PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Matthias]

Well I wouldn't say 95% rubbish, but I really wouldn't say it's a good compilation either. Some of the highlights you heard before (Garbochock, Brända Barn, Cortex etc). If interested in swedish postpunk, I would recommend the compilation Ny Våg 78-82 insted even though many of the same tracks are on both compilations.

[RyanWreck]

War - "At War For Youth" - War is at the top of the food chain as far as this neo-synth pop/post-punk style of music is concerned, sitting right up there with Countrepoison. Melodic shapes and leads punctuate hissing, droning pads all backed up by driving rhythms. The instrumental track "Kains Maerke" is one of the better War tracks and the two others it is sandwiched between are great as well.

Crown of Cerberus - "Strength" - Like the other CoC tapes this one is another masterpiece of lengthy tape loops that are used in a more orchestral and delicate way than other Noise/PE artists use them. As a whole this tape is very atmospheric. That is basically what this projects rests on, atmosphere. The tape titled Salome which came not too long after this one is really good as well and I reviewed it at the Pure Stench (it goes into greater detail as to what CoC sounds like, at least to these ears) for anyone interested: http://purestench.blogspot.com/2012/02/crown-of-cerberus-salome.html

[Mrs. Deviated]

TIED TO AN ABUSE - really great compilation by Nil by mouth!
PANIC ATTACK - [GX Jupitter-Larsen, White Walls, Torturing Nurse, The Haters]

[emboscado]

Death In June "The Rule Of Thirds" CD
uhh.. what a bore! I have this love-hate thing about DiJ. Something I'd kind of want to like, and end up buying some stuff, and then sell them away. There is very little DiJ what can really grab your attention and keep it. 2007 DiJ is lazy, lame and routine job. Same guitar sound, same vocal sound, same arrangement, same rhythms, same compositions, same chords,... Nice photos and poetry can work simply as book. Listening CD (or expensive 2x10") appears to be utterly useless.

That CD has been grown on me during last months but definitely you are right: great lyrics but the rest is all the same... I really miss some keyboards on that record, songs remained a bit bared. DIJ releases have not been what used to be since Douglas P appears in all the covers, losing the force of past covers, beautiful and simbolic...

Apart from that, listening old CMI releases.

[bitewerksMTB]

Weedeater "jason...the dragon" LP
Mania/Hal Hutchinson collab- this will go to the UK soon. He hasn't heard it all yet- cpl x I tried to upload it, fuckers
just seem to stall out. Not sure if it's their problem or I'm impatient.

[Reprobate]

Wolf Eyes- Dread
Grunt- Terror and Degeneration
IRM- Oedipus Dethroned
Whitehouse- Dedicated to Peter Kurten
Vampire Weekend- S/T

[Tenebracid]

jason lescalleet - electronic music
slayer - show no mercy
skin area - rothko field
trepaneringsritualen - deathward, to the womb
premature ejaculation - dead whorse riddles
voice crack - infra red

[WAR]

kim phuc - copsucker lp
great 90's style noise rock in the vein of most amrep bands. highly recommended for fans of the style.

eric lunde - neither lot nor sums cs.
my first exposure to the guy, so i'm not sure what he (or boy dirt car for that matter) usually sounds like. blew my mind. awesome power electronics. cool vocals.

the rita - vice baron cs.
also my first exposure. is this a joke project? i expected much more based on the fanbase. it's just a slow moving, unchanging, crumbly wall of barely there static and farts. it claims to be sourced from audio from prohibition era prostitute changing rooms but you would never know whether it was or not. an extremely boring listen. sorry to the fans and the artist, but i'll never understand the hype.

repeater - beyond any hope cs.
fantastic newer project of nicely varied heavy electronics. nice and loud. every release i've heard has been good. definitely check it out.

sewer goddess/mourner - in the cold of the stabbing doldrums 10"
the first track on the SG side is martial industrial with a strong swans vibe. pretty good, but i may prefer the older death industrial/pe SG style. second one has a sort of slow, plodding industrial metal feel. think malformed earthborn maybe? again, not bad. i just like the older stuff more.
mourner, on the the other hand, was a very pleasant surprise. doomy/noisy/metal with a very atmospheric and gloomy sound that reminds me very much of 90's era today is the day.
even though it is a bit expensive, this split is worth having. the packaging is nice, aside from the insert that doesnt fit in the sleeve and sticks an inch out of the top.

[RG]

everything I listened to today in order

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of... 3LP
First time I ever made it through beginning to end in one sitting. Good for laying around hungover/burnt-out on Sunday morning recovering from weekend's excesses.

