PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Baglady]

KAPOTTE MUZIEK - Verder CD (Harsh Dept. Productions. 1994)
Bought a few used CDs a while a go (some Haters I was missing, since you just have to know), and the seller sent this along as well, as a surprise bonus. I was immediately more excited about this one than the ones I picked myself. Funny! Anyway. Very little Kapotte in these shelves. I've been meaning to pick up at least one of the more proper albums, but never got around to it, so to just receive something - perfect.
Four tracks, each being a collaboration as usual. "Radiation" together with Telepherique hits plenty of sweet spots. Radio signals, warm idling electronics and distant desolate factory loops. Sounds like what Vertonen does today!  Stellar evocative industrial really. Just brilliant.
In "Snares" Kapotte runs woody violin sounds from Agencement through heavy echo effects. To my surprise he takes a less noisy route than I expected - Agencement can be quite intense - and instead serves quite an eerie airy loop-based piece. Spidery atonal violin string picking looped in absurdum, and woody knocks and thuds remember there was a similar type of sound in the early episodes of X Files, every time something eerie was afoot. Great stuff!
In "All Set Is Go" he again does the less obvious, and this time with Merzbow. Acoustic sounds from deep down a maze-like sewer system. I come to think of Massimo Toniutti, then I think well maybe not, but then yeah, Massimo certainly.   That Il Museo Selvatico LP of his does sound like this. Only thing missing here is the clumsy and out-of-place organ (which is charming). Some distant electronic sounds travel the drain pipes further on. Minor goosebumps! A bit anonymous, this track, next to the others, but it has something.
The finale, "An Example of Digging for Sound", has ammo supplied by The Haters. Not that hatery sounding - he definitely bends the sounds into his own - yet easily the noisiest on the disc. Metallic drilling, sparks flying. Then this rather abrupt change in and texture and it's a slowly swelling, ebbing and flooding drone-out from here on.
Given the very different natures of the respective audio source in each track, it's surprising how cohesive this CD is. An excellent disc I didn't know I seriously needed. Plenty of copies floating around on the web for no money at all. Do get it!

[Manhog_84]

Ramleh - Awake! 8xCD

This has been sitting on my shelve for a long time, so it was time to dust off and give it a new listen after many years. I liked it more now than I used to. Most of the cds are live material and some releases have been split between different records. Same songs repeating over and over with slightly different variations. I gave up trying to follow what release I am currently listening as it didn't really matter. The sound is so tasty and consistent across the records it is easy to listen multiple cds in a row.

It's funny that the material from UK pioneer bands like these Gary Mundy's projects, Whitehouse and Sutcliffe Jugend, are classics that still hold up but after '85 they are absolutely some of the shittiest music classified as power electronics heh.

[RURAL RESISTANCE]

WORTH - Hamper

Listened to the new Worth cd on Aussaat two times now. First impression was that this sounds really ugly and antisocial. Nothing "cool" here and I can appreciate that! No underlined structure or obvious thematic dimension. Still there clearly is artistic merit to this album, more dynamics and details than the first taste would make you expect.

I exchanged thoughts with another American noise artist and he mentioned how some old noise releases sometimes feel more like an "endurance test" than an album that is intended to sound "good". I can easily understand what he meant by that. I think that is not exactly the case with Hamper but there still is some kind of barrier or threshold that you have to cross or endure to get deeper into it. A sort of spiked cage around the piece of art. It is pretty nightmarish on the surface but there are more sides to it that escape definition. Really obscure and challenging but somehow mesmerizing material at the same time. I'm already looking forward to spinning it for the third time.

[MT]

Whiteswan - Promo tape

Did a bit of diving to Whiteswan materials. Guy seems to have dissappeared from noise world? Anyway, some hazy night at a noise gig I received this tape from him, maybe it was my faulty tape deck but I remember this tape having the other channel mute. Skip to today, new tape deck and both channels work fine, even though a bit balanced. Material on the tape is extremely crude power electronics with rough vocals in the mix. Can't make up any actual lyrics being shouted, they seem more like primitive screaming to me, mostly. Even though the tape is quite low on volume, it still has it's own charm. If I remember correctly, project came from Kainuu area of Finland, which itself is quite desolate and brutal area. Let alone imagine someone doing very obscure power electronics project there.


Whiteswan - "Insatiable Lust" tape

Insatiable Lust came only one year after, and the leap project has taken is quite big. Sound is more precise, louder and has more variation to it. Mostly synth and vocals. I like the manic synth work, the room sound type recording might not be ideal but it works. Vocals are super raw, and have this not too thought out feeling to them, they feel like true frustration of an isolated young man. Kind of shame he dissappeared cause the project was going in interesting directions on later tapes.

