PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

SSRI - Dreamjunk Surrealia

Heard parts of this while listening to records at someone elses house, and it immediately caught my attention like WHAT IS THIS. I was blown away to hear it is new SSRI, kind of made sense but also surprised me how effectively it ticked my noise nerve. First thing when I got home was to order this. To say it's a noise release, sure, but it's not super noisy. It's more use to broken sounds, I think at some point there is even a loop with stereo plug unplugged and creating that rattling sound. SSRi using these "sounds from the middle". One track ends, or starts (?) with this low volume sound that sounds like type of thing you get when you are finishing recording something and turn off the synth, and the pedal chain is churning some leftover sound in it's system. Kind of sound many would dismiss, but I am a big  fan of these broken, "about to be lost if you don't record it NOW" type of sounds. Easily the best SSRI album I have heard, I've spun this daily ever since I got it. A collage of very intended sounds and very strange broken sounds. Done with extremely talented skill and vision.

Agree with this. I picked it up because I was curious but I thought it might be a bit too "out there" for me from the description. Not so. This is clearly carefully assembled and the bass frequencies when they kick in give it all a satisfying weight. It's not super noisy but it definitely has intent and direction. One I will keep coming back to.

Just echoing the other sentiments above. Fragmented sounds from poorly grounded and poorly maintained equipment that misbehave in the most interesting ways. Fantastic album with beautifully broken sounds and a well-executed vision. Dreamjunk Surrealia is the perfect name for this album.

[Obedient2]

Geography of Hell- Smyrna, 1922
Top tier GOH release for me. Wasn't sure what to expect with these being billed as "archival" but there was no reason to fear sub-par material or throwaways. The synths and distortion sound really thick on this one, giving it a heavier and more immediate sound. It drifts more into the industrial soundscapes I expect from the project, but just when you're getting comfortable, a heavy and enormous drone cuts across everything. Sample work is dense and excellent as usual. If they're performing this material on the upcoming live shows, I'd be excited to hear it. One of the best noise tapes of the year.

Still digesting Santiago, 1973 but of the 2, Smyrna is the clear standout so far. Santiago is more muted in its approach and I guess in line with what I was expecting from these tapes, but still good.

[k.p.g]

Illusion of Safety - RVE (Tribe Tapes, reissue)
PBK / City of Worms / Hudak / Illusion of Safety - Step Into the Step (Tribe Tapes, reissue)
Ended last night and started this evening with these 2 projects related to the Illusion of Safety camp.  Starting with RVE, the bar is set pretty damn high.  Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke work really well off of each other to where I had to question Max "do you really have any way of telling who did what here?"  Apparently not, so it just flows!  The back half of this record being particularly excellent, with the ending being absolutely sublime.  I could live in that loop for forever.
Step Into the Step was a fun collaborative effort of these 4 early titans of experimental.  It does not have my heart the way RVE does, but it still has some really great moments throughout.  I would recommend mostly if you are an Illusion of Safety fan, as Dan did the final mix of everything, and the structure of it shows just as much.

Ahlzviodre - Collaboration (Throne Heap)
Very upsetting news to come out last night about the passing of Ahlzagailzehguh!  While my knowledge of the project is not as thorough as others, I have great appreciation for releases like this, Memory and Hearing and the Collapsed Hole label.  From a listening standpoint though, this release has pretty much all you would expect from the parties involved; manic, breakneck harsh noise with rooms to breathe that just soak you in misery.  It is a shame when such talents leave us this soon, especially when they're on this caliber.  But let's continue to enjoy the work to honor their memory.

Traci Lords Loves Noise - Betrayed by Selfish Lust (Deadline Records)
Oh wow, she wasn't kidding when she said she loved noise.  Hah!  I was curious what direction a TLLN on Deadline would follow, and I am glad to hear its reaching a middle ground between pure harsh noise and the snotty noisecore the project is usually hailed for.  This could change though, as I only just turned the tape on.  So, I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy that journey for now.

[k.p.g]

Golgotha Toll - Take Up a Lament (Tribe Tapes)
One of the "turning point" releases for Tribe Tapes where I feel like the label's output was truly beginning to level up in its curation.  This old home taper freak happens to have some unreleased 4-track recordings?  Yeah, let's get that out there.  Sits a lot in the realm of dark ambient, with some breaks with a rather Roland S. Howard sounding guitar that starts off Side B.  Pretty interesting release that made for a fun revisit.

Mallard Theory - Mallard Theory (Tribe Tapes)
On a cool spring day, this makes for a powerful listen.  Short, sweet and aggressive as hell.  I remember when this came out as well, I thought "this is like Henry's Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend."  That statement still holds up for me.