Dieter Müh - Aakal 7"
more drone good, both sides are great

Bereft - Tough Man 7"
B-side track "Religious Leaders" is much more interesting. Menacing atmosphere that builds

Josh Lay - Worm Terrain tape
more drone - Side A has very sickly atmosphere and uneasy feeling. Plenty of movement, doesn't get boring. Side B is kinda forgettable though, unfortunately.

Empiric - Familiar tape
Apparently I'm craving drone today. Nice new one from Crown Tapes.

Celestial Indifference - Refuse to Shine tape
Interesting mix, lofi with an emphasis on the high end and overall kind of quiet and murky, like you were hearing this coming from down a long tunnel or cave (not a huge reverb/echo though). Despite this "quiet" mix, it's still a shrieking whirlwind and as side one (blue side) winds down some low end throbs come to the surface. The other side (red) is more of the same, with what sounds like a churning cyclone recorded inside a big empty elevator shaft. There is also a constant high frequency tone which was also present on side one (I wonder if this was intentional or a dubbing error?). Didn't this label have issues with high pitch tones sneaking onto other releases as well? Anyway, overall an ok tape, just maybe a little too long at c20 for what is basically one track spread over two sides.

Crank Sturgeon - Mashacoustic CDr
I ordered an assortment of his homemade contact mics and he included this CD in the package. This guy is a master of broken sputtering electronics and junk noise, but for some reason doesn't seem to attract much attention or respect for his releases (there are a ton). Maybe it's the wild & absurd live performances that keep some people away or just the overall goofy feeling, but most of what I've heard from him is worth the listen. This CD is a great showcase of the different kind of compositions that CS is capable of: balls-to-the-wall spastic harshness and vocal retardation with backpack guitar freakouts, but also some restrained and sophisticated sound explorations. Opens with a great nonsense word-salad story and last track is a live recording

Burried Machine - Aoral Portion tape
Heavy tape manipulation of what sounds like people fucking or wrestling in a rowboat. Creates a very physical and disorienting vibe. Initially sounds like it is based on long rough loops but I'm not sure that's the case. An ominous, wavering synth tone slithers its way underneath the tape abuse, which itself is getting sharper and more abrupt. The fucking/wrestling cutup continues with interspersed vocal grunting & heavy breathing and eventually a focus on massive tape fuckery of (cartoonish) laughing. Side B is more obvious tape looping going on and overall less busy and more focused than side A. Once again another quality release by Lust Vessel.


Really looking forward to this next week, got a lot of new purchases coming in the mail. New F&V tapes, new issue of SI and new Sick Seed tape, Posh Isolation 2xTape comp, new Mgla LP. I've been spending way too much $$$ on releases lately, heh.

[Nyodene D]

OK...time for a giant post of everything I've digested recently up until today.

Klit "Sodomy Is Birth Control" C10 Danvers State Recordings
   First impression: is this a joke? Second impression: this had better be a joke. Easily one of the worst tapes I've ever heard (it's no wonder why the guy sold it to me for $1 including shipping). This is just two (apparently live...who would enjoy seeing this crap live?) tracks of really strange, wavy syth drones layered on top of each other with some weird samples of voices and some junk metal. I would normally think that this sort of thing is unreleasable/unlistenable but I'd imagine the person behind this project is probably a personal friend of the label owner who asked for some sort of favor.

Klit is a joke.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Been listening to days worth of Grunt old stuff.
There's in process utterly absurd re-issue plan for Industrial Recollections and been going through all 90's tapes and unreleased materials of this era, but also as addition rotated some of the vinyls like Grunt/Aube 10", Grunt/Richard Ramirez LP, etc...  to compare qualities and styles. Been actually the most excited about late 94 to mid 95 material. News later.

Then:

SLOGUN "Visit / Revisit" 2xCD
Good sounds, I think vocals - even if crucial element of Slogun - could be turned down a bit for favor of increasing details of noise backgrounds. Good stuff, but the same vocal delivery will make songs sound closer to eachother than they should.

MERZBOW "Kibbuz" LP
Nice! I was expecting it could suck, but no. It is Masami & Mizutani duo works, most often more free music, yet fierce and primal force! Minimal = nonexistent packaging.

GNAW THEIR TONGUES / COREPHALISM 10"
heavy duty cinematic contemporary industrial-sound. GTT is just about same as I always though they are. CP is harder, yet digital smooth synth tones is something I keep growing out further and further. Not bad, but very common modern material.

HAARE "Rautapilvi" 12"
one sider 100 copies... Lucky hunting!! Total drone music from Finnish martial-arts shaman. Minimalistic, yet the Circle related source sounds are VERY tasty and distinctive. Not so muddy as I expected, but really nice!

