I once saw Boris in Phoenix, and their set was around 2 hours, which was dynamic, fluid, and great, most of which being a really well-executed jam of everything from their album at the time (Smile) backwards through to Amplifier Worship sections. They made the bad post-rock bands they headlined for sound like pointless shit, and I'm not even really a fan.
Anyway...
Sorry for the length – I can imagine elsewhere I'd earn a "tl;dr." Well, sorry, if you're the post-internet ADD attention-span type...
Elisha Morningstar "Cronica Infanzia" CS (Strange Rules)
Finally got a chance to hear this project following a lot of hype wherein nobody who seemed to praise it gave any descriptions of the sound. Well, here, I'm treated to very clean and defined musique concrete that almost has noise and shoegaze (?!) characteristics. I do like this, but can't help feeling there's sort of a "domestic" feel – on the cover, we have a bike leaning against a wall indoors with a crucifix hanging on the wall. I'll spare you the stupid bike hipster jokes and just say that everyday life themes in music (usually) don't interest me, that's a detracting element here. I also dislike the pseudo-poetic, forced austerity of the Strange Rules aesthetic, but that's probably taboo to admit; as people tend to eat that up.
That overall vibe seems to be in line with this music, though, as there are no especially strong atmosheres or emotions present, just interesting sounds. It opens to some wet-sounding tape loop work, moving to some electronic noise sounds, and then some downer synth submelodies, only to be crushed by the current of fluid electronic noise again. Cuts and transitions here are abrupt, with some less graceful than others. As there's an extremely hi-fi sound to this (I'm thinking the tape work was done with reel-to-reel machines in excellent condition), some of the more interesting work doesn't grab me too hard, some of the nice tape textures could definitely stand out more.
B-side has a sort of variation of the previous shoegaze synth in a different key as opener. I am just not into the early-90's new age nature documentary synth. There is some nice modulation, though, that adds the necessary grime. Unidentifiable noises sort of drag around in the background, I like that. Whatever industrial field recordings and noise are protruding from the bottom, I really like. More saturated and slightly blown-out before things become more effected and modulated. Then, quickly, a loop involving some birds chirping and a dog barking cuts in, with some odd background squiggly noise. Safe to say I like this side much more than the previous. Then some job site-type clatter intrudes, confirming that I'd like to hear more of this project. Cassette-decay pop and crackle starts to come in, with some strange and interesting clay-like reverb textures. For me, this is a good introduction, but more that than definitive. I'm sure fans of the project already like this. Recommended to those more into the Strange Rules vibe than I.
Will Over Matter "Visio Ja Totetutus" CS (Freak Animal)
"Beyond subtle minimalistic approach" seemed like a weird but good introduction to a project I've been meaning to explore for a long time, but was distracted by other things. I certainly see the Bianchi comparisons, as this opens with the semi-percussive echoes by themselves that classic M.B. does so well. Artwork is genius, too – archaic mechanical baby schematics. Jarringly, just as the echoes expand into cascading noise, what sounds like a completely destroyed beat cuts in in loop-form with a strange slight reverb. There is some very quiet, occasional musique concrete shuffling alongside it, adding to the mystery and challenge. The beat-loop seems to gain some coherence as it moves along, but barely so. Safe to say, I've never heard anything like this before. I'll admit this part does drag on for a bit, but in all fairness, in a way that holds my attention in suspense, wondering what's going to happen, rather than wondering why and what's the point. The ONLY comparison I can make here is Kostis Kilymis' "Arctic Saturation," which has some similar grainy subrhythms against slight noise crackle. Eventually, these ultra-slight high-end microtones come into play, almost unnoticeable unless you're paying full attention. By now, I've noticed the "beat" seems at it's most straightforward. I have to wonder, are those microtones guitar, or some weird spring instrument? Finally, things shift and collapse somewhat abruptly.
