Tasuketekun – Electrical Lessons CDr
Obfuscated Records
Tasuketekun is a harsh noise artist hailing from Japan and creating noise in a the style of the Japanese greats like Merzbow and Astro. This disc holds roughly 42 minutes of white hot synth-based noise with tons of variation yet using droning synth pads as a base for each track.
Two longer tracks kick things off with Electrical Lessons featuring a low bass tone and cut-up distorted elements above the drone. It is quite consistent for the entirety of the track. Human Weapon is of …

Regosphere/Shiver – There’s Daggers in Men’s Smiles C20
Dumpsterscore Home Recordings
This cassette is an already sold-out split tape from two burgeoning noise artists both tending to lean towards the ambient/industrial realms.
Regosphere tackles side A with Wolf’s Head (Bleeding) which has a much more power electronics vibe than most of his material and I’m really digging it. Beneath the Sheath follows with more of Regosphere’s token sound but as always these tracks are very thick with excellent synth pads and layers of fuzz.
Shiver’s work here isn’t bad but I have to say …

Arabian Blade – Perpetuate Myself C30
Elm Recordings
It’s no secret that Christopher Donofirio’s Reviver is one of my favorite projects currently in operation in New England but here we have him teamed up with Donovan Fazzino, a man who I am less familiar with. Luckily it seems the pairing works quite well together because this tape is an excellent offering of droning ambience and industrial.
Side A consists of a few tracks with the first 2 building up to the third. Beginning with more subtle drones it’s solid work until it gets …

Opponents – Psychosexual Spiritual C38
Out-of-Body Records
Opponents were founded in late 2006 in New York City by the duo of Joshua Slusher and Aaron Feinstein. In Late 2009 they were joined by Joshua Greco to form the current lineup as a trio. I’m surprised they haven’t crossed my path before as they are quite prolific and if Psychosexual Spiritual is any indication they’re sound and style is evolved and explorative.
Opponents embrace the blurred line between industrial, electronica, abstract, and psychedelic music while using all analog gear. The production quality reflects that …

156 – A Life Lived As If In Hell C30
Out-of-Body Records
156 is back with their unique brand of musique concrete industrial music. This time bringing their awkward style to the next level and truly creating an audio soundscape of the most hellish levels.
Side A combines field recordings of people screaming, yelling, coughing, maybe fucking? Who knows? With reverberating industrial junk noise sometimes forming rough looping patterns at other times just cutting in and out incessantly. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to these sounds, their main goal to …

Oneirogen – Kiasma CD
Denovali Records
Oneirogen is the project of Mario Diaz de Leon who is a classically trained guitarist based out of New York city and also composes music under his own name. Oneirogen generally features guitar-based epic drone tracks that are paired with heavy synthesizer dirges ranging from huge exploding harmonies to emotional arpeggios. Kiasma is the third effort from the project following an initial full-length and one ep.
Kiasma is an expansion on the ideas and aesthetics that de Leon had set in his previous full-length Hypnos and I …

Funerary Call – Fragments from the Aethyr CD
Crucial Blast
Fragments from the Aethyr was released in 2012 on Crucial Blast records and was the second release of the year for Funerary Call making it the project’s most prolific year since 2004. If you’re unfamiliar Funerary Call it is the project of Harlow MacFarlane who also heads the Canadian death industrial project Sistrenatus. Fragments of the Aethyr continues to the exploration of FC’s ritualistic ambience.
The sound on Fragments though is much more string-centric. With the interplays on the opening track Libation being …

LSFB – Loathsome Sounds From Beyond C20
Cathartic Process
LSFB features members of Nyarlathotep and hails from Pheonix, AR. Loathsome Sounds From Beyond contains 4 tracks. In the opener Eye of Retaliation the sounds are immediately filthy and tortured lo-fi style. Burnt-out transistors, throbbing pain waves, and frantic screaming buried in the mix all amounts to a wild array of insane noise.
The following track Honeymoon in Haiti takes things down a notch and churns out some well played death industrial elements. This time much more brooding and and atmospheric than the …

Wastelanders – I: Total Desolation C90
Calls and Correspondence
Wastelanders is a solo side project by Dean Costello, who is also active in Harpoon, Diatribes, and Winters in Osaka. This is the project’s first release which was put out in 2010.
Side A kicks off with a post-rock styled solo guitar piece with slowly rotating strummed cords spiraling into oblivion. A quick cut to some randomized and/or granulated electronic fluttery tones is a touch awkward but adds some crucial variance. My only issue with this is that the music usually only consists …

Peter J. Woods – Failure from Both Ends 7″
Curious Lacunae
Peter J. Woods the insane professor from Milwaukee, is back. In this quick album he explores different sounds and compositions but nothing that is too unfamiliar to his previous work. However the material sees him furthering his technique and vision.
Side A contains East a track that begins in a very unobtrusive way. I can’t tell if these are broken oscillators or heavily manipulated vocals but the track builds quite effectively until it has overtaken the listening space. The production is very …