PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Back on the HNW.

V/A HNW Compilation (Nahàsh Atrym Productions, digital download)
This bandcamp label was recommended to me earlier in this thread, but I just browsed through it briefly, and forgot to thank for the tip. Now, I've rediscovered it and bought this compilation for the reasonable price of 0.50 Euro. One thing to note about the label is that they do put work into their stuff - on the merch page there's even a book called "HNW" with 586 pages of static, which was originally sold with a Vomir/Black Matter Phantasm split cassette (now sold out). I would have bought it, but without the tape it feels somewhat pointless (as opposed to with the tape...). This compilation is fairly solid, with a degree of variation. Much is regular online HNW, but some tracks contain surprises. The second track, by La Cyanescence, is more like industrial or soft power electronics than any type of harsh noise at all. It is extremely repetitive, though, and a bit too long, so maybe that suffices to classify it as HNW? Other tracks that stick out is Carrion Black Pit, with a solid and dark wall with a vaguely musical element, as well as Prozac Maurice. With the title "Korg + Gorgoroth = Korgoroth" the latter take the home the price for dumbest title (also, wouldn't "Korgoroth" have sufficed to make the actual joke?), but the track isn't half bad. In general, there's stuff going on in these walls, and it is way better than most similar stuff.

Speaking of Carrion Black Pit:
Carrion Black Pit - KSMKWLLTZ (HNW, digital download)
This is a good one, released just a couple of days ago. Very calm stuff, bordering on Cyclic Law Dark Ambient, but with a wee bit more crunch. Background music, no doubt, but nice background music. Possibly also suitable for sitting in a dark room thinking about super novas, God or similar large subjects. Paid 0.51 Euro for this one, despite the labels ridiculous exhortation to wait until their free download credits drop in. Once again, it's nice to find some stuff with at least some work put into it in the flood of bandcamp mediocrity.

[bitewerksMTB]

GRAUSTICH / COMA DETOX / WHITESWAN / EDGE OF DECAY "Stay yourself whatever the cost" – tape; solid lineup,all with good tracks but the highlight here is the junkyard work of Coma Detox!

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Sewer Election - Wreck (Triangle Records) CD
So, I grew up and bought something new, albeit with a classic rockorkester. I was planning to wait for the CD to arrive in the mail, then the degenerate took over and I just put the download on my phone to have something to listen to while enduring the bus ride to work. The most recent thing I heard with Sewer Election was 'Kassettmusik', so I don't know much about their recent development. As far as Kassettmusik went, I did enjoy large chunks of it, but the annoying "vomit" loops ruined it for me. I tried to accept them, and follow the general rule that if someone cool enough does something it's always OK, but then I realized that I know very little about how cool Sewer Election really is, and simply allowed it to ruin the whole release. And that's one opinion I haven't changed since. Anyway, it's personal opinion. When it comes to Wreck, however, it is an objective, ontological and certain truth that this kicks all sorts of ass. It's not quite as brutal as the collaboration(s) with Treriksröset, but it still packs plenty of punch. There's more filth, dirt and tape loops in this than in, say, the band's split with Sewage on L-white (another of my relatively few Sewer Election points of reference), which doesn't necessarily makes it better, but is certainly a good thing anyway. As I am now back from work, and on my second listen, I can also add that the recording benefits greatly from decent headphones. There's plenty of nuance and changes in intensity, along with pure outbursts of dirtbag noise hoedowns. This makes me feel great, and that's not just the beer talking, since I've just had one.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

GENOCIDE ORGAN "Archive VI" 10"
Tesco
I like. Friend said that its less exciting than previous. In a way, I can see why, but for me, this simple brute force works great. Especially, B-side. Damn. Great 10"!

VANESSA AMARA "You're Welcome Here" LP
Posh Isolation
I have been listening this quite many times. First of all, it didn't make same kind of impact as the debut LP. But I suspect it only because with first LP, you were caught by surprise. Now, it was possible to expect great album, so that's what they deliver. Very relaxing, nicely made album full of slow paced atmospheric music.

