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Prussian poet Stefan George (1868-1933) may have left his mark on the European literary scene of the first half of 20th century with quite a few things, from his extolling of aristocratic values to his translations into German of some of the biggest names (Shakespeare and Dante to name but a few) or his conservative revolutionary leanings even (though he never seemed to like the Nazis much) but not quite for his unbridled sense of humour. Appropriately, German neo-classical folk outfit Sagittarius’ third offering, ‘The Kingdom Come’ (the title of which is based on George’s 1928 swansong collection, ‘Das neue Reich’) seems utterly devoid of irony of any kind.
Given the pedigree of Maryland-based music imprint Malignant Records, it goes without saying that you’d be hard-pressed to find anything even remotely hope-inspiring or uplifting on this, Funerary Call’s latest slab of dark malevolence and haunting menace.
The first track on Burial Hex’s Book of Delusions starts with a sample of Charles Manson from the 1994 Freemansonry interview in which he discusses, amongst other things, the source of “rock and roll,” how Shakespeare compromised his art for money, and when it’s appropriate to use a pistol. Underneath his rantings are a variety of overlapping drones, aggressive reverberations, explosive rumblings, and menacing effects. It takes a lot to drown out Charles Manson but Burial Hex manages to do it. Then the sample cuts out and the emphasis shifts to Clay Ruby’s own whispery intonations— “Christ have mercy on your soul” and other Christian clichés—emoted in a way that might actually be a burial hex.
Ruins of Gomorrah is the sixth release from stalwart, Chilean metal-heads, Undercroft. This is their first release on Season of Mist, and is available on CD and 2 x LP (ltd. 250). Ruins of Gomorrah refuses to be pigeonholed to one sub-genre, and it helps to keep it interesting. Sort of..
I'm always happy to welcome new additions to the scarce roster of Italian harsh noise and power electronics, and Elle is one of the latest, with her first release dating back just to last year. She is also one of the very few Italian active female performers in this field.
Hearse Fetish is a relatively new churning extreme industrialized HNW project from Mayfield USA. The project start late spring 2011, and since then they’ve steadily put out release five release in CDR or download format- “Trash Day Beauty/Body” comes in CDR form, and offers up one forty five minute.
Well-respected field recording and sound art publisher Greunrekorder adds another fine release to their already-essential Compass Series catalog with sound recordist and designer Ross Adams’ “Nord Rute.”
Editions Mego returns this ultra-rare 1998 double-LP to the land of the over-eager noise consumer. It’s a “stop me if you’ve heard this one before” sort of release—Harry Pussy guitarist Bill Orcutt (listed in the credits as playing “mouse”) samples fellow HP member Adris Hoyos (on “mouth”) and lets a computer program time-stretch one second into over an hour of sliding pitches, digital chatter, and whatever else the computer imagined fit between one micro-moment and the next.
Scott Wehman turns in a fairly lightweight bit of drone for his fourth release, “Cycle Stasis,” where his evocative titles—“Suprastilled,” “Barren Landform,” etc.,-- do most of the heavy lifting alongside somewhat ho-hum stretches of meandering low tones, the occasional far-off whistle, and what sounds like luggage being dropped in a parking garage.
The first thing you see with this release, is a very professional and stylish inlay: and the sounds within follow suit. The outer of the j-card is incredibly striking, with mysterious black and white imagery and very effective use of fonts and word placing. Turning it over, the inside presents an eye-mangling pattern; which illustrates very simply the hallucinogenic and meditative effects of some Harsh Noise Walls.
Here’s yet another Untitled release from Vomir-the French king of crusty ‘n’ crushing HNW. And the release comes in the form of a C30, which features one long track of battering, crude & unflinching walled noise per side of tape.
Boasting a heap of remix work for the Warp and Ninja Tune labels as well as for Radiohead, Nathan Fake has been around the block a few times. Debuting at age 19 with the DJ-hailed EP Outhouse, Fake has made a name for himself producing “chameleon electronic” music which borrows equally from house, early (Warp Records, duh) IDM, sparse dubstep , skittering glitch-hop, chiptune, techno, acid, you-name-it.
“Abstrakter Wald” offers up just under an hours worth of sweeping morose & bleak dark ambience/ wintery synth drift. Moloch is a highly prolific Ukraine based depressive black metal/ dark ambient project that has amassed a staggering 70 plus releases since it started in 2002.
