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“Pro Liberate Dimicandum Est” is the sixth full length release from Austria’s Hrossharsgrani. Alex Hugin Weisser is the musician and creator behind the name. To that extent it must be mentioned that the catalog of demo and split releases for Hrossharsgrani is extensive to say the least! Weisser is also the aligned with projects Uruk-Hai and Hrefneshot.
Polish electroacoustic musician Michal Jacaszek has been creating electronic, ambient and modern classical music since 2004. “Pentral” is the 2009 release on Gusstaff Records. To give a bit of background; Pentral is Latin for temple, inside or spirit. Jacaszeks goal was to use sound to describe the interior of a gothic church (He recorded sounds and instruments in three historic churches in Gdansk).
Of late Texas based noise supremo and HNW originator/innovator Richard Ramirez has been very, very busy releasing more material than his usually highly prolific out-put. Over the last few months we’ve had a three tape c90 box set from his & Sean Matzus Last Rape project, a three c20 box set of work from his bigfoot obsessed project Fouke, along with all manner of stand alone tape releases and splits from his many and growing list of projects. With “Nightmare Park” Ramirez offers up a new three tape box set of from one of his most popular and know projects Werewolf Jerusalem- with this boxset been the 70th release under the Werewolf Jerusalem banner since it was first used back in 2001.
“Exp” finds this long term electronica minimalist and Raster-Noton label /collective founder offer up a double disc audio/ visual set that compacts & condenses the label distinct and clinical sound into smaller & often jarring sonic bites. With the album going from stripped static built beat scapes, onto retro synth and electro washers, through to more noisy and complex beat/ electro texture scapes, onto sleek electro funk elctroinca work-outs and beyound..
The Sun Turns Black is a new HNW project from Minneapolis based Stefan. S (who runs the New Forces label and is the mind behind harsh noise project Breaking The Will). This c30 tape offers up two side long tracks of fairly active, barren and storm licked wall-making that’s all inspired by the end of the world myths as detailed in ancient Norse poems.
'Violent Noise Atrocities' label owner, who is also the father of the young, yet prolific project "Churner", is releasing albums on a pretty fast pace. The last Churner album I got for a review for a different web magazine was 'Terminal Disorder', and today I am listening to 'Adhesive', which sounds different and shows another side to Churner's music.
“Libido” is the first release from new and highly promising Russian Federation based HNW project Segment Aura. The album offers up three relatively short, but highly consistent slices of ‘wall-making’- making this certainly one of the best début HNWreleases I’ve come across this year.
“Le Vide” is a split HNW C40 tape that’s inspired by the work of French Neo-Dada artist Yves Klein-who worked between the late 1940’s and early 1960’. It brings together a side a piece from unrelenting French HNW master Vomir and male/ female Texas based HNW duo The Godless Girl.
“Le travail doit être maudit”(English translation work must be damned) finds this HNW project from north/east France creating one hour of unchanging, highly seared & brain boiling walled matter.
Ural Umbo started life as the title of a track from 2008 found midway through an earlier Utech release, the self-titled ‘Sum of R’. Their doomed, minimal sound was lead by Swiss multi-instrumentalist Reto Mäder who Utech have now put together with percussionist Steven Hess, previously heard with Chicago electro-acousticians Haptic, to form Ural Umbo. While the intention behind their name isn't clear - umbo is a part of the inner workings of the ear, while Ural usually refers to a Russian river, mountain range or motorcycle – the track names themselves betray it's intent: 'The Lights Would Stop Flickering', 'Theme of the Paranormal Feedback' and ‘Among the Bones' all serve to reinforce an aura of occult activities played out in the dark.
The very title of this album got me all a-flutter. Electronic music from the analog era! Tape hiss, Mellotrons, Moogs and Echoplex delays! And all those thrills without even me having pulled off the shrinkwrap.
The first European Harsh Noise Wall festival had been planned to have taken place on the 17 April 2010 in Paris, France. It was sadly cancelled due to the eruption of volcano Eyjafjöll under the glacier Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, which blocked all European flights for over a week and meant none of the artists could get to the festival. This two disc set commemorates the festival that never was in splendid fashion, as it features a track from each project that was due to have played at the fest.
Biomass is a solo project of Panos Kyveleas an Italian who for the last three years has lived in Athens. This is his third release and is on Greek label Low Impedance Recordings.