Grinding, concrete noise opens the B-side with killer textures and a brittle tone. Things move forward in rhythmic tape noise fashion, but are somehow a little more defined than the usual murk, mud, and mulch you hear. It's also safe to say that I love this, it's mind-boggling how one can find something so engaging despite it's utterly straightforward quality. Not only am I only barely familiar with the Finnish language, I can't quite discern what's going on in this sample, other than there are two voices, male and female. Following that, a very abrupt shift to square-wave synth tone against a very nice, angular echoed metallic rhythm of some kind. Not in the sense as previously-described, but more abstract if such a thing is even possible. The synth grinding gets more intense and more reverb is heaped onto the unmodulated rhythm, before things again cut abruptly. Well, back to the click-clack subrhythm alongside barely-noticeable background blips. This is exactly what I imagine when I see something described only as "minimal." Fucking definition of that. The 1-1-1-1 "beat" seems to gather in presence, with the background quiet 1-1-1-1 modulating ever so slightly. Seems like most wouldn't even care to make these types of sounds, let alone listen to them. Well, fuck that, this is supposed to be experimental music, right? Now, the background blips have morphed into more concrete shuffling at almost frustratingly-low volumes. I can imagine people who do certain kinds of drugs overdosing, nodding off, and dying to this, it's like a junkie's fragile heartbeat against the sound of them crawling around the room. Some modulated synthesizer buzz then intrudes, literally, growing in volume past the other elements. You wake up for a moment and realize what's happening before it all stops. Forever.
Anyway, this is recommended to anyone not tied to particular biases in sound, this stuff rejuvenates the feeling that anything is possible within "these genres," truly challenging material while I'm doing things that really are just loud and noisy or weird, but nowhere near as off-putting and different as this. Listen and be inspired!
Euronet s/t CS (State Controlled Tapes)
Second review of this tape after a few listens. Got a problem? Stop reading. Thought I'd give this another chance because sometimes my attention and memory is so hazy that I know my first impressions can be bullshit. I bought and kept it for a reason, after all.
Side A appears to be synthesizer textures, mostly on the swarming high end, treated via lots of tape saturation. There's also a sort of foreboding mid-low-end background "cantus firmus" that carries the piece along nicely, more smooth than I remember from the first time around. Straightforward, minimal, and probably will not appeal to those who don't actively seek simple minimalism. Oddly, I can't think of a damn thing to compare it to. "Brain Leak 1 & 2," though? I didn't notice any separation.
Totally different sounds on B-side. More active, quick, and ripping noise textures, reminding me of Being (!!!) in a way that sounds like they could be acoustic sounds treated to shit via tape, or perhaps synthesizer sounds with the same treatment. Either way, this is a kind of noise I listen to less nowadays, but enjoy very much just the same. There's this compact, almost quiet quality that gives this the amateurish charm I prefer. There's also a subtle physical quality that, while not too impactful or percussive, feels and sounds like more than just electronics being decayed through magnetics, but as if the sounds began as one thing, and were changed into another. There's also some "electrical" crackling textures that I'm pretty much a sucker for at all instances. Excellent reverberated toothy background humming underneath all the sweet noise violence that moves around in a manner similar to Whitehouse's "Lightning Struck My Dick." I like unexpected PE textures within more direct noise. Things switch a bit to a focus on high end, with some almost French musique concrete (?) sounding textures giving this a relaxing feel (??), despite it's tension, volume, and action. Things shift gears following an intense build to some low-end rumble with a nice reverberated tone, but then abruptly cut off and end. Bummer. I could have listened to that for a while. Definitely getting the new tape from WCN. US harsh noise adherents will probably love this.
Koufar "Life Sentence" CS (Black Psychosis)
Uncultured white boy that I am, I 1) need to actually keep up with projects I like, and 2), need to learn the basics of more languages. Knowing that I lack much of the context within which to frame most Koufar concepts, it feels almost stupid to review this tape. Whatever. It's damn good and was intended for me to review by the person who sent it. So I'm doing that. Sorry Mack. I'll try to keep things short and focus on sound over content, which still feels like a concession to laziness, but here we are. More PE should demand that you learn more about the world you live in, anyway. That's what political content in PE is for. NOT shock value.
For starters, this is a lot more minimal than the years-old Koufar releases I was initially familiar with. Originally, what struck me was the intense layering and the unique intonation of Mack's voice, in addition of course to the nationalistic themes. Those recordings were generally overloaded with a lot going on, with the vocals drenched in multiple effects. Here, we get something of a distilled verison of that. The electronics are loose yet structured, percussive and punctuated instead of linear and wall-of-noise approach. Frankly, there isn't a ton of sounds going on, but that's not necessary. The excecution of solid concept into good music with impassioned vocal delivery is plenty to carry a less-is-more style.
