cd/lp/tape etc. REVIEWS

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Anyone willing to review new, old, unknown or classic releases on any physical format, this is topic to use. Genres what Special Interest as magazine covers.

Advice to use following structure on reviews:

NAME OF BAND "title of release" format
label name
Review text of whatever length you desire to write.


BIZARRE UPROAR "mother 2" tape
Filth & Violence
Mother pt. 2 brings nothing new, but is simply fucking great. Same material on both sides.. is this 10, 15 mins or 20 ? Well, time simply flies during this most likely studio-live recording of filthy and raw noisy power electronics assault. Listened it twice, and feel like should maybe give another time? It's brutal and simple, with vocals dominating in the end. Strange heavy delay effect, what only repeats the voice one time. Making it chaotic, but not "droning" & blurry. Very loosely going from beginning to end, perhaps improvised, but in the end spontaneously creating some sort of structure of song.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

V/A COME AGAIN II –CD
Furnace, sr9342
Silent Records got mr. M. Teshima of Vanilla Records to produce them ultimate Japanoise collection of early 90's. Released in 1993 (and now permanently sold out almost everywhere), Come Again II CD (follow up for Come Again double or triple 7" set on Vanilla Rec) still stays as my all time favorite Jap noise compilation. Starting from liner notes of Mark C. Jackman, it shows times of when Japanese noise was target of raising interest of various western labels and "consumers". 23 artists/bands/projects/side projects has been included, making this 45 minute CD collection of very short and very varied tracks. It clearly shows that view of what Japanese noise was/is, if often not very accurate. People tend to focus on few big names, instead of bigger picture, which makes it impossible to see the full diversity and innovation of Japanese noise in 80's and 90's. This discs is kind of "best of" edit. More professional & experienced ears might recognize that at least some of the cuts are made from artists longer releases, but it's even more amazing, that Teshima had talent to take exactly the BEST 1-2 minutes out of someones 40-60 minute tape!
Masonna is brutal as usual, Tatsua Yoshida does strange vocal noise, Solmania presents their greatest guitar noise assault ever recorded, Flying Testicle is jap-noise super-group and follows the same style as their full CD had. Strange electro loops and noises. Love And Sincerity presents amazing noise track, which is combination of commanding male voice, hysteric female sceams, church organ drones and distant noises. Nothing harsh, but amazingly great. Lack of information concerning this group has prevented me from getting anything else than one tape release, which includes from experimental to noise sounds. Often percussive and with great vocals. This track sounds like material of that tape layered & cut over eachother. Incapacitants is feedback dominated harsh noise. Being my first time to listen Incapacitants, it gave memorable experience right from the first time, making me Incapacitants fanatic till today. Dislocation presents electronics improvisations with sax. Sound is very live and with some spacey echo. Merzbow was possibly at his best in early 90's, reaching the noisiest levels but with great sound and this Super Head –track is great proof of Masami's genius work of that time. Pulsating electronic loops and violent harsh junk metal sounds on the top. Having clear structure, but never reaching musical level. Violent Onsen Geisha says fuck off to RRRecords and bye bye to noise music and presents crappy hip hop track. C.C.C.C. amazes with analogue electronics noise fields with nice female screams / yells with extensive delay echo. Some may wonder how to create ultimate Japanese noise compilation without Hijokaidan, but atleast there is its leader Jojo Hiroshige with solo track. Simple guitar noise without any fancy effects or multi-layered recordings. Abominable Snowman Effuse Anal Tibet is unknown project for me. Not even noise, but experimental sitar recordings, with very oriental feeling. Legendary Nord gives live cut of their psychedelic noise before The Hanatarash starts to play with sony & victor games to create rather stupid "noise". Mortal Vision was, and still is solo project of Hasegawa of C.C.C.C. Guitar is the source of sound, and he created great track with crushing loop and droning guitar noise. S-Core is another veteran who has done material from early 80's till 2000's, maintained his lo-fi electronics approach, and created some memorable recordings. Track presented here is too short to reach trance inducing power of longer S-Core works, but still is very good one. Kinkakuji is G.R.O.S.S. label related guitar project, which is like guitar ambient with vocals. Monde Bruits is noise as well, mostly abusing guitar. Diesel Guitars was aggressive guitar noise duo, before it changed to Diesel Guitar, one man, one guitar drone project. "Maria" tape recorded to G.R.O.S.S. is still one my favorite guitar drone recording ever made in this world. This one is more aggressive/noisy, yet not bad of course. Null presents his guitar ambient with wonderful backwards feedback /string abuse sounds. Just perfect material in the lines of best Null works. Aube is still at his earliest stage of doing water sound manipulations. Vanilla Records owners own project Yellow Cab is one of the best on the CD. Starting with couple beats of the drum machine, until changing into multi-layered electronic wall. Sound is not harsh, but is noisy electronics. On the top there is high pitched strange vocals. Track ends before you get enough, and the only works besides this, tape for G.R.O.S.S. was much more lo-fi and simple, not reaching same atmosphere. CD ends with highly reverbed experimental sounds, possibly created with broken glass? Agencement is often said to be violin improvisation, but these silent glass recordings sound better. Or if it is really violin, I'm amazed.
CD offers very little of what nowadays is the "standard" japanese noise, known from many many artists who offer full harsh blast. I would say in these times, there was more variety and personality when sound of noise is understood in wider concept and not only in it's "ultimate form". Despite none of the bands really present sex noise, label has used artworks of Trevor Brown. I won't complain about use of bondage and medical fetish, yet for some people it has given view that everybody in Japan is doing bondage/sex/noise, despite it is only couple of individuals in few of their records. But whatever people think, I would say, this was better than all the birds and other shit you see now... 
I can't give any excuses of not to buy this. Together with NOISE FOREST, EXTREME MUSIC FROM JAPAN and few others, this is ESSENTIAL to have. Don't hesitate to pay even couple dozen $$ to obtain 2nd hand copy! (MA)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

