Flowerday – Snuff Film C30
Cathartic Process
With a brutal artistic direction, Flowerday’s Snuff Film is a fairly typical harsh noise wall release. While Flowerday doesn’t do much to break from the mold on this tape, the sound is vicious and HNW fans will appreciate Snuff Film for sure.
Side A contains the most variation on the tape. The sound consists of harsh, HNW textures with subtle shifts in tone and odd noises rising out of the wall. Frequency and tone plays a big part here; sounds like high pitched squalls and low …

V/A – Anhedonia C20
Fusty Cunt Tapes
Here’s a hyper-active compilation that consists mostly of American artists from the Midwest but a few from New York as well. The packaging is pretty over-the-top coming packaged in a diaper with the title of the comp written in sharpy on it. It’s definitely good for a laugh, as are a few of the other photos contained in the booklet, but you’ll have to pick this puppy up to find out which ones. Obviously part of the aim was to have fun with this and …

Kazumoto Endo & Kazuma Kubota – Switches and Knobs CD
Phage Tapes
Here’s another pummeling harsh noise release from the Phage Tapes camp once again representing 3rd wave Japanese noise artists. Kazumoto Endo is an artist I am familiar with as delivering some of the best in cut-up harsh sounds with a start-stop technique that he employs, almost as if he is playing a wind instrument and must take a second to breath for more air. The name Kazuma Kubota is one that I am not familiar with yet it looks like …

Hunted Creatures – Fall 2010 DVD
Dynamo Sound Collective
Here’s a varied DVD from Pittsburgh’s Hunted Creatures, a project which has been faithfully spearheaded by Ryan Emmet since it’s inception; yet now frequently features collaborators and a rotating cast of members. The DVD comes in a clear slimline case which somehow seems to be a bit more professional than a regular DVD case. On popping this puppy into the DVD player it’s nice that it has a full interactive menu that is tastefully designed.
The release features 4 short films with visuals created …

K2 – Abdominal Electricity CD
Phage Tapes
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a proper harsh noise release and what better act to get my hands dirty with than the ever-impressive K2. Coming from the steady caring hands of Phage Tapes this CD features some impressive graphic design along with its translucent jewel box case featuring strange diagrams, anatomical and mechanical outlines mixed with subtle textures and smart text to create a truly professional looking endeavor.
The sounds are a great reflection of the smart and complex design with tons of fast, …

Buildings and Mountains – Underwater C10
Blood Dirt Records
This cassette is possibly one of the most mysterious pieces of sound art to come my way. With minimal cardboard packaging with the only identifying factors scrawled in pen, “Underwater” by Buildings in Mountains represents a fierce DIY aspect that is only complemented by the weird, tweaked out basement sounds featured here. The sound here is mostly drone with fleeting ambient sounds and weird, ritualistic gongs and bells. Subtle textures weave their way in and out of the sound and create a twisting, …

Shiver – Born To Lose 3″CDR
Diazepam
Here’s my first exposure to this Italian project and it’s a solid one. The disc clocks in at about 18 minutes and features some decent noise/power electronics sounds.
The House of the Others kicks off with blaring noise feedback joined by a sample of the infamous Bud Dwyer suicide tape. It’s well-tread territory and clearly the mark of a newcomer but luckily the seething wall of noise that eventually blends in is intense and aggressive.
There Was Blood Everywhere is up next with a slower droning noise …

Flesh Coffin – Seeing Things C32
No Visible Scars
“Seeing Things” is a harsh noise entry by Flesh Coffin, and while this cassette doesn’t do much to deviate from a pretty typical harsh noise sound, “Seeing Things” has a nice dichotomy between cold, unrelenting harsh noise and lonely, isolationist ambient music going for it. While I feel like the juxtaposition of these two unlikely genres could have been exploited to a much greater extent on “Seeing Things”, the use overall is effective and creates a suitable contrast between the styles.
While the harsh …

Belialist – Belialist 3″CDR
Silken Tofu
Combining the cold industrial ambience of Sewer Goddess with the intense analog warmth of Brutophilia will get you Belialist. This is their first recording for the collaboration and I believe it is still the only recording available. One can only imagine the insanity that arises from a sum of their parts, but I will do my best to describe it for you.
Influences here seem to range from Italian death industrial greats like N. and Morder Machine to more atmospheric projects like Megaptera and Inade. Ridged Teeth …

Robe. – Fragile Construct 3″CDR
Tuguska Label
Fragile Construct is a quick disc not quite scratching the 20 minute mark featuring 3 tracks from this guitar ambient/noise duo.
The short intro track Fist puts things in the right direction with a shifting glassy textured drone that lasts for about a minute thirty. Next up is the main track Collapse which spans roughly 14 minutes. Immediately there joins wanky meandering guitar fuckery which just bores the fuck out me. There’s nothing worse than having to listen to a soloist shred it up with no …