UMPIO "Sauna" digipak CD
Obscurex
Fucking killer harsh noise. Not at all the type his new 3", but this is 2010/2011 recordings that first came out as tape and then later this cd reissue. Well justified reissue. Less hi-fi, more dusty and overdriven, piezzo-flattened metals, crude yet also crunchy. Lots of diversity, but most of all brooding and dark than high speed cut up. As far as I know, there are couple unreleased longer tapes from this era, result of Umpio being too fast to accept deals from flakey labels who can't get shit done. It would be brilliant to see some of that released, even if artists may feel like he has already moved on during years. This is good example how good noise just is good noise, whether its recent or few years old.
MAAAA "Sampo Distortion" CD
MAAAA "Decay And Demoralization" CD
Both already c. 2010. Two quite different release. Sampo Distortion is kind of odd. Just 30 minutes and clearly less focused that he is doing now. I guess recordings date back to 2008. Flaw, in my years, is the moment when project decides to play couple full songs of Terveet Kädet via additional distortion. For someone it is perhaps quite "mythical" music from times long go, but to me idea sounds way too close. TK released their recent album not long ago and was active band doing records and live gigs till recent years. To me it sounds almost as if you'd play couple tracks of Cock Sparrer on noise album, without considering how familiar it is, and how band is actually still doing their stuff, hah.. But apart those few minutes, this has survived time quite well! It doesn't have the focus & detailed precision of new works, but as dense multilayered heavy harsh noise - works fine.
"Decay And Demoralization" on other hand, is collection of various splits and small releases. Pretty much as much stuff on CD as format can fit, and style and quality varies more. At best, good harsh noise, at worst, ...well.. not among his best! It's perhaps too long CD for not having coherent form. All in all probably has more good stuff than Sampo Distortion had, just could have worked well if shortened to have just the good ones.
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN manifest as TEERAAL RÄUM PHEYNIX - 10"
Tesco
I have mixed feeling about this. In one hand, instantly listened couple of times and liked what I heard. But also made me think, is 10" reissue the best? Tracks are very subtle, more like old Archon Satani. No beats, no raw vocals. No song-oriented like most of his recent stuff has been? It's much much darker and suffocating. But also, for the style and for amount of actual ideas, perhaps short-ish? And perhaps with such dusty and suffocated sound, vinyl surface noises have nowhere to hide when there isn't much of treble here.
Tracks, good. But personally could have liked more if he did for example 3rd part of comp CD reissues...
AM NOT "The Developing World" LP
Tesco
Need to spin this more. And need to take a closer look to lyrics and packaging. So far, only one rotation and experiencing only the musical merits. Which are: Good! This is perhaps musically favorite Am Not now. Could it be said more "standard" heavy electronics? That not being derogatory, but just to say that in past I felt somehow technological wibe very dominantly, and now it seems more heavy oppressive mood driven than underlined technical know-how? Or maybe my experiences are tied to also format, being clean digipak cd or live gig with synchronized backing videos etc. As said, got to give more time for this, but seems like another example of current bands that is able to top themselves!
