The Teratologist – Cabinet of Curiosities C30
Cathartic Process
Cabinet of Curiosities is a standard tape in a plastic case with simple text and graphics in high-contrast black and white adorning the j-card. It’s a simple, professional looking item and after dealing with all this weird packaging I’ve been collecting it seems somewhat refreshing. The tracks are simply named “Cabinet of Curiosities Part I & II” one track for each side.
Slow, dirgy, awkward, The Teratologist delivers industrial experimental music here. The strange torture device that adorns the cover seems so fitting for …

The Vomit Arsonist
Force of Nature/Cipher Productions
The Vomit Arsonist is the project of Andrew Grant based out of Rhode Island. Although he has been coined as power electronics in the past Wretch walks the line between death industrial, dark ambient, and power electronics effortlessly blending the genres together to form a cohesive and strong work. As the first proper CD release from the project Wretch is a success in all aspects.
The opener “The Warm Body Complex” introduces the disc well with a low-end drone that builds into textured ambience with …

K11 – Waiting for the Darkness CDR
AFE Records
The packaging for this was deceiving. From the photos of forests and runes that adorn the graphic art I was expecting something in the realm of neo-folk or neo-classical, or even dark ritualistic ambient. What K11 delivers here quite different and reminds me much more of the recently reviewed Anemone Tube, or the long-ago reviewed Canadian project Nebris.
Waiting for the Darkness makes a lot more sense after reading the liner notes: “Waiting for the Darkness is an action of instrumental transcommunication with short …

Anemone Tube – Dream Landscape CD
Silken Tofu
Here is something quite a bit different from the Silken Tofu camp. Regarding the packaging here, this is a phenomenal looking release, very professional and quite gorgeous. The CD is housed in a 10 panel, odd sized, folder with black and golden print. The text and minimalist artwork look great and reflect the atmosphere of the sounds well.
Anemone Tube is mostly a dark ambient project that wanders into noisier realms every once in a while. The general rule of thumb for Dream Landscape seems …

Lavas Magmas – Toxic Communion C26
Self Released
I had the opportunity to witness Lavas Magmas live and it was a barrage of sights and sounds which I could only behold in wonderment. I was lucky enough to be given a few releases of his among which this one-sided tape was one of them. Housed in kind of shabby and bedraggled scrap material with stickers and wrapped in wire this D.I.Y. effort is just a bit deceiving because Toxic Communion delivers one hell of an auditory experience that transcends your typical limited …

Cloama – Death Certificate 7″
Freak Animal Productions
Cloama is a project with many faces. Check out the Self Titled CD from a few years ago and you will hear a clean electroacoustic ambient atmosphere. Listen to his earlier Revisionist Knowledge CD on Freak Animal Productions and you will find searing power electronics noise attacks. Finally, pick up one of the collaborations with Blutleuchte and you will discover a surge of blackened noise. Whatever the face though, Cloama always tends to please in one form or another and this quick 7″ is …

Brandkommando – Patria Socialismo o Meurte! CDR
Sickcore
This disc from Sickcore has a special handmade D.I.Y. touch with thick stock and minimalist packaging that works perfectly. The entire presentation is quite impressive. I wish the audio was as consistent as the packaging though Brandkommando tends to have more ups and downs than I would prefer on this release.
The style that Brandkommando employs is somewhere along minimalist death industrial atmospheres of Atrax Morgue or N. However, a lot of the synth work featured on Patria is a bit under whelming seeming to …

Antoine Chessex – Fools LP
Tourette Records
Antoine Chessex is a Berlin-based musician exploring the world of noise with – love it or hate it – a saxophone. Luckily, you’d barely have any idea this is derived from a sax in any way shape or form by merely listening to Fools but the live photo on the back and the credits to Chessex for “tenor sax, amp & electronics” says it all. I am perfectly ok with this because after experiencing his intense miasma of sound live, I just had to pick …

Propergol – Ground Proximity Warning System CD
Annihilvs
This is actually the first complete Propergol album I have immersed myself in and I believe it is one of his later efforts. Ground Proximity Warning System predictably explores airports, airplanes, flight, and subsequently all the many things that can go wrong with this system. An easy way to describe Ground Proximity Warning System is to say it is the evil twin of Brian Eno’s Ambient Music for Airports. And let me say I’d much rather be listening to this when preparing for …

