PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[k.p.g]

STAR - Last Vestige of Malehood (White Centipede Noise)
Perhaps the harshest entry in the STAR discography thus far.  Feedback screams with much more aggression than usual, the drops into low end crunch are felt more in the soul.  Roommate walked in on this listening and commented "sounds like somebody's angry."  Hah.  I just can't see STAR being angry, but rather overjoyed to make such visceral harsh noise!  That's just me though, maybe he was angry making this.
Back to the point though, despite such harsh antics, this tape does not lose the weirdo aspects that make so many people hyped on this project.  There is some sort of phasing synth work at play that really chops up the mix at the beginning of A, and then clearly bouncy synth through B that will grab your attention for how out of place it is amongst the rest of the pummeling. 
These weird elements actually make me stop now and think "could this be STAR's most challenging piece?" Approaches to records like Elephant in the Snow, Life Goes On or Hormone Lemming are things I can wrap my head around, but the way this one lays out its sound palette results in such varied results.  One minute I cheer in victory at the Americanoise onslaught, the next I am like "is there something wrong with my player?"  Nonetheless, great stuff.

Richard Ramirez - Volume 1, Disc 2: Certain Cruelty (New Forces, reissue)
This disc actually ended up being the perfect follow-up to that STAR tape.  Surprising that this one came out on Slaughter originally, as it does not fit the mold of what I considered Marco's taste to be.  Maybe I don't know shit though.  But back to what I do know -- this release fits under the "weirdo Ramirez" style that I love so much.  You have moments of Richard barking into the mic coupled with a very active display of harsh noise battery.  You have a guy jumping between PE, straight American harsh and even a little cut-up (proto-cut?) and it all makes sense!  In your listening to this, you will think to yourself "how the fuck is he doing this?  This can't be just a mic and 3 pedals!!"  It will bewilder you to no end at how good this is and you could never make anything this good.
By the time the "Trapped in an Organic Room" kicks off, the action slows down a bit but is still very good nonetheless.  This track actually has similar qualities of phaser use that STAR had, and that makes total sense.  Both releases are both extremely satisfying and primal challenges to put on. 
When I obtain boxsets like these, I start to think that obtaining the original release is no longer needed.  Not for something like this though, I will keep my eye out.  It's fucking fantastic and easily enters into my top spot of favorite Ramirez under the government name.

[k.p.g]

Aaron Dilloway - Boggs Vol. 1 (Hanson Records)
Aside from a couple moments of vocal wobbling, this tape is not much of a stand out in the Dilloway discography.

Leila Bordreuil & Kyle Flanagan - Vol. 1 (self-released)
It has been quite a few years since hearing this one, so I was curious to revisit.  It starts off a bit shaky, but I imagine this is 2 artists trying to feel each other out after the equipment is set up.  For the remainder of this tape, these 2 play really well off of each other.  Loops are captured and hum into the cosmos as these 2 drone on for nearly an hour.  Favorite sections of mine are when they decide to pull the tablecloth off the entire thing and just mangle their cello and tape as much as possible.  Good stuff here.

Altar of Flies - Auditory Hallucination (Hasten & Korset)
While I may forget how some tapes sound after years of no listening, this tape will never not be easy to remember.  I know it starts with those hellish animal sounds and upon hearing that, I immediately whisper "yup, this one is great."  From there, it's a spectacular display of minimal mangling across the mix.  Anyone who knows the Altar of Flies sound can probably guess what they are in for.  While not as refined as full length records may be, it is absolutely better than those full lengths I have heard.  Going to leave it at that, I have to melt back into this piece.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Murmur - Fishbowl / Assumed Role (Begin Hostilities)

Murmur was a recent discovery for me. I think I first saw the collabs with Jazzhand on Tribe Tapes and New Purveyors, and I decided to dig deeper.

For fans of field recordings, musique concrete, and the minimal side of noise. Murmur has become a recent favorite. He strikes an excellent balance of fine detail and knowing just when to push it up a notch and get harsh when needed.

Side A is an abused field recording of chittering insects and thunderstorms. EQ'ed and treated in a way to be a little harsh and jarring on the insect sounds, and perfectly captured rumbling thunder as a complementary backdrop.