CON-DOM "Oh ye of little faith" 7"
Tesco Organisation, 007

Con-Dom's first 7" single was done for german Tesco Organisation and it presents two tracks in the "classic" Con-Dom style. Patriotism (Yukoku) presents distant echoing, but militaristic rhythm, lo-fi noise screech on top, until clear and sharply flanged spoken vocals begin. They are louder than noise itself, but due they are treated with effects, they fit into industrial / power electronics sound realm, working not only vocals, but also as instrument. Vocals remain spoken. No aggressive shouting, no screaming. Track ends to patriotic hymn.
Prayer Answered is created of heavily flanged sound, which is thick and rumbling, yet remains calm. On the distant background I may hear some church organ drones and voice of crowds, but it's all mutated into electronic pulses with flanger. Commanding voice of Con-Dom repeats more than on the first track, reaching shouting volume. Contrast of commanding voice and rather calm "noise" works well. This is comparable to Sermon 7" series, which presents talented and original way to create his industrial power electronics lo-fi noise of Con-Dom. It is not so harsh as most older raw Con-Dom tape recordings, but what it loses is extremity of sound, it wins in structures / details. This is the amazing thing about Con-Dom. For project, what appears to be almost obsessively anti-modern, reject any change in his methods, tools and concept, how come he is more innovative, interesting and superior to almost anything in the genre? Whatever release he does, from violence of early live assault tapes and brutal recordings, to detailed concept art PE of later days.

Edition of 514 copies is long sold out, but I see 2nd hand copies auctioned all the time for surprisingly cheap prices. For less than 20,- any Con-Dom 7" is worth to buy immediately. There are rumours of Tesco going to re-issue Sermon 7"s as CD. Not long ago came 8th Pillar on CD. This 7", however, you'd better to invest on original vinyl (MA)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

