Patrick Emm – Mythics CDR
Self Released
Patrick Emm is a drone musician who is previously unknown to me but apparently lives right around the corner. I love little surprises like that! Mythics is an easy 3 track disc spanning 45 minutes of minimalist synthesizer and guitar drones reminiscent Michael Gira’s short lived project The Body Lovers or perhaps even the more experimental sections of Godspeed You Black Emperor!.
The first track entitled “Like I Used To Could” features alternating sustained chords of harmonious tonal drones. Skirting along the edges is Fennesz-like electronic …

V/A – Summer Tour 2010 CDR
DumpsterScore Home Recordings
Summer Tour 2010 is a tour release from the Regosphere, Lavas Magmas, and Dios Project summer tour which is happening NOW. Don’t miss it!!! Check here to see if there is a show happening in your city. What they deliver with the release is 4 tracks 1 by each artist and an extra thrown in from the Dios Project.
Lavas Magmas is up first with “Just Ghosts, No Shell”. Not sure what the title is about but the track is a sick barrage of …

Doornen – AIDS Loves You To Death 3″CDR
Scrape Tapes
AIDS Loves You To Death is a quick little blast of the harshest, crunchiest noise that has graced my ears for a while. The disc simply just does not let up. Housed in stolen public service announcement ads the concept here is really doing nothing but reveling in the fact that anyone is susceptible to this sexy death.
With two long tracks totaling twenty minutes the disc is chalk full of harsh cut up destruction. Blaring distortion, washes of harsh noise, moments where …

Hjorten – Travel 3″CDR
FTAM
Hjorten’s Travel is based on just that and with two tracks on this quick little 15 minute release the concept is very clear. This is my first exposure to the sounds of Hjorten but right off the bat it’s obvious he likes to use the sounds of field samples heavily processed.
“Trains” is the first track here and uses sounds of trains creatively to produce an atmosphere that both abstracts the sounds but also pounds them into your skull. It’s like he turns trains into these enormous subterranean …

Martin Bladh – Study for a Theater of Cruelty CD
Annihilvs
Study for a Theater of Cruelty is a solo outing from IRM frontman Martin Bladh. Adorned with his token collage work, the art is succinct yet somewhat darker than the sounds represented on the disc. At 5 tracks and roughly 35 minutes Bladh takes the listener into an electronic drone soundscape akin to Birchville Cat Motel, Concern, or even Hermann Nitsch.
There are moments when things get kind of noisy the first being the start of track 2 where a high-pitched whine …

Retribution Body – Retribution Body CDR
Self Released
Retribution Body’s debut self-titled CDR is a winding journey through mantra-like modular synthesizer drones. Being influenced by Buddhist philosophy and thought, it’s no wonder so many of these tracks seem to offer a moment of stasis, of balance, and of a certain stillness produced of course through the vibtration of soundwaves, tactfully revelling in the physical irony of such an act.
Although stillness is a factor here, there are signs of evolution and change which can’t be ignored. The sounds are well devoloped and the …

Fire in the Head – Carrion Wind CD
Turgid Animal Records
Michael Page is a man of many faces and subsequently sounds. Some may be more familiar with his ambient Sky Burial project, others with his harsh noise project Irukandji. Still others may just know him as the fun loving 80s music fan and front man of brutal power electronics unit Fire in the Head. Of course, people aren’t always so easily pigeonholed and Mr. Page makes it especially difficult by releasing this over 60 minute track of dense drone and experimental …

Blank Verse – Karelia Ingria CDR
Visceral Circuitry Recs
Yes, I knew this release from the moment I received the black and white photocopies booklet in a plastic sleeve on a blank CDR. The “bedroom” noise crowd. Not like we all aren’t bedroom noisers or anything but this is a specific brand I feel because a lot of this material seems like they are “half songs” or merely fucking around and recorded and then of course subsequently released.
Blank Verse almost had me tricked with “Vivian Krystal L.” one of the better tracks …

D/S/Miller/Hunted Creatures – Split C20
Dynamo Sound Collective
Another great ‘lil split tape for me to spin this time with 2 more ambient/experimental artists that seem to know their stuff quite well. The printing is nice full color artwork with a Jon Lennon lookalike dude on the front holding rosary beads or something? I dunno. Standard tape packaging, nothing special here.
D/S/Miller is up first with “Blowing Out a Match”, a nice wafting, floating drone track. It’s got some glitches along the edges and just a very vague touch of electronica to it. …

Reviver – Crawlers Spit Black C30
905 Tapes
This is what I’ve been waiting for all along from Reviver. I’ve been following his work for a few years now and am finally getting around to spinning this tape and goddamn it delivers beyond expectations! Probably the most telling information here is the only credit going to Chris Donofrio the soul member of this death drone act as playing the “graphic eqs”. This isn’t much more than that, absolutely overblown synth drones pummeling me with their pure intensity and thick as mollasses sound. …