PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[bile]

Wrong Hole "I" & "II"

These two tracks are available to download from the Wrong Hole bandcamp page..both are under six minutes in length and I figured it would make sense to review them together. Amnesia Program released "Sucking Wound" last year (a cassette I kept in heavy rotation), and for those whom have heard this tape, "I" and "II" will tickle your fancies. Brilliant, no-nonsense Harsh Noise action here...captivating and violent. The intensity is stellar, it feels as if any moment his mixer will come unplugged, gear bursting into the air, sweat and blood dripping onto the floor. Fantastic.

Being "To Fall In Love With Your Own Reflection"

A Dear Girl Called Wendy released this new 2xCS from Luke Tandy at the beginning of 2015 and is one of the best articles of sound I have ingested thus far. Being taps into the classic Americanoise style with corrosive white noise, mid-range metallic smashing, obnoxious buried feedback, and cut-up flares. Last year's "Get Rid of Everything" CS via Depravity was a crisp, clear look into the destructive forces Luke maneuvered, but with this recent outing he has traded the high-fidelity recording for a more modest, live atmosphere (which, I believe, has added a new dimension to his work). Moments on this tape make the hairs on my neck stand straight...especially during the third piece, "It is Finished and Forgotten", with it's eerily human sounding shrieks (I cannot tell if this is scrap metal, tape manipulation, or actual voices), dynamic splashes of bottom-heavy distortion, and tasteful clipping. Gorgeous looking output and untouchable sound...Being is one of the best in the US.

[bitewerksMTB]

ABJECTION RITUAL s/t cd-r; heavy death industrial debut. good stuff. i believe Malignant Records sells it along with the 2nd cd-r (got that, too, but haven't listened to it yet).

ULTRA zoll/youthful pleasures cd's; haven't listened to either in a long time. both releases work really well on cd; zoll has some dense, heavy parts that i had forgotten about. his vocals have always been an influence for me. overall, the boxset is really nice!

PUTREFIER rare/compilation tracks cd (forget the title); best tracks are the 7" & track he did for the "tearing the wings..." comp., that material is incredibly focused compared to all of the other tracks. have the other 2 cd's on I.R. but haven't listened to them yet.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

STRAIGHT ARM SALUTE "Aryan Uprising" tape
Finnish project doing sort of music what is like half Arditi type of martial, half nsbm intro music. Speeches, drum machine marches, growling vocals, synth melodies. There is something what makes me thing of Warcom or Sarote Industries labels. Something, that is too over the top, too clumsy, to appear "noble art". But on other hand, you got the nice mix of hollywood type NS atrocities and at the same time commentaries for modern day south africa etc.

BODY CARGO "Posthum" tape
Autarkeia
I know I must say every time I write about BC, that this is maybe their best material?! hah.. Well, this short tape is the basic BC stuff. Lo-fi, slowly moving, rugged industrial noise. Best moments are in end of a-side and beginning of b-side. Those two tracks out of the 4 stand out on this tape. Body Cargo doesn't have problem of doing good stuff. But memorable "hit tracks"? No power electronics anthems to be found. Only good overall atmosphere. Still, very much recommended!

[tiny_tove]

STRAIGHT ARM SALUTE "Aryan Uprising" tape
of Warcom or Sarote Industries labels.

back from the dead after killing flu
WARCOM: where have they gone??? and who is Sarote Industries labels?
any hints? cheers

[FreakAnimalFinland]

WARCOM stopped. There was that last interview he did for Degenerate, explaining stopping label. I was among last people to buy his remaining inventory. Still have bunch of releases in distro after many years...
Sarote has still that "memorial site". Google it to find info of their releases.

BROKEN PENIS ORCHESTRA "Testicle Difficulties" LP
Nihilist
I have had hard time swallowing this, hehe..  Amusing sound collage, which sometimes is pretty good, most of all just humoristic and funny. If genital humor sound collage is your thing. I remember being quite disappointed by bands CDR release I had, but vinyl has somehow different feel to it. That someone actually puts this sort of stuff on 12" vinyl, changes its feeling totally.

MISSING FOUNDATION "1933 Your house is mine" LP
Dais
2013 reissue of 1988 album. And well done. I guess bands reputation is even wider than its musical impact? "Industrial Noise outfit from NYC. Their logo shows a martini-cocktail glass turned upside down meaning "the party's over!". Missing Foundation made a point of fighting gentrification in New York's Lower East Side and other metropolitan areas. They left their logo painted on walls whereever they travelled. Walking around in major European cities in the late 80's/early 90's you would find this all over the place. "
It would be nice to see noise bands escape purely online existence to physical world like this today. Music reeks the same feeling. It goes well into area of E.Neubauten/Test Dept and such. Blend of music and industrial percussion and noisy sounds. More music than noise, though.