DEISEL GUITAR / SIAN "Double Minds String" tape
GROSS, grs101

G.R.O.S.S. label, operated with Akifumi Nakajima of Aube, used to be good source of neatly designed and professional noise tapes. Many being closer to ambient noise or more experimental than plain harsh stuff. There was released both Japanese and western noise work. Deisel Guitars at this time (1993) was 2 member guitar unit, creating sometimes droning, but often noisy guitar works. Massive and echoing sounds of strings and effected feedback's. I personally enjoy more of when Deisel Guitars changed into Diesel Guitar, solo guitar project, which went further to droning feedback methods. This is very very good, though, but if you have possibility to choose, I'd suggest get Diesel Guitar "Maria" tape, also by GROSS.
SIAN on the other side is collaboration project between Aube and Monde Bruits, both using guitar and effects. It tends to go to same directions as Aube. Looping, ambient-noise, with processed guitar sounds. Sound is very strong and clear. Digital recording and dubbing to very high quality tapes made these exceptional quality. Only 100 copies has been made in 1994, special covers and inserts with marble / silver papers, prints and cardboard cover closed with ribbon. Surpricingly many GROSS tapes are still in circulation. The high quality of chrome/metal tapes and packaging makes sure that even 20 years later, these are very much worth to buy and sound is still fantastic. (MA)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

WHITEHOUSE "Dictator" 3"mCD
Fanatics, fx-1

This Japanese fanclub release lasts only little over 6 minutes and offers Halogen CD era Whitehouse. You will hear two tracks: Dictator II and Movement 1994. To me movement 1994 sounds the same as on Halogen (and in series of Moment –songs found on WH records, you should know they are solid noise pieces with very monotonic style), but Dictator II is naturally different from original Dictator song. It is much shorter, and despite vocals are pretty much same as in original, music is very different. There is no dominant rhythm, but song has very rich and detailed wall of electronic noise. Vocals are distorted yells, without clear lyrics, and high pitched synth noises keep the painful force on high levels through all of playing time. One could ask is 3 and half minutes different version worth of buying. I'd say it is if you aren't charge absurd prices. And for Whitehouse completists, no need to even ask. (MA)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

FINAL SOLUTION "Do As You're Told" 7"
AWB Recordings, 015

High pitched thin electronic sound starts, and then attacks high pitched screamed vocals: "You're cheap cock sucker little girl! You're cheap cock sucker little girl" and low bass blast joins in "that's what you are! Just a little cock sucker! You're nothing without me! So do what you're told! So do what you're told! And be quick about it!" and so on. Vocals are really excellent. Raw screaming, with high intensity, but each word is pronounced clearly, and spat right in your face. No distortion/efx in modern style blurring vocal to just massive electronic sound, but actual vocals with little delay echo, but no other effects or distortions. High pitched electronic whistle has minimal changes and low rumbles give good base for the track. I just wish Final Solution would have managed to do complete LP before splitting up and one of key members committing suicide.
On the b-side is Kill Mode. This time both electronics present similar kind of high / mid frequency noise. Vocals are same sound as on a-side. I think Final Solution records live in studio. 3 member band has 2 guys doing electronics and one doing vocals and each of the track clearly follows this. 2 different electronic sounds and vocals. Live recording in power electronics is always good for my ears.
This is limited edition of 500 copies from 1992, but copies can be still bought in couple places, at least 2nd hand. "Rape Day" 7" released many years later with some unreleased studio recordings is good companion for this, but not as amazing as this AWB label classic. So, if didn't yet own this piece of vinyl, I urge to get it. Without this no power electronics collection is complete! Lets hope that vault of unreleased FS studio recordings is sometime opened by persons who have the recordings... (MA)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

INTRINSIC ACTION "Groupies" 7"
Bloodlust! 032

This official version of Groupies differs from 12" pic disc released before this. Final version has more details and more sounds. It is not so monotone. There is thrown in analogue noises and feedback's, which are not constant, but come and go to create great atmosphere. Version on the pic disc was half finished demo, and this one is clearly much better. There is curious story why the pic 12" and bootleg CD even exists, but lets forcus on release at hand. Sometimes in past I disliked vocals, but during the years have learned to like them a lot. They are personal and gives weight to lyrical content, which is good in case of this 7". On the b-side there is "Wisdom" what could be one of the noisiest I.A. tracks. Heavy and distorted bass sounds of synth, piercing high pitched drone and brutal feedback noise. Some very low bassy distant sounds can be heard as well. One could compare this to "Movement" –tracks of Whitehouse, but would I dare to say I.A. succeed to do it better?! In the end of track is some distorted moaning voices and rock'n'roll, and would I hear the religious choirs on the background? Someone declares "this is the end" and all stops there. One can assume references of Time Square cleansing, the new face of NYC. Just leaving recollections of good old days. Cover says: "The power surge is over and New York has been drained dry. Times Square is finished and the west has been lost. Time for bloody minds to head to Chicago...". For person who managed to visit NYC only after area was cleaned, it sounds mythical past. Always interesting, always willing to hear the stories about.
This is very essential 7" for I.A. Unfortunately limited to mere 100 copies. Grey marble vinyl, professionally printed covers and overall very good quality. (MA)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

