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Upsilon Acrux' latest, "Radian Futura", is a careless and ecstatic instrumental rock serenade, a waterfall of notes that gives no pause for brevity. With one foot planted in lightly distorted, academic and classically progressive rock and the other somewhere between the rhythmically elastic, free flowing realms of jazz and the dramatic, classically inspired "Zeuhl" of Magma, the band dashes at top speed for the stratosphere. Whatever your thoughts as the music plays, it's hard to hold a grudge for long against a group with such high flying ambition and enthusiasm.
“...So You'll Die Pretty” is the third of twelve 3inch CDR releases that are been released by Irelands Bored Bear recordings. Each release in the series celebrate and pays tribute to one of the many projects of highly influential & respected Texas noise artist's Richard Ramirez.
What is the aesthetic quality of noise? It’s a good guess that noise as a musical category will always be an underground staple. Just the name alone conjures images of nails on chalkboard, static and general unpleasant sounds. Yet as of the last few years it seems noise projects are popping up faster than ever. Why? Maybe it can be accounted to the relative ease to produce noise? Honestly, add a few grating sounds plus a bit of distorted vocals or feedback and you’re pretty much there. So what is it that makes artists like Merzbow, Sutcliffe Jugend and Churner stand out from every other project?
This two way CDR split brings together two moorish & intense tracks of lengthy wall-making from these two great US based HNW projects.
Roro Perrot or to give him his full name Romain ‘Roro’ Perrot is better know to most as Vomir- the unstoppable, extreme and black bag wearing french HNW project. This new project it’s best described as harsh-noise-core meets extreme noise improv with a dada edge.
“The Heart Devour” is a caustic and brutal 3inch cdr split that brings togeather French black bag wearing master of unchanging HNW Vomir. And Atlanta, Georgia based noise/ HNW project Absence.Insolution( aka Nicholas Ender who also runs the Pigdurt lable)
“Young Blood” sees the return of this ultra-grim & murderous two piece HNW project from Sweden. This new release only offers up just under six minutes of playtime, but boy it’s an bowl wrenching ‘n’ ear pounding great six mintues worth of noise texturing .
Can you imagine what it might sound like to be walking through or under a vast waterfall of near boiling water…well “Bodil Jørgensen Lover” brutally recreates what it could sound like in a deeply seared ‘n’ face melting HNW form.
This release takes it's name from one of medical terms for a corpse, and the cover artwork for this brutal yet ghoulishly intense HNW release nicely follows the titles theme with a picture of an uncovered mummified & leathery corpse.
An Ark For The Listener is a meditation on verse 33 of Gerald Manley Hopkins poem “The Wreck of the Deutschland,” which concerns the 1875 drowning of 5 Franciscan nuns exiled from Germany. I’m not sure if taking one verse out of a rather long poem works but in case you want to know what verse 33 is here it is:
Avalon Burning is the tenth album from Pumpkin Buzzard released through Jeshimoth Entertainment. To say it defies categorization would be vehemently true. Industrial, pop, psychedelic, hip hop, death metal and alternative rock are combined into a quirky and chaotic creation.
“Misanthropie ist der einzige Weg zur Reinheit” is an 2008 album from ambient, slightly experimental and quirky Ukraine based one man Black Metal project Moloch. This album has seen a few releases over the last few years- it original appeared in tape form on Mistress Dance Records in 2008 (which is the edition I’m reviewing), then it appeared on a ltd Moloch box set in 2008, then lastly it appeared in 2009 in cd format on Azermedoth Records (Mexico).
“Black Supremacy” offers up three C65 worth of sinister, drilling and hypnotic Harsh noise wall & static texturing which is mixed with creepy and unsettling field recordings. Vargrwulf is one of the projects of Louisiana based Joseph Gates (Slaughter-Fetus, R.S.P, Peiste and runner of Violent Revolution International ), and I can safely say “Black Supremacy” is the most consistent, rewarding and re-playable release that Gates has birthed thus far.
Mjr is a minimal, stripped or ambient HNW or static texturing project from the Indianapolis area of the USA. And “11-2010” is seemingly the first easily accessible and purchasable product by this project.
This split offers up two ghost/ horror themed slices of lengthy, heavy and brutal Harsh noise wall making. The split brings together Missouri USA based Mass Graves(which is all the work of one Jeff Landgraf whose also in the great HNW project Oblive) and Serbian based and highly prolific project Dead Body Collection.
Francisco López wouldn’t seem an obvious choice of artist to appear on a label dedicated to audiovisual works. His insistence on the vast majority of his releases bearing no description or illustration (rendering them as sequentially numbered ‘untitled’ works housed in the blankest of packaging) is borne of a purist ethos that allows the sounds to speak for themselves to a listener unadulterated by any contextual matter. So it is with some surprise that this latest release sees two of his works not only awarded names but accompanied by moving images.
This is the first solo album from Drakh of MZ.412 (a black industrial band from Sweden who are currently having a big reissue program on Cold Spring records).
"Merzbient" is a twelve disc box set which offers up a look at a mostly unknown and undiscovered side of Japans king of noise- his more quite, subtle and soundscape basedside. I hate to use the word ambient to describe what's on offer here, as this is often still quite noisy and industrial ribbed in it' s feeling, but it's certainly more stripped, musical and varied than the real noise based material that Merzbow is most know for.
This new release from one of Richard Ramirez's (of Black Leather Jesus, Last Rape, Vice Wears Black Hose, An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter and many other projects) most know and respected projects finds the Texan noise artists' and wall/static noise innovator celebrating the German horror/crime movies of the 1960’s which are jointly called "Krimi" and are seen as the German equivalent to Italian Giallo movies.
Pyramido, hailing from Sweden, play brutish, mid-paced sludgy/doom metal of an evenly structured but quite repetitious nature. Somewhat of a hybrid, their second album "Sand" boasts clean, thick production values and an At the Gates-esque shouting/howling vocal style, not as commonly found in the doom subgenre but extremely typical of Swedish metal in general.
Nebelkorona releases "Tannenhochforst" four years after their last album the rather lengly titled "Reminiszenzen An Das Morgenrot / Relikte Des Abendrotes". The seven tracks on offer here add up to 41 minutes of deeply emotional neo folk that ranges from romantic music to dramatic lamentations. Tannenhochforst is a perfect, dark and wintry album for the fans of nostalgic Neo folk music.
This nice little 3" mini album is the brainchild of Adrian Bertolone who produces his music under the enigmatic name "Ay". Inside this album you will find ten tracks that together last for just a little over sixteen minutes. Some parts of this album last less than sixty seconds while the longest track span for well over three minutes. Within these brief attacks, Bertolone smashes together samples, distorted beats and broken rhythms, resulting in an ill combination of IDM, Breakcore and noise.
Better Undead Than Alive 2 is Code666 10 year anniversary compilation. While that in itself may be a turn off (how many good compilation cds do you really listen too?) here we have the exception. Don’t think of it as a compilation, but more of a concept. Davide Tiso, who is featured throughout the cd, helped compile and edit each track (interspersing them with his own instrumental pieces). Using this idea all the songs feel united despite their differences.
“Sweets From a stranger” is the second in the series of fourteen seven inch vinyl releases celebrating the many projects of highly prolific and influential Texas noise artists Richard Ramirez.