Macronympha – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (CD, Trash Ritual, 2009)
My first encounter with Macronympha. Great album, and I can't wait to order the Americanoise comp to get a taste of classic American noise.
Monde Bruits – Selected Noise Works 93-94 (CD, Endorphine Factory, 1994)
Haven't listened to this in years and years (as is the case with a lot of my CDs, sadly). Classic-style Japanese noise with a nice sound (I think he's using death metal distortion pedals). I enjoyed it for a while, but then it started getting monotonous. For a CD that's about 60 minutes long, there just isn't enough variety for me.
Borbetomagus – Live In Tokyo (CD, Alchemy Records, 1997)
It must've been great to be at the gig, but on CD this is somewhat murky noise and nothing spectacular.
Ramleh – Awake! (8CD, Harbinger Sound, 2012)
Currently at CD 6, I think. I love the atmosphere of this music: raw & unpolished. There are reappearing songs, but it doesn't matter. The whole package together (packaging, booklet, pictures, song titles and the music) make for a very consistent and satisfying reading and listening experience.
Merzbow – Antimonument (CD, Art Directe, 1991)
A strangely atmospheric album. I find 80s Merzbow pretty bizarre (not meant in a negative way, of course) and quite a demanding listen, similar in a way to listening to free improvisation like AMM. It doesn't work as background music, or at least it's not as rewarding as when I really concentrate on the music.
Merzbow – Merzphysics CDs 4 & 5 (10CD box, Youth Inc., 2012)
Not as strong as the first 3 CDs in the set. Disc 4 is a bit of filler material for me; disc 5 is better, with track 1 having a slight psychedelic undertone.
Merzbow – Metalvelodrome CD 4 (4CD box, Alchemy Records, 1993)
Great stuff: varied and structured for the most part. It was well worth spending on this box set; it's amazing after one listen with the exception of disc 3 which seemed a bit too random, but I'm curious to see what I'll think after more listens.
Patrick Gauthier – Bébé Godzilla (CD, Captain Trip Records, 2007)
The biggest discovery of recent months. An album from 1980 by a member of Heldon, Magma and Weidorje and with musicians from these bands, this is an instrumental Zeuhl-inspired album that mixes rock and plenty of synths. Hard to describe, but it's a flawless album. Based on reading some blogs, it seems there were albums made in France around this time that could be described as rock (but without the traditional structure of rock music) with plenty of synths and experimentation. The few albums I know are great, so I'll explore this "genre" further.
Jean-Philippe Goude – Drones (download)
Another French experimental synth/rock album, from 1980, and it's very good.
Weidorje – Weidorje (download)
The only album (from 1978) of this Zeuhl band who were like a lighter and less talented version of Magma. There are some great tracks but also some weak ones unfortunately.
Offering – A Fiieh (part of Offering 4CD box, Seventh Records, 2003)
The last Offering album, from 1993. The last track is too unfocused but the rest are great. Elements of Magma are frequent and some parts have the atmosphere of sacred music.
Pharoah Sanders – Tauhid (download)
1966 album. I don't like jazz in general, but the first track here has a great piano melody which I'm pretty sure was used by Christian Vander in a Magma (or perhaps Offering) song with almost no change. The second track has some pretty bad singing, but the song itself is nice. The final track didn't really hold my attention.