TREPANERINGSRITUALEN "deathward to the womb" 10"
Pure enjoyment!! Suffocating sound, throb of synths, vocals, gloomy atmospheres, ritualistic wibes. Sounds "old", but not retarded retro style imitating someone. Hoping to re-stock soon ...and strongly recommended !

[andy vomit]

Klit "Sodomy Is Birth Control" C10 Danvers State Recordings
   First impression: is this a joke? Second impression: this had better be a joke. Easily one of the worst tapes I've ever heard (it's no wonder why the guy sold it to me for $1 including shipping). This is just two (apparently live...who would enjoy seeing this crap live?) tracks of really strange, wavy syth drones layered on top of each other with some weird samples of voices and some junk metal. I would normally think that this sort of thing is unreleasable/unlistenable but I'd imagine the person behind this project is probably a personal friend of the label owner who asked for some sort of favor.

the tracks aren't live, the tape was released for the first (and only) KLIT performance.

[RyanWreck]

Been listening to music all day, probably went through like 20 tapes already. I'll talk about the ones that stick out the most I suppose...

Crown of Cerberus - "Salome" which I reviewed on the Stench so I won't talk about it anymore here.

Custodian – "Faults In The Structure" fucking good, one of my favorite from him. I have refereed to this as anxiety attack put to tape and I still feel that way. It shifts around a lot, a very quick cassette with lots of pedal work and mid-range tones sweeping back and forth and getting cut up and put back together and cut up again. Very high recommendation on that one but I lost the fucking J-card ugh!

Concrete Mascara - "The Answer In The Ashes", this one is actually better than the F&V tape which was a really good tape in my opinion, so I guess that makes this one really, really good. If you know what CM sounds like you will have a good general idea of what to expect; 8 tracks that build themselves up slowly, good vocals and a clinical feel but not "clean" really, still fairly raw sounding but you can hear everything, the sounds aren't blurry or buried in tape hiss, they remain clear.

Wince - "Wince" I've probably listened to this over 50 times since I received it last year. Wince is kind of my go-to if I am in the mood for some good, pure, Harsh Noise with no Industrial or P.E. crossover. I like how each track is just a bit more low-end as the tape goes on. Like the first track utilizes the high-end a lot, feedback and screech all over the place and the last track on side b is more of a low, thick crunch with tiny pieces of something happening in the background. Very well executed tape and stands the test of time.

F E Denning - "Echoes of Sumeria" - this is still one of my favorites from this year so far. Side A is a low end drone and some distortion that sounds like the ocean and slowly, to the forefront, delicate and melodic piano passages come through. Side B is looped, somewhat repetitious noise that is kind of harsh, blown out and raw recording style, yet it remains elegant and delicate the piano on this side is a bit more buried and harder to pick up on due to the effects and whereas Side A used the noise and drones as an undercurrent Side B seems to savor them more and keep the melody down, but it is there.

[Matthias]

Anna Själv Tredje - Tussilago Fanfara
Joakim Skogsberg - Jola Rota
Two swedish gems I've never really checked out until now. Tussilago Fanfara has been described as the only swedish krautrock album ever made, and being from 1977 I think this stands up fairly well side by side with some of the german classics from that era actually. Very, very good kosmische music, which never really "rocks out" but relies more on subtle shiftings and atmosphere. Some guitar but mostly just synthesizers. Almost a spooky feeling to the overall sound, spacey yet down to earth. Jola Rota by Skogsberg, from 1971, is something completely different. Weirdo folk music with plenty of vocal humming. Hard to describe really, but very intriguing stuff. I guess I'll have to stick with mp3s of both, but I think Jola Rota was reissued on cd by a japanese label a couple of years ago.

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

Anna Själv Tredje - Tussilago Fanfara
Joakim Skogsberg - Jola Rota
Two swedish gems I've never really checked out until now. Tussilago Fanfara has been described as the only swedish krautrock album ever made, and being from 1977 I think this stands up fairly well side by side with some of the german classics from that era actually. Very, very good kosmische music, which never really "rocks out" but relies more on subtle shiftings and atmosphere. Some guitar but mostly just synthesizers. Almost a spooky feeling to the overall sound, spacey yet down to earth. Jola Rota by Skogsberg, from 1971, is something completely different. Weirdo folk music with plenty of vocal humming. Hard to describe really, but very intriguing stuff. I guess I'll have to stick with mp3s of both, but I think Jola Rota was reissued on cd by a japanese label a couple of years ago.

Thanks for that. I love "krautrock" (especialy freak folk) music from Scandinavian countries. Several years  ago I discovered such groups like: Furekaaben or Föreningen Til Livets Beskyttelse (both from Denmark). Very great bands, as all scene in this country then. I must check mentioned artists from Sweden...