TAINT "Strange Feeling, Shit coming" LP
Urashima
Less of PE side of Taint, more of coarse noise works. I remember when the tape came out and my impression was that "someone throwing metal junk around". There is much more than that here, though. It does lack most of proper structure and offers grim and hard noise, but not in the ways that were popular and common in that time, I think!? Taint was well ahead in sound what I feel was more popularized only decade or more later.

ENCEPHALOPHONIC lathe cut 7"
Cipher
Fuck!! How does lathe-cut 7" sound this good? Packaged between plexi-glass plates, screwed from corners. Not any new idea. Many labels did that before, yet Cipher has his ability to make things little different. Below transparent plates you see bunch of call-girl businesscards/flyers. Late is cut on vinyl. Not on plastic or whatever garbage. Perhaps this is one key to success. Harsh noise blasting, which shows Encephalophonics developing his skills each time. His way of harsh noise is to abandon multi-layered density. Focus on one thing at the time, but keeping his cuts of noise long enough to actually go somewhere, instead of being stuck with endless stutterloops and glitchy noise bits. It's harsh noise to the bone, loud, crisp, energetic. Great!

[aububs]

VANESSA AMARA "You're Welcome Here" LP
Posh Isolation
I have been listening this quite many times. First of all, it didn't make same kind of impact as the debut LP. But I suspect it only because with first LP, you were caught by surprise. Now, it was possible to expect great album, so that's what they deliver. Very relaxing, nicely made album full of slow paced atmospheric music.

Fantasic album. Prefer it to the debut.

[THE RITA HN]

Taint was well ahead in sound what I feel was more popularized only decade or more later.

Always in the back of my head when I revisit Keith's 90s works.
The cement behind 90s truly crushing, well articulated and obsessed harsh noise and PE works.

[Fluid Fetish]

Taint was well ahead in sound what I feel was more popularized only decade or more later.

Always in the back of my head when I revisit Keith's 90s works.
The cement behind 90s truly crushing, well articulated and obsessed harsh noise and PE works.

Well said, I finally had time to sit down for some attentive absorbing of the Strange Feeling lp last night at 3am and my jaw literally dropped several times while listening, the fact that it was recorded in the early 90's alone is amazing.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Revelations of the Dead Girl - Without Emotions (digital download), Nihil Worship
Revelations of the Dead Girl - Spell Of The Bleeding Erotica (digital download), Nihil Worship
It's been five days since Nihil Worship released anything, which may have troubled some. Luckily, today they released 11 (yes, that's eleven) albums. The first two, which I have chosen to stream rather than buy at this point, each contain a noise wall of a little more than an hour each. The first one is a bit more harsh, the other one is a bit more laid back. Depending on your mood, you may choose either one. It's good to know that Nihil Worship doesn't read stupid reviews by scandinavian assholes telling them to calm down, do physical releases or anything like that. They/he just keeps doing what they do, at an ever more insane pace.

Maniac Cop - Stalks the living, to feed on the dead (Cass), Hatband
One more classic from the box. For obvious reasons, Maniac Cop bears some undefinable resemblance to Proiekt Hat, but it has another atmosphere, and is certainly more "melodic". Modular synth soundscapes, some rather carefully constructed noise or perhaps rather noise-ish sounds - all supported by a fundament of subtle bass lines. Parts of this could surely have been used as score for the original movie, which I haven't seen for so long that as far as I'm concerned, maybe it was. It's difficult to explain how great this really is. Much like Proiekt Hat, it lacks all pretention, is never annoying (despite the sometimes almost psychedelic bleeps and bloops) and is just something you want to keep playing.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

SUTCLIFFE JUGEND "Masks" CD
Old Europa Cafe
I have probably said that I don't feel SJ would be at the peak of their creative phase. Well, it is up to debate of course. In a way, their are more active than ever. And some of the stuff is good, yes. But like this CD is another proof that contemporary SJ operates well on droning, experimental, digitalia soundscapes and dark spoken pieces, while their power electronics tracks leave me to want: Volume, punch and brutality. It seems to lack all the proper amplification, gut-wrecking heaviness etc. Simply thin multeeffect-to-digital recorder type of hissy distortions etc. As soon as band goes to more atmospheric droning stuff, transition from "PE" tracks is HUGE. Those stuff work well. Tracks like Fortune Favours The Cruel make albums worth to. Few more aggro tracks like Lucky Too ain't bad either. But all in all, I need to check the other CD people have mentioned to be better of these recent ones...

