Corpoparassita – L'affannoso Respiro Del Gatto
Abgurd
I didn't know anything about Corpoparassita until I sat down to write this review. But after seeing a few photos of a band and reading a few sentences about it, I've spent quite some time exploring weird, distorted and grimy world that they represent. Corpoparassita comes from Italy and the band was found in 2001. In their live performances they use show, performance elements etc. I guess when you look at their photos, you could say that this is not a music group, but overall artistic collective. Browsing through the visuals of a band, one can notice how nicely and weirdly cozy and gentle elements team up with dark and provocative symbols. Look at any cover; let's say the tape, released via Lich und Stahl where black, smiling drops are flying between inverted crosses. The first thing that catches my eye in this album is the cover too. Top notch. Two brindled cats are playing flute and trumpet for the white kitty that is looking at them through the open window. It's extremely intimate picture, emitting somewhat melancholic and a little sad mood. The title of the album should be translated as "breathing of a tired cat" or something like that. This title adds a feeling of a children's tale to an overall melancholic mood and leads the listener towards sounds. After such long and elated introduction, it would be difficult to criticize the music even if I would have to do that. But I'm glad that Corpoparassita takes away from me this possibility and presents 7 tracks of a decent dark ambient. What does "decent dark ambient" mean? It means sounds that are interesting to listen to and that creates peculiar mood, sounds that draws you in no matter if you are ready for that or no. It must not be something innovative and original. And this album is just like that. Maybe it won't stick out of a bunch of similar drone/ambient names like Bjerga/Iversen or Beyond Sensory Experience that comes to mind while listening to Corpoparassita, but tender phonic touches, distant piano sounds, delayed bass and guitar, gong or something like that, samples of a calm human voice, composed into solid, floating construction of sound and this is what creates a perfectly grey atmosphere and why it is so good to listen to this album. Waving dissonance slowly transforms into harmonic chords that further evolve into colorless sound passages and carry you for half an hour. Compositions are developed so tenderly and subtly in this disc that finally you start to think that it's a bad time to listen to this album. It should've been heard when it was autumn and not spring. And if possible at night. My cat, which climbed on my audio equipment after the disk started playing and went to sleep, and me, are fascinated by this album. I'm recommending trying it for you too.
Black Leather Jesus / Richard Ramirez - Latex
Urashima
I'm constantly praising releases of Urashima for their appearance. So this time I won't be original too. This Italian label releases truly wonderfully looking vinyls that you can surely recognize by just taking a glance at them. They are releases, exceptionally high quality in visuals and quite often very interesting in sound. I'm also glad that Urashima at first released only HNW, but little by little selected harsh noise, power electronics or industrial bands started appearing on the catalogue too. On this vinyl we have USA legendary harsh noise band from Texas, Black Leather Jesus that was started by Richard Ramirez 25 years ago and Ramirez's solo material. Members of Black Leather Jesus always changes, but I think I read somewhere that 5 people took part in this recording: Richard Ramirez, Sean E. Matzus, Robert Newsome, Scott Houston and Domokos. It's not surprising that noise band, consisting of 5 persons, presents dense and intense noise track, but after several listening sessions I didn't get to like the side of BLJ. Serfdom is a strict track with several evolving sound layers, but the feeling is that the sound is hung somewhere in the air without a solid fundament beneath. Variations of noise generators are lost in between static noise textures and sounds as if they would have no common link between them. For a part of a second these layers finds common denominator and merges into one solid noise formation, but after a second they're decomposed and goes their own ways. Not a bad track, but knowing that Black Leather Jesus can do far better material, I cannot let myself praise it. Richard Ramirez material is different and much more interesting for me. It is slowly evolving minimalistic harsh/junk noise track with male moaning sample sounding in the background (well, it's Richard Ramirez, it couldn't be the other way). What I like in this side is that it has composition, sound contrasts and at the same time does not loose expressiveness and aggression. These moments when feedbacks of contact microphones become silent and you don't hear stroking of metal sheets, sound totality is fulfilled with male porno. The track is divided into three logical parts. The first one is soft, distortion is absent and you can clearly hear every movement and touch of a musician. The second part is a little more active while we finally reach the final part of a track where noise explodes and after a groan "a fuck me" suddenly strikes with the wall of feedback and distortion. Richard Ramirez is truly great in this vinyl. If not for Black Leather Jesus side, I would say that this is a very nice noise vinyl. Now Black Leather Jesus side is very average and Richard Ramirez - interesting and will be repeated many more times.
