics, Harsh Noise Wall, drone matter & genreal creative/ moody experimental sound making.
"The Loweski", is an until now unreleased recording from 1973 by the late Frank Lowe, free jazz tenor saxophonist. It is a deeply uncomfortable, raucous cacophany, one of the most genuinely abrasive recordings I've heard, and definitely the noisiest 'free jazz' this side of Borbetomagus, who make a close comparison, and were likely influenced by Lowe. There is never a chance of tonality or consistent rhythmic structure. The sounds of the horns are more like screaming animals than sequences of melodic pitches. The wholly improvised album is divided into 5 sections, but also flows as one continuous performance. From track to track, the instrumentation changes slightly.