Back for my annual now playing post, so naturally I have a lot to cover. Descriptions for items in the pic are in order from top to bottom and left to right:
1 & 2: Outdoor Horse Shrine "Mind-Stress Bias Reduction" and "self-titled" tapes. Joe continues to be one of the brightest stars in the new noise galaxy with these two recent efforts. It's wild and free harsh noise (the best kind) but there's still a strong feeling of intent and purpose to the sounds. He likes to explore but is also very capable and in control of his sounds. I don't know much else to say other than that OHS is great and ticks all the noise boxes for me on a consistent basis.
3: Randy Greif "It's In A Box" cs. I picked this up from Sentimental Youth while on tour with Heat Signature in 2023. I saw it on the shelf and was intrigued as I had never heard of it and it was a 30 euro tape. Popped it in the shop tape deck and decided to immediately purchase it. Now, after revisiting it a couple years later, I am completely floored by how incredible this tape is. A bizarre and self-described "sound theater" journey through the mind of Mr. Greif. Perfect composition and sound palette, strange and unique in ways that are hard to describe, hallucinatory and tribal industrial music created 42 years (!!!) ago before templates and subgenres with noise and experimental were even close to being a thing. Absolute desert island tape and I'm happy that Tribe Tapes is doing a CD reissue of this soon.
4: Sawgasm "self-titled" cs. Bootleg reissue of an impossibly-rare tape from this David Gilden project from 1995. Interestingly, I just noticed on Discogs that Sawgasm is a project of David Gilden and "two other members". Does anyone have any info on the two other members of the group? This was released the year before the pinnacle "Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend" tape, and to my ears, the latter is essentially a remix or another take of the material on Sawgasm. I don't know the whole story, but I know Mother Savage definitely had their contribution in terms of how TCDF ultimately ended up, so it's interesting to compare these two recordings and the differences between them, which to my ears, TCDF is a tighter/edited version of the Sawgasm tape which is looser and more free-flowing. Regardless, both tapes come with highest possible recommendation. Still need a personal copy of that danged box set on Fusty!
5. Liver Mortis "The Crimes They Ask For" cs. Another rare example of a power electronics recording that I actually enjoy, mostly because it reminds me of Mauthausen Orchestra which has always been more of a noise than power electronics project to me, or perhaps it is not power electronics in the sense of what we know that genre as now. At any rate, this tape is the shit! High end static and feedback always makes the hairs raise on my neck and my fists clenched, like the good noiser I am. Need to track down more Liver Mortis releases which looks like it will be ongoing and expensive based on what little is available on Discogs.
6. Experiments In American Music "My Wife Is So Brave". Again, a fucking awesome tape of wild and free noise, the way it should be. It bothers me that the tape is single-sided because anyone listening to this monster is going to want to flip it over for another ride on the Stewart Skinner Noise Rollercoaster. I'm not sure if all copies are like this, but the end of the tape of my copy is filled with some light classical music, and I listened to it until the tape ended just in case that the noise jester Mr. Stewart wasn't going to throw any last-minute curveballs in the mix.
7. Moke Grotton "Thoughts Remain Gruesome" cs. MG has been one of my favorite projects since I discovered it in the early 2000's/I Heart Noise forum boom. I don't think I've heard any discussion or reviews about this project ever, but it's seriously great dynamic harsh noise. Not really dense, heavy Americanoise stuff but more skittering, blown-out sounds that have a lot of character and color. Pretty sure vinyl records are sourced on the tape for the noise, but maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. At any rate, Moke Grotton is a great and underappreciated project that more people need to check out!
8. Alvin Lucier "Music On A Long Thin Wire/I Am Sitting In A Room" cs. This is a tape released by a well-known Swedish fellow (unsure if this is a private series so I will not divulge their identity just in case) that features two live recordings of these iconic compositions from the Festival För Elektronisk Musik on September 4th, 1979 in Stockholm, Sweden. Lucier is my favorite of the avant-garde gods of early experimental music, largely because I feel like his approach and ideas are simple yet profound. He always conjures that "I wish I would have thought of that" feeling inside me, so I love his work for that. I have only heard both of these compositions as the official studio versions, so it was cool to hear live versions of them and note the differences between the two.
9. Filthy Turd "Woman In A Cage/Woman On A Leash" cs. Yet another throwback to the noise days of yore circa 20 years ago when I first discovered the best genre of music there is (noise, duh!). The Turdmeister had fallen into obscurity for me in the past several years, but I was happy to take this tape home after it came in a second hand collection I bought for the store. Seriously knuckle-dragging, brainless harsh noise expellations, the kind that would have to come from a project called Filthy Turd. The world needs more turds like this!
10. Sensory Deprivation "Factory Settings" cs. Was happy to pick this up from Brandon when he came through Dayton and played the shop with Kakerlak a few weeks back. I've known Brandon for about the last 20 years and have always been awed by his massive talent as a multi-skilled musician (and incredible human being), so of course he would become a masterful player of the modular synth after adding that to his arsenal. I'll be honest, I have an ignorant knee-jerk reaction whenever I see people with modulars at shows and what not...it's a lot like seeing someone with a laptop, I always get that "oh god, here we go, another modular set" feeling. I can't explain it, it just comes from some arrogant, boneheaded place in my mind where I feel that all noise (especially harsh noise) should be with shitty pedals and a contact mic and nothing else. But of course, I'm not that close-minded when all is said and done thankfully and Sensory Deprivation reinforces that with his excellent live sets and recordings. I think the thing about modular synths that bother me is when they sound like modular synths, and Brandon rips and wrangles his rig to a degree where I probably wouldn't guess the noise was made via modular if I had my eyes closed. The credits say that the source was modular and tape, which probably helped add more of an organic/human element to the sound of the recording, vs. just an oscillator or electronically-generated sound source as the building blocks of the noise.