SUICIDE BOMBER "martyr" tape
On noisefanatics forum I listened this projects mp3 and gave little harsh criticism of digital sound, saying it would be probably much better when heard on analogue tape. And that being said, the band sent me the actual tape release to be checked out. And how different it sounds! Whole nature of release seems changed. While the online version seemed crispy & unnatural computer compressed fuzz, this tape is brutal relatively lo-fi harshness. One could file it next to something like Bizarre Uproar's later days live-in-studio recordings consisting raw vocals, harsh noises, feedback, loosely song like characteristics. A & B side has several tracks each, very simply b/w j-card cover is accompanied with tape size 12 pages booklet with all the lyrics. Lyrics deal exclusively with theme of islamic suicide bomber. Some works ok, some others seem too clearly like it is really written by outsider with other motives than authentic suicide bomber of man of faith. What is future of project like this? I don't know. It seems too limited to have future continueing long into future. Despite not perhaps classic, but for those needing another dose of violent PE it is decent listening. 3 padges(1" pins) is not really necessary in the package. Just unpractical addition. (MA)

[Andrew McIntosh]

ISOMER, "Face Towards The Sun", cd
Tesco

Having followed Dave Tonkin's project from the first it was a great pleasure to finally get this in the mail today. This follows on very much from previous work in that is has the same darkness, sense of epic space, and the same use of intense drone and sharpness of sound that Isomer has had since the cassette releases. But to this, on this album, Isomer has added a rougher and perhaps more PE/Industrial sound. Minimally constructed synth passages are adorned with more abstract soundscaping and carefully chosen samples, each piece extremely well considered. However, as mentioned, there is a slight roughening of the edges here, not so much in sound quality (Isomer doesn't deal in outright filth) but with a leaner and perhaps even darker sound and feeling than before. The result, then, is cruel and harsh, which seems to hint at Martial Industrial, Darkwave, and even Death Industrial, but brought within the style Isomer has perfected over the years. I'm pretty enthusiastic about this, yes.

[Andrew McIntosh]

SEWER GODDESS, "Mother Agony", 3"cd
(no label?)

A heavy MZ-412 vibe seems to be right throughout this ten-plus minutes piece, but not in a derivative sense. The slow, heavy, pounding rhythm and burning electronic tones feature in the first "part" of the piece as the interestingly androgynous sounding vocals wail and call through warbling effects. The sounds seem to focus on carefully controlled synth and even guitar tones with shreds of feedback and accompanying knocks to give it some ragged edges. The "second part" features a more thumping rhythm (but in the same tempo) and some wild screams that remind me of SPK when they where good. Here is where some real emotion seems to come across, some real despair and disgust. The sound is nicely muddy and rough. I'm only familiar with the tape re-release of "The Dejection Veil" so I'm not sure how indicative this piece is of Sewer Goddess's usual style, but I can imagine this must be a lot of pleasure live. It's nice to hear some heavy Industrial rhythm without the commercial bullshit.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Skin Graft, "Dirge", 7"
Polar Envy/Mistake By The Lake

Some grinding electronics on this album. Very deep, very gritty electronic tones compete with acoustic bumps and bangs and samples of confused, frantic voices. The horse head side, in particular, has nice timing, while the rib-cage side seems a bit more frantic (reminding me of Dead Body Love to a degree). My first impression was that the album's format was a bit too constrictive, especially on the horse head side, but successive listens have led me to appreciate more the construct of the pieces as well as the sounds themselves. They are still a bit too short for my liking, though: I'd like to hear this project stretch out more. But this is a very nice introduction to the project for someone like myself unfamiliar with it.

