Dementia and Hope Trails – Ethereal Hurt C20
Dynamo Sound Collective
Dementia and Hope Trails is yet another one of the many faces of Justin Marc Lloyd perhaps better known as Pregnant Spore or less well known under a multitude of project names such as False Flag, Sensible Nectar and Ghost Volcano. This particular project sees Lloyd on guitar, some extraneous electronics, tapes and field recordings. I would be hard pressed to know this however, because Ethereal Hurt offers up 20 blissful moments of spacy, undulating drone.
Apparently both sides are untitled here …

Custodian – I CD
Syzmic Records
Here’s a BURLY offering from Custodian. Yet the album title has me wondering whether this is entitled the roman numeral “1” or I as in me, myself and I? Quite unclear due to the fact that there is very little information provided here and all the tracks are left untitled, which may hint at the title being the former because the entire album almost runs as one long track, not because of the fades in between – which do occur – but because of the monochrome …

V/A – City/Ruins DVD
Live Bait Recording Foundation
Welcome to the city of Cleveland, or more specifically to the seedy noise/industrial underbelly of this not-quite-midwestern waste of land. This extensive documentary on the Cleveland scene covers everything from the view of the artists, classic venues, the history of the scene, live performances as well a general summation of noise/industrial music for the uninitiated. Very noticeable right off the bat is how well balanced and thorough the documentary is and how varied and lush the scene in Cleveland appears to have become.
There are …

Al Qaeda / Dried Up Corpse – 1309 C27
Rainbow Bridge
Sporting a beautiful, double sided insert abounding with images of the grave and the single inscription “Fuck you”, Al Qaeda and Dried Up Corpse treat the concept of Fucked in their own individual ways on this 1309.
Al Qaeda’s side consists of some ambient-esque electronics with avant-garde aural environments: chimes and bells sound off continuously and regularly while distorted voices narrate the empty, hostile atmosphere. The right touch of paranoia is found here and the track stays minimal and only briefly brushes …

Pestdemon – Doppelgänger C30
Unrest Productions
Doppelgänger is Pestdemon’s latest output on Unrest Productions, a label boasting an array of artists such as Richard Ramirez, Gelsomina, and Black Leather Jesus. With an amalgamation of sounds centered on a solid, wall noise base, this cassette provides a sense of mystery and familiarity simultaneously.
Consisting of heavy electronics and mostly wall noise, Pestdemon provides a slow but tense buildup on Hemsökelse – Ritual. The tones shift in a subtle but consistent fashion; high frequency background noises rise out of the mist and industrial noise matches …

Reptile Worship – Formosa 3″ CDr
FTAM
Reptile Worship is just one of the many promising experimental artists to release content on Peter Woods’ FTAM label, an organization designed to give a home to Milwaukee’s avant garde and experimental community. With a strong Reptilian agenda motif, Formosa is a short release with hostile industrial tendencies and dark, bassy drones. With an ominous, crackling backdrop, the environment created here is nothing new but interesting indeed.
The textures presented on Formosa mesh into each other very slowly and tediously, making this release somewhat slow to …

Climax Denial – All Of My Loves Are Like Dreams CD
Assembly Of Hatred
Here is Climax Denial’s first proper CD release, but with such an extensive discography I don’t really know if that means anything special. All Of My Loves… thankfully lives up to – and might I dare say – exceeds expectations.
The tracks are just as aggressive as always with all aspects of Climax Denial’s sounds represented. Creeping ambience leading into heavy distorted ambience (see the opener Oh Mommy, I am Dying), pulsating power electronics with sickened vocals (see The …

BORBETOMAGUS – LIVE AT O’BRIEN’S PUB – ALLSTON, MA – JUNE 12TH 2011 from Noisevision on Vimeo.

Wolfskin – O Ajuntar dad Sombras CD
Malignant Records
This is my first exposure to Wolfskin and it features a solid representation of the artist as most Malignant releases do. With muted earth tones and understated artwork the visuals reflect the sound well.
These are synth ambient tracks with some subtle tribal influences here and there. Sometimes in the form of shimmering chimes glittering on the edges of the harmonics, other times manifested as drums loops yet at all times layered beneath the swirling drones.
The overall atmosphere features nothing new, this is well …

Serge Modular Users 2009 CD
Resipiscent
Released as a showcase of experimental musicians that make use of the Serge modular synthesizer system, Serge Modular Users 2009 is a collection of an amalgamation of styles, but only to a certain degree. There are a few gems to be found here, but overall, this compilation is rather dull.
M/N/M/L kicks the album off with Breath, a expansive and spacious track that effectively utilizes minimalistic tendencies. STRK is an Autechre-esque track with hints of skewed rhythm and avant-garde electronic environments. Distress Call is an aptly named …