for this episode, i really strove for a nice balance of sounds and styles, while trying to deftly avoid having everything sound like shit when mixed together. i like to think i succeeded. the "noise" is held in check this time, leaning more towards the experimental side of things rather than being brutish. there's also a good undercurrent of psychedelia as well as folksy and ethnic overtones.

stylistically speaking: experimental noise, garage rock, punk rock, blues rock, surf rock, rock and roll, regional music, country & western, klezmer, psychedelia, soul, noise rock, folk, maybe others? dunno.

the skaters - bodydoor (excerpt)
kuupuu - tiedan missa asut
raccoo-oo-oon - in the woods
valet - tame all the lions
brigitte fontaine - le goudron
rosita y laura - esperando
abe schwartz's orchestra - sher, pt. 2
j.b. hutto & his hawks - too much alcohol
myron lee and the caddies - homicide
wanda jackson - funnel of love
connie francis & hank williams, jr. - mule skinner blues (alternate take)
jackie deshannon - needles and pins
the eight minutes - i can't get no higher
ghq - crystal healing (excerpt)
bela fleck, v.m. bhatt & jie-bing chen - john hardy
folk and pop sounds of sumatra, vol. 2 - track #2
pengo - let's levitate the outhouse
thuja - ghost plants #2
the belairs - mr. moto
gallon drunk - two wings mambo
reverend beat-man - jesus christ twist
the cramps - green door
cee bee beaumont - deadshot
dexter romweber - you broke my heart
the vibrators - no heart
leslie keffer - silver bridge (excerpt)
cheikha tetma - el tambor de algeria
matt valentine, erika elder, alex neilson & moses jiggs - raga turasatana
tiger piss - hailss
quilts - lost bike
barrabarracuda - draft dodging sexual vietnam
sic alps - love is strange
the mad - i hate music
black randy & the metrosquad - i wanna be a nark
men in black - s&m bar
dow jones & the industrials - hold that coed
the deadbeats - let's shoot maria
polo pepo y sociedad corrupta - no es delito ser punk
misfits - cough/cool
vom - god save the whales
the kids - fascist cops
cambodian cassette archives - unknown #5
sawaadyja - davul
sarah's charity - silence of octopus #2
skullflower - diamond bullet (excerpt)
religious knives - in the end
hole class - mansions
asha bhosle - dum maro dum
c.a. quintet - cold spider
neil campbell & richard youngs - holly bush lane
mahmoud guinia - sast demanio (excerpt)

hamilton, ontario's scott johnson was kind enough to hook me up with several of his releases, including two on his cloud valley recordings. here's one:

split c30
[2008, cloud valley]

sscb is the solo project of robin dickinson, from brighton, sussex. most folks will probably be more familiar with his main gig, slow listener. additionally, you can find more of robin's exploits in black sparrow, hereharehere, heyerdahl and cadena muerto. you can also support him financially through his labels curor (old) and archivo de sangre de dios (current). recently he set-up a podcast to showcase his and his label's music for free, which i think is a brilliant idea.

hunting rituals is just one of several hats worn by scott johnson. previously, he was a member of fossils, now you can find him in: gasoline gathers hands, gathers friends (duo with jag), spores, bottom feeder, gilgamesh (a duo with head boggle), the lonely flight, slo-fi spirit wave, thoughts on air and scott's occasionally helped out with mark raymond's annie you look scared.
dickinson's untitled piece (which has two parts) begins by maintaining a great balance between slow churning murky noise, a warmer background drone and soft ambient howls. it has a great muddied sound to it giving off the sensation that everything is swirling together in a psychedelic whirlwind. after a few minutes, all of the commotion will die down as robin's muffled, multi-tracked vocal drones briefly take over. then, ever so carefully, the track will pick up where it left off, retaining the soft moans until it comes to an abrupt stop.