[Henrik III]

Golden Serenades "Hammond Pops" CD
+3dB Records

It seems that Golden Serenades is a band that rarely gets raved within these circles but I know that there are a few other admirers out there. Seems like the label is not particularly well-distributed within the ordinary scene nodes but I hope that doesn't mean this would go unnoticed due to that. The CD is packed in a nice embossed and foil printed digipack, inner sleeve decorated with a majestic mountain photo. And majestic it is, one long slowly evolving maelstroem. As the title suggest, the primary sound source apparently is a Hammond organ, and in the beginning and few other spots the presence of the instrument is obvious. However, the primary beef here is not the instrument itself but rich, detailed, and DEEP noise - rumble, crash, full on roar. It is somehow a miracle to me that no matter how messy and distorted their sound is, there's always a lot of details and depth, apparently John and Jørgen employ their sound engineering abilities in full to realize these works. Without doubt one of my favorite (new) noise releases of 2009.

[Levas]

Xiphoid Dementia - Might is Blight CD
Existence Establishment

This is one of the weirder albums that I've had a chance to listen to lately. I cannot decide how to evaluate it because everytime I listen to this album, I get absolutely different emotions and thoughts. One thing is clear - it is best to listen to it when it's dark or growing dark outside or when it's not quite ok with your mind. During a full moon, let's say. Maybe it's personal, but quite often I was left asking myself why the album looked so good just yesterday and now it seemed absolutely colorless. Time of a day, state of mind...
This release is very strong from the technical side. Clear, multilayered and precisive sound, rich and varied compositions, continuously evolving and convincing. But it is impossible to describe the full album in just a few words. I haven't heard creations of Xiphoid Dementia before, but in this album, it seems that the most important of all is the main goal/thought of the album, regardless of tools or style. From elements of musique concrete through dark ambient to neo classical, noise and even touch of power electronics. Album starts with majestic title piece where martial rhythms, synth melodies, squeaking foundations of reality and woman voice forms one strange and frightening creature. It sounds like it would be a soundtrack for a final massive scene in the movie. The following song smells of a sea. "Never Power Ocean" transforms from calm and meditative to curiously exploring song. I've lived by the sea for the last several weeks so I can tell without a doubt that these sounds convince me. It is true, sea and ports in there differ from the ones I've seen. This piece is more like exploring the ships that'd sunk long time ago and now rests here, covered in rust and absolutely still in silt. Gradually you move there and become the part of the world, existing there. From careful touching of sound textures, this piece transforms into fierce attack of noise, which, after 20 minutes of rather calm album is a rather unexpected cold shower. By the way, it is worth mentioning that all the pieces in the album plays more than 10 minutes and the whole length of it is well more than one hour. The next big picture of Xiphoid Dementia - Dead Hunter. This track continues the active noise of the last one - siren, synth sounds and voice. Vocal that appears in the middle of the album surprises once more, but I cannot get myself to like it. It seems that it does not fit in there and I cannot glue the voice and music into one picture anyhow. Next station - by the strange highway. Creaks of constructions, squeals of brakes, sounds of broken glass and finally the sound develops into rhythmic noise. It seems that in these two tracks, the culmination of the album was reached. Mechanized Salvation - anxious and full of strain, but not openly aggressive track. It sounds more like a futuristic model of the world. Penetrating metallic darkness when you try to see what's in front of you and not realize that the real danger is behind you. Xiphoid Dementia plays one more game in the last track. None Shall Inherit The Earth seems like a calm and dismal landscape from the first seconds. So you prepare yourself for happy ending, but after a few seconds this insipid and tender vision is teared apart by fierce vocal (in here I like how it goes) and this piece is raising the strain till it explodes and soft sounds are covered with a layer of noises and effects. The sight becomes different than it seemed from the beginning. It feels like Xiphoid Dementia specially tortures you and doesn't let you breathe easily. Album stops and ends. This is really one interesting and not ordinary release, full of colors, consonances and moods. The pieces themselves (the artwork hints that too where every separate page is dedicated to separate song) works as if they would be separate pictures, visions, stories. Long, complex and versatile... I like this work of Xiphoid Dementia tonight. I like the suggestiveness of it when the first snow falls and they greyness is here.

