PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[k.p.g]

STAR - Last Vestige of Malehood (White Centipede Noise)
Perhaps the harshest entry in the STAR discography thus far.  Feedback screams with much more aggression than usual, the drops into low end crunch are felt more in the soul.  Roommate walked in on this listening and commented "sounds like somebody's angry."  Hah.  I just can't see STAR being angry, but rather overjoyed to make such visceral harsh noise!  That's just me though, maybe he was angry making this.
Back to the point though, despite such harsh antics, this tape does not lose the weirdo aspects that make so many people hyped on this project.  There is some sort of phasing synth work at play that really chops up the mix at the beginning of A, and then clearly bouncy synth through B that will grab your attention for how out of place it is amongst the rest of the pummeling. 
These weird elements actually make me stop now and think "could this be STAR's most challenging piece?" Approaches to records like Elephant in the Snow, Life Goes On or Hormone Lemming are things I can wrap my head around, but the way this one lays out its sound palette results in such varied results.  One minute I cheer in victory at the Americanoise onslaught, the next I am like "is there something wrong with my player?"  Nonetheless, great stuff.

Richard Ramirez - Volume 1, Disc 2: Certain Cruelty (New Forces, reissue)
This disc actually ended up being the perfect follow-up to that STAR tape.  Surprising that this one came out on Slaughter originally, as it does not fit the mold of what I considered Marco's taste to be.  Maybe I don't know shit though.  But back to what I do know -- this release fits under the "weirdo Ramirez" style that I love so much.  You have moments of Richard barking into the mic coupled with a very active display of harsh noise battery.  You have a guy jumping between PE, straight American harsh and even a little cut-up (proto-cut?) and it all makes sense!  In your listening to this, you will think to yourself "how the fuck is he doing this?  This can't be just a mic and 3 pedals!!"  It will bewilder you to no end at how good this is and you could never make anything this good.
By the time the "Trapped in an Organic Room" kicks off, the action slows down a bit but is still very good nonetheless.  This track actually has similar qualities of phaser use that STAR had, and that makes total sense.  Both releases are both extremely satisfying and primal challenges to put on. 
When I obtain boxsets like these, I start to think that obtaining the original release is no longer needed.  Not for something like this though, I will keep my eye out.  It's fucking fantastic and easily enters into my top spot of favorite Ramirez under the government name.

[k.p.g]

Aaron Dilloway - Boggs Vol. 1 (Hanson Records)
Aside from a couple moments of vocal wobbling, this tape is not much of a stand out in the Dilloway discography.

Leila Bordreuil & Kyle Flanagan - Vol. 1 (self-released)
It has been quite a few years since hearing this one, so I was curious to revisit.  It starts off a bit shaky, but I imagine this is 2 artists trying to feel each other out after the equipment is set up.  For the remainder of this tape, these 2 play really well off of each other.  Loops are captured and hum into the cosmos as these 2 drone on for nearly an hour.  Favorite sections of mine are when they decide to pull the tablecloth off the entire thing and just mangle their cello and tape as much as possible.  Good stuff here.

Altar of Flies - Auditory Hallucination (Hasten & Korset)
While I may forget how some tapes sound after years of no listening, this tape will never not be easy to remember.  I know it starts with those hellish animal sounds and upon hearing that, I immediately whisper "yup, this one is great."  From there, it's a spectacular display of minimal mangling across the mix.  Anyone who knows the Altar of Flies sound can probably guess what they are in for.  While not as refined as full length records may be, it is absolutely better than those full lengths I have heard.  Going to leave it at that, I have to melt back into this piece.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Murmur - Fishbowl / Assumed Role (Begin Hostilities)

Murmur was a recent discovery for me. I think I first saw the collabs with Jazzhand on Tribe Tapes and New Purveyors, and I decided to dig deeper.

For fans of field recordings, musique concrete, and the minimal side of noise. Murmur has become a recent favorite. He strikes an excellent balance of fine detail and knowing just when to push it up a notch and get harsh when needed.

Side A is an abused field recording of chittering insects and thunderstorms. EQ'ed and treated in a way to be a little harsh and jarring on the insect sounds, and perfectly captured rumbling thunder as a complementary backdrop.