Dan Fröberg is a sound artist from Sweden, of whom I don't know much about. Apparently his label's site calls him a "wild man of the arts". Well anyways there's nothing really outright "wild" about this rather conceptual release, being recorded with glass instruments and found sound, with rather long and windy liner notes going into depth about the theories behind the piece.
Up and coming noisician Kanin Krusete alternately bangs out short, simple stoner rock tunes and 5 minute chunks of harsh noise. "Like A Thing" is my first exposure to Kanin, and contains some of the harshest sound I've heard all year, possibly ever. The almost laughably fuzzed out, crunchy sound of the guitar is immediately satisfying, though it's hard to know what to do with it... You can't blast this album (it will KILL your hearing), jam out to this album, reach a cathartic inner space with this album, analyze its structures or intentions... Kanin's compositional abilities leave something to be desired, his playing lacks any real direction or finesse. He tries to play riffs in about two thirds of the music, and they are uninspired, cliched and simple chord progressions hardly updated from the era when Black Sabbath played them in the 70's. Listening to the album, one gets the sense that Kanin feels the massive distorted tone of the guitar makes up for these riff related shortcomings, but this is only occasionally the case.
This self titled c110 tape offers up two very lengthy slices of grim, hick and very hypotonic HNW from this mysterious, skull and crypt obsessed project from the west of France.
Rob Copper is an Australian sound artist’s, painter and Sculptor. His sonic work is best described as quite barren and often windswept- he uses a mixture of junk yard like drone ‘n’ pick matter along with percussive like elements, windy and barren field recordings, tape noise, sometimes clocks and other unusual mechanised or wind-up objects to create the creaking, bowing and often quite desolate feel of his sound works.
“Of Steel, Bone and Fire” is the second full length release from Metaconquerer. J. Stillings, also of Steel Hook Prosthesis, solo project. This is the first time I’ve experienced Metaconquerer, and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. Influences of Nordvargr, Lustmord and Sleep Research Facility can be heard but I think it’s more of a compliment than imitation.
Like the name of the album suggests, this is the second part of 'The Empty Circle' trilogy by Portugal based Joy of Nature. Released by the label Ahnstern, Part two of The Empty Circle trilogy is described as more vocal-oriented, and this can be noticed immediately upon listening to these 14 tracks. Not only do all these tracks have singing voices in them, but it is also apparent that these singing voices have different characteristics to them on each track, and combined with the music that ranges from medieval folk to militant anthems and even soft psychedelic music. The result is a high quality, diverse and almost spiritual album.
Tanya and Igor of the Eastern Front label know how to handle the art on their releases, that's for sure. The beautiful cover for Bleiburg's album, one of many in this project's discography, resembles an old book and looking almost authentic. It holds an impressive booklet within it that tells a story in German (I think?), that I cannot understand. The only English text tells about a part in the history of Hungary, which we can assume is related to the concept of the album. Bleiburg's music, a fine blend of Neo Folk, romantic music and militant beats, tells a story with the addition of voice samples and changing musical dynamics and give life to the historic pictures and text.
“Your Persuasion My Perversion” brings together two of Richard Ramirez's greatest loves; pummelling noise and S&M linked gay sex. The release consists of a C20 tape and a ten minute DVDR of manipulated and fucked with footage taken from French director Jean-Étienne Siry's 1976 gay S&M movie Poing de force(Fist of Force).
This C40 split brings together a side a piece from Oklahoma City based doom crawlers Persistence in Mourning and unmoving/unrelenting French HNW master Vomir- it’s a strange mix, but each side mangers to complement each other rather nicely making this a very worthwhile split.
L’Exorcism self titled début album is an extremely grim, nasty and occult licked collusion between drum-less black metal guitar discord and seared waves of extreme noise. The project brings together male and female duo Joseph Gates(Slaughter-Fetus, Vargrwulf, RSP & Peiste) & Vanessa (Slaughter-Fetus, Peiste & Bast).
If Quentin Tarantino ever makes the western he’s often threatened to make, Guano Padano would be the ideal house band of the local saloon, grooving with an unknockable, deadpan resolve despite the gory carnage sliding over the dance floor. Formed by guitarist Alessandro Stefana, whose debut solo album came out on Important three years’ ago, Guano Padano’s core is completed by drummer Zeno De Rossi and bassist Danilo Gallo, both from Italy’s El Gallo Rojo collective.