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Pietro Riparbelli does it again. The short-wave radio artist who uses field recording to his advantage this time hooks up with the unknown (to me) Philippe Petit. And it's even better than the last K11 release I've had to review so far...
I wasn't sure what to expect from this tape release. (The review copy I had was on a CDr.) I was sure this was some sort of goth/alternative rock type of thing, what with the rather cutesy title and everything. But this turned out to be another well-done dark-ambient piece.
It looks like Subklinik’s Chad Davis from Massachusetts has had a busy time since recording this charming suite two winters’ ago, apparently inspired by “death, darkness, isolationism, sickness, perversion, [and] cold…”. In the meantime he has also managed to record a second album under the name Mortuor - his ‘power electronics’ guise, a debut album as Anu – his black metal mode, while playing keyboards for space rockers, US Christmas, and joining forces with vocalist Phil Swanson as Hour of 13, a doom metal project. So seemingly led by the more darkly dramatic of genres, Subklinik is perhaps his most prolific pseudonym, reserved for investigations into early industrial sounds.
This wonderful & suggestively titled release is the first of twelve 3inch CDR release that will be released every month in 2011 by Bored Bear Recordings. And all these twelve releases will pay tribute to the many projects of highly influential & respected Texas noise artists Richard Ramirez.
Churner's Psalms Of Aggression is a double CDr set of lengthy, thick, extremely harsh opuses exploring the Christian faith and it's politics. Buried in these slow-moving, dense compositions, you will hear clips of preaching and biblical discussion. Each of the six "psalms" on this release have a very different vibe which makes this release a diverse listening experience. I am not sure what equipment is used to make his sounds, but besides loads of various distortions, I get the notion that much of it is electro-acoustic. All of the grinding, scraping and rattling has me guessing what sort of construction equipment or scraps he has piled up in his basement. This release is not so industrial-sounding, though. He really takes his source material and annihilates it with effects.
Brulvahnatu is the one man Black Metal/Dark Ambient band formed by Kib Sreng since 2007. In that time (from 2007 to 2009) 10 demos have been released. Uterine Acid Swishes is Brulvahnatu’s first full length cd.
The short and simply titled “HN” offers up four slices of grimy, pitched black and nasty noise matter from this doomed and murderous US two piece; whose sound hangs in a grim & diseased place between Harsh noise(with some wallish dwells), dirty and sleazed old school industrial pounds, and soured tar black ambience.
"Catastrophe Point 7 & 8" is a haunting, eerier, original and subdued noisy mixture of: industrial like field recordings, drones and the odd dab of minimalist piano patterning and texturing. The Lethe project is all the work of Japanese sound artists, subtle improviser and uneasy mood-setter Kuwayama Kiyoharu. The project has been in existence since the late 1990’s, and it certainly has a very distinctive, detailed yet unequal feel to it’s sonic unfold.
USA Illinois based noise project Infirmary is another state side act that often treads the thin line between Harsh noise and HNW. The project became active in 2008, and since then they’ve put out about 13 or so release that have taken in splits and compilation tracks along with a few full lengths too. I’ll have to admit in the past I’ve been underwhelmed by this projects work finding it either rather mediocre or indistinct from lots of other projects, but I must say I’m quite taken by the brutal, crude & locked slice of pure HNW on this 3inch CDR.
New name to me but fire island AK is one Thomas Boettner who is responsible for both the music and the artwork on this 3” CDr. Boettner has released over 40 albums as fire island AK. Though the releases all tend to be very limited runs. This album is limited to 33 copies. Limiting things to that amount seems rather pointless to me. How many people are actually going to hear this by the time you’ve kept a couple for yourself, given some to friends and sent some for review. If you’re going to do something limited at least make a respectable couple of hundred.
I haven't really kept up with reggae since the late 80s. I remember when the first stirrings of Dancehall started and it just wasn't for me; seemed like a poor attempt at replacing reggae basslines with cheesy acid-house synths, except using the EXACT same wigged-out tone every song. Not to mention the increasing violence not so much in the lyrics but in the scene as well.
Andrea Marutti (also of Amon, Never Known) and Giuseppe Verticchio (of Nimh) are the Italian duo behind this project. "Forgotten realm" is their second album. Through the five tracks on offer here Marutti and Verticchio shift from disturbing dark ambient to intense and post industrial drones.
