PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Well, this only applies to c. 2005 tapes? Before and after quality is good. But in times of one particular dubbing machines, results are gamble.

[Mikerdeath]

Speculum Fight - Glass Giant (G.R.O.S.S.)

This tape is absolutely crushing. Very well composed bass drone / harsh noise layered together in a particular fashion. Track lengths are perfect and each is more angry sounding than the last.
I can't seem to stop listening to this.

Wrong Hole - Sucking Wound (Amnesia Program)

I can't say this is the best Wrong Hole tape because I haven't heard everything, but between his live sets and the previous recordings it seems to be continuing down this path of complete perfection, If anyone wants to hear some current harsh noise I would say that Wong Hole is leading the way right now. His work speaks for itself.
Music Concrete and Electronics with a sensibility to it that I only find in older acts like Speculum Fight, Skin Crime, and Incapacitants. It's that good for me.

[STREETMEAT]

PUSSYFOOTER "Rwanda" tape
Nordisk Klub 07
Pussyfooter is Klaus Hansen & Lukas Hojlund. So two guys who are also in Forza Albino and White Nigger, and separately in countless projects too. I have very distant recollection in being at rehearsal room of these guys, or apartment of Klaus, listening some session where they throw bunch of huge scrap metal around the hall. Is it this - or some other release, hard to say. But here 10+10 mins of throwing junk around, with colossal rumbling bass heavy sound. There is pretty close to zero "composition" or idea beyond loud noise, but needless to say: I'm huge fanatic of metal junk noise, and when it is this huge sounding and not just micro level scratching - even more so! Play it LOUD!

if you havent heard the dada fuck 7"+cs release its a must have(not because i released it but its fucking pussyfooter on vinyl!!)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Don't remember right now.. Got to check it out. Generally been quite low interest to mixed format boxes, for reason or another...

MILITIA "archive collection 1996-1997" CD
Neuropa
Too bad there was some bad blood between Militia and Neuropa, so archive series ended here. At least on this label. Collects War Against Society, Familiedrama and Kingdom Of Our Lord materials on one CD. And fuck how good it is. Of course I had all these originals since they were published, and got this reissue when it was put out. All material fits together perfectly and despite growing professionality in recording methods and sound, it's very uniform disc. To me Kingdom Of Our Lord stands as one of the absolute mightiest percussive industrial songs ever made. Some remastering done, but I think not hurting the atmosphere. Lack of all original artwork is quite bad choice, though.

BARRIKAD "Where there was fire... we brought gasoline" tape
Nil By Mouth
One of more elegant packagings of NBM releases. And possible one of best Barrikad releases is it? Large soft tape box houses inside booklet including re-print of Gilles Dauve "Critique of the situationist international". For those seeking different ways of communism & anarchism than the "most usual" (like realities of state communism that existed and forms of youth rebellion), go ahead. You can find the text online too. It's great to see especially b-side having multiple tracks, which offer diversity to material. One long track of A-side is not bad either. Certainly Barrikad went ahead from early stages of lo-fi radio-noise & shoplifting glorification, into more sophisticated political theory and advanced raw power electronics / noise sound. If you'll grab one Barrikad release, I could recommend this!

And:
Final War "s/t" + "We Speak The Truth" CD's, perhaps the best of the OC skinhead melodic punk?! Catchy tunes, well made yet basic tracks. Lots of anthemic tracks. Long time favorite always worth to play again. Recently one of these albums came as LP. Format added some neat distorted edge to sound.
Slaghammer "All Cops Are Bastards" CD. One guy of Stormtroop 16 went to jail, others decided to do CD under name Slaghammer. One member in recent years busted for meth lab and murder charges. Music includes same fucked up hatred with typicality of USA hatecore. Vulgar, direct and violent. For those who like Chaos 88, Action Group 88, etc.. 

