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“Faunscan” finds this one man Missouri based multi genre project focusing in more on the wonky ‘n’ aged IDM/ electronica side of his sound.
Rozz Williams is best known as the lead singer/ song writer behind the original/ classic line up of Death Rock pioneers Christian Death. But he had a more edgy/experimental side too, and this came out under the project banner of Premature Ejaculation. 6 offers up a collection of 16 tracks that fall somewhere early industrial, tape loop based compositions, and grim/noisey avant garde.
"The Unholy Bow" is a small 45 page book (or 'zine') created by Terence Hannum of atmospheric black metal band Locrian. I'm a fan of Locrian's music and "The Crystal World" was one of my favorite albums of last year. This book, one of several by Hannum, is dedicated to the rhythmic 'headbang' movement practiced by metalheads worldwide whenever they hear good metal.
Kam Hassah is one (and the longest running I believe) of the many projects of Matteo Castro, who recently was widely appreciated for his work as Lettera 22 and for his label Second Sleep.
On this their debut release the Austrian string quartet Quadrat:sch seem to be formed of two halves: there’s zither-player Christof Dienz who composed half of the pieces on the first disc, and, on double-bass duties his wife, Alexandra, while the remaining pieces are composed by the duo of guitarist Gunter Schneider and Dulcimer-hammerer Barbara Romen. Regardless of who’s written the songs, when they play together they create short, anecdotal “chamber folk” music based on traditions that reach back to the eighteenth century.
Kandodo is the first solo undertaking of Simon Price, the guitarist/vocalist from Bristol’s psychedelic experimentalists The Heads.
This split double CDR release brings together a full length disc a piece from two very brutal & often perverse HNW acts.
“Black Summer” offers up just over two hours worth of blacked & low end rumble based HNW, which is deep in grim & truly hopeless spirit. This Philadelphia based project has been putting out slabs of dense/ blacked HNW on & off since 2006, and this new two tape set is sadly to be the last by the project.
New to the Century Media label is the Periphery, which hails from an unlikely source when considering progressive metal: Washington, DC. Boasting a command of their instruments (and supported by clear, rich-sounding modern production) this second eponymous work demonstrates a professional-minded band at the cusp of its first big surge in recognition.
The Harsh Noise Wall genre is one of the most brutal & uncompromising sonic forms in existence, and it’s normally linked with brutal 'n' uncompromising themes such as: horror movies, suicide, bleak thought patterns, and genreal darker side of things. Over the last year or so Uk based waller noise maker James Killick has attempted to break this trend for darker themes - firstly he launched his Love Katy project that celebrated the American female popster Katy Perry. This new release from one of his other main projects see’s him using one of the most unlikely themes you could imagine for HNW: Kermit the Frog & his cousin Robin, yet he some how mangers to make it work.
Ampconstrictor is a Italian HNW/ Harsh noise project, and it’s been active since 2009. Behind the project is Giovanni Torregrossa (ex member of grindcore project Balatonizer & noise/ambient project Keimverbreitung).
There are a few noteworthy labels at the moment, who are re-issuing long forgotten music; often in lavish and detailed packages. Some of these labels determined to part me with my hard-earned cash are: Dust-to-Digital, the wonderful Mississippi records and, of course, Tompkins Square. Having already released two massive compilations of dusty Gospel gems - and an incredible archive of ancient recordings, documenting the music of immigrants to the United States from the Ottoman Empire - Tompkins Square have now gathered the musical life of Arizona Dranes into a cd and book. (It should be noted that I am reviewing a digital version of both.)
Telepathy Shots / Sonuna" is a 40 minute split LP, where each artist contributes a 20 minute track. It's the first LP release by Razzle Dazzle, a label that has previously dealt mostly in CDrs. I'd never heard of either Glue Pour nor Preslav Literary School, but from the look of the package I assumed it was noise. This is only partly the case: while there are elements of noise, this is more of an ambient release.
“Whore of Babylon” is an ANW/ HNW collaboration between Serbian based Dead Body Collection & French based project Ghost. The release comes in the form of a double CDR set- this features two slices of ANW on disc one, and one long slice of more brutal HNW on the second disk.
"Circle The Excess" is a collaboration tape between the two American acts S.C.O.A.M. and Pregnant Spore. While I've listened to and sometimes appreciated a good number of Pregnant Spore and related project's releases I never heard about S.C.O.A.M. I like the fact that the acronym apparently doesn't stand for anything that makessense though.
“Stiller Schrei des Winters” (translated to Silent cry of the winter) brings together a collection of 19 tracks from slightly experimental 'n' quirky Ukraine based one man ambient Black Metal project Moloch.
Glimmer is Polish composer Micha³ Jacaszek’s seventh outing in a decade that has seen him develop a personal approach fusing classical baroque elements with studio-based dub wisdom. Originally released in October of last year on the Polish independent label Gusstaff, it was snapped up for an international re-release within just two months by the eclectic US label, Ghostly, to become the fifteenth instalment in their SMM series that focuses on more ambient, texture-based albums. And it’s easy to see why as Glimmer manages to be both a polished showcase of Jacaszek’s moody electronic manipulations while retaining wholly accessible slices of folk melodies and classical cool.
Spiritual avant noise creator Z'EV and veteran Italian ambient rock band Larsen released their first collaboration album in 2011 on Important Records. It contains two versions of the piece, a live version with mostly acoustic instruments and timbres, and the "Aural Mix", a more electronic sounding mix by Z'EV.
This is an reissue of an 1961 Les Baxter release that saw this versatile & often quirky composer arranging an easy listening/ exotica album that celebrated the wonders & mysteries of topical & exotic seas in musical form. And if that wasn’t enough, this release also features a selection from various tracks from Baxter's more purely exotica based releases after the main album has played out.
Anoice are a Japanese collective who brew-up a moody & compelling mixture of dramatic instrumental music, light post rock, subtle electronics/ sampling & ambience. “The Black Rain” is the projects third release, and its second release on Important Records.
This newest full-length by David Griffin is a mainly ambient affair, differing slightly from his prior work in the beat-oriented electro and techno genres. What we are presented with in this session is a medium-length, digital synth album. Citing influences of only the most basic and well-known progenitors of softer electronic sounds (Eno, FSOL, Aphex Twin, Budd), the results for the most part derivative. In the current marketplace of highly developed consumer-grade electronic instruments, many such albums like Between The Lines of Time and Space exist simply due to the sheen that preset sounds which such machines can produce out of the box.
There have been countless indie singer/songwriters who master in fragility since the heyday of Elliott Smith but few have the shtick down quite as firmly as Nathan Amundson, the creative core of Rivulets.
This is one of those packages which I commend in principle, but curse in practical terms. Its a tape and a strip of microfiche (?), partially wrapped in some metallic paper and held together by a paper band: a record collector’s nightmare (which is reason enough to do it…). So its flimsy, but it has a distinct “bedroom” quality - something the packaging shares with the sounds within. Both outfits sound lo-fi and lo-tech, but this certainly isn’t a criticism.
Poland carefully hides a handful of interesting noise acts, and this tape released by Chaosynod is a split between two of the most prolific of the bunch: The Sleep Sessions and Rez Epo.