the second part, which takes over at around the seven minute mark, retains the general mood, but introduces a vague rhythmic center that will eventually get overtaken by great shrill and squealing vocal noise. i have the utmost faith that if i turned this up loud enough, it would destroy all of my glassware. terrific banshee wailing backed by delayed noise in the far distance. when that finally subsides, it's back to more understated vocal moans and amiable atmospheric sounds. sscb keeps things in calmer territory for the final couple of minutes as well; sparse metallic clatter in the background, electronic hums, whirling ambient winds, a little distortion... and maybe a xylophone.hunting rituals' wither clan is of a far more foreboding air. man, i so want to sneak a dick cheney reference in here. hey, guess i just did. sick use of sparse delayed noise to build up the tension, but it's scott's death drones, which are issued out like warning calls from a predator, that stir up the greatest feeling of uneasiness. clan will slowly take steps towards turning itself into noisy drone by ditching the destructive echoes and instead piecing together a multitude of impressive drones over a foundation of prickly distortion. just when it seems like johnson's moving in for the kill... he stops. wither clan instantly changes its course. it won't stray too far from the droney theme, but now it doesn't try and freak out the listener quite as much. i love the low-flying buzz of the main drone, which gets punctuated by mysterious delayed sounds in the background. the best part, though, are the animal-like screeches which turn into wobbling drones that momentarily usurp the main drone, until it comes back again; the dynamic between those two elements over the duration is fantastic.

this is a rad split cassette that predominately centers around droning, but also shows you how great and impactful that facet of experimental music can be when it's given the proper compliments.

SweetSweet CoffeeBreath - Untitled Excerpt (from 0:00 to 6:52)
Hunting Rituals - Wither Clan Excerpt (from 0:00 to 6:00)

Thoughts on Air @ Pepper Jack's Cafe; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

san fran's kevin mceleney sent me a handful of tapes, most of which were of his noise project droughter, but he also gave me a tape that he put out by tlasila.

merely resurrected c40
[2008, heavy psych]

this time out, the group is comprised of rat bastard, gaybomb (andrew barranca), ben wolcott, graham moore (runs blossoming noise), chris grier, tom smith and the mysterious fyntik, which, if tom's to be trusted, is "elvira solodkaja’s pet parakeet". i have no reason not to believe that.
what thee fuck. admittedly, i haven't dove too far into to live and shave in la's discography, but the stuff that i have heard was in more of an experimental, free-rock sort of vein experimental with rock leanings. not happening here. this is carefully carved up, collagey experimentation. seeing as how all of the above members are credited on the tape's insert (and when you take the name of the cassette into consideration), this comes across to me as being tantamount to a remix, since i highly doubt that seven people, or six people and a parakeet, took a hands-on approach to the final product that i'm currently listening to. but really, i have no fucking clue. what i do know is that i love it. for sounding like tlasila's catalog ran through several of gaybomb's card readers, replete with the skips and scratches of segments being spliced together, merely resurrected is incredibly musical. the most impressive thing is that it achieves that by completely disfiguring their sound and re-presenting it in a stunning fashion. there are specific parts of tones which are chewed up and then continually spewed back out, subtle, ultra-brief snippets of guitar are snagged, and then repeated until they take on a completely different form, even smith's vocals will be disfigured into milliseconds of stammering gasps for air, while repetitious layer after repetitious layer comes in to provide a rhythmic or melodic foundation as a tapestry of even more dynamic noisy quilting gets pieced together underneath it. it's mind bogglingly schizo, and definitely off its meds, yet it's crafted so bloody perfectly.
from a concrète standpoint, tlasila are at an advantage, since they're plundering from works that are originally musical in origin (like a noise version of john oswald), but anyone could do that (and have it sound like crap). i feel like their enormous success with this tape hinged on a) the seemingly flippant way that incredible passages of music are continually strung together from what, for all intents and purposes is, sheer disorder. b) the ubiquitous sense of control. sure, this is multi-layered and it definitely feels like a lot of shit is happening at once, but never did i get the feeling that something was haphazardly slapped together; the balance between chaos and calculation was just right. c) this one might be the most important: the aforementioned use of layering. those memorable, repetitious patches which served as the groundwork, allowed for the constant cycling of collages underneath it, so that when they brought in new sonic themes, say, a background drone, would overlap into that segment. during this time, they could switch out that drone for a new foundation. i think that the staging of it was brilliant and made for smoother transitions. well, about as smooth as cut-up audio collages can be. tom smith's credited as mixing and producing this, so, if the way that this came out was all him, i've got to tip my proverbial sombrero to the man. if not, y'know, either way, i'm really impressed. very rad tape.