[oppositional]

Uh... This was kind of worst time to buy Hospital tapes. Label was using hi-speed dupping device, not really meant for high fidelity noise recordings, and malfunctioning machine caused lots of clicks and pops to copies. When tape was assumed to be salvation from crappy digital glitches, now it was bad analogue glitches!

depressing to read this after all these years -- i knew the copies had bad fidelity but now to hear they were glitched as well. the emaciator "dormant" tape i did for hospital was also botched -- the a and b side tracks were incorrect on all copies except the 25 artist copies which i re-dubbed. i had insisted they all get fixed multiple times but to no avail .... someday this and all PD stuff from the era will be reissued in 100% digital glory.

[eyestrain]

Coppice - Big Wad Excisions (Quakebasket): The dog and I are lounging in the hammock indulging in the mixed sounds of this obscure beauty and an approaching storm's heavy winds. Losing sight of what's what, but it's no surprise I discovered this through Jason Zeh's mentioning of it. Definitely on a similar wavelength. Perfect headphone music of simple, pure sounds.

Funereal Presence - The Archer Takes Aim (Ajna/Sepulchral Voice): First piece of metal that's really grabbed me in ages. More Negative Plane than their first EP, and that's definitely for the better. Really, it's just like that with simplified drumming and all the reverb is gone (from voice and everything). Really wonderful!

[FreakAnimalFinland]

NEFARIOUS COMPLEX "DEMOnology" tape
Audial Decimation
Not sure who this is. Canadian project with nothing else but this and.. comp track? However, judging by music, it sounds like side project of metal people. Not far from something such as Terror Organ and perhaps one could also throw in reference to Iugula Thor works with "metal guitars". Sounds like line-in multieffect works. Not bad, but nothing spectacular here either.

CROATIAN AMOR / Rose Alliance -split tape
Posh Isolation
In this case c-10 seems way too short. Croatian Amor track is ok, but barely close to their best works. However, Rose Alliance by Hannes of LFY is really nice track and would be good to hear more. Noisier and heavier than his melodic works. Vocals are less flegmatic, same delay though. Hissing noise and forceful synth rhythm brings this closer to atmosphere of "Galakt Horro" or "Tesco" kind of stuff, but of course remaining still in lo-fi tape works side of things.

JESUS (prurient / nico vascellari) 2xtape
Hospital productions
Irony or not, it seems pretty bold move to name project JESUS, and then have two collaboration live performances based on GG Allin and Klaus Kinski!
A-side works very well in kind of "expected" Prurient mode. Wild screaming and loud piercing microphone feedback. Some other noises too, but vocals dominate entire piece. B-side has spoken pieces cut from mr. Allin and crashing acoustic noises and some electronics on top.  C-side starts with highly static electronic tone, with possibly audience talking over it. I doubt its sampled people talking, and meant to be on recording. When vocals and feedback erupt, it silences the crowd and it's all feedback, vocals, voice loops, electronics. Side D-side samples Kinski and starts kind of lame and slow, but then piece really gets going and becomes perhaps best side of release. Overall, while I like crisp of the modern digital hand held recorders (which I assume was used to capture these), I think generally this era may be remembered as moment when many noise live recordings became slightly flat. While certainly there is more detail than old school boombox and walkman live recordings, but too similar sound from release to another is kind of annoying. It can be saved with decent mastering job, but also here some digital clip type of overdrive isn't helping that much. Good release, nevertheless!

[FreakAnimalFinland]

FETUS FURS "Release" 3x tape
Trash Ritual
Uh... during first side of first tape I thought for few minutes, should I actually stop listening?! So generic HWN rumble, that nothing requires me continue further is rest of the set is just all the same. But luckily not. Flip to B-side changes the dull crackling and rumbling "prototype" one dimensional HNW to something else. It's slightly advanced from that. Still basically very one dimensional stuff. While beginning remains decent, before end of side, same feeling of "should I just fast forward and move on" starts to lurk in mind. But no. Lets have some stamina here! 3rd side is more about feedback and crunchy distortions. Not far from some Ninth Massacre or even specific tapes of Death Squad. 4th side not bad either. Equally minimal, but sound is just good to listen to. Reminds me about some Haters recordings where contact mic grinds against some object doing circular motion. 5th side returns to dull crackling close to first side. Utterly worthless. Final side goes back close to 4th side, but slightly more generic.
Have to say my impression about Trash Ritual releases has often been kind of mix of like & dislike. This too. Packaging - ok. Sound levels and dubbing quality - good. Texas harsh noise from guys who have now died - perhaps good document to have so one remembers this from other thing than Kevin being ex-Boyfriend of Ramirez. But is it REALLY good? Nah... Just about any harsh noise tape listened during past few weeks is much better than this. But triple tape endurance test is occasionally good thing, hah...

