PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

Started by GEWALTMONOPOL, December 15, 2009, 09:30:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Bloated Slutbag

See bottom of this post for digest commentary.

Blind Date – Acting Class
It starts out, like all great tragedies, so innocent and unassuming. Just a casual little Flirt. By the end of it, 'holes utterly smoked, scorched, pulped, bleeding to massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip...well. What to say. Kids, stay in school.

If I read right, the narrative- a cautionary tale of betrayal and violent psychosis told in three parts- proceeds in reverse chronology. The disquieting opening scene of Part 1, Blood Sadist Goes To Nudist, finds warbled vocal vomit spurting red in dribbly snot-bubbles among the mangled, beached torsos of...

Hold on. Sorry, that was the sequel. Where' s my fucking... Just ah, just a moment here while I get my act together. My apologies. Let's try that again.

The disquieting opening scene of Part 1, Failed Actor Goes Psycho finds massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip lovingly arraigned among individually separated tapestries of a lush and full bodied frequency spectrum. Note to self: scratch lovingly. Replace with pathologically. Comorbid with the psychotic obsession to audial-pervi-luscious detail, a marked and possibly degenerative reluctance, or incapacity, to keep aloft the interest in a particular groove: the "method" employed by this sorry excuse for an actor is as deranged, spasmodic and ungroovy as um an exceedingly ungroovy thing. That the rather artfully rendered cover appears to depict a porn shoot only underlines the epic tragedy of this "failure to perform".

In the reverse-aftermath of Part 2, the harshly flailing and lacerating Cruel Fan Mail presents as particularly- if deliciously!- hurtful. And all that hurt, all that textural obliteration, precipitated by the oh-so-apparently sweet and innocent- but ultimately rather savage and violent- Part 3, Flirt. (In the sequel, the tragic failure, having slaked all sadistic bloodlust and rage, aural orifices utterly smoked, scorched, pulped, bleeding, goes full Nudist, washed up, on a beach, smoking dope, no longer able to get it up let alone hear, just hangin', low and to the left, stroking the chin in an affected and ill-convincing bearddrone posture. But that's another story.)

I'll confess, this was my first proper time out with Blind Date so I approached our first session together with some trepidation, keeping the volume on the low. (Well that and at the moment in question there may have been persons present who were disinclined to appreciate the harsh shit.) A good opportunity it turns out to engage in a favorite pastime, and one I'd recommend as an interesting exercise for you- yes, you!- to try: play the harsh shit back at low volume. (The disc is mastered fucking loud, so you'll have to turn it down really low.) You will, still, retain a good sense of the depth and degree of separation in play. It's almost counter-intuitive. Or counter-harshnoise-itive. Massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip, distilled and broken down into their infinite and infinitely complex component parts, growing more distorted, smudged, crunched and blown out as they accelerate along the amplitude curve, to the inevitable point, and beyond, where the massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip leave the bemused prattling of yours soddly simply not giving a fuck, in thrall to the fantastically crushing penetrations reigning in from up high, on the side, down low, infinitely deeeep, in hole.

Failed Actor Goes Psycho is a goddamn monster. Massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip, sure. But with the degrees of separation everything is so, well, I was going to say crystalline but that'd be a bit oxymoronic (not that that ever stopped me before!) It pierces, hows that? Not just all crunched up tight and saturated but sharp and tasty as fuck, teasing up a labyrinthian array of potential grooves to slam into, only to blow apart the moment you think you've locked on. The opening moments are the correct course. Half a minute of fiddling with metal scrap acoustics, abraded mic abuse and raspy whisper-hiss establish the depths that are due to get blasted a la dense frequency overbilge. At intervals heavy duty thunk of junk-scrap bashes through the cascading thunder-surge, and at others the thunder-surge mimics the junk-scrap bashing, flashing wildly about the channel pan. So things do get pretty fevered in a never-letting-up rampage of psychotic angular rip sorta way, but hardly flailing about with spastic abandon. The sheer crushing density ensures that nothing will ever completely escape the steel-trap of self-reinforcing psychosis. By the halfway or so mark, the convulsions start to crowd in on one another, ill-filtered histrionics ineffectually fighting to reign in an ultimately uncontrollable disaster of epic proportions, massed monumental crunch-walls collapsing one after the other, spiky scrap-dildos attempting to gouge their way through, failing with grand style.