Untitled Side B Excerpt (from 16:24 to 19:37)

To Live and Shave in L.A. @ Cinéma Oblò; Lausanne, Switzerland 5/14/08

salvatore giorgi, of philly's peasant magik, hooked me up with the latest batch of releases from his label.

she is also phasing c20
[2008, peasant magik]

andy jarvis [pictured with mika de oliveira], from the uk, is the proprietor of the first person imprint. he's also a member of sculptress and helvetica is the perfume of the city. formerly, he was involved in anna planeta and a warm palindrome, both of which also featured phil todd.

jarvis will get this cassette off to a sublime start with the a side's empyrean. there's a terrific background howl, that sounds like a hollow breeze, which will rise and slowly descend into feather soft oscillations. also occupying space in the distance is a light, wavy drone and a layer of inoffensive fluttering electronic noise that periodically weaves in and out of the mix. all of this occurs around a thoughtful series of plucked strings, which will continually repeat. after a few minutes, andy incorporates a bit of improvisational drumming that embodies the spastic nature of free jazz fills, but he'll opt for a less heavy-handed approach. this gives empyrean a sense of restlessness, but due to the understatedness of it, it won't conflict with the serenity that he had been establishing.

well, i just looked up the word empyrean and it means the highest heaven. seems appropriate.
the second side's first piece, encomium, begins by utilizing the same series of electronic raps that side a ended with, before quickly turning into an awesome track of.... anthemic synth? well, i wasn't expecting this! ha, wicked. i can't help but love that deep fuzzy synth lead. the additional sounds that shoot up into the sky like fireworks are also great. once an additional layer of synthesizer plays underneath the main loop, the song will start to get borderline cheesy, but in the best possible way. i was surprised to find out that encomium does not mean "the 80's", but instead, means a formal expression of praise.i'll spare you the intrigue, the last track's definition is "a plant that grows on another plant, but not like a fungus". its title is epiphyte. curse you, andy jarvis, and your knowledge of fancy words which begin with the letter e. again, this will pick up the concluding undercurrent it inherited from encomium, this time it's some static that sounds like rain, mixed with faint noises. then, in come the buzzing drones and a beautiful pattern of tones that echo with a nice bell-like resonance. upon listening to this, i started having déjà vu, and then it dawned on me; the four main notes that are repeating here, are just like the ones on side a, and the drones are similar, too. the main difference is that, instead of introducing a nuanced contradiction of sounds, andy will employ a layer of wandering synth, which will agreeably blend into epiphyte's atmosphere.

she is also phasing sounds lovely, looks it, too, and also taught me words that i'll never have any real world use for.

Epiphyte

i just noticed yesterday that this disc, which i received as part of the latest package from abandon ship, was a reissue of the jk tapes cd that i already reviewed. so, this is a rare opportunity for me to just plagiarize myself (for the most part). yay!

i did listen to this again, just to make sure i still feel the same way, and yep, i still dig it.

lazer saber
[2008, abandon ship]

unlike their similarly named american counterparts, parisians charles lavenac and janin benecke's blue sabbath black project takes a much more light-hearted approach to noise-making, with nary a bad vibe to be found on this disc.just because these two like to have some fun, that doesn't mean that they're incapable of making a ton of racket. after opening up with a buoyant forty-one seconds of synthy sounds, they plow us face first into purple deevil, a dense headache inducer of dual distorted guitars clanging away aimlessly for six minutes... that was a compliment, and a mouthful. extra shows that they're not actually inept at playing their guitars, they just favor the noise which they're able to evoke from them. i support that. the eight minutes of lazer saber do a good job of showing quite a few different aspects of the band. it starts off rather lightly with unaffected electric guitar chord strums as well as a small bit of vocal noise from both parties, before eventually getting noisier as pedals are stepped on. early on, it projects more of a freeform style, as opposed to a noisier one. then the strums and random plucks collide into a wall of dense noise. the strumming guitar can still be heard underneath everything, for a bit, until lazer saber explodes into indeterminable distortion and brain scrambling feedback. nice.

i like how well bsbf vary their sound. there's a little bit of structure, a few touches of rock, some improv and a whole lot of noise. the disc in its entirety (twelve tracks, forty-four minutes) is great, but i definitely have some personal favorites. the first of which is tenderbirds. it will begin slowly with atmospheric vocal sounds and affected guitar, but interjects harsher distortion into the mix every so often. soon, the pauses in between the noise will become shorter and shorter until it overcomes everything else. once it gets to that stage, it will, again, go back to short, repetitious, blasts. it's really their best showcase of actual noise on the cd, and the guitar playing is memorable, too, considering how manipulated it was. black rice is my second favorite. this is one of the few tracks that features any percussion... and it sounds like some novice playing around on acid pro. it's endearingly sloppy and silly. let's see, there's a cowbell, hand claps, and cymbal clashes. it's super fucking clamorous (at times it resembles a salsa band that did way too much speed), but then there's also feedback! once charles' affected vocals come into play... ah, i love it. whatever manipulation he's applying to them are fantastic. while i really dig everything about this track, i'm especially all about that feedback.

