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“Rail killings” offers up two slices of brutal HNW and extreme static texturing from Werewolf Jerusalem- one of most well know and respected projects of hugely prolific and highly influential Texas noise artist Richard Ramirez.
This CDR offers up two slices of living dead and zombie influenced thick ‘n’ nastily brooding ‘wall’ making from Irish HNW project A View From Nihil.
Though originally released in 2006, then reissued in 2007 “Et In Saecula Saeculorum” feels like it could have been released back in mid to late 80’s with it’s distinctive & highly retro early black metal feel that has very vigorous nods towards the likes of Venom, Celtic Frost & Mercyful Fate. Mixed in with big dollops of: 70’s tinged doomed mettlics, prime evil early Slayer blacked trash-outs, and wondering bass meets horror film organ lined 70’s slightly psychedelic metal work-outs.
Sektor 304's 3rd release and first real album, "Soul Cleansing", released in 2009, is basically late 80's/early 90's cyberpunk industrial metal along the lines of Godflesh with a dash of EBM thrown in, a pinch of modern noise/power electronics along the lines of Wolf Eyes, and an extra dollup of post-apocalyptic science fiction cheese. It doesn't explore any uncharted territory, but it's an enjoyable piece of work.
‘The Cool Scene at Café Bizarre’ attempts to recreate the musical and sonic vibe of late 1950’s and 1960’s Greenwich village Beatnik & smart hippy scene that congregated around cellar clubs like Café Bizarre & Café Cino.
A gruff voice, sounding of years of whiskey and cigarettes. Sparse piano play, nothing fancy but effective nonetheless, just audible beneath that voice so close by, practically pushing through your headphones physically. A song of leaving and loving, telling a story as old as life itself, if not older. The tone is set; Welcome to the Heart literally is the prelude to an insight into the heart of Eamon McGrath, Canadian folk-punk troubadour.
On Cache Cache off Sawako’s Yours Gray, the Japanese experimental musician captures the sounds of fellow artist Toshimura Nakamura performing at the GRAIN gallery space in Japan from various points in the vicinity of the venue; Nakamura’s sine tones carry far, and the high frequency squeals can be heard at quite the distance still, far from the place where the piece is performed. It’s a sort of magic, the way in which these high frequency tones move through air, stone, earth, and transform and are transformed by its environment at the same time. As I pop in The Mother of All Feedback by Claudio Parodi, its high frequency tones that bore directly into my skull from the get-go put a wide smile on my face; the potential of transformation that lies within them is inevitably exciting.
Dan E AKA Churner shares a C30 cassette with Illinois’ Infirmary for his label’s 84th release. For Infirmary it just precedes their debut LP (on Scratch and Sniff Entertainment) following over ten cassettes released over the past two years while for Churner it is merely one in a sea of almost a hundred releases in the same time frame. This sheer abundance of recorded output, mostly self-released, confronts the hardy listener with as much of a challenge as the individual sounds themselves – how to interact with something that’s constantly changing, yet always the same? And this release is as good as any at provoking thoughts orbiting this conundrum.
This C30 tape from always rewarding and distinctive Italian HNW act Alo Girl takes its name from 1972 Sergio Martino directed Giallo moive (original titled “ Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave” ) which featured Edwige Fenech as the young, beautiful, and self-confident niece of burned out writer & possible killer Luigi Pistilli. The tape features on the cover a still from the movie of Ms Fenech holding a black cat to her naked body.
This split c90 tape offers up a length forty five track a piece from two HNW scene newcomers in the form of Vorg & Kaffehitler who both come from the city of Jonkoping in Smaland, Sweden- which is the ninth most populated city in Sweden.
When a band jams in free rhythm with lots of effects pedals, feedback and guitar noise and makes a big soupy, messy drone out of it, I usually call it 'psychedelic krautrock' in honor of those groups from the 70's that first put this sort of sound on record.
