PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Kaaoskultti]

Painless City – Christmas Bonus (2024, Hospital Productions)

Wait, was '24 already two years ago? Nevermind; it seems as if time just passes by haphazardly once you're bored of life. Anyways, another great release from this band – not amazing, but indeed satisfying. Drill noises, cacophonous low and high-pitched sonic mess, amelodic aural devastation, repetitive samples. One again we're in the cop world, as violent and confrontational as can be; albeit from a quite genuine approach and interesting dynamics. Fuck you, fuck your mother!. Track #2 has addictive sounds that morph into a gigantic cachaos-phonie. Now that's a must. That way those samples are repeated definitely remind me of the way Con-dom or GO handles them.

I remember him telling me this tape/project was supposed to be based around Bad Lieutenant but the more he worked on it it just became about NYC and growing up there. Eager for what he does next but damn, I wonder how the Bad Lieutenant mix of this album sounds...

Likewise, film-based albums are always pretty good!

Mania - Ultra-Negative (Freak Animal, 2008)

I'm sure many here have heard this quite a few times before, but this was my first time giving it a good listen. There's a really great sense of spaciousness on the album that I really love, and is one of the things that's been characteristic of other Mania releases I've heard. The sound palette is pretty minimal, mostly consisting of piercing feedback, bass-heavy rumble, high-end static (some of it provided by Aaron Dilloway I believe) and junk metal scraping. Vocals are used pretty sporadically, usually being buried in the mix, with the exception of some brief, more intense screams partway through "Blowtorch". Speaking of mixing, I really like the way it's done here - the low end has this pulsing quality, and the high end is dominated by periodic feedback and static, but the mids feel much more sparse and carved out to fit most of the junk metal and other ambient noise. The intensity is also constantly shifting, with some parts slowing down to a near-ambient quality, and other parts ramping up to be more chaotic. Overall a great album, and one that definitely makes me want to seek out more Mania stuff if I can get my hands on it.

Someone made a comment, a while ago, writing about how the images present in Taint have morphed, in Mania, into boundless misanthropy and at a relentless pace (not the exact words, anyway). Couldn't agree more, and I think the connection between sexual perversions and abstract themes, from women to insects, and by sketchy objects into power tools really does the justice on grounds of his aesthetic work.

[k.p.g]

Painless City - You Can't Kill Me, I'm Blessed... (Hospital Productions)
Taking a page from Fistfuck Masonanie, I am going to listen to something that another user here sings the praises of.  Today, Kaaoskultti catches my eye with their high praises for Painless City.  Listening now, and it's funny.  It's always the new Hospital stuff I resonate with that is also SOLD. OUT.  Hah.  Fuck me, I guess. 
Hypnotic, filthy, dark.  This stuff is a slow building slab of industrial noise so far.  Lack of vocals make me hesitant to call it "power electronics" myself, but I see where one might come from to call it that.  It has the total true crime energy at play that makes up much of the American PE landscape.
But hold on, this thing is starting to get weird by the end of track two.  Sudden volume drop offs?  Weird stops in sound?  Hah.  What the hell is going on here?  Such weird movement to this record, I am all for it!

I remember him telling me this tape/project was supposed to be based around Bad Lieutenant but the more he worked on it it just became about NYC and growing up there. Eager for what he does next but damn, I wonder how the Bad Lieutenant mix of this album sounds...

Well now I read this quote, and think about who this could be making it.  A few names of the usual Hospital family are ruled out if it's about growing up in NYC.  But I don't know everyone involved there, so I guess it shall remain a mystery.  Probably for the better.  I like this anonymous ripper. 

Don't let the cover/concept deceive you.  Weird fuckin' noise afoot here.  Fun release.  I too am eager for what's next now.

[NightsAquarium]

Painless City is a companion project to White Shamrock, I believe. 1/2 of DSM-III.

[k.p.g]

Number of the Beast - Live at Club Infinity (Small Mercies)
Chopping down pieces of my collection, and so I revisit some titles as I remember "hey, I liked this one."  So in goes this disc, and hey, I like this one.  It's probably the best release that has come forth from this project.  2 tracks, assuming they were both live recordings.  Movement across them feels very natural, very fluid.  I was pretty inspired by how easy Flanagan and Justin made live ripping look during this time.  I am sure they were rehearsed, knew their gear more intimately than I realized, but at the time, it just felt like they'd hit "record" and gold would come out.  This disc would make a good case for that theory being too.  I'll let it rest back on the shelf for a little while longer now.  Still some great stuff.