Side B is far more minimal and more musique concrete. Lots of open space and tape hiss in the best possible way. Micro-events occur with or without rhyme or reason. Can't explain why with a lot of albums in this area, but very well done and my favorite side of the tape.

Highly recommend checking out this tape for those into this area of sound who haven't heard Murmur before. Or go check out his Bandcamp for his other work. This was one of those tapes where I needed to flip it over and listen again.

[k.p.g]

Diagram:A - Human X.S. (Impulsy Stetoskopu)
This cassette was entered on discogs as being a single-sided C90.  What a pleasant surprise to find that is not the case, and it actually contains a full Side B!  This tape has some great material on it as well.  Feels like the difference between Diagram:A on CD vs. tape is pretty distinct.  CDs are reserved for the harshest, most pristine material that Dan roars out of his machines.  Tapes usually find themselves occupying a more experimental zone, where you can hear hints of found sound, tape looping and more on them.  Even if some experiments can go on a little longer than needed, they still make for a pleasant listen.

Corephallism - Corephallism (APop Records/Lascivious Aesthetics)
Going through mini CDr stack to remember what I still like and don't out of it.  This short-lived project from Shane Broderick clocks in at just under 8 minutes, but still looms as a solid piece of death industrial/psycho PE leanings.  I think the project maybe ended before it had the chance to grow into something more realized.  Oh well, such is the case sometimes.  Still a good, quick listen before I go to make coffee.

Hive Mind - Vade Mecum (Chondritic Sound)
Another mini CDr, and one of a few ones I own from Hive Mind.  I realize now with some noise artists, their method of imposing restrictions and guidelines into their work can act as a double-edged sword.  I have heard interviews from Greh over the years where he would say that Hive Mind was meant to be the creepier, more eerie leaning sound with no distortion while Black Sand Desert pretty much covered all the harsh.  These restrictions have lightened up over time, but it still leaves the issue that a lot of earlier material from the artist has a lot of "sameness" to it.  With this in mind, Vade Mecum is a solid release but I have heard much better from other Hive Mind of this era.

[Tribe Tapes]

Various Artists - "Tits" K7 (Joukkomurha Tapes, early 1990s)
Psychotic compilation of industrial - punk - noisecore do-gooders on the nature of tits, introduced and closed out by a computer lamenting its inability to understand such a fixation "I have an A drive, a B drive, a C drive, but no sex drive" Interestingly for a comp issued by Finnish label Joukkomurha / JM Tapes, there aren't actually any projects from Finland on display here. Instead you have a selection of UK noiseists (Hex Minora and a solo Dannielle track, Target Shoppers, Tea Culture), American tard-core (Sockeye, Boy In Love;) and odd industrial-pop from around the globe (Etat des Stocks, M.Nomized, Das Kombinat). Not really the kind of thing you would see today, at least not executed so cohesively.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Joukkomurha is not very well known within "noise scene", I would say, but it hold absolutely crucial role for some of folks of my age. One mandatory thing is, that he published COSMONAUTS HAIL SATAN tape, that included songs from two first demo tapes, with new cover illustrated by S.A.Hynninen, who later one became sort of infamous underground music character. When guys like myself, and just about everybody I knew, got this tape, it was mindblowing.

Cosmonauts Hail Satan, mysterious, but I suspect some know who they are. Mr. Satan died years ago. He did write on this forum. Mr. Cosmonaut, is alive and still doing things. If something would need to be reissued, I feel CHS is among those! All the 7"s, the early works in complete. Man, that would fucking rule!

Joukkomurha all in all, he was putting out zines that would have element of DIY punk, art, poetry, weirdness. Just the old school underground in the ways that I dont think happens anymore. Heloy Käet & sons was the name of zine since the 80's. Tapes, most of them I believe are ultra limited. Not "editions", but dubbed on demand - which tend to be near non-existent. So despite being well known figure, I doubt most people these days remember him.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Quick addition, I recall some of his zines should have my drawings from early 90s.

[Tribe Tapes]

Would be great to see some CHS back out there, at the very least for the historical element of what Mr. Cosmonaut ended up doing after. And the zine too, damn!!

