PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Ritual]

Some more tapes bought recently...

Burial Hex "For granted is his will" tape (Sangoplasmo)
You never know exactly what you will get with a new Burial Hex release, especially if it is a tape. This time, we get two side-long tracks, around 17 minutes each, but they are quite different to each other, besides the length. The A side is a slow, dark ambient-ish piece with some quite subtle concrete metal sounds added. The B side has a distinct folk music vibe. Moody, atmospheric electronics coupled with flutes and horns. Recommended release!

Jaakko Vanhala "Here be lions" tape (Sprachlos Verlag)
If "Feral Earth" was great, this is bloody amazing! Harsh noise based on concrete metal sounds, with a sense of utmost control over the sound. This is no mindless, random junk metal abuse. This is meticulously crafted, composed music that also happens to be incredibly harsh! Get this tape!!

Astro "Necromancy" tape (Burial Recordings)
Less psychadelic than most stuff I've heard (very far from everything, though). This is more filthy post-mortem type stuff, that reminds me a bit of Kristian Olsson (might be because I listened to him earlier tonight). If a "typical" Astro release is a trip, this is the aftermath.

Henrik Rylander "The Horror" tape (Hästen & Korset)
The sounds used here are quite basic, nothing ground breaking as far as sound design goes. Rylander does, however, show a good understanding of how to use sounds, and good composition skills. So, despite quite a run-of-the-mill sound, this tape manages to be quite captivating. Less droney than usual, using some more abrasive sounds. Still, not what you'd call harsh. A well crafted release, but would rise above standard if sounds used were a bit more original.

[Black_Angkar]

hehe, like this...
World Burns To death, if I remember it correctly Sakevi of GISM did this. About 2006. great album.

Yeah, Sakevi did the collage art. The bass player is a longtime friend of mine & I've been to the home of the vocalist which is now a recording studio, I think. He had some really rare industrial records including a test press of "Neuengamme".

Yeah they played Sweden perhaps in 2009? I spent some time drinking with Jack Control and we had some slight discussions over power electronics.

[Ashley Choke]

Belus was good for me, but after that I started to lose attention. Latest one I didn't bother to buy. Heard it couple of times, but just something is missing.  The big charm of Burzum has been the sound quality itself, what has enhanced memorable and mind-capturing riffs. It has never been "perfect" in terms of production values, yet from this imperfection was found the ultimate spirit of band.  With Belus, was started this relatively clean and standard production. It is not that "professional" really, just dry, clean, and soulless. I just wrote about same thing as in Cut Hands topic about that and Whitehouse. In same way all there "comeback" albums of Burzum sound pretty much the same. It doesn't matter songs have diversity in riffs and composition, when overall album sound is pretty much identical album after album. When the early albums had very distinctive sound you could recognize album by hearing pretty much 10 seconds of it.
This is the plague of modern music, where suddenly "professional drum sound" is almost the same for all pop-culture related music. It may be euro-dance, it may be rock, it may be metal, it may be whatever. And guitar sound in most of metal appears to be this heavily compressed, in-your-face, just similar to the triggered/compressed/gated/maximized drums. When all the natural elements of space, physical loudness, variation of technology (microphones, various recorders from reel-to-reel, analogue tape, A-dat, whatever..) etc is stripped down to same faggy pro-tools, with same plug-ins, same ideology of "maximumum volume is best"... We end up in situation where Elvis LP's sound dark and fierce compared to latest Burzum or Cut Hands who's production values are actually not far from chart-music! It is somehow alarming, and I would guess that at some point when we look back at 2000's music, it will result the same grins of disgust as now looking the late 90's underground album covers (say: after photoshop/computer design was popularized and in reach of every regular joe), HAHA.
I certainly look back at my most horrid photoshop effect plagued designs and wonder what the fuck happened!?  When craftmanship & personal talent was replaced by standard programming cheese.

I more or less feel the same way about recent Burzum. To some extent it seems honest enough, and some of the material is rather interesting and rocking. But the feeling and atmosphere is definitely lacking. That being said I read a interview couple of weeks ago where Varg stated that recently he has been totally obsessed with old analogue equipment, so here's to hoping for a Burzum album drenched in tapedelay, tubes and vintage recording techniques.

NP: Puce Mary - Rubber Therapy. New CS out soon I guess. First listen is very promising. Like very much what she's doing with the project

[FreakAnimalFinland]

PATRICK KOSK "Mondweiss" CD
Edition RZ
What the fuck?! I have been listening this several times in recent weeks, and was just about to praise it highly. Knew absolutely nothing about it. Just something I ordered purely based on being Edition RZ release. And now when thinking to write praise, I went online to search information, and it turns out this is actually Finnish artists. Name doesn't resemble Finnish name, but of course if I had read the extensive liner-notes from booklet or even read the track titles, I could have known it.

Born in 1951 in Helsinki (Finland). From 1976-1981, Kosk studied composition at the electronic music studio in the Helsinki University. From 1981-1991, he was mainly active as a free-lance composer and a sound designer at the experimental studio of the Finnish radio. Since 1978, Kosk composes electroacoustic music in various forms for theatre, performance, dance, radio broadcasting, films and visual arts.