Gerritt & John Wiese – Panoramic Glass and Mirror LP
Misanthropic Agenda
Panoramic Glass and Mirror is a collaboration between Gerritt – who seems to be going by his full name Gerritt Wittmer now – and John Wiese two noise artists who have been drifting closer toward the electro acoustic realms. This collaboration here certainly enforces that theory, with pretentious minimalist artwork and carefully edited, fragile sounds that click and pop their way into my subconscious.
Despite the nice thick clear vinyl there’s not much here as far as the graphic art goes …

Corpuscle – Jaguar Mask C64
Waterpower
Here’s a new project hailing from Boston, MA. Neatly packaged in a standard cassette tape with color artwork on the cover and some decent black and white collage on the inside. This is a one-sided tape that consists of 3 tracks.
The sound of Jaguar Mask is the harshest of the harsh. Total pushing wall-noise that is completely relentless. Lo-fi and uncompromising among the crackling distortion lives sickened vocals settled in the mix. There’s a strange kind of reverb in the mix that pervades each track and …

Reviver/Medicine Lake – Split C30
Self Released
Here’s a quick split from these two Connecticut artists. There must be something heavy in the air there because this is drone-laden doom ridden washes of sound that these guys deliver. Not much to say about the packaging, a cassette in a plastic bag with some less-than impressive artwork on it.
Medicine Lake is up first with “Mandible Feast” a lo-fi smoky blur of a track with black ambient tendencies, echoing metallic sounds, subdued noise, and distant moans. The composition here is solid and the sounds …

The Vomit Arsonist – Reason C30
Nil By Mouth
Black on black, black tape with a black label and a black spray painted cassette case. The Vomit Arsonist presents some fucking bleak shit with his latest release “Reason” coming from the Nil By Mouth camp. Packaging is well thought out as usual and creative in a D.I.Y. kind of way. I really dig all the interesting things Nil By Mouth does, and this release is no exception because it is packaged in a fused black plastic bag, somewhat reminding me of a …

Sensible Nectar/Mannequin Hollowcaust – Predator Plague C62
Rainbow Bridge
NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Sensible Nectar is back! Predator Plague haunts the airspace in my room. So many tapes… so little time. I will for a change, start this review off on a positive note. I really dig the packaging on this release. Bright orange graphics and the brightest neonist cassette tape I have ever seen. It’s visually offensive in the best of ways.
As for the sound, I am still baffled how Sensible Nectar manages to record this stuff without ripping out his eyes due to …

+DOG+ – Acoustic Shadow CDR
Love Earth Music
+DOG+ is a project that has been active for quite some time now, 1994 according to discogs. Acoustic Shadow is their most recent effort and it seems +DOG+ has got the idea by keeping this puppy around the 30 minute mark. What to expect here is mostly buzzing feedback and synth walls with blasts of noise, amplified and manipulated acoustic junk percussion, and layers of electronics.
The production on acoustic shadow retains a very lo-fi tone but it’s obvious this is intended and it works …

Regicide Bureau – Zugzwang CDR
Side of the Sun Recordings
The thing about Zugzwang is that it’s not a particularly bad disc, it’s just not good. This is a disc of over an hour’s worth of material all apparently recorded live in St. Louis Missouri on 7/18/09. It pains me to think that this dude played this set that was almost one fucking hour.
The production really holds this disc back. It’s obviously a room mic that has recorded the set so it kind of sounds like everything is being played in a …

Sigulda/Sensible Nectar – Split C20
Side of the Sun Recordings
Here are two artists, one of which, unfortunately I am already familiar with that being: Sensible Nectar. This is a short cassette with both artists presenting 2 very mediocre noise tracks, Sensible Nectar’s side is a bit more ambient though.
With “Three in One” Sensible Nectar combines some harmonious ambient drones on top of subdued pedal noise. Well, subdued might not be the right word, it’s really just turned down a lot. Delayed and reverbed-out the first part of the track is ok, …

