PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[heretogo]

Shitload of tapes have arrived in the mail during the last few days. Here's some of them...

Skullflower - The Paris Working/La Noche de Walpurgis (Cathartic Process)
Uhh... A long time since I last listened to any Skullflower. Is the current stuff really this good? (that was not a rhetorical question, by the way) Not super-high on fidelity but there's some truly devasatating stuff on this tape. Thick, treble-heavy sheets of deviant psychedelia, reaches levels that are almost nauseating. Standard tape-case and j-card but done according to the best of standards, thumbs up!

Relic - Anthology (Utmarken)
Slow, doomy, simple & stupid. I like it a lot. I don't know much about these kind of sounds but there's definitely something appealing here.

Sylvester Anfang II - Live At Utmarken (Utmarken)
Cosmic jams. Not groundbreaking or anything but good enough that I can just close my eyes and not worry about a thing.

Komissar Hjuler & Frau - s/t (Utmarken)
First thing I've heard from these people. Silly noises, on top of which they read texts about conrete poetry & Gustav Metzger. Nothing to it, one might say. But it's still strangely engaging. Not in the "let's concentrate & listen to this all the way through" - kind of way but it gives a nice evening buzz playing in the background. Can anybody recommend other stuff from their discography?

Smoke The Pipe of The Starfilled Sky - s/t (Utmarken)
I guess it's fair to call this stoner? With some definite desert vibes thrown in there. Again, I'm really not an expert with this type of music but I like some of it. And this passes the test, I can taste the beer & feel the bong in my hand when listening. Sonics are sort-of muffled and dull but I guess it fits here alright. Minus points for not filling the B-side all the way!

Pymathon - Ruptured In Hyperborea (TWR Tapes)
So which metal genre is this a pisstake on / tribute to? I'm very clueless (again.. hah!) about these things. Is it death metal? Whatever it is, it does sound very nice. Extended semi-impro-style riffing all the way, rough & stupid. During some points the noise itself becomes overpowering which is obviously not a problem.

Hmm... It seems I've liked them all. Must be getting old & lazy.

[Mattias G]

I would recommend COMMISARIS HJULER EN MAMA BEER-MENSEN DIE 'KORT STAAN' VOOR DE ZELFDODING LP (Ultra Ezcema). It´s a fantastic piece of annoying music? First time i heard it a few years back i was totally confused and did not know if i hated it or love it. I still don´t know what to think, but in some weird way i love it. They also play Suicide´s "Frankie teardrop". Would be fun to know what Vega/Rev would think of it :-D

[catharticprocess]

Skullflower - The Paris Working/La Noche de Walpurgis (Cathartic Process)
Uhh... A long time since I last listened to any Skullflower. Is the current stuff really this good?

Glad you dig the tape. To answer your question: yes. The Vile Veil LP (I have these if you are interested) is very similar, as is the 2xCD on Neurot ("Strange Keys to Untune Gods Firmament") and "Pure Imperial Reform" will tear through your head. The 3xCD box is also incredible, but unatainable. I love the new incarnation of Skullflower as much as the classic stuff. "Tribulation" is good, but not as powerful as the ones I already mentioned. I really loved these CD-r's and was bothered that they were done so cheaply and were largely unavailable. When I ripped them to mp3 to take them on the road a few months back and saw that both discs were almost exactly the same length and similar in style I knew it would make a perfect tape, and especially so since I think the second side was available as a CD-r at the show where the first side was recorded.

[Andrew McIntosh]

On the subject of Skullflower - my introduction to them was buying a copy of the "Evil Knievel" seven inch after reading an encouraging review. I hated it; sounded like sub-par grunge. Haven't really bothered with them ever since, so can I assume that little album was an anomaly?

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

Whitehouse "New Britain" CD
Probably one of my favorites from WH. It's hard to really decide, since all albums have the proper reason to exists, which makes it pretty rare case in noise/pe. Nobody did it like this. It's totally beyond.
RUNZELSTIRN & GURGELSTOCK  "morx und kotschalg" cd..... 1993 Selection release. Over 70 minutes long track. This is just around the time I heard the band for the first time and it seemed too difficult to get into. Years passed and I begun to worship what they do, and now, finally bought this and listened it 3 times during one day. It is, extreme by all standards.

"New Britain", for me, is the worst record from their first period (and probably in their all discography). Too much minimal and instrumental, without inside fire, but, of course, still interesting.

"morx und kotschalg", yes, great record! Though I think that his "Dein Mund So Rot..." (Pure) is even better. Rudolf is only real dada artist our times...

[Ernpe]

By the way, is there something wrong with the Whitehouse vinyl reissues? I haven't seen them in any usual distros yet copies are available from Discogs and Amazon.co.uk, I wonder if that is only because of non-underground label or does it has something to do with the quality of vinyls...