[NerveGas]

Legless - Music For Blackouts CS

A big fan of all things Legless. Too bad the newest split smells so bad! Anyway, here we have  some split channel tumbling density and squirming, crumpled textures. Sounds sleazy and gross as if it is a few generations degraded while still maintaining attack and volume. When we talk about broken sounds, I usually imagine some element of malfunctioning or things that sound "wrong". This sounds broken in a different way in that everything is functioning... but just barely. The impression I'm given is one of dirty tapes caked in dust and rusty pedals with broken knobs. A nasty soup you sink into and have to wash off later.

[Baglady]

These four have occupied the player alot recently.

VERTONEN - The Water Butchers 3" CDR (Nefarious Activities, 2020)
Very little Vertonen in my shelves, but I love the few I have. Shimmering ambience, discrete warm idling textures, and what I presume are sounds of Blake moving about in the recording room (an elegantly nonchalant touch when done right, such as here). Beautiful piece!

GRUNT - Kraniometria 3" CD (Freak Animal, 2019)
Wasn't too happy with this when it came out, but I've grown to like it quite a bit. Inventive, and, dare I say!, a bit playful, yet grim in a grandiose way at the same time. Big banging "factory noise" next to watery electric sprinkles and all in between. Tonality in noise was discussed in the WCN episode with Cyess Afxzs, and damn if there isn't some two toned rhythmic loop part going on in the title track here as well. Not a pet peeve in this household though. A busy little disc for sure. I should get my hands on that latest Grunt HN disc.

K2 &  AMK & THE HATERS - Three Phenomena CD (Vinyl Communications, 1997)
K2 going all out K2 with sounds that aren't much K2 at all still means it sounds quite a bit like K2 but in a different suit. Great stuff, obviously, how could it not be. Leaves me a bit baffled, with not much to say. Losfer words, but a big great 'orra, yes.

WORTH - Hamper CD (Aussaat, 2023)
Differs from his earlier output with its long-running and few layers and less busy with fewer cuts. But there's an urgent yet slow build to this album as a whole, which culminates in downright frightening possession further on. Utter hell. Demons oozing out of the speakers. Gives me the same sensation I've had during high fevers and sleep paralysis. Truly horrifying album, at least for me. Great to see Will still treading new ground as Worth. One of his very best yet.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I should get my hands on that latest Grunt HN disc.

All gone from here, not sure if any distros carry it anymore.
Main differences are that Kraniometria (also gone here) was analogue noise, but digital recording. Mistake, sure, but those sessions consists like 3 hours of noise and out of some sort of brain malfunction, easiness of recording directly to digital felt that it would be both different from usual plus not using huge pile of tapes. At some point there was idea to put out 3xCD of harsh noise.. or 3xtape.. this material certainly would have benefitted of all-on-red dubbing on ferric tapes. Would change tone of sound a lot. But well, that session is past now. Since then done so much. Hehku is vastly better, both in noise itself, but being also recorded on tape deck. Not lo-fi, but well, we know what tape does for noise...

Despite there has been couple PE oriented Grunt releases, this year will most likely bring some experimental harsh noise releases. Work on progress. Lets see later.. Will be different from former recordings.


I was reading Shocktilt issue with Ulex Xane interview and grabbed something to listen.

Underground Australia comp tape
Cipher
Funny to think I was under impression Underground Australia comp tape came "while ago".. well, relatively speaking of course. Maybe that none of Cipher design reeks of vintage, it's not so obvious that this tape is already 20 years old. Not only that, but looking at the line-up, I don't know how many of artists who were featured then, would be if Cipher was to do volume 2? Plenty has happened since!
A9 track wins for best song titled. B9 was so energetic harsh noise blast, I had to walk to check out from j-card what is playing right now as it is pretty damn intense.  I suppose I have pretty much complete "early discography" of Cipher, and I do have lots of other too, till very recent ones. Always grabbed the new batch when it came, but it just feels that it is sure I do not have 150 releases of his in my shelves! At some point, depending where was living, one had to reject objects that were just too space consuming to keep...

