PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[acsenger]

If anyone has a copy nearby, please play the Swell Junk side and let me know if yours clicks into a skip from a micro gouge.

I have this 7" and although I last heard it more than 10 years ago (before moving to another country and leaving my record collection behind), I remember having the same problem. I bought it from V2 in Rotterdam and I ended up sending it back and getting a new copy. I seem to remember it had the same problem but Peter Duimelinks at V2 said he played it before he sent it to me and it didn't skip on his turntable. Since I was sure his turntable was better than mine, I concluded this must've been the reason, although I did find it strange that 2 records seemed to have the same fault. I guess there was a problem at the pressing plant then.

[Ritual]

Puce Mary "Ultimate Hypocrisy" (tape, Freak Animal)
Great industrial! Rythmic, abrasive, but not harsh or "brutal". Very skillfully made stuff! Still not as great as she is live, though.

Drug Age "Tropismo" (tape, Joy De Vivre)
Harsh noise of the highest quality, as usual when Matteo Castro and Francesco Tignola are responsible for it. Short tape with two side-long tracks. Bass-heavy, meaty sounds with lots of things going on around it.

Amph "Hudson" (tape, Joy De Vivre)
Masterful tape loop based compositions. Repetition with small changes throughout that build up vast, otherworldly soundscapes. Also a short tape with two side-long tracks.

Halo Manash "Wesieni Wainajat" (tape, Aural Hypnox)
Halo Manash sound more musical than before with tonal organ drones on the two tracks of the A side. Other more traditional instruments are also used to complete the arrangement, as well as some other very subtle sounds. Quite tonal, but without losing its profound ritual ambience. I liked it a lot. B side is a bit more like I'm used to hear Halo Manash, which is of course also very, very good.

I.Corax "Cella Phantasma" (tape, Aural Hypnox)
Quite primitive, but excellent ritual music. This stuff has this primal, shamanistic spirituality over it that gives it such a powerful atmosphere. Great tape!

Zoät-Aon "The Triplex Bestial" (CD, Aural Hypnox)
Listening to the new Aural Hypnox releases made me dig out this classic! Fantastic stuff with some Lustmordian passages of greatness!

[Andrew McIntosh]

Obsessively listening to Eleh's "Radiant Intervals" & "Retreat/Return/Repose", Radigue's "Adnos", "Visa Versa Etc." & "Transamorem-Transmortem", and Rabe's "What?".

[acsenger]

Obsessively listening to Eleh's "Radiant Intervals" & "Retreat/Return/Repose"

I have Eleh's Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis 3CD. I love the sheer physicality of the music but there's way too little variation in it for me. Is Retreat/Return/Repose similarly monotonous or more varied?

[Andrew McIntosh]

As it happens, I'm waiting on a copy of "Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis" from a seller on Discogs, so I've yet to hear it entirely, apart from the track "In The Ears Of The Gods", but it would be fair to say "Retreat/Return/Repose" is more varied, it has some interesting modulation on it on the earlier tracks of the first two albums, quite different from Eleh's usual material that I've heard. Some more built-up sequenced sounds that I wasn't expecting. Also, more and shorter (comparatively) tracks. But the overall concept with this project is slow, quiet and extended - many find it quite boring. My personal taste is for such pure pacing and volume, but if you want more variation you may prefer "R/R/R".

[acsenger]

if you want more variation you may prefer "R/R/R"

Thanks, I'll probably order it.

[E.D.K.W.A.R.]

 WILL OVER MATTER- "9 TO THE MOON": somehow I've slept on this project until recently. Everything I love about Finnish Industrial noise! Reminds me of hearing UNSEEN NOISE DEATH for the first time....gonna cherish this one for years to come...

FLEETWOOD MAC- "THEN PLAY ON"(1970) and "KILN HOUSE"(1970):  My old man threw these on a tape for me as an x-mas gift, haven't  heard em since I was a kid...man what a blast from the past! Some of the most killer 70's blues/pop rock around and the early shit isn't that easy to find around here anyways...amazing guitar tones, heavy orchestration etc...pretty much equals PINK FLOYD's early output in terms of lush, heavy pop tones.......


that's fuk'n it for today...slow and easy...

