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Knurl - Mesosoma
For quite some time I was thinking how should I start this review - "it is really difficult to write about noise that you like" or "it is really easy to write about noise that you like". I think it's the first one. Especially if you are talking about Knurl. The truth is that I have never heard any bad album of Knurl. But the truth also is that I have never heard the best album of Knurl because all of them are equally strong, interesting and intense. This time I spin the CDr, released several years ago by Polish label Impulsy Stetoskopu. It was lying on the shelf far too long, collecting dust and finally I managed to get to it. Nice packaging - metal box with scorpion and colorful inserts inside with H. Bergson quotes for every track. It looks really solid. There are several weird things, associated with this release though. First of all the title of the album - Mesosoma - that means the middle part of arthropods that bears legs, wings etc. This concept is slightly more distant from the usual themes of Alan Bloor - screws, bolts, corrosion, oxides and other themes, arising from welding and chemistry. It's the same weirdness with track titles like notheism etc. I wonder whether it was some sort of deviation from usual themes because of author or label. But most likely it's the latter one. Other thing that quite surprised me was that the sound in it is quite varied, having in mind that we are talking about Knurl. I get the impression that it is because of violin that was used in the recording process and which is one of the favorite instruments of Alan. These weirder moments are audible very well in Notheism and Matolytic tracks. Matolytic sound is overall like some sort or Japanese guitar noise a la Otomo Yoshihide etc. Other tracks are dominated by harsh and evolving metallic textures that are usually associated with this artist. The first track, Lascination, is typical and strict distorted abuse of metal constructions, lasting for more than 11 minutes. If I would want to pick something that I didn't like too much in this album, I would say that the sound lacks lows. It is concentrated in middle and higher frequencies, but perhaps it's also the problem of the format, and overall aggressive sound attack quickly kicks out these thoughts out of my head. Chrosite is one more rather strange track. Until the very end of the track sound doesn't reach the line of blasting metallic distortion, but rather sounds like the never-ending problem of the rusted engine. The rest of the tracks are more or less typical noise explosions that have already become the trademark of Knurl. Truly nice and a little surprising Knurl album. Apart from the format, everything else is excellent. Quotes and phrases on the inserts seem slightly exaggerated, but maybe it's subjective since for me this artist is associated with absolutely different things. I wish I could understand at least half of the track titles though...
Ataraxy – Barriers
After several not that positive writings about Toxic Industries releases, the time came to rehabilitate this label a little bit. Ataraxy is the title I've seen quite often here and there, though I never was too interested in it. Maybe it's because of the fact that I've been noticing it far too often. The project was started in the summer of 2009 and released around 80 albums to date. I tend to think of such outbursts of releases not as outbreaks of genius, but as lack of quality control, perfunctory attitude towards creations etc. I'm whining about this in almost every review when I have to describe a musician who has suddenly released dozens of albums in a few months. But let it be. Apart from this fact and the fact that concept of the project is absolutely boring ("recordings are directly associated with personal thoughts, interests and feelings" and similar bullshit), this CDr, limited to 33 copies (the usual editions of Irritant series), is quite decent one. There are 5 walls in the album; each of them 5 minutes longer than the previous one. 75 minutes of untitled harsh noise wall tracks. Album starts from strident and quite agile wall. Lows and mids in it are boiling under the louder layer of the upper frequencies. The latter one gets more and more dominant while finally what you hear is basically the one colored layer of noise. But I'm pretty happy that such track with radio statics is only 5 minutes. I'm not fascinated by such sort of noise that is somewhat quite popular in Eastern Europe and Russia. The second wall is nicer. Punch through middle and lower frequencies and roundish, strong and soft sound with episodic cracklings that were the foundation of the previous track. In the third wall you get less lower range and you are left for 15 minutes with sharp wall, leaning towards the upper frequencies, but all in all nicely maneuvering in sound. The fourth track is my favorite. Starting with blow of mid and lower frequencies, it slowly evolves without getting too far from the main axis of sound. It's one listenable and not boring track. The last wall seems to be the continuation of the previous one, cut after 20 minutes because of the concept of this album most likely. Well, at least to me they sound almost the same just more and more layers of sound appear under the original elements in the fifth wall. And if you start the disc from the beginning right away after it ends, the beginning of the first one seems like the continuation of the last track. And thus you get the closed circle of walls with short interruptions between tracks. I would be wrong against myself if I would say that it's difficult to listen to this album. Some of these walls or their elements are quite enjoyable for those who are at least a little into static sounds. There is not that much to criticize in this album, but there is nothing to praise it for. The impression is of an average one with boring concept and it will most likely drown in the seas of HNW albums. Design of this album is minimalistic, in the same template as the rest of the series. Anna Gehmann has drawn some stick figure, opening the door and seeing the wall behind it. So in case you get this album, I think you won't get sick if you listen to it, but you will not loose anything otherwise too.