A note on the vocals is that I'm always left wanting to read the lyrics. Although Mack has a hardcore punk style of delivery that here isn't as disguised in effects as say, The Purity Of The Cedars, the foreceful shouting pretty much reduces the words to collections of syllables that I can't understand. Perhaps that's appropriate considering my lack of relation to what he's actually talking about? Although I like very much the way it sounds, with a project this centered on particular concepts, what is being said is obviously very important as well.
These pieces are not only minimal, but seem to vary appropriately in length based on the sounds that comprise the backing track underneath the vocals. There's a distinctly rhythmic approach on the second and third especially that are complimented by very slight detail and what's nearly a sense of melody, or at least a tonal approach one might expect more out of Ke/Hil and Genocide Organ rather than, say, pretty much anything else. They're also full of somewhat unpredictable shifts in texture and volume that coincide damn well with the vocals as they become more mangled by effects. Some great use of stop-start cuts in the delay that seem to make good use of a line-switcher to other effects, such as the fast tremolo and slight reverb. Everything's also a little quiet in comparison to the vocals and some of the high-end, but that's what volume knobs are for.
I should note that I am distinctly reminded of a very old Shift tape entitled "Nocturnal Beasts" from Turgid Animal. While I know that Shift has been a detractor of some of his older material (evolving and improving is the game here), I still very much like and return to that tape enthusiastically in a collection otherwise full of metal bashing, high-end squeal, and crackling. The emotive, bleak, punctuated drone is almost a staple in older Shift tapes, and here, we get Mack's take on that sound. It's not as miserable and depressive as old Shift, though, it's foreboding and a calm before the storm. It also is just something I find appealing in a sonic sense. I'm all the more interested to hear what the two are capable of when working together because of the above. Koufar and Shift are just projects that when not great, are still very good. I think this Koufar track is either "Cell 3," or "Life Sentence (Reflections)," but the natural fluidity of the track progression makes it hard to tell. Following that, some unexpected synth melodies cut in alongside tape noise crackle and soon surrender to Wince-esque brittle noise cuts. The more this project progresses, the less I know what to expect, as any decent industrial, PE, noise, or anything should be. Dare I say something good could come of Mack mixing the sounds of Crown Of Cerberus into some more restrained Koufar compositions in the future? Now I'll backtrack and get older Koufar releases intermittent with newer ones, as I always do with great projects I neglect. Oh, and this is double-A-sided; is it just me, or is the mix on the B-side slightly louder and punchier??
Nor Index "Recurring Photographer" CS (Dogmatics In Outline)
Intense, short PE tracks that are something of a departure from the "Rat Trap" tape, with the exception of the vocals. Things here sound distinctly mangled on tape and perhaps executed via some neat line-switching. Opens to some fast, shifting harsh noise and quickly transitions to distorted vocals over what sounds like tape-sped high end and again quickly cuts to restrained high-end and then back to crumbling, brittle, pile-on harsh noise with the vocals returning over top more shifting, quick noise that occasionally sputters out or introduces some heavy low-end buzz. One thing, concept-wise, I've noticed is that while some projects seem centered on true crime or perhaps criminal acts, this project seems to deal with forensics and forensic psychology. I could see how some might not appreciate this, but I've never heard anything that's quite like this noise-with-vocals-over-it approach that I liked this much, or liked at all, really. I will complain that track distinctions, are, as usual with newer PE, hard to discern, but fuck it. This isn't dissimilar to Limbs Bin, except that I really like it, whereas LB doesn't do much for me, at least what little I've heard.
Flipping to the B-side, it occurs to me that old-fashioned radio or shortwave static may be an integral part of this sound, not unlike very old Consumer Electronics and the like. It's a careful rope to walk, but I like that kind of primitivism, even if it does sometimes come off as more "punk" than "industrial" in spirit. Man, that first one was short. Frankly, the second piece is a lot like the A-side second track. On such a short tape, I have to wonder about that. Here, the backdrop is still crunching and ripping tape noise, but with a more wall-like shape, less dynamic, but still fast, forward-momentum. Some filter sweeps I wish were louder, then degrading into more physical low-end rumbling and cutting noise. The dynamics, when they intrude, are damn good, here, though, detailed yet messy, with some of the details making you wish the sounds were more sustained. Too short, but perhaps not easily maintained on a longer cassette. Not exactly sure how to compare or recommend this, except that it's unique and could appeal to those who look for the unexpected.
Publication Ban "Demo 1" CS (Dogmatics In Outline)
This has the fidelity of the badly-dubbed Ramleh reissues on RRR. That's not necessarily bad, just an odd feature to accentuate when using tapes as a primary factor in creating noisy, industrial sounds. Some scraping yet watery textures with oscillating high end buried to some extent in the murk. Eerie atmospheric synths seem to lurk in the background before things give way to that same oscillation, primitive drone feedback, and human voice so buried and degraded that I cannot make out it's purpose or content. I read a review of this in Fordamning that made this tape seem quite different than it actually is, although I do get what he meant by "cheap microphone feedback." I don't mean it in the pejorative way, though, I generally like that sound (old Italian noise and PE) as I'm not overexposed to it like some are. I'm not continually looking backward, so when others do, sometimes I'm glad to hear their take on the "traditional" sounds. This is more personal than just mimicry, to my ears, though. Things shift faster and are quieter than any Mauthausen Orchestra I own. At one point, a strange warbled drone emerges that's hard for me to place – is it a synth, is it some tape-treated field recording, is it feedback treated with effects? I'll admit that the mysteriousness of this type of thing seems detached from a concept, which is a little odd, but it still doesn't seem totally done for it's own sake, I guess. Transitioning from that, a muffled cascade of static takes over, still leaving room for the barely-perceptible background human voices and incidental noises.
Things begin in basically the same manner on the B-side as the A-side, although it's easy to tell the sample is a woman speaking what might be Arabic. Feedback is sharper, louder, and more present, perhaps invoking current Filth & Violence projects more than vintage Italian crimes. Although I like this tape, I've got to admit it offers very little – on a bad day, this might be my least favorite of the Dogmatics In Outline projects, despite that I'm generally really into these types of wonky feedback sounds. Eventually, the torrent gives way to quite an odd sample of a man conversing with perhaps an investigator regarding his employment's connection with some form of sex trafficking or prostitution, preceding another where a young man is interviewed about his abuse. Unfortunately, I can't quite discern the next samples, although they appear to be quite young people being interviewed about what they spend the money they earn from prostitution on. I could listen to and try to ferret out the meat of these samples all day. The electronics and tape work, occasionally. If you want to hear an extremely lo-fi, restrained version of Taint, maybe check this out.
Publication Ban "Demo 2" CS (Dogmatics In Outline)
Opens to a muffled sample of a British man saying something about "I want to show you some pictures," underneath whirring mid-range synth square-waves that bursts quickly into similarly-textured mid-and-high end noise, including some almost-harmonic feedback. I suppose I immediately like this one more than the first demo above. Sounds as if many of the present sounds have been run through the same synthesizer or tone generator unit, sort of like live versions of "Felix Culpa" by Club Moral. This is certainly no Club Moral, but still something I very much like; hard-to-place, almost-frustrating primitive electronics and tape work. As with the previous, there's a sample that continues underneath everything, but is literally serving as a backdrop instead of an interlude or in place of vocals, as many samples generally do. The sweeping, EQ-knob work returns here, louder than the previous demo, still in the gritty mid range without being too piercing-high or rumbling-low, after a bit moving around alongside the "cheap" feedback. There are some really watery low-end sounds in the background which are hard to make out, adding to some of the mysterious-factor. If I had to compare this to anything, it'd be more so obscure tape noise projects like Scorpio & Glass or The Glass Path (similar names a coincidence) than the aforementioned M.O. or Club Moral. I can easily see how certain Swedes might be unimpressed, but I also feel that the been there, done that mentality is just as tiresome when objectivity is your starting point. There is some more nice low-end that sounds like the wind or contact sounds one gets from field recordings underneath drilling high-end hiss, furthering the comparison in particular to a Glass Path tape I have whose title I think is "Driving Music" (check that out if you like this). At one point, this beautiful oscillating feedback rhythm (!) fades in, which is just blissful, ending of course too quickly. Worth noting at this time that the sample sounds not unlike police scanner recordings. Noise eventually again fades to reveal the sample and incidental crunching noise, but adds no clarity of discernment. This is also A-side-only, which is frankly a bad idea unless a given set of recordings is at least 20-25 minutes in length, and even then, the least you can do is make it double-A-sided, like the Koufar tape above.