[ironfistofthesun]

whithouse have pressed their lp's thur CARGO's distributions label very friendly so the standard is tip top...i have  all the represses and had zero complaints! as cargo is the uk's bigest indi distro im guessing they give the last few shops first-come first served basis !

[FreakAnimalFinland]

In Finland, Sarvilevyt shop has distributed all these vinyl releases. I think they're all sold out from shop right now, but I just did order.
I think only problems have been:
1) how shoebox size noise distro contacts Cargo for successful deal
2) price. I have sold LP's for 20 euro and double LP's for more, and after cut from middleman (distributor/wholesaler) the profit margin is pretty much nonexistent, but price is still relatively high. Of course, these are the best versions to buy. Total Sex 2xLP ! Huh! What a intense version!

"New Britain", for me, is the worst record from their first period (and probably in their all discography). Too much minimal and instrumental, without inside fire, but, of course, still interesting.

I think the minimalism, the breaks between songs, utterly high pitched overall sound, is what makes it even more disturbing than many other albums.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

ARISE / IRON JUSTICE split CDr. I wonder what is this. Hour of 13 productions from NC, USA, edition of hand numbered 30 copies. I don't remember where and when I have got it. Arise is quite clean PE. At worst it is bad, but at the best it goes somewhere along Control Resistance, Deathkey, and such. With songs like Forced Control, Blut Heil!, The Law of Man, they follow very tightly the cliche's of the genre...
Iron Justice material sounds like era of the 7", being 4 tracks of straight power electronics. Especially "Face the Freedom" goes probably too obvious Con-Dom worship? It is nice enough, but always leaves impression of band who painfully clear tries to adapt into PE, but in long run doesn't have enough to offer? It's hard to say what exactly would be wrong, since all the elements are just like they should. Maybe that's the reason..
I tried to check out if this is official release. At least it gives all contact addresses, but no info of year on cover and nothing found about label.

[RyanWreck]

Trampling the Cross Underfoot - The Long Journey On the Arm of Death (Satan's Din 2011) - Fucking great tape here. I am preparing a longer review for my "Pure Stench" blog so I won't say too much about it here. Basically a 20 minute long simplistic track with one member doing vocals (or rather talking, almost like a spoken word album) rambling on in a very monotone way, with a few added effects, about various topics while the other member forges a nice substratum of Noise that slowly builds up piece by piece from a layer of rippling static to finally a full stew of crunchy distortion, washed out drones and snapping static (possibly effected metal abuse?). This one comes highly recommended.

Hal Hutchinson - Taste of Iron (Freak Animal 2010) - The album title is a very fitting description in-and-of itself. As described, this is 20 minutes of pure junk metal Noise without compromise - no effects and no vocals/pedals all delivered at a crawling speed. It appears to be lacking a general structure which is perfectly fine for this type of material - field recordings of raw and unedited junk abuse: chains, barrels, sheet metal, etc. Unlike Macronympha's legendary Metal Noise I can't see listening to this on a regular basis. I would not call this a novelty because that takes away from its artistic merit but I also can't see it being part of, as we call it, "the canon of PE" but rather a motley "one-off" from the Industrial/Noise/P.E. collective which I personally probably won't be playing too much, not because it is bad but it isn't remarkable enough to my ears and with something like this it needs to be remarkable to have a good shelf-life.

[RG]

whithouse have pressed their lp's thur CARGO's distributions label very friendly so the standard is tip top...i have  all the represses and had zero complaints!

I only have Asceticists 2006 on vinyl, but it seems like it's very low volume. I really have to crank the volume knob to get it at a satisfactory level. Are any of the other new WH vinyl editions like that? It's only a minor complaint and I'll still probably pick up a few regardless.

[Harvest]

I have the Cruise 2xLP and it's very loud with great packaging. I plan on getting GWD and Erector next.

[absurdexposition]

IRM - An Act of Self Mutilation is an Act of Freedom CD-R

Was definitely into this one aside from the live track at the end. Way too much crowd sounds are heard. Especially those couple people "woo"ing constantly. Really detracted from the whole experience. Otherwise a good disc! Anyone know what the pressing was? Discogs says it comes in a DVD case, but mine didn't. Just a folder sleeve, can't find info on it.

[Coma Detox]

VIVENZA - Modes Réels Collectifs LP
FINAL SOLUTION - All New Power CS
DEVIATION SOCIAL - Compilation Tracks 1982-85 "From End To Beginning" Vol. 1 LP
BLOOD OV THEE CHRIST - Behind Thee Bars CD
MACRONYMPHA - Metal Music CS

[hannes]

Kristian Olsson - Paltkoma, CS Not as great as the "Att vara där..."-LP, but still really good stuff. Think this seems even more lo-fi than the LP.
Raspberry Bulbs - Lone Gunman, CS I liked this, need to get more from RB.