Cruel Fan Mail cuts with savagely pointed viciousness through minefields of heart-ripping hurt, marked by one vicious cut after another. The cuts come fast and hard, a relentless barrage of spectrum-rupturing bewilderment, convoluted, contradictory, massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, texture rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiipping in from all sides, punching through to every extreme and back again. If the intent is to wear the recipient down, past the point of caring, to a state of numb self-debasement, then this is a rip-roaring success. Again, one has to admire the focused cruelty in play. As convoluted and contradictory as things get, this never lets itself devolve into aimless spastic flailing: plenty of time apportioned for each and every vicious laceration to cut deep, almost down to the bone, and then, slowly, to twist, with excruciating exactitude. These sadistic evil fuckers know exactly what they are doing, which is what makes it so successful, and disturbing.

If Flirt is any less vicious, it is in name only. Here the massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip flirt with some legitimately severe stretches of outright scorch. At the more blistered and scathe-lathered edges, the net effect is like a kind of fevered screeching dementia overtaking the bloodwalls, very much live and in the moment, inclined to erupt with barest hint of vocal seizure inflaming the passions. Now, this will probably tell you more about your faithful commentator than the actual stuff issuing from the speakers, but I found it impossible to sit still for the duration of this track, as though in psychosomatic sympathy with the explosive squalls of nervous energy tearing through the ozone, fists punching the air, inaudible-slash-drowned-out ejaculations of "FUCK YEAH!" issuing from the lips. Sad isn't it? But in the end, whatever we may see in the movies or in the news, all tragedy must, finally, come down to the individual. I have my private hell. Maybe someday, you too can have yours.


Digest spew
Massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip, meticulously- better, pathologically- arraigned among individually separated tapestries of a lush and full bodied frequency spectrum. As the considered distillation of infinite and infinitely complex component parts accelerates along the amplitude curve, the ever burgeoning masses grow ever more distorted, smudged, crunched, explosive, to the inevitable point, and beyond, where the massed clusters of incredibly dense, blown out, wall-to-wall, textural rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiip leave the bemused prattling of yours soddly simply not giving a fuck, in thrall to the fantastically crushing penetrations reigning in from up high, on the side, down low, infinitely deeeep, in hole.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

ConcreteMascara

阿呆船 [Ahousen] ‎– 阿呆船 CD - PSF 2007 - Got this last year at the end of my Japanese psych buying spree and by the time I got around to it I was mentally spent I guess. It was cheap and figured the reason was it was mediocre. Listening again today I'm wondering what my fucking problem was. It's got screeching sax on top of freeform psych rock and weird and harsh vocals, sort of like Haino meets Kousokuya, but screechier. I'd say more "rock" than improv or free jazz, but it's definitely fucked up enough to appeal to some people here. It's also not outrageously priced on discogs, for the moment, so it's an inexpensive risk for those willing.

K2 - Hypertrophy cassette - Nefarious Activities 2020 - I am not a K2 aficionado. What I've heard is mostly the period of crazy harsh cut-ups from the mid-90s so this gurgling, swirling, bubbling psychedelic synth stuff was unexpected.  BUT very welcome. Easily could've doubled as a soundtrack for a '90s Japanese experimental film. Worked well as background listening for reading too. It's a long tape so I'm having trouble giving more specific descriptions but don't come into it thinking it'll be like "The Rust". I appreciate the packaging as it give space for the nice collage art but at the same time I don't really like envelopes because they seem to take a beating with even minimal handling.

