PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[DSOL]

Aaron Dilloway/John Wiese - Sniper Counter Sniper

perfect noise album

[Lazrs3]

Culver - the body beneath. 10cd set -  Turgid Animal-

Seen Culver a few times and keep going home with pocketfuls of tapes and cdrs. Saw this and couldn't resist, three decades of Culver spread across 10cds. Playing it through over the week.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

IMMORTAL - Northern Chaos Gods CD
Immortal's early discography is ripe with timeless classics. Pure Holocaust and Battles in the North are, of course, part of the seminal genre pantheon. Masterpieces of violence and disruption, which impress even more by being so great despite the complete lack of any additional aesthetic shazam provided by violent activities or even radical ideology. The debut Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism is also a solid album, as is Blizzard Beasts, with its uniquely dry and bizarre production. With At the Heart of Winter the band began to move into a more melodic/heavy territory where I kind of lost interest. They didn't become completely useless, but in all honesty this is yet another example of one of my teenage idols that I haven't really cared that much about for the past fifteen years or so. That is, until I finally got around to checking out last year's Northern Chaos Gods. After some kind of conflict, the band is now reduced to Demonaz and Horgh, and for this reason I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I have to say I am fairly blown away. The opening track, which is also the title track, is ripping, amazing, the best Immortal song since at least "Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons", and it sets the tone for the whole album. There is a metric ton of old-school Immortal blast beat blizzardkrieg going on in most tracks, and even if the tempo goes down ever so often, and heavy metal melodies do worm their way into quite a few places, the end result is more balanced (and far more brutal) than anything the band has done in many years.

There is also some envelope-pushing going on. Demonaz' vocals, which by the way manage to strike a good balance between originality and fidelity to the traditional Immortal gutturality, take a crazy turn on "Into Battle Ride" and become very similar to Absu, with slurred ramblings of long lines of texts in short time. Musically, on "Where Mountains Rise" we suddenly get almost pure NWOBHM, including almost an entire riff lifted straight off of a very well known Iron Maiden track, only to be broken up by more traditional Immortal riffing. The more you listen, the more gems you pick out. The lyrics consist of autistic repetitions of the same winter/war romanticism as always, complete with re-hashed, semi-made up terminology (the closing track and second single is even called "Mighty Ravendark"), but that is as it should be. The production is, of course, not as grimy and bizarre as Norwegian 90's black metal albums, but I have to say Peter Tägtgren managed to cram a whole lot of chaotic black metal fuzz into a "modern", professional metal production. This is absolutely fucking splendid, and I don't really know how they could have made a better album. Happy times.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

In connection with the Christmas Tree being put up, I found a plastic box/crate containing a variety of stuff. I haven't bothered to go through it systematically, but took out two pieces for listening.

V/A - Krach.com Version 1.0 CD
A 2005 CD compilation that, in retrospect, could be seen as quite absurd. Much like various collective digital release efforts today, the idea was to compile songs by the projects of various members of a specific forum (in this case, the German noise/industrial forum Krach.com). In the benighted times of 2005, though, the participants got to become eternalized on a CD limited to 300 as opposed to being featured on a Bandcamp homepage. Disregarding all that, I'm not really aware of most of these acts, with the exception of Atrox, Painslut and Antracot. Generally, the contents of this compilation could be described as extremely German/Austrian - I feel the need to invent the concept of "Steinklang light" to define this. At worst, this means dance rhythms (at the point of extremis there is literally an Amen break) with a modicum of distortion. At best, it means epic power noise/industrial with clear layers of sounds, synth lines and restrained rhythm sections coming together to force all this noise bullshit to become music worthy of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. If industrial ever became a mainstream success, it would be because of something that grew out of something like this. This belongs in a car stereo, preferably one with decent bass. Several tracks feel just a wee bit too constructed, but several are quite effective. The saturated marching drum of Chochmah's "Messias-Komplex", the minimalist, nasty and only tangentially German "Decompression Sickness" by Antracot, the 80's post apocalyptic hip hop beats of Nin Kuji's "Day by Day" and the painful, extremely disciplined noise structures of Atrox (bringing to mind the finest moments of Japanese Torture Comedy Hour). I'm conflicted about this, but I know there are a number of gems here, and the stuff that feels transparent and useless is still different from most online mass produced noise/industrial of the present time. The concept was naively sympathetic and/or stupid ("let's make a compilation with all our online friends from this forum!"), the result is not perfect, but it is certainly interesting and better than you'd imagine. This is almost free from Discogs, in case anyone is interested

