PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

Started by GEWALTMONOPOL, December 15, 2009, 09:30:59 PM

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eyestrain

Being Immaculate Steel Casket (Joy De Vivre): For monotone harsh noise, this was an insanely enjoyable tape. Hit all the right lo-fi frequencies for me, as do many of the tapes on (Joy De Vivre). Looking forward to the arrival of Hunters Fingers, Battery Cages III, and Slated For Evacuation. Decided to finally look into this project after the great article in SI #9. Developer and Tourette are now getting more attention as well. Definitely my favorite issue yet.

Elisha Morningstar Empty Life, Domestic Bliss (Joy De Vivre): PERFECT! Best thing to listen to after three fillings and a root canal in one sitting. Played through 4 times before moving on to anything else. I adore this project more every day.

Kam Hassah Private Conversation Vol. 1 (Joy De Vivre): The description of this album didn't really have me sold on it's potential, but it's way more mufti-faceted than I had anticipated. Not just some boring album of found sounds and field recordings, but a great layer-by-layer work that holds my interest all the way. Perhaps a bit like Elisha Morningstar's Inner Wealth?

Ryan Bloomer Unlawful Carnality (Joy De Vivre): First new release of Bloomer sounds for me in some time. Had to hunt this down after the recent appreciation post had me looking for albums I never picked up. This is definitely more like Forearm Shiver (i.e., his less-is-more approach) than anything else I can think to relate it to from Bloomer's catalog. That is, this would probably only be appreciated by those who enjoy his tension-building-but-never-quite-releasing works. I guess you could compare it to some of the more quiet sounds that The Rita is responsible for. I wasn't blown away, but probably later when I'm drunk and crank this up loud I will feel entirely different.

Lettera 22 Negative Tongue (Second Sleep): Just as fantastic as all of their more straight-forward works. Reminds me more of Native Waters, True Form, etc... than it does works like Dieter Tapes --- the more "electro-acoustic" sounding tracks. I thought Lack Of Attention was flawless though as these fellas can really master the balance of recorded sounds and blown-out noise in tandem most of the time. So, this is more for your "I want to blow my eardrums out tonight" nights than your "I want to enjoy this with a book" nights. Very, very much recommended!

Devotion In Love We Stand Alone (Brave Mysteries): Was as pleased with this as I expected to be. The collaborative effort of Troy Schafer and Dani Schafer, with the expected help from Nathaniel Ritter. Sounds more in the vein of Wreathes than Kinit Her although there are several moments of dissonance that remind me heavily of the latter's work. The combined sensations of mystery and elation are perfect for the project's concept and I couldn't recommend this enough.

Lonsai Maïkov Décembre au Mont des Oliviers (Brave Mysteries): Really loved this album for not being another Death In June album (God, please make this shit stop), although Mr. Maïkov certainly is more deserving of that sound - for the merit of having been involved in the genre for so long - than say, fucking King Dude...blech. The sound is much more in the realm of folk-rock (Comus or The Incredible String Band for instance) and at times maybe just straight rock music (these would be my least favorite moments on the album). As a whole, there were a few too many songs that broke up the albums flow for me. The opener was easily my favorite track of the whole disc, and it immediately kicks into my least favorite track on the album. Not a good start... But things move very well from there. I'll have to see how this sits in time.

Yrsel Requiem For The 3 Kharites (Aurora Borealis): Loved this album of guitar-drone-doom for years. Revisited it recently and was barely moved by it. Too many cheesy moments of "grim screams" and kinda-riffs block out what could be a very great near-hour of ominous sounds. Although not in an entirely similar vein, I was more thrilled by recently hearing...

Tenhornedbeast Elphame (Neuropa): I never found myself to be too fond of this project. So, either lately the mood has been just right or Mr. Walton is just finally turning this project into something slightly more interesting. I couldn't enjoy the slight bombast of Hunts & Wars and while currently attempting to consume all three discs of Ten Horned Moses Descended The Mountain and maintain my attention in full, its bit of a challenge. Maybe I need to start taking drugs again to appreciate something of this magnitude. Although I would assume that's not the projects wish at all, I'm sometimes confused as to how 3+ hours of ambient/drone can be consumed unless one's on a late night vigil through the woods with sound-blocking headphones or else sitting in your bedroom all tweaked out with a little too much of that joint missing in one sitting. Anyway, Elphame, was just barely beyond my attention-span for drone, but there were many moments of blissful sounds that I absolutely loved. Certainly my favorite piece by him yet. Hopefully someone will rip Inverted Starless Albion as I'm not even considering dropping $30 for a few minutes of music. Fucking hate single-sided LPs.

Taigheirm II (Shifting Sands Congregation): Much less one-dimensional than their debut. 22 minutes of squealing violin, eerie electronics and indescribable sounds. THIS is more of my style of late-night listening. Send yourself to bed with an uncertain mania and discontent.

