The Ritual Inclusion of Code – Beta Wave Nemesis CD
Small Doses
Here’s a nice flowing ambient album from the Small Doses camp – meaning that the artwork and design is top-notch. The design features symmetrical glitchy computer graphics multiplied to a thousand and cut to hell. Kind of strange because the sounds here are anything but reflective of the art work.
Dense beds of sounds – sometimes harmonic and sometimes noisy – are layered into a 30 minute exercise in ambient drone with some industrial influence here as the track grows. Meandering …

Merzbow – Microkosmos Volume 1 LP
Blossoming Noise
All the years of reviewing and I’m not sure if I’ve even ever reviewed a Merzbow release. I think it’s something I generally try to avoid because of all the baggage attached to such an endeavor. The debate on his proliferation, the analog-vs-digital debacle, his more accessible beat driven works, and finally his hard-edge stance on animal liberation. All of these topics I’d rather not tackle now but how can I ignore them when all those elements have had such an affect on his …

John Mannion – Slice Through Or/In Glassmetal LP
Hanson Records
John Mannion is one half of The Cathode Terror Secretion and a member of the now infamous Red Light District. With Slice Through Or/In Glassmetal Mannion presents a phenomenal full-length of epic proportions which has managed to capture not just a high sense of sound design, composition and evolution with abstract sound, but also a way to harness the “physicality” that so many noise artists attempt to portray in their recorded material.
Fading in from merely the ambience of an unaffected framed fan …

Ur – Clandestine Meeting Park C60
No Visible Scars
Here is the latest effort from Italian ambient/noise heavyweights Ur. With a handful of releases now under their belts they are fully prepared to bring it and on Clandestine Meeting Park they do just that.
Ur come from a unique angle; they merge ritual ambient with industrial elements to form an interesting mix of styles and one that is not very much explored by other noise acts. This is a one-sided 60 minute tape and it kicks off with beautifully resonating Tibetan bells that …

Andrea Pensado – Ktotam CD
Zeromoon
This is my first exposure to the work of Andrea Pensado and I can sense immediately that this is in the vein of free improvisation/academic style work. The noises are of the start/stop variety with intense variation. Differing so much at one time that it begins to blend together. There are many spastic breakthroughs of acoustic and contemporary classical samples of music that tend toward acoustic instrumentation and voice.
The bulk of the disc presents glitch style sounds, crackles and piecemeal. I’m guessing granulation is a heavily …

Regosphere & Extraordinary Pigeons – Split C20
Self Released
Here’s yet another great release from Regosphere this time splitting things up with the unfortunately named Extraordinary Pigeons. The latter of which I am not familiar with, yet Regosphere has been churning out some impressive material as of late and this tape delivers just as well as his previous material and is a good pairing of artists that while not too similar, are quite complimentary.
Extraordinary Pigeons is up first with the long drone track entitled Spirits of the Ice Forest. It’s a rather …

Buildings & Mountains – Summer Gut String CDR
Self Released
Here’s a hefty CDR with a menagerie of different sounds and styles. These tracks remind me a lot of the varied albums of Coil but there are moments of heavy experimentation, Muslimgauze-like beats, and even more melodic ambient pieces featured here.
It took a few listens to really fall in with what was going on here but after delving into it a few times I can safely say I find this release thoroughly enjoyable. The first few tracks lean more to the electro-Muslimgauze …

The Tenants of Balthazar’s Castle – The Moon CDr
A.Star
The liner notes for this release suggest one to wait until dark and listen in headphones with one’s eyes closed. With a preface like this, I expected some deep, dark ambient or some pulsating, entrancing death industrial. On “The Moon” by The Tenants of Balthazar’s Castle, that’s not quite what I got. The first track takes on an extreme ambient quality, then suddenly segments into The Voice of the Moon, an obnoxious piece with “random” synth wankery. While the transition is sudden …

Hymnal Bruise – Untitled C90
Auris Apothecary
Yet another mind-blowing release from Auris Hypothecary from an unknown artist to me. I have no idea who Hymnal Bruise is as there are little-to-no credits provided in the inserts. The packaging is great, along the lines of Auris Apothecary’s other excellent manifestations. It’s a recycled case and recycled cassette yet the quality is certainly top-notch on both accounts. A torn page from a hymn book is plastered over the double-cassette case and stamped with a demonic icon.
The sounds are treasures within themselves. What kicks …

Drape Excrement & Söldnergeist – Black Rider CD
Steinklang Industries
This is an oldie, but a goodie that I just got my hands on and simply have to write about it. What an impressive collaboration from these two excellent death industrial/dark ambient artists. First off, the packaging is simple with a classic dark feel featuring some great abstract artwork which bookends the release quite well.
Two shorter pieces kick things off featuring dense sound design, glassy textures and organ tones with even a very subtle glitch feel to I was a Fool which …