Loading
The Calocyble Collection is an elegant, haunting and sometimes scary collection of vivid sound worlds. Utilizing Classical guitar work, barren electric guitar, piano, organs, Cello and all manner of other exotic intrestrementasion. This is The Elemental Chrysalis first album - it’s a collaboration Between Chet w. Scott (Ruhr Hunter) and James Woodhead.
Live during War crimes # 2 is an edited together collection of tracks from live recordings made at the start of this year. But instead of feeling and sounding like a live album this feels a more constant and un-live really.The tracks are nicely sequenced for maximum effect, carrying a grim apocalyptic metallic tone through out.
Stage is Steinbrüchel's second full-length solo release on LINE, the more ambient/ drone side label of electronica label 12k.Original conceived as a soundtrack for an interactive dance performance. Stage offers up ten tracks or scenes of slow moving, droning sound pictures and tones,that hover in slowly forming beauty to chilling gloom.
Six years ago when Isis released Celestial they were not much more than one of dozens of bands trying to take a piece of the market that had up until then been owned by Neurosis. Their crunch and power mixed with occasional shafts of light made them interesting but not really true contenders. That changed with Oceanic which catapulted them into the position of avant-metal darlings, a status that while not advanced on with the subsequent record Panopticon, was not diminished. Now in 2006 the playing field is very different with the lines between metal, hardcore, post-rock etc blurring ever more does the Isis sound still resonate.
For some reason over the years myself and The Melvins don’t seem to crossed paths. I guess I saw them as been connected to the Whole Grunge thing and then later just a quirky metal band with the guy with big hair.This was a huge oversight on my Part- (A) Senile monster is a wonderfully rocking, chugging riff, drummed up metal come punk masterpiece- that seems to balance perfectly the need for memorable songs with depth and inventive song structure.
KTL tries to bring together grim black metal riffing with electronic/drone music. Putting together the talents of Stephen O’malley( Sunn0))), etc) and Peter Rehberg(Pita). I’m sorry to report it’s some what of a mixed bag, going from grimly beautiful to well... plain boring.
Xela returns with a Halloween treat after the exellent The Dead Sea with two little creepy wonders on this 7". Re-imagine of both John Carpenter’s main theme for Halloween and The mighty Goblin’s main theme for Dario Argento’s Suspira. He really does manage to do wonders with both tracks making them wholly Xela tracks, replaying them in such a clever and inventive way.
This is a four way split album bringing together the talents of four women from across the globe,each with there own sound and identity. As would be expected with something like this the quality does vary, but when this material does shine you need sunglassers, because there’s some real jewels here.
Absolut Null Punkt is collaboration between Kazuyuki of KK. Null and Seijiro Murayama. It sounds nothing like KK Nulls other world sci-fi sound paintings, though it does retain some of look to the stars vibe. What we get is a refreshing mix of punked guitars, odd jazz cut ups, all over the place percussion and metallic drone space scapes. It often brings to mind 50's sci-fi movie soundtracks vibe and in others moments freak out spacey Krautrock jams- sometime bothe togeather. The project was original formed in 1984 then split up in 1987. A few years back the started to do shows together once more and this stands as their first album 19 years in the making.
Waiting for the light to find us is a 20 minute ep heart warming and tuneful collection of country come rock pop tunes. In the manner of later Teenage Fan Club and Tom Petty, or a more upbeat Neil Young. But adding very much their colours to the tuneful tracks.
There’s something deeply unnerve, macabre and down right evil about Boduf Songs second album of hushed folk come dark psychedelic music. Eerier skeletally guitar tones are weaving with bloody tread with odd sound elements and bizarre ritual like air and wordless ambient dread. All joined by dense and often alarming and disturbed well spoken morbid vocals, that hove between been creepily melodic and murderessly bleak.
Absolute noise Ensemble offers up a double disk collection of Francisco López’s noise to ambient to sound structures, collaborations with other like minded souls over the period of thithteeen years. The names that jump out a the causal noise listener straight away are; Masami Akita aka Merzbow, Daniel Menche and Elliot Shape, along with many others.The total number of collaborators here is an amazing 50.
Spectrehorse is sky burials second album, Sky burial is Michael Page of industrial noise purveyors Fire in The heads darker ambient project. Sadly it’s a rather hit and miss affair, relying too much on genre clichés and often sounding like a low budget version of someone else- that said the there are a few tracks here that do offer some dark hope.
This is no time for modesty is a rough and ready mix of punked guitar work, sailing on lo-fi seas instrumental rock glinting with jazzy element and blues nods, with a few quirky avant funny turns. Really a shambolic happy -go- lucky experience, that most of the time works. But sometimes feel a little too raw and laid back for it’s own good.
In the last hour is organic come electronic shifting ambient soudworld with mystique concrete elements- inspired by Iain Banks novel The Bridge . Primary commissioned for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2005, recorded in the local Town Hall- with the audience lying down in the dark with the sound coming from above and all around.
In The Grip Of official treason is Jello Biafra eighth spoken word album, spread across three cd’s, each running 70 minutes plus. Taking material from 2004 and up to summer 2006. As expected it’s rebel rousing, political acidity and often funny rant and rave, dealing for the most part with the George W. Bush administration- but it does touch down in other topics, though more often it does feels tied to Bush battering.
Thighpaulsandra's latest release following on from Chamber Music is the soundtrack to an art installation by visual artist Daniel McKernan which featured "The world's number one transsexual, Amanda Lepore". The piece is divided into three parts but is mixed together as one long uninterrupted piece.
Xasthur firth album Subliminal Genocide is rich with Burzum black metal grimness mixed with post rock and more traditional metal elements. Experimental touches, winter grim licked clear guitar work, and almost a grimy horror movie soundtrack vibe in places. Most of the time the pace is slow and soupy like dragging ones self through grey snow, often the pace wondered towards mid pace, but never really anything too speedy.
You know when you’ve read a review or heard something yourself and compared to having a womb like quality? .Well Not’s Music for womb is just that pure and simply,really what might sound like to be inside adult size womb.
Wererat seems to be concept album related to the nuclear testing and bombing on the Engebi Island in the 1950’s. They experimental for four years on the deserted island- it destroyed vegetation buildings ect, but bizarrely the only thing that survived were rats, been there no food of any form and having to endure great temperatures- it’s mystery quite how and why the Rats existed. Where offer up is dark ambient, droning creep scapes to investigate the story in sound form.
Eternal Hunger is the smaller no less grim brother of this year's Bliss & Void Inseprable, running at just over 20 min mark.More a mini trip into all things droney and doom fired, instead of an all out hellish holiday.
At its base Karma Bloody Karma is a prime dripping death metal/ Grind album, but what make it stand out from the decaying crowd are the other elements that the band adds in. All manner of metal genre pick & mix, grimy melodic moments over slow dieing riffing, electronic twist and curls of sound, off kilter riffing that Meshuggah would be proud and the experimental touches weaved into there slaughter house death mix.
Mudsuckers Self titled album is a droning mix of improvised Rock ,swamp folk, noise , what every you fancy. It’s collaboration between Yellow Swans Pete Swanson and Gabe Saloman, the Charalambide's Tom Carter and Robert Horton.Which in-between the dense layers sound some offers really eerily, beautiful, intricate sound moments. You just have to dig deep, Like the best music this takes time to reveal it’s self.
Resuscitation is a stop start, gut gargling, noise grating 45 minute journey into sound and disorientation.This celebrates and brings together a collaboration that started in 1998 between R.H.Y. Yau (Auscultare & 23Five Inc.) and Kazumoto Endo (Killer Bug) and was finished in 2006.