[jadderly]

Woob - Light & Levitation
My first album of post-reboot Woob, this is very pleasant ambient heavy on the manipulated choral samples, neither light nor dark sounding.

Aube + Telepherique - R-S+C
This is really good. A bit more "to the point" and less slow-building than a lot of Aube material. I haven't heard much by Telepherique at all, but they do a good job here. I guess I should check out more by them.

Aube - Flood Gate
This came up here recently with high praise. Managed to snag a copy for a reasonable price - I don't think Vanilla Records releases are all that easy to get these days. Anyway, this is definitely in line with the earlier, noisier Aube material of the early 90s, but is very well done and highly listenable, fairly dynamic also.


Einleitungszeit ‎– Aus Der Leichenkammer: "Klonieren Des Machinen Lärms"
Einleitungszeit ‎– "L'Accouchement Des Machines Humaines"
I've been wanting these for awhile, finally managed to find them at a price I could stomach. Compared to the R-Mensch 2xLP, these are both more sophisticated and drawn out, probably requiring a bit more effort to absorb. "Aus Der" has really odd quiet mastering. I'm not sure if it had to do with the source material or the inherent physical limitations of vinyl. At this point, I'm trying to collect everything by this group but a lot of their releases are hard to come by. Not sure why they aren't more popular and don't have better distribution.

Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar ‎– Hålrum
I think this was recommended here and possibly some other places. Frankly it sounds a lot like Z'EV and Harry Bertoia to me. Not a bad thing, just pointing it out. Maybe a dash of Organum in there as well. My copy of the LP doesn't have the best pressing quality and was filthy out of the sleeve. Gave it a good cleaning and going to try playing it again soon.

Null - Ultimate Material II
Halfway between noisy stuff and more semi-ambient, perhaps close to the "Terminal Beach" CD in places? This is good, but I wouldn't say it is my favorite Null release. Happy to have it in my collection though.

Zero Kama - The Secret Eye Of L.A.Y.L.A.H.
Zero Kama ‎– Live In Arnhem & The Goatherd And The Beast
I guess this is what people call "Ritual Ambient" these days. Fairly primitive and rough around the edges compared to what is being released now, but I enjoy the feel of these old recordings. There are some vocals on the live release that might turn some people off but I didn't think they were too bad. "Secret Eye" is the essential release for me, but I'm glad to have both of these releases.

[jadderly]

Finally got around to playing my CD. This album is excellent. I liked that the middle-eastern elements were not overused. Fairly heavy in places as well, sort of reminds me of Voice of Eye at times. Didn't URE and VOE record stuff together at some point?

Ure Thrall - Arabian Knightmares 2004 - ethno-ambient - more lightly attacked tribal and ethnic drumming like you'd find on Voice of Eye's Transmigration (collaborators in the past and this is not unlike what you'd expect from them) - would have fit perfectly on the Twilight Earth compilation series - Arabic tones - maybe not as menacing, or as dark, as the subject matter would imply, or as expectations would hope, which would have given it more resonance and have been even more to my liking - good and highly skilled album - strange that Tesco would reissue this album.

[Zeno Marx]

Einleitungszeit ‎– Aus Der Leichenkammer: "Klonieren Des Machinen Lärms"
"Aus Der" has really odd quiet mastering. I'm not sure if it had to do with the source material or the inherent physical limitations of vinyl.

The original recording was on DAT and mastered at that loudness.  Considering the plentiful bottom end and 40+ minutes of overall dense material, the LP is highly accurate to the master.  I think it would surprise people how great the vinyl mastering is (it surprised me anyway), because the loudness has always been a criticism.

Didn't URE and VOE record stuff together at some point?

Jim Wilson of Voice of Eye collaborated on many Discorporeality Recordings, which is Ure Thrall's label.

[jadderly]

Einleitungszeit ‎– Aus Der Leichenkammer: "Klonieren Des Machinen Lärms"
"Aus Der" has really odd quiet mastering. I'm not sure if it had to do with the source material or the inherent physical limitations of vinyl.

