Marax – My Suicide Note Penned in Sound CD
Sensitive Receptor
Marax is an extremely prolific artist since ’99 yet it’s a surprise that I’ve never come across his material before. My Suicide Note Penned in Sound is packaged in a simple paper slip-case with gritty textures and sparse text which reflects the sound well.
The disc is one long track of hallowed drones slowly changing with wind-howling textures lurking beneath the thick core. I believe this music will appeal to drone heads as the sparse variation stays the same throughout the piece. …

Gnawed – Despiser 3″CDR
Spit & Cuss
Released back in 2010 this isn’t actually new material at this point but it certainly does stand the test of time. Clocking in at merely 16 minutes split into four tracks this 3″ may be short, but it delivers.
Forked Tongue consists of high-pitched tones interrupted by ungodly industrial hits and punk-style screaming vocals. I really like that the distorted feedback has almost a metal-scraping sound to it, subtle but very effective. Choke has a more rhythmic backbone with pummeling hits and a similar style of …

Wilt – She C73
Danvers State Recordings
Here’s a new mammoth release from Wilt which features some sickened black noise. Before delving into the sounds here the artwork is quite enjoyable with a dark black/red scheme but some nice blown-out colors in the cover image.
The tape starts off rather slow with The Soil Begins to Smother Him which features a hefty weight of low tones and some softer distorted layers on top. In A Blanket With the Density of a Falling Sun Wilt bring things to a new level with surging industrial …

Teeth Collection – Untitled 3″CDR
FTAM
Here is one subtle 17 minute track from the enigmatic Teeth Collection. Texture is the name of the game with the first part of this track being almost more of a “presence” than anything audible. Eventually slow airy tones begin to wisp forth. It’s not long before the track takes a more industrial turn before lifting into microscopic echoing grains of sound, an unexpected twist brings us into the middle of the track.
It’s not long however, until the menacing drones make a comeback and rather quickly …

Pollutive Static – Turn on The Fuck Soundtrack C44
Nil By Mouth
Here is a lo-fi barrage of various harsh noise sounds pummelling the listener with no room for air. The noise is intense and in your face – minimal effects. Mostly just distortion, feedback, synth noise and pedal hatred.
I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this whole tape. There are long passages where there is just one sound layer going on and on and when a change up finally comes it’s not really that interesting or leading to any place …

FRKSE – Horsless Rehearsal C62
Divergent Series
FRKSE (pronounced “forks”) is a project local to the Boston area who combines an eclectic cast of stylistic inspiration raning from raga, noise, hip-hop, and black metal to form a genre blasting epic in Horsless Rehearsal.
At over 60 minutes there is a lot to take in, never mind that there is almost never a rest between tracks, this is a constant barrage of wall-eyed sound. The song structure often features a booming drum-machine back beat, distorted in different ways and mixing in odd samples into …

V/A – God Blast America! DVD
NATO
This is a real treat for those of us who – years later – are still kicking ourselves for missing this mammoth show. The coverage is as comprehensive as one could possibly ask for – not every full set is featured here but it is easily over 2 hours worth of material. The production of both the audio and video is astounding considering the live condition in which it was captured. Visually – as with the audio – each set has it’s own mood which …

Patrick Emm – Trash Playback Forms C24
YDLMIER
Here’s another great release from Boston’s own Patrick Emm that focuses on slow droning and free improvisational music. Lonely soundscapes for a dusty day. This continues Emm’s growing body of impressive work.
Side A is split into two tracks the first being a bubbling lo-fi synth study reminding me a bit of Pauline Oliveros’s Beautiful Soop but much more ambient. The second track Current and Tide turns to more white-noise and cable-crackle oriented sounds with a mellow tone in the background and it provides a …

Endless Bummer – Fritzl CDr
Spit And Cuss
Endless Bummer is a project involving Grant Richardson, the man behind the brutal Minnesota power electronics act Gnawed. Endless Bummer is a quite accurate moniker for this project, because Fritzl is a very depressive, slow moving piece. Consisting of heavily distorted, drawn out riffs, this is doom, sludge, noise, and ambient all meshed together to form a massive titan of heaviness.
Fritzl is pretty repetitive and extremely drawn out, but it really works. Everything sounds so hateful and plodding; Endless Bummer hammers the same riff …

Demergo – Westwater Meadows CDr
Ahasverus Records
With a heavy, brooding sound, Demergo’s Westwater Meadows presents a sound that straddles the line between ambient and death industrial. Long, looping drones and frail ambient textures collide in an expansive and diverse way. Although the energy and diversity start to taper off near the end, Demergo’s sound is definitely immersive.
The liner notes outline a short story in which a researcher explores a dead world that he is ultimately consumed by. The sounds here apparently are meant to accompany the narrative and do so very …