Small Cruel Party – An Accident in Substance 3xCD
Harbinger Sound
An Accident in Substance is a mammoth 3 disc retrospective of the work of Small Cruel Party representing a wealth of material. For me, it is actually the introduction to this artist who’s name I have heard floating around for years but never had the motivation to really delve into. Well, I’m glad I did because this is some simply intriguing and even at times profound material.
A written introduction in the packaging states that “the music of Small Cruel Party was …

A Night To Dismember – Chicken Heart 3″CDr
Diazepam
Chicken Heart is a nicely put together release featuring a good dosage of harsh noise and power electronic sounds. Simple black & white artwork adorning off-white paper gives it a unique D.I.Y. feel.
The sound here is crisp and crusty. Well produced with frequencies searing in both the high and low-ends. The evolution of the track is a little choppy but keeps things unpredictable. The basic sounds here are heavy layers of distortion, some metallic movement here and ther,e a skip of delay or …

Svaixt – Lo C45
Terror
Svaixt is a side project of Laurynas Jukonis, the man who is also behind Girnų Giesmės. He apparently had an opportunity to travel to Upper Mustang which is an isolated mountain city in the far reaches of Nepal.
Lo is mostly a compilation of various field recordings from this enigmatic habitat which is Tibetan in culture. So what you can expect here are droning chants, windy ambiences, bells, and foreign walla. There are some tracks that stand out like the opener which consists of a glassy abstract drone …

Innana – Signal/Or/Minimal CD
Crowd Control Activities
Released way back in 1999, I got my hands on this little sucker during my last trip to RRR. The running time clocks in at about an hour here so I figured, why not write a review while I’m listening to it? I’m a big fan of Innana’s previous works yet this release is a step in a different direction.
Signal/Or/Minimal seems quite a fitting title as these tracks are more on the minimal side of things. Yet despite that they morph and evolve rather …

Pusdrainer – Sexual Revulsion C33
Danvers State Recordings
The lo-fi collage artwork on this disc much reminds me of an 80s horror flick like Street Trash or something which is pretty much along the same lines of Pusdrainer’s aesthetic. A very nicely done job by Danvers State Recordings and a quick preparation for the grimy sounds inside.
This is possibly the most raw Pusdrainer recording to date, yet it’s also quite a full spectrum of sound. Although in the description from the label it says this is close to wall noise I might …

Aiden Baker & Thisquietarmy – Orange CD
Lunasylum
Orange is a heady disc chalked full of resplendent guitar drone from these two artists. The disc features blurry, dreamy orange art in a slick slipcase. Clocking in at 46 minutes it contains 8 tracks of glistening atmospheres.
The tracks seem to melt into one epic journey with an ever-evolving centrifuge of sound. Ebbing and flowing from high mountain peaks into deep abysmal depths there are moments here that feature controlled synth noise, soaring harmonies and even some subtle melodies here and there. I think …

Blue Sabbath Black Cheer – Crows Eat the Leviathan’s Carcass CD
Release The Bats
One of my favorite projects that I have discovered in recent years; Blue Sabbath Black Cheer present this harrowing full-length comprised of various collected tracks from their more limited releases and a few unreleased tracks as well. If you are not familiar with the project they hail from Seattle and present a barrage of harsh noise and creative industrial that plays out like a more bleak Wolf Eyes.
Due to the fact that this is a collection of …

The Infant Cycle – Left Ear Revolt CDr
The Ceiling Limited
The Infant Cycle is another previously unknown project to me. On Left Ear Revolt they present roughly 53 minutes in 9 tracks of varied experimental electronica styled sounds.
Most of the tracks here are in the repetitive drone style of things with clean harmonic synthesizer sounds slowly evolving among a bed of various glitch accents. It has a very laid back vibe to it, modern and electric.
There are other stylistic elements added here and there like the brief industrial sounds in …

Kazuma Kubota/S.I.V. – Split 7″
Cipher Productions/Underground Pollution
Delivered in understated packaging – a simple atmospheric black and white photo on the front and hand-stamped labels on the vinyl – this little release packs a serious punch. It’s good to see the efforts of two labels and two artists coming together so simply yet consistently.
Kazuma Kubota is up first with a whirlwind of a track. Kicking things off with excellent industrial atmospheres of machinery and metal sounds, the track suddenly blasts into a miasma of harsh noise mayhem about 2 minutes in. …

Skin Graft/Deterge – Sinkhole/Neglectronic LP
Fusty Cunt
A pairing of two scummy midwest harsh electronics artists can’t get better then this. At this point these dudes are mainstays of the scene and represent the economical decay of the area pretty well with thier raw and bitter sounds. The packaging here reminds me of something RRR might have released at some point but with nicer inserts that were apparrently printed by Phage Tapes who always knows whats up.
Skin Graft is up first with absolutely tortured musique concrete junk noise. Shit tons of distortion …