All I could find now from his released output, is this CD and mid 90's Jase Musiikki CD 3-way: Patrick Kosk / Otto Romanowski / Jarmo Sermilä. Last summer I remember mr. Umpio showed me some of the Jase musiikki titles and they look just about as awful as contemporary art music cd's tend to look - therefore you could never buy them if seeing. This title looks good, very simple typography based graphic design.

CD has extremely deep sound, and when blasted on high volumes, it lives up to full spectrum of sound. From deepest bass rumbles to delicate high frequencies. It is not noise. I think label files it to musique concrete / electro-acoustic. It has some glitchy feel occasionally, and textures involve plenty of micro sound and manipulated percussion instruments - yet result is quite organic and well flowing. It makes me wonder more and more, why there doesn't appear to be any label properly digging into Finnish experimental music of this type? Naturally our history ain't as deep and bottomless source like in countries where legacy of experimental music has been strong for century, but still that one who kind of spends his entire free time to investigate stuff like this - can miss knowledge of this good composer totally...

KAZUMOTO ENDO and KAZUMA KUBOTA "switches and knobs" CD
Phage
I like the old Killer Bug stuff and very earliest Endo stuff.. but for long time, I felt his approach does very little to me. And this CD underlines that feeling. Certainly switches and knobs are being screwed with, and certainly the quite high speed modulations of cut up noise requires attention and talent from creator... but... the constant presence of air between the bursts, quite flat range of punchless sounds... no thanks. In live format it is even more crucial lack of pungent ball-sweat I would require from harsh noise blasting. Now it's like trying to get started, but never really kicking in.

MERZBOW "Electric Salad" CD
Etherworld
And perhaps opposite could be said of this 1996 Merzbow CD! 70+ minutes. Short intro piece, then 60 minutes and then 10 minutes more. It's not his best, but it is the prime example how good routine Merzbow of mid 90's was: Crushing, mercilessly brutal in level of certainty what he want do achieve, neat combination of analogue organic flow and digital crispiness. Entire recording sounds like it's mastered on DAT with all levels on red, yet the underlaying real sound, is purely analogue whirlwind of loops, wah-wah electro-wank, EMS synth, short pre-recorded tapes being filtered through table full of gear. It appears as if this was pure studio-live recordings, as transitions and moment is so... live. And now reading the info of the cover, my impression was 100% accurate. So, I guess challenge of what level live harsh noise can be created was set pretty damn high. It can be hard to "compete" with master - when he can't do it by himself either.

[WCrap]

the Kosk CD is pretty fantastic, glad you got it. you should get the 'Electroacoustic Music from Finland' LP released on Edition RZ. it's a bit hard to get nowadays but well worth it. though one side is a Kosk piece which is also on the CD.

[bitewerksMTB]

hehe, like this...
World Burns To death, if I remember it correctly Sakevi of GISM did this. About 2006. great album.

Yeah, Sakevi did the collage art. The bass player is a longtime friend of mine & I've been to the home of the vocalist which is now a recording studio, I think. He had some really rare industrial records including a test press of "Neuengamme".

Yeah they played Sweden perhaps in 2009? I spent some time drinking with Jack Control and we had some slight discussions over power electronics.

Jack had a friend who I briefly met when he brought Sleep Chamber to TX. The guy passed away &, I'm assuming, Jack inherited the industrial records. There was a really nice LP Jack released that had a dedication to the guy. I think I only met Jack that one time (he did have some serious health issues a couple/few years back). Seems like an intersting guy..

[Black_Angkar]

hehe, like this...
World Burns To death, if I remember it correctly Sakevi of GISM did this. About 2006. great album.

Yeah, Sakevi did the collage art. The bass player is a longtime friend of mine & I've been to the home of the vocalist which is now a recording studio, I think. He had some really rare industrial records including a test press of "Neuengamme".

Yeah they played Sweden perhaps in 2009? I spent some time drinking with Jack Control and we had some slight discussions over power electronics.

Jack had a friend who I briefly met when he brought Sleep Chamber to TX. The guy passed away &, I'm assuming, Jack inherited the industrial records. There was a really nice LP Jack released that had a dedication to the guy. I think I only met Jack that one time (he did have some serious health issues a couple/few years back). Seems like an intersting guy..

yeah, I always thought his raw voice would be interesting in a PE-project besides hardcore. I know Jack Control was stabbed and seriously injured a few years back (a lot of support gigs as I recall, as he lacked health insurance - I think)

[bitewerksMTB]

Stabbed back in 2006. Damn, time sure flys. Seems like it was just a few years ago. So it was a few years before the stabbing that I met him which means it was probably twice that!

Still listening to the F&V vol. 3 comp, pretty much through most of s2. Solid all the way. Will be getting the "Sverige" comp LP hopefully late next wk...

[Zeno Marx]

I believe he [Jack Control] is still selling records to cover his medical bills.  Or was it to build a studio?  I see clusters of records go up for sale here and there.

