PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Stipsi]

gerogerigegege: hell driver
If i would describe mental disorders in one record, this one is my choice.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Small Cruel Party - Do You Believe in a Pencil? CD (Ferns Recording)

I'm only now discovering Small Cruel Party and feel like I've absolutely struck gold. What an incredible project. The 3xCD compilation "An Accident in Substance" was my first introduction just last week and I've been spinning all of the discs frequently. Would truly be a desert island pick, what a fantastic collection of sounds. I know others have written reviews of it in the past and many are linked in the Small Cruel Party thread. I encourage everyone to seek it out. Incredibly simple field recordings, accidental sounds, but crafted with nuance and conducted by a person of great taste and detail.

After listening to that collection for a week, I've begun spinning an early release from Key, reissued by Ferns Recording. Do You Believe in a Pencil? is an excellent title. Encapsulates the spirit of this "weirdo" noise. The first 26 minutes or so are highly meditative, psychedelic churning whirlpool of sounds. Very detailed and powerful when played loud on a good set of speakers. The rest of the album then transitions and focuses on very minimal metal spring scraping, reverberation, and drone-like tones drifting in and out of focus.

Highly enjoyable and I'm so excited to discover everything else from Small Cruel Party. Have a few more items in the mail on the way.  

[Krigsverk]

Veprisuicida - Heavy metal cyclothymia/Oskoplenie/Radio Stigmata/Vaginacentrism (IR CD versions)


Been cranking these discs in my car the last few weeks and I love them, a big thanks to the label for unearthing these gems! Before I picked these up I had never even heard about the project, even though I am very familiar with Linjia Mass. Amazing how these have not gained more popularity; a great mix of harsh noise, experimental sounds and god knows what. Need to pick up the rest of the reissues.

[Theodore]

PRESAGE - VENERATED cs (Narcolepsia 2023)

Oh boy! Like hundreds of modems screaming in their death throes, slithering and wailing. Active, moving harsh noise with generous amounts of high frequencies and odd atmosphere. I like that there is emphasis on mid- and high frequencies instead of that certain American Bassy Rumble. Feedback loops are stuttering screaming, spitting and slithering under the iron heel of noise operator. Really good, colorful harsh noise!

Just listened it and i was coming to write : Do you wanna know how it would be if you attach a phone center's cables directly to your brain synapses ? Listen to Side B ! Insane. 11 minutes, the longest Presage track [?] . Side A is made of several shorter cuts / tracks. With him I like that approach, he makes it work. The tape on WCN was my introduction to the project. I remember Oskar was strongly recommending Feralheart years ago, but it probably is the only tape i decided not to buy -two times- cause of its cover ! Ugly. When i listened Hair Diaries i regreted my decision instantly, -still looking for it- . 3 tapes in 5 years. Small dose, strong fix. I wouldnt mind to overdose though. Give more Presage to the people !

Yesterday i listened a couple i had bought as order fillers and had them sitting unplayed for a while. Cruor Incendia - Igne Natura Renovatur Integra CS and Fecalove - La Nature Devoilee CDR. Cruor Incendia is Ryan Jencks. Recorded 1996-2016. Discogs describes the project as Harse industrial kosmische , accurate. Tracks start industrial, then comes the noise. Side A is really excellent. Side B, not on that level, but OK. - Fecalove, his electronics, some tapes [?] and his mic, in what sounds like a 40min jam. It's fun, you dont know what it comes next, and / or when, and when he nails it he nails it. Good time.

[MT]

Incapacitants – Feedback Of N.M.S. 2xLP

One of the mandatory Japanoise releases I think. First LP has the "Curse Of Ceauşescu" split on two sides. Very classic Incapacitants, super DENSE sound, it's like listening to ten noise records at the same time. Plenty of things to listen to, catch to and enjoy to. Be it wailing feedback, thickly hissing noise or strange jew's harp like twangy sounds in the sea of madness. Second LP has the live tracks, which are the cake here for me. Absolutely merciless feedback onslaught with excited screaming in the mix. It's very easy to just close eyes and let the world Incapacitants consume your ears and shatter the eardrums! It's like the first LP except on steroids, just fucking insane! High appreciation for Urashima for doing these cult releases available again.