Ottaven Live In Rome (Second Sleep): Would have to agree with Levas that I found a few too many sounds on this tape to be annoying. Decent ambient at times, but bad flow.

Did I mention Will Over Matter's Phenomenal Highways in a previous post? I think so. Can't overemphasize how much I love this slab!

Zeno Marx

Tenhornedbeast has been a disappointment for me.  Endura was one of my favorite ambient projects of the 90s.  I was expecting the same level of quality out of THB, but I haven't yet found it (I gave up).

Lustmord - The Word as Power (2013) - in a word, impressive - a new direction with several vocal collaborations - if you dreamt about Dead Can Dance, or Azam Ali, in a deep, dark ambient project, here you go; not quite as minimalist in that regard as Voice of Eye - this is right up my alley, but I can see why a purist would find it distasteful - it's well-executed, so I'm good with the accompaniments - this would have fit perfectly on the Twilight Earth comps.
Necropsy - Tomb of the Forgotten discography (2013) - it's great to have all these demos and whatnot collected - fun.
Kinit Her - Divine Names (2010) - I'll get back to this; caught me off-guard with the unexpected - I like it.
"the overindulgent machines were their children"
I only buy vinyl, d00ds.

eyestrain

Quote from: Zeno Marx on July 24, 2013, 01:26:07 AM
Lustmord - The Word as Power (2013) - in a word, impressive - a new direction with several vocal collaborations - if you dreamt about Dead Can Dance, or Azam Ali, in a deep, dark ambient project, here you go; not quite as minimalist in that regard as Voice of Eye - this is right up my alley, but I can see why a purist would find it distasteful - it's well-executed, so I'm good with the accompaniments - this would have fit perfectly on the Twilight Earth comps.

Will have to check this out - sounds very interesting. Was never very fond of the albums I've heard thus far.

Quote from: Zeno Marx on July 24, 2013, 01:26:07 AM
Kinit Her - Divine Names (2010) - I'll get back to this; caught me off-guard with the unexpected - I like it.

This was their first departure from the sort-of fucked up Coco Rosie sound they had prior. I believe this is where their vocalizations first started shining through as something truly unique as well. My first exposure to them actually. This and the split with Burial Hex, Vedic Hymns, have the metal guitar sound that's really excellent, although it's great they moved into more conventional (although unconventional in its playing) instruments on future releases.

FreakAnimalFinland

V/A UTMARKEN 3xtape
Ättestupa could be weakest of the compilation? Perhaps because band did so amazing recordings so expectations were much higher. Arv & Miljö starts quiet, ends up in pretty solid noise. Lust For Youth was surprisingly good. I'm not fan of electro pop or such. I'm waiting this murky electronic sound to become dance muzak all the time, but instead am taken into blurry electronic noise realms. Nice! Blodvite is absolute highlight of the set. Dense multilayered tape noise sounds. It has droning quality to it, but not in way of drone genre. Long high pitched noise sounds manipulated. Skuggor starts weakly but rises up among the best of set, naturally together with Sewer Election who rarely fails. Suffocating tape manipulations of grotesque body sounds, tape edits, crude sound quality and noise elements. Oversized box (basically of some old school oversized VHS poly case type) seems exaggeration. Tapes are.. I guess mostly C-20, and while artwork is hardly ever taking advantage of large size. Would have been nice to have little information of what Utmarken was. I think this was final release of label and swansong of venue, so one hour of music and couple photos & xerox collages have been just blown out in material dimension while I would guess spirit of venue would have been nicer to capture...
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FreakAnimalFinland

SSRI "rebis" tape
Mask of the slave
Both liking it, and waiting it to "go somewhere". Very suffocated and grim sound lacking all the punch and brutality, trusting rotten and distant noise sounds. While it has some free flowing element to it, what makes sure you won't be bored by mechanical linearity, it also stays very loyal to simplicity and overall sound. I think "problem" is that PPT has showed his skills of injecting ultimate highlights in some of his works, and assuming there will come some, yet doesn't, changes the nature of overall strong and personal sounding works. While old Gelsomina was pretty much the easy to swallow top-hits, his later sonic aesthetic is challenging and more demanding.

EN NIHIL / STRIATIONS split tape
Denvers State Recordings
Hmm!! Not bad at all! I'm always little cautious about guys who stop for long time and make return. En Nihil isn't groundbreaking in any ways, but his return is something what can be made without a bit of shame. Dark loud pe-noise. Striations is project I would expect more people notice who like the raw feedback & sonic violence power electronics. Ridiculously small cdr editions most of all, but I guess having tapes like this on circulation will get few more ears to notice this newcomer...