Flesh Coffin – Borderland
I have understood two things while preparing for this review and listening to this album, thinking about the release, musician and sound. One of the things was about the miniCDr format. I think it is one of the worst and most boring formats that you can possibly release something in. Of course you can go as far as floppy discs etc, but 3" CDr is not far from floppies in its absurdity. The other thing was about the title of this project. Flesh Coffin is the project of Andreas Brandal. His releases were reviewed sometime in the past. This project is oriented more towards noise and horror and not HNW, ambient or so. So I came to the idea that the term Flesh Coffin means the body of a man. Coffin, made of flesh, imprisoned something - soul for those with faith, organs, responsible for vital functions for others etc. Maybe I'm the last person on Earth who came to such a conclusion and sort of understanding, but I'm pretty happy about this. This album with playing time of more than 20 minutes was inspired by the book of William Hope Hodgson called The House On the Borderland. It is a horror novel that appeared in the beginning of 20th century and even H.P.Lovecraft wrote about it as one of his biggest inspirations. One more book that you must read. Two tracks that are on the disc were recorded in the second half of 2009 in The Station, Bergen (I suppose it's the record studio of A. Brandal). Borderland is rich in sounds, overlapping in various forms and layers, merging with each other and suddenly separating and going to opposite directions after the density of sound textures is changed. You can hear field recordings, distant voices, hardly making through the dominant raw distorted texture and the louder I listen to this album, the better it sounds to me. I usually don't like to listen to reviewed music too loud, but it's not possible to do otherwise with Borderland. After first few times that I've listened to this mini disc, I was thinking that this is most likely one of the worse records of Flesh Coffin that I've heard. But to raise the volume level was the main thing that was needed to hear all separate details that previously were simply lost in the murky, monolithic sphere of noise. The first track, going the harsh noise path with sudden turns in sound, reaches the moment where it changes into some sort of industrial with the hidden melody of synth, rough noise, densely layered on top and finally you are left with the crumbled record of junk noise. The formula does not change that much in the second track - many layers of noise, changing, developing and writhing like snakes. Andreas Brandal leaves quite a lot of space for your own imagination, hiding tiny pieces of musical elements under the brute layer of noise. Sometimes they seem to be an illusion, but then they repeat themselves, develop, disappear and suddenly reappear. Distant dripping of water, metal percussions, samples etc. If it wouldn't be the 3" disc, I would recommend this EP as one more proof of Andreas Brandal talent. But now I'm annoyed by this small plastic envelope though I guess you can expect nothing more from the label with such name (not active already). Anyways, the musical side of this is really good. Every time I take the work of this Norwegian guy, I know what I could expect and hope, but every time when my hopes are confirmed, I am no matter what pleasantly surprised and listen to his creations with amazement.
Organomehanizm – Quiet Insanity
Organomehanizm is one of Kiril Stoukaline (Кирилл Стукалин) from Saint Petersburg projects. This man is active in industrial music for almost 20 years. I suppose I won't be mistaken very much if I'd say that the most famous project where he's participating is legendary band from Leningrad school of industrial - Reduction Ad Absurdum. After the decade of activity Organomehanizm is not releasing anything for quite some time already and it seems that this review will be one more obituary for yet another project from Russia. After looking at the cover art I couldn't imagine what to expect from this record. There were parts that fascinated, surprised or irritated me during first listening sessions so finally I didn't fully get the idea behind this album, though remained quite happy about overall experience. Just like that monkey on the cover. If I understand correctly, bigger part of these sounds on the disc are raw, layered and maybe slightly cut field recordings. I was pleasantly surprised by the beginning of "Quiet Insanity". The first and longest track "Menopause / U-Boat-2" nicely lulls you in sounds of underwater recording - calm effervescence, lasting for good 15 minutes and finally ending in screaming overloads at the very end of the track. Though I was puzzled by such a turn of events after the calm meditation, but I was pretty sure that it will be easy to relax and enjoy this album. But I was even more surprised with the further development of sound. Other tracks were not so calm, dark and claustrophobic. They were reality distorting collages made of collected sounds where musical details are joined in unpredictable colors. Several tracks in the beginning of the album were still puzzling me with harsh overloads. These seemed like such nice and subtle textures, recorded to the tape most likely, developing so nicely and boom!!!! here, have some raw distortion and further on we go with calm and nice field recordings. Imagine spring. You walk in the park with your girlfriend, telling her how you love her, what a beautiful boy you have, you crouch, take a shit, hit a girl to her face with your shitty hand and remark that Dom is a very beautiful name and her eyes are so blue. The impression is like that. But I'm talking about the beginning of the album. The second Menopause / U-Boat-2 version is more aggressive and from field recordings we move to area of cut-up collages, dense sounds of noise generators and overall noisier part. Here we avoid most of the surprises and we can continue enjoying pleasant music. I like it. Weird, bizarre, in parts absolutely tasteless. But these raw sounds, schizoid shifts and loudly chewed remains of the sanity, amazes me. Then I look into the mirror and see a monkey. Vinyl is spun backwards in the other room, the day transforms into the weird tape loop and some old POP song is heard, playing faster than ever. Enjoyable.