Converter - Exit Ritual CD - Ant-Zen 2003
Converter - Expansion 1.10 2x10" - Ant-Zen 2003
Converter - Expansion Pack 2.0 2xCD - Ant-Zen 2005
Converter - Asche - Morgenstern - Erode CD - Ant-Zen 2001
It's insane how much good material Converter put out between 1999 and 2003, which was basically the primary run of the project. 3 solo albums, one collab album, 2 long EPs, 1 b-sides EP, all of it worth owning. There's a clear rapid evolution in the sound from more synthetic into more organic and abstract. Guy must have been on creative overload because it just stops abruptly after 2003, with a few things trickling out over the next 17 years after that. I wonder what happened... 
But the above releases, I must have talked about all of them here at least once before. Exit Ritual is still my favorite. Half of it is straight proper industrial, the other half is fucking heavy beats but with real dynamics in the tracks. All the other releases listed above stick more to a dance track construction style, even if the sounds are far from the club sometimes. I love pounding 4/4 rhythms so it all works for me, but it's interesting to see how much better Converted does his thing than any of the remixers on Expansion Pack 2.0 do theirs. There are maybe 3 interesting remixes and the rest are weaker than the originals. But there's a shit load of b-side tracks over the two discs too, so if you want Converter, you fucking get it.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

absurdexposition

Quote from: ConcreteMascara on June 10, 2020, 10:05:24 PM
K2 - Hypertrophy cassette - Nefarious Activities 2020 - I am not a K2 aficionado. What I've heard is mostly the period of crazy harsh cut-ups from the mid-90s so this gurgling, swirling, bubbling psychedelic synth stuff was unexpected.  BUT very welcome. Easily could've doubled as a soundtrack for a '90s Japanese experimental film. Worked well as background listening for reading too. It's a long tape so I'm having trouble giving more specific descriptions but don't come into it thinking it'll be like "The Rust". I appreciate the packaging as it give space for the nice collage art but at the same time I don't really like envelopes because they seem to take a beating with even minimal handling.

I'm about halfway through this now, was waiting for me when I arrived home from work today. I love Tekhnodrug and have been anticipating this one since it was announced. The soundscapes are quite pleasurable and the whole thing is just so easy to listen to.

I appreciate that the envelope is reinforced by the thicker cardstock artwork affixed to it. It'll definitely survive longer than the majority of similar packages.
Primitive Isolation Tactics
Scream & Writhe distro and Absurd Exposition label
Montreal, QC
https://www.screamandwrithe.com

ConcreteMascara

#7908
Quote from: absurdexposition on June 11, 2020, 02:20:12 AM
I appreciate that the envelope is reinforced by the thicker cardstock artwork affixed to it. It'll definitely survive longer than the majority of similar packages.

No doubt. It's not as if I haven't used easily ruined folder packaging myself for releases (twice now?). I guess destruction of "art assets" is just the name of the game when the game is international cassette sales.


Mania - Armed to the Teeth CD - PACrec / Troniks 2008 - one of those CDs I meant to buy for ages but never did because it seemed to always be available so that need to pounce on it wasn't there. But I finally did last year and it's what I expected: insect synth bits, inarticulate screams, beautiful metal work and the sound of guns guns guns. the day at the shooting range, or more like day at the dunes with big fucking guns, sample that is woven in and out of the track doesn't add tension so much as texture and something less abstract to hang your hat on. it might be one of the only Mania recordings you could call straight up fun. because if you've ever been to one of those big gun meet ups you know there just fun. it's a celebration of engineering, destruction and military fetishism, as American as apple pie. easy recommendation for this one, but you already know it's good.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

Bloated Slutbag

#7909
See bottom of this post for digest commentary.

Violent Shogun - Knife Will Not Open Because Of The Rust.
I know how frustrating it can be. But with the Shogun it's not like we haven't been through this before. Steel, even the high grade Japanese stuff, needs care. This becomes increasingly, painfully, clear over five straight sessions of exceedingly violent, roughly acoustic, metal-on-metal abuse. I'd say something but just between you and me, I'm starting to think he enjoys it.

This "tape" <quotations added>, which has yet to actually be made available on tape, was recorded in the middle of 2018 for a Swedish label that is NOT Team Boro, hur hur, and seems to have been intended as a follow up to the Shogun's memorably noisome invitation to Taste Our Japanese Steel- self-discharged on recycled tape earlier the same year. Now if only that bloody knife would open we might dis-enjoy something of similarly festering decrepitude: a tin can fueled love declaration to Jaako Vanhala and Hal Hutchinson, close-mic'd junk-metals whanging and banging their rottingest, skewing baroque in a lengthy, continuously evolving, narrative arc that is savagely butchered in the ferric degradations of crest and puke, shove and scrape, clank and clunk.