Purple Deevil

Blue Sabbath Black Fiji @ Upset the Rhythm; Barden's Boudoir; London, UK 9/6/07

ohio's meaning used to be antennaeboy, back when it was just eli caudill and matthew reis. they stopped being antennaeboy once josh fink jumped on board. so far, i've missed out on hearing those recordings as a duo, but (thanks to matt) i have their first two releases as meaning.

untitled c43
[2008, epicene sound replica]

after starting off the sidelong first track with a multi-pronged attack of clamorous sounds, they'll loosen the reigns after a minute, opting for a bit of a minimalist approach. foreign electronic sounds will share time with fink's subtle, spatial synth modulations and vague organic clatter in the background. once the synth picks up and begins emitting noisy drones, it'll be joined by hand drumming. then, the drones will give way for undulating ambiance, light distortion and metallic chimes as the percussion now becomes highlighted. next thing you know, meaning's turned this into a hippie percussion circle and it's great. there's a memorable rhythm being tapped out, and the metallic clanging suits it perfectly, as does the underlying base of static. once that disappears, a few minutes later, this takes another turn for the trippier. i can only describe it as being very influenced by the tribal music of native americans... and probably peyote. not what i was expecting at all, but i love it. after reaching that peak, they'll scale it back with jangly metallic clamor and not much else for a few minutes before resuming the percussion. once they near fourteen minutes, they'll give the drumming a break, briefly favoring the repetitious skipping of a record being spun backwards, but that, too, will fade out after a minute. from there, it's back to junk noise; odd clamor and spaced out banging. the final few minutes shift the focus away from the acoustic and back to the electro, first with drones and humming ambiance, then into a nice noisier segment, as the hand drumming makes a quick reappearance, then it's back into stuttering, screechy, scratchy experimentation until the side ends with a few seconds of electric hum.with that restless journey behind them, meaning will switch gears for the flip side. now, the electronics aspect of the group will play a larger role in their sound, with the organic percussion being much more complimentary. the main element in the onset is a loud, rhythmic bassy tone which threatens to knock things off of my desk if i keep the volume too high, then... relative quietude. there's faint rustling in the distance, drones every now and again; the same goes for metallic clangs. they'll spend an extended amount of time on contained clamorous chaos. the spacious feel to it, mixed with the inclusion of random elements and noises do a good job of keeping it interesting during this stretch. once they near the ten minute mark, they'll take a turn for the more memorable, centering around a beautifully mesmerizing synth layer. percussion will make another brief, but notable entry, then they'll wisely pull out, letting the floating synth drones carry the track, with chimes being the most notable accompaniment. after five minutes of that, the background clamor picks up a little intensity, only for a minute, and the deep, throbbing tones of the introductory minutes comes back, so to will the slow rhythmic percussion. the bass will get a bit more dynamic, while maintaining a sense of rhythm and different elements will take turns providing the supporting back-beat.. or fore-beat, not sure. they'll end with a few minutes of layered droning which only ends because they'll run out of tape.
i'm really digging this cassette. its shades of folk and psychedelia were wonderful surprises, as was the large role that rhythm played. overall, i found that there was a terrific balance between exploratory approaches in sound and music that leaves a lasting impression. recommended.