[Andrew McIntosh]

THE RITA, The Voyage Of The Decima MAS
Troniks/PANrec
Challenging recording. A lot of "Wall Noise" can be pretty much just turned on and have on in the background, Furniture Noise, like ambient with lots of distortion in a way. This album is a bit more involved. Recordings sourced from a diving expedition, exploring the sea wreck mentioned in the album title and using a specially manufactured "ocean mic", the sound is on a cusp between the original field recordings, all glugging, splashing water, and some hard, snarling distortion sounding pretty much like the microphone originally kept coming out of the socket. Instead of a wall of intensity, this is teeth-clenching grit mixed with the usually soothing sounds of waves. The result is something with a great deal of tension, and not a lot of relief. The sound is crisp and digital but not drained of feeling, however it's not something one can either really relax to or sit and listen. Feeling, in this case, is no the same thing as having a direct emotional impact. It doesn't sound "right". Evidently that's the aim; whether it's a worthy aim is another point. I'm a bit ambiguous about this album, as there doesn't seem to be anything I can latch onto and while that can be said as a point in favour, it may end up being something I just "own" as opposed to something I want to have. In a lot of ways, it's almost like an academic, sound-art kind of album, rather than a full-on Noise album I can get my teeth into. So, yes, it's challenging, it has focus, it has feeling, but - I'm not that rapt with it. I hope that it'll be something I come back to in a few years and "get".

[Levas]

Sterile Garden / Somalia - Split
Agharta

This is the first release of Agharta tapes. One hour of sound from experimentators with sound, completely unknown for me. On one side of the cassette - Sterile Garden. Not quite new project, that consists of two persons and have already done several releases. Despite the fact that after the first seconds I was quite sceptical about this duo, my opinion changed with the spinning of the cassette. It looks like Sterile Gardens concentrates to raw as possible field recordings (by my interpretation, it is revealed in the title of the side - "Touching destroys the art"). The very beginning - something similar to a poem being read, but I can't fully understand that because the quality of the recording is really horrible. The following minutes gave me the impression that this side will be some occurences of conceptual art or so, but for my gladness, I was wrong. The record grows into some stage of musique concrete, after that it transforms into continuous, monotonic and rather static element of sound. I've been listening to it for quite some time, but still don't know what to compare it with. It sounds like wandering by the chapped dinning network of pipes that carries the dust in the non-operating building; it is the squealing of the train brakes, dilated in the perspective of time and so on. But not everything in here is so static as it could seem because the constant, almost invisible and inaudible movement around the main axis of piece is felt. The theme changes in several places and forms even peculiar musical chord at the very end to my surprise. Unexpectedness gladdens, you want more, but no. The Sterile Garden's side of split is divided into several pieces which I don't understand why, for it interrupts the whole feeling, but let it be. For the last part - the main theme differs from the previous in several tones. It changes very slightly and finally concludes into different chord. Peculiar meditation and not that bad of the side. Next participator in split - Somalia. The quality of record - similar (i.e. lack/none of quality). Similar monotony and bleakness though a little different. It starts like the recording of ordinary day in exotic African country. Distant sound of radio and musical elements, laid out like a mosaic. They get homogenous after some time, but not for long. In places it irritates me, but then draws interest again, then I stop paying attention, after all it transforms into multilayered painting of sounds and so on during the whole side. Maybe because of this "variety", it's harder for me to listen to this contributor. In places it annoys me and the change of sounds drives me mad little by little... The end of this side is also very weird. It looks like it ended because the cassette ended not because it was intended to end. But... This release of psychedelic experiments doesn't give way to any considerations. It might be the thought of the author, experiment or so. Strange hours passed while listening to this record and trying to understand it or to explain it in logical senses. No, it is not created for that. You feel it or not perhaps. As for me and the feelings - I didn't get it. Though I'd evaluate Sterila Garden's contribution to the split more positively. Somalia sounded more like a collage of accidental sounds.