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The Thirteenth Assembly is an ensemble of New York virtuosos playing a sophisticated and expanded form of jazz that includes influence from a great many genres, as well as instruments atypical to jazz, such as the viola, which gives the whole their sound a somber Romanticism. Their new album, "Station Direct" is their second album in 3+ years of existence, and it's a dense, ambitious piece of work. It would seem they prefer quality over quantity.
The Pain Gallery was released in 2010 in the midst of Churner’s most prolific year to date. The one man noise generator from the Southern States released a total of 27 solo albums that year, not including numerous split releases, of which The Pain Gallery was the 18th. With such a high level of output it is unclear how to approach it all; and, with its often formless layering of relentless improvised noise, this isn’t a music that always rewards repeated listens despite its powerfully forceful mix.
I guess Controlled Bleeding don't need much of an introduction. Even if probably they don't like the definition, they've been among the prime movers in industrial music, crossing every imaginable genre during the span of more than three decades.Sadly they lost two members in the last few years, Chris Moriarty and Joe Papa, but the latter is still featured on some tracks of this CD.
"Winter Mind" is the debut tape of appropriately named American act Filth, aka Rob Buttrum who also runs Texas noise club House Of Tinnitus.
“Kill! Kill!” is c36 split that brings together two side long tracks of murderous, unforgiving & sleazed US based HNW. On side one we have West Virginia based Foul who have been putting thick ‘n’ horror fed walled noise since 2009. And on side two we have a side long track from relatively new Texas based project Snuff Film who offer up their pummelling and sadistic take on the HNW genre.
“Catoptrophobia” is the latest slice of seared 'n' battering sonic sickness from highly the prolific & unrelenting Serbian HNW project Dead Body Collection. This pro-pressed CDR offers up a single near on hour long track of bass ruptured & truly intense walled noise with a macabre & brutal flavour.
Sorry to say that I was unfamiliar with Huntsville until hearing their new album For Flowers, Cars and Merry War. From what I have been able to find out the band is an improvising trio from Norway. The music seems to be situated in some post-rock/ ambient context, with wide-ranging influences. This is the band’s third album, after Eco, Arches and Eras (2008) and For the Middle Class (2006).
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.