[FreakAnimalFinland]

F.E. DENNING "Rites Of Passage" 2xtape
Posh Isolation
two short tapes, 4 tracks, all being basically ethereal manipulations of bell sounds? That's what I assume. Very airy, slow, relaxing. Not so much "musical", but long droning sounds.

CLOAMA "Lernaean Catacomb Complex" tape
EST
Was there really 199 copies made? I see one for sale at discogs for 15 euro, and that's it. About 200 tapes of Cloama would disappear with very little of other signs than handful of people praising the excellent special packaging?!
One side with several strong power electronics tracks. Other side live. Those who like "At the Mountains Of Paranoia" CD or "Municipality Of Marionettes" LP won't be disappointed with this. Logically just previous release. Experimental electronics, distorted vocals, unusual solutions how to create stuff that basically is "power electronics", but equally just some experimental works. While many talk about "underrated bands", I guess this is time to mention it again. Many know his works as Strom.ec duo, but Cloama remains perhaps even more hard to categorize. Still feels kind of weird that both, power electronics mayhem or distorted melodies and synth pulsations would be utterly cool and collectible when coming from NYC or Copenhagen, while Cloama doesn't seem to be even in much of demand in his own homeland?! Highlight must be 5th track. While 6th takes opposite position as least interesting track. On live side Cloama does all atmospheric droning well, but noisy elements are remain too digital sounding. Works better with less high pithed sounds and song gets better all the time. Stuff like this would be good addition to Finnish noise gigs nowadays!

[Jaakko V.]

While many talk about "underrated bands", I guess this is time to mention it again. Many know his works as Strom.ec duo, but Cloama remains perhaps even more hard to categorize. Still feels kind of weird that both, power electronics mayhem or distorted melodies and synth pulsations would be utterly cool and collectible when coming from NYC or Copenhagen, while Cloama doesn't seem to be even in much of demand in his own homeland?!

Agreed, Cloama is truly one of the best and most underrated things to have come out from the Finnish industrial scene. I guess it's because there is rarely anything easily "cool" or catchy in the conceptual side that it doesn't attract people's attention. Just some strange personal obsessions that may not resonate with those seeking for an instant hook. But once one delves into it, it's a different matter. I guess in Finland everyone basically likes and respects Cloama, but not doing live gigs, not giving interviews, and the man being absolutely indifferent towards getting recognition, well it doesn't help the project gain any attention...

[FreakAnimalFinland]

OCHU "Bonds Of Boredom" tape
Vemod
talking of underrated...  I checked forum search what has been said about Ochu, and it's basically couple of ads in classifieds about Ochu being featured in some compilations. Not much else. This tape might be even best Ochu stuff I have heard. Although can't really feel totally qualified to compare to something what listen today to recollections of tape listened couple years ago.
2005 release, C-20. 6 tracks c. 2-5 minutes each. It has basically many sides what Swedish noise could be associated. It has enough darkness and composed structure and brute aesthetic to fit into lineage of Proiekt Hat, BDN and such. But it has creativity and rough edge to fit together with more recent side of Swedish "tape noise" scene. Altar of Flies, Ottosons works etc. Each of the 6 tracks appear as actual songs with attention to detail and composition. Tape that demands revisiting it for more plays. Listened couple times and feel tempted for more, but got to move on today.. Too bad ltd 50 copies almost 10 years ago makes this something what perhaps very few can now get. Even more curiously, almost entire pressing is in hands of discogs users. "38 has it".. Out of 50 copies! hah.. Still certainly would hope this would get re-issued. I think good companion could be "Brick Windows" tape. Those to LP or CD..