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. …

Mutations In The Gryd – Seance For Mutation/Calibration Gryd C31
Gryd Complex
Here’s a synth duo from Boston good friends of mine in fact. They play 2 synthesizers together with the result being some vaguely structured improvisational experimental synthesizer music. The tape is of good quality with some subtle artwork that I really appreciate.
Side A has these warm throbbing tones that are almost alternating chords. There is a little delay and a lot of noisy lo-fi overdrive in the mix. At times the space seems a little empty, kind of reminiscent of …

Locrian – Falling Towers/After the Torchlight C40
Black Horizons
Yet another tape from Chicago’s Locrian. If you’re not in the know, this duo creates harmonic drone music with a dosage of noise layered in. Mostly centered around guitars and synthesizers. They pretty much stick to their sound throughout this cassette, really no surprises here.
Side A consists of two tracks the first being a guitar based track. Slow chords droning on, kind of remind me of early Earth material which I tend to find rather boring. This is a little more layered with …

Halo Manash – Taiwaskivi CD+DVD
Aural Hypnox
Taiwaskivi is Halo Manash’s latest effort and it picks up where Am Kha Astrie left off, despite having a limited CDR – that apparently I was not deft enough to purchase in time – squashed in between the two last CD releases. If you have no idea what the true sound of Finnish ritualistic ambient is like, I strongly encourage you to keep reading this, for you are truly missing out.
Deep gongs, disembodied chants, rattling organic objects, rocks, sticks, chimes. Hidden ceremonies, secret spells, spiritual …

Fear Konstruktor – Preparation of Humanity CDR
Sickcore
Here is a blistering no-holds-barred power electronic noise fuck from what I believe is a project hailing from Russia. One thing that really stands out about this release even before spinning it is the rad packaging which includes a hand painted envelope, a silkscreened canvas patch glued to the front cover and some excellent graphic design. Very classy D.I.Y. packaging here.
The packaging gears me up for the sounds pretty well, because Fear Konstruktor delivers the harsh shit. Very rough and tumble with a rhythmic …

Sensible Nectar/RJ Myato – C62
Rainbow Bridge
Here’s a split tape from two artists who are unknown to me. Basic sticker slapped onto a tape with purple artwork and an insert card so small I can barely read it already lowering my expectations for what I might hear.
Sensible Nectar is up first with some extremely lo-fi electronic noise wankery. Plain feedback sounds, blurry distortion all mashed together under a thick pile of reverb and delay. Reminds me of when I get served a plate of tasty Mexican food and mix it all …

Deterge – Parlous C10
Fusty Cunt Tapes
Hell yes. Here’s a great shorty tape brimming with harsh synth noise, power electronics and some hardcore-styled vocals on top, think Charles Bronson! Most noticieable is the mouse trap glued to the front of the package! Charming, D.I.Y., original, and hard-fucking-core!
Side A features the track “Daily” which thrives off it’s fluttering synth core. Blasting along the edges are layers of noise which are soon joined by screamed vocals delayed into the wind. Short, simple and to the point. Harsh, but well composed and layered. The …

Noveller – Wolf 7″
FTAM
Here’s a quintessential 7″ from Noveller, Sarah Lipstate’s ambient/noise guitar project. This is record was released in between her two latest full lengths and the tracks work well as they compliment each other. The material is a bit more detailed then what appeared in Red Rainbows which clearly shows that Lipstate is stepping up her game, capturing the listener’s intrigue more efficiently then she did in the full length.
The textures on Wolf are dense, but don’t suffocate at any time. The harmonies are much more apparent making …

TwoDeadSluts OneGoodFuck – Champagne and Biological Women 7″
Bloodlust!
Here is an absolutely depraved record from the annals of the Bloodlust! catalog. The artwork and titles really put things in the right mood for the sounds so upon spinning this little gem I’m all revved up for some totally sickened noise. As with my classic complaint about TwoDeadSluts OneGoodFuck, it’s too short! I just want more more more.
Side A builds slowly with “Covered in Shit” and works into a heavy rhythmic power electronics frenzy. All lasting probably 2 minutes in total. Immediately …