Side B Excerpt (from 7:58 to 12:20)

process of divorce
[2008, epicene sound replica]

i made the mistake of listening to this cd, which is their second release, before the cassette, and, holy crap, it made the tape seem that much more outstanding. that's not because this cd isn't good, but because they're so damn different from each other. now that i think about it though, i don't think it would've mattered which album i listened to first, since i would've been marveling over something either way.two, even lengthier affairs this time around (twenty-eight and twenty-six minutes, respectively). the first track completely eschews the organic balance and heavily favors electronic and synth work. it begins with a gorgeous melody and drone by josh. i'm really starting to think that he's one of experimental music's best kept secrets. i'm constantly stunned by his memorable work, and the first four minutes of this track rank among the best that i've heard yet from him. absolute heaven, that's all i'll say about it. after that, they'll retain the drone, ditch the melody, then ditch the drone and pick up another. this section's a lot more minimal, with sporadic sustained synth and a vaguely bubbling undercurrent. after a few minutes, some of the drones will start to stick, most notably a rapidly wavering one. several more segments of sustained drones will slide underneath it as it continues to fluctuate hypnotically. a few minutes later, the pitch of the drone will bend and sway and threaten to decompose as a wall of distortion starts to build up around it. the drone will continue to work out the affected kinks, the static will soon fall off, and the drone emerges with a new and improved higher tone, but carries on in the same manner. it'll continue to add slight shifts to its sound until it reaches the twenty minute mark, when process of divorce transmogrifies into subdued environmental sounds. a series of pulsating tones will eventually streak across the soundscape a few times, then recede. they'll pick up in the last four minutes, joined by another undulating drone, for a nice rhythmic electronic conclusion.

i think that i can safely say that the first track was dominated by drones, in one form or another. the second one won't completely stray from that formula, but it will take the attention off of them by having noise become a more integral component. it almost seems like because they have this monotonous droning, which isn't as memorable as it is steadfast, they're able to delve further into free noise, knowing that there's a continual musical theme to level out all of the experimentation. seeing as how they like to work the sparse angle to their favor, it's good to have drones there to tie everything together. as the track progresses, the drones will occasionally pull out for a few minutes, forcing your attention back to sporadic clatter. parts of this are stripped so bare that you can really pick up on the ambiance of the background; it's like natural field recordings, and i dig that aspect of it a lot. the noise itself is in a pretty unique vein; seeming like a good deal of contact mic'ing various sound sources instead of standard fare pedal-driven manipulations. good stuff.

two meaning albums, two very different results. the cassette is definitely the easier of the two to get into. this cd, save for the opening minutes, asks a bit more of its listeners with its combination of prevalent drones, minimalistic leanings and overall, greater will to experiment, without completely abandoning cohesion.

Process Of Divorce 1 Excerpt (from 8:57 to 16:04)

londonite paul watson (bbblood) hooked me up with the reissue of an endearingly immature titled split cassette that he did. this was originally self-released last year for his tour with green mist, who's now residing in guangzhou, china.

poo & wee c30
[2008, turgid animal]

dallas k's first up with wee, which is thoughtfully broken down into six different tracks. he'll begin with a hefty bit of distortion and the loud, restless squeal of tape manipulations. i dig the noisy chug that pops up towards the end of this first part. then, it's onto even more screeching noise, this time they're coupled by thunderous booms. the interplay between those shrill affections and the deep, denser sounds is particularly impressive. next, the chugging theme from the early minutes is brought back, but more prominently this time, and it will be aided by complimentary rumble and dynamic manipulations. the middle of this track features a screaming high-pitch tone that, even when it's at its height, still sounds like it wants to climb even higher. when dallas has had enough of that, he'll end the track by pairing the base chug with a muffled staccato rhythm. after beginning the fourth movement with drones of offsetting tone, he'll pass through a few different welcomed spells of repetition in two minutes. what's nice is that things will repeat enough to lodge themselves into our heads, but they don't give us the chance to get tired of them as they'll swiftly move on. the fifth part focuses mainly on good old sputtery, murky noise. wee concludes with thirty-seven seconds of affected pounding percussion, totally arrhythmic, and distortion that sounds like it's shooting out of a pressure washer.
for being the guy without the word mist in his name, bbblood's side is nice, fucked and hazy. the pervasive drones and distant supportive hums give paul's piece a gloomy cloak which wonderfully clashes with the fact that it's titled poo. this is actually some serious shi... uh, stuff. during its creeping first half, high-pitch tones and shrill screeching keep things taut while he slowly continues building onto the layers of noisy drone and stammering electronics. the second half's really where the action is, though. there's a lot of terrific repetition, which also knows when it's time to move on. the blaring series of ear ringing tones after the ten minute mark could've stuck around a bit longer. well, the final one will stick around in the form of a piercing drone which lingers for a full minute, so that was good, if not slightly brain damaging. from that point on, the tape's fucking golden; deftly moving through memorable bit after memorable bit, culminating in outstanding affected metallic rhythms and wacked church bell gongs before it slowly crawls back towards the darkness. killer piece of noise overall, but goddamn, those final four minutes and change easily rank up there as bbblood's best. brilliant.
when paul ripped the original for me last year, i liked this tape a lot. nearly a year later (and after several more listens), i'm completely stoked on it. plus, how flippin' gnarly is that cover art by (wisconsin's) jasin "evil" covelli? fun fact: jasin also makes noise, under that name, and runs human larvae tapes.

