PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[eyestrain]

Cazzokraft - Integrity of the Preconscious System (Old Europa Cafe): Sound-wise, this definitely seems like Cazzodio took the wheel for most of the album. Linekraft's contributions are maybe a little more subdued. So what you've got is a very dynamic death-industrial disc that definitely improves with repeated listens. Vocal-work is understated (thankfully). Reverb/echo is front and center. Looped junk work is shimmering throughout.
Post Scriptvm - Benommenheit (Tesco): Grey Eminence completely floored me. So much more so than any of their past efforts. I'd say Benommenheit is more like those early albums. A bit of a generic approach that is oh-so Tesco. The aimless album description states, "[...]concluded with nothing but the inevitable pain-filled departure back into the void". I think you know what that means. Kinda like say a metal album is "evil". Not anything like bad, just forgettable.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

GENOCIDE ORGAN "KwaZulu-Natal" LP
Tesco
Of course being such a timeless material, doesn't really matter when to listen this, but can't believe I postponed until now! While being like hit parade of GO, at the same time I feel this could be even among absolute best of GO works? Sound is just perfect. Vocal balance perfect. Track versions perfect. Length is the classic album length. Not too short, not too long. Too bad its ltd 250, because I feel this could have been A LOT more...

[octis]

Gry smk - Truth

[online prowler]

KOEFF "Liminal Looks" 3"CD
Unrest
If you ask me, I think Koeff was better than Institut (duo she was of) and most definitely better than Regim! Very few releases, and format choises like this. 3"CD appeals to very limited crowd. I like it. And I guess label likes it. So fuck it. If someone missed this great noisy industrial music assault simply because disc doesn't fit inside their imac or car "slide-in" -type players, I suggest buying proper CD player and stereo set. Maybe girly vocals are weakest point here, but at the same time they add the spirit that's unlike some caveman roaring voice. If people now hunt for true female industrial-noise and get all excited about Puce Mary, Pharmakon, etc, I recommend to check out this. One can still get it for price of tape. Distorted beats, rugged electronic noises, from oppressive power electronics type to hard rhythm bloodbath. Artist who never gained attention for being female, simply performing good stuff.

A much underrated release and off the radar. Sign up on your comment. Good production as well. Highly recommended.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

PHARMAKON "Abandon" LP
Sacred Bones
Have written about it before. While I still have some reservations about type of sound, I must say that when album is this memorable, that you know the songs, and they make impact also after multiple rotations, it's good album!

SEWER ELECTION / FREDERIKKE HOFFMEIER "Aska" LP
Ideal
This is like SE + Puce Mary could be thought to be. In fact, album starts with stuff what seems very similar to Sewer Election live show in Finland late 2013. Tape decay processed field recordings? Static layers of electronic minimal drone and quiet spoken female voice. Fluttering tape loops. Some louder and noisier moments too. Good stuff. B-side more slow tape loops and ultra high pitched electronics. Slow tempo, but very eerie and raw atmosphere. I like distant spoken voices echoing underneath all the sound. Despite it is two side long tracks, both tracks can be looked to contain several distinctively different songs.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

THO-SO-AA "lpzg/blgm live" LP
Tesco
I got bunch of old releases of band. They used to record for Art Konkret, but now 3 latest releases on Tesco. While most of the stuff belongs to style of dark ambient with industrial feeling, what escapes my memory quite easily, there is something else there too. It's not all about gloomy harmonic keyboard tones and hi-fi equipment/efx work, but there are more aggressive tracks here too. Crossing border towards germanic heavy electronics. Always elegant and noble, though. This is first vinyl LP from them, right? I think other vinyl is basically one 7" on Drone Records.

PRURIENT "Palm Tree Corpse" LP
Tesco
re-issue of tape. And good one! I have this tape somewhere I think. Not sure if there was mastering done, but really sharp and violent. Maybe unusual feature is that vocals are almost completely clean. I mean, no loud delay effects or such. Of course there is distortion, but perhaps most of all wild overdrive from loud recording levels? Sometimes vocals crush entire dense noise layer away, like in Slogun "kill to forget". Everything here is very distorted, but at the same time all 6 tracks have distinctive style / approach. I think more Prurient tape reissues wouldn't hurt. Like said many times, often these beat the albums! This is Prurient at his most PE mode.

[Baglady]

DEAD CONGREGATION - Promulgation Of The Fall CD (Martyrdoom Productions)
So, finally the second album is out. As I up until now held their debut tape as their finest moment, I expected more from the first album when it came out. But this is way more than I hoped for. The album kicks in hard, and stays that way all through. The production is rougher than on Graves Of The Archangels, yet each instrument is more distinct. Stronger songs, better lead work, better lyrics. And while I'm definitely a fan of Timo Ketola, I'm happy to see they're finally using someone elses work. Brilliant!