[k.p.g]

Hand & Knee/Mallard Theory/Slacking - Beneath Hidden Pittsburgh
Three-way split that I have been putting off listening to for quite some time now.  Why did I?  After all, it was this wonderful mind that made the interior collage.  Hah.  But really - I need to be in the right time to listen to something like this in full.  Today was such a time.
We start with a very bizarre sound collage from Hand & Knee.  Some of John's most interesting work, as the jump cuts made here are not like much I have heard from the project before.  I would like to see further experiments with this pacing.  It kept my interest throughout.
King Duck comes next and absolutely tears through my speakers.  The first minute or so starts with some creepy cyborg synth before it bursts into oblivion; HARSH NOISE.  That's what Mallard Theory is known for, and that's what he does here so well.  My favorite track of the entire record.
Slacking's portion was maybe not the best piece I have heard from the project.  It has some of the signature murk that makes me delight in this sound so much, but it was just not hitting today.  Hmm.
Album closes on an odyssey of a three-way collab.  The second half of it is far more attention grabbing than the first.  Truthfully, I think it is cut just a bit too short for my taste.  There is this one portion at the end where some creepy synth part kicks in, and then it just... stops?  Come on - gimme MORE.

Overall an enjoyable effort from 3 of my great friends here!  I will be giving this is more spins in the kitchen for sure.

Brinkman's Dead Brain - Mind Fuse Blown (American Tapes)
Short but VERY VERY sweet tape from this one-off Olson/Matt Brinkman collab.  The way this announces itself with some GRIMY AS HELL drum beat with feedback sputter abound... unbelievable!  There has to be more from this session.  No way it could've been just 8 minutes.  Ugh... why do people leave you wanting more?

[John Cagefight]

Brinkman's Dead Brain - Mind Fuse Blown (American Tapes)
Short but VERY VERY sweet tape from this one-off Olson/Matt Brinkman collab.  The way this announces itself with some GRIMY AS HELL drum beat with feedback sputter abound... unbelievable!  There has to be more from this session.  No way it could've been just 8 minutes.  Ugh... why do people leave you wanting more?

Just listened to the YT rip of this a little while ago. Really excellent.

Blod - My Beloved Daughters (Segerhuva)
Haven't put this one on in at least 5 years. An absolute gem of blaring Swedish noise that's distinctly less compositionally bricked than I'd remembered. Of major note are the feral cat growling-style filter sweeps that show up around track 4 and make a few appearances throughout the remainder of the album. And of course, it would be heretical for me to discuss the work without acknowledging the painfully excellent songtitles ala Summertime - Floors Full Of Doveblood & Shit, Juliet's Sewing, and Stardust Bleeding Arteries. Short songs that rarely break a minute and a half that get in and out and are all business, this album just wails and wails until its over forcing a "that's it?" feeling of needing more after listening.

[Hyena]

Brinkman's Dead Brain - Mind Fuse Blown (American Tapes)
Short but VERY VERY sweet tape from this one-off Olson/Matt Brinkman collab.  The way this announces itself with some GRIMY AS HELL drum beat with feedback sputter abound... unbelievable!  There has to be more from this session.  No way it could've been just 8 minutes.  Ugh... why do people leave you wanting more?

Just listened to the YT rip of this a little while ago. Really excellent.

Blod - My Beloved Daughters (Segerhuva)
Haven't put this one on in at least 5 years. An absolute gem of blaring Swedish noise that's distinctly less compositionally bricked than I'd remembered. Of major note are the feral cat growling-style filter sweeps that show up around track 4 and make a few appearances throughout the remainder of the album. And of course, it would be heretical for me to discuss the work without acknowledging the painfully excellent songtitles ala Summertime - Floors Full Of Doveblood & Shit, Juliet's Sewing, and Stardust Bleeding Arteries. Short songs that rarely break a minute and a half that get in and out and are all business, this album just wails and wails until its over forcing a "that's it?" feeling of needing more after listening.

The Blod album is great noise. I think it's even on Spotify, of all places.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Black Leather Jesus & Mo*Te - Collaboration (Begin Hostilities)

BLJ and Mo*Te collaboration announced out of thin air! Not two projects I would expect to work together. This was released by Begin Hostilities, which is a label run by BLJ member Scott Kindberg.

No liner notes of any kind to clue you in on who BLJ is this go around or how this was recorded, etc. It's all a mystery. This was also only released in a tiny edition of 50 copies with no digital download, so the audio itself will probably remain a mystery to most, which is too bad.

A little bit of what you would expect and a little bit of what you wouldn't. But everything you want.

It feels like two massive Kaiju battling it out. The BLJ mountain crunch takes over and manhandles Mo*Te, and then Mo*Te regains his strength and puts Black Leather Jesus into a vicious arm bar. Mo*Te adds some great weird monster vocals, laser beams, and other wild sounds.

No mention of how long the tape is by the label, but I clocked in somewhere around a C40. And there are 4 separate and distinct tracks.

The recording quality and dubbing are great. Full and clear. The label description says it was professionally duplicated, and you can tell.

