Swallowing Bile - Secluded
[Die Song]
One of the best works of traditional power electronics to emerge from the contemporary American underground, if you ask me. When I was ordering this record, I came to realize that not only do not a lot of younger cats but also modern PE/noise seems in general not released on vinyl very often but also doesn't even seem "written" or fitting for the format. I geek out hard on the concept of "private press" and all of the various different consequences that comes along with working with the vinyl record. Secluded is fascinating as a vinyl record, in this sense. This is private and depraved, sheathing with anger, a psychological-fantastical document more so than any mere record. There seems to be a very dedicated aesthetic in Swallowing Bile to take elements of the everyday domestic, often the most terrible, and use those as menacing bases for meditations on fantastical sadism. I get a real kick of this sick hatred sounding like it was recorded in his old closest or whatever; perfectly situated within the topics it explores. Pretty standard stuff, but done very well. I'd love to figure out more about what is he yelling about. For some reason, I am reminded of Whitehouse, in many sense. There's a tendency of sonic barrage and word-piling; disorientation. Despite being quite traditional, I'm not entirely sure if I would even call it derivative. A great album and highly recommended.
Loke Rahbek and Puce Mary – The Female Form
[Posh Isolation]
However much I've come to enjoy both FH and LR's work separate, nothing that I've heard from this duo has had quite a strong impact on me. Whereas Puce Mary releases are amongst the best of power electronics and even modern experimental electronics and however much I think LR's work and label curating is strong across the board, I cannot find much to like about the collaborations they have done. The Female Form is not an exception, either. While certainly the cleanest and most well produced documented they've done together, there is not nearly enough punch for the album to keep my interest. It drifts off and off and never really comes to any significant moments, like the worst of the newer wave of "bubblegum" or "ambient" style power electronics/noise. I think Mikko pointed out that the album sounds like a "1+1=2" kind of release, ultimately I agree. All of the sinister and particularly sharp perspectives of the Puce Mary project, all of the ultra faded nods to taboo sexual perspectives of Rahbek's many projects: compromised as, indeed, a "1+1=2" affair. I'm not particularly even entertained, at the least. The Female Form is a surprising failure for two of the more ambitious and provocative PE/noise/experimental artists in the contemporary scene.
Cremation Lily - Fluids of October
[Angoisse]
Absolute masterpiece. At this point, Zigo's work as Cremation Lily seems to tread with fairly noticeable polarity between the extremes of his ambient drifts and the intensity of his power electronics roar. I think early releases were representative of these polarities being more connected, Fire Frames the Silhouette certainly, however I've come to love the stuff that is hardly power electronics in sound. Fluids of October is a work that I cannot draw a useful comparison. Very bizarre and provoking the emotional, much like plenty of Posh Isolation stuff. Yet I'd say this tape is better than, say, Internazionale in terms of this sort of ambient referencing the aesthetics of power electronics, industrial, and...a weird take on memory, sex, and identity politics that reemerges on a lot of PI, Strange Rules, and what have you? Thoughts? Very avant-garde and a favorite tape release for me.
Black Lotus – Black Lotus / Black Locust
[Manikin Model]
One of the best of Minneapolis noise, Van Horn's Black Lotus project is just as weird and cryptic as anything else I've come to think about his work. Easily one of my favorite noise performers in town (I live in Minneapolis...). Not sure where Black Lotus stands in comparison to his other noise things that I've heard (Disthroned Agony, Indian Burial Ground), but this shit's certainly the absolute weirdest. Totally zany and harsh fucking noise. Abrasive but also calculated. Whereas Indian Burial Ground is more rooted in the haunted and horrific, Black Lotus is schizophrenic and debilitating. Not sure how many of these are left (44 copies made) but, without saying, highest possible recommendation.
