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Rutger Zuydervelt(aka Machinefabriek) has been pretty prolific in the last few years with a steady stream of releases appearing on labels such as 12K, Lampse, Staalplaat and Cold Spring not to mention a huge number of self released CDRs.
“Caffeine Addiction” is sadly the last release from this HNW project of Texas based Casey Duncan, who has now moved onto none wall based sonic endeavours. Stress only releashed four release in their brief life-span, but they showed some great promise and focused intensity on all oftheir releases.
This is a single sided c40 tape release from this three piece Harsh Noise/ HNW project from Dallas Texas. Like many of this projects other releases the tracks here often blur the line between dense Harsh noise & HNW.
In 2009 Christoph Ziegler, the man behind Vinterriket, graced us with Horizontmelancholie. Most of his releases are in limited edition, each being a unique and individual work of art. This release is no different; here we find a 7 song cd on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other side. Earlier works were subtle mixtures of Dark Ambient and Black Metal. Here we discover more of a Neofolk sound combined with Ambient.
For a 10 minute cassette limited to 100 copies, there are a lot of people involved here: Japanese noise stalwarts Guilty Connector are placed back to back with Polish straight-edgers Maaaa thanks to a threesome between some of Poland’s more wayward labels - the small but longstanding XV Parówek, the brand new DIY label Chaosynod and Maaaa’s triangle.records.
“Shadow Voyeurs” is a brutal yet deeply atmospheric two disc collection of long form noise compositions that take in elements of: caustic ambience, noise drone, static texturing, cinematic noise construction and atmospheric Hash Noise Wall dwell.
This new collection of recently recorded pieces focuses in on one of the main sonic crossroads in the career of Cornelius Cardew- one of England’s most respected and influential experimental composers. The collection highlights and charts the change in Cardew sound from been influenced by American minimalist composers such as Cage, Tudor & Feldman, to a more experimental improvised jazz sound.
“Whitehouse Electronics” finds a selection of tracks by the infamous Power electronics project being re-interpreted by avant-grade and noisy German chamber orchestra Zeitkratzer. I guess the idea of any noise projects work been re-done by a chamber orchestra is somehow bizarre and unbelievable, but Zeitkratzer have often tattled very noisy works like Lou Reed's Metal Machine music in the past. And if you think about it the often shifting ‘n’ shrieking tonalities of Whitehouse’s work is prime for chamber re-interpretation.
When alt publishers Feral House took to the road to promote their new book of insights from former members of The Process Church of the Final Judgement they wanted to avoid the usual staid bookstore readings and do something more aligned with the maligned cult’s practices. The ensuing roadshow attempted to recreate aspects of The Process’ Sabbath Assemblies that included oral recitations (this time carried out by the likes of Adam Parfrey, Genesis P-Orridge and Lydia Lunch) and performance of some of the hymns developed by the Church. For the latter, vocalist Jex Thoth and drummer Dave Nuss (No-Neck Blues Band) formed the nexus of the travelling band that sought to recreate these hymns despite the absence of any recordings from the mysterious gatherings of the late Sixties. ‘Restored to One’ features nine of these appropriated hymns whose seriously catchy revitalisations have been naturally captured by Randall Dunn (previously producer of Sunn o))), Earth and Boris).
Trees are a metal band from Portland Oregon that's much talked about, although not much is known about them. The press release on this album absurdly attempts to describe their music in the usual over-the-top heavy metal terms.
D'incise is an electronica (or I suppose) artist from Geneva. This album is composed of rhythms made from field recordings of, from what I can tell, doors opening and closing and other things.
As winter clouds and temperatures roll in, I am increasingly grateful for albums like Nickolas Mohanna's "Transmission Hue", a wonderful addition to my library of ambient synth music, to be filed with Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream or Biosphere. Though this album is not first and foremost 'comfort music', to refer to it as such would not be grossly unfair. It must be stressed that there is no new age cheese here, but nothing dark or unpleasant rears its head either. The warmth and reassuring slow pulsation of the music, which seems to mimic waves lapping a shore, should draw many listeners in right away. From this initial listenability, one comfortably becomes acquainted with the intense emotional underpinnings of the music, none too obvious at first.
“Incomplete Fracture” is a short, tense and aggravated slice of wall making from this highly prolific Serbian HNW project that has notched-up over 30 release this year alone.
“Welcome To the Standard Nightmare II” sees the Zvukovina label offering up another C60’s worth tape abused ‘n’ battered thick yet shifting walled noise matter. This time around it’s the turn of Drevne Bolesti which brings together Andreas Brandal(Flesh coffin, Hour Of the Wolf, Avmakt and Museums of Sleep) and Smrznik( aka Neven Misaljevich).
“No Title” is a short, sharpe but rewarding shot of crusty judder bound HNW from one of the most know and respected names in the worldwide wall scene French based Vomir.
This is the first in a series of five reissues of classic and genre defining albums by this dark & violent Swedish collective who birthed the style of music called black industrial which mixes together elements of ritual & occult tinged Industrial, dark ambience, power noise, and blacked metal into a brooding to pounding dark sonic soup.
Much like any other form of experimental sound, drone music either does something for your or it doesn’t. “It Seems this too has come to an end” is seemingly the third album from this Spring Texas based project, and I can safely say this indeed does an awful lot for me; I’d go as far to say it’s one of my favourite drone records in a very,very long time.
Von Thronstahl has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The name I’ve heard for years, but other than snippets of their songs on Cold Spring Records website, I haven’t delved into the catalog of their releases. Call it fate, but here we have their latest release, a collection of early works, rare tracks, alternative versions of material released previously and unreleased material.
As any Death In June fan knows, each of the project’s many albums have their own distinctive sound, twist and take on Douglas P’s unequalled and one-off song writing & sonic identity. “Peaceful Snow”, I guess, is one of the most distinctive and different albums of the project’s 30 year career, as it features purely piano as a backing to Douglas P’s gloomy & wordy baritone vocals; instead of the familiar acoustic or electric guitar which has featured in all of the other project’s albums.
This untitled two disc collaboration finds these three brutal ‘n’ bleak Serbian HNW acts blending their combined sounds together to create two hour tracks of truly unrelenting, ultra-nasty & tar-black walled noise.
This album started life as some off-the-cuff group improvisations recorded while Matmos, Wobbly and J.Lesser were on a tour in the USA. The improvisations were thenheavily chopped and screwed, layered onto each other, and then had additional overdubs of drums, organs, and other more unusual items added to them at Snowghost Studios in Montana.
Believe it or not, the 90s wasn't the total end of the American underground music scene. That is to say, it was gradual, but I do remember there were still many off-the-wall rock bands that weren't swept by commercialism.
I swear to God something about Kid606 really irritates me. He always gets his name dropped in all the glossy fashion/music/art/lifestyles magazines but I find little substance in any of his much-ballyhooed hiphop recordings. More like the hipster version of hiphop -- all surface, maybe occasionally vulgar but inconsequential.
Paintings for Animals, self-described as 'an esoteric vocal electronic project', is an outlet for the work of one Pearson Wallace-Hoyt, currently residing in Olympia, WA. His music is occasionally quite traditionally dark ambient, but surprisingly focused and powerful, channeling the calm lucidity of various monastic traditions. His latest, "Thee Forest Ov Psalms" is a deeply meditative and spiritual release overflowing with intensity, not to mention rarer, more exotic attributes such as aural clarity and 'transparency. It is a CD of simple music and masterfully placed moments of emptiness. Each sound source and its role was so carefully chosen that it's easy to be drawn in by textures and timbres alone, and thus, less proves to be more. It is minimalistic and mesmerizing.