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From the looks of this cover, I was expecting another Black Metal release. But actually this is blackened Dark Ambient -- no guitars or drums to speak of, just synths and various processed sounds.
"Ruined Hope" finds this long running Vancouver based one man project offering up a c30 worth of very brutal, loud and unforgiving juddering, drilling and grinding HNW matter.
This lengthy titled 3inch CDR finds brutal French HNW act Å kicking up a really nasty, layered and searing wall of extreme noise that both batters and roasts your mind in equal measures.
'For 2’ is a compilation of eleven pieces recorded by Germany’s Carsten Nicolai between 2003 and 2008 that are thematically linked by devotion. Like its 2006 predecessor ‘For’, also released by Line, each track carries a dedication suggesting focus points for the compositions, that while not always conceivable act as a portal through which Nicolai’s synaesthetics can be digested with more context than usual.
Einer Nielsen was a Danish medium of the first half of the last century that claimed to be able to invite physical phenomena from the spirit world, a claim that was often refuted and once led to a spell in prison. This ectoplasmic analogy is perfectly suited to this two-part sound sculpture, representing one of over ten solo releases so far this year for Norwegian Andreas Brandal, head of experimental noise label Twilight Luggage, who has been soundtracking the darkside since the late eighties.
This CD and DVD release is a celebration of 25 years of O Yuki Conjugate. What you have is a recording produced by all the members of the three line ups of O Yuki Conjugate in a studio in West London 25 years after their first ever gig at the Newshouse pub in Nottingham.
Well, just looking at the 'sensitive' artist on the cover (or I'm pretty sure it's the artist here anyways) I knew I was going to hate this record. Probably the kind of thing I was expecting to be sent to review one of these days... To be fair, however, Darren Keen of the Show is the Rainbow isn't the worst musician I've heard. At least he's competent enough stringing a melody together (after a fashion), and that's more than I can say for some self-styled 'artists' out there...
Mem1 is a very ambitious duo combining modular electronics with cello. As far as I can make out, this release features collaborations with other artists.
Museums of Sleep brings together two of the most creative and respected minds in HNW and noise in genreal- we have Norwegian Andreas Brandal who is highly prolific and features in the following projects: Flesh coffin, Hour Of the Wolf, Drevne Bolesti, Avmakt. And Canadian Cole Peters whose is in the great & always inventive HNW/ Harsh noise project Gomeisa and runs the stasis label.
This C40 put out by the mysterious Absence tapes brings together two sides of tight, precise and entrancing Harsh noise wall matter. With a side long piece from Fouke Richard Ramirez's bigfoot obsessed project, and a side long track from the XSXCXEXBX a secretive four pieces that features members of the Absence tapes collective.
Phelios is a dark ambient project created by Martin Sturtzer that began in 2002. “Astral Unity” is his first release with Malignant Records (although he has released material with Eternal Soul Records and self released material also).
Among the records in my collection is a live collaboration between Loren Mazzacaine Connors and Keiji Haino. I would have given more than a few body parts to have been watching the two of the playing the music I hear on that disc, but in my mind’s eye I saw both of them hunched tightly over their instruments, eyes down, hair over their faces, releasing one plangent string of notes after another.
The spectularly prolific Krimson had a busy year in 2009, releasing in more than two dozen releases as Churner on his own Violent Noise Atrocities label. Amongst them was this 3" CD, entitled "Against the Grains". Here, Krimson delivers an appropriately 'churning' 20 minute slice of emotionally neutral harsh noise wall. His tendencies towards freewheeling harsh noise freakouts and general frantic activities are mostly suppressed, though I intuit there are bursts of restless activity just beneath the threshold of audibility. There is a 'foreground' and a 'background'; a feeling of spacial depth and denseness, showcasing the sophistication and intuitive intelligence of Churner's compositions.