WOUNDER "Youth Will Thunder" tape
Strange Rules
Hey?! What's this? Don't even remember when exactly I got this. At least I have not had it in distro, but absolutely no recollections at this moment. Appears to be 2012 release on Strange Rules label who has also released stuff most of all by Cremation Lily. Was it his label? Is this his project? Long tracks of well composed noisy post-industrial works. There is some bass/guitar, buried vocals, and other nowadays kind of popular elements within noise, but his skill to compose long tracks that hardly become "music", but create fusion of old school industrial and energy of more later era of noise. Never very aggressive. More relying to dark and brooding. ltd 50, but if can find it, recommended to check out.
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Levas

Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on July 25, 2013, 01:18:44 PM
Was it his label? Is this his project?

yeah strange rules is Cremation Lily's. Don't know about Wounder. Anyways, strange rules titles are sold out far too fast and editions are far too small, but I guess this is needed for that personal approach, etc of most of the releases.

FreakAnimalFinland

V/A SVENSKA DOKUMENT 3x tape
Järtecknet
Enklav, Hängd, I det Röda, Iron Pillar, Krökta Rum, Orquere. One side each. Was it c. C-30's? Hard to estimate. Most of the sides move in realms of rotting sounds of tape manipulation and loops, primitive electronics, metal junks and grim sounds. Once in a while you hear about "Finnish sound" or "everybody sounds the same in Finland"... While there is seed of truth in that, it's hardly accurate. Same could be said about Sweden. A lot of projects and aesthetics have turned closer and closer and especially some of the artists with multiple projects are using increasing similar methods and sounds in each... Svensa Dokument is great release, though. Some brilliant stuff there documenting this moment in one moment in Sweden.

CROATIAN AMOR "Mermaids Of Jadransko" tape
Posh Isolation
There is so much of Posh Isolation stuff - and I guess I got just about everything - that some stuff has just piled in shelves while new ones keep arring. This is 2012 release, and got first play now... I like that synth music is not just the synth music, but these additional elements (distorted water for example) and overall blurry sound quality really contribute to the feeling.


 
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FreakAnimalFinland

Breaking The Will /  Nyodene D /  Steel Hook Prostheses   – Industrial - Historical Document One: Tuskegee Syphilis Study  3x tape
New Forces
Breaking The Will is not bad, but his C-15 tapes in this set still suffers from being in process of learning... I guess. I don't think project had much of releases out and especially A-side shows certain clumsiness on making tracks and noises. B-side stood  out much better, yet still offers merely good elements (crispy distortion with feedback very good in beginning) but not too memorable final result.
Nyodene D with his C-30 is another case. While BTW was all-in-red blast, heaviness of Nyodene D makes speakers tremble! Flanger processed vocals are loud in mix and bass-heavy wall of multilayered noises. On b-side it appear almost too dense, when layer after layer sounds gets blurry. Deep pulsating drum beats, droning electronics, echoing metal smashing, processed vocals... I think this all-at-maximum tape dubbing has contributed nice overall feel to recording, which often tends to suffer from digital clarity. I would almost suggest Nyodene D to master his works through analogue tape as it clearly boosts the sound much heavier and grainier. For fans of Survival Unit, Ex.Order, Control, etc. essential project to check out.
Last C-30 tapes is for Steel Hook Prostheses who probably needs no introduction. Dark, echoing, densely multilayered very cinematic noisy sounds. After previous tape it just is in bad position to attempt crushing...
Yet again, triple tape set that would fit on one CD...
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Levas

#3428
Baculum - There was so much blood, you could taste the iron
Amnesia program
Awesome! Simple, harsh and brutal, straight to the point. I don't know, for me Baculum seems to be one of those for some reason underrated harsh noise projects. I still don't know what's the reason behind that. Of course nothing too original, but great stuff

Electrical cord noose - Devoid of Value
Amnesia program
This one is a little more varied in sounds, but at the same time - not that interesting and enjoyable as Baculum release.

Antarktida -  База 211
Valgrind
I've got this by chance in trade cause the description somewhat attracted me and overall.. It's Antarktida. And this tape is good. haunting atmosphere, somewhere between dark ambient and industrial, with hints of ritual and not in a bad way. Enjoyed this.

OS 125 ‎– Faire... Et Laisser Faire
Nahàsh Atrym Productions
Not bad harsh noise though not something memorable too. Now I'm looking at the tape that I spinned yesterday and remember only "not bad". the edition of 10 i guess is enough

She Destroys Hope / Uv Ursa Spr - Untitled
Radiophobic Entheogen Records
Good sounds from both artists, enjoyable noise. The first side was a little more expressive.

BOAR ‎– Untitled
Nahàsh Atrym Productions
Nice tits on the cover. HNW. Not something very enjoyable. A side was ok, B side was not.

Eonic ‎– Secret Land
Zhelezobeton
Wow. this was funny. Some sort of world music or new age. This is what I get for not reading the descriptions carefully. ethno-gothic, pop-ambient it says.