[Black_Angkar]

He's been producing records, so I suppose either guess is valid. Anyway, I think that his both two major bands, Severed Head of State and World Burns To Death are among the best american hardcore acts ever, since Poison idea or something. I can't really pick my favorite, and they DO sound very similar at times but WBTD has a starker, bleaker view on humanity and politics which I think is amazing. And the idea of just doing typical "warpunk" but with much more intelligence. On the other hand, the Severed Head  album "Power Hazard" (their last?), is also an album I rate among the finest punk albums of the (last) decade.

[Zeno Marx]

I'm more of a Severed Head of State fan myself, but I do find myself thinking about the WBtD albums more than I thought I would.  They resonate higher than expected.  I like the guitar tone and feel a lot more with SHoS.  Anathema Device hit me hard when it was released.  I'm a huge Todd Burdette band fan, though.

EDIT:  I do think it was a crime the way SHoS employed Mieszko to basically revise those records collected on that discography CD.  I was also never a fan of Mieszko's signature sound.  For Nasum, it was fine.  I didn't like it applied anywhere else, though.

[Black_Angkar]

Anathema Device is probably one of the ten best american punk albums of all times, in my book. I still listen to it every now and then, pure brilliance. I do think SHoS is the better pick I think, but the first three WBTD-albums (and the 7"s) takes the misantrophic desperation to a whole new level, and Jack's vocals grow even stronger. The time I met Jack he said that he considered "The sucking of the missile cock" their "commercial album" to lure in the kids. Heh.

Actually never been a Nasum fan at all...

[FreakAnimalFinland]

M.O. "Bloodyminded" LP
Urashima
Very minimalistic noise-pe, ultra lo-fi, I like more the gloomy b-side! It appears quite quiet in LP, making surface sounds of vinyl well audible compared to hissy radio-noise type noise. No wonder when playtime of b-side is 30 minutes! But it's hard to complain of lower volume, when sound itself is everything else but aggressive. Just suffocating primitivism.

M.B. "Neuro Habitat" LP
Urashima
I must say I have always had mixed feelings of M.B. While there are few releases I really like. I think Menses or come org LP are my favorites, yet I have ended up having several dozens of MB releases which I hardly care for. Even praised albums like Symphony For Genocide, hardly lives up to expectations nowadays. "Neuro Habitat" is closer to what I appreciate. It has this "minimal synth" tonality/melodic patterns with cheap vintage sound, but layers of noise & tape manipulation on top. I guess the synth melody (read: playing something) has been popularized in noise again since mid 2000's or something. I'm sure thanks to post-Pleasureground Prurient. But to me it's almost always turn off to hear. Just like in this piece too. If one has no composition sense for melody or talent to improvise interesting structures, I think keyboard is one of the last instruments one should start to play. Although I enjoyed "Neuro Habitat", it basically reminded I should start getting rid of most of MB stuff and leave just couple carefully selected works that fits to my own tastes. This would be one of them.

Atrax Morgue "Esthetik of a Corpse" LP
Urashima
Brilliant!!! Some of the very best AM stuff, with over dozen shorter tracks instead of side long pieces. Vocals, throbbing synthesizers, morbid vocal effects. Simple, but not THAT simple as last AM recordings. Basically great mid 90's tape where his short song & vocal approach known from later days happens with nice analogue sound quality and more versatile use of electronics.

[Ashmonger]

Phaeton Dernière Danse & Le Syndicat - Téophanie A Visu (CD, Pure): I really don't know how to describe this CD, there's musical elements and various sounds. First time I listened, I didn't really like it, just listened to it again and I liked it better now. Seems it's a bit of a grower.

Creation Through Destruction/Black Leather Jesus (CD, TeRRoR): Good Harsh Noise from both, though you can hear that BLJ is a group and has a more 'organic' sound than CTD, which is more one-sided.

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

Some the last arrives from today:

GRUNT - World Draped In A Camouflage (Freak Animal Records 2012) CD

Every next release is better and better. Progress and quality. Lack of words. I am very impressed. Rousing applause!

(PS. In my opinion the track number 5 from this CD has clippings, but maybe it was intended. I am curious others opinion)

BRETHREN - Alienated And Radicalized (Freak Animal Records 2012) CD

As above. In my opinion the best album in his discography. The highest recommendation.


ETAT BRUT - Mutations Et Protheses (Sub Rosa 2012) CD

Known from dubbed cassette. One of my favourite PE project from those years. Not so much aggresive vocals, some dreamy, but still very impressive, and unique. Classic release, without one word.


Jean DUBUFFET - Experiences De Jean Dubuffet II (Rumpsti Pumsti 2012) 2 x CD

Known from dubbed vinyls. Very good and wanted document. Not the best remastering, but still every lover noise music should know and have this one.

There are waiting for listening yet: BIZARRE UPROAR - Rape Africa (Freak Animal / Filth & Violence 2012) CD and GRUNT - Dance For Genocide (Freak Animal 2012) tape