SEWER ELECTION - Vengeance 3"CD
A small little release from the era when Freak Animal used paperboard for many covers. Super cool, but also super useless if you both listen to your CDs and want to keep them in at least decent condition. In this case, I can't really blame FA for the state of the cover, though, since Vengeance ended up on the floor of a car for several months a number of years ago, before moving on to the aforementioned plastic crate. Death Squad's "Fucked in the USA met a similar fate at around the same time, and for the life of me I can't remember what any of these were doing in the goddamn car to begin with. Luckily, only the cover was mangled (though still hanging together), and the CD as such remains in mint condition. My feelings for Sewer Election are those of a leftist shoegaze "black metal" hipster's for Burzum; I love the shit, for realz, despite feeling like perhaps I shouldn't. This rich and saturated distortion fest, straight outta Fabriksgatan, is pretty much what harsh noise should be, as far as I'm concerned. All frequencies covered, all hands on deck (Ahoy!). Wall noise with nuance, harsh noise wall before the internet defined the genre. Never static, but for the most part consistent and uninterrupted. A number of hard, violent cuts break any inertia that may be accumulating in the listener, and if that's not enough, there are also some pretty wild L/R stereo manipulations bordering on headphone malfunction. Vengeance doesn't fear moving up into the higher frequencies, nor diving into the depths of bass, but nothing ever gets obnoxious or outstays its welcome. Excellent stuff. Gonna have to revisit Wreck and (somewhat more reluctantly) Kassettmusik in the next few weeks, I think.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

ULTRA - Delirious Elaborations 4CD
One of the benefits of being active in a very small and virtually irrelevant scene is the fact that material which might well have been unattainable to all but the well-off nerd, might suddenly lay on a table before you after a negligible payment followed by speedy delivery from somewhere in Asia. Ultra is one of many classic industrial acts I never bothered with, and then all of a sudden decided to bother with. In this case by procuring this excellent 2014 box-set reissue of their four major albums. It sounds different from what I remember hearing way back whenever, but not in a bad way. The themes are artfully unpleasant, and for once the intellectualism actually contributes to the overall impression in a positive, or perhaps rather "convincing", way. The sound is surprisingly accessible, though probably unpleasant to anyone insufficiently desensitized. The use of guitars, sound effects and ph4t analogue synthesizer melodies feels very outdated, but somehow not cheesy or even bad. It is an unfamilliar and interesting feeling to catch an 80's vibe (that is, not an "80's noise" or an "80's industrial tapes", but an "80's culture in general" atmosphere) from a series of old industrial albums. My first associations would be to some degenerated version of the Blade Runner soundtrack, or (anachronistically) a nastier and less spiritual version of Equimanthorn (US). There is a Come Organisation/old school power electronics scent to be caught here as well, but for the absolute most part that is a matter of mood and theme, not sound.

At this point in time my favorite Ultra track is the rather soft-and-girly, analogue synth line based "Aff" off of the 2nd CD Zoll, but this set is a treasure trove of somewhat unpleasant, classic era atmospheric gross electronics that I will most likely keep exploring until I tire of it.

[Eigen Bast]

Kestrel - Primordial Remembrance (CW Productions)

REGAL and TRIUMPHANT black metal interlaced with primitive interludes and field recordings. At points piano and flute play counterpoint to guitar without falling into boring medievalist tropes; a range of styles is on display here though it maintains a single minded weird vision reminiscent of Python's incredible full length from last year. Production is perfect too, gritty but not super mushy typical lofi bm. Always such a pleasure when something new comes out of this camp. If bands like Vothana or Rostorchester are your thing, you'll love this.