The original recording was on DAT and mastered at that loudness.  Considering the plentiful bottom end and 40+ minutes of overall dense material, the LP is highly accurate to the master.  I think it would surprise people how great the vinyl mastering is (it surprised me anyway), because the loudness has always been a criticism.

No, I get what you are saying. It's just that mastering at low volume can accentuate surface noise, which I find to be the case on this particular LP. I'd definitely believe that it was challenging material to master for vinyl. I'd just be curious what a CD version might sound like or a 45rpm 2xLP. I have some electro-acoustic records that were mastered at 45rpm - I'm guessing they were done that way due to the physical limitations of the vinyl format.

Didn't URE and VOE record stuff together at some point?

Jim Wilson of Voice of Eye collaborated on many Discorporeality Recordings, which is Ure Thrall's label.

IIRC weren't a lot of those issued as limited CDRs? Probably hard to come by now, if they are even still playable...this is another case where a Bandcamp page/archive would be desirable.

[Zeno Marx]

Einleitungszeit ‎– Aus Der Leichenkammer: "Klonieren Des Machinen Lärms"
"Aus Der" has really odd quiet mastering. I'm not sure if it had to do with the source material or the inherent physical limitations of vinyl.

The original recording was on DAT and mastered at that loudness.  Considering the plentiful bottom end and 40+ minutes of overall dense material, the LP is highly accurate to the master.  I think it would surprise people how great the vinyl mastering is (it surprised me anyway), because the loudness has always been a criticism.

No, I get what you are saying. It's just that mastering at low volume can accentuate surface noise, which I find to be the case on this particular LP. I'd definitely believe that it was challenging material to master for vinyl. I'd just be curious what a CD version might sound like or a 45rpm 2xLP. I have some electro-acoustic records that were mastered at 45rpm - I'm guessing they were done that way due to the physical limitations of the vinyl format.

Maybe you got a bad copy or a used copy played off a worn needle or that wasn't cleaned before played?  I had the DAT transferred a handful of years ago to CD (for possible re-release), and the vinyl sounds incredibly close to the master.  I'd even go as far as to bet most people wouldn't be able to A/B a difference.  The vinyl mastering is that good.  I only had a few hours in a borrowed studio to get acquainted with the DAT master before sending it off to get cut and pressed.  I won't go into it here again, but for years, even I thought it was a mistake to have not done it as a 2LP.  I no longer think that.  It also played into the decision to not reissue it on CD (though, I do still sometimes want to do it anyway).  I questioned the 1xLP choice from the day Bill Smith delivered the records.  Not even a little bit of me questions that anymore.  It was well worth getting the DAT master transferred to finally put all that to rest.

[Zeno Marx]

Early on, Asianova was also a side project of Voice of Eye, Ure Thrall, and one other.

[jadderly]

Maybe you got a bad copy or a used copy played off a worn needle or that wasn't cleaned before played?  I had the DAT transferred a handful of years ago to CD (for possible re-release), and the vinyl sounds incredibly close to the master.  I'd even go as far as to bet most people wouldn't be able to A/B a difference.  The vinyl mastering is that good.  I only had a few hours in a borrowed studio to get acquainted with the DAT master before sending it off to get cut and pressed.  I won't go into it here again, but for years, even I thought it was a mistake to have not done it as a 2LP.  I no longer think that.  It also played into the decision to not reissue it on CD (though, I do still sometimes want to do it anyway).  I questioned the 1xLP choice from the day Bill Smith delivered the records.  Not even a little bit of me questions that anymore.  It was well worth getting the DAT master transferred to finally put all that to rest.

Worn copy? Not likely. It was sold as "new/unplayed" stock from a reliable distro. I can't remember if I cleaned the record before playing it last time, but it has been cleaned now and placed in an HDPE inner sleeve...I will give it another listen. My current stylus is a microline with very low hours...

[Zeno Marx]

Maybe you got a bad copy or a used copy played off a worn needle or that wasn't cleaned before played?  I had the DAT transferred a handful of years ago to CD (for possible re-release), and the vinyl sounds incredibly close to the master.  I'd even go as far as to bet most people wouldn't be able to A/B a difference.  The vinyl mastering is that good.  I only had a few hours in a borrowed studio to get acquainted with the DAT master before sending it off to get cut and pressed.  I won't go into it here again, but for years, even I thought it was a mistake to have not done it as a 2LP.  I no longer think that.  It also played into the decision to not reissue it on CD (though, I do still sometimes want to do it anyway).  I questioned the 1xLP choice from the day Bill Smith delivered the records.  Not even a little bit of me questions that anymore.  It was well worth getting the DAT master transferred to finally put all that to rest.

