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[Autechre - NTS Sessions]

Autechre - NTS Sessions 8xCD - Warp, 2018 - I had certain ideas about what 8 hrs of Autechre might sound like. Assumptions that it might be impenetrable; overwhelming; aimless; even boring. These ideas were very wrong. Inspired by my recent review of Autechre's entire discography leading up to elseq, I decided to grab this 8 CD set and take the plunge. I'm going slowly, having listened to the first 4 discs over the last two weeks, trying to savor and really enjoy the experience. What I can say is this isn't the impenetrable mess of bleeps, bloops, and MAX/MSP nightmares I though it'd be. These songs are relatively accessible, even when they're constructed out of more "difficult" sounds and structures. And so far the first 4 discs have been very consistent, an impressive feat for the amount of music on offer. For those here who appreciate computer music and haven't heard this, it's definitely worth a listen. I think listening to a lot of Autechre before diving in helped, but like every Autechre album this one has a language all its own. Special mention to Four Of Seven from Session 1, Disc 2, which has got to be one of the funkiest and easily enjoyable tracks Autechre's done since 1998.

I have the 12xLP box set of this release.  It really took me a while to absorb the album - there is so much of it! It still feels quite distant to me; I have not connected to it like I have many other autechre albums.  There are definitely stand out tracks but overall I struggle since it is so huge.  I keep meaning to try and make a few condensed playlists.

SIGN/PLUS from last year feels like it was treading old ground a bit; the first time an autechre album has done that for me.  Lush sound design and constantly evolving structures as you would expect though.  They are still top tier producers for me.

I have the nts cd box and the lp box (I bought the cd one myself without knowing colleagues at an old job got me the lp one as an incredibly generous leaving gift.)

Despite having it this way I’ve easily spent more time listening to the mp3s than either box. I think with newer AE stuff listening to the purely digital versions without the time limitations of cd or vinyl is really how they intend for it to be heard. Not that their intent should be sacred or anything but I definitely find approaching it all as 4 long sessions feels like the best way to absorb it and it was really exciting and rewarding experiencing them like that when they were originally broadcast. Can especially recommend headphone listening with the NTS sessions. For me it’s just the greatest thing they have done and as the 2 new underwhelming albums show it’ll be tough to better it

No release date yet, but At War With False Noise has a "SMELL & QUIM 7" Collection 3xCD box" listed in their forthcoming releases. As the website states, "buy some stuff so I can afford to press all that", and if anyone in the UK/Europe hasn't set their eyes upon AWWFN's massive distro list before then now's as good a time as any to have a rummage. His brutally funny reviews are well worth a gander at the very least.

[Autechre - NTS Sessions]

Autechre - NTS Sessions 8xCD - Warp, 2018 - I had certain ideas about what 8 hrs of Autechre might sound like. Assumptions that it might be impenetrable; overwhelming; aimless; even boring. These ideas were very wrong. Inspired by my recent review of Autechre's entire discography leading up to elseq, I decided to grab this 8 CD set and take the plunge. I'm going slowly, having listened to the first 4 discs over the last two weeks, trying to savor and really enjoy the experience. What I can say is this isn't the impenetrable mess of bleeps, bloops, and MAX/MSP nightmares I though it'd be. These songs are relatively accessible, even when they're constructed out of more "difficult" sounds and structures. And so far the first 4 discs have been very consistent, an impressive feat for the amount of music on offer. For those here who appreciate computer music and haven't heard this, it's definitely worth a listen. I think listening to a lot of Autechre before diving in helped, but like every Autechre album this one has a language all its own. Special mention to Four Of Seven from Session 1, Disc 2, which has got to be one of the funkiest and easily enjoyable tracks Autechre's done since 1998.

I have the 12xLP box set of this release.  It really took me a while to absorb the album - there is so much of it! It still feels quite distant to me; I have not connected to it like I have many other autechre albums.  There are definitely stand out tracks but overall I struggle since it is so huge.  I keep meaning to try and make a few condensed playlists.