[impulse manslaughter]

First arrival of 2020 is the Aepel Electronics LP on Hospital. Listening to it right now. Nice variation of sounds and textures. Sometimes harsh and crude but mostly atmospheric. Hints of melodies and rhythms/loops in the background give the tracks a loosely 'composed' feeling. It all works well within the concept of this project and the great cover artwork is a nice bonus.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

GENOCIDE ORGAN "Case of..." 7"
GENOCIDE ORGAN "Functional chapter..." 7"
CDr copy of two early 90's acetate discs. Time when rare industrial stuff was not at youtube... so either tape dubs or at some point cdr. Many items I had from tape trading, I later bought as originals. These I do not have and I doubt I even want them. There is russian bootleg with these, but would be nice if material would have made it to official releases. Wpf version pretty damn ferocious. Rotten sound of acetate 7" rips adds to level of primitive force!

PAIN JERK "Mission Invisible" CD
Hospital productions
Painjerk is certainly not "underrated". It is worshipped all over the globe by noise fanatics. It is just underrepresented on full length albums that are available! Therefore it is great to see and hear such lost masterpiece of 90's noise harshness.
Back in the day, Gomi told me one of secrets of ripping sharp PJ sound was actually recording on DAT. Vastly overdriven DAT isn't all about digital clipping, but there is some audio alchemy happening in analogue to digital components. Some specific DAT decks would create harshly fierce, crystal clear distortion that is also paradoxically juicy and energetic. Not just the flat nonsense you tend to hear on many all-digital creations.
This recording, DAT was used and it is probably not the golden ingredient, but meaningful thing that is missing from contemporary recordings. Golden ingredient is of course mastermind mr. Kohei Gomi!

PAIN JERK "Exhibition of Electro-Disease" tape
GROSS
Not to undermine how good above CD is, but damn... this mid 90's GROSS tape. Just excellent. Perhaps among the very best of Pain Jerk? How to really put them in order? All the details are here that PJ is known for, but could it be also mastered by GROSS or simply getting slightly saturated by being dubbed loud on tape. Compositionally total blast with vivid and colorful approach even if liner notes tells it's recorded with "crude electronics".

HUM OF THE DRUID "The conservative Road Beyond the Bizarre" tape
Cipher
Absolutely great material. It is raw - yet clearly thought out and even "composed". It is brutal and noisy, yet atmospheric and immensely detailed and subtle. Full of surprises, dynamic tension. Noise unlike anything else?!

LINEKRAFT "Subhuman Principle" LP
Tesco
With pretty much every new Linekraft release I tend to say this is the best so far. How many japanese noise bands get better and better these days? Linekraft does. Subhuman Principle is masterpiece!  More structured, song oriented - but noisy, true industrial! There are short songs, ones you can clearly identify, not the kind of abstract industrial clatter like in the old days.  Album turned quickly among most listened releases.

[FallOfNature]

Vernichtung Durch Arbeit ‎– Totenfotze EP
Distant grinding industrial noise murk. Suits the artwork of b/w emaciated bodies perfectly. Some presence of vocals showing up sparingly. I liked the albums a lot but the duration becomes long with frequent listens, EP length is perfect. Good shit.

Ultimastanza ‎– Total Preoccupancy In Pleasant Silence
Lust Vessel related. Analog synth squaring off with feedback for space. Liked this a lot and need to hear the other tapes but even finding a rip is impossible.

Human Atrocity ‎– Horrid Events Of Malicious Barbarities
LDOH style blasting goregrind (think Putrefaction In Progress). Chilean project so I guess it's the same fellows from Gruesome Bodyparts Autopsy, Infant Myiasis etc. Sounds quite close to those indeed. Relentless and mean spirited, I'm all over this kind of goregrind so it's double thumbs up from me.

[CannibalRitual]

Human Atrocity ‎– Horrid Events Of Malicious Barbarities
LDOH style blasting goregrind (think Putrefaction In Progress). Chilean project so I guess it's the same fellows from Gruesome Bodyparts Autopsy, Infant Myiasis etc. Sounds quite close to those indeed. Relentless and mean spirited, I'm all over this kind of goregrind so it's double thumbs up from me.

Nope, this project is from Argentina. Guy also does Carnal Trash (IMO his best project!)

[FallOfNature]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up!

