PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Worth "The Steps" CS (New Forces, 2018)
        I'm pretty much in agreement with all the praise this has been getting for all it's unique character. The A-side had some moments I was going to compare to some of my favorite harsh noise standbys, but the B-side was surprising, dark, and gritty enough to warrant a better description. Manages to sound "Americanoise" without bringing to mind MSNP or Skin Crime. The more chopped, almost-fast cut-up sections are probably my highlight. Although I was a fan of Weak Sisters, this stuff is just fucking killer – very much "harsh noise" but still experimental music, doesn't fall into subgenre/subcultural trappings or references, which is a good thing. Seems to focus more on being grimy (even atmospheric; something far too much harsh noise lacks) than being super-harsh. Will definitely be one of my year-end favorites. Also really good for a rainy afternoon like today.

Been working on WORTH interview for Special Interests#11. Magazine is just about to be "at final stages".  Still waiting few things before can start booking ad space etc..
Related to interview, went through some old tapes and WEAK SISTERS "Puerile Replica" tape ended up to tape player. Good tape. It also is so clear when Worth mentions in interview that Weak Sisters was like amateurish version of Worth (not exact words, but something similar). You can hear that it is good. Even great at times. But not as great as Worth. Technically quite similar, but yet to discover the absolutely best sounds there are.

DEAD BODY ART "DADA-1995" tape
Noting Note Tapes!
Japanese obscurity that varies from Hotel Ultra -style Gerogerigegege esque dada sound collage weirdness to primitive radio-noise and vocal frenzy oddities. Most of this project was probably done on SMMania label from Kyoto. This is even less known Nothing Note Tapes!. I see Vis a Vis reissued some stuff in 2017. Not sure if this is THAT good, that it needs to be reissued, but certainly weird and challenging tape. Brings back memories from times when getting noise tape could be challenge. Never knowing what exactly you're going to hear...

CONCRETE MASCARA "Worms of corrosion" tape
Self released tape that was mainly sold on Industrial Aktions fest in USA. And what a damn good tape it is! I find myself repeating, but seems like not only CM is getting better all the time, but also that these small tape releases are vastly better than the albums! Did I misread, or is this REALLY edition of 25 copies?! Fuck. It could be best works of CM and certainly could demand "proper release". Nothing wrong wih this, except I think there should be way more than 25 people who need to hear this recordings. Fierce and punishing power electronics and noisy industrial stuff.

[Baglady]

VASCULAE - New Orthodoxy - C34 (Monorail Trespassing)
This is pretty far from Receding Stasis (2012, and a favorite of mine). I temporarily lost touch with the project after Prolapse (WCN, 2013), but I believe things started changing, or at least taking side routes, by the time of that slew of tapes in 2014? Anyway. The label description lays emphasis on dark ambient. I can see where that comes from. But to me that only works as a superficial description. In these ears, New Orthodoxy sounds a bit like something Daniel Menche might have come up with early-mid 1990's, but with Jon Borges' dramatics. Huge cavernous (and well, dark, if you will) ambiences, with various textural sounds running in the center. Occasionally Jon loosen the reins and lets it blast forth, on side B especially, but it's never full on harsh mode. Nope. The contrast between the various restrained textures and the bigger cave-like ambiences is the thing here.  And it works very well! Quite the eerie comeback, this tape. I might have to track down those tapes from 2014 and '15 that I haven't heard.

[Major Carew]

STROMSTAD - New Devoted Human. Tape Version

Excellent material. I've had the CD version for a while & has had multiple spins, but whilst in Helsinki a week or so ago I picked up the tape version (released by Cloister Recordings), which has a more driven yet colder and more claustrophobic feel to it. The first track on the album is very much memorable, but my favourite track on there is NATTSVERMER.


Blood Ov Thee Christ - Masterbio Syphilitica - Dokuments 2005-2011

Couldn't make it to the event itself where this was made available so had a friend pick a copy up for me, certainly not disappointed! Nice and rough. Good long C90 of horror!

[cr]

RxAxPxE - Transgressing Ecstasy 2CD

Really like this. There's not much talk about this project, though there's releases on F&V, Bestial Burst, and so on. Since first tape on F&V I tried to get every following release, and the ones I got didn't disappoint. So this I'd recommend as well.

[eyesofsatan]

VASCULAE - New Orthodoxy - C34 (Monorail Trespassing)
This is pretty far from Receding Stasis (2012, and a favorite of mine). I temporarily lost touch with the project after Prolapse (WCN, 2013), but I believe things started changing, or at least taking side routes, by the time of that slew of tapes in 2014? Anyway. The label description lays emphasis on dark ambient. I can see where that comes from. But to me that only works as a superficial description. In these ears, New Orthodoxy sounds a bit like something Daniel Menche might have come up with early-mid 1990's, but with Jon Borges' dramatics. Huge cavernous (and well, dark, if you will) ambiences, with various textural sounds running in the center. Occasionally Jon loosen the reins and lets it blast forth, on side B especially, but it's never full on harsh mode. Nope. The contrast between the various restrained textures and the bigger cave-like ambiences is the thing here.  And it works very well! Quite the eerie comeback, this tape. I might have to track down those tapes from 2014 and '15 that I haven't heard.

It's not for everyone but I HIGHLY recommend his 'In Theory' tape from 2014. He did a full tour on that material, and was lucky to play the NYC show / see it live. Minimal spoken word / electronics juxtaposed with the amazing sheets of blistering harsh noise the project is originally known for. Again, I know some people don't like voice, especially spoken word type stuff in their noise, but this was executed perfectly in my opinion. Comes with a zine of collage work / text. Stands as one of my favorite things Jon has done in general. People compared some of the spoken parts on my split LP with Kjostad to Prurient, but I truly just very influenced by this release.

Looks like you can grab it for under 10 bucks still on discogs.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/5882281?ev=rb

[Peterson]

Looks like you can grab it for under 10 bucks still on discogs.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/5882281?ev=rb

Just did, thanks!

[moozz]

Merzbow . Duenn . Nyantora - 3RENSA (Slowdown Records)

This one is not in the recent huge batches of Merzbow material. It's a collaboration(?) from 2017. Both Duenn and Nyantora are Japanese musicians but I hadn't heard of them before this one came out. The information on the covers is pretty minimal (first track mixed by Masami, second track mixed by Duenn and third one mixed by Nyantora) unless you can read Japanese as it comes with a 4 page booklet. I assume it is a collaboration and each of the artists just do their own interpretation of the material. It is all very non-Merzbow-like. The first track (Masami mix) is a 19 minute drone piece with some squeaky/shimmering sounds. The second track (Duenn mix) is 18 minutes of slowly moving ambient (sometimes dark, sometimes "happier"). The third one (Nyantora mix) is over 20 minutes of low frequency hum with some Pan Sonic-ish crackling/distortion bursts. None of this is bad at all but for some reason I don't think I will ever have a feeling that I need to listen to THIS.

[Bacteriafield]

SELETED KILLING - Secret Tombstone 3"... this is the best power electronics i've heard in so long. the tracks are short and to the point. the Lyrics are violent and i appreciate them being written out in packaging. crazy full effort tracks that don't last too long or bore but hit hard in the face. rude and crude. Production is clean and loud. i listened in my car so i payed high attention to every detail and i felt it deserved a second listen right after it finished. Also must mention my love for the cover which comes from crackwhoreconfessions.com.... great website.  I find it hard to care about anything new recently but this one really gets me excited. i  really hope i can hear more from this project...  full support for selected killing from bacteria field.

[FEAR_GOD]

Merzbow- Venereology, Relapse Records LP

This release as all of you should know is incredible. King shit. the more industrialish tracks on this LP are hard and crude. Plotkin did the LP mastering the proper justice considering how punishing the mastering job was on the CD. I've listened to it several times since I got it and it always seems to bully its way back to the top of the pile. This reissue along with Merzcast podcast has definitely shined a light on one of those easily overlooked gateway gods such as Masami Akita.  You know the drill.

Agonal Lust- Hideous Salvation, CS

I'm gonna go ahead and say it. Nobody is touching this shit. Its hard as fuck. Its brooding. Its balanced. It isn't too much of one particular vibe. That is needed in Power Electronics. All too often its just boring ass walls of sound with someone screaming over or some moody anticlimactic bull shit. This is premier stuff.  Perfect length. Great and audible vocal delivery, Synth work and noise expertly layered setting the tone of the best release of 2019. 

Body Carve- Autoamputation, New Forces CS
As with Agonal Lust the same could be said for Body Carve in Harsh Noise. With the exception of the Worth 3inch on FA and the tape on Wonderland Media this shit is the tops. Hard and unrelenting. I've listened to it way more than I fucked with the Magazine reissue, thats just facts.  There is a scathing aura about this tape and some really disgusting tones. Played for a few homies the other night and everyone agreed this is a banger and we are looking forward to what this project has in store for us next.

[bitewerksMTB]

CONCRETE MASCARA "Worms of corrosion" tape plus the tape on Unrest Prod.- excellent work. Probably my fave U.S. project. Abrasive, destructive, minimal. Highly recommended!

Agree on Body Carve "Autoamputation". His work gets better with each release. S1 sets you up for agony then S2 chops it off. Nice slipcover on the art ed. as a  bonus.

[Duncan]

Agonal Lust- Hideous Salvation, CS
I'm gonna go ahead and say it. Nobody is touching this shit. Its hard as fuck. Its brooding. Its balanced. It isn't too much of one particular vibe. That is needed in Power Electronics. All too often its just boring ass walls of sound with someone screaming over or some moody anticlimactic bull shit. This is premier stuff.  Perfect length. Great and audible vocal delivery, Synth work and noise expertly layered setting the tone of the best release of 2019.  

Interesting to hear this take because everything I've heard from the project has been the usual underwhelming trope fest. Maybe context is everything because from miles over the ocean and disengaged from the crowd it comes from, Agonal Lust has so far just come across like another case of a project getting hyped up by it's mates while delivering nothing especially challenging but I'd genuinely love to hear this one and find out that it's not true.

[sterilization]

Agonal Lust- Hideous Salvation, CS
I'm gonna go ahead and say it. Nobody is touching this shit. Its hard as fuck. Its brooding. Its balanced. It isn't too much of one particular vibe. That is needed in Power Electronics. All too often its just boring ass walls of sound with someone screaming over or some moody anticlimactic bull shit. This is premier stuff.  Perfect length. Great and audible vocal delivery, Synth work and noise expertly layered setting the tone of the best release of 2019.  

Interesting to hear this take because everything I've heard from the project has been the usual underwhelming trope fest. Maybe context is everything because from miles over the ocean and disengaged from the crowd it comes from, Agonal Lust has so far just come across like another case of a project getting hyped up by it's mates while delivering nothing especially challenging but I'd genuinely love to hear this one and find out that it's not true.

Out of curiosity, what releases do you have?

[Duncan]

I've spent the most time w/ Modern Atrocities and Body of Death.  Could well be I've just not heard the best stuff yet?

[CLUBSCUM]

MONDE BRUITS - P.M.O.W.

[bitewerksMTB]

I've spent the most time w/ Modern Atrocities and Body of Death.  Could well be I've just not heard the best stuff yet?

I just received the final release by Agonal Lust but haven't played it yet and the two tracks on the split tape with Mania are good but I was a little underwhelmed on my first listen early this morning but I felt that way about my side, too (I was too conservative with my mixing levels. This was one of the first all-digital rec'ings for me). The second AL track has some great static-rumbling but I kept wanting vocals or something voice-related to creep into the mix.

"Hideous Salvation" is a nice package. I like the weird artwork (cover image reminds me of They Call Her One-Eye) & awful color photo. Without listening yet, based just on the looks, this should have been a glossy digipak cd (like Sadio's most recent). I had a sampling of the audio months n' months ago so I know it's not going to stink the place up...

Also, over the last week I've listened to "Entry and Removal" and "Flesh Renewed"(Maniacal Hatred) tapes by Gnawed, Heretic Grail "The Hole of Treason"(Black Psychosis), and Phocomelus "Jail Bait Freak Show" (Angst).

Agonal Lust "Hideous Salvation" was played twice in a row last night & it's their best, for sure, but if the previous recordings didn't do much for you then this probably will not, either. This material has a rather 'doomed' nature to the sounds. The vocals are the same as always but there are loops/samples that are not 'traditional' PE-type sounds.