SIGN/PLUS from last year feels like it was treading old ground a bit; the first time an autechre album has done that for me.  Lush sound design and constantly evolving structures as you would expect though.  They are still top tier producers for me.

[COLD SPRING]

COLD SPRING
Himukalt - Knife Through The Spine CD

HELEN SCARSDALE AGENCY
Himukalt - Between My Teeth LP

TRONIKS / WHITE CENTIPEDE NOISE
Lacerations - V/A 2xCD
Paranoid Time - RATLife CD

URASHIMA
Aube - Grind Carve LP
Masonna - Filled With Unquestionable Feelings LP
Pain Jerk - Neurotten LP

Obsession and expression. Marco Corbelli and Dennis Nilsen. Atrax Morgue “195 Melrose Avenue NW2.”  

Marco Corbelli wore his obsessions on his sleeve while Dennis Nilsen had to keep his hidden. Marco’s work was released into the world. Nilsen kept his close and private at 195 Melrose Avenue NW2, London, England. The expression of Atrax Morgue was done through voice and electronics. Dennis Nilsen’s was done through murder and its aftermath.  

“Give Me a Corpse” is the point where Atrax Morgue and Dennis Nilsen intersect. It opens “195 Melrose Avenue NW2” with a small rumble of bare synth, hardly there, then slowly we hear Marco announce his desire. Like all great Atrax Morgue, this feels as though it is unfolding as we hear it. We are eavesdropping voyeurs. We can explore our own obsessions with him. Maybe the obsession is the same. For Nilsen it certainly was. He once wrote, “I could only relate to a dead image of the person I could love.”  

Corbelli’s world was never black and white. He said that he was the spot in-between. In one breath he goes into a “Blind Fury,” in the next breath, he’s the willing victim in “Crush my Cock.” Deathlust and sex, sadism and masochism, existing together within the same soul. Dennis Nilsen kept his victims close by because he did not want them to leave while Marco recorded his expressions so they could survive his mortal existence. Laid down decades ago, but still here for the rarefied pleasure that only exists when we truly give in and let go. 

Marco’s synth was an extension of his heart. Vocal-less tracks like “MetalVibro” and “Beyond Pain” get to the same core that a track like “Troubled Meat” does. The fact that these do not contain vocals only amps up the mania. It is as if he were so consumed and immersed in passion that no words could be conjured. And when words are needed, Marco shows us his inner dimension. “She’s Dead (Now)” is being played out before our eyes. The lyrics are distilled down to a handful of words, but these are all that is necessary to paint the picture. A simple means for maximum effect. 

The purity of Atrax Morgue cannot be understated. Corbelli allowed us into his world with no disclaimers, there is nothing to dress up this darkness. True, raw, and direct to an extent that rarely exists in any artform. Once the power was switched on there was no turning back. Obsession took control and we have this release as evidence-- we are the eyewitnesses. 

“195 Melrose Ave NW2” sits as a highlight in the Atrax Morgue catalog. Marco’s desires, pleasures, hate, and disgust are laid out and displayed for us to inspect. These eleven tracks are like the bodies buried under Nilsen’s floorboards, but Marco’s aims succeeded, whereas Nilsen’s did not. The bodies were taken away from Dennis Nilsen. Marco Corbelli’s work will always remain.


Originally released on Cassette by Self Abuse Records in 1996, Reissued on CD for the 25th anniversary by Self Abuse Records and Old Europa Cafe.  Includes 3 bonus unreleased tracks recorded at the same time that Marco had sent me. 

Available from
www.selfabuserecords.net
www.oldeuropacafe.com

SHIRTS ADDED!

[K.M. TOEPFER - Undercut C30 (Absurd Exposition, 2019)]

K.M. TOEPFER - Undercut C30 (Absurd Exposition, 2019)
Now, this is two years old now, but it’s new to me. As I recall his stuff from around 2014-15 was clean, precise, glitchy sounding. Not bad, but this is something else. This sounds like The New Sadism but with more meat and a sense of someone in perfect control of the proceedings, and some joecolleyesque ear-tickling textures injected into the mix as well. An odd pair of references maybe, but that’s just how it is. Fucking superb tape! Are the rest of Toepfer’s later tapes in the same vein?