MIKAWA / CRACKSTEEL split live tape
Cipher
Cipher release of live recording of Mikawa and Cracksteel include Soddy's liner notes, live photos, live poster and such stuff. Mikawa side is high pitched, fierce and ripping. You'll hear the audience yell (.. soddy & facialmess??) KING OF NOISE!! Or on other side there is CRACK FUCKING STEEL -chanting repeated over and over again, haha. Noise itself, good, but nevertheless the kind of digital recorder 00's live feel, were the style of sound of recorder color entire piece quite a lot. Not bad by any means, but also clearly live documentation, not so much ALBUM. Sound fits well Mikawa's torturing high frequency electronics, while Cracksteel doing massive harsh noise blasting has probably had more nuance and detail when it happened and recording just gives you hint how nice it must have been.

TRUCIDO "Salvation" mCD
Autarkeia
Tape version of this Trucido was one of the first things I ever got from Spastik Soniks label. Along some very early Death Squad stuff. Didn't remember it would be THAT limited. CD edition helped situation a bit, but it feels as if 150x editions of all old DS tapes on now seemingly defunct Lithuanian label perhaps didn't give exactly amount of attention that DS tapes could have deserved? Or maybe I am biased, and rating those simply and brutal noise tapes higher than many do? One thing is that regular digipaks barely do justice for the hand made brilliance of the original tapes...
Trucido sounds like a bit more loose and lazier version of old Death Squad. Sound is HEAVY, crunchy, simple... A lot of people who have heard the later days Death Squad may associate his stuff to treble electronics, vocals, samples and such.. but early DS was all about blown out bass heavy harsh noise. Ultra crunchy and often also having these minimal grinding loops going for ages. It would be close to sound you associate with Dead Body Love, Magazine era The Rita or something. Not "PE", not "experimental sound art", but sheer brutality. Trucido is not best way to start, but if you got all the old DS stuff, you may proceed into getting Trucido too.

Ars Sonitus "Transfuturism Manifesto" CD
IMPULSY STETOSKOPU 2023
I absolutely hate transhumanism, which is the main response against futurism in this particular release. On other hand, I looove noise manifests - even disagreeable ones! Getting in mail hand numbered 100 copies, real glass mastered CD of one of earlierst Polish industrial artists who boldly resigns from industrial music tradition in favor of transfuturism... what is there not to like?!
Sound itself is pure industrial-noise, and whatever the manifest says, noise says more, and noise is full of sweat, dust, violent spasms, vintage noise machines... quite contrast to what intellect says. In this case, I firmly trust the noise and its message is energetic and PHYSICAL, which feels totally opposite to vibe of manifest...
Have listened this already 3-4 times, thinking... I must write something more about it, than just mention it on "playlist". So.. lets see. Its one of those things that have been luring me to listen over and over again.. just like couple years old TORBA LP. I was in intent to listen big pile of vinyl LP's from the stack of "to be listened", and ended up listening all day just this one Torba LP! What is so good about it? Or this? I guess trying to get it on writing may clarify that question to me too.
Meanwhile, only 100 copies of this CD exists, so Ars Sonitus (older Polish artists living in france) album, check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z7TDtsVwGM

[Bloated Slutbag]

MIKAWA / CRACKSTEEL split live tape
Cipher
Cipher release of live recording of Mikawa and Cracksteel include Soddy's liner notes, live photos, live poster and such stuff. Mikawa side is high pitched, fierce and ripping. You'll hear the audience yell (.. soddy & facialmess??) KING OF NOISE!! Or on other side there is CRACK FUCKING STEEL -chanting repeated over and over again, haha.

I particularly like the end of the Cracksteel set when he kills the overbilge to reveal that the entire massed squall was based on a disco loop. Some good audience nuggets in there. Mikawa just warming up and someone yelling, "There can be only one!" And at the end of the set an attempt at leading the chant, "Long live the king!"

[Léarch]

Skin Graft – Final Judgment CD (White Centipede Noise)

Only just now getting around to listening to this CD. It has been sitting in my "to listen" pile since... JUNE 2022... shit. I knew this was going to be a really good album, but no clue what the hell took me so long. Well worth the wait though. Heard this was supposed to be a Troniks CD but due to a hiatus got picked up by WCN.

A really engrossing and enveloping sound. I feel fully consumed by the texture. Maybe because I'm blasting it at high volume as well, which always helps. Extremely blown-out textures. Really blown out. Really pummeling and I can't find the words right now to encapsulate the fullness and power behind these frequencies. I also enjoy how it's really one large developing piece with movements and dynamics.

It's funny, or sad, how an album like this where you can tell the artist put his blood, sweat, and tears into creating it, can go with little to no lip service whatsoever afterward. I bet a lot of people really enjoyed this album as well, you just never HEAR about it!