Worn copy? Not likely. It was sold as "new/unplayed" stock from a reliable distro. I can't remember if I cleaned the record before playing it last time, but it has been cleaned now and placed in an HDPE inner sleeve...I will give it another listen. My current stylus is a microline with very low hours...

I didn't mean to imply anything, and with this post, I continue to not imply anything.  There could be lots of reasons why you're hearing surface noise, one of which could be that you got a copy out of a bad moment in the pressing run.  It happens.  When assembling records, I've found pockets of excessive warping, scratches, poor edge cutting, and all the various ways a numbers game can go haywire during manufacturing.  Non-fill, which is one common cause of surface noise found across an entire pressing, wasn't something I battled with that LP.

I wasn't familiar with the term "microline", so I had to google it.  I'm reading that some experience more surface noise with them.  Here's one of the discussions involving that:  http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-307924.html  Also a comment saying, "How many hours on the AT cartridge? You need at least 50, perhaps 200, before it ripens."

I would definitely clean it.  All new records should be cleaned before first play, and those that have been sitting in a distro for nearly twenty years should definitely be cleaned before playing.  Pressing plants can be dirty joints.  Lots of dust.  Lots of tiny vinyl shavings.  Throw static into the mix, and well, you get the point.

We can talk about this record more in private if you'd like.  PM me.  It was sort of a clusterfuck in ways, and like I said, it bothered me for 15+ years until my regrets were proven to be unfounded.

[jadderly]

I didn't mean to imply anything, and with this post, I continue to not imply anything.  There could be lots of reasons why you're hearing surface noise, one of which could be that you got a copy out of a bad moment in the pressing run.  It happens.  When assembling records, I've found pockets of excessive warping, scratches, poor edge cutting, and all the various ways a numbers game can go haywire during manufacturing.  Non-fill, which is one common cause of surface noise found across an entire pressing, wasn't something I battled with that LP.

I wasn't familiar with the term "microline", so I had to google it.  I'm reading that some experience more surface noise with them.  Here's one of the discussions involving that:  http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-307924.html  Also a comment saying, "How many hours on the AT cartridge? You need at least 50, perhaps 200, before it ripens."

I would definitely clean it.  All new records should be cleaned before first play, and those that have been sitting in a distro for nearly twenty years should definitely be cleaned before playing.  Pressing plants can be dirty joints.  Lots of dust.  Lots of tiny vinyl shavings.  Throw static into the mix, and well, you get the point.

We can talk about this record more in private if you'd like.  PM me.  It was sort of a clusterfuck in ways, and like I said, it bothered me for 15+ years until my regrets were proven to be unfounded.

No offense taken or anything. Re: the microline, it's a double edged sword. I've found that some old and new records I have are quieter with it and others reveal more surface noise and pressing defects. It just depends, probably due to a number of factors. I will say that when everything is "right", the tracking is superb and the level of detail is incredible, much better than a standard conical or elliptical stylus. IMHO, of course.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

E.E. "Volcanist" LP
Curious Lacunae
2009 release of USA drone sound. Lots of surface noise on this one. Snap, crackle & pop all the way, sometime more subtle, sometimes ANNOYING level. It has basically all the strengths & weaknesses of drone music. Nice simple stuff to float on background, but absolutely nothing what would bring personality, nor single new idea or sound to genre. For drone fanatics, why not. But LP is pretty bad sound for this type of stuff.

CHANGES "Hero Takes His Stand" 2xLP
Neue Asethetik
Live document from 2004, limited 300 copies. Despite having slight audience noise and not-totally-pleasant amplification, sound is actually nice. Lots of classic Changes tracks here, and it's good addition in Changes collection for sure. Folk music for apocalyptic times. Few visitors makes chance for mostly guitar & voice type of approach.

THE RITA "Gamzatti" LP
Total Black
While several The Rita releases of past years have received harsh critics from me, I'm glad to say not this one! You get seeminly "the same", but this time we do have more movement and more energy! Sound is heavy, yet sharp. It's perhaps not correct to talk about aggressive, but there is more fast paced movement. Source sounds nicely bleed below the hard distorted surface making it far more multi-dimensional than many other recordings. Booklet contains photos of recording sessions of this material as well as photos of ballet dancers, ballet dvd's, scan from book Understanding ballet from chapter: Anatomical Charisma. Nice! That would be good name for noise project!