Hunted Creatures – The Failure of Human Instincts CDR
Dynamo Sound Collective
Human Creatures is one Ryan Emmett of Pittsburgh, PA. I was introduced to the project when I had the pleasure of playing with him while on tour back in March of ’09. The Failure of Human Insincts is an earlier effort of Emmett’s and it is a varied disc of found sounds, ambient atmospheres and slow-moving melodies seemingly culled from guitars, synthesizers and feedback.
Generally you will find a layer of ambience, or found sound to start. Weaved over that are …

RØD STÆR – Tilbake Til Varmland CD
Roggbif
This is a fucking weird one. Probably took me at least 5 listens to get my head around the whole album, and another 2 or 3 after that to form an opinion of it. Well, I was pretty fucking sick of it after that. I kind of suspected something like this after looking at the artwork, which I actually enjoy quite a bit more then I do the sound here. At least you don’t have to sit down and spend an hour experiencing all …

Peter J Woods – Afterthought 3″CDR
FTAM
This little 3″ clocks in around 17 minutes, but oh, what an intense 17 min it is. Afterthought presents a varied array of sounds, ranging from musique concrete, power electronics, spoken (screamed) word, and drone. I was lucky enough to also witness these works live as well and to have this as a document is just the icing on the cake.
The first two tracks are around 7 minutes, with the opener “Inanimate Portraits” bring a bit more ambient fading in with some singing vocal drones …

Crepuscular – Deep Slow Majesty CDR
Black Drone
If I were to take a stab at this judging by the packaging, I might say it’s Lustmord-inspired dark ambient with too much low-end, not enough interesting textures, too much reverb, maybe a little orchestral elements here and there to give it that Stanley Kuberik 2001 feel, and although it may be aesthetically consistent, it is very likely that those aesthetics reek of late 90s mp3.com dark ambient characteristcs. I would also, be right.
Deep Slow Majesty isn’t an album that is at all “bad”, …

Hum of The Druid – Raising the New Wing/Braided Industry LP
SNSE
Raising the New Wing/Braided Industry contains some of the scummiest, filthiest, rawest sounds I’ve possibly ever heard. Listening to this thing is like being dragged through an old rusty storm drain to only to emerge at a demolition site. This is truly industrial music. Hum of The Druid is Eric Stonefelt, not just a man talented in the realms of experimental music, but also in art and visuals.
The LP is quite beautifully packaged with artwork created by Mr. Stonefelt. Although …

Navicon Torture Technologies – Gospels of the Gash 2xCD
Malignant Records
NTT is one of those projects that just refuses to stay dead. This release comes after the stated demise of the project but delivers as if it is still very well alive in all it’s savagery. Gospels of the Gash is most easily compared to NTT’s previous double disc set the Church of Dead Girls also released in a snazzy-looking digipak. The artwork is familiar as glossy abstracted women-parts bedazzle the symmetrical fold out pro-pressed package. It’s minimalist sheen pleases though …

Caldera Lakes – Caldera Lakes CDR
Sentient Recognition Archive
This is a turn towards the unexpected. On their self-titled CDR (debut?) Caldera Lakes delivers about 30 minutes of fuzzed out drone, psychedelic vocals performances and loops, mixed with experimental digital noise, and some raging harsh noise here and there. The major aspects of this release that I think really work are the vocal drones, which seem like they are performed by the outfit and not sampled, as well as the harsh noise moments. Modestly packaged in a simple slip case, the material …

Breathing Problem – Kimberly C20
Breathing Problem Productions
Kimberly is a quick photocopied cassette release from Breathing Problem, the first I’ve heard of this project. I like it. Harsh noise and power electronics with some trashy vocal samples reminding me of Taint’s “Whoredom” album. I’m not sure exactly what the purpose of this release is, if it was some sort of primer for something else as the text on the inside says “tracks to appear on the upcoming ‘mattresses on the floor’ 7 song cd/cs”.
The concept here seems to be pretty simple, …

Drone Lebanon/Wertham – Roma Yerushalayim CD
Topeth Prophet
You know you’re in for a tough review of a split when you really like one artist and are not at all into the other. Roma Yerushalayim is a split CD that deals quite a bit with politics, politics mixed with religion. The concept here is one that has and will be explored endlessly because it is always changing. Since I know little about the plight of Israel or Judiasm and even less about the Zionist political situation I am going to refrain from …

Sharpwaist & Waterdogs – Sniffer’s Rash C30
Breathing Problem Productions
Yea, I’m a little behind on my reviews, have you noticed yet? Don’t even know when this fucker came out, nor do I really care. It’s probably not available anymore so what’s the point of writing this review? I dunno, Carl and Brandon the strapping young lads behind Sharpwaist and the now defunct Waterdogs (yes, Mr. Brandon Terzakis has moved on the greener pastures in the pursuit of artsy-fartsy noise under his own name) gave me this a while ago and I …