[Matthias]

V/A STEIN 2xLP + 7" (Verlautbarung)
Lots to digest here... As usual, you don't like it all, but there are very few tracks I don't like at all here. Especially fond of the C-side which consists of Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar, Mnem (never really bothered to check them out before but this is GREAT!) and Jeph Jerman, perhaps the three strongest tracks. Very good material from Irgun Z'wai Leumi, Vårtgård (!), Amph etc. Makes me happy to see labels put this much care into the packaging and overall presentation as well (how often do you see a poly lined inner sleeve today? should be standard practice). Impressive compilation.

[Stridulum]

Sagatrakavashen - Sexual Lust 7"

This is a hoax right?  [...]  It's not a critique, I think it's great, just wondering if it's fake.

No, it's all true. They were a real band, and they were around at the end of the 80's in the North of Italy.
I was speaking with one of the guys from Monumentum a few months ago, and he remembers this Sagatrakavashen demo being reviewed in the leading Italian heavy metal magazine of the time (aptly named HM) in the same issue in in which the review of Musaeum Hermeticum also appeared.
Recently, one of Italy's longest running HC/Punk/Metal printed 'zines (Nessuno Schema), that hails from the same area as Sagatrakavashen, did a long review of this 7", throwing in some additional infos about the band. It can be found on the web, but it's all in Italian, I'm afraid.

[Stridulum]

What other kind of bizarre and awesome bands in Italy existed around that time?  I know that's a broad question, but I am always ready to learn more.  Were these guys a total oddity or were there other similarly outlandish for the time projects on a local scale?

This is a very difficult question. In Italy, especially at that time, even music magazines weren't so widely distributed, so if you didn't live in one of the big cities and didn't have the means to "connect" to what was going on in the rest of the country (maybe simply because you didn't know anyone else that was into what you liked), you were pretty much isolated from everything. This didn't stop people from being creative, though, and with maybe just a few bits of inspiration (the odd Kiss photo in a national newspaper, some news report on satanism, you name it) people who maybe lived in more secluded or less urban areas, like the guys from Sagatrakavashen, came out with their odd and/or highly personal version of the music they liked. Not always with the best of results, obviously.

That's to say that even if you live in Italy, coming across this kind of odd bands is sheer luck, as they were not distributed or even known outside their close friends' circles. Sagatrakavashen managed to score a review in a "big" magazine, but knowing how snobbish was the average Italian metal journo at the time, I bet they just got wrote off as a bunch of idiots and sold maybe 5 copies of that demo...

Anyway, I can't name other weird projects off the top of my head right now... but maybe Marco (tiny_tove), who is way more knowledgeable than me, will chime in. Only The Great Complotto from late seventies Pordenone comes to mind, but if you're familiar with XX Century Zorro I bet you already know about it.

[martialgodmask]

Maurizio Bianchi - Computers S.P.A. / Com.SA

Soundtrack to a new year's day drive to and from work on Weds, just the ticket! Had it on a few times since, good stuff.

[eyestrain]

V/A STEIN 2xLP + 7" (Verlautbarung)
Lots to digest here... As usual, you don't like it all, but there are very few tracks I don't like at all here. Especially fond of the C-side which consists of Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar, Mnem (never really bothered to check them out before but this is GREAT!) and Jeph Jerman, perhaps the three strongest tracks. Very good material from Irgun Z'wai Leumi, Vårtgård (!), Amph etc. Makes me happy to see labels put this much care into the packaging and overall presentation as well (how often do you see a poly lined inner sleeve today? should be standard practice). Impressive compilation.

I am so giddy to hear this!

[m.]

Sagatrakavashen - Sexual Lust 7"

This is a hoax right?  [...]  It's not a critique, I think it's great, just wondering if it's fake.

No, it's all true. They were a real band, and they were around at the end of the 80's in the North of Italy.
I was speaking with one of the guys from Monumentum a few months ago, and he remembers this Sagatrakavashen demo being reviewed in the leading Italian heavy metal magazine of the time (aptly named HM) in the same issue in in which the review of Musaeum Hermeticum also appeared.
Recently, one of Italy's longest running HC/Punk/Metal printed 'zines (Nessuno Schema), that hails from the same area as Sagatrakavashen, did a long review of this 7", throwing in some additional infos about the band. It can be found on the web, but it's all in Italian, I'm afraid.

That is amazing!  I am glad a band this weird is real... Italy is the ultimate, Death Industrial / Disco / the best Progressive rock scene in the 70s / best film music / best label: Cramps.  I have all the early Monumentum material, was listening to In Absentia Christi again last week.   

