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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.
“The Princess and the Newsreporter” is the latest slice of Audrey Hepburn obsessed HNW from this Swedish based project. As with all of this projects work this is based on one of the films of Ms Hepburn career, and this time its 1953’s Roman Holiday which paired her with Gregory Peck, and told the story of a bored and sheltered princess(Hepburn) who escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman(Grant) in Rome.
This perfectly recorded and mixed live recording is taken from one of Merzbow’s 2009 live sets, and it shows the Japanese god of noise in fine ‘n’ shifting form. It also finds him offering up a purely electronic based set, so those who have not being too keen on Merzbow’s recent forays into live, brutal and improvised drum based noise, this go down very well indeed.
When playing as part of Einstürzende Neubauten for the last 30 years, it could sometimes seem a little incongruous to see Alexander Hacke barechested on stage, arms windmilling around his guitar as he accompanied his more subdued and sophisticatedly besuited colleagues. So it comes as no surprise to find heavy rock a bit further to the fore throughout some of his scarce solo releases such as 2005’s Sanctuary. However, his love of the power chord has never been more explicit or unadulterated as on 'Doomed', a clear, unashamed tribute to the doom metal genre.
Seasoned noisician Prurient proves with "The Black Post Society" that his talent is not limited to the idiom of noise. He is capable of truly experimental music that no longer adheres to any established aesthetic, and displays a forceful and highly unfamiliar logic. He crafts distortions with an exactitude admirable regardless of genre. Furthermore, stately, somber melody lingers patiently behind every sound on this album, tinting the harshness with gothic poeticism. The dim, meditative gulfs and intense ritual focus of dark ambient and the glorified hopelessness of black metal have been transplanted and imbued into this, harshest of all mediums, and the result is an album to facilitate high speed astral travels most any soul would find it difficult to prepare for.
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.