Side B is far more minimal and more musique concrete. Lots of open space and tape hiss in the best possible way. Micro-events occur with or without rhyme or reason. Can't explain why with a lot of albums in this area, but very well done and my favorite side of the tape.

Highly recommend checking out this tape for those into this area of sound who haven't heard Murmur before. Or go check out his Bandcamp for his other work. This was one of those tapes where I needed to flip it over and listen again.

[k.p.g]

Diagram:A - Human X.S. (Impulsy Stetoskopu)
This cassette was entered on discogs as being a single-sided C90.  What a pleasant surprise to find that is not the case, and it actually contains a full Side B!  This tape has some great material on it as well.  Feels like the difference between Diagram:A on CD vs. tape is pretty distinct.  CDs are reserved for the harshest, most pristine material that Dan roars out of his machines.  Tapes usually find themselves occupying a more experimental zone, where you can hear hints of found sound, tape looping and more on them.  Even if some experiments can go on a little longer than needed, they still make for a pleasant listen.

Corephallism - Corephallism (APop Records/Lascivious Aesthetics)
Going through mini CDr stack to remember what I still like and don't out of it.  This short-lived project from Shane Broderick clocks in at just under 8 minutes, but still looms as a solid piece of death industrial/psycho PE leanings.  I think the project maybe ended before it had the chance to grow into something more realized.  Oh well, such is the case sometimes.  Still a good, quick listen before I go to make coffee.

Hive Mind - Vade Mecum (Chondritic Sound)
Another mini CDr, and one of a few ones I own from Hive Mind.  I realize now with some noise artists, their method of imposing restrictions and guidelines into their work can act as a double-edged sword.  I have heard interviews from Greh over the years where he would say that Hive Mind was meant to be the creepier, more eerie leaning sound with no distortion while Black Sand Desert pretty much covered all the harsh.  These restrictions have lightened up over time, but it still leaves the issue that a lot of earlier material from the artist has a lot of "sameness" to it.  With this in mind, Vade Mecum is a solid release but I have heard much better from other Hive Mind of this era.

[Tribe Tapes]

Various Artists - "Tits" K7 (Joukkomurha Tapes, early 1990s)
Psychotic compilation of industrial - punk - noisecore do-gooders on the nature of tits, introduced and closed out by a computer lamenting its inability to understand such a fixation "I have an A drive, a B drive, a C drive, but no sex drive" Interestingly for a comp issued by Finnish label Joukkomurha / JM Tapes, there aren't actually any projects from Finland on display here. Instead you have a selection of UK noiseists (Hex Minora and a solo Dannielle track, Target Shoppers, Tea Culture), American tard-core (Sockeye, Boy In Love;) and odd industrial-pop from around the globe (Etat des Stocks, M.Nomized, Das Kombinat). Not really the kind of thing you would see today, at least not executed so cohesively.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Joukkomurha is not very well known within "noise scene", I would say, but it hold absolutely crucial role for some of folks of my age. One mandatory thing is, that he published COSMONAUTS HAIL SATAN tape, that included songs from two first demo tapes, with new cover illustrated by S.A.Hynninen, who later one became sort of infamous underground music character. When guys like myself, and just about everybody I knew, got this tape, it was mindblowing.

Cosmonauts Hail Satan, mysterious, but I suspect some know who they are. Mr. Satan died years ago. He did write on this forum. Mr. Cosmonaut, is alive and still doing things. If something would need to be reissued, I feel CHS is among those! All the 7"s, the early works in complete. Man, that would fucking rule!

Joukkomurha all in all, he was putting out zines that would have element of DIY punk, art, poetry, weirdness. Just the old school underground in the ways that I dont think happens anymore. Heloy Käet & sons was the name of zine since the 80's. Tapes, most of them I believe are ultra limited. Not "editions", but dubbed on demand - which tend to be near non-existent. So despite being well known figure, I doubt most people these days remember him.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Quick addition, I recall some of his zines should have my drawings from early 90s.

[Tribe Tapes]

Would be great to see some CHS back out there, at the very least for the historical element of what Mr. Cosmonaut ended up doing after. And the zine too, damn!!