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I freely admit that it has been more than three years since hearing anything by Steve Roden; there were only vague memories of rather ambient/drone-y music and that I was kindly disposed towards its sound. So, I approached this new release by Mr. Roden with some curiosity.
Blut aus Nords 777 The Desanctification, is the second chapter in the 777 trilogy. The project has been in existence since 1994, headed by Vindsval and joined by GhOst and W.D. Feld. Their latest work, in their own words: “is meant to illustrate the moment when man finds himself embraced in the almost unbearable solitude in a deconstructed world. Here he is void of all material and spiritual elements. No purpose or reason to being, all political, philosophical and religious power negated; leaving reality irreversibly altered.”
Here and now are a British collective who have been mixing up psychedelic & throbbing synth work, space rock, and punk on & off since the early 1970’s. “Give and Take” is the bands debut album from 1978, and this newly remastered version offers up extra material & an informative booklet about the bands early workings.
“Yes Sir, I Will” was the forth & last ‘official’ album by revolutionary Anarcho-punk/experimental collective Crass. The album originally appeared back in 1983, and it saw the band releasing an continuous & mainly free–form improv punk track spread over two sides of vinyl. This new reissue brings together a re-master of the original album, along with a second disc that features a jazz/ noise remix of the album from 2002. And as with all the other reissues in this great series of classic Crass albums the set also includes: a 64 page booklet featuring essays by key members, artwork and lyrics, and a fold poster/ representation of the original vinyl packaging.
Modern recording technologies present an interesting problem for musicians with careers spanning decades: all your recorded music is essentially contemporaneous. Unlike composers in centuries before, performances can now be repeatedly played over and over. This means that modern musicians are always dogged by all their recorded performances; an artist’s catalogue is in constant comparison with itself, regardless of recoding date. Time stops (or greatly slows). Composers before the age of recorded music only had a score, with each performance being part of a moment never repeated again, except in imperfect human memory and practice. With cassettes, cds, lps, and various audio file formats performances may now be replayed and scrutinized ad infinitum with only an individual listener’s patience or stamina as limiting factor. Parallel with all this is that we as listeners change with the passage of time. All of which certainly affects the career and relative success of artists, specifically the career of Peter Hammill and his group Van Der Graaf Generator.
Here’s an album of psyche pop from Kazumasa Hashimoto; ten airy, playful tracks which don’t really reach the heights they might like to.
The prolific teaming of Reto Mäder and Steven Hess, known as Ural Umbo, has released several works of noisy nocturnal incantation since 2009. Their latest LP, "Delusion of Hope", has just seen release on Utech Records, champions of the arcane underground. There are 8 tracks, between 3 and 9 minutes in length. The cover pictures a majestic octopus in bioluminescent blues and oranges over the opaque black backdrop of open ocean, an image well suited to the best moments of the album.
Folter is a new Texas based HNW project that specializes in semi moving, brutal & industrial seared harsh walled noise that has some plain harsh noise texturing running through it. The projects all the work of one Zach Guttowsky (Ex. Protists Of Nebula, Glasgow Smile, INFECTED(TX), Permanent Outlet) who seemingly has only been active in the noise scene for the last year or so.
“Demonology” is the first full length release of this new USA HNW project that focus in on dark & horror fed HNW- the projects all the work of one Clint Coker whose based in Louisiana. Nightmare Castle started out in 2010 and since then has released a few net based releases, a mini cdr, and a few other full lengths, but this was the project first full length release from mid 2011.
"Nightmares Persist” is the first full length release from Richard Ramirez(Texas noise legend with numerous projects) relatively recent fixed HNW/ boiling static texture project A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin which takes it’s name from the LSD orgy and lesbian dream soaked Italian giallo movie from 1971 directed by Italian gore weaver Lucio Fulci.
From the No Wave noises of DNA through pioneering drum machine manoeuvres in improv to glitch-ridden laptop experiments, Ikue Mori has remained a constant flashing beacon on the progressive radar ever since she moved from Tokyo to New York in 1977. Her latest solo album, Class Insecta, presents twelve entomologically-themed excursions that see her combine digital drumming and electronics to bring to life a six-legged spree.