[k.p.g]

twodeadsluts onegoodfuck - twodeadsluts onegoodfuck (Apop Records)
Buzzing from the recent WCN interview, I wanted to put this on for a little feeling.  The train lines in Philadelphia were in such disarray yesterday that I ended up having to walk an extra 15 minutes on my usual commute into work.  Brutal.  This soundtracked most of the walk perfectly.  I'm hot, I'm beat, I'm upset, and here is this ragtag crew from Boston to validate those feelings.  Hah.
It's such a well-recorded album, first off.  One thing that I forgot to ask Ted about in that interview is how this crew linked up with one James Plotkin.  His mastering work for this material is off the charts.  Everything sounds so crisp, so clear, so LOUD.  It makes the confrontational nature of the band shine through beautifully.  This might also be due to the fact that compositionally, this is the most "realized" twodeadsluts release.  Yeah, the songs are short, but they are packed with so much in the time they do run.  Perfect vignettes for being drunk, on drugs and pissed off; quick outburst of violence, maybe you fought someone.  Yeah, it's all there.
For the discussion had in the WCN thread about how this band doesn't fit into PE... partially correct.  There is those elements of Whitehouse in there.  And yet even at their end, that cybergrind lineage shines through.  I liken some of the material to a more politically incorrect take on The Locust, whom I love; just a total cacophony of sound and screaming voices from every which way.  It's maddening, but it pumps you UP.  Gahhhhh love this record.

Clearance - Government Oasis (self-released)
Morning record; one that I realized I have listened to far more times than I'd care to admit.  Why don't I own it yet?  Ah, screw this.  I just purchased before finishing the review.  ANYWAY --
Yeah, this record is a really relaxing listen for being something called Government Oasis.  It blurs a really fine line between the crudest of harsh noise and psychedelic bliss.  I would like to think of artists like James Ferraro, Star, etc., but really, no one is exactly doing what Zac Davis does here.  He's managed to find a niche that is hard to replicate, despite being so simplistic in approach.  Never is the noise too overbearing when it starts to go off, and that is probably because it is floating around the stereo mix so frequently.  Doesn't have enough time to punch you in the face like a Ramirez release, for example.  Sounds are constantly dropping in and out, massaging your brain like the 24/hr. news cycle.  Shit, am I just used to information overload at this point?  Hah.  Maybe so.
Call this the perfect noise for the information age.

[impulse manslaughter]

Was listening to a few new cds this morning:

- Kali Malone & drew McDowall - Magnetism; drones combined with sparse rhythms. Slow, heavy and dark. A really well produced and great album that manages to keep my attention with minimal means.

- Kazuma Kubota - Hakanasa; as discussed in this own topic this is a great album. I have a weak spot for meticulous composed sounds combined with spontaneous noise and that's what I think I'm hearing here. The ambient piece at the end slowly building up to nothing is leaving me wanting more and hitting the play button again.

- V/A - Morality; reissue of classic Broken Flag compilation. First time hearing this and am very impressed. This works really well as a compilation, which is a rare thing. All the tracks have a similar vibe and the short prostitution samples in between by John Duncan tie the album together nicely. My only complaint is that a few tracks are a bit too loud, disrupting the flow of the album.

[k.p.g]

Sudden Infant - Radiorgasm (Harbinger Sound/Blossoming Noise, reissue)
I have had this disc for so long, and yet never really made it beyond a couple minutes with it.  I almost sold it at one point too.  Glad I didn't.  This is a pretty bizarre disc.  2 longform tracks that just jump and cut up sounds at random.  Total free will attack at play between the rhythmic slapping, vocal freakouts and just odd room sounds in between.  Whatever is going on in the mind of Joke Lanz must be psychotic, but it results in some great noise! 

[impulse manslaughter]

Classic album. My favorite by him.

[k.p.g]

Emil Beaulieau - Dedicated to Charlie Ward (PURE)
The one thing I always hear first about this release is "oh, I don't think I've heard it before."  I actually remember one person in another forum say this is the WORST Emil record.  I gotta wonder where this general disinterest/occasional dislike comes from.  I find it to be one of his strongest!  Maybe it's not as harsh as records previously discussed by RRRon on this site, but what it does is show off the Minutoli's prowess in full.  Tons of weirdo loops from the same Stomach Ache records cascading back and forth between the stereo mix; some harsh, some soft, some pretty, some gross.  It's really nice.  The last track especially, which utilizes the William Bennett is My Dick 7" is downright maddening.  I know RRRon would go onto use that 7" across other releases.  In this setting though, it's just one of those sublime sort of endurance tests.  Hah!

Iovae - Ramshorn (Secret Buddy)
A new name to me, but he's been around for a while apparently!  I received this tape from Secret Buddy head honcho Joe Wang a while back, but never got around to hearing it in full.  Pulled it out on a whim this morning.  It sounds like a chorus of slide guitars collapsing on top of each other.  It's not overtly harsh, but rather a slow build that just reaches a level of excessive tape saturation with how many layers keep being introduced. Fun listen!

[Minus1]

(I just want to say that I read all reviews here. I learn so much. Love it! It would be tiring for everyone if I kept saying "Thank you for this excellent review." But...thanks! Keep it coming!)

[Flames of Torture]

(I just want to say that I read all reviews here.

As do I.

This inactive review thread is also a valuable resource: https://special-interests.net/forum/index.php?topic=10.0