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Zelphabet is releasing an album for each letter of the alphabet, compiling heavily experimental works by artists whose names begin with the letter specific to the volume. Here we are at volume "J". As a whole, this is a slow paced disk of sparsely arrhythmic, chunky static textures that remain satisfyingly full, fairly unaggressive and mostly within the realm of avant garde sound sculpture rather than violent, full on "harsh noise".
This 3” CD-R, with handmade artwork in a limited edition of 60, sports two tracks that are mildly successful at inspiring curiosity at what full albums from the artists in question would sound like. By themselves, though, they’re only marginal.
Holding the cover of Stratvm Terrors This Is My Own Hell one can feel a bit of apprehension. The long awaited release is bathed in the artwork of Mia Makila, in what seems to be an ode to Hieronymus Bosch, and quite a good one at that. Released in 2008 in limited copies; eight songs drown the listener in a world of hopeless, dark atmospheres. Peter Andersson (of Raison D’etre, Necrophous and Atomine Electrine) and Tobias Larrson (of Ocean Chief) deftly create sounds that plunge us into sound scapes found in our nightmares.
This project is a collaboration between Enrico Coniglio, musician and composer, and deep space ambient explorer Oophoi. Their début album 'Cloudlands', is an impressive work, lasting a little over one hour and projecting an almost frozen environment, drawn together from a mix of glitch, chilly ambient sounds and neo-classical music.
What is it about the smoky, after midnight cabaret of small, dark, jazz and blues clubs that attracts the maturing post-punk reveller? From Kurt Weill’s theatrical chansons through the raw emotions of Nina Simone to Tom Waits hobo vaudeville, the tradition is now being faithfully continued by a new generation. But no one would have expected this most established of styles to be upheld by musicians with roots in the anti-establishment.
“Welcome to the Standard Nightmare” finds this Sarajevo based project offer up a mind chilling, but highly effective C60’s worth of cold, locked & controlled glitch bound Harsh Noise Wall matter
“After Party Massacre” brings together a C47 and mini business card CDR worth of highly rewarding static texture bound HNW from this US project that features: j. cadle(whose also in Foul and Oasis Of Fear, as well as runs the excellent Bane records) and Sam Stoxen(whose also in Baculum, Grain Belt, White Plague and runs the excellent Phage tapes label)
John Cromar of Noma is becoming something of a regular here at MusiqueMachine HQ. In the last couple of months, three of his releases were already scrutinized by the MM crew, and the fourth review is just now arriving on your digital doorstep. Not only, however, have we come to know John – though only through his music – we’ve also come to appreciate him rather a lot – though opinions vary (myself: 3 out of 5, once; Josh: 5 out of 5, twice). If anything the new album stirs a definite curiosity in me: I honestly can’t wait to see what Cromar has cooked up this time.
This C50 tape brings together two just over twenty minute slices of HNW matter from American and Spanish projects. On the first side we have a track from Release Helen Rytka which features Richard Ramirez( whose in Black Leather Jesus, Werewolf Jerusalem, Vice Wears Black Hose, An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter..and many more) and Nicole Dirge(whose in Adult Crash Unit, Battery Suspects, Death Carries A Cane, Massacre In Dinosaur Valley). And on the second side is a track by Transductor which is just Manuel M. Cubas(whose in Mixturizer Cadaverizer Noise, Mac-nolo)
This C90 is the first self titled release from Swedish HNW project that features members of industrial/noise project Crest218. The tape features two side long tracks of active yet very thick ‘walled’ matter.
Knurl is Alan Bloor. A Canadian experimental composer and sculptor based in Toronto and he has been performing and recording as Knurl since 1994.
This is a furious, bleak and sometimes grimly experimental black metal and pitch black ambience split that features two projects by experimental and creative Tasmania based black metal entity know as Sin Nanna. Firstly we have seven tracks from his more know project Striborg that speclizers in a very distinct brand of lo-fi black metal, then we have six tracks from his more dark ambient and creepy experimental project Veil of Darkness. The split runing time totals an hour and twenty one minutes, so really you have two full lengths here
Soft Illusions apparently represents the eighth release so far to be edited solely from a single recording session from back in September 2007 when Sindre Bjerga, Jan M Iverson and Steffan de Turck tucked themselves away in a wooden cabin in the mountains of Hovden, Norway for just one weekend to, as they put it, “fill up a pile of tapes”.
I only have a few records by Aube in my collection, but every one of them is an object of singular mesmerism. I mean “singular” in a very specific way: all of his recordings revolve around the sounds generated by a single object—a glow lamp, a heart monitor, a Buddhist prayer bell, a Bible. Each thing becomes a gateway to a tiny private world.
Minamo is a well regarded post-rock oriented band from Japan who mostly use guitar or piano as the lead instrument alongside various electronic sounds, including the use of (from what I've heard) a Nintendo console. This is a quartet that doesn't have a rhythm section, which is particularly unusual in post-rock, but seems more oriented for ambient music.
Boston’s Benjamin Rossignol has been releasing his experiments with the properties of electronic sound since 2006, often accompanying his releases with objects such as small plastic bags filled with spice, sand or jigsaw pieces to form what he refers to as a “concrete poem”. Here though the object is the cassette itself as the two drones explore the effects that magnetic tape can have on extended tones.
“Bottom Heavy” is the 3" debut release from this Fairfax USA project that boils up an effective and flesh heavy brew of HNW with some slight Power Electronics & plan Harsh Noise touches.
"Sun Broken” took me by surprise. The cover art suggested, at least to me, that something very abstract or harsh is waiting for me inside. But instead, what I discovered is a refreshing mixture of music that immediately brought to mind Tangerine Dream and Ozric tentacles-like psychedelic/space rock. Their sound also has tinges of seventies rock, along with a dirty distortion edge that brought to mind more modern noise rock.
Lugano Fell is James Taylor (no, not that James Taylor) who for twelve years has been a member of Swayzak a UK tech house band, After all this time working in the dance field Taylor decided to do something completely different and came up with Lugano Fell.
Lasse Marhaug is apparently a noise veteran with many important releases under his belt, but "The Quiet North" is the first I've heard from him. This release is a single track, 29 minutes of heady harsh noise that sometimes displays the minimalism of HNW but is very clearly being actively performed by Lasse Marhaug.
“The Process” fires into your listening space an unrelenting, thick, nasty and hope battering slice of HNW matter that hammers and rages against you for nearly 80 minutes of unbreakable sickly & caustic sonic mayhem.
Pinche Madre is the 2008 creation from Remoteband, released by Russian label Abgurd in a limited edition CDR. To say any more, or try to give further information would be futile. Mainly because there is not much to find, even by scouring the internet there’s no webpage, MySpace or Facebook. Hard to believe in this technological age, but Remoteband has appeared to go off the grid by not even being there in the first place.
“Vol VI” offers up two very different sides of sonic work from this prolific, extreme noise and experimental Minneapolis based project. Side one offers up a very tight and rewarding slice of thick jitter bound wall making, and Side two an building & layered slice of experimental sound- scaping.
Eyeless Face are a two piece male and female project from Pittsburgh who summon up a atmospheric soaked & brooding mixture of:flapping and doomed bass guitar textures, sinister to spacey electronics & guitar noise texturing. Along with elements of junk metal manipulation, slurred electronics and jack-knife yet sleazed percussive industrial beat work-outs that appear here and there along the way.