Here, long-form narrative aspirations all but rusted shut, the Shogun takes a new line of attack. Five lines of attack, in fact, each quite distinct from the other, all quite pointed and focused on the presumptive task at hand: the reclaiming of a once treasured blade without losing claim to fingers—or other treasured parts—in the process. And brought off, I have to admit, with no small degree of cunning and ingenuity given the stated limitations of the materials at hand: a broken mixer, that now familiar tin can, and crusty tape loops. The crusty tape loops deployed do tend to wallow in low-pitched flatulating electronics, but serve the offensive well, lending a robust if decidedly grim, industrial-strength, flavor.

Attack the first takes place in a groaning blackened chamber thick with lugubrious atmosphere, metal chains rattling along the walls. When the heaving scraps blast into play, initial expectations of possible breakthrough are soon muted in the implacable gloom. At intervals, the whine of rusted, protesting metals rings through the calm before being swallowed up again in a heavy, full-bodied, factory dissemblage. By the fourth minute, the metals have all but given up, fuzzy bulge-balls feigning interest and then slinking in embarrassment into putrid pools of rippling sludge.

The second attack is much more of the metal-whanging-on-metal persuasion, with little in the way of electronic flatulence. Clangs and bangs are dispersed across a widened stereo field, hitting at times with quite some collective force, as though eager again to have the recipient sample the Japanese steel. Often however, the implements appear to struggle to assert themselves, caught scraping along corroded hinges, abrasive frictions wearing the edges down. In the abbreviated moments of ensuing calm, unsightly liquid palpitations drizzle onto the scene, as though to remind the Shogun of the considerable exertions yet demanded.

Things definitely seem to be going off the rails at the start of the third effort. Clipped machine-gun bass-thumpings underscore looped dialog of burnt hiss and cracked rattle. Soon, however, the rattle grows more dominant, echoing with increasingly heavy-handed concentration of clank and scour, signaling commencement of a none-so-surreptitious sneak attack. Higher-ended squeals merge with now quite singed-to-shit hissing washes, metal scraps knock together in crumpled whirling percussion, coming on strong in the final minute as the rhythms bow out to let the acoustic banging lead an all-too-soon-abandoned charge.

By the fourth foray, the apparent lack of progress has clearly taken its toll, grumbles and moans echoing in the doldrums of a repetitive, mournful, dirge. Junk scraps barely register against the dreary churn of crusty tape loops, though crusty is a bit of an understatement. Tape ribbons, stretched and frazzled to their limits, struggle to chew their way over derelict heads, heavy rumbling motors ready to give up completely. The metals, of course, are there, but rather muffled in gutted fidelities, not so much clanking or clunking as just grinding sulkily along, fighting to be heard above an endlessly wailing cycle of withered alarm-droop. Toward the end, as the tightly packed grumbling and grinding fights more determined metallic scrape, an unexpected bleed-through of shrieking shithawk squawk, wheedling and screeching at the unfairness of it all.

The fifth and final attack sees a resurgence of the full metal racket, clearly accepting of the urgency of the stakes. Egged on by downpitched loop of sardonic, grimacing, "whoop-whoop", the first of several steely whangs comes slamming down with all earhole-jarring force. The sheer razored precision of these widely-panned whangs would almost suggest that that obstinate blade has actually been prized open. As with attack the second, the unmistakable invitations to taste Japanese steel, frosted edges huffed with ghost-whitened backwash. As the glowering horde of filth-choked underbellows starts to percolate to the surface, the steely whangs are reinforced with a wide assortment of variously abraded scraps, smashing scraping and clashing, charging together in a final savage thrust—for victory! Ill-contained densities broach critical levels, the stench of rotted metal heavy in the air. Palpable, now, the threat to drown the sorry scrap assembly in moldering rivers of rust...

Till that wily old shogun, with stone cold patience and cruelty, disembowels the sorry lot.


