Rale – I Sit By the Window and Watch Walls and Ceiling CD
Monorail Trespassing
I couldn’t help but brace myself for the excitement that the title of this album conjures. All jokes aside, I assumed this would be a minimalist, maybe ambient affair and it appears I was right. Rale is a project that is entirely new to me and they deliver some interesting quiet and soft atmospheres on this disc which totals about 50 minutes in length.
Luckily the song titles are actually much more exciting, or at least more intriguing …

Shiver – The Light Within has Turned to Darkness C20
Diazepam
I remember the last Shiver album to be more along a more noisy, power electronics vein, but here we have a good delivery of dark ambient/death industrial to mark a new turn in their work. I dig the packaging here with the j-card being printed on textured paper, simple artwork and text make the release have that kind of old school feel that is also recalled in the music.
The production of the tape makes it slightly more difficult to say how …

Conure/15 Degrees Below Zero – Split C60
Danvers State Recordings
This hefty split tape sees two artists whom I haven’t heard from for some time. Definitely good to see them back at it though as this is a solid showing of creative ambient/noise soundscapes. I’m not too into the artwork which is all blurry and presents a mix of ugly colors and fonts, but luckily the sounds don’t correlate.
Side A sees Conure strutting his stuff. It’s a good example of electronic ambient noise using a variety of drone textures sounding mostly as …

Vasculae – Cultural Primitivism CD
Monorail Trespassing
Vasculae is a side project of Jon Borges also the man behind the label releasing the disc as well as Pedestrian Deposit and Emeciator among other projects. Cultural Primitivism lays down three hefty tracks in around 50 minutes of no-holds-barred harsh noise with a small amount of experimental atmospheres.
One thing that is interesting is that the quality of the noise is much different from his other projects. It has a very crunchy and up-front sound. There is not much experimentation with space, pacing, and composition …

Massdirge – Untitled CDR
[Self Released]
Housed in a circular metallic box with lightly rusted exterior this CDR is quite a work of art in and of itself. Luckily it’s not just the packaging that makes this release a worthwhile experience.
Massdirge presents intense industrial drone sludge which focuses on repetitive rhythmic elements and elongated guitar riffs. Normally I wouldn’t really go for this kind of thing, and I do think that some of the guitar elements even in this release are a bit overplayed. But luckily Massdirge mixes it up with a …

Andrew Quitter – Forgotten Farms C30
Diazepam
Andrew Quitter is a man of many faces though they all certainly share the same head. Operating under monikers such as Regosphere and Suburbia Melting he also heads the Dumpsterscore Home Recordings label which releases a wide variety of underground noise, industrial and experimental music. In summation, if you’re not familiar with his work you need to get up to speed.
When Quitter operates under his own name the auditory style usually falls into a synth ambient quality with cinematic tendencies. The compositions here reflect this …

The Black Scorpio Underground – …………Pure Hate Fuck…………… C30
Husk Records
This is a sickened tape from this up and coming black noise act. Let’s start with the design here: probably one of the most fucked up collages I’ve ever seen. Putting nun’s heads on porno stars, penises on children, and pentagrams on refugee’s foreheads this is some krazy shite.
Side A represents this artwork well with an audio collage of horror movie samples and awkward noise. One very noticeable thing here is that the panning is really strange and awkward not really …

Mind & Flesh – Martyr Generation CD
Force Majeure
Mind & Flesh is a project I know nothing about. Besides coming from the Force Majeure label – which apparently is yet another sub label of Nuit Et Brouilliard – the act is unknown to me. Martyr Generation is however, a pretty great introduction to the project.
What you will find on Martyr Generation is rhythmic – but not quite danceable – power electronics/industrial much reminding me of Irikarah, Haus Arafna, and Mind & Flesh’ label mates Objekt/Urian. Some of the tracks are …

Minamata – Niigata CD
Zone De Confusion
Despite being active since 1984 Minamata seems to have had a long bout of absence from 1991 to 2009. It wasn’t until his resurgence in the latter part of the 2000s that I discovered the project for myself. It’s unclear when exactly this particular re-issue of the cassette from 1985 was released but they added into the mix a mammoth 17 minute track to close things out which was recorded in 2002. Quite a nice addition.
If you’re a fan of noise/power electronics or industrial you …

Actuary/The Black Scorpio Underground – Metamorphosis of the Transgressor C30
Love Earth Music
This is a pairing that seems to make sense. Both Actuary and The Black Scorpio Underground tend to meander over that line between ambient and noise in a similar style. This is also, the first release on cassette that I have received from Love Earth Music, is it marking a new era for the label? Who knows, but I am quite fine with it.
Actuary is up first on side A with one long track entitled Stricken Host Lies Down. …