Kave – Hidden Fields 3″CDR
Scrape Tapes
This is the first I’ve heard of the project Kave, and with little-to-no information provided in the booklet – besides that the tracks were recorded in 2007 – Kave remains quite a mystery. I don’t think it’s wrong however, to assume that these sounds have something to do with outer space, possibly the existence of aliens or something along those lines.
The sounds here aren’t too far off from what I could imagine might be the hum of an alien spacecraft if I were to be …

Waterdogs – In Limbo C12
Breathing Problem Productions
The once defunct project of Brandon Terzakis is now back, this little tape having been released before the project went on hiatus. It’s a short tape, minimal artwork but that is certainly part of the charm. Two tracks one on each side, this couldn’t be simpler.
If I were to judge Waterdogs on this cassette alone I would be more likely to group him in with the death industrial crowd rather than the power electronics homo sapiens. Despite the fact that these two tracks both …

Reviver – Ocular Prolapse CSLOOP
Self Released
Here’s a strange one. I’ve never quite seen or heard anything like it before. It seems to be a modified cassette tape featuring a 30 second loop containing Reviver’s token death drone sounds. All black, with no packaging and a simple label this is as minimalist as minimalist gets.
The loop is unfortunately broken up by about a half second of silence. It is how these mechinations work. The sound here is a low synth growl with some kind of subtle chant in the background but …

Ahlzagailzehguh – Misinterpreted Injury 2×7″
Razors and Medicine
It’s been a while since I’ve heard much from Ahlzagailzehguh and even this release is a few years old at this point, but still available! Apparently Misinterpreted Injury is his first release on the 7’’ format and deals with the trauma associated with the loss of a kidney at the age of 9. Definitely some interesting subject matter here, and with Ahlzagailzehguh being the kind of harsh, junk, cut-up noise I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to be pulled out of …

Zerfallt – Decomposing Towers C31
Self Released
I believe Decomposing Towers is the debut release of Boston’s excellent industrial ambient noise project Zerfallt. Previously reviewed was Zerfallt’s “To Know the Love of Young Witches” which was actually released after this. Going back one can see the evolution in Zerfallt’s sound because where Witches was heavy, clear, concise, and sometimes even had a strange pall of calm, Towers is gritty, filthy, repetitive, and dissonant.
Side A contains the title track “Decomposing Towers” which is a barrage of heavily distorted sounds. Somewhat reminding me in …

Eva Mendoza – Shadow Stories CD
Resipiscent
Here’s an album I was very close to not reviewing. Eva Mendoza is a guitar player who plays this kind of bluesy, folk, Hawaiian music on Shadow Stories. It’s “solo” guitar music with perhaps some multi tracking here and there. I’m not a guitar player but I would guess she is a damn good guitarist. The songs are relaxed, peaceful, and daydreaming. Something I wouldn’t normally be too into but Shadow Stories doesn’t seem to be showing off. Rather the songs here are perfect for …

Arktau Eos – AI MA RA 2xCD
Aural Hypnox
Listening to Arktau Eos’ latest offering AI MA RA reminds me of all the times I’ve heard the term “ritual ambient” thrown around only to hear something quite different then what I expected, I can safely say this is what I might consider the epitome of ritual ambience. Arktau Eos manages to capture the best of the Finnish ambient sound and even combine it with a bit of the famous Finnish psych-folk influence here, especially when the album delves into it’s repetitive sitars …

V/A – Gasmoney CDR
Crank Satori
Five artists in 6 tracks make up this nifty little tour CDR in a slim DVD case. Simple black and white collage artwork adorning the outside while the CDR itself is a pale red it’s easy to get it mixed up with some other faceless CDR. Luckily the same cannot be said for the sound contained within.
Pyrrhic Thanatolgy Monger is first up with a whining feedback tone interrupt by outbursts of harsh noise and vocal fits. Simple and effective, the feedback never gets old and the …

Noveller – Red Rainbows CD
No Fun Productions
Having the opportunity of seeing Noveller perform at the last No Fun Fest I had some idea of what to expect of Red Rainbows, but it also meant that my expectations were set high. Perhaps I was a bit put-off by the cover featuring a kind of half-assed painting of Jim Morrison, but luckily the disc is all I had hoped for.
Red Rainbows is an ambient drone album but one that is melodic and harmonic with the best of guitar fueled textures, feedback, and …