Digest spew
In the gutted, churning wake of Taste Our Japanese Steel, long-form narrative aspirations all but rusted shut, the Shogun takes five uniquely qualified lines of attack. Five lines, all quite brutishly pointed and focused on the unenviable task at hand. This particular offensive is served a robust if decidedly grim, industrial-strength, flavor, in the form of low-pitched, flatulating electronics. Dilapidated masses of metal-on-metal whanging banging clunking and thunking are retrieved from their decrepit confines, then dispersed over a widened channel pan, piling on in concert with variously abraded scrapes and scours. The sheer weight of opposition threatens to crush the assembled scrap implements in dense piles of heaving, lugubrious, moldering waste, noisome fidelities fairly burnt to shit, but don't be too quick to count that wily old shogun out.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Bloated Slutbag

#7910
See bottom of this post for digest commentary.

MNEM – Elyktrion
Soundtrack for an abandoned, decaying, world. A world long neglected, long gone to shit. A world drained of color, drained of hope, the dreary droning clamor of the moribund machines that imprison it inexorably grinding down all will to endure.

This is the way the work starts, not with a bang but a whimper. A groan. A dull droning drawl dragging decayed derelict dirge-motors down, drained, defeated, discarded. This is the way it continues. And as for the end, well, I think we all know how that goes.

One way this recording does not go, is harsh. Not in any deliberate sense. Not at the surface. Hell, there is no surface. In the smothered washed-out fidelities, scarcely the smidgingest suggestion of abrasive. Where the previous Hegonon was perhaps no less miserably disposed, there were at least a few aborted attempts to get the motors running, hard driving loop action, roughened raw abrasion, no lube. Here, the damage has evidently already been done, the edges well and worn away, the lumpy remnants mottled, flaking, crusted. We're left with barely even the ghosts of the machines, cold burnt-out husks puttering dismally in slow-oscillating cycles that could simply be the imagined echoes throbbing deep in skull, like what in hell was I drinking last night? The exact opposite of party music. Morning after music. Dull throbbing that would hurt if there were anything left of the senses to hurt with.

So little deliberate hurt, but also very little respite. Just interminable garbled grinding of rumpled, life-depleted, oscillations, on and on and on. The first of these comes crumbling and distorted in the grayish reverberating haze of Testyndo. Periodic chunks of ugly, gnarled, crudballs tumble through muffled electrostatic drizzlings, resonances gradually dying out in the blurred distances. The effect is as though a warped and wobbly propeller turbine were being methodically hand-revved in a gutted wastewater treatment facility, ragged coughs and belches failing to elicit anything more than flaccid looping sputter.

Mytomania feels like a hefty motor belt struggling to grub its way through the char-burnt friction of dilapidated parts. Smudged blurt of rubberized shriek protests against heavily rumbling sludge, and perhaps the first muted suggestion of auricular abrasion, subsurface granules genuinely thick with brutish, grating texture. As if to emphasize the point, sandpapery chisels chafe at the edges, the convergence of looped layers achieving a rhythmical, grunting, consistency, face down, snuffling in the dirt.

Then a bit of deviation in the way of smoothly drawn out buzzing undulations, licking languidly from ear to ear, the cool caress gently escorting phased attentions through faintly flickering passages of twilit resonance. It would be easy to forget oneself in this rather tranquil interlude, which is probably why the mood is augmented slightly with some grubbier grubbings at the crest of each lolling arch.

The calmly grating dilapidations return on the flip-side, whose Klesydra scans in these 'holes as most recognizably MNEM-like. Ovalled electro-burble stammers to a slurred bleat, echoed peaks panning in disordered irritation to a drawn-out wail.  If the suggestion in these words of some excitement then my bad because it all of course comes draped in bleary-eyed claustrophobias of dead, bone-dry, haze, woozy ghosted grit-kernels drudging at the faintest fringe of perception.

Sekond Vast Field does not at first seem inclined do what it say on the tin, sounding like one end of a microphone employed in the excavation of a mud-thickened rock hovel. Keening radiophonic chirps do admittedly sketch the possibility of fairly wide and open airs echoing in the darker vergings. As immersions burrow deeper, the chamber begins to widen, burly reverberations rumbling lethargic across the channel pan. Eventually, though, the field dries up, heavier heavings rutting crudely in lumbering backwashed vomits of guttural sludge.