[MT]

Sharon's Last Party 7"
For some reason I was expecting a harsh noise 7", but it is more like deranged power electronics. Kind of oppressive bassy tones, maybe even played with an actual bass? A-side has nearly electro feel to it due the rhytmic synth work. Also some shouted vocals on this side. Distant clattering on the b-side with bassy tones. Does not fall in the cateory of post-mortem, more like suffocating electronics. Decent seven incher, cheaply available too!


Testicle Hazard - Het Potatis 7"
Pedals to the floor harsh noise from wildest gubbe duo! Goes by super fast so couple spins is mandatory. Not a lot to tell what you don't know already. Just pure noise orgasm, tons of things happening, healthy amount of feedback, crunchy noise action and swirling colourful sounds in vein of Japanese masters. Really fucking good!


Taint - Harming Obsession 7"
Slightly different Taint release, in terms of overall sound. More high pitched, flailing and hissing, top with maniac vocals in the mix. General atmosphere is very immediate and intrusive, hard to describe.
Very violent 7"!


Bizarre Uproar/Sick Seed 7"
BU and SS on the same seven incher is always a treat! BU punishes with junk metals and buried vocals, feedbacks piercing through. Fast spinning 45 seven incher is not ideal for BU, because just when you start to get the taste of it, it ends! SS offers broken sounding noise with very stingy feedback bursting through every now and then. Burst of SS trademark vocals at the end with noise erupting to fluttering madness.


Antichildleague/Silent Abuse 7"
Starts off with frantic screaming of SA, sounds of person on a psychotic breakdown. In enters ACL with her commanding precense, with rapid fire vocals. Noise itself takes backseat here, grinding and hissing electronic static almost like. Radio broadcast from mental asylum. Other side strikes with full on noise fire on the listener. Has much more industrial feel to it, ripping noise and synths creating a feel of end times indeed, and times of your mental health. Vocals are very well drenched in delay, lapping on top of each other, giving a very disoriented listening experience. And just like that, it's over, so time to give it more listens. Again one 7" one would think would be talked about more.

[W.K.]

Pig Heart Transplant - For Mass Consumption
Short and nice tracks, some of them too short for their own good and would love to hear more developed ideas, but nonetheless the album is great. No filler. Great vocals!
Too bad he project ended after this one. Why?

[Commander15]

Xenophobic Ejaculation - Victory

Heard this one for the first time and fell in love immediatly! Fantastic PE with very strong "old school" feel to it. I really love the stark and minimal "live at the rehearsal room" atmosphere here. Amplifier hum drones, obscure samples, whistling mic feedback and coarse vocals recorded live to cassette deck with cheap SM57 copy in the corner? Yes please! Sparse soundscape really forces one to appreciate every sonic nuace that takes place here. "White Power White Victory" is very delicious epic that sets the tone for this album but for me it is the "Racial Suicide" that takes the cake: tasty whistling intro morphs into desperate feedback fight fight that gives way to an otherworldly hum and feedback combo that just keeps going and going, until gruff vocals kick in and sleazy madness ensues. Victory rides that certain thin line between high art and "David Duke poster on the wall of crusty mobile home" kind of sleaze. Fucking love it.

[Baglady]

STRIATIONS - Keepsakes CD (Freak Animal 2020 / orig. Fusty 2019)
I sample some contemporary power electronics now and then, but it rarely does anything for me. It's all too predictable content and sound wise. Yet this CD wins by being just that! I guess it boils down to how "real" it feels, if that makes any sense, and this is the "real shit" to me. Atrocity upon atrocity, but for once it doesn't feel contrived. Cold and spacious howl, far off flangered vocals, just the right amount of structure somewhere in the midst keeping it all together. Massive. But I like it the most when there's just a little less going on, such as in the superb initially repetitive title track, and the even stronger "Modern Predator" with it's electrified slurp and heavy thumping sounds. Hydra comes to mind, as does Con-Dom, but this album somehow takes place in a disillusioned urban hellhole of its own, and again, a hellhole which comes off as very real and honest. Traditional genre album done very well, and I'm both surprised and glad to be convinced.
I've read good things about the Vietnamization album. I ought to check it out soon while I'm still in the mood.