DMT - Selected Funbient works 1-4
KultFront, Zhelezobeton, Aquarellist, Monochrome Vision
This was in fact quite good. Not so much fun. There were quite annoying rhythms etc., but overall it's ok

Chains of the Death Command - Chains of the Death command
Filth & Violence
Didn't have a chance to listen to the first issue of this so I'm happy for rerelease. Great material. I think this tape is the best from them?

Andrew McIntosh

Quote from: Levas on July 25, 2013, 07:09:15 PM
I don't know, for me Baculum seems to be one of those for some reason underrated harsh noise projects. I still don't know what's the reason behind that. Of course nothing too original, but great stuff

I don't know why either. I've got "XXY" and his split with Breaking The Will and each time Sam gives us straight up, well constructed Harsh Noise. I imagine it's because his label is so prominent, perhaps.
Shikata ga nai.

eyestrain

Developer PT:188 (Phage Tapes): Aside from a short loop on 2A that kinda irks me (personal preferences...), this is one solid fucking tape set. Heavy on the cut-ups without being totally discombobulating in a negative way. My favorite of the works I've heard so far. Also, love the quick moment of geese migration that's on 2B (I think). Reminds me of C.C.C.C.'s Gnosis, without being an outright intermission though. Why does nature very rarely figure into noise? I can see why P.E. acts would avoid it, but I'd honestly love to hear more of this integration - without falling into some Earth First! or Jeph Jerman (no offense) territory, of course.

Like Mikko was saying about the Utmarken set; what's up with the library cases featuring multiple cassettes of short plays?

FreakAnimalFinland

well, it's all those multi tape sets I've written about lately. At the same time, if they would have been 3x C-90, I would have probably written about one... but still. Each makes sense in artist per side, but I'd assume most could get 20-30 mins material instead of 5-10 mins..
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Levas

Exitus - Treatment Plan
Unsound recordings
Well this is quite good. I've expected something different from the samples on soundcloud, but it's good dark industrial. The first side of the tape is a little more varied.

Dark Session - Hel(l)sinki
HATEHATEHATE records
This is some decent harsh noise. I think all of the material was and still is available online, but the tape makes the sound better. Perhaps I missed some more variations and overall the stuff is quite chaotic, but I guess that was the intention.

Bizarre Uproar - Putrid Live Activities 2011-2012
Filth & Violence
While I was still thinking what I'm missing in Dark Session release, I've put the first tape of this in the player. And I still don't know what one release is missing and why listening to these 4 tapes is such a great experience and joy. Despite being live recordings, these are acceptable quality that gives further colors to the recordings. Nothing surprising from BU. Great material.

Sutcliffe Jugend and Junk - Sans Palatine Uvula
4iB Records
This one is strange recording. For the first two tracks I was thinking I'll just take the CD out and put it in the shelf without finishing it, but then I got hooked up and kind of addicted to the weird contrasting sounds - mostly minimal sounds and manipulations of SJ and screams of Junko. Most of the tracks are enjoyable and somehow I still want to spin it again, but the last one hits the point. Primitive synth melody and Junko's screams. Good CD.

Johann

I personally like the 5 to 15 minute cassettes, to me it's like a 7" and they tend to get more multiple plays

for me currently

Evil Moisture - Amanita Burger, complilation from Tochnit Aleph of several EM cassettes and some bonus, really fucking solid fun release. Beautiful artwork

QAT, COFFEE & QAMBUS: RAW 45S FROM YEMEN - great fucking LP from Dust to Digital, if your into Arabic music its def worth a listen. Yemen has some really unique sounding stuff. The more I listen to it back to back the more i like it. Highly Recommended 

Darksmith & Fossils - on kye records. great fucking record, Fossils side is really the first i've heard of them (despite having heard a lot about them), Darksmith i really enjoy. Gotta give it some more plays but great on first impression.

Levas

Cyclotimia - Soundtrack for nonexistent movie
Zhelezobeton
Well, I'm listening to these for no reason. Just to get to know. And it's just some music to be forgotten. mostly rhythmic stuff.

Cyclotimia - Styx
Zhelezobeton
It says for the fans of Laibach. But it's more for the goth teens who likes to dance dance dance

Malat - Avamposto Malato
Old Europa Cafe
This on the other hand is very nice. Part of this project is from Ain Soph. It's more or less just good easy listening muzak. Something pop, but I like it.

Various - Lisää Saastaa Suomesta
Obscurex
Since I can't listen to vinyls at the moment, this tape will do. And I can't say I'm a fan of noisecore, but this is great. CODC fills the B side with good live performance and it's far more melodic and structured than I'd thought. Other favourites of mine were Anal Barbara which I don't know if it's noisecore still? Unpeace - awesome and Nihilist Commando - awesome. Great tape.