Green Mist - Wee #2
BBBlood - Poo Excerpt (from 7:00 to 11:17)

Green Mist, Torturing Nurse, Fecalove & Dbpit/Cris.ex @ Noishanghai; Shanghai, China 2008



BBBlood @ Colchester Arts Centre; Colchester, Essex, UK 2/18/07

the first batch of crucial bliss releases that adam sent me were more of a showcase of that (sub)label's noise and experimental sides. this new(ish) package, which is a combination of both blast and bliss imprints, seems to be dedicated to their slow, crushing sides. these two cds from fistula are prime examples.

lessons in lamentation
[2008, crucial bliss]

for both albums, fistula is: corey bing (necrodamus, accept death, king travolta, rue, scumchrist, son of jor-el, ultralord, king fire goat), bahb branca (king travolta, rue, son of jor-el, ultralord, king fire goat), steve barcus (king fire goat), kieth double (dopus), scott stearns (wizardfool, necrodamus, die hard, king travolta, ultralord, accept death, madman mundt) and steve makita (apartment 213, lockweld, wolf prayer, agoraphobic nosebleed (since '07)). all from ohio. most with too much spare time on their hands.

in case you previously didn't know who fistula was, i'm pretty sure you can figure out what kind of music they play based on the names of their other bands. dudes are heavy.

the only thing worth lamenting about this album is that it's one track clocking in at sixty-one minutes. the good news is that it's actually three twenty minute songs that all just kind of run together, though they are delightfully separated from each other by feedback solos.

first up is the greek mythology referencing erinnyes. the, initially, sludgy guitar playing is deceptively simple: four slow, repeated riffs then a few seconds of chugging, then repeat. also, after the fourth cycle, the guitar tone climbs up a bit, repeats the four series pattern, then drops back down again. for how simple it seems, these monolithic riffs will work their way into your subconscious with little difficulty. the guitars will be aided by makita's dissonance; shrill whining noise in the background and static crackle covering everything else. it sounds like you're listening to the song on an am station and having a tough go of it. halfway through, one of the guitarists will break form and start soloing like crazy. i'm not big on guitar solos, so i liked that it kind of gets lost in the audio mix. it also doesn't stick around for very long. after nine minutes and twenty-one seconds, the drums and vocals finally make an appearance. when it comes to metal, the vocalist is a crucial element for me. if he sounds like a zombie with emphysema, no fucking thanks. in barcus we just get some good ol' throat shredding shouts, which are also mixed down pretty low as to not detract from the killer jam session that they've established. perfect. while the pace of the guitars had slowly picked up from the beginning of the song, that considerable momentum will wane with the death of the drums and vocals after the sixteen minute mark, reverting erinnyes back to a sludge metal dirge, lightly embraced by faint squealing electronics and distortion.
the guitar playing on lord of death gets scaled back even further, consisting of an extended series in which the same chords are slowly strummed over and over, before, again, switching up the tone, and then continuing on in the same manner. lessons isn't about finesse though, just power, and fistula's packing plenty of that. this time, when the vocals and drums finally join the fray, they won't try so hard to speed things up. the best part about this section is the relationship between double's drumming and the guitarists. kieth will alternate between a slow, but otherwise normal, cymbal-led rhythm and a reeeally slow cymbal-led pound. when the guitarists alter the chords of their drones to match their drummer's shifts, it's a wonderful thing.
fistula won't spend any time fucking around with deciever [sic]. for starters, they'll shed the repeated single riff formula and rock out quite a bit more, bringing back images of vintage skullflower. well, ok, these guys are rocking out about as much as you can while only moving at half speed, but it still rules. it also helps that the drums and vocals are present nearly from the opening moments. the second half of the track ditches steve and kieth to highlight the rad riffing as well as makita's squirrelly high-pitched whirls. everyone will eventually come back for the final few minutes before feedback, distortion and power electronics send out the disc in fine fashion.