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Back in the day, when I didn't know the people in band and there didn't exists discogs or such info site where you could get hints who may have been involved, I was at Leeds, UK, noise gig. I was talking to Dando about my early fanaticism with CHS and he said "guys are here at the gig!". I was like "wow!!!" Haha... 
Story that I was told by one member, that band splitted when other guy started to think should they tune the instruments and that offense ended project.

[k.p.g]

Worth - Transference (Fusty Cunt)
The compilation album is an interesting thing in noise.  Often times, it can just be a boxset, with multiple releases compiled across several tapes or disc.  But what Worth has done here is chosen to join the pantheon of great compilations that also act as their own, standalone disc.  Titles like Night of the Bloody Tapes, Soft Punk & While You Were Out come to mind when thinking of this category.  Sure, you can find all tracks featured on these through separate releases, but together, they create their own narrative completely separate from the source material. 
This is what Transference has achieved.  Tracks flow so seamlessly together that new ones often start when I think the previous one is still going.  Sequencing makes perfect sense when this is played in full, with loud and broken beginnings giving way to a more subdued middle, before it all picks up into some glorious, industrial-psych fury by the end.
If this is truly the end of Worth, then he gave us a great note to end on.  I know I said that about both Me Vexat Pede and Hornbeam, but I really think that this compilation proves the complexity and transcendence that Will's work brought to the culture.  You can stare at a collage of his for hours and pick up on new details.  You can listen to a collection of his tracks and pick up new meaning in a different sequence.  These the kind of claims only a few, great artists can make.

[John Cagefight]

Invagination - Artisanal Hymenoplasty (Freak Animal, 2026)
This one is a true ripper. Wild free flowing 90s style harsh noise. Perhaps too crusty to be called "fun", but damn this really puts a smile on my face and gets the blood pumping. Side A's overarching motif is spasmodic zapping synthesizer currents and modulated noise bursts which are pummeled relentlessly by heavy max-out blows of clipping gain and overload artifacts. Side B starts things off a bit slower with crashing sounds through delay with plenty of room to breathe setting a stage before raygun interference signals begin to accent the otherwise terrestrial pallette. It becomes hard for me not to conjure scnereries of grainy black and white footage of soldiers of Earth battling UFOs while radio communications break down from behind my forehead while I listen.

Nuori Veri - NVV (Aussat, 2024)
This one really leveled me. Nuori Veri invokes an atmosphere that is so distinct, yet so hard to pin down. A wild spiritual turmoil energy saturates this release. Melancholic synthesizers imitate loon calls over lumbering wooded wagon acoustics. Somber drifting tape loops artfully balance against rusted scraping and other room recorded sources, presenting an atmosphere that feels both intimate and infinite. At times the use of silence and barely audible human voice does some serious raising of the hair on the arms. An alchemist sweating beads over the highly personalized nuances of his work, and furiously trying to weave gold from the dirt caking his fingernails, and as the gravely spoken litanies are interjected its hard not to feel at the seat of a dual hermitic / hermetic sense of place. Part of me wants to mention how much this invokes a folk horror ambience, and the other part feels like such a comparison might cheapen the whole affair.

Woods Mattress - That Place (Un Poco Fría, 2025)
Continuing on with noise with a distinctly rural flair is Woods Mattress. The sound pallette here is one of the insomniac camper, tortured in his tent from the incessant drone of crickets, driven to madness from thier trill chorus. However, not solely a personal torment... there is an implicit violence and harm at the core of this work. Hurt people hurt people. Perhaps a similar harm as to be found on Mania recordings, but leaning quite hard on the high pass filter. In fact the whole Woods Mattress ouvre, from what I've heard thus far, lays into this shrill zone: grating edges and rusted iron transients and brittle AM radio static suffocated inside of mossed-over bathroom in an abandoned warehouse reverb. The packaging for That Place helps instill that aura quite fittingly, a green matte JCard displays images of an old factory or mill alongside a tree with protective wood at its base. A discrete print folded inside shows discarded wood scraps at the base of an old industrial building (with the edition number of 50 inscribed on the other side.) I really have come to have a small fascination with the work of Woods Mattress, as his pieces occupy such a highly specific, liminal, and faintly menacing section of rural America.