By Peripheral Intervention, the ghost machines seem ready to give up completely, sludge-loop rumples circling in tandem with warbled wheedles progressively strung out and straggling in slack, disconsolate, indifference, soon giving up the ghost for the crowning Oblivion Arc.

In the final extended push for oblivion, quite the range of disparate elements crowds onto the scene. First a steady percussive plunk, dragged out to a ragged, dribbly, sputter. Then a host of surprisingly decipherable acoustic bangs and clangs hammers about the field with variable degrees of heft. Wet whispered washes set off undulating synthetic squeals, crashes and clangs looming large, reverberating with genuine drama. You'll forgive me for staring at my speakers in suspicion as quite the different sort of picture emerges, machines massing monumental in their cavernous calls to terminal collapse. A last elephantine howl to the never-answering heavens, end.


Digest spew
This is the way the work starts, not with a bang but a whimper. A groan. A dull droning drawl dragging decayed derelict dirge-motors down, drained, defeated, discarded. Soundtrack to a world gone to shit. But still carrying on, piled higher and deeper, interminably, insufferably, the moribund motors that imprison it slowly grinding down all will to endure. The most remarkable thing about Elyktrion is that someone could ever have been bothered to press the record button. But y'know, I'm glad they did. This stuff speaks to me. I may not necessarily like what's being said, but it makes me glad to be half alive.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

collapsedhole

#7911
i'm not really good at describing noise, or music i guess, but today i played all my 10"s! and tried to write a review as i listened.

maeror tri - pleroma/altrovec [pic disc, ant-zen] - first side works with a muffled rythm, buried drones & synth lines. layers build up into a tense wall of hazy patterns before crumbling away. the b-side also is a collage of musical loops melded into disorienting wall of sound that twists and warps into a highly intoxicating barrage of loops and rythms, even veering into more distorted territories at times. great stuff to my ears, and a  more 'musical' effort than the pure drone works of maeror tri.

brume - anastomose [pic disc, ant-zen] - hard to describe! first side is buzzing drones and some female & male voice samples that i believe to be in french panning around the stereo field. some clanking and deep synth tones work their way in to fill in the gaps before turning into some tribal rythms not usual for brume, at least not a usual addition to the sound that i can remember happening on other releases.  b-side is a more typical sound for brume with a high-end tone carrying on before being mixed with more noisey, but not distorted, synth experimenting that later dissolves into near silent minimal atmosphere punctuated by spars acoustic clanking around. mixed feelings about this record, hard to really describe!

contagious orgasm - in my heart -[pic disc, ant-zen] - typical atmosphere for this time period of contagious orgasm but then thumping tribal beat takes over. unique at the time, not overdone, ok but i prefer my contsagioud orgsam without the 'music'.

imminent starvation & synapscape - remix item  [pic disc, ant-zen] - this is how i like my rythmic noise...heavy on the distortion, white noise blasts... complex, unique sounds barbarically pounding away. synapscape adds some raspy distorion pedal fed vocals, and imminent remixs a track of dark synth waves adding heavy distorted rythms. heavy is the word for this record i think. like alberich, but not as minimal, more noisey, less of a 'synth preset' selection of sounds used... while still very musically done, you can tell the approach to the sound creation took a lot of manipulation.

stromilinie - tunnel [ant-zen] - unknown project with a great record. "recorded in subways" ... not sure what that means as it seems pretty obvious synths are used. has the train rythms vibe going at times but the standout track is 'u-bahn fart'. mostly droning synth tones, like descending down a long tunnel.

vromb - locomotive [angle rec] - more train influence! hypnotic, minimal, repetitive... beats... when i'm in the mood for it vromb really does it like no other.

beequeen - the sorrough gate [ant-zen] - personally favorite beequeen as they seem to have hit and miss moments for me but this is all good. well done mixture of droning & musique concrete sounds. nice oversized heavy cardboard sleeve with minimal art, closeups of the moon surface... the folder is very nice but kinda a stupid selection of images/font. coulda been better.