Lessons in Lamentation Excerpt (from 30:58 to 38:01)

inverted black star
[2008, crucial bliss]

lessons in lamentation saw lockweld's steve makita pretty much assuming the saboteur role in fistula's fold, with his signal static and piercing whines giving the lumbering guitar riffs a nice damaged sound. for inverted black star's first movement, cronus, steve's noise is now the center of attention, not the obstacle. he'll supply sheets, as well as occasional blasts, of distortion while a lone guitar riff will drift away, turning into twisting feedback drones which will fill up the remaining space. while there's a guitar being used, the emphasis is clearly on experimental noise. i like how they'll incorporate drone and minimalism into the mix as well, knowing when to pull everything away to make the noisier parts all the more tantalizing. i must confess that i really wasn't expecting this at all, but anything that features this much slow, moaning feedback is rad in my book.
once they get to the twenty-one minute mark, the guitars will start to sound a little more guitar-like with their deliberately slow paced riffs that are given quite a bit of time and space to float away before the chords are struck again, and then in come the vocals... the spoken word vocals. there's a little bit of distortion riding underneath everything and squealing electronics will make their presence known, too, as this portion of the cd takes a turn for the doomy.

after another twenty minutes, fistula get back to rocking (and decide to include their drummer, finally) with first ruler, never the last. this sounds decidedly less metal than the other stuff that i've heard on these two cds. it's still heavy, repetitive and driving, but it has this nice lo-fi garage kind of feel to it, thanks in large part to the distortion that it's submerged in. the instrumentation, as well as barcus' yelling, seem secondary to the shrieking electronic tones and rather thick noise that makita's whipping up, and it works wonderfully well.
the twelve minutes which comprise black star's coda will revert back to slow waves of repetitious (semi-isolated) guitar, but mostly they'll serve as a pedestal for makita's squealing discord.

fistula might be a metal band, but they're a damn ambitious one. even when they're sticking close to those roots, they're still able to show off their diversity by playing really well within different fields of that genre. obviously, it's their fascination with noise and experimentation on these two releases which will do the greatest job of distancing them from their peers.

heavy. noisy. slow. both discs fuckin' slay.

Inverted Black Star Excerpt (from 48:03 to 53:10)

Ultralord in Medina, OH


The Family (featuring Steve Makita) @ NTC; 5/27/08

i've got a pair of discs from artur olejarczyk's london-based industrial culture records. here's the first.

phenomena 3" cd-r
[2008, industrial culture]

rez epo is konrad materek from kielce, poland. konrad first started making experimental music under the guise of astma, but changed it to rez epo (which, by the way, is completely made up) when he finally settled on a distinct direction for the project.

konrad kicks off extraterrestial [sic] transmissions with two seconds of a loud screaming tone and then the track mutates into a sheet of pretty dense noise. while it's got a fair amount of muscle behind it, you can still pick up on the things that are happening beneath the surface; super buried vocal loops (which i had to make an effort to pick up on), multiple layers of repetitive electronic tones and nuanced dynamic noise. i can get into monotonous rumbles when there's a feeling of fuller development to it, and i get that sense from this.

interstellar emanations utilizes a similar foundation (and formula) with repetitive (to a point of soothing) electronic tones as well as what sounds like the looping blip of a submarine's radar. contrasting thick noise with rather meditative tonality is the key to this track's success. the distortion that carries emanations has a bit of growth to it and will slightly alter its sound during these four minutes, which is a good offset to the other elements' continual repetition.looping, juxtaposition and layering will see their biggest payoff in trance phase one. there isn't anything to not like about this. it begins with a loop of affected vocals and sustained whining tones and then in comes the dense noise, which is even more dynamic than it was in emanations. with three loops (and a drone) complimenting each other in the background, konrad will continually manipulate the clattery noise as he goes; delving into prolonged passages, or holding back, with short bursts that are pieced together by light static and drone. there's a ton of great, distinct things to pay attention to, but there's a natural seamlessness at work; it won't come across as a track by track assemblage of differing ideas.
trance phase two is the disc's least involved piece of music. there's still a good job being done as far as layering goes, but once all of the pieces are set into motion, that's nearly all the motion that you're going to get. thankfully, the lack of structural change is compensated by the entrancing manner in which phase two drifts along.

the name of materek's project leaves something to be desired for me, but i have no complaints, just a good deal of praise, when it comes to what i heard on phenomena.