“Bored & Dirty” is a c30 tape from German HNW project Die Reitenden Leichen. Behind the project is Matt Nihil, who also runs the Monolithische Aktion label, and is in numerous noise projects such as MX Nihil, The 120 Days, etc.
Is it dark ambient that sounds like post-rock, or the other way around? Leeds' A-Sun Amissa plays music that is long and ponderous and moody, mixing strings with touches of guitar and a variety of dynamic effects that likely evolved out of live playing. Four of the five pieces are multi-part suites averaging ten minutes each; the longest is seventeen. If there is an electronic element to these, then it is carefully masked, as the organic sound of the music creates its essential character, even though the murky mix tends to make the variety of instruments somewhat indistinguishable.
The multi-talented Christopher Willits and Japan's most relaxing pianist, Ryuichi Sakamoto have created one of the best albums I've ever heard with "Ancient Future", a lush, romantic ambient narrative for processed piano and guitar, which pirhouettes gracefully through 6 concise movements, ending in slightly over a half hour.
“Seven Domains Of Disgust” is a four tape box-set that gives the listener six hours worth of HNW, ANW & static texturing. The collection brings together eight walled noise artists from all around the world, and each artist offers up a forty five minute track.
"Sing while you may” has been the consistent philosophy behind the Legendary Pink Dots that’s seen their idiosyncratic space rock last over 25 years. Given this tenure, one that has seen them ceaselessly touring the globe, recording well over thirty albums and being courted by many major labels and artists along the way, one could expect their latest live DVD to be a relatively high-production piece of the biggest gig of their anniversary tour. Instead, we get an intimate portrait of the Dots on a Parisian stage barely big enough to contain the four musicians.
GX is back with L. If you're not puzzled by that sentence, then you know that I'm referring to the L installment of GX Jupitter-Larsen's Zelphabet series. Volume L consists of six tracks contributed by Lasse Marhaug, Leather Bath, Lee Gamble, The Legendary Pink Dots, Leticia Castaneda, and Lionel Marchetti.
Egyptology is the collaboration of French electronic musicians Olivier Lamm (O.Lamm) and Stephane Laporte (Domotic, Centenaire). Their debut release, The Skies, is put out in grand fashion by Clapping Music (CD, 2xLP). Olivier and Stephane spent two years composing and recording The Skies. Luckily for us, it was time well spent. Retro-synth albums are tricky; you want to sound like Kraftwerk without ripping them off, and you don't want to sound cheesy. Unfortunately, the latter happens more often than it should (bits of this album are no exception). Egyptology strengthens their case by using the equipment of the time frame they're shooting for (old analog synths and recording to tape). What we're left with is a very strong synth album that stands on its own.
Adding to their already stellar catalog, Southern Lord Records has re-released some classic Poison Idea records. This cd consists of the legendary Portland hardcore band's first 7" (Pick Your King), the following 12" (Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes), four compilation tracks, and a previously unreleased live set from 1983. The 7", 12", and one compilation track (Laughing Boy) were originally released by Fatal Erection (hence the album title), and the remaining compilation tracks were recorded during the Record Collectors sessions. Ok, the title checks out, what about the music?
After a few darker & more cynical releases (well relatively so), “You’re No Good For Me” sees this Katy Perry based HNW project return to slightly more brighter & buoyant walled noise. Love Katy is of course the first & seemingly central project of UK HNW artists & label owner James Killick- who’s behind such projects as: Small Hours, Fan Service, Carrie, The Monochrome Man, Blank Depths, and Pooh. He also ran the excellent & influential Sweet Solitude label, and now runs Vagary Records
"The Aura of Collapse" is the first release from this rather mysterious US project who blur together: ambient black metal, bass burnt noise ambient, blacked drone drifts and HNW into a majestic through damaged form. The release comes in the form of a CDR and it offers up a single fifty eight minute track.
"Nightside Emanations" is Behexen's fourth full length album, even though they've being around since the golden years of the second wave of black metal. As with many black metal bands from Northern Europe, even with an unquestionable cult status, their career has been conflicted and cursed by many line-up revolutions, bad record label deals and other accidents.