[Septik Brain Tapes (USA)]

New in distro from:

Septik Brain Tapes (USA)

Blue Holocaust / Lysergic Rites Of Sadopriest split CS
Seepage Of Umbilicated Lesions Caused By Zygomycosis / Liquidised split CS
Seepage Of Umbilicated Lesions Caused By Zygomycosis / Casket Fumes split CS

Summer Interlude Records (USA)

Autoerotichrist / Richard Ramirez-Birthright CS

Hostile 1 Tapes (USA)

Lovesick-Nurturing A Deathwish CS
Siege Electronics-Avatars Of Total Order CS
New Class Of Necrophile s/t CS

https://www.discogs.com/seller/jsak/profile

Only realized when catching up with this thread that Riot was not a 1:1 repress of the original so now I need it. Any US distros still have stock? Checked with Ron and Pat but no dice. No at forced exposure either. Trying to avoid $50 w/ intl postage.

SCHWERPUNKT (George Rayner-Law of Bootlicker/Werk/I Hate My Records) - THE LION HUNT on Brachliegen Tapes (UK).

LINK: https://brachliegentapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-lion-hunt

noise / experimental tape musick for fans of coil, nocturnal emissions, cabaret voltaire -- available on brick red cassette tape with detailed liner notes from George.

ALSO STILL AVAILABLE: BOOTLICKER - BURIAL PRACTICES (CS) / VINEGAR TOM - THE PATTERN UNDER THE PLOUGH (CS)

LINK: https://brachliegentapes.bandcamp.com/

TRADES WELCOME

☽

INFO: The Lion Hunt is named for the series of relief sculptures from the palace of Ashurbanipal, which are now held by the British Museum. George describes visiting his home town of London in 2014:

Every couple of months I would get the train to London from Manchester, each time convinced it would be his last ever visit to my home. I would go straight from Euston to the British Museum to balance myself out and de-escalate. The abjection of the lions in the lion hunt room was my only real method of grounding. The artwork depicts the king partaking in mechanised slaughter - there is an infrastructure of trappers, cages and charioteers involved in killing the giant cats. There are multiple wounded, crippled lions, some vomiting blood, some clearly already drained and dead. When I was making this record, I had a moment of absolute terrifying clarity in front of the panel that is the cover of this tape. I was the lion, and the lion was me - only my infrastructure was the grinding, slow wheel of capital-induced mental disorder, rather than the skipping fast wheel of the chariot.

The Lion Hunt is George’s third release under the moniker of Schwerpunkt, following from 2018’s Don’t Give Up You Can Do It and 2014’s How to Be Saved and Know It. Exhumed itself from a series of recording sessions which took place in 2014-15, The Lion Hunt is an exercise in reflection and reanimation, a deep dive into the personal archive to reassemble work that languished in a state of construction. The process of coming back to finish the final 5% of the record in 2021 is described by George as ‘like visiting a foreign country, and staying with a distant cousin’. This unhomeliness permeates the tracks, which lurch from discrete mediations on the nature of grief, to harsh feedback drones, which cave in on themselves under the weight of heavy saturation, dissolved in the acid rain of personal history.

Recorded either late at night or very early in the morning, the tracks creak and heave, freed by the project’s work process of “doing” rather than “thinking”. The immediacy of this approach cleaves its space in a sonic palette of austere synthesis and manipulated feedback loops — an exercise in working with limitations.

Points of comparison come readily to the early industrial tape experiments of T.G and Cabaret Voltaire, as drum machine led minimal wave lurches into gut churning drones — but the record avoids the stasis of repetition, driven by the materiality of its production.

The release comes with detailed liner notes from the artist, in which he reflects on the recording process, the distinct temporal and topographical entanglement of its construction. While there remains an unnerving sense of dread to this record, there is also an overwhelming sense of hope — an air of joy in the process of experimentation and, essentially, learning to cope.