les joyaux de la princesse - croix de boise/croix de feu [pic disc, ljdlp] - lush droning organ and orchetral pieces, french political speeches, bombs dropping... ya know, ljdlp style.

mauthausen orchestra - kiss the carpet [xn]. first real noise music i ever heard! soft spot for that reason for sure but this is just great. primitive noise sources, decrepid, fanatical over the top vocals. i remember some talk that this is not really zoppo? i don't know and don't care. piss yellow vinyl, foldout textured cardboard. worth whatever price its going for.

k2 - anybody can't catch up with this [ant-zen] - the real shit. remixed material from 'the rust', and just as good. classic era k2, packaged in some type of wax paper sleeve. record is never mentioned among best of k2, perhaps since so many releases of this time period are similar, but he is in perfect form here. easily as good as the rust, or any of the many classic 7"s.

john wiese & hive mind - trick satanism - kind of a weird pairing, kinda awkward sounding. i guess you can see how this would play out. hive mind synth work but heavy on the distortion, kinda reminds me of something from hiroshi hasegawa, but more minimal layering of sounds, not as fierece, but not quiet by any means.

ConcreteMascara

Collapsedhole thanks for that 10" survey. I'll have to check some of those out, especially the K2 one. 10" is such a superfluous format but I love a lot of the ones I have.

Just a couple of quick words today..

Pain Station - Dead is Dead CD - COP International 2001 - I must have known about this EBM-ish project of Scott Sturgis aka Converter for a long long time, but somehow I never heard it. Picked up this CD a few weeks ago on a whim and it's pretty enjoyable. While it's way more chilled than Converter, reminding me of "Concrete Jungle" era Dive more than anything, the production is really good and shares some similarities in execution. The vocals are decent, the lyrics less so, but I almost always expect EBM lyrics to make me cringe at least 50% of the time. They aren't the main focus though so it's okay. Definitely worth the $5 I paid and cool to see a different side of Scott Sturgis's work that was apparently happening right alongside his best Converter material.

Grunt - Spiritual Eugenics 2xLP - Freak Animal 2020 - I need more time to process and give proper thoughts but I'd say as a lazy description it sounds like World Draped In A Camouflage meets Castrate the Illusionist. Minimal but very clear layers in each song with the expected mouth-watering metal work and semi-expected weird synth/loop/sample stuff providing texture. I'm admittedly a Grunt fanboy, but certainly an early contender for album of the year.

AUBE - Dazzle Reflexion CD - The Releasing Eskimo 1997 - I'm nearly an AUBE virgin but I really enjoy this CD. It feels very futuristic and switches between anxiety inducing and oddly relaxing pretty regularly. Sounds like the kind of music android hackers would snort in 2049.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

Bloated Slutbag

Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on May 23, 2020, 09:29:15 AM
Japanoise of Death LP. Also Steinklang, impressive line-up, but there is something here why I never rated this along the very greats of Japanese noise compilations. Many tracks are great, like Incapacitants, K2,... and more.. but there are also couple tracks thrown there that are way below good. Normally, good comp can survive bunch of lazier tracks, but somehow this always has something unexplained why it just doen't hit me like it... "should". Listened this twice now, and my conclusion remain the same. Good, but not great. Can't explain why.

Well, you just did and I agree. Several contributions are simply not up to the standards expected of the contributors. Though for me a single good track would generally be sufficient to keep me coming back. Generally. Concerned readers may be encouraged to note that numeral II from the series goes I'd say very far in righting any perceived wrongs of the predecessor. Excellent opener from Guilty Connector followed by total scorcher from Hijokaidan followed by...a good and satisfying array of A-games repped.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Yrjö-Koskinen

GRUNT Someone is Watching CD
For some reason I never got around to checking this one out. Now I have, and it's probably one of the most focused Grunt releases ever (and I say that despite the fact that this project has a quite "personal" sound, recognizable vocals and so forth on most releases). Cold sounding, razor sharp power electronics with a heavy foundation, thematically centered around surveillance and the reduction of the person to information. Surveillance cameras and such old-school snooping technologies may seem quaint and outdated in an age when everyone is voluntarily giving up every detail of their personal life to random social media corporations and by extension the government for the benefit of playing Pongo the Dinosaur on their mobile phones. These latter social developments strengthen the central points of the album, though: something is going wrong. Someone is watching.