Interstellar Emanations

Rez Epo @ Noise 4 Cash 3; Krakow, Poland 3/29/08

decayed inferno 3" cd-r
[2008, cut hands]

phosphene form is kenny gibson, from hamilton, ontario. gibson's also a member of rocket pony (with michael higgins as well as darcy atkinson from autoerotic asphyxiation).

decayed inferno's four track set of manipulated synth experimentation begins with a good back and forth between overly distorted sputter and a cleaner, delayed synth, with a drone fighting to be heard over the choking static. the track will briefly move away from chaos, focusing on drones and a nice use of delay, capped by a great echoing boom of distortion. once the drone reaches a screaming squeal (sounds like he's using a micron, but i could be wrong), it'll settle into a more pleasing drone which will be the constant while kenny focuses the most intently on delayed racket. that drone is the most memorable element, but the dynamic echoing noise is a beautiful compliment to it.that opening number makes for inferno's most open-ended work, as the remaining three will traffic mostly in rhythmic noise. for the second track, kenny will add high pitch squeals and a call-and-response between a few seconds of clipped distortion and a few of fiery static over a somewhat subtle rhythm. the second half of it (it's only two and a half minutes long) will slightly slow down the rhythm and is highlighted by catchy squealing noise.

the third track, also two and a half minutes long, carries over the rhythm from its predecessor and throws up sputtering noise over the the top of it. the last minute of this one is where it really shines, with catchy moaning synth, which will be nicely manipulated, altering, but not completely maiming, the rad sound of it, all while the rhythmic base has been transformed into a creeping marching cadence.
for the eight minute closer, gibson brings back the hollow marching rhythm and seasons it with noisy drones, but as it progresses, the rhythm of it will go from just being a foundation to becoming the pattern of the noise itself; coming in calculated choppy waves of sustained tones. once those fade out during the last few minutes, dissonance will start to play a larger role by way of rather shrill squeals which run amok over the now bouncy central rhythm.

i'm a big fan of rhythmic synth noise, so i found quite a bit to appreciate with phosphene form's decayed inferno. i think that there was a wonderful balance here between catchy elements which made the tracks memorable as well as noisy experimentation.

Decayed Inferno #3

volcanic legacy c40
[2008, bone tooth horn]

acre is aaron davis, currently of portland, formerly of olympia, washington, where he was in lords of lightspeed, who have ties to behead the prophet no lord shall live and, more famously, wolves in the throne room. he can also be found in wikkid tit, dead.weather.radar and rocking the bass in gowns.

for being someone who's so rooted in power and doomy music, drone seems like a pretty logical next step. now, whether that's a step forward or backwards is up for debate. what's curious is that acre's music is devoid of that darkness... so, i guess we can consider this is a step forward then.the two tracks which make up these two long sides are hard to recommend for anyone other than drone enthusiasts. the a side's riley spends over six minutes just fading in, but once it gets going, you'll be able to fully appreciate the high and low drones and the beautiful, yet still quite powerful, waves of its centerpiece. while the four minutes that follow use those undulations to the best (most mesmerizing) effect, the shape of them will alter drastically later on as they lazily drift in and out, at maybe half strength, while the supporting layers (almost) endlessly drone on, unabated.

acre will play the epic card for the second side's title piece as well, taking his sweet time in bringing the audio up to an acceptable amplitude. volcanic legacy's focal drone really isn't the focus, not in the early going anyway, since there's nothing that really stands out about it, other than how highly mixed it is; what's going on down below is what you should hone in on. the shimmering lull of legacy's undercurrent nicely offsets the overall feeling of stasis from the prominent layers during the first half, but it's the slow rhythmic pulses during this section that will win me over. the remaining seven minutes will see aaron throwing in a few subtle shifts in tone and variation as everything weaves into a pleasing mix of oscillating hums.volcanic legacy features the kind of droning that's easy to dismiss if you're not really listening all that attentively, but the more time and attention that i paid to it, the more i found to like about it. again, though, since this revolves almost entirely around repetitive drones with not much to take your mind away from that fact, this is just for those ears with a keen appreciation for that particular style of music.

Riley Excerpt (from 6:28 to 9:30)

Acre @ Cake Shop; New York City, NY 11/24/07