PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[acsenger]

Merzbow & Total - Merzbow Mixed Total (No Holiday, reissue)

Are any distros in the EU going to stock this?

[absurdexposition]

Merzbow & Total - Merzbow Mixed Total (No Holiday, reissue)

Are any distros in the EU going to stock this?

Shipping from S&W to EU isn't too bad, and depending on the country can potentially be fairly cheap.

[k.p.g]

Jennifer Wolski - Recycled (RRR)

Spent 5 days traversing the wonderful New England region this past week.  Of course a RRRecords trip was necessary.  It is always great to see RRRon and pick up Recycled tapes in person.  The stack I get each visit ends up taking up the majority of my listening habits when I return home, and it is no different this time around.
I was curious to hear this one most of all.  It was described to me as "5 guys just bangin' out harsh noise."  There is some ties to Mother Savage, although I do not think any Macronympha personnel are in the mix here.  It doesn't matter though, as this tape is a scorcher.  Good mix of guitar, drums, wall noise and pure audio hell.  It is just varied enough to keep my interest up the entire time.  It's good to be home.

[k.p.g]

Worth - Roosting in Death-Sized Horn (Prose Nagge)

It is hard to pick a favorite Worth release.  I shuffle between this one & Blood Possessed primarily.  Black Medicine has its place in the mix too.  But let's focus on the subject at hand.

Roosting has a lot raw aggression to it.  Some creepier moments present themselves, but I see this one as a "rager" in the discography.  Track one feels looser than most of what Will is known for.  There are parts that start to feel like they are meandering, but you must trust the process that Will is taking you through here, because the payoffs are tremendous.  It is the closest a recording has come to representing a Worth live set AFAIK. 
Second track kicks up the editing prowess, the dread and the weirdness.  I think I heard someone laughing at me about 20 seconds in.  Some things sound like field recorder being slowed on tape, but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me.  I am not sure how anything here is being made, and I frankly do not want to.

What Will does here is nothing short of noise magic.  Excellent stuff.

EDIT: Forgot there is a track 3 in here.  Well, it blasts.  Nasty stuff all the way through.   Did you expect anything else though?

[k.p.g]

TAC & Max Julian Eastman - TAC & Max Julian Eastman (Satatuhatta)
Couldn't think of a combo more suited for each other.  This tape is split in half by the pacing of each side.  A Side is more audio murk that churns around in a fluid motion; not as much dynamics going on.  Side B has plenty more action and "rawer" sounds to hear.  For most of it though, I was just letting the sound envelope me in a daze.  Definitely file this under "domestic noise."  A revisit will be necessary on my end, as I think there is more to reveal underneath the surface.

Henry Rial - Recycled (RRR)
The, ahem, RIALCYCLED tape shows that Henry had a vision of what he wanted to do from such a young age.  This is crude as hell "bash 'n crash" style noise that has no volume knob on it.  This style can be boring a lot of the time if overdone, but Henry keeps things moving enough on A Side that the B's static pace does not put a hamper in the listening experience at all.
Of course what Henry has gone onto do since with Mallard Theory is a far more refined vision, but that does not mean this explosion of teenage raging should be looked past.  At $4, this tape is better than a lot of things you would find for sale today at more than double the price.

Flamingo Base Jumpers - Wet Past (Satatuhatta)
A new Nick Forte alias that leans heavily on the psychedelic/new age side that he has explored in bits and pieces in Green Tea.  I do like some sections that project explores with this sound, but they can also veer too much on "happy drone" territory for me.  So to have a project that continuously moves and expands upon this sound is a delight.  Lots of weirdo instrumentation being mangled in a sea of noise that never becomes too overbearing for the listener.  I would dare to call this the most "minimal" of Forte's works too, as I feel confident in my ability to pick apart the layers of each track as they come along.  It is a nice change of pace from the usually meticulous work of this artist.
I will be adding this to my list of "notable releases in 2025."

[k.p.g]

Ted Sweeney - Extremist Dream Sequence (Spice Chan)

Bumped into Ted over this weekend, and he gave me a copy of this CD (if you're reading this Ted, hi!!).  I had heard of its existence some months prior, so I was pretty excited to give this a try.  I knew I would enjoy this, but trying it first thing in the morning was testing fate.  What if it was blasting as older material the artist was associated with?  I might startle the neighbors!!

No neighbors startled though, so good news.

This disc is akin to fast-paced audio soup, dicing between stabs of harsh electronics, psychedelic synth and some of the weirdest field recordings I have heard committed to a record.  It never reaches any high levels of harsh, but that is perfect for me.  The flow is tight here, with not a second wasted on filler.  I would rather take great pacing over pure harsh any day.  Anyone who is  a fan of his previous work will find themselves enjoying this.  More promotion should go into this record, but I am sure Ted can reach out to the proper channels on distro and so on.  I just wanted to say that if anyone has the slightest inclination on hearing this, they should reach out and grab a copy.  Won't be disappointed.

Great morning listen.

[k.p.g]

John Oswald - Recycled (RRR)

Quickly moving onto another Recycled title.  These work from home days really up my love and patience to digest a lot of releases in one sitting.  So sorry to anyone who follows this thread and has their notifications blown up by just me. 

Anyways - John Oswald!  This is kind of plunderphonic sound really appeals to the childish side of me that grew up watching YouTube Poops.  Hearing Oswald make Madonna say "fuck" through cut-ups fills me with great joy.  Plenty of laughs to be had here amongst some genuinely great sound collage.  One of the more "composed" pieces I have heard in a long while.

[acsenger]

Merzbow & Total - Merzbow Mixed Total (No Holiday, reissue)

Are any distros in the EU going to stock this?

Shipping from S&W to EU isn't too bad, and depending on the country can potentially be fairly cheap.

Thanks, but ordering from anywhere outside the EU entails a tax and potentially other charges too, so it's just not worth it for me. In the meantime I found out Soundohm in Italy is going to get copies, so it's all good.

[k.p.g]

K2 & Dead Body Love - Traumantra (Tribe Tapes, reissue)

Slept in late today because of a very late work night, and I am not ready to leave my bed just yet.  Sure is a good thing I have a big stack of CDs to make my way through next to the bed.  So we start off with this reissue I had been dying to hear since I saw Max come home with a big box of them. 
Seems like K2 does a lot of the heavy lifting here, as he is editing Dead Body Love source on the opening track (also the longest track) & has his source be the framework for Gabriel to scream on top of for the second track.  I think the latter will be cemented as my favorite on this.  The vocals and noise are a perfectly demented duo together.  Track 3 just started kicking into gear with Dead Body Love running K2 sounds through the Italian meat grinder.  I sip leftover coffee to get me up.  Harsh noise.

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

These work from home days really up my love and patience to digest a lot of releases in one sitting.  So sorry to anyone who follows this thread and has their notifications blown up by just me. 

I'm actually curious if listening while working is your usual mode for taking in noise releases. Do you ever feel you're missing things? To me, noise (and most of the other more experimental types of music I listen to) has to be a very "active" listening experience. Nothing but sitting in a chair with headphones/speakers and absolutely no distractions so I can concentrate on every element of the sound. I can never listen to it while working. I just want to focus on the music, and not at all on the task at hand, so work/gym usually listening is typically metal/electronic or something where I don't have that issue.

Not dogging you for it at all. I almost wish I COULD listen throughout the workday, as I'd be able to get through a lot more things!