Anyway, I really really enjoy Skin Graft, and this is an excellent album. Next up on my neglected listening pile is the Worth Sacred Violence Noise CD. I also have Savage Gospel Horrors Of Nature in the queue.

I also got it into a bit late but couldn't put it down for a good few weeks when I finally did. I feel the attention to the frequencies and EQ'ing of the layers is very musical. Top level harmonic crunch!

I ordered it a few months ago, absolutely drilled my brain and still returning into it again and again. Intense, with an almost "wallish" feeling throughout the tracks, even if it possesses enough dynamics, layers and range in high and low frequencies to avoid this label. The last track is definitely the best (these bursts of high fr at start!) .
Ordered "Hell in the blood" from Chondritic, does anyone know this one?
Also, I was wondering if the guy from Sadio is the same, as the duo is credited as "Grunt and Kommando Skin Graft"??

Otherwise, last records I put in for a first shot :

Himukalt : Knife Through the Spine
Pissoir Rouge: Asphyxia Apotheose
ScatMother: Sadotantra

Still need to dig further into those ones, but the Himukalt seems a very good one, while the two others are more "straight in your face". Hope to have the possibility to drive to Langraaf the 13th of May to see them, can't be sure right now. Anybody going there?

[HateSermon]

Kommando Skingraft is a different dude

[MT]

Primitive Wings - Morphosis CD
After a some kind of hiatus, Vanhala returns, flying with primitive wings and delivering Morphosis CD. Morphosis consists of a myriad of sound sources and textures, while leaving plenty of space in the mix. It's not hyperpacked punchfest like Vanhala harsh noise was, quite the opposite. Familiar high quality production, with precisive sound placements and high detail to treatment of sounds.  Each sound has a valid reason for existing, it's not scattering sounds around just because. It's hard to describe per se how Morphosis sounds like, it has plenty of hiss and fizz, bursts of reptile like crackles, buzzes of insectoids. It's almost as if, you would be exploring a primal world, but from a strange perspective of sensing the whole of ecosystem at once. But at the same time the droning buzzes bring the feel of that failing factory type of feeling, so it's kind of an odd mix of both, this of course is up to the listener, as in this case is moi. Morphosis is a strong return, but what else did we even expect?


A.B.N.T.R - "Demo MMVIII" tape
This fellow, I guess, was one of those who came with a bang and left before the dust even settled. But it is a better tape than I even remembered, funnily though 75% of the tape is empty, there's only material on one side. And even from that one side only half is used, heh! But it is loud and active harsh noiz, things happen all the time. The extra songs are quite forgettable but I recommend to grab this if you ever run into it.


The New Boyfriends shirt
Pretty damn cool shirt! Aqua blueish/greenish/mintish with a perfect shot of the boys sitting in a garden swing after sauna, during deepest winter. Recommended from Satatuhatta shop, second run is now in preorder I think!

[Bloated Slutbag]

Primitive Wings - Morphosis CD
[...] Each sound has a valid reason for existing [..]

I think I've come back to this review twelve times now just for this comment, which still leaves me exhaling breathlessly. But I mean. Yes. Of course.

Now if you'll excuse me there's a comb about polywave with my name on it.

edit
more shirt reviews, please

[Zeno Marx]

Tenzenmen – Quarrychase LP 1995

I believe there was a reissue cassette of 60 copies?  Of an LP that was originally 100 copies.  I don't get it.  There must have been a punk association with Very Good Records.  Rodel Records or TVG Records?  I don't know how else I would have ended up with this LP.  I remember really, really liking it at the time.  Memory fails, because I don't remember it being like this at all.  It's cut up and collage and tape manipulations.  It's good, and it was certainly worthy of a reissue.  Too bad it is such a small tape run though.

[ritualabuser]

Kommando Skingraft is a different dude

Yes, and his previous project is well-worth checking out.
https://www.discogs.com/master/608485-Skin-Graft-Psychodelia

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Kommando Skingraft is a different dude

Yes, and his previous project is well-worth checking out.
https://www.discogs.com/master/608485-Skin-Graft-Psychodelia

mr. Kommando Skingraft is one of those guys who has been around about as long time as I have. Our first collaboration is from.. 1995? He did also noise zine around that time, which included very rare, perhaps only Pain Jerk zine interview, plus lots of reviews my myself. Curiously I did find perhaps only existing copy of his collaboration tape  with member of Savage Gospel done back in 90's. No interviews or info exists of this guy, and he likes to keep it that way.