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Mark Ward's Where Is This is one of the few Irish noise projects I’m aware of, it's been active since 2008 and it's fluctuated between experimental, harsh noise and harsh noise wall genres with ease and skill since it started.
“Tarawa” is the second release from the highly mysterious, fixed & seared HNW project Anonymous. The project themes all of it’s releases around WWII battles & atrocities.
“Bare Before The Altar” offers up a single tracks worth of dense, active & detailed slice of HNW that has some nice memorable & atmospheric edges to it. Ritual Stance is a one man(Evan Craig who also runs the Void Séance Label) walled noise project from Richmond, Virginia. It's been active since 2010- the project has amassed coming on for twenty releases thus far which take in cds, tapes & splits.
“Wall of Death” is a rewarding, mostly consist and damn brutal six track compilation of Harsh Noise wall matter put together by polish label Somnolent Shelter Records.
Sirotek began in 2008 as a solo project of Vitaly Malygin (also creative with DOR and Das Sein). The project is based in Russia and finds inspiration from philosophy, psychoanalysis, interaction with the mentally diseased and his own neurosis. Musically it seems to be inspired by Maurizio Bianchi, Throbbing Gristle and Merzbow
T’is an unusually rainy day here in Nothingsville; rainy, tiring AND depressing. And very grey. So what do I do? Weirdly enough, I tried listening to John McLaughlin’s Devotion…..which helped not at all, unsurprisingly. A bit of soggy masochism, I suppose. What next? Popol Vuh? Yeah, some Florian Fricke madness is always a great thing…..except today. It (In den Garten Pharaos) was just another unneeded reminder that a great man had passed beyond (12/2001) our sodden, muddy coil. More depressingly masochistic.
“The Fantastic Guitars of Sabicas & Escudero” brings together two collaborative albums by two of the most respected, influential and virtuosos flamenco guitarist of all time- Sabicas (Agustín Castellón Campos) & Mario Escuder. The disc offers up twenty tracks of intricate, lush, detailed & seemingly effortless flamenco playing.
“Freaked With Jet” finds US noise project Sissy Spacek at their most pummelling, repetitive & unforgiving. This group originally started off as the grind core meets rapid noise cut-up project, but over it's 10 years existence they’ve dabbled with & abused: avant jazz noise, electro acoustics, sinister sound tracking elements & all manner of often rapid noise fed matter.
Chantal is the new dense yet rolling ‘n’ sweeping Harsh noise Wall project from Netherlands based Jelle Koning, whose behind Harsh noise/ HNW project Ikodora '65, & also runs the great Harsh noise, HNW and avant grade sound label Muzikaal Kabaal. “A” is the projects first release, and it comes in the form of a CDR that features a single just over thirty minute track.
Riding the recent wave of single-song doom metal albums, Pombagira has released "Iconoclast Dream", a 42 minute opus on the active, faster paced end of the doom spectrum, keeping closer to the traditional metal style than bands like Locrian or Pussygutt. Their sound is heavily inspired by classic bands like Sleep.
Fuck Patrol is a duo, consisting of Mr Richard Ramirez (Werewolf Jerusalem, et al) and Mr Mark Ward (Where Is This); and this is their second release- thier first release "Contact" appeared on southern US label Violent Noise Atrocities. Apart from being blessed with a quite unbeatable name, Fuck Patrol also have a very nice line in retro homoeroticism too - with iconic photos of strapping chaps from the 1950s (i’m assuming) adorning the covers.
“La Morte È Il Principio” offers up two slices of thick, nasty & searing walled noise from this Italian act who specializes in suicidal & funeral themed walled noise.
“Cul De Basse Fosse” (roughly translated "the bottom of the pit") presents the listener with seventy eight minutes of taut, brutal & intense walled noise from this crypt, bones and graveyard obsessed French HNW project.
Pig Shrapnel is the HNW/Harsh noise project of Santa Fe US based Joe The Stache who also runs noise tape label Hair on My Food Tapes & Records. "Bacon Worship" is the projects first release, and it comes in the form of 3inc cdr.
"My Sweet Nightmare" is a solo album by Igor Bardo from Russia, more known for his project Bardoneseneticcube. The albums released on finnish artist Niko Skorpio's Some Place Else label.
From their founding in 1996, German electronic project; Anemone Tube has been crafting industrial, noise, dark ambient music. Death Over China is their latest release after a seven year hiatus. Stefan Hanser is the creator behind Anemone Tube and here constructs their newest offering as a concept album
Hostage Pageant is an American solo harsh noise project active at least since 2010. The Rusty metal and no references whatsoever on this releases cover immediately caught my eye. Right from the start, “Abuse Generator” presents itself like something straight up my alley.
“Mythos” offers up five slices of seared, atmospheric & sometimes layer active Harsh Noise Wall that’s themed & based around HP Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythology. Carrion Black Pit is the horror themed AHNW & HNW project São Paulo, Brazil based Elias C who is most known for the great Harsh Noise /Industrial/HNW/noised-up Sword-and-Sandal soundtrack project Sleep of Ages.
“Vastgebonden” is the 12th & last in the series of twelve monthly 3 inch CDR releases that were been put out through-out 2011 by Ireland's Bored Bear Recordings. Each release in the series celebrates, pays tribute and chronicles one of the many projects of highly influential & respected Texas noise artist Richard Ramirez.
The practiced musicians of Combat Astronomy have valiantly attempted to further bridge the gap between free jazz and extreme progressive metal with "Flak Planet", a smoothly flowing 8 track album of 30 minutes, describable as a sinewy, concise and confident statement executed with flawless musicianship.
For some people, it is easier to appreciate a musical genre or movement when free of the exigent cultural pressures associated with said genre or movement. That is, it’s more enjoyable to listen when a chunk of society is not telling you that a certain album or band DEMANDS your attention. For example, it was much easier for me to enjoy listening to Faust after they initially folded and before the nouveau appreciators (hipsters) were telling anyone who would listen that Faust Tapes was beyond brilliant…..and that they scored a copy for 3 bucks at a local flea market. Or, learning actually to enjoy the Deftones without someone screaming about their importance to Western musical culture and covering you in toxic flop sweat. Having a calm re-appreciation in a quiet corner is more conducive to having an open mind and ears; no noisome hucksters trying to bludgeon and sell you the hype du jour. Not to mention friends ruining your tequila buzz with some partially-regurgitated promo bilge while you vainly try to enjoy that GYBE album being played at an otherwise interminable party.
Marcus Fjellström is a young Swedish composer now based in Berlin and Schattenspieler marks his third album to date, but also his first that was wholly conceived after graduating from his studies in composition and orchestration in 2005.
“The Narrow Garden” is the latest work by the violinist and composer Eyvind Kang. It has seven tracks, all wonderfully cohesive and yet different; roughly speaking there are four songs and three instrumental tracks - two of which enter more textural territories.
‘Black Metal’? Does the term actually mean anything in 2012? Or has the term actually become almost functionally meaningless, like say ‘ambient’, ‘experimental’, ‘krautrock’ (nasty term), ‘prog’ or ‘shoegaze’? Additionally, what is one to make of compound terminologies like ‘atmospheric black metal’, ‘blackgaze’, ‘depressive black metal’, or ‘postgazemetal’? Are such categorizations even really useful at all except as nebulous marketing terminology? For me, ‘black metal’ functions best as a term when used in a more historical context (though still fraught) or as a general term to describe a set of musical/production techniques resulting in a certain type of sound (fraught as well).