Nxfxtxex – Press Play And Shuffle 3″CDR
Shit Music For Shit People
Nxfxtxex, or Not For Trendy Ears, is a Danish noise project that, from what I can determine based on the material found on Press Play And Shuffle, stays more on the absurd side of the noise genre than anything. Consisting of 99 tracks within about a twenty minute time span, I’m reminded of Sissy Spacek’s self titled album in terms of format but, in terms of concept, Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s Altered States of America is what comes to mind more when …

Churner – Coffin Angel CDR
Violent Noise Atrocities
Here is my first exposure to the already prolific artist Churner. He seems to spew depraved power electronics noise from almost every orifice with this simple CDR release. The packaging is ultra minimal using simple text and stickers on a stock digipak.
The album kicks off with what is probably the most creative track here, a lonely organ tone eventually working itself into a frenzy of obliterating distortion. The rest of the album features sickened power electronics and harsh noise with screamed and distorted …

Josh Hydeman – Chiaroscuro CD
Entropic Tarot Records
Chiaroscuro is a release that is now a few years old and I believe is one that stands out among Josh Hydeman’s release catalog as he is more well known for his harsh noise and power electronics works. So it is that Chiaroscuro explores slowly evolving synthesizer compositions featuring metallic patches, organized drones, slowly moving pitched pads and even the sound of a guitar here and there.
The entire album has the atmosphere of an old creepy sci-fi film. As the album artwork is all …

Shalocins – Scrapped Mold CDR
Dumpsterscore Home Recordings
Here is my first exposure to the project Shalocins. With Scrapped Mold they present almost an hour’s worth of material in two long tracks, both recorded live. The artwork here is simple yet tasteful following the aesthetic of most Dumpsterscore releases.
The style of Shalocins is junky harsh noise with synth and pedal sounds. It’s quite generic and doesn’t really do much for me as it’s also a bit wanky with long passages of fuckery, squealing circuits, and dead radio noise. At first I thought …

Budrūs – Devyniems Rytams Auštant CD
Self Released
Here’s a heavy disc of black ambient from an unknown project to me. I have no idea where Budrūs hails from but I wouldn’t be surprised if they reside in deep dark woods, or some foggy isolated lofty mountaintop somewhere based on the earthly drones emanating from Devyniems Rytams Auštant. They merge harmonic synthesized beds with various black metal influenced vocal deliveries and some tribal percussion to form a unique sound.
Sometimes the vocals are screamed and sometimes they are whispered or spoken gruffly. The …

V/A – Dreadful Passage CD
Hipster Death Records
Here’s an ambient noise compilation that I believe consists of mostly Seattle-based artists. I know at least Joy Von Spain and Cathartech are from Seattle; I guess the rest of the artists are guilty by association. It’s a heavy release, clocking in at over 60 minutes with multiple tracks by some artists; this is a lot to take in.
Joy Von Spain & Patrick Urn collaborate for the first two tracks entitled Walking All Alone Pt. 1 & 2 which feature a weird combination of …

The Ritual Inclusion of Code – Beta Wave Nemesis CD
Small Doses
Here’s a nice flowing ambient album from the Small Doses camp – meaning that the artwork and design is top-notch. The design features symmetrical glitchy computer graphics multiplied to a thousand and cut to hell. Kind of strange because the sounds here are anything but reflective of the art work.
Dense beds of sounds – sometimes harmonic and sometimes noisy – are layered into a 30 minute exercise in ambient drone with some industrial influence here as the track grows. Meandering …

Merzbow – Microkosmos Volume 1 LP
Blossoming Noise
All the years of reviewing and I’m not sure if I’ve even ever reviewed a Merzbow release. I think it’s something I generally try to avoid because of all the baggage attached to such an endeavor. The debate on his proliferation, the analog-vs-digital debacle, his more accessible beat driven works, and finally his hard-edge stance on animal liberation. All of these topics I’d rather not tackle now but how can I ignore them when all those elements have had such an affect on his …

John Mannion – Slice Through Or/In Glassmetal LP
Hanson Records
John Mannion is one half of The Cathode Terror Secretion and a member of the now infamous Red Light District. With Slice Through Or/In Glassmetal Mannion presents a phenomenal full-length of epic proportions which has managed to capture not just a high sense of sound design, composition and evolution with abstract sound, but also a way to harness the “physicality” that so many noise artists attempt to portray in their recorded material.
Fading in from merely the ambience of an unaffected framed fan …

Ur – Clandestine Meeting Park C60
No Visible Scars
Here is the latest effort from Italian ambient/noise heavyweights Ur. With a handful of releases now under their belts they are fully prepared to bring it and on Clandestine Meeting Park they do just that.
Ur come from a unique angle; they merge ritual ambient with industrial elements to form an interesting mix of styles and one that is not very much explored by other noise acts. This is a one-sided 60 minute tape and it kicks off with beautifully resonating Tibetan bells that …