[Balor/SS1535]

Woods Mattress - That Place (Un Poco Fría, 2025)
Continuing on with noise with a distinctly rural flair is Woods Mattress. The sound pallette here is one of the insomniac camper, tortured in his tent from the incessant drone of crickets, driven to madness from thier trill chorus. However, not solely a personal torment... there is an implicit violence and harm at the core of this work. Hurt people hurt people. Perhaps a similar harm as to be found on Mania recordings, but leaning quite hard on the high pass filter. In fact the whole Woods Mattress ouvre, from what I've heard thus far, lays into this shrill zone: grating edges and rusted iron transients and brittle AM radio static suffocated inside of mossed-over bathroom in an abandoned warehouse reverb. The packaging for That Place helps instill that aura quite fittingly, a green matte JCard displays images of an old factory or mill alongside a tree with protective wood at its base. A discrete print folded inside shows discarded wood scraps at the base of an old industrial building (with the edition number of 50 inscribed on the other side.) I really have come to have a small fascination with the work of Woods Mattress, as his pieces occupy such a highly specific, liminal, and faintly menacing section of rural America.

The only material that I have from this project is a collaboration CDr with Distorting a Woodpecker (bought directly from the latter at a show earlier this year).  I haven't listened to it yet, but this description has pushed it higher on my list of things to listen to!

[Kaaoskultti]

Dead Door Unit - Trap Doors/Forbiden Tunnels (2022)

Listening to Dead Door Unit for the first time as a humble homage to KPG's presence on this board, and let's see, it seems really great. No asskissing, I do feel as I would while listening to canonical artists from the scene. It starts with a black crunchy sound that soon turns into a malestrom oozing sounds, distorted atmospheres build by the interaction between the sounds, structured through interesting songwriting. Noise that has a structure, and a form which is just as important to the flow of the songs as the sounds itself. The whole album feels cryptic, eerie. There are some progressions within the contrast of brighter and blacker sounds flowing together in a piece. Even thought it sounded like it would start as a very raw album, I for one believe its strong presence so far is in the atmospheric buildings. Quite enjoyable I must say! Firstsong is quite hypnotic and dirge-like, but remains very interesting - ten minutes in and one is already immersed within it and lost track of the oscillating difference of sounds, even though they happen here and there. I must say, really great release!

Junta Cadre - Red Detachement (2020, Total Black)

I have come to the conclusion that the form of a historical document is the best thematic orientation in Power Electronics. Perhaps one would point its subjective appeal in relation to the music, but I must admit it turns me on more. Speciakky when focusion in perioeds of institutionalized violence, mass murder, totalitarism etc. - this IS PE! Eveb if the artits has a subjective appeal to the subject matter, it still maintains the "cold", detached approach Mikko once noted (in Bardo's N12 interview) as characteristic of noise, and Industrial. Thinking about it, that would probably be the further element which makes a Noise record original, one that 'doesnt get old, and that aspects fulfills answers for further discussions.

Cluster - Cluster (1971)

Very interesting and well-thought release, peaking among my favorite Krautrock albums at first listen. Ambient-driven abstract, proto-noise experimentation. The sounds are very elastic, and the whole pace sounds like the evr-growing manifestation of something tangile yet incomprehensible. Amongst the first ones to influence later Noise scenes, Cluster is sure to hav marked its worth with this one. Further artists would sure expand this approach, one that became intensely confrontational ad loud as can be, while Cluster tries, less than shock, educate the listener. Waves of repetitive synth works build along an uneasy atmosphere, that maintain its grip on the listener with expectations on how the sound might change - then it does, in a mostly totalist and expressionist way, creating variations of sustained motifs until the sound gives away.

The sounds here get so loud that one could easily imagine listening to a modern piece of atmospheric Industrial Noise. Yet, this is one far away in time - which only goes to show how prolific and innovative this band truly was. Even though the first track seems very much crescendo-based, the last one is in vein of quieter, contemplative ambient pieces; all in all creating a consistent craft of crontasts and textures.