The prolific music label The Eastern Front have released many albums since they started in 04. Browsing through their catalogue, it easy to see that Tanya (who is also responsible for the nice art work on this album) and Igor, the label owners, are no strangers to any form of Neo/Militant folk in music and culture. Time after time The Eastern Front shows high standards through their albums and artists that join their ranks and Gregorio Bardini and Gerstein's album, "Arise of a bleeding rose" is no different.
Unlike any single genre or musician that comes to mind, Suspicion Breeds Confidence's "The Fauna and Flora of the Vatican City" is an enigma of an album as easy to puzzle over as it is to put on while completing homework. It's a great armchair chill out record, and it's a mood that sustains it, a mood so thick one could honestly refer to it as a 'sense of place'. By now I've spent many hours in Tobias Schmitt's "Vatican City" - any and all of the 15 tracks will take you there.
Rutger Zuydervelt(aka Machinefabriek) has been pretty prolific in the last few years with a steady stream of releases appearing on labels such as 12K, Lampse, Staalplaat and Cold Spring not to mention a huge number of self released CDRs.
“Caffeine Addiction” is sadly the last release from this HNW project of Texas based Casey Duncan, who has now moved onto none wall based sonic endeavours. Stress only releashed four release in their brief life-span, but they showed some great promise and focused intensity on all oftheir releases.
This is a single sided c40 tape release from this three piece Harsh Noise/ HNW project from Dallas Texas. Like many of this projects other releases the tracks here often blur the line between dense Harsh noise & HNW.
In 2009 Christoph Ziegler, the man behind Vinterriket, graced us with Horizontmelancholie. Most of his releases are in limited edition, each being a unique and individual work of art. This release is no different; here we find a 7 song cd on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other side. Earlier works were subtle mixtures of Dark Ambient and Black Metal. Here we discover more of a Neofolk sound combined with Ambient.
For a 10 minute cassette limited to 100 copies, there are a lot of people involved here: Japanese noise stalwarts Guilty Connector are placed back to back with Polish straight-edgers Maaaa thanks to a threesome between some of Poland’s more wayward labels - the small but longstanding XV Parówek, the brand new DIY label Chaosynod and Maaaa’s triangle.records.
“Shadow Voyeurs” is a brutal yet deeply atmospheric two disc collection of long form noise compositions that take in elements of: caustic ambience, noise drone, static texturing, cinematic noise construction and atmospheric Hash Noise Wall dwell.
This new collection of recently recorded pieces focuses in on one of the main sonic crossroads in the career of Cornelius Cardew- one of England’s most respected and influential experimental composers. The collection highlights and charts the change in Cardew sound from been influenced by American minimalist composers such as Cage, Tudor & Feldman, to a more experimental improvised jazz sound.
“Whitehouse Electronics” finds a selection of tracks by the infamous Power electronics project being re-interpreted by avant-grade and noisy German chamber orchestra Zeitkratzer. I guess the idea of any noise projects work been re-done by a chamber orchestra is somehow bizarre and unbelievable, but Zeitkratzer have often tattled very noisy works like Lou Reed's Metal Machine music in the past. And if you think about it the often shifting ‘n’ shrieking tonalities of Whitehouse’s work is prime for chamber re-interpretation.
When alt publishers Feral House took to the road to promote their new book of insights from former members of The Process Church of the Final Judgement they wanted to avoid the usual staid bookstore readings and do something more aligned with the maligned cult’s practices. The ensuing roadshow attempted to recreate aspects of The Process’ Sabbath Assemblies that included oral recitations (this time carried out by the likes of Adam Parfrey, Genesis P-Orridge and Lydia Lunch) and performance of some of the hymns developed by the Church. For the latter, vocalist Jex Thoth and drummer Dave Nuss (No-Neck Blues Band) formed the nexus of the travelling band that sought to recreate these hymns despite the absence of any recordings from the mysterious gatherings of the late Sixties. ‘Restored to One’ features nine of these appropriated hymns whose seriously catchy revitalisations have been naturally captured by Randall Dunn (previously producer of Sunn o))), Earth and Boris).
Trees are a metal band from Portland Oregon that's much talked about, although not much is known about them. The press release on this album absurdly attempts to describe their music in the usual over-the-top heavy metal terms.