There was a band called Krajobraz that I think was from Italy, different kind of weird, and I think they are more late 90s.  I remember it being disjointed with screaming vocals...

What other kind of bizarre and awesome bands in Italy existed around that time?  I know that's a broad question, but I am always ready to learn more.  Were these guys a total oddity or were there other similarly outlandish for the time projects on a local scale?

check this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ9-ggC-A30

[Jaakko V.]

Kassel Jaeger – Deltas (Editions Mego, 2012)
Outstanding, cold and glacial sounding electroacoustics/experimental. Hissing, droning, resonating and crackling. As opposed to the more organic sounding tape techniques in favour on this forum, this sounds rather digital and artificial, and it works perfectly. Lysergic atmospheres.

[eyestrain]

The last month or so has been the most purchase-heavy point of my life. Time to settle in and enjoy for a few months:

Evapori Transkript 17/Transkript 18 (Entr'acte)
Matt Elliott Only Myocardial Infarction Can Break Your Heart (Ici D'ailleurs)***
16 Bitch Pile-Up/Vertonen Split (What We Do Is Secret)
Francisco López Nowhere Short Pieces 1983 To 2003 (Blossoming Noise)
Pitreleh (Important)
Duane Pitre Bridges (Important)
Duane Pitre Feel Free: Live At Cafe OTO (Important)
Developer ST003 (Spirit Throne Tapes)
Niedowierzanie Attendre (TUT/RUR)
Jason Zeh A Series Of Objects (Banned Prod.)
Vertonen Bloodshifts (Banned Prod.)
Jeph Jerman/Leif Elggren/Ralf Wehowsky Three Aural Interpretations Of A Drawing By Eric Lanzillotta (Anomalous)
Francisco López With GX Jupitter-Larsen (Phage)
Andrew Chalk/Tom James Scott Wild Flowers (Skire)
Vertonen Capillaires Mécaniques (Fluxus Montana)
Vertonen Flooded (Readymade Tapes)
Vertonen, At Jennie Richie & irr. app. (ext.) Arpt Verjenepp Tonxtie (Readymade Tapes)
Asa Irons Knife Gift Debt (Turned Word)***
L.A. County Morgue That Maggots SHD/Eat The Dead Bullock (Mazurka Ed.)
Kostis Kilymis Arctic Saturation (Mazurka Ed.)
Clinton Green & Andrew McIntosh Stations (Mazurka Ed.)
Wrong Hole Devitalization (Presh)
Troy Schafer Solo Action For Violin (Dusty Grass Imprint)
Circulation Of Light To The Criminals Of The Dream ***
RLW Sechs Abstände (Blossoming Noise)
Perdo Omnis ***
Orquere Movements (Dokumentarisk Agenda)
Kam Hassah Private Conversation Vol. 2 (Dokumentarisk Agenda)
Francisco Meirino An Unnecessary Nothingness (Dokumentarisk Agenda)
Concern Crude Vignettes: Box-Harp & Speakers (Dokumentarisk Agenda)
Georgia Sea Island Singers Join The Band (Mississippi)
Fred McDowell (Mississippi)
Fred McDowell The Alan Lomax Recordings (Mississippi)
Skip James The Complete 1931 Session (Yazoo)
Blind Willie Johnson Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground (Mississippi/Nero's Neptune)
Vertonen Heat (Crippled Intellect Prod.)
Vertonen The Women Men Leave Their Wives For (Crippled Intellect)
Francisco López Hypogeion (Mantricum)
Francisco Meirino/Gerritt Wittmer/Paul Knowles/Kam Hassah/Alleypisser Unifying Themes (Misanthropic Agenda)
Seitz Versus Gendreau (Misanthropic Agenda)
Giuseppe Ielasi 15 More Tapes (Misanthropic Agenda)
Michael Gendreau/Francisco López Drowning/Untitled #185 (Crippled Intellect Prod.)
Giuseppe Ielasi/Andrew Pekler Holiday For Sampler (Planam)
Secret Pyramid Movements Of Night (Student Of Decay)
Mohammad Som Sakrifis (Pan) ***
Nico Desertshore (4 Men With Beards)
Enrico Malatesta Bestiario Vols. 1-3 (Second Sleep/Senufo Editions/Alku)
Enrico Malatesta Standard (Presto!?)
Francisco Meirino/Kiko C. Esseiva Focus On Nothing On Focus (Aussenraum) ***

***Late favorite of 2013