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2010 saw the release of Mathias Delplanques’ Passeports, a study in the sounds of transportation. Using a combination of field recordings of various transit (harbors, planes and train stations) woven together with various organic, electronic and domestic sounds; Delplanque composes a hymn to movement.
“Als Puntje Bij Paaltje Komt” is a collection of three twenty minute tracks of often stuck noise or automated extreme industrial soundscaping from slightly deranged and offten sci-fi themed Netherlands based noise project Paddo One.
“Rural Route No.3” features bleak, strangely appealing and often jarringly edited field recordings taken from the Shetland Islands in winter 2006. Martin Clarke is a sound artists and experimental film maker from London, and this 3inch cdr is his firth release.
“Static Corps” offers up two 50 minute ‘walls’ of thick, airless, weighty and tar black HNW that’s a guaranteed to bury you deeply in punishing thick sound mass, and blackly sour the world around your listening space.
The common use of the idea of hauntology in music of recent years, while mainly serving to confuse its definition, does at least point to a general running out of fresh musical ideas (and ways to describe them), an ennui replacing optimistic expectation, a disappointed wistfulness for the new that never arrives. And, ‘Sadly, the future is no longer what it was’ serves as a highly suitable soundtrack as well as a succinct title for such a decline.
I have been hearing this band's name for quite a while now. I never took the time to check them out, but I was intrigued when I read about their monthly CD series on a message board somewhere. Apparently, they put out a CD every month for a year on Pica Disk and this is the July edition. I didn't know what their other material sounded like before my first few listens, but I did hear that they always made very different-sounding records and have had a wide variety of styles. It seems that I am reviewing the blown out, grind/punk, improv noisecore style that they so feverishly dabble in.
Nick Grey is obviously a very ambitious artist that I've never heard much about. There has been collaborations with such people as Charlemagne Palestine as well as Martyn Bates of Eyeless In Gaza, both of whom are on this disc, and Grey having a connection with Matt Shaw, otherwise known as "Texlahoma".
Well after not being impressed by the last Utech Records offering I had to review (being another tedious new age release,) this one turned out to be much better. The NYC duo of M. Bassett and J. Gräf prefer a more psychedelic industrial-drone approach.
Upon picking up this DIY hand assembled cd-r one might think it's just another tangent of boring drone piece(s) as the art does not paint an accurate image of what you are going to find here. The art slightly confuses, but the overall packaging is by the book a decent looking release.
'Mubomuso' is Japanese psychedelic band Aural Fit's latest effort containing 5 garage rock style freakouts.
The record label Smell the Stench from Australia, graces us with Dona Ferentes Mud Delicacy. Part Noise, part Ambient and a touch experimental is the general category. A curious release from a curious project is what we have.
Being a longtime fan of Nurse With Wound, I was excited to hear Stapleton had put together another collaborative work, and thought it fitting that he would have chosen a band from the post rock genre, though I was hitherto familiar with Larsen.
Hair on my food tapes brings us a split between italian harsh drone artist Torba from Germany and Australian noise/drone artist Dotåbåtå attractively packaged in a silver on black printed cardstock.
‘Jenseitsflugmaschine’ is a self released twenty minute slice of walled noise from the German based noise project Die Neue Zeit.
“What Thy Wilt” is a very short, sharp, atmospheric and wholly rewarding slice of sonic dread ‘n’ groan and HNW texturing. This 3inch business card release comes in at just under the four minute mark, but it really is quality over quantity here with Gluttoness showing more creativity & talent than some lessen HNW acts show in a full length release.
“Dead end Whoredom” sees this highly prolific(this is the projects 25th release since last year!) and brutal Serbian HNW project focus in more on female torture and serial killer themes, than the projects usual medical ‘n’ macabre based themes. It also sees female screams of torture being added to DBC’s ‘wall’ of sound to somewhat mixed results.
This collaborative album brings together two Italian noise acts for a releases that mixers together: Power Electronics, harsh electroinca, often dense mats of field recordings and a few touches of Harsh noise matter. The two parties involved here are the slightly playful power electronics one man project Corazzata Valdemone and Harsh noise/HNW project Fukte.
Execution Support Act is the truly nasty and unforgiving HNW project of London based noise head Hal Hutchinson. Like most HNW projects there’s an obsession linked to the project, and ESA obsession is various forms of capital punishment, human torture and Anti-humanist ideology.
2010 has seen a few large collections appear on the HNW scene; we had “Stasis: 001” on the Canadian stasis label which offered up near on five hours of ‘walled’ noise from around the world. There was the “Brainkiller” tape box set put out by Italian label Toxic Industries and this featured six hours and forty minutes of HNW from European scene. Or there was “In grim imus nocte et consumimur igni” the seven cdr set put out by Sarajevo based Harsh Noise Wall label Zvukovina, which focused again in on European HNW. But the largest collection by far of the year (or any other year for that matter) was the huge “Alone” collection which I’m reviewing now- it features ten hour long tapes worth of HNW from around the world.
Michael Duane Ferrell, the man behind the Elian project, is one of the most talented minimalist composers I have had the pleasure of hearing in quite sometime. The five lengthy tracks on this CD are bleak and dismal, yet sometimes uplifting, never necessarily depressing, but still shadowy and ambiguous which can leave you feeling a bit directionless. However, that is a good thing in this context. Any music or art of sound that is able to make me feel somewhat uncomfortable yet intrigued is a sign of quality and effectiveness.
This recording is one of many documenting the brutal yet creative noise scene in Slovakia. It's a limited edition of 30 copies, so by the time I review this it will be quite hard to find (I suppose...)
Marinos Koutsomichalis is a noise artist who actually has a PhD in music composition. This release's theme is as described in the title -- being about the malfunctions of electronics and sound equipment.
Dag Rosenqvist is a member of a post-rock group, De La Mancha. With his solo project Jasper TX he moves into a much more atmospheric.
Here we have a split from Toronto’s The Endless Blockade (formed in 2003) and The Bastard Noise (formed in 1991). Both bands have their creative feet in Electronics/ Noise. Where The Bastard Noise finds them enmeshed in a power electronic and experimental vein, The Endless Blockade has more of a Noise and Grindcore bent. Together it’s a combination that works smoothly, each complimenting the other’s strengths.