POGROM "Father:land" CD
Old Captain / Terror
Pogrom material worked well on tape. Perhaps CD offers less saturation, but remains good. When compared to SJ, there is simply significantly bigger amount of dirt and wreckage. While Pogrom doesn't appear as nerdy study of possibilities of noisescapes, it simply achieves more cruel result by aggressive voice, brute noises, feedbacks, and such. While not all material give impression of loudness and wreckage, it is still way more sinister sounding. While guitars of SJ would be free from noise making, Pogrom pulls guitar in one track of present almost black metal esque melodic tremolo picking on top of various noises. I feel Pogrom has gone forward all the time, and there are still potential as well as further progression to happen.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Absolutely rapt to get Eleh's back catalog in pristine wave file from the project's own dedicated Bandcamp page. The last word in pure and pristine electronic minimalism. Superb. I don't think I'll ever get enough of this. And remember to play loud because "volume reveals detail".

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Had hoped to discuss Vhril here, but my small CD player has broken down, and I don't want to wake the family by going all Ulex Xane on their butts this time of night. So, I'll have to limit myself to:

African Noise Corporation - Nelson In Sun City (Robben Island Records, 7")
This is one of the best looking seven inches ever made, as far as cover art goes, but even after seeing it and pining for it for many years, I've never bought it, nor heard it. Now I got around to it a few weeks ago, and I am glad I did. At first I was a bit disappointed by the slight weight of the vinyl, as well as the white/blank stickers (later RIR releases are far more impressive in that regard), however I was very impressed to note that the side, as well as the entire release title, has been scratched into the actual vinyl in a very impressive way. You don't see stuff like that anymore (ok, you probably do, but I don't). As for the music: the title track, on side A, is fucking amazing. I think this is one of the best "deutsch power electronics"/industrial tracks I have heard. There is something vaguely "digital" about parts of it that takes a wee bit away from the experience, but not much. The samples, the electronics, the whole thing is really amazing. Side B, "Personal Holocaust", is not at all as great, but it's still a solid track. In fact, I find it a disaster that this project never did anything more. Personally I've always suspected African Noise Corporation were not from South Africa, but rather a German project from the guy behind Membrum Debile and hence RIR, but that is of absolutely no consequence (and I don't know it to be true, either).

[Ashmonger]

Vril Jäger (CD, Heidrunar Myrkrunar): Ambient, martial, samples, tracks differ quite a bit from each other, but also due to the subject matter, there's a certain otherworldly ambience going on, best track is Maw of Kalki, for its gloomy atmosphere.

Genocide Organ - Obituary of the Americas (CD, Tesco Germany): Hmm, certainly not bad, but it seems there's maybe a bit more of the 'calmer' tracks than I'd like....

Infektionsabteilung - Luzifers Traum (C30, Narcolepsia): Really interesting mix of PE/Industrial and more Ambient/synth parts, can't really compare it to anything I've heard before!

[Deadpriest]

Bored of life;
you die, they die, I die, is doesn't matter;
the world is empty;
we're all going to die or maybe we're not.

HNW

[Bloated Slutbag]

Absolutely rapt to get Eleh

THANKS for the tip!

[bitewerksMTB]

Striations "To Know Mercy" tape; impressive release of death industrial-power electronics with sex crime/murder content. Nice 'Full Force Frank'-like collage artwork. This release would make a prime LP or cd. Recommended!

http://nefariousactivities.blogspot.com/