Spiteful Womb - Final Pageant. Been listening to this project for a few months, it's odd as fuck and sometimes I really finish recordings a bit confused and I like that. I have a couple of tapes and a bunch of stuff off the Bandcamp. I'd like to do some sort of overview of the work I have to get to grips better.
Hexenight - Fragile - (nicked the text off my blog) I confess to not knowing anything about Hexenight, so I've been sitting on doing this review for a while. I've played the album a bit over the last month. The project is two members Brian and Aaron based in Portland, Oregon. There have been two other albums released on their Bandcamp. Frailty was written over a year of frustrations, mental illness and personal tragedies.
From the offset there is a unique, esoteric quality to Hexenight; the opening track Broken Fingernails is ritualistic with a deep, broody sound. The vocals are a tortured, tornado of agonised pain pushed cleverly into the background, so you're forced to engage with them. The intense instrumentation is repetitive with additions of noise- the distorted resonance of the vocal creates more noise on top of this. Spears builds epic chants and echoing sound that ties in and continues well from the first track. This has a more warped vocal that is undecipherable, and the music again relies on overriding repetition, the beats behind the repetitive chant are intensified from the first ones and work well. There is an impressively restrained use of distorted noise. Follow Me Further moves into an ethereal, shifting Dark Ambient sound, the background is threatening and growls ominously demonstrating some impressive low-level electronics – these factors intensify as aggressive electronics and howling blasts of tunnel noise build A Wooden Effigy. This is where the album intensifies further and further as we head to the finale - Seeking the Sky. This takes a more noise like approach, still using intensified beats and screamed vocals. This further erupts until it suddenly dies off to a song sample creating an emotive end to Frailty.
I'd argue that Frailty is higher level work. The vocals are varied and strong, the work retains mystery and plays with dynamics of sound beautifully to create one of the strongest recordings I have heard this year.
Le Syndicat Faction Vivante - Interaction Sociale. I reviewed a couple of cds for Aussaat and from that they sent me a couple of Discecting Table cds and my first ever vinyl to review, I was in a state of shock, I've never had free vinyl. Now I am over it after a couple of days of live and new release reviewing, I am playing it. All I know about them is they released on Broken Flag in the 80s because I very recently, finally got that box set on cd that was also done on vinyl on Vinyl on Demand. I have more expansive boxes of some of the artists, but Le Syndicat were a mystery to me. But I'd reviewed Entre Vifs who were at one time linked to Le Syndicat and I loved it. This album collects two live performances and is really random and choppy and I like it. In my head it seems really sophisticated as did the Entre Vifs stuff. I like this LP a lot.
Caroline K - Now Wait For Last Year. (Earthly Delights, 1987) Caroline K was in Nocturnal Emissions and died in 2008. I'd heard about this lp on a Youtube Blog that was on about Dark Ambient. Admittedly I have been streaming this off the web, but plan to get it as it's impressive, very atmospheric, beautiful and dark, really love it and want a copy as it's been reissued fairly recently.
Zen Zsigo - Winter Orbit (Vaagner, VAA02) . Solo LP from the Cremation Lily mainman. Very ambient, drone based, kinda like some of the CremationLily stuff of recent years. Gorgeous cover and sounds is all I can say.