OSCILLATING INNARDS "Ulterior Remorse" tape
Truculent Recordings
I assume label is did one Immaculate:Grotesque tape bacin in 2010, but rest of releases are 2001-2007. No more label website, no I:G releases. Well, he left decent discography of label with c.40 releases. Tourette, Prurient, first tape of Ahlzagailzehguh, Pedestrian Deposit Cd... good things!  Oscillating Innards has perhaps something similar to Jeff's own I:G project. I feel same kind of utmost close-up, highly distorted noise heaviness - also common those days in USA. Line-in recording, but with maximum force. It mixes together quite fast cut ups with more steady harsh blasts and occasionally innovative stops with more exprimental sounds or soft drone. A side could be filed under brutal USA harsh noise, side is most of all almost later days Organum kind of "angelic" drone with steady organ like flowing sound and texture of multiple bells or something close to that (sonically, not sure if technically).  And also among best O.I. stuff I have heard.

INHALANT "The Torments of flesh" tape
Propulsive Audio
Inhalants own label, 2006 release with no catalogue number and ltd to 30 copies. Short tape with two channel noise. So basically most things are different what happens in left and right channel. High force harsh noise, where texture is still very interesting. Separation to channels works out well in regular stereo listening. Not sure about headphones? Heavy bass rumble is crushing, highly effected long delay and distortion fueled vocals and electronics create nice texture on top, being more element of noise than vocals. B-side has slightly more droning quality to it, but it's still 100% noise really. Loud high pitched feedback, heavy pulverizing bass noise, destructive layers of distortion and random vocals. Perhaps with little loose definition, it could be labeled rather USA power electronics than plain noise. But noisy - certainly. Just with high dose of composition rather than free form noise.

[bogskaggmannen]

OCHU "Bonds Of Boredom" tape
Too bad ltd 50 copies almost 10 years ago makes this something what perhaps very few can now get.

There was actually a second issue in ordinary jewel case a little later, edition...was it 30 or 50 copies?

Re-listened this a while ago and while its nothing I would do today, I still think its ok material.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Kakerlak /  The Rita "Knifing And Knived" tape
Thorax Harsh Cassettes
The noise wall is name of the game. While listening something like Fetus Furs makes me slightly uncomfortable, Kakerlar seems to have very different drive. Equally simple sounds, but there is sense of movement and tracks develop. Very grainy and crackling moments, but also force and drive.
One could say same about The Rita. Italian spoken word, that gets crushed in fuzzy and overdrive maximum distortion grain. But instead of just dull crackles or rumbling monotonism, here is fastly moving mass of noise wall. Nice. Ends into distorted soundtrack music, but before that all pure noise bliss.

[hkso]

OCHU: Confronting the foundation of nothing (C20 Vemod)
I was going through a box of tapes some days ago and found this oversized cassette. I realized I haven't listened to it in about a decade so it was time to revisit it. I probably have even more pleasure listening to it now as my taste has changed a bit. I can only agree about Ochu being underrated project, I would say together with Proiekt Hat my favourite in the Swedish scene. The ones who knows about his briliance holds on to it. It wouldn't be bad with a reissue of these early tapes, not to mention how welcome a proper LP would be!

[FreakAnimalFinland]

OCHU "Brick Windows" tape
Kickacid
Another good Ochu tape. Mentioned this some message above. Good companion with "Bonds Of Boredom", although being different. Perhaps that is one good sides of Ochu. As discography is so small, and band seems to be perhaps even cautious to make full album (?), these shorter tape releases stand well alone. Not as part of flood of noise, but as proper well thought releases. I think I like "Bonds Of Boredom" a bit more than this, but nothing wrong here. Noisy, yet constructed. Physical, hard, fierce noise elements being organized into musical form of something one could just call "industrial-noise". Utmost care for detailed and texture noise sounds (what many musicians seems to lack), but also talented craftmanship to make more than noise from that. It's perhaps perfect situation.
Listened this 3 times in row, and there is some weird lure in Ochu, what makes me want just flip tape for instant replay!