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Off the map finds Hwyl Nofio Main man Steve Parry and one of his co sound conspirators in Hwyl Nofio Fredrik søegaard creating an album of disorientating, melting, noisy and alien sinster guitar based sound worlds. That go from been bizarrely meditife, discordantly beautiful to down right wrong sounding and reality bending.
Maaaa are a Russian noise project that here consantrate on two tracks of harsh screeching and metallic dragging, glass cracking, and junk yard crashing mayhem. This was original released on Triangle micro label in a edition of 20, here it’s brought back into garish violent live by kovorox sound- in a rather nice half size lime green dvd case, with orange/black outlay cover.
A total slitting of Throats finds Sam McKinlay Aka The Rita mixing and layering together his own work along with that of Mania, Treriksröset, Sewer Election, and The Cherry Point into wall of unforgiving dense noise. Making just over an hour of the finest most punishing and unforgiving ‘wall noise’.
Psyche nomine offers up a collection of slow moving electro beat landscapes weaved with horror soundtrack/dark melodies tinged synth work, minor piano cord atmosphere and mumbled and echoed vocals. Hardly a revelation of an album, but it does slip by darkly enjoyable enough.
I’ll have to admit I’ve been rather underwhelmed by previous Burn Star Core I’ve heard. sure there where some interesting ideas, but somehow it never seemed to gel quite right or the ideas where streached out far too long with little growth. Blood Lighting 2007 is much better than I expected far from perfect, but pretty damn good- it feels more focused, atmospheric and strange in an interesting, not in annoying way.
Ben Cooper has previously recorded with Alex Cane as a part of the duo Electric President. This is his second full length solo recording, released under the Radical Face moniker, and the first for Morr Music. Ghost is a well recorded album, and it has an intimate feel which draws you in with the first couple of tracks.
Strjon is Arve Henriksen third album that once more finds him mixing his talented and creative trumpet playing with electronics and other instrumentation. To create a textural and emotional varied collection of tracks, which are tuneful and inviting but also dark, textured and experimental.
With Honey Rose Rameses III make a very rural/country fed take on ambient and warming slightly haunted soundworlds. Utilizing guitars, envromental & found sounds and the odd traces of flute and subtle synth like tones.
This second collaboration between Merzbow & Nordvargr finds the pair once more mining the more rhythmic and ambient based facets of each others sounds. The material never really going fully noise bound, it always has traditional rhythmic or musically or ambient washes to keep it in check. Which is a pity if you’re looking for a more traditional Merzbow releashers, but like most of his collaborations it has it's rewarding moments.
Andromache offers up a collection of eastern touched world/modern classical, drone, percussive and mystical work-out tracks all with little surreal/bizarre edged . Making a highly enjoyable and varied near on 30 minutes playing time.
Mercurial Little Jitterbug is another puzzling and oddly rewarding entry in bizarre sound world of Hoor-paar-Kraat, where little makes sense here in a conventional sense. We are present with five audio art forms, that utilizing layered found and environmental sounds, drone textures and an odd ritual air, that are somehow very appealing. Hoor-paar-Kraat mangers to paint your Listening space with a very bizarre other worldly edge.
This great split offers up two noisy mainly guitar based sound sculptures/tortures with eerier and sinister undertones. bring together the talents of prolific New Zealand noise/drone maker Birchville Cat Motel and Uk ten year old guitar noise project opaque.
Dance Enis Dance was original conceived as a piece that could be heard and felt, the idea for piece came about because it’s creator Mike Tamburo is slowly going deaf. With a mixture of Acoustic guitar, amplifier, Tibetan bowls, chromatic harmonica, hammer dulcimer, etc, Tamburo has managed to create a long form piece that’s covers a lot of territory over it’s half an hour running time. From droning autumnal like mantras, to shimmering feedback haze, to elegant folky finger picked elements and odd psychedelic/ rhythmic soundwork.
Gudrun Gut runs the excellent mainly female based German label Monika, as well as been involved heavily in the German alterative scene and an ex member of Elinstürzende Nebaunten. This is her first full length, which is a clever layered mix of various musically styles and moods. Predominately dance beat/ electronically led, but always inventive and fresh in it’s use of sampling and smart audio editing.
This is the first dark fruits of Chet Scott’s of Ruhr Hunter, Elemental Chrysalis and Glass throat records metal project. It’s a inventive and surprising mix of Black metal, doom, darkly tuneful traditional metal elements, ritual air, traces of forest cinematics and dark ambience. All with Scott’s very distinctive pagan and natural led themes.
Most of western civilisation will never encounter horror or fear in the clichéd horror film surroundings. we rarely going out of our well lit cities and towns into the countryside; and we hardly ever go near creaking houses in the middle of nowhere. So our base and understanding of fear and death is now very urbanized, that’s what excellently David Kristian & Ryosuke Aoike focus on with Ghost Stories, urbane chills and very real scares.
Lisa Gerrard’s work both as part of the seminal Dead can dance and later solo work has a very distinctive feel and personality. It falls some where between world music, classical, soundtrack and rich ambient sound painting. This career spanning retrospective shows some of her most breathtaking, rich and powerful moments.
Red State is a wonderfully bedraggled and apocalyptic lo-fi take on indie rock cum folk with electrnocia elements and pop smears. I't's bleak with drugged out overtones and avant garde twists, noisy discharges, hazy barren viola cinematics.
Basic Programming comes form the excellent Warm Circuit label who brought us the great Modified toy orchestra album. Again old and modified technology is used, this time as the projects name suggests their mainly utilizing an 80's home pc favourite the ZX Spectrum.
This is the first of the second patch reissues of The Boredoms ‘off on another track’ Super roots ep’s. It finds the group investigating the rhythmic and jamming properties of their sound often in a veryapproachable manner.
Halve Maen was released in 2005 as a double LP. This double cd reissue is an exact scaled-down replica of the original package, including the gatefold sleeve. The music would fit on one cd, but that's nothing to complain about really. The cover art is an integral part of Halve Maen. It sets the scene for the weird and mysterious music enclosed in its sleeves.
The city of Bleiburg is now located in Austria, on the border with Slovenia. It is infamously known as the location where thousands of Croats were murdered by communist partisans. Horrifically, the Croats, who fled their homeland, surrendered to the British, and were told that they were going to be sent to Italy, when, in fact they were put on trains, and directly into the arms of the partisans, who had quickly taken over.
This collaboration between Cloama & Gelsomina perfectly balances muilt-layered noise craft with rich droning and melodic moments. Making noise compositions that are both engulfing & somehow haunted and mesmerizing too.
Beggar Master is a useful reissue of Aarron Dilloway’s( Ex Wolf Eyes & Hanson records main man) first solo album. Original released in a vinyl only pressing of 300 back in 2005, here it is in all it’s seething unpleasant glory for all to enjoy.