Hello everyone. I want to start a journey into the Hospital Productions catalogue. Where should I start? What releases do you think are the most important?
The catalog is pretty diverse, so what are you looking for soundwise?
The release I liked most (I listened to 10/15 things) is Alberich - NATO-Uniformen. So noise/power electronics stuff!
I'll just take this opportunity to say that the Dust Belt 'Ecocannibalism' box that came out in 2017 is a total masterpiece of atmosphere. I donno, something about this release really clicked with me. It's extremely restrained and totally immersive. Even some of the song titles on their own, like 'USA Brownfields,' approach masterpiece status in my mind. Evocative. Loved it.
As for a more 'vintage' HOS release, I think the FFH/Prurient 'Central Park Jogger' is one that makes the short list for modern 'essentials' and I think it goes without saying FFH's 'Make Them Understand' is a canonical release as well.
Old Tyme Lemonade VA for a great snippet of the early 00s providence / us noise scene
Some 'classics':
Whorebutcher - Libertine
Deathpile - GR
FFH - Make Them Understand
Viodre - Interpol Alchemi
Jason Crumer - Ottoman Black
Lussuria -American Babylon
Personally, I feel like the label 'peaked' around 2010-2012; seemingly endless run of excellent material from a wide variety of genres. The past few years have been more miss than hit, but there are still great releases (Skin Crime, Strom.ec, Orphx, Akitsa, etc.)
If I had to pick one best of release it'd be Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion 3xLP. But I love that minimalist shit and that might not be up your alley.
If I stretched it to a top 5 you could add:
Wolf Eyes - Always Wrong (maybe for me the last Wolf Eyes LP I really loved)
Yellow Tears - The Pissmop LP
Merzbow - Noisembryo reissue
Wolf Eyes & Sickness "There is a part of me you will never know" LP
Keen to get hold of the forthcoming Alberich album, hopefully it drops soon.
NATO Albumen and Cassette Works volumes are essentials for me.
There is a lot of the back catalogue I have yet to dive in to, so I will too keep an eye on this thread.
Thank you all. Will check everything you listed.
Prurient - History Of Aids \ all the tape releases
Skin Crime - self titled
Deathpile - GR
Macronympha - Melting Softly Into Time
Ahlzagailzehguh - Bypassing Time Passing
Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion
Yellow Tears - All
VA - Field Tales (One of my favorite comps of all time)
FFH - Make Them Understand \ most of the tapes
Lussuria - American Babylon \ everything
Alberich - everything
I think most of the tapes from 06-12 are good generally, and also most of Doms projects, Vatican Shadow, Rainforest, Exploring Jezebel, Force Publique, etc.. all are worth checking out after going through the other mentioned releases
Started with FFH - Make Them Understand, I loved it. The next will be Lussuria – American Babylon. Looking forward!
Quote from: holy ghost on January 03, 2019, 05:47:16 PM
Yellow Tears - The Pissmop LP
Essential. I need to revisit this soon!
while many of the earlier very limited tapes are necessary framework to grasp the full scope of the labels vision, some stand-out noise/power electronics releases that aren't too hard to obtain:
nicole 12 / prurient - love & romance
deathpile - g.r.
richard ramirez / flatline construct / prurient - collaboration
t.e.f. / prurient / richard ramirez - magnified healing
skin crime - case studies in early taxidermy techniques
prurient - the history of aids
macronympha - melting softly in time
wolf eyes - river slaughter
pedestrian deposit - vestige
viodre - interpol alchemy
ffh - make them understand
jason crumer - ottoman black
k.p. - archaeological
alberich - nato uniformen / pretty much everything
lussuria - industriale illuminato / again, everything - really every single release is top shelf, but i go back to this one most
yellow tears - don't cry
geography of hell - hiroshima 1945 / nagasaki 1945
its hard to pull off a good compilation, especially one of long length but i find these two to be flawless, essential documents:
various: field tales; 3x-cs
various: white eye of winter watching; 2x-cs
cool to see people listing yellow tears - pissmop lp - yes, the classic record for that band, but personally i prefer 'don't cry' - it's just so fucking dark, nightmarish & surreal
I might as well chime in. I'll keep it in the realm of PE/Noise and won't name the essential re-issues put out lately. Some of my favorite stuff is going to be impossible to find though.
Prurient - Colonialist Nature And Misanthropy
Prurient - Lily Of The Valley / Return Of Happiness
Prurient - The Golden Chamber
Ames Sanglantes - Crackdown
K.P. - Archaeological
Shallow Waters - Equal Eyes
River Magic - Spring Thaw Brings The Fever
Age Of Enlightenment - Holocaust Adventure or Vampiric Treblinka
Force Publique Congo - All
Prurient - Cocaine Death
Already listed:
All Lussuria---Can't go wrong, American Babylon and Standstill being best.
All Alberich---NATO is the best.
All FFH---Make Them Understand is excellent, but I actually prefer the short listen of What's The Difference
Deathpile - G.R.
Skin Crime - boxset
Prurient - History Of AIDS
Jason Crumer - Ottoman Black
Field Tales
White Eye Of Winter Watching
Whorebutcher - Libertine
Interpol Alchemi
I see a few people mentioning Lussuria, I am unfamiliar with the solo works.
I purchased the collaboration with Alberich last year (also on Hospital, called "Borgia" but not entirely sure what to make of it yet.
Certainly a departure from the Alberich style I had become used to - perhaps "brutal ambient" could be the style in play?
