Subklinik – Musik for Dekomposition CD
Fall Of Nature Records
It’s been a while since the name Subklinik has graced my eyes and ears and so I was quite ecstatic when I received this gem. As far as I can remember Subklinik has been around for quite some time but is a lesser known and less prolific project. They create dark electronic music and do so with clarity and vision.
The style of music on Musik for Dekomposition is somewhere between The Slaughterhouse era Brighter Death Now and the sounds of the more …

Cock E.S.P. – Historia De La Musica Cock CD
Little Mafia, Breath Mint, Sun Ship
Cock E.S.P. the infamous misfits of noise return with the mammoth release of yes, a full 99 tracks, technically more if you count the goddamn “medley” on here. This is total aural terrorism and I really expected to hate this album with all my heart, but after a closer inspection and listening to it, I can’t help but respect and adore what Cock E.S.P. has done here.
With each track painstakingly titled in satire it’s hard not to …

Baby Daddy – Hungry Hungry Nipple CDr
Slut Factory Records
Baby Daddy is a harsh noise duo out of North Carolina, and their sound is a pretty typical one. With metallic, spacy tones, robotic, warbling effects and Masonna-esque intensity, Hungry Hungry Nipple does very little to deviate from the harsh noise sound. What this album does best is create a tense atmosphere without scathing the listener’s ears. The sound is much more cosmic than harsh and the progressions have just enough psychedelic undertones involved to keep the sound interesting.
The major transitions here …

+DOG+ – Bliss CDr
Love Earth Music
Part wall noise, part power electronics, Bliss is the latest of a project I had previously unheard of called +DOG+. With a fairly decent sized catalog behind their name, +DOG+ is no newcomer to the noise scene. Bliss consists mostly of loops and heavily distorted guitar work with some drums thrown in at times. The feel ranges from droning and lethargic to crushing and in your face. The influences apparently range here from some obvious Masami Akita homage to even a Sunn O))) feel (particularly …

Concrete Isolation Box – Love Under Steel and Concrete CDr
Self Released
Love Under Steel and Concrete is Concrete Isolation Box’s debut. The idea here is harsh drones and pounding walls of noise. This is a formula that I’ve seen countless times in the noise music scene and, unfortunately, Concrete Isolation Box (C.I.B. from here on) doesn’t really do anything that hasn’t been done before. Pure blasts of distortion with vocals ominously rising out of the mix is something that noise and power electronics acts have been doing for years, and while …

Peter J Woods – Songs for Nothing LP
After Music Recordings
Songs for Nothing continues where Peter J Woods has left off and explores the eclectic form of experimental crossover music that Peter is well known for. A mix of sound collage, drones, vocals and power electronics the album brings the listener through passages ranging from harsh, balls-out power electronics complete with screaming vocals, throbbing distortion and walls of noise, to high tension orchestral strings and even into lo-fi scattered sounds.
Although there are separate tracks on each side, the sound flows, or …

Boy Dirt Car – Familia LP
After Music Recordings
Sound collage, spoken samples, field recordings, experimental noise, and guitar noodling are what Boy Dirt Car seem to specialize in with Familia which proves to be an enigmatic effort that – even after repeated listens – I cannot seem to yet solve. There is more then one instance where intense spoken samples come to the forefront to spout monologues of profound outbursts and it feels that this is where the strong point of Boy Dirt Car is focused.
Some of the samples take away …

Fat Worm of Error – Ambivalence and the Beaker CDr
Yeay! Cassettes
Thoroughly embracing the stereotypical avant-garde, Fat Worm of Error’s album Ambivalence and The Beaker is one of unsettling weirdness and alienating environments. The impression I got from listening to this album was one of something breaking for a half an hour straight, while we as listeners are witness to this bizarre display of pure, stream of consciousness sensory output. The sound mostly consists of a combination of unaltered field recording and improvisational guitar, alongside other instruments. The cowbell is used …

Dan Greenwood – Guts:Render 3xC20
Self Released
If the name Dan Greenwood sounds familiar to you, it should. He is the man behind the cult harsh noise project Diagram A and the collaboration “Proof of the Shooting” with the late John Brown. Of course now releasing material under his own name the influence of these previous projects are still very much in play on Guts:Render as well as the influences of Chris Cooper, Patrick Oneil, and Dominick Fernow of Prurient as source material which is culled from each of these artists.
I fully …

Theologian – The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel on My Face CD
Crucial Blast
Theologian is the new project of Lee (Leech) Bartow, the singular entity behind the late new school power electronics project Navicon Torture Technologies and the respected noise label Annihilvs Power Electronix. It’s definitely an interesting thing when an artist ends such a successful and prolific project only to spawn yet another “dark electronic” project. Since I had never really delved into Theologian’s material before this, I took some time to soak in …