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And soon coffin sings is the fifth release by Aranos in the last 18 months. Such prolific output leads to the question of whether he has been sacrificing quality control in favour of quantity. Aranos is for those unfamiliar with his work a classical and folk violinist, who has worked extensively with Steven Stapleton of Nurse with wound and others associated with that group.
What follows will be a layman's view on Tujiko Noriko, as normally François would be raving about her, like he already did a couple of times (and also Takamasa's Indigo Rose gets that 'treatment'). For that reason I figured it would be nice to hear someone else's opinion, even though I'm not familiar with her work.
The original Hypnagogue CD was released in 2003 through World Serpent in a fairly limited pressing. With the fall of that distributor it has been out of print (with most of Current 93 other work) ever since.
This is a welcome reissue of a classic horror soundtrack, from possibly one of the most notorious films of all time Cannibal Holocaust. When it was initially released, it was band in many countries and it still today remains band or censored in many places.
The drone works series is conducted by the Twenty Hertz label and has featured contributions by artists such as Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, Darren Tate and Bass Communion. For the tenth instalment San Francisco sound artist Irr.App.(Ext) has produced a glacial twenty minute piece that cuts like an icebreaker yet sooths like a field of feathers.
New York, April 2001. At Kaffe Matthews’ request, o-blaat, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins and Marina Rosenfeld join her for the first Lappetites gig. More than four years later surfaces the first CD. In the meantime, the line-up changed radically: Matthews got Eliane radigue, Antye Greie and Ryoko Kuwajima to contribute on Before the libretto. And next releases or concerts could see an entirely different group of people take the stage / record the music.
Three years is a long time in music and three years for Arcturus seems to have been long enough for some pretty fundamental changes to occur. Most notably being the departure of star man Kris "Garm" Rygg and the re-emergence of the band in the live arena. Here they present their long awaited new album with the question being which direction will they turn without the G. man at the helm.
Murcof’s Remembranza shudders through out with cinematic beat scapes. Which are both lush and hypnotic. It’s a wonderful and continually reward album, which will certainly make my best of the year list.
Last years Avalon Sutra was he said to be Harold Budds last studio album, whether he holds to his word or not only time will tell but in the meantime we have the release of a live recording of a concert he performed in Italy in 2003 with Eraldo Bernocchi. I haven’t heard anything by Bernocchi before but he seems to dabble in vaguely ambient electronica and soundscapes. Over the course of seven untitled pieces the two men meander through a delicate rose garden of piano improvisation and electronic texturing.
German Patrick Zimmer is Finn all by himself. He does some kind of spacey pop music that I think I’ve heard before.
The Church of Grob wishes to invite you to a mass for mad people as performed by Steamboat Switzerland. Please do not keep quiet.
Khanate return with what is publicised as a mini album but with two tracks clocking in at forty-five minutes it’s hardly a short sharp shock of a release. The album continues pretty much where Things Viral left off. Minimal, tortured and bizarre arrangements of deathly doom metal and subtle electronic manipulations. In fact the two tracks, which seem to follow the story of a serial killers capture, killing and "release" of a victim, seem even slower and more tortured than on the last album (if you can imagine that).
When presented with the equation strings + feedback + staubgold, one might think of some of Ekkehard Ehlers’ works. Not this time though: Strings + Feedback is the work of Andrew Pekler.
Two years ago, Taylor Deupree and Kenneth Kirschner released an album called Post_Piano, a superb encounter between piano and minimal electronic music. This summer, they released the follow-up, and it’s equally nice.
An earlier incarnation of Electric Wizard rose to fame on the crest created by their stoner rock masterpiece Dopethrone. The band could not be contained, however, and guitarist/vocalist Jus Osborn was forced to reform the band after its premature demise. Osborn recruited Justin Greaves on drums, Rob Al-Issa on bass, and New York's quite lovely Liz Buckingham on guitar, and added the article "The" to the band name in order to make a distinction with the previous line-up. The reinvigorated Wizard gathered in July 2003 to record We Live, which may be considered the debut album of an altogether new outfit.
Sphere was a very pleasant surprise (not sure if Pleasant is the right word). I’d always been curious about Merzbow’s work, but firstly I didn’t know where to start. He must be one of the most prolific artist’s around seemly popping out a new album every few months.
This is not the kind of music you might have come to expect from the Norwegian Jester label. First of all it’s not a Norwegian artist and secondly the music does not contain any electronics. Anthony Curtis is improvised and organic, music played by acknowledged virtuoso’s at their instruments like Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel and Mike Keneally (ex-Frank Zappa, Beer For Dolphins).
Last time we heard from Opeth was with their Damnation album, the second part of a two album set which saw them divide the two main aspects of their sound. The acoustic prog folk of Damnation next to the heavier and rawer Deliverance. Since then they have changed labels, released a well received DVD, and toured the US.
During 2004 Virgin records began a project re-releasing some of the most important records in modern music. Virgin records was in it’s hey-day (probably the late 70s) a label and chain of record shops that was very much at the forefront of cutting edge sounds and new music. Nurse with wound even had most of the pressing of their first five albums bought up and sold by Virgin along side the more obvious punk protagonists of the time. Along with all this was Brian Eno and his series of minimalist electronic records. Perhaps the attention he received from Virgin was more down to his reputation in Roxy Music (that’s the Glam rock outfit) than any light bulb above the head moments from Richard Branson, but never the less it gave him the opportunity to expose the world to a sound and genre that has become one of the most familiar in popular music.
VVM test records, a label that requires a certain sense of humour and of course at least a passing interest in the genre of dark ambient/noise. This debut release by the Caretaker is a quite unique blend of the said style and old 1920s/30s ballroom music. VVM pride themselves on rehashing old music into a new and grotesque form, but for much of this overdriven, reverb soaked oddity they have in fact created a rather fascinating and highly enjoyable record.
The three piece combo erm... Three Piece Combo are hailing from Oakland, California and make a form of instrumental rock with influences ranging from prog to jazz. They make instrumental music because, without a singer, soundchecks are much easier.
Babyflesh are a Norwegian power electronics / death industrial act who have previously only released one Cdr via Slaughter productions, although they say they have been in existence since 1996. Their debut is a typically harsh mix of repetitive rhythms and distorted electronics combined with some guitar work and nihilistic vocals.
At its heart One Way, It's Every Way is a glorious sunshiny pop/folk album. That brings back fond memories of The Birds and their Ilk. But with an electronic backbone, that’s rich in invention and replay-ability.
Picture the scene if you can, something has gone very wrong. The world as we know it has been sucked into a hellish apocalypse.