Concern – Living Wage C20
Digitalis LTD
This is a great tape featuring the understated sounds of Gordon Ashworth’s ambient project. If you are unfamiliar with the artist he is also the man behind the harsh noise collage project Oscillating Innards.
Side A features two tracks of blurry melodic frameworks packed into a box, shoved into a corner in the attic and eventually buried under layers of dust. That’s not to say this material isn’t relevant – it is – but it’s oh so delicate and esoteric that it conjures up these …
Panther Modern – White Light Power Electronics CDr
Dumpsterscore Home Recordings
White Light Power electronics features an odd mix of styles and sounds which may somewhat be attributed to its wide cast of contributors that include D of Black Bloc, T.O.M.B., Colin Orr of Suicide, and even an organist from a church. What this amounts to is an album that features some off kilter experimental tracks and combines them with seething feats of industrial and power electronics.
Sometimes I feel the more experimental tracks are a bit jarring and don’t mesh too well …
Regosphere/Harold Shipman – Split CDr
Dumpsterscore Home Recordings
Combining the sound of layered synth centric industrial and barebones experimental harsh noise is not something you see too often, but the 43 minutes of this disc offer just that. The first track is the only Regosphere track clocking in at 18 minutes it’s a tour-de-force of what Andrew Quitter does best. Carefully composed drones and noise merging and morphing over the course of it’s running time. This is the kind of material I’ve come to expect from the project and it’s just as …
156 – Frontyard/Backyard C30
Acid Casualty Productions
This tape presents a very strange sound indeed. I am not familiar with the works of this NYC-based artist but Frontyard/Backyard is quite clearly based off of many field recordings from various areas. I might assume they are from around the artist’s living space. That said, editing is very seamless yet also quite jarring in the recording’s contrasting atmospheres.
The tape alternates between more raw/unedited excerpts of field recordings and other recordings of sound effects type material like junk sounds, scrap metal, and even sounds that …
Biava/The Smartlemon – Split C55
Heretic Recordings
This is the first tape release for the Italian label which also offers material from these two Italian artists. The split tape contains a wealth of material from both artists with Biava being featured on side a and The Smartlemon on b.
Biava’s material is much more to my liking here. Although it sounds quite digital in many places the artist manages to create a cohesive and engaging showing of morphed sounds using various effects. The sounds are quite unique yet perhaps remind me of the …