Dieter Müh & Mnem– Atomyriades CD
Cipher Productions
I was looking forward to hearing this for quite some time before I actually gave it a spin. I have been a Mnem fan for years and enjoy his lo-fi cut-up musique concrete weirdness. Dieter Müh is a name that rings some kind of familiarity bell, but not one to which I actually know the tune. What these two artists have cooked up in collaboration here is hefty album spanning industrial, ambient, and even some kind of electronica influences which can be found …

Emeralds – Solar Bridge CD
Hanson Records
Emeralds present some soothing sounds from this blue-tinted digipak released by Hanson records. If you are not familiar with them, Emeralds are a trio who play 2 synths, a guitar and effects. They form a sound somewhat similar to Cluster, or Tangerine Dream, a floating sparkling wall of harmonic drones.
Solar Bridge is split into two tracks with the first entitled “Magic” which clocks in around 12 minutes. Magic immediately pulls the listener deep into an entrenched wall of drone slowly shifting in …

Katchmere – Acid Test CDR
Scissor Death
Here’s a great splash of spastic experimental electronics from a project I am once again unfamiliar with. Acid Test is about 30 minutes of seemingly random bursts of sound ranging from blasts of noise and found sound to the occaissional instrumental outburst. What starts as a more industrial tinged release with the minimal “Premonition” and more cryptic “Icicle” and “Your House is Next” eventually works into more up front jagged cut-up sound.
Worth mentioning here is the endearing handmade packaging utilizing the classic spray …

Satori – Kanashibari LP
Dogma Chase
Immediately noticeable is the gorgeous print and artwork that surrounds this this black disc of vinyl. Housed in a thick textured sleeve with glossy pattern trim and a hole in the center opening to a dramatic piece of artwork contained in the paper sleeve underneath the whole package appears as a relic of ages past if it weren’t for the hand numbered list on the inside. Very beautifully realized, a nod most certainly goes to whoever designed and assembled these puppies. This is …

Torso/GACK/Sandy Saunders – The Human Disease Zine+CDR
Divorce Records
The Human Disease is a collaboration between two artists I am not familiar with (it seems like they just keep popping up) Torso and Gack. Immediately apparent is the care in the concepts with the accompanying “zine” style packaging. A booklet filled with an insert which the CD is mounted on, and several pages of propaganda style art which appears to have little-to-no agenda but exemplifying death, disease, and hopelessness. More or less right up my alley.
Clocking in …

Brain Lesion – Abomination of Desolation CDR
Heretic Recordings
Yes yes yes yes yes. Abomination of Desolation is such an out-of-nowhere amazing release! This totally took me by surprise as I had never even heard of the artist before. What Brain Lesion delivers is 34 minutes of varied structured/unstructured noise/power electronics that sticks to old school aesthetics while bringing new sounds and feel to the genre.
Every track on this baby is overflowing with pure intensity, noise, and industrial atmospheres. Analog distortion over rhythmic industrial loops, ambient field samples, and somehow Lesion crams …

Bitchneck – The Best I Can Do C20
Self Released
Perfect, here is quick cassette of raw heartfelt power electronics from just around the corner! Bitchneck presents 4 new tracks on this C20 (I’m guessing at the length here). Armed with a cavalclade of pedals Bitchneck creates layered compositions of pulsating, grinding, abrasive power electronics with distorted vocals blasts and call-and-response feedback squeals.
Side A consists of three shorter tracks the first two “What do I know” and “Death Ought to Be” probably clocking in around 2-3 minutes each with the third “The …

Paranoid Time – Rat Life LP
Troniks
Here’s a quickie once sided LP from the man behind the label SNSE utilizing the Paranoid Time moniker to deliver a harsh torrential downpour of hard water noise. It’s a total barrage strait from the outset with a thick wall of pedal distortion throwing me back and forth, to and fro, in my puny little life raft. At least it feels small compared to these gargantuan waves of feedback.
Perhaps the most notable track here is the rhythmic jammer “RATTail”. The track is actually a bit …

Ichorous/Broken Diode – Malevolence Vol. 1 C24
Cipher Productions
There’s something about having a tape come in a zip-lock bag that just doesn’t appeal to me. That said the large printed card with artwork on this is still pretty cool. The artwork is blurred, red, almost bloody like a photo from a camera shoved into something’s stomach. It matches the sounds quite well because they are like an evisceration of feedback and distortion.
Ichorous supplying the first wall of assault on this side with a heavy dose of what I …

Strom.ec – Divine Legions Beyond Psyche CD
Malginant Records
Divine Legions Beyond Psyche is a testament to the intensity and determination of this legendary Finnish power electronics/industrial project. This vision is so excellently constructed and executed as to be a unique, original and comprehensive body of work. Not to mention, dark, disturbing, innovative, and seriously foreboding. The sounds literally make me feel the tension presented in the relevant concepts, ideas that seem very pertinent to current international tensions and governmental programs especially on that fine line where individual rights are breached. But …