Ahlzagailzehguh - Disrupting Resistance (Monorail Trespassing)
Continuing to honor the work of James Cooke with this scorching slab of harsh noise.  Cut-up with a pissed-off angle.  It's like the soundtrack to a montage of all the world's worst woes flashing at lightspeed.  It's so shocking, so impressive and so nauseating.  Terrific stuff.

Kyle Flanagan BZT (self-released)
Ending with another release I haven't heard in years; probably since I first popped it in.  While not as long as the usual straight-to-tape Flanagan of this time, it still packs the hallmark punches in there.  A-Side is very wooshing in its psychedelic synth swirls.  Side B is more of the luddite noise, "broken electronics" that the tape advertises on the inside.  Think my taste nowadays would favor the latter side when it comes to this material.  Solid way to cap off the evening.  I am very tired.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

When I got to see Ahlzagailzehguh play at No Fun Fest 2008, it was also maybe first time I got to see the "mosh pit noise" type of thing. After set, going out and hearing guys not really talking about the noise but the DID YOU SEE ME CROWD SURFING MAN!! -type of excitement, almost like coming out of youthful punk gig. Of course seen people being into noise, but this type of shows where you got the mass of people, excitement and everybody is like heeellll yeeaaahh -mode was quite new thing. There is video of the show, but audio lacks all the bass and punch, so it wasn't really like this at the location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcv53a3Cxvk

[SSRI]

Antichildleague / The Rita split CAS (Obsessive Fundamental Realism)
Four tracks of power electronics industrial from ACL. Good tracks that are not all-out harsh but rather creepy with more subdued, sleazy aggression. Good vocals and bad attitude. Enjoyable stuff, best ACL I've heard (which is very little actually).
The Rita does his textural study or whatever. It's alright but more background sound for me than something to listen to actively.
Dubbing is not the loudest but you've got volume knob in your stereos, right? A5 covers with feet in fishnet stockings.

Squamata - Rust Fetish CAS (Freak Animal)
Harsh noise elite tape. Metal junk bashing and pedal noise, lots of variation but relentless and raging forward all the time. Extremely skillfully edited and perfectly paced.

Love the covers as well. I used to share a rehearsal room with the guys back in the day. It was this underground basement shared with many bands, all with a designated area in the same large room. Most had drums and amps and stuff but there was this one space with metal junk and I would wonder whose are these. I got to know them in no time of course and they told they had thought the same about my gear, hah.

It's a crying shame that no Squamata has been reissued. A complete works collection including all the existing unreleased material would be in order asap.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Yeah, there was talk about it long ago and i have 60 mins of unreleased stuff still saved..

[k.p.g]

Tahma - Live 2-4 (self-released)
As mentioned in the Finnish form, I started my morning with this.  3 live sets of what sounds like sputtery tape and feedback ringing for an eager audience of Finnish freaks.  This tape is in turn dubbed onto a recycled commercial tape, which really bodes well for my shitty, American sensibilities.  Good stuff here!  I am not sure how old this project is yet, but it sounds like Tahma is still finding their footing a bit in live arena.  The foundation there is very good though, so I can imagine live shows to follow will be very good.

Rautakymi - Ei tasta maailmasta (Freak Animal Records)
Forgive my laptop for not having the right set up to properly punctuate this release.  I do not have time to resolve that issue here.  Should that matter though?  I just wanna talk about a record, and a good one at that.
Rautakymi on record has seemingly been much different than what I saw live.  No issues with that, as the recorded material is pretty great.  The tape on Tribe was a muddy hellscape, and this CD sounds like a warehouse being slowly eaten by rats.  Very great stuff!  It is very harsh, yes, but not punishingly so.  Some of the "crazier" parts are often mixed off into the background while some single tone is wailing front and center.  It makes picking apart random sounds you hear all the more fun. 
I like this artist quite a bit.  I know the Finns do.  Maybe other parts of the world should too.

[k.p.g]

Various Afterlives - Remorseless Greed (Hospital Productions)
Massive compilation, haven't revisited it in years at this point.  It holds up so much better than I could have anticipated!  Lots of dark ambient flare before the final D Side takes everything by storm.  Even artists who I am less partial to like Linekraft and Alberich are delivering some knockout tracks here.  Guess I'll be sticking this one back up on the shelves, as it's pretty damn great.

[Obedient2]

Yeah I revisited that in the last 12 months too since I got a working tape deck again and it's amazing. So well sequenced, consistently high quality. I can't believe how easy it is to get through in a single sitting.

[Minus1]

Coffin Vomit - A Rosy Smile.

3 tracks / 60 min.

2024.

Well, this was sitting in the S+W shop a while ago. I sampled it, liked what I heard, and pressed BUY, without really knowing anything about CV. (It appears to be a one-man show - Patrick Bjørsrud being the guilty bastard!)