Looking at the title of this record, at first I couldn't help but think about the brutal and seminal "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" LP by Macronympha, but this is a totally different territory.
You can say what you will about black metal but they do come up with interesting cd covers (see above). As to what’s inside those covers can be hit or miss. Ascension was formed quite recently (2007 to be precise) and have thus released a demo and ep so far. Consolamentum is the first full length for the relative newcomers. As to the musicians in the band, that is a bit of a mystery. Rumors abound, but as no one has confirmed or refuted being a member there’s not much to say.
When he’s not being a music teacher at Miami University, Seth Cluett is a multimedia artist, happy working with words, images and sounds often linked to psychoanalytic and philosophic concepts. Objects of Memory is his fifth solo sound-based release which, according to its press release, concerns itself with creating environments, as opposed to linear journeys, that give impressions of “stillness amidst a texture of continually developing material”.
The acclaimed Cold Spring label, famous for specializing in ominous, unforgiving harsher musicks in the industrial and ambient genres, tapped into the rapidly expanding British folk scene in 2010 and released this 2 disk compilation featuring almost entirely little known musicians.
Well now, what to say about this? Shitty inlay artwork (literally, actually), horrendous production, and very little delicate attention to texture and sound… It’s brilliant. As far as I can tell, this is a split tape, with Miserable Absence Of Harmony on one side (you have to hope that name’s from a review…) and Anal Colic/To Die on t’other; both lovingly dubbed over a tape of music from Offenbach, on EMI. If you haven’t guessed already, these bands pursue what I’ve always known as “shit-core”.
Close your eyes and picture darkness. Within this darkness there is sound, it is sinister, measured and fierce. Now within these sounds are feelings: melancholy, exultation and rage. This would be how you would hope an instrumental cd would sound like. With no vocals to guide you in atmosphere and meaning, you only have the sounds the musicians have concocted for you. Excessive musical undertakings can get tedious and overly technical quickly. To find the perfect balance of setting and sound is paramount.
This split C60 brings together two side long, crusty & sleazed slice of HNW. On side one we have a track from the French king of unrelenting & unforgiving wall making Vomir, and on side two we have a track from one of the more recent Richard Ramirez project Gender Sabotage.
“Gjöll“ is a varied & darkly heady collection of tracks that weave together elements of drone, subtle organic noise based texturing, subdued ritual elements, field recordings, murky electro- acoustic texturing and doomy ambience. Jérémie Mathes is a French sound artist and this is his second release, his first release was on highly respected ghost ambient label Mystery Seas in 2010.
Richard Ramirez is probably the man with more projects and monikers in the music/ noise world than anyone else. Once in a while he uses his real name, and this "Choke On It A Little, Then Swallow" is a 3" CDR released in 30 copies by Pigdurt Productions from U.S.A.
“Glaciating 2” is an extremely lengthy & brutally unforgiving lesson in pitch black & cold sounded HNW. The release comes in the form a c95 chrome tape, and it features a single side long track per side of tape.
HCV is the new brutal, dark & seemingly ghost /paranormal themed HNW project of long term USA scenester J Cadle(Foul, ...Massacre, White Torture, I Spit On Your Grave, ect). Helping J create the huge swirling ‘n’ searing walls of noise on offer here is his current partner/girl-friend Amy Smith.
I Watched You Die is the new HNW project from Dubuque Iowa based Alex Nowacki- whose most known for his creative yet hard hitting HNW project Boar, but also has a few other projects focusing on different facets of Walled noise like Centuries Behind A Gate which focuses in on story based unmoving HNW, and Phantom Rib which focuses in on taut almost rhythmic based HNW. This new project sees Nowacki focus in on thick ‘n’ heavy low-end rumble ‘n’ batter based HNW, and this cdr is the projects first release.
The cartoony and somewhat “light” artwork of this cdr, gives absolutely no indication of the joys hidden within: “Purely Natural Abstract Radiance” is four tracks of very beautiful, very measured collage work from Chefkirk (Roger H. Smith). Created using a simple set-up of no-input mixer, microcassette, sampler and field recordings, the album constructs incredible beauty from such an apparently limiting palette.