Quote from: Soloman Tump on January 04, 2019, 12:34:17 PM
I see a few people mentioning Lussuria, I am unfamiliar with the solo works.
I purchased the collaboration with Alberich last year (also on Hospital, called "Borgia" but not entirely sure what to make of it yet.
Certainly a departure from the Alberich style I had become used to - perhaps "brutal ambient" could be the style in play?
Lussuria solo works on tape are more akin to early 90s Slaughter prod \ cold meat dark ambient works .... essential are Garden of Seduction, Mists Of Our Silence, Sunken Meadow, hell all of it is great. However the trilogy of tapes \ 2LP American Babylon is a step away from the longform pieces, and is an incredible album. I personally didn't care much for the collab with Alberich and prefer both artists seperate.
i actually didn't really dig the lussuria/alberich collab, which is strange considering how much i like the solo works from each artist.
"favorite" lussuria would actually be the sunken meadow tape, shame its so limited. i remember talking with jim/lussuria about it when he gave me my copy, i have the private edition, and it is actually themed on sunken meadow state park... which is a 'park' on long island on the grounds of what used to be a huge state psychiatric center. the park is really cool as the majority of it is just paved walkways surrounded by 30+ abandoned buildings, many of which you can just walk into - illegally of course.
some favorites when it comes to the more difficult to acquire limited tapes:
age of enlightenment - vampiric treblinka
whorebutcher - libertine
jason crumer - what is love
wilt - winters whore
hair police - fear of sleep
dead machines - full moon
alberich - penis womb
prurient - sexual magic
prurient - oxidation
k.p. - nominating someone
arron dilloway - a foxhole point of view
biggest regret - not choosing to take age of enlightenment - traumatology when dom handed it to me at no fun fest. don't remember what i wanted instead but, fuck...
I think most of the highlights I'd pick myself have been mentioned already. Except for ROMAN TORMENT - Masculine Failure LP (2006). Just great harsh blasting. Very typical of its era, but also among its best. Good wholesome fun that still holds up, and definitely my favorite Roman Torment release. Great album title too.
It's interesting to see some of the recommendations here. Some I can agree with, which I'll mention below, and others like the Prurient/FFH collab tape were so disappointing to me. I've sold a decent chunk of my Hospital tapes over the years because a lot of them just didn't do much for me, but I hope those who bought them from me enjoyed them more than I did.
I got really into Hospital in '06 so my favorites pull heavily from '06 to '09. and those just seemed to be really good years for harsh noise releases on Hospital. I also love "proper" techno, and some of the straight on techno albums from 2011 onwards happen to be some of the best techno albums from the past 6-7 years.
So my top recommendations (in chronological order) would be:
Prurient - The History of AIDS CD [2002] - still the best Prurient album.
Deathpile - G.R. CD [2003] - not the best Deathpile imo but still a cornerstone release.
V/A - Field Tales 3xcassette [2003] - a huge amount of material and most of it's pretty damn good. and a nice mix of more established artists of the time with some newer projects. The Urge Within track is probably the ultimate highlight for me.
Pedestrian Deposit - Volatile CD [2005] - some of my favorite US harsh noise that's outside of the MSNP nexus.
Nicole 12/Prurient - Love & Romance 12" [2005] - some of my favorite N12 material. the Prurient material is exceptionally unpleasant and cut very shrilly.
Pedestrian Deposit - Fatale CD [2006] - still my favorite work by Jon, and one of my fav harsh noise albums from the '00s.
Prurient & Kevin Drumm - All Are Guests in the House of the Lord CD [2007] - forgotten/underrated gem. maybe my favorite Kevin Drumm work. played the shit out of this CD from 2007-2010.
Age of Enlightenment - Vampiric Treblinka Cassette [2007] - one of my all-time favorite Hospital releases. harsh noise gem!
Ahlzagailzehguh – Bypassing Time Passing LP [2007] - cut-up harsh noise perfection. loved these silk screened LPs sleeves from this era.
Burning Star Core / Prurient - Ghosts of Niagara box set - I've only had rips of the cassettes but a fucking massive release full of killer material that would act as a precursor to Frozen Niagara Falls and Rainbow Mirror
Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion 2xCD [2008] - incredible drone album
Shallow Waters - Equal Eyes LP [2008] - important document of Providence power electronics and high end note for this project.
Final Solution - All New Power Cassette [2011] - my first exposure to this seemingly out of reach project. absolute ripper of a tape.
Silent Servant - Negative Fascination LP [2012] - not my favorite member of the Sandwell District collective, but still an instantly beloved techno album on a label that was expanding it's scope dramatically. this release (and it's success) signaled a clear intent to release techno full lengths regularly on the label.
Violet Poison - Voices From The Hell cassette [2013] - the proper debut for a techno project that evolve into something amazing. you can hear the beginnings of his giallo techno style already.
Shifted – Appropriation Stories 2xLP [2016] - ultra reduced techno by one of the best artists working.
Linekraft – Engineering Analysis Of Inner Death LP [2018] - and Hospital still releases killer industrial music.
I'm no authority on Hospital, but I'd recommend these to anyone:
Alberich - all
Alberich - NATO-Uniformen 2011
Bone Awl - ...So I Must Take From The Earth And Make It My Own 2006
Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion 2008
Jason Crumer - Ottoman Black 2008
Macronympha - Melting Softly Into Time 2005
Skin Crime - s/t 2003
Skin Crime - Ghosts I Have Been 2018
Skin Crime - Case Studies In Early Taxidermy Techniques - (a lazy recommendation, but really, for a noisehead, it's rather necessary)