And I thought about putting this in the HNW thread, but really, these walls are not Harsh, or even Noisy. 😂 But they are... er... sort of walls. I mean, they don't really "go anywhere".

Each track is exactly 20min here. CV seems to like things that are exactly 10min, 20min, 30min, 15min, 5min... A sort of OCD math thing? I like it! 😂

The track titles and artwork point to... erm... dentistry... or lack thereof.

Track 1 has a strange high-pitched fire type crackle over a deep rumble. It's called Postmotem Pink.

The blurb at Abhorrent/Bandcamp goes:

"Norway's Coffin Vomit returns to AAD for the third time with his new full length album "A Rosy Smile". Three long excursions through thick slabs of decrepit textural Harsh Noise Wall that make a perfect soundtrack for contemplating death's inevitability. Skin starts to decay and wither. Maggots chewing through bloated carcasses. Bones splinter and crack over time. Slowly we rot."

Erm...yes. Because track 2 is basically that. It sounds like something is being eaten. I'm disturbed. This is sparse and sinister. It's called Fleshy Lipstick.

The 3 tracks segue right into each other.

Track 3 comes crashing in, like an animal of some kind, that was doing the eating in track 2. Causes Of An Asphyxial Nature. I dunno. This gives me demon-pigs vibes. The Revenge Of The Pigs.

So this is really an hour of sparse, lo-fi, and fucking disturbing sound. Mr Bjørsrud knows how to get under my skin.

Some Noise just overpowers and numbs. Some Noise is breathtaking in other ways.

This Noise is downright fucking sickening.

Does this sound like a bad review? Fuck no! This is genius. This is compelling. I love it. 😍

I'll floss tonight.

[k.p.g]

Sunday Sunday Sunday...

Palokoro - Vapaat Miehet Kulkemaan (Freak Animal Records)
This round's listening of this tape was much more pleasant than the first one I had.  Harmonious passages gently float to the churning of tape.  Winter tape more than a summer tape, but can be enjoyed at any time of the year!

DMDN - Agonistes 1 & 2 (Industrial Recollections, reissue)
Technically a collab with Thirdorgan that was not labeled as such in order to bypass the "one entry only" rule imposed by G.R.O.S.S.  My ear is pretty damn clogged as this one goes, but I still can make out most of the disgusting noise that is at play here.  I love it.  Much more sloppy than I could have anticipated.  Part 2 is far superior to part 1.  Makes me curious though to see what true solo DMDN sounds like though.  See a release on PURE, that might have to be next.

[Flames of Torture]

Rautakymi - Ei tasta maailmasta (Freak Animal Records)
Forgive my laptop for not having the right set up to properly punctuate this release.

You can set your keyboard layout to Finnish! It's easy to change back and forth to English or whatever.

On my keyboard:

[ = å
' = ä
; = ö

+ Shift for capital letters.

[Kaaoskultti]

Bizarre Uproar – Hardline (2026, Freak Animal)
Maybe it's their best to date, indeed. Can't even begin to describe the songs, although the instrumentation is quite fond of repetition of motifs within a large crescendo's context. But there's something about this release which makes it fiercely hypnotic and restless. A surreal sense of presence so omnipresent it becomes mind-blowing, really well put and structured. Loving this one, came out today in the mail aswell! Cigar uproar.

M.I.A. – I Love You (2013, Phage Tapes)
Deranged, versatile, atmospheric electronics with muffled production. Hm, once again N12 comes to mind as in a thematic/music synthetizes. Heavy electronic handling but not much as would be in a BU album, subtle texture work, and menacing aura codified on suggestive titles. Strength in Solitude might be a different case, with loud clashing noises matching with an amelodic thudding note.

Misery Engine – Dark Winter (2022, No rent)
Although I loved Eyes of the State, this one does the project's worth justice aswell. Thematically solid, compositionally intricate, and an unnerving atmosphere all add to the package we got here. GO-ish but a far cry from traditional PE, add laying layers of interesting territory through which this release explores.

[Obedient2]

Bizarre Uproar – Hardline (2026, Freak Animal)
Maybe it's their best to date, indeed. Can't even begin to describe the songs, although the instrumentation is quite fond of repetition of motifs within a large crescendo's context. But there's something about this release which makes it fiercely hypnotic and restless. A surreal sense of presence so omnipresent it becomes mind-blowing, really well put and structured. Loving this one, came out today in the mail aswell! Cigar uproar.

This might be my favourite noise release of the year so far. I keep coming back. I think the repetition kind of makes it catchy? I definitely find the songs more memorable than your average noise release but it isn't like BU has "gone pop" either, hah.