[urall]

DEAD CONGREGATION - Promulgation Of The Fall CD (Martyrdoom Productions)
So, finally the second album is out. As I up until now held their debut tape as their finest moment, I expected more from the first album when it came out. But this is way more than I hoped for. The album kicks in hard, and stays that way all through. The production is rougher than on Graves Of The Archangels, yet each instrument is more distinct. Stronger songs, better lead work, better lyrics. And while I'm definitely a fan of Timo Ketola, I'm happy to see they're finally using someone elses work. Brilliant!

i'm really excited to hear this, can't wait to get the LP. I actually think that 'Graves of the archangels' was awesome, so if you think that this is even better...damn

[ConcreteMascara]

Serpents - Demo 2004 cassette
The precursor to Drainland, somewhere between noise rock, hardcore and sludge. Pure negativity and I can't get enough, had this on repeat about 4 times over!

Full of Hell / Calm The Fire - Split 7"
Of all the Full of Hell material I've been submersing myself in lately, these tracks are my favorite. Straight for the jugular but with very memorable, catchy riffs. Fuck yes. And seeing these songs live, whooboy

Converge - Petitioning Forever 2xLP
These two albums drag up some really unpleasant memories of near death experiences and ungodly summer heat in high school. but i'll never outgrow this shit. FAILURE FOREVER

Salem's Pot - ...Lurar Ut Dig På Prärien CD
I don't smoke weed, but if I did this is what I'd listen to. throwback stoner doom done right. the last track Nothing Hill is especially addictive. Fucking love the vocals. Great music to listen to while sitting in front of a bonfire.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Given my temperament, I find it odd that the majority of so-called Depressive Black Metal bores me. So I find it even odder that I've been listening to Stiborg's "Solitude" a great deal. Somehow, all the usual elements work together extremely well for me. I even like the synth interludes, something I usually get very sick of with Black Metal, usually because they're done more out of obligation. On this, they sound very much part of the whole and are just as enjoyable as the actual Metal.

And as much as I don't want to join in with a chorus, this time I'm going to - Shift's "Altamont Rising" is great. Just a satisfying, teeth-into-meat Power Electronics album with a nice, gritty sound that doesn't blur the distinction between the layers of synths, samples and so on. I've found Cold Spring releases somewhat patchy, but this is very much one of the better ones.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Given my temperament, I find it odd that the majority of so-called Depressive Black Metal bores me.

I don't find it odd. I would guess most of the genre is plain annoying. While the line-in guitars and drum machines and 1 idea repeated over and over again certainly has this "I don't give a fuck" kind of feel in most passive sense of understanding it.. then this is perhaps reason why I go less for suicidal and more for genocidal works, hah...

GREY WOLVES / WERTHAM / SURVIVAL INSTINCT LP
OEC
Hmm.. While I must say that I like the line-up and I like LP overall, there are few things here why it doesn't appear as instant classic. Maybe due many years work in progress, to me it appears that Wertham or mr. Deplano in general, has since created more memorable tracks than those offered here. Grey Wolves in other hand is nice to see that they are submitting strong material and not all about recycling same sounds. Survival Instinct could be among best tracks of album, but while musically the bounding industrial sound objects malformed as beats work well, what's with the mp3 kind of low-bit rate sound quality on his first track? Absolute horror to hear such sound quality on LP! Luckily his other tracks are not that atrocious. All in all, good LP, but perhaps if this had been out... 5 years ago? Will need to spin this more, and check also bonus tape materials.

ZERO FIGURE "bona nox" tape
Posh Isolation
Short lived project of Copenhagen odd punk. Mostly very little distorted guitars, those Joy Division esque out of tune howling vocals, some good tracks. Some less memorable ones. Only one track had been published on DOKUMENT #1 double LP. This tape has the other stuff that band ever did.

CONTROL "Filth" biz card cdr
PACrec 20
Good track from Control. Very much in traditional Control style, so if you know his work, that's what we have here. I admire his skill to build tracks with complexity and density, but at the same time, tracks remind so much eachother in long run. Focusing more on very distinctive elements, so tracks wouldn't become dense mass of sound, would make them more memorable. Like this one. Nothing bad in the track, but pulling out some of the more unique sounds on top and let more usual electronics sink on the back would make it stand out as different from usual.

[urall]

dusa - ljung
kam hassah - private conversation vol. 2
hakan .l - 333ep

[FreakAnimalFinland]

PRIVY SEALS "Untitled" biz card cdr
PACrec 54
Quite sucky US noise. One of the worst titles of this series, if not worst? Useless noise rubbish.