Umpio - Opium Elecronix vol. III (review by Daina)
Nekorekords
UMPIO is a name I hear again and again, because of many reasons, and one of those reasons is because of his numerous releases to hit my player. Right now, while rain is soaking the thick summery sky, I've got the "Opium Electronix vol.III" drilling my brain.
I'm not a fan of enumerations, thus no additional info on UMPIO will be provided in this raw draft of a review, first one in a long while from me. 'Cause in any case you can google it all, can't ya?
"Opium" is a well chosen name for this release series, the sound you get is pretty much same (wave)length of that one would get high on opiates on a seashore. A slow wavy flow of sound, coming close, embracing and pushing away, slow attacks, long sustains, endless releases - that's how it sounds if put shortly.
On the first part of the release, "seismic" drones are enveloping the slow movement of gigantic sound structures, creating a somewhat "drowned city" ambiances, thus welcome to sound-version of Atlantis. Later more minuscule sound particles are incorporated into the texture, the structure is becoming more elaborate. Hiss, then noise occupy the aural space, and it does become a spacey soundscape. My memory plays tricks as it points out some sounds that were common in the seventies and eighties space travel movies, and here I go trippin' through a memory lapse combining "Planet of Apes", "Twilight Zone" series, "Space Odyssey" and the first of "Star Wars". Then a deep submersion follows, down under the Baltic, to meet long oil pumps with their blurbs, a trip-like-sound through the murky water, over the slimy sea weed, and then up again. Swift sifting of organic and non-organic particles, defining the molecular structure of the winter darkness, until a blast of wind-like pipes supersedes the hiss, the murky drones and blurbs. The spinning of this wind-like sound concludes the trip with a spinning vortex, raising high and falling low, back to the waves washing a rocky shore.
Just a couple of weeks ago I was listening to the "Sauna" album by UMPIO and right now the thing I can't get over is the huge difference on the whole construction and the character of the sound. Whereas "SAUNA" to me remains as a sort of noise "staccato", the "Opium Electronix / Vol.III" is a smooth and ecstatic wave of sound with a somewhat natural development. Integrity. Well done.
Arma / Komodo Haunts - Split (review by Daina)
Agharta
A: Arma
I am so used to Arma's physical presence - on stage, close to the stage, in front of it, that it makes kindda weird effect to be listening to something of his without him present.
After listening to the whole of the album I must admit it amounts well to the big expectations that you would have from someone having all this performer / promoter / label background.
The squeaky crunchy silent start for a prologue, then a nice wave of huge drones which later evolve into somewhat flute-like melodies - nice development of the composition, really. The second piece is more of a feverish toss of mostly mids- and highs, all mounted on a running water soundscape. After a scrupulously structured first piece this gives a totally different insight into Arma's sound world, and that's basically what I know about him - he might play two completely different gigs with the same instruments on the same tour, it's never alike. Improvisational nature of his creative performances causes the shift in the nature and the quality of every performance, yet it's always a guaranty it will never be boring. Cute.
Third piece starts out in an empty gloomy cave down under, with the sounds of dripping water and thrilling somewhat human echoes, it's way darker than the first two pieces, but it contributes well to the overall ambience of this side of the tape. Circular mid-frequency hum gains more presence towards the middle of the piece, an inclusion of industry into the nature gradually unfolds with the march-like sounds, then elegantly descends into the oblivion.
And then the fourth one, appeared the very same moment I thought that three is a perfect number for one side of the album. It seems as if it were just the piece to fill-in the space that remained, still I enjoy its hypnotic motion, but the same won't be said about the fifth piece which really gets me thinking it is just a plug not willing to leave empty spaces. Oh well.
B: Komodo Haunts
Melancholic soundscapes, somewhat golden and glittery if to define them by color. Warm drones envelop the ear right from the start of the B-side of the tape. The vanishing point is someplace close, but one never reaches it, going about in circles of tantric hums. I've never heard Komodo Haunts before and I must admit it's a nice surprise (after all of the nasty surprises I stumble upon in the so-called experimental electronics scene, where almost each newcomer is so sure to have discovered an Eldorado-of-the-Sound while jerking off with his sampler).
It's easy to loose it while working on ambient piece - try holding the (at)tension of your listener for half an hour and you'll know what I mean - but I believe Komodo Haunts succeeds well. Although their sound is a proper embodiment of the word "tranquillity", it doesn't really make you sleep and linger in attendance for some weird Godot - the minuscule particles in the sound are constantly shifting in the space of the sound, and you might think you hear the whole spectrum of various instruments originating from the Eastern music culture. It's a fascinating space to explore.
Along with the second piece a heavy load of chimes and heavenly butterflies kindda kicks me out of my shoes - I haven't been expecting that much of dreamland-like sounds, but at the end it works well with this summer sun out of my window. Worth checking out. Both sides.
Velemara - Abysmia (review by Kiras)
Autarkeia
I have an advantage when writing this review because I've listened to this album prior to its release as demo version and managed to get to it pretty well. It's good to see this album finally out, released under the flag of famous Autarkeia. This label has always been the synonym to me for strict quality. It's the kind of label that does not joke around and does not release half-baked releases. If the label likes some stuff, it will be released and no matter if it's new Lithuanian project or famous noise stars from USA. Truth is, these releases tend to be quite expensive, but I never saw any sort of irritating over the top advertising of the albums. If you don't like them - don't buy. There are people who will like it.
This time it is Lithuanian debut - industrial project Velemara. Under this pseudonym hides a talented person, responsible also for Haeiresis, Terralienus and other interesting projects. I have no idea what does Velemara means and why is the album titled like that, but most likely google search would help me. All in all the appearance of this album is disappointing. Packaging is ok, but in practice it loses against the simplest jewel case.
Artwork is also not something impressive. When such expensive box has nothing inside, it's a little sad. No photos, no texts to read etc. I think that would be ok in demo or promo case, but not for the album. I don't want to sound too strict, but even the xeroxed piece of paper would do. Pictures also do not say much - Egyptian style sights, damaged with photoshop and so on. Anyways, the sound atones average visuals.
"Without Return" starts very calmly. I even check if everything is ok with the sound on my equipment. Unhuman moans, touched by delay and buzzing spike of drone. Rather simple first track.
The second one "To Wait" greets you not only with ambient hums, but also distant melody pieces, repeated from time to time. The sound is pleasant until you hear the frightening buzzing drill once again and this becomes the worst part of the album. I couldn't say that it's very bad and the sound is very unpleasant, just for me it seems to raw and harsh and it does not fit in the foreground of these sounds.
The third track is better. At the very beginning you get the audiodrills once more, then something similar to the siren, wall of hum and finally a light rain of noise. This is what I like!
"The Call of Grimes" starts with distant delayed hums, metal clanging, and looped illusion of light and so on. New sounds are added quite often so there's no sinking in monotony. The most pleasant thing to imagine while listening to this track is dark and abandoned metro tunnel. All in all the entire album gets better towards the end of it.
After slightly frightening motives of the fourth track, there comes my personal favorite and the top of the album - "The Pestilence of Souls". From cold industrial roaring and wheezing this track transforms into warm and nice guitar (?) ambient. Somewhere around the 4th minute the track reaches its climax, the sky opens and all that is good in Abysmia appears. I'm not 100% sure that these sounds are made with guitar, but at least it seems so to me and I can only think how good it is that guitar is used in such music because most often the capabilities of the instrument are overrated. Who is interested in listening to delayed strings masturbation for an hour...? Well, this track is a good example - deep and picturesque, but still remaining calm. This is what Velemara should be about!
A short reflection of light disappears. "Transit to Oblivion" sounds the same as it is titled. Cold electronic hell returns and massive hum takes you down to the black abyss. From time to time these sounds are similar to metro, but instead of chatting passengers, tortured souls are in the wagons that moan or shout a few words from time to time. Original and effective vision of horror, later supplemented with additional almost harmonic layers.
The last song starts with most noisy and frightening tone. It sounds more like power electronics with open aggression and not to dark ambient that is the standard for this album. But the aggression does not explode and remains in cold, reverbed industrial subtlety form without transforming into something harsher. When the disease progresses, new layers are added that make this track altogether more similar to ambient music and not noise.
The biggest disappointments in this album are audio drill at the beginning of the album and poor appearance. The quality is good, but no efforts were put in it. Ok, I can put packaging aside, close my eyes and travel with sounds further from cover art and all in all physical things that finally have no importance. That's technology and everything else is good. It's not a perfect debut, but since it's debut - it will get better. A great appearance from the unexplored seas of noise that hides so many interesting sounds even in Lithuanian shores. I'm curious how will this project develops and how the next album will sound, hopefully released by Autarkeia too.
Verdant – Sincerity
Existest Establishment
Today I'm spinning yet another disc, released via Existence Establishment. And once again I've heard almost nothing about the author of this disc, perhaps I've read something on the forums here or there, but nothing that I'd remember. Verdant (apart from the fact that this word in Lithuanian language means "boiling") is the project of Zach Adams. Sincerity is the first album of the project that was released as CDr in 2011 and a couple years later rereleased as a normal CD. This is one weird album with playing time of an hour and consisting of 12 tracks. Almost everything in this album is weird, starting from description, where Sincerity is described as silent power electronics and ending with design details and track titles. I'd say that the term silent power electronis does not say that much so if I'd have to describe it in some other way, it'd be synth-based minimal ambient/power electronics. Album is not aggressive, but slightly mysterious and dark. Just like photos of a mausoleum on the cover. Usually when I see the word minimalism, I prepare for thin and (almost as a rule) amateurish sound where the creator left it as minimal only because of lack of fantasy or means to fully develop his ideas. But in this album it's the opposite - minimalism is beautiful. Shouting and subtly distorted vocal, floating together with field recordings, loops of synth melody and samples, takes you the strange world of Verdant. Spoken word, sounds of music boxes, feedbacks and synth melodies forms a picture that seems to come straight from L. Carroll book. The strong side of compositions from this album is the fact that sound elements are so subtly adjusted that I don't even have a reason to question their existence in this context - I can simply enjoy what I hear. In one track symbiosis of aggressive vocal and soft melodies dominates while another one joins loops of classical music with fiercing feedbacks; after that you move to distorted synth lines with calm voice on top etc. You hear very different details being matched in this record, but because of skillful balance, tracks remain interesting. On the other hand, I'm not sure if this truly original and peculiar musical vision will be spinning forever and ever in my player. I'm missing a hook that would make me wonder and get to repeat the listening sessions over and over again. Sincerity is the album with sound, purified to the very core and that pure audible carcass is what you hear. I do recommend this album not only for those who are the fans of minimalism.
AX - Metal Forest
Cold Spring
I don't know how many people have heard the title AX. Perhaps it's just me to whom this title said nothing. But after mentioning Anthony di Franco, Ramleh, Ethnic Acid, JFK or Broken Flag, situation becomes much clearer. This project has released three albums in 1994-1997 via now non-existent UK label Freek Records and part of the material from these releases has been remastered and published in 2012 by Cold Spring as a CD. For me the title of the album sounds quite uninspiring and I doubt I'd choose to even look at the release with a band name and title like this, but more than an hour of music in disc is well worth attention. 9 tracks, belonging to the same area of stylistic mood, are nevertheless varied and interesting and it is not the first time that I ask myself what is that miraculous formula in sound that still manages to surprise you in quality and thoughtfulness. This compilation is full of heavy and massive guitar drone textures, spiced with pulsations of synth or noise generators and leaning more towards industrial/power electronics sound and even going as far as to harsh noise wall extremes. The first track from the only CD of AX - Astronomy, is perhaps most typical industrial/noise/power electronics track. Anyways, it suits well as an intro to the album, but the rest of the songs in this disc, taken from vinyls, released in 1994 and 1995 hits with massiveness. Blocks of almost static guitar riffs, from time to time cut with feedback, touches of drum plates or distorted synth lines, arranged in tasteful way and presented in the final result. A little surprise was pure HNW track (Theme One). I feel a little weird about it at first, but the rich texture of this track blends with the overall mood and sound of the album and I start to think where I will find more rudiments of HNW. 1985? Even before? This track somehow divides the disc to two parts and after Theme One ends, differently colored material of AX starts. Guitar riffs are still heavy and lazily changing, but there are more additional sound elements, that are not only complementing the sound of tracks, but are put responsible for development of themes. Somehow after getting into the mood with first tracks from Nova Feedback LP, I have quite a difficult time listening to two songs from AXII vinyl. They have more manipulations with noise generators and overall the sound and mood is a little dryer. The principle of tracks remains de facto the same, just layers of guitars are exchanged for synth layers and those two long tracks in the middle of disc, not being very pleasant by themselves, still contrasts with the contents of disc and songs put around them. Finally we return to the material of debut vinyl and the primary mood of oppressive guitar drone. Overall this is a good and solid compilation that had to be released without a doubt - because of the variety, mood and good sounds, the caliber of musician himself and because it should be heard now. I hope you won't miss it.