Dictionary time. Somnivore: eater of sleep, if my Latin is correct. And Oneiros—one of the sons of Night in Greek mythology. Sounds to me like we’re in for a tolling, rumbling, cavernous excursion into Lustmørd territory, and we are. But a clone this isn’t: like all good records, the stamp of an individual creator can be heard on each track and in every aspect of the recording. Imagine—or maybe better to say recall—the music that resonates in your inner ear right after you’ve floated up from sleep.
Oddly TIM the Band features no one called Tim(or Roland, for that matter!), but instead it features two San Franciscan gentleman who offer up some nice sometimes spaced-out & mellow, to rapidly honked and often electronic loop improvised sax playing.
“Pressure Vessel” finds Chicago based HNW/ Harsh noise project Is creating a single, highly tense and violent thirty five minute track that utilizers only the sounds of the carbonation of water.
Ïîòåðÿííàÿ Ãîðëà (Lost Necks) is a brutal & brain roasting HNW collaboration between Sarajevo Neven Misaljevich(of Smrznik and one of the minds behind the excellent Zvukovina label) and Russian based Alexander Kibanov (from Äåíü Ðàñïëàòû, and many other projects and labels such as Mind Noise Disintegration).
“The Killer Wore Gloves” is a 2008 release from this Giallo influenced HNW project, which featured the projects original line-up in the form of Richard Ramirez (of Black Leather Jesus ,Werewolf Jerusalem, Vice Wears Black Hose, ect) & Isabella K (formally of Anal Drill, ERK64, High Heel Maniac, Limacon, Manplug) who left the HNW scene altogether in 2009.
“Taiwaskivi” is the 8th release from ritual ambient project Halo Manash, and it’s also the most recent release on the excellent occult ambient & mysterious Finnish label /collective Aural Hypnox.
Francisco López uses sound in a holistic way to reward attentive listeners. Adopting Pierre Schaeffer's attitude to sound as having the ability to recontextualise the world as we know it, his objets sonore - or aural pictures - explore the sum of an environment and the sound-making elements that inhabit it when divorced from the other four senses. This forms a proposal for the listener to contemplate outside of language, a freedom so rarely offered by the 24/7 loquacity of the modern age.
“Florescent Bondage” finds creative US noise project Churner creating some of his most conventional harmonic and at times approachable work to date. With the album offering up seven very different and inventive takes on noise with elements of distortion buried synth pop and sound tracking elements appearing along the way.
…. Massacre is a HNW and brutal static texturing two piece that bring together the considerable extreme noise talents of Sam Stoxen(whose also in Baculum, Grain Belt, White Plague and runs the excellent Phage tapes lable) and J. Cadle(whose also in Foul and Oasis Of Fear, as well as running the excellent Bane records that put this great album out).
“Yang Jia” is the first release from French based brutal ‘n’ punishing HNW project Å. The 3inch cdr release takes it’s title from the name of a 28 year old Beijing resident,who in 2007 was beaten by the police while in custody for riding an unlicensed bicycle. Then in 2008 Yang retaliated for his treatment by igniting eight petrol bombs and stabbing six policeman at a police headquarters.
“Goat” find’s Ohio based ultra sludge doom/death merchants Fistula offering up an five song ep based around the case of 50 year old Anthony Sowell who was charged with eighty five counts of rape and murder after the police found 11 bodies at his Cleveland, Ohio department in October 2009.
Power electronics. That’s right. A couple of weeks ago I reviewed Argentum’s We Are the Fire, and ruminated briefly about the how and what and why of power electronics. I guess that whatever I wrote in that review still stands, and likewise also applies to the tape I just clicked into my walkman – Fear Konstruktor’s Philosophy of Conflict.
Geluidpost comes to me by mail – suitably, as the title can be translated as sound mail. A post, however – in Dutch, at least – is also a position, or a place; despite the inherent – and probably intended – ambiguity of the name, this is probably the most relevant meaning of the word. Geluidpost is a listening room in art gallery Lokaal 1 in Breda, The Netherlands, and for the duration of 2007 and 2008 it was curated by Martijn Hohmann, who has dabbled in sound art himself. As a curator, he invited several artists – nine in total – to record a piece specifically for the listening room.