CHARLIE DRAHEIM "untitled" cdr
PACrec 53
Other artists who I sometimes wondered, what exactly is his best works, since stuff I heard, never really stood out as particularly interesting. His most active phase fits to most popular era of USA noise of mid 2000's. There are few things in 2008-2010 but nothing lately? There is some charm in this rugged and almost directionless rough noise. Not harsh noise, not really innovative and neat sounds. Just almost random composition of various electronics, tapes and noises. Some nice cuts, little flat and narrow sonic range. I think it needs more playing that just couple of times to start open up, but still.. what's the best of Draheim?

BLUD THIRST "multiple maniacs" biz card cdr
PACrec 55
Short live solo project of Evan from Moth Drakula, Roman Torment, Wire Werewolves. Harsh noise, basic stuff. Pedals distortion. Still good, but not memorable in any way.

PETIT MAL "Flowers" biz card cdr
PACrec 31
Releases here and there from '95 till 2010? Very rarely and small scale releases. This is more of musique concrete tradition / experimental / tape manipulation than noise. Using (french, female-) spoken word and other sounds, manipulating tapes. Rewinding, pausing, speeding & slowing. Behind the speech manipulations distant sounds of horns, flutes and percussion. Good disc! Will have to check out what else I have in my collection. I assume small possibility of some of Troniks tape releases.

T.E.F. "machination of a corner" biz card cdr
PACrec27
One of the harsh noise highlights of the series. TEF was really good. I think I don't have the last release, 2010 CD he did for Dada Drumming. Didn't he announced he quit? Since glory days of USA harsh noise, until finally making real full length CD and then over? Dynamic, fast, well crafted, intense. While people could be often glorifying things like Monde Bruits "Selected Noise Works" I could easily say that within busy and hectic harsh noise chaos, this biz card disc alone is probably better than that mentioned cd, hah..

[Foyer Second]

T.E.F. "machination of a corner" biz card cdr
PACrec27
One of the harsh noise highlights of the series. TEF was really good. I think I don't have the last release, 2010 CD he did for Dada Drumming. Didn't he announced he quit? Since glory days of USA harsh noise, until finally making real full length CD and then over? Dynamic, fast, well crafted, intense. While people could be often glorifying things like Monde Bruits "Selected Noise Works" I could easily say that within busy and hectic harsh noise chaos, this biz card disc alone is probably better than that mentioned cd, hah..

I don't think he quit since a new piece is announced on the forthcoming Hard Panning compilation. But maybe it is just unreleased stuff from some years ago.
Some months ago, I listened back to some various mini-CDr I had, and remember being blown away by TEF "Archetype for Collusion", released on Pitchphase. At that time I thought it was his best work.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

T.E.F. "machination of a corner" biz card cdr
PACrec27
One of the harsh noise highlights of the series. TEF was really good. I think I don't have the last release, 2010 CD he did for Dada Drumming. Didn't he announced he quit? Since glory days of USA harsh noise, until finally making real full length CD and then over? Dynamic, fast, well crafted, intense. While people could be often glorifying things like Monde Bruits "Selected Noise Works" I could easily say that within busy and hectic harsh noise chaos, this biz card disc alone is probably better than that mentioned cd, hah..

I don't think he quit since a new piece is announced on the forthcoming Hard Panning compilation. But maybe it is just unreleased stuff from some years ago.
Some months ago, I listened back to some various mini-CDr I had, and remember being blown away by TEF "Archetype for Collusion", released on Pitchphase. At that time I thought it was his best work.

That 3"CDr is really good one! I think many other good ones on that label too. Kazuma Kubota 3"CDR on that label is absolutely brain-meltingly well done release. Too bad it's cdr's.. I think 20 mins length release without interruptions is possible most suitable for vast majority of noise.

That said, more c. 20 mins doses on playlist today:

JIM O'ROUKE "Rules Of Seduction" 3"CD
Metamkine
sound collages made with lots of field recordings and various other sound sources. VERY drastic volume changes and some neat moments, but I don't think it's near the best releases on this series.

JEAN-FRANCOIS LAPORTE "Mantra" 3"CD
Metamkine
This one I always liked. It's perfect drone music made out of echoing metallic sounds. To explain further, it's almost like clicks of metronome or something like that, with FAST and loud delay, making these tiny repetitive sounds mutate into highly crisp and electric droning sound. It's different from a lot of stuff with synths or naturally droning sounds. Now its like picking up shorters and most dry sounds and attempt to use other means than reverb to get in trance inducing quality.

DOMINIQUE PETITGAND "10 petites compositions familiales" 3"CD
Metamkine
Odd release. 10 short compositions of adult female and little girl talks and some delicate accordion sounds. Can't understand at all what the french people say, but I'm very much liking the simple accordion tones and girl talking.