Deign – Pecuniary Huckster C20
Out of Body Records
I’m really digging the design of this tape. Further confirmation that Out of Body Records is slowly – but certainly not quietly – becoming a significant force in the noise world. Not only that, but presenting really great unknown artists is a crucial characteristic for a noise label and that is another area where Out of Body Records seems to excel.
The sounds presented in Pecuniary Huckster are extremely refreshing. This is music that pulls from such genres as electroacoustic, harsh noise, experimental, and …

Frank Rosaly – Centering and Displacement LP
Utech Records
This record has made me realize that although I do love vinyl – with the large artwork, the heavy packaging, the analog concept and the physical ties to an abstract medium – I will still choose to listen to a compact disc if given a choice. That’s because this LP comes with a compact disc of the same material that is on the record and I’m realizing I haven’t listened to the actual record at all even though I’ve rocked the CD a …

Murderous Vision/Defiler – Split 7″
Live Bait Recording Foundation
Here’s a sickened slab of wax featuring two dark noise artists at their best. Defiler is a name that somehow seems familiar to me, but in which way I cannot recall. Murderous Vision is of course the long-running project of Mr. Stephen Petrus hailing from Ohio and active for many years. Packaging here is adequate with fuzzy high-contrast black/white imagery and with dancing skeletons on the back you can’t go wrong.
Defiler is up first with one track entitled Your Diseased Icon. This is …

Evil Moisture – Goo LP
Blossoming Noise
Straight from the Blossoming Noise camp comes this LP featuring some great design. With tongue-in-cheek graphics featuring people from the 50s with musical instruments, tape machine diagrams all on a baby blue/white color scheme the graphics match the sounds well and this is my first exposure to the sounds of Evil Moisture.
Evil Moisture creates fun experimental noise – something that admittedly I’m not really that into. There’s a ton of tape machine manipulation which sounds well – exactly like it usually does. A lot of …

Circuit Wound – Fight Or Flight CDr
Nefarious Activities
Circuit Wound is a Simi Valley, CA resident making rusty, dirty drone/noise. With releases all over the board (Troniks, the legendary Harshnoise, Monorail, Hospital, Rainbow Bridge, Trash Ritual, 905), you could say Circuit Wound is a prolific noise experiment with heavy quality control. It is more than obvious from this release alone that Howard does not just press record.
Starting off with a metallic and mildly distorted organ(?) drone, the nastiness builds until my temples feel like they are in a vice. And don’t …

Bitchneck/FRKSE – Winter C30
Self Released
This is a D.I.Y. affair with a heavily painted plastic cassette case and all info stickered onto the cassette itself. Very simply but effectively put together.
Bitchneck presents two tracks that make up his side which is entitled The Worst Winter of My Life. First track is a blistering noise attack with crunched distortion almost achieving the sounds of oscillators. I recognize the second track as being Fevers and Carwrecks even though it’s not listed in the info. It’s simply one of my favorite Bitchneck tracks with …

The Vomit Arsonist – Go Without CD
Assembly of Hatred
This marks The Vomit Arsonist’ second proper CD release but with a slew of other impressive releases the project is building quite a portfolio. Go Without is presented in a classy digipak with very dark artwork mostly in black and white. Photos include abandoned industrial places, and possibly an MRI scan on the front? Not sure what the significance of the cover art is but it at least is quite intriguing.
What you can find within is the most completely hopeless and bleak …

Cultus Sabbati – The Hagiography of Baba Yaga C30
Land of Decay
Here’s a beautifully packaged tape with full color printing, graphics and tracklisting on the tape and a fold-out J-card. It greatly reflects the sounds for this artist that I am not familiar with.
Cultus Sabbati present guitar-based drone with a ritual ambient feel. They explore elements like tribal drumming, blackened whispering, and guitar riffing while mixing in a good amount of synthesizer and noise drones to thicken things out.
There are some good moments here with creative vocal effects, but I’m not …

Automating – Soundoffsoundoffsound​.​.​. CDR
Self Released
Delivered with a simple paste-on tab in an arigato sleeve is this is a long drone piece from an artist unknown to me. Based on the packaging alone I was expecting something very experimental and angular, but what is presented here is drone through and through.
This one track begins with soaring harmonies which could be culled from any type of source, though I guess it’s a synthesizer. The tones are pretty basic though so it could be anything. Over the course of roughly 45 minutes the …

Normal Police/Earth Chaos – Split 2xC30
Tweaktymetapes
Neatly packaged in a white plastic box this release features lo-fi photocopied and printed artwork and insert. High contrast black and white on blank white tapes. Possibly the only thing that annoys about the tapes is that they’re not labeled so if they were mixed up things could get messy.
Normal Police is on the first tape and is a side project of Andrew Pugh also of Regosphere, Andrew Quitter, and the man behind Dumpsterscore Recordings. The track begins with Fashion Victim / Faceplant a noise …