Irukandji – The Suicide Jump E.P. CDR
Silken Tofu
Irukandji opens this twenty minute behemoth of a track with some glowing synthesized textures. The sounds are somewhat familiar but it’s not until the Tangerine Dream-like harmonies begin to form into a melody that this sample becomes quite obvious to me. A perfect tongue-in cheek reference where the home-run break down arrives just in time to be completely blown out by an insanely heavy blast of noise.
Perhaps Irukandji could have fooled the most benign of listeners, but it’s because of the apparent non-irony …

TwoDeadSluts OneGoodfuck/Cock E.S.P. – Split C4
Lascivious Aesthetics
The world is moving fast. Faster and faster every day. Each friend added to my stupid Facebook page just makes the endless spewing of information wash by like water flowing through a breaking levee, flooding more and more with with each opening fissure. Is information cheaper today then it ever has been? Or are we actually valuing it more by spending more time mulling over it, archiving it, and finding new ways to present the same old shit.
These questions are heightened by this fantastic …

Wether/A Snake in the Garden – Split C20
905 Tapes
A perfect pairing of only the grimiest of harsh noise hell. This is a no frills release with the sickest sounds from Delaware’s Wether on one side, and Vermont’s A Snake in the Garden on the second side.
Side A is Wether’s turn for air time and they present one track entitled “Spoken in German”. Well, everyone knows that German sounds bad-ass and this track is no exception. Of course I can’t hear any actually spoken words, German or otherwise, but what I …

Clew of Theseus – Meridian CD
Cathartic Process
Clew of Theseus is the ambient/noise/industrial project by main proprietor of Cathartic Process Ben Brucato. I believe this is the first that I have heard from the man, his project, or his label. First off, the packaging comes across as quite artsy. Different textures align all sides somewhat reminding me of a Groundfault release. The information is plastered on in a small box but colored to blend in just right.
The sounds are not too far off from what the cover represents. The tracks are …

V/A – “It’s Battery Acid, You Slime” C60
Heavy Psych
I always find compilations such a fucking pain in the ass to review. Having so many artists jammed into one release, so many different sounds and visions and worrying about those each specifically. Then there’s always the question of how uniform you prefer things to be. Should all the artists sound very similar? Should they all bring something different to the table? Add to that an unlabeled cassette tape. You have to either remember what track you’re on or pay attention very …

Benjamin Nelson – Untitled C42
Semata Productions
This is the debut release from Boston’s Benjamin Nelson presenting two fluid tracks of minimalist modular synthesizer drone. The description alone is already well-treaded territory so it’s a wonder that Nelson succeeds in using this method to create these gorgeous flowing sounds. Given that Untitled is almost devoid of any threads one could grasp that could lead to a concept here it’s quite surprising that the sound is one of deep emotion and mental clarity.
The creatively titled “Live at the Piano Factory 9.23.08″ lives on …

Jute Gyte – It was a Great Marvel that He was in the Father Without Knowing Him 3″CDR
Jesimoth Entertainment
Here’s a little three incher blast of noise and subversive atmosphere from the enigmatic Jute Gyte. Not sure exactly why this project seems so strange to me but there’s something about the titles, the sounds, the overall feel of his work that has depth to it. It was a Great Marvel that He was in the Father Without Knowing Him is no exception, and it’s impressive how Jute Gyte can manage to …

Sharpwaist – The Night Of and the Morning After C22
Nil By Mouth
Unnggghhh, this tape is like a fucking heavy punch to the gut. I’ve been experiencing Carl Haas’ live assaults as Sharpwaist for quite sometime now, and sometimes it stabs like a knife in the back, sometimes it’s a raw thud in the gut. But after hearing a few of his releases I’ve noticed he has some trouble capturing all the ferocity of his live performances. Apparently this is an issue no longer because with The Night Of and the …

Ginger Leigh – Merchant of Death CDR
Self Released
Here is another disc by Ginger Leigh, once again bringing the strange, Middle Eastern psych rock mixed with the rare noise outburst and distorted vocals. It’s like a sample-based Muslimgauze because this feels more like someone got their hands on a large library of old-school psych records from Cambodia (yea, Africa I know, still a similar sound) and edited the tracks ever-so-slightly adding an electronica element here, and experimental noise element there.
With 19 tracks on Merchant of Death it’s pretty surprising how consistent …

