PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[k.p.g]

Oscillating Innards - Nadir Emergence (Troniks)
A fairly monolithic record in scope and composition.  Once I put it on, it's hard to turn it off without getting over the finish line.  Parts flow in and out seamlessly, great use of a variety of methods from crushing harsh, power electronic, field recording, ambient, etc.  There's one other thing to this too, which is its overt emotional core.  Lately, I cannot stand that strand of 2000's, emotionally stricken strand of the harsh noise scene.  Once was my speed, now it isn't, happens.  A lot of that has to do with what feels like forcing an emotion (often negative) onto the listener, as opposed to letting them determine it.  I get no feeling of this when I put on Oscillating Innards.  This record especially can work for a variety of moods.  It's good stuff.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

A.A.M.D.

Anonymous noise collaboration project. Two tape releases in 2025. I should have included them in my year end list as it's one of my favorite new projects.

Lo-fi and dirty tape and perhaps vinyl abuse. I imagine Max has something to do with this since one of the two released tapes is on Purveyors/Tribe and the audio fingerprint has his DNA all over it. Curious who else is involved...

This is an educated guess, I truly don't know, but someone close to this wheelhouse in sound is Confounder, who just so happens to also have an excellent album on Tribe this year. I could be wrong here.

Really great textures and audio dissection.

A.A.M.D. -  12/05/1921 (Inauguration Day)

Red cover tape. Starts off harsh, but it's a more exploratory and nuanced release which I really loved. Great use of dynamics. Great use of tension. Harsh in all of the right places and quietly tickles your ears in others.

A.A.M.D. - 13/08/1910 (Lexington)

Yellow cover tape. More straight-ahead and visceral abuse done well. Not overtly harsh, but active and energetic.

Not sure if this will be a one-off project, but hope to hear more from whoever is involved.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Various Artists - Clinical Research Study (Purveyors)

Purveyors / Tribe Tape compilations have been one of my favorite things in the noise scene in the last couple of years.

One of the situations where you might not recognize most, if any of the names sometimes, but everyone brings their A game. They also flow really well, where sometimes it's difficult to tell one artist from the rest which works incredibly well for these comps. Some of it definitely has to do with how it's all mixed down to create an amorphous beast of sounds.

Max starts this one off with the perfectly titled "Ozempic Village." Plunderphonics and tape nightmare fuel.

She Walks Crooked segues into crumbly analogue textural territories.

Expose Your Eyes divulges into maniacal tape loops.

The second half really takes things to the next level for me. I lost track of the artists, but at some point later in the comp, one of the tracks created a very vivid image in my mind of Victorian grave diggers drunkenly excavating a corpse in the darkness with orbs of light dancing about.

The next sounds like concrete tombs scraping across one another. Then the next track sounds like plunging into volatile and hostile realms of post-corporal existence.

Really excellent comp and every single one on the label is worth checking out. The new Psychic Welfare Omnibus comes very highly recommended as well. I should do a review at some point.