[ConcreteMascara]

Pig Heart Transplant - For Mass Consumption
Short and nice tracks, some of them too short for their own good and would love to hear more developed ideas, but nonetheless the album is great. No filler. Great vocals!
Too bad he project ended after this one. Why?

Love PHT, I also wish the project had continued. I can only guess life things got in the way of new material? As good as For Mass Consumption is, i still prefer the more traditional song approach of Hope You Enjoy Heaven. That one felt like a lost Godflesh album at times, in the best way possible.

The collab album with Blue Sabbath Black Cheer is also quite good, but a lot murkier and less immediate...

[HateSermon]

Tons of stuff lately

Hal Hutchinson "Brutal Mechanics" cassette
Super unpleasant mic feedback layered over the junk metal sounds that HH is known for. All frequencies pushed to the extreme and all sounds melt together. Listening to this on headphones and you can make out subtle shifts of what's going on underneath the harsh blanket of high pitch squeal. Artwork unmistakingly made by Keith Brewer. This actually looks more like a Mania release than anything else. Good shit!

The Black Maghreb "HOW" 7"
I think this was reviewed elsewhere on this forum but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, my two cents:
I'm not so sure about this one. Overall I feel there's too much going on and think this could have been more successful if the sounds were more organized or some stuff omitted. The material here reminds me more of intro tracks to war metal bands like Konflict rather than standalone songs. I also don't think the 7" format did them any favors, either. Would have been more successful if each track had more time to breathe. Either way this project has my attention and I'll still check out whatever comes next.

Abscheu "Creed" cd
Opposite of above! HEAVY fucking hard hitting PE with razor sharp sound. I found myself hitting the play button again once it was over... has a lot of replay value. I don't normally go for the more polished sounding stuff but god damn. One of the highlight releases of the year.

Caligula031 "The Leatherman" tape + zine
Love me a good tale of the old leather bar days and this one delivers. Another release I've listened to back to back a few times. Good amount of layered synthesizers and sounds that often create an overall dizzying feel and I like the different styles of processed vocals sprinkled throughout. Some catchy parts to this too. The zine features an essay on the artist's experience as a straight guy hanging out at leather bars and his curiosity for something harder than the now watered down S&M scene.

[Nolan]

Pig Heart Transplant - For Mass Consumption
Short and nice tracks, some of them too short for their own good and would love to hear more developed ideas, but nonetheless the album is great. No filler. Great vocals!
Too bad he project ended after this one. Why?

It's not ended, but Jon hasn't worked on new material for a while.

[HateSermon]

Soldnergeist "You Want Him / Hyper Climax" 7". Self Abuse.

A really enjoyable 7"! Side A has fast paced beat driven bassy synth with some subtle loops happening underneath. Vocal style on this is top notch. Pitch shifted and slowed down "You want him" repeated over and over... almost seems like you're on the hunt for someone or something. Side B "Hyper Climax" is a masterfully crafted build up of layers starting with a loop of female orgasm and sawing buzz. The track continues to get louder and more suspenseful as more sounds are introduced and eventually reaches climax with an unexpected tonal shift and less prominent feedback. Highly recommended release and there are cheap copies available via discogs.

Red Glory "Metaphysically Misplaced" cassette. Danvers State Recordings.

I only recently found out about this side project of The Vomit Arsonist via his recent WCN interview. Post mortem done properly. Slow moving landscapes of repetitive minimal synth and an overall dreadful, COLD atmosphere. Bleak. My only complaint is that it's too short! Need more of this shit. Hopefully something new is in the works, which I think he mentions towards the end of the interview.

Blodethos "Demo" cassette. Wotanic Pride.

The first release from the new label Wotanic Pride. Really rustic sounding ambient / neofolk style music with some catchy tunes. Overall a pretty melancholic sound here. It's refreshing to hear a new neofolk-ish band that isn't a total Death In June worship project... as much as I like DIJ, how many times do we reinvent the [sun]wheel? Seems like this cassette is harder to get because of extremely limited copies. The label is already on the 3rd run (coming soon) of these and I'm not sure why they just didn't dub more to begin with? It's surely a release that deserves a wider circulation. Presentation on this release is nice... good layout and print quality. Looking forward to the next one.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Cyess Afxzs – No Bull One Left Behind (Krim Kram)

Lots of Cyess Afxzs coming out this year and new material is always welcome. We had the excellent Richter album on WCN earlier this year which is heavy on the piercing controlled feedback the project utilizes so well. There is also a new collab with Scathing just released this weekend on SATATUHATTA.

Now we have No Bull One Left Behind released on Krim Kram. The artist's 3rd album at this point. A noticeable element right off the bat is the very controlled and musical use of feedback. The frequencies are often shaped or contorted to weave themes and sometimes even what could be considered melodies. There is a lot of tension and suspense in the pieces throughout the release. Not everything is full-blown in the red and bursting at the brim, those moments are rare. Dynamics are highly utilized and those dynamics are one of the very noticeable characteristics that help shape this album. Actually, most of the tracks are very meticulous and calculated. The sounds seem very deliberate and composed.

It's impressive that McCune has mentioned most of his work at this point is composed and that he can even recreate the work a live environment. Very different from the usual when it comes to noise. In the recent WCN interview, McCune mentions coming full circle with noise and to advance it forward, he thinks music elements should be reintroduced into the fold. That is very much found in this release. The structure and shaping of the tracks feel very musical in a way, and there are some more traditional melodies introduced at certain points, however, probably not how you would think.

A thought-provoking and different approach to noise that I find exciting and which is executed very well here. Certainly need to spin this more and spend more time to unlock all of the details.  

Now to re-spin Richter and order the new Scathing collab.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Capturing The Wind a Japanese Noise Compilation (Dada Drumming)

What a goddamn lineup. Government Alpha, Endo, scum, ASTRO, Thirdorgan, MO*TE, Spore Spawn, K2, Kazuma Kubota, and many more. Obviously, a geographically-centered compilation capturing the latest from noise veterans and legends at this point. Curation is excellent and the inclusion of some contributors who are a little more obscure, at least to me, makes the compilation even more exciting. Each artist provides a quick 3-minute and highly focused track.

Everyone provided their absolute best and the results are honestly a little astonishing. The pace of each track moves fast and somehow the 14 artists and 48 minutes go by extremely quickly. The sequencing is great and each track flows so well into one another.  There is definitely a commonality of cut-up and expertly edited sounds on high display here.

What surprised me were the tracks that brought a little bit of a slowdown to the mix among the incredibly fast-moving sounds. Track 5 from Kazuya Ishigami brings the first shift in tempo in the best possible way. Things start to float and he makes you pay attention to a more high-detailed and slower style. There are some great edits and sounds he brings in that correlate with the high-speed editing of the previuos tracks, but it's focused and somehow in line with what's come before. Definitely a highlight among the already strong tracks so far. Spore Spawn achieves very similar results with slowing the tempo down on track 11 while still providing an absolutely stunning and highly detailed submission.

A personal note that I've never been much into compilations, but really changed my opinion of that in recent years. This is a great example of why people should pay attention to comps. Great array of artists and sounds you wouldn't be exposed to otherwise. The tracks by Kazuya Ishigama and Hiroyuki Chaba surprised me and I'm going to be researching what I've missed from these artists now.

Highlights: ASTRO, damn this track is good. Endo, scum, Kazuya Ishigama, Thirdogan, Spore Spawn, K2, Kazuma Kubota. Too many!

An incredible compilation that everyone should own, every track is excellent and one of the fastest and most consistent 48 minutes released this year. Don't miss out, seriously!