“Bedem” finds German HNW project Die Reitenden Leichen (aka Matt Nihil whose also runs the Monolithische Aktion lable, and is in numerous noise projects like MX Nihil, The 120 Days, ect) offer up a c20’s worth of brutal, moving and rewarding HNW matter.
Pumpkin Buzzard has reputedly spent most of their career dabbling in other genres, releasing lengthy albums on experimental and noise label Jeshimoth, but for the purposes of their foray into sludgy rock and roll, "Knowledge Zombie", all they play are atonal, bass driven stoner jams, mostly limited to 4 (power) chords.
Goatsnake is a doom-metal group from Los Angeles that happens to be on the greatly esteemed Southern Lord records. This is a reissue of the Flower of Disease album from the year 2000.
If I saw this in a record store I’d be expecting something completely different to how it sounds. Never judge a book by its cover I guess but the artwork on this just makes you expect you’re about to hear an Ozric Tentacles album. Big patches of colour on an 8 panel fold out sleeve that look like they’re done by some stoned hippies with a big packet of felt tips. No offence to anyone who likes that sort of artwork but it really gives completely the wrong impression of the album contained within it and could easily stop people casually picking it whilst browsing. But that aside what does the music sound like?
This split brings together two of the most prolific, brutal and unrelenting Harsh Noise wall acts. On the right hand side we have Serbian based Dead Body Collection whose amassed twenty plus release of his gory and medical obsessed barbaric sound torture since the project inception in late 09. Then on the left hand side we have the black plastic bag wearing, nihilistic and total unrelenting French act Vomir whose amassed coming on for sixty plus releases since the project started in 06.
“Melancholia” finds this Italian based Harsh noise & HNW project offering up a twenty minutes worth of agitated and droning walled matter that nicely crawls into your head in a very spiteful and nasty manner.
Irish based Where is this ( aka Mark Ward) likes to dabble and try different sounds and genres to mix-up something quite distinctive ( if a little haphazard at times). The projects first release “in the privacy of your own home” was a unhinging , yet original mixture of : retro synth sound tracking, Harsh noise, easy listening to industrial rhythms, and slight electroinca after traces. With this new release we have a sort of bastardised mixture of:shifting & textural altering HNW, stuck electroinca with whiff of atmospheric and stuck bombastic ‘n' bassy noise texturing.
An autopergamene is, allegedly, “a spell or charm wherein you write in blood, on a fragment of skin, what you wish to happen”. Hence the track titles, “You Write Your Name In My Skin”, “You Write Your Name In My Head”, “You Write My Name In Your Blood”—okay, now I’m wondering what kind of spell is being invoked here. Can’t be anything good with all that viscera being used as the parchment.
Exposing the Rib Cage is a live recording revealing the results of a three-way British Columbian power electronics team-up involving Sam McKinlay (The Rita), Josh Rose (Sick Buildings) and Harlow MacFarlane (Sistrenatus and Funerary Call). The set is a single piece just over one hour in length that explores the extended interplay between a limited arsenal of generators and effects to create a monochromatic Arctic tundra.
Steadily, smoothly, slowly flows out the breath of god, from Steve Roach and from Locrian, a Chicago based post metal and noise ambient group. Who would have thought the guitar held such hallucinogenic powers? "The Crystal World" is a double album of deep, rich drones and sacred horncalls that become realms. Locrian's sonic materials are vast, kaleidoscopic and cloudlike; they lighten the mind and allow traversal through the tenebrific, dimly lit gulfs - from anguished, bloody beginnings ("Triumph of Elimination") on to the crystal world and the ash black wood beyond. These are dissonant clusters birthed in the ruined factories and wells of dark water. There are occasional eruptions of funereal black metal fury ("At Night's End") that show the band's skill at creating haunting, huge progressions. Locrian has created a cavernous, cosmic sound that reflects both a radiant derangement and a spiritual enlightenment.
Guillaume Gargaud is a French experimental/ambient artist and "She" is one of many albums he's done either solo or in collaboration with others. His main tools are guitar and electronics.