Also, there is great, suggestive electronics work, awesome samples, etc, but you already knew that.
"Alkoholi ei ratkaise ongelmia, mutta eipä kyllä vittu maitokaan"

Ahvenanmaalla Puhutaan Suomea

Bloated Slutbag

See bottom of this post for digest commentary.

Star – Last Vestige of Malehood (White Centipede Noise)
Surely not the last vestige? After all, who knows what traces lurk within the heart of [insert gender here]? Speculations aside, here's something you'd be hard-pressed to question: discog's 61st namesake delivers. And delivers, in its commitments to unfettered mic abuse, the quite emphatically singular.

Singular singularities start in the exceedingly condensed range of frequencies brought to bear, ditto the sharp, tangy, metallic taint saturating the palate. [trigger alert! names due to drop in t-minus...] For reference please see Shinsen na Clitoris Masonna and Purgatory Monde Bruits. See too WCN-pumped Wrzosek, M and the perfectly descriptive His Voice Had Become An Unintelligible Mass Of Pain. Very focused auricular concerns, very stoical as T. Mikawa might say. Yes, dear namesake, focus focus focus those energies, those stoical-isms. If it feels like you're tapping into some good 'ol witchery it's cause you are. Messing with shit of what one must not mess, excreting something entirely not of this orifice.

An initial one-two flatulent blurt signals rather straight-ahead excretions to come, but then the first hard-mic'd gasp through cybertronic rocket chamber pots. In its wake the tangy leavings of ascendant, almost psych-tinged metallic rasp, brittle, abrasive, fighting the heftier thunders flatulating beneath the surface. Here, precisely, is the singular. The duality of texture gnawing at itself. I was tempted in these moments to flop out Thirdorgan, or rather- the Roemer molested Thirdorgan shearing through the debut of Optimum Volume Maximum Noise. (You'd think something so singular would resist so many damn comparisons but, er. Yes.) A singularity too singularly focused to say hydra-headed, but there's a genuinely conflicted sense of working through exactly what it is to be, the last vestiges of each given moment struggling to assert themselves.

The point is only reinforced as straight-up feedback shriek enters the frame, then starts jerking around again with the cybertronic rocket chamber pots. Heftier thunders gain re-entry and suddenly we're balls deep in the rocket shrine, only to be ripped apart by a second feedback jerk around, legitimately HARSHtronic spasms flushing through steely grate. (Note to self: delete balls.) Grating cybertronic rocket chamber pots mutate on cue to quite convincing facsimile of shredded jet engines firing on all cylinders. As the fuselade flushes down the proverbial drainpipe, flatulence enters full spiral, ending in irritated style, busted cuckoo-clocks and other outrageous props flashing tongue to repetitive toy ding-a-thunk bopping heads and popping weasels out an incredibly bass-heavy piehole.

On to the flip side and On and On and On and On and On, deprincing much as before (don't ask). This one stays pretty much right where you want 'em, few sudden moves, almost completely awash in ripped rasps of psych-tinged abrasion, heftier thunders flatulating but this time well above the surface. Meanwhile, that repetitive toy ding-a-thunk continues bopping away, but in much muted capacity, reduced to almost completely smothered thud, the last vestiges thereof soon succumbing to the net flatulations. At a key juncture, the cybertronic jet engines gain the upper hand, completely obliterating the field in scratched raspy wretches of dry shred.

One might be forgiven in expecting things to take a new direction, but soon enough: back in the gross, blown-out, flat-stacks. Still, this is some seriously thick and hefty excreta, packed to the fucking gills, the rare and pathetic voice-driven bleat-whistles barely punching through, or not in a way that really threatens the suffocating dominance of Crunch Almighty. Pathos rules, almost to the point of tears, the miserable brute's voice reduced to unintelligible mass of pain. Remarkably, toward the very end, a perceptible upping of tensions, the sense of fierