Murder Corporation

[vomitgore]

I think, Murder Corporation is a project with a very strict aesthetic and pretty much similar approaches, but oftentimes highly varying outcome. According to Discogs, MC seems to have been highly prolific throughout the nineties releasing a bunch of tapes and CD-Rs, probably mostly hard to find nowadays.

Mostly crude "Death Industrial" style, lots of synthwanking, some PE influences and so on. I remember being not so taken away by a lot of material, but maybe it's more about the greater whole than single hit tracks. Although I am not familiar with most of the material, some noteable entries in the discography are definitely "Insane Pleasures" for the disturbed and violent feel it has to it, "Schwarz" for the simple and powerful soundscapes and of course the monolithic 8 CD box.

It seems Murder Corporation got a little less attention than projects of similar style, for some reason - maybe because the lack of one specific hit album that got wider recognition? Any thoughts on the project in general, hidden gems in the discography etc.?

[Dr Alex]

Amazing project! I really live "One Life By Murder" on Eibon Records. I guess it's my first touch with Italian death industrial.
"A Moment In Flesh" and "Death Files" are also great albums. Be sure to skip both cdrs on Ars Benevola Mater. It's not worth time and money.
I must buy that 8xcd boxset!

[Goat93]

The 8 CD Box is great.
The New Cd "Nekro" is also recommendet

[vomitgore]

Seems like "Nekro" represents the style of MC that may take a little more time to appreciate. Pretty static and bleak, definitely something that requires the right mood. Took me two spins.

Has anybody seen the DVD-R Menstrual has on offer?

[Decrepitude]

Seems like "Nekro" represents the style of MC that may take a little more time to appreciate. Pretty static and bleak, definitely something that requires the right mood. Took me two spins.

Has anybody seen the DVD-R Menstrual has on offer?

I got the DVD-r along with Schwartz and Necro A while ago since I've been quite into this project lately. It's pretty different than other stuff I've heard of him (the aforementioned albums and Butcher Meat). There's some more monotonic songs but a lot of them are shorter and have a bit more going on, there's even some crude drum machine and synth lines in a song or two. The video footage is not very interesting with mostly just suicide and crime scene footage and some WWII stuff with some crude color manipulations every now and then but it fits the mood of the songs pretty well. All in all I'd recommend it.

[tisbor]

"Lager" is one of my favorite records.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Got a copy of "New Crimes" in a trade from Rrron once. I appreciate it's muggy, rusty low fidelity sound. Nothing too outstanding but definitely listenable. I'd call it more "old school" noise/power electronics reminiscent of a time when there wasn't much of a distinction between the two.

I seem to have mp3 rips of other releases that I'll give some listening time to.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

It seems Murder Corporation got a little less attention than projects of similar style, for some reason - maybe because the lack of one specific hit album that got wider recognition? Any thoughts on the project in general, hidden gems in the discography etc.?

I don't know what would be the projects of "similar style"? While being so simple and rough, I think MC is quite unique. Hard to find such noise or "pe" or "industrial" what would be close to it.
Of course MC can be filed under same category as some old MB or some MO. But that is mostly themes and country of origin. Most of the works have no strong similarities or relation.
However, I'd prefer to see more MC reissue than any more MB/MO stuff. And even more: Perhaps rather than getting more, should just actively return to previous stuff he has available!

In my opinion, there are more hits than misses, though. CD box set is still waiting to be listened. That massive box requires specific mood to start going through. I think most of his albums are well worth grabbing. Latest mCD was one of the least interesting.

Murder Corporation to me, is much more about overall concept, overall atmosphere, than hit tracks. Basically his "hit tracks" could be something such as 7" on Bloodlust and New Crimes CD on Pure/RRR. Simply, because these were selected bits from longer releases. When someone pulls out great 5 min from one hour tape, it's more likely to appear focused than abundance of noise that appears to be thrown together quite spontaneously.

[vomitgore]

Heh, yeah, was probably referring to themes and country of origin. And yes, when actually exploring the material, one finds that there is a great deal of characteristic traits that make the project stand out.

The Box set nicely underlines the way MC works as a greater whole. Especially the fact that there is material on it that would probably be dismissed, if the artist or label were to select tracks for a "normal" release makes this work for me.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Inspired by topic, started to listen the box set, and must say, that only first disc behind, but it is mandatory release. Now I don't think selecting one CD worth with do justice for this. Each disc consists 5 to 11 tracks and there is really good diversity.

One way how Murder Corporation stands out from many contemporary projects, is lack of fancy effects and editing gimmicks. Most of all, sound appears like result of analogue recording technology - most of all bassy and crunchy blown up saturation. Couple sound elements layered on top of eachother, but never "pedal noise" and very rarely just synth oscillations. I'd assume these is most of all tape manipulation, and source sound, whether self recorded or taken somewhere, blends together into result what is almost unheard these days.

This box was made only 100 copies. All CD's professionally pressed. So I'd urge anyone into MC to grab it now. Edition seems fairly small, even for band like this.

[tisbor]

what i like most about murder corporation is the murky quality of sound and the overall feeling of unease. Not many acts manage to make the same effect on me. I know that material is not always at the same level (i think he tried a few techniques over the years and some of them simply didn't turn out well), but attitude and coherence of sound and visual aesthetic are commendable. Easily in the pantheon of Italian noise/p.e.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

In my opinion, there are more hits than misses, though. CD box set is still waiting to be listened. That massive box requires specific mood to start going through.

Actually, that said, and the mood was right then. Box set of 8 CD's was very nice. Spread through two days, now I feel like should listen MORE. It wasn't like some other boxes, where it was task to finally finalize it, but almost unfortunate it wasn't 10xCD box, hah...

what i like most about murder corporation is the murky quality of sound and the overall feeling of unease. Not many acts manage to make the same effect on me. I know that material is not always at the same level (i think he tried a few techniques over the years and some of them simply didn't turn out well)

Out of this box, only disc #3 is not too good. It is, most of all, simple keyboards though distortion. Unlike oscillating & throbbing synths, there is this specific quality of sound in distorting polyphonic keyboard sound. Which I don't care for. This was used on couple individual tracks on other discs, but those were not problem. Only this one disc was too lazy and too uniform use of keyboard. Otherwise: Great stuff. Murky sound quality is exactly good way to describe it. Still, below all the murkiness, one finds vast range of great sound sources & details. Good samples here and there.

Artwork of the box is very simple. Too bad the original front cover is not there. Artwork of each tape (which is the same) is used for disc labels. The small art there is, is in insert. But original box front would have been nice in cover of CD reissue too. Now it is same as in disc labels.

[deathcamp]

Any thoughts about the Disturbance tape re-release by Urashima?

[Scat-O-Logy]

Any thoughts about the Disturbance tape re-release by Urashima?

Best to hear it yourself and then decide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxapjDAz8k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4kq23Y3siU

Judging by those "samples", I left the record out of my recent order.

[impulse manslaughter]

I bought it but think it's mediocre..