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

PIMP-AKTION SLUTGUN - Body Scrap LP
Sometimes being a general dilettante with only a rare few fields in which you're even approaching expertise can cause problems. Being unaware that Ulex Xane's Pimp-Aktion Slutgun has been re-released on vinyl since ten years back is one such problem. Not getting the less-than-subtle wordplay of the project's name until I actually saw it printed on the cover is another kind of problem all together: am I an actual idiot, or is it just a consequence of not being a native English speaker? I've seen the name in print many times before, including in the Degenerate interview from way back when. Never mind. Body Scrap sounds like expected, only better. Bubbling, bursting, rumbling. Harsh noise, but perhaps more properly coarse or hoarse noise. Sparse samples and voices - the core is tape compressed, rumbling madness. Extremely pleasant, instant classic, would have been worth paying something moronic for the original tape. The LP, however, has a much nicer cover and is still available in some quarters of the internet, so it's a perfectly satisfactory option. Xane apparently never did do "failure".

MERZBOW - Batztoutai With Material Gadgets (De-Composed Works 1985~86) 2CD
An early RRR release compiling a bunch of old Merzbow recordings from the 80's. Very strange stuff going on here. Far/even more experimental and insane than yer average Merzbow fare, and far more hit-and-miss. The first CD is packed with weird samples, strange cuts and overall insanity. The bursts of noise are there, but few and far between. Abstract stuff, short musical samples, all sorts of madness and musique concrete style sounds follow, one upon another. I guess diverse would be the word to sum things up. CD2, subtitled "Loop Panic limited" is far noisier and more along the lines of what most people might expect from Merzbow. It is still very random and chaotic, with abrupt shifts in intensity and any number of confusing sonic effects, but there's nevertheless more of a "normal" harsh noise thing going on here. CD 1 will require additional listening, CD 2 will probably get it whether it requires it or not. A nice slab o' experimental noise, by and large.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

WEREWOLF JERUSALEM "Confessions of a Sex Maniac" 4CD
This clever, droll collection of noise comes packaged in a proper looking card board box, and showcases Ramirez' Werewolf Jerusalem project at its very best. In addition to the four CDs, there is a booklet featuring a little essay with liner notes and general panegyrics written by Sam McKinlay. This makes sense, since the lion's share of the material contained on these discs is similar (though far from the same) as the choked/minimalist/dry style of Ballet Feet Positions era THE RITA. There's a big load of variety here. Texture is key, with powerful, reductionist walls of rasping, rumbling, electric sounding noise rugs. This sounds really nice, and serves as a reminder that "HNW" used to be a little bit more connected to singular genius than it's known to be these days. Disc 1 is a festival Jerusalemic Wolfishness, with six tracks (one live). It also contains one of very few spoken samples - the "sex maniac" thing is more a packaging concept than something evident in the actual music. Disc 2 is, in a way, a bridge to modern day Bandcamp HNW with its 50 minute noise massacre. It is, however, far more interesting (and, once again, textured) than most latter day, online fare. Disc 3 is just delightful, with three more tracks of rasping, clasping noisey goodness. The last disc contains collaborations with different acts, including I Spit On Your Grave and THE RITA (bizarrely this latter collaboration is one of the tracks in this box that sounds the least like normal W.J. or like Ballet Feet Positions - the "Untitled" track produced by McKinley and Ramirez is far more defined by fluid noise, and it even has a note of power electronics to it). A very nice little box, still available here and there despite being released in 2011.

[Strangecross]

Smegma Plays Merzbow 5$ cd from the local Armageddon shop... how could I resist with this art? two questions:
how did they get this Asian bondage girl 'font'?
and why do the liner notes explain that this could be played on shuffle mode, for unique compositions, when it is 2 tracks where it is supposed to be something like 70 tracks? and the original issue is LP? I suppose you could manually shuffle the vinyl...

Not a top contender for say, the defunct merzcast, unless they were in conversation with SMEGMA, but this is a cool cd none the less... art as I mentioned... but also I will say this material aged very well... not like a wine but more of a rare cheese. its pretty soothing to hear the sound of a chord in the wall phone dial tone used musically.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

and why do the liner notes explain that this could be played on shuffle mode, for unique compositions, when it is 2 tracks where it is supposed to be something like 70 tracks? and the original issue is LP? I suppose you could manually shuffle the vinyl...

This sounds hilarious, and I support it. That being said, the monicker "Smegma" brings könsrock to mind in a depressing way (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nsrock). Once you name your project Smegma, you might as well try to pick up women at the local hot dog stand playing this on your car stereo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pyg4rNOPbo

A type of behaviour which I also support, BTW.