E.V.P. – The Postmortem Canticles Of Necromancy CD
Autumn Wind Productions
EVP creates music that will fall squarely into the neo-classical genre. If you don’t dig that stuff, I’d recommend you stop reading immediately because this is not your cup of tea. I tend to enjoy some of it however, so I was pleasantly surprised when I popped in The Postmortem Canticles Of Necromancy and found an excellently mixed variety of atmospheres, sounds, and compositions.
The first part of the disc focuses heavily on the neo-classical side of things. EVP likes to do …

Swamp Horse – Gravity C45
Husk Records
Swamp Horse is 2 man project featuring Josh Lay who records noise under his own name, and an unknown to me; Morgan Rankin. These two apparently create lo-fi drone/experimental with some folk influences. The sounds on Gravity are succinctly exemplified in the artwork which features bleak, muddy textures, a sketchy rendition of horses on one side, and a fading sepia photograph of treetops on the cover.
Gravity consists of two tracks on side A and one longer track on side B. I’m assuming they’re all untitled …

Blessed Sacrifist – Falling CDR
Bullart
Blessed Sacrifist’s latest effort Falling is a release fraught with contradictions. It’s a quiet power electronics album, filled with moments of silent sound textures, it begins with “An End” and each track contains at least 3 or 4 different tracks in itself. All this and it still only clocks in below the 30 minute mark. Is it a full length, or an EP? Only one thing is certain here and that is that Falling is one strange beast.
The opener “An End” really does feel like one. …

Carlos Giffoni – Adult Life CD
No Fun Productions
After witnessing 4 of Giffoni’s sets live at No Fun Fests this is actually the first time I’ve ever heard any of his recorded material. Adult Life has all the aspects that should make up a great release. A thick cardboard digipak with great printing of some classy artwork, interesting and cryptic track names that give the illusion of depth, and some great thick and full production for the sounds. Adult Life does offer some solid strange synthesized atmospheres but tends to be …

Medroxy Progesterone Acetate/Regosphere – Split C60
Dumpsterscore Home Recordings
Here’s a great split from these two artists who are both new to me. The tape is nicely packaged on some off-white paper stock with clear black print. It’s simple and effective and looks quite classy right off the bat. Each artist has one side with Medroxy Progesterone Acetate kicking things off on side A.
MPA’s track – entitled “Scum of the Morning Star” – is a noisy drone fest that makes up all of side A. Screeching synths, shiny wails of feedback, incessant …

TL0741 – Back To Minus CDR
HC3 Music
Back To Minus is a detailed disc of ambient textures ranging from squirming digital synths, to analog hums, delayed guitars, subdued feedback and probably even some subtle samples here and there. Clocking in at about 50 minutes the tracks are layered, lush and dynamic. There is almost too much going on here as one sound leads into the next so quickly. The overall feel of the record has a mostly digital synth quality, the sounds are well produced, mostly light sometimes wandering into glitch …

Mystified – Phantoms 3″CDR
Jesimoth Entertainment
I really love 3″CDRs. Their whole concept goes so against the idea of “convenient listening” which permeates so much of people’s music listening habits today. Only allowing about 25 minutes on a disc really let’s the artist focus on each second with more fervor then before. Something about their restricting play time just encourages artists to really “make it count” a bit more. Mystified uses the 3″CDR format in a good way with Phantoms delivering 4 noisy digital drone tracks in about 20 minutes.
Each one of …

Sektor 304 – Soul Cleansing CD
Malignant
Here’s a little something different from the Malignant camp. Sektor 304 plays rhythmic industrial in the old school vein reminding me much of bands like SPK, Test Dept., and maybe even a little old school Skinny Puppy thrown in there. A lot of drum-machine type rhythms and beats but always on the more distorted and aggressive side of things. That combined with noise, subtle guitar layers, and plenty of synthesizers and samples create a densely layered and composed album.
Probably my least favorite track of the …

DeepKiss720 – DK720 CDR
Unverified
Another one from Unverified which I was really dreading and rightfully so. Although the disc is off to a decent start with some choppy, very noisy experimental electronics a la Jazzkammer. Once the “vocalist” is introduced into the mix during “Removals/Set One” – an epicly annoying 19 minute track – this gets pretty unbearable. The first 10 minutes are ok, not at all my preferred style of noise, but fine for what it is but I really wanted to just turn it off after about the 10 …

+Dog+ – Spiritual Awakening CDR
Love Earth
Expectations are a funny thing, they can really affect how I end up feeling about something. The god-awful design on Spiritual Awakening really sets the bar very low and got me expecting the absolute worst from this full length. Of course, looks can be deceiving, and a good musician does not always a good graphic designer make. Am I still making any sense here? Well, Spiritual Awakening is about an hour of what I can only describe as “mid-paced noise”. The material presented here is …

Katchmare – Lotus Village Plan 3xCDR
Scissor Death
Oh god, this was a tough one. 3 fucking discs of ultra-minimal drone I had to sit through, but I did it, the whole goddamn thing. I dunno, I just don’t have the patience for this kind of stuff. So quiet and slow moving that you are actually focused on the volume of the “tape hiss” which I’m sure isn’t actually tape hiss, maybe just a bed of white noise? But yes, it’s treated as a layer here, and fades in and out at …

Locrian – Greyfield Shrines LP
Diophantine Discs
Greyfield Shrines is a record that is successful on at least a few levels. The first is that it’s just a damn solid release, and the second is that it’s actual guitar drone that I like. I really appreciate when artists can break my jaded opinions and Locrian has done just that. It was only about 5 minutes into the one track – that takes up both sides of this LP – that I starting thinking about how Locrian sounds much like a darker Emeralds …

Lid Emba & Bobcrane – We Substitute Radiance CD
Stickfigure
Here are two new-to-me artists delivering a collaboration of experimental guitar driven electronica in a very colorful digipak. The art kind of looks like the fruit section at the supermarket. Definitely an eyebrow raised when I first peeped this shit and I can say right off the bat this isn’t my thing.
The weird sounds and experimental aspect of We Substitute Radiance is pretty neat. “Ear candy” type sounds glistening, squiggling, chirping along in every track. The electronica aspects are a bit weaker, …

Steel Hook Prostheses – Atrocitizer CD
Malignant
Ah yes, the SHP boys are back with this full length now coming in from the Malignant front. If you’ve ever heard SHP before you know you can expect some top-quality industrial noise/power electronics with perhaps a bit of an atmospheric touch. The latter of which is much more apparent over the almost 50 minutes that Atrocitizer spans.
If you took away the scathing vocal attacks – which are often the loudest element in the mix when they appear – and merely focused on the sounds, …

Fossils – Waterboarding CDR
Unverified
I stopped asking why a while ago. Probably after about a year of doing reviews, I figured out it’s better just not to ask why, but to outright state why not. Asking why is just an exercise in futility at best, at worst it’s a colossal waste of time energy and frustration.
Waterboarding is a badly packaged CDR that features an even worse recording of even worse improvised sounds. Experimental music without the experimentation. Fuckery with the “FUCK”. The recording on this is barely as loud as the …

D/A A/D – This is My Hell CDR
Snip Snip
This is my first exposure to D/A A/D and it’s a bit of a surprise. Don’t know why, but I was expecting some harsh noise. This is My Hell is instead 3 longish tracks clocking in around 40 minutes of slow modular synthesizer compositions. It’s pretty minimalist and sounds like it’s half way in between Pulse Emitter and Klinikal Skum.
The first track doesn’t really do it for me. I find the sounds run-of-the-mill with the evolution of the track to be so-so. …

Caustic Castle – Makepiece 3″CDR
SMTG Limited
Ah, good ‘ol Caustic Castle. Caustic Castle is Kenneth Yates, one half of the experimental unit Harm Stryker. For Makepiece he is joined by the meandering saxophone stylings of Clifford Schwing. Makepiece is one longish track clocking in around 18 minutes which features barrages of high pitched squeals, mid ranged squiggles, feedback, organs, and even a little bit of melody here and there.
The piece starts off at it’s most caustic with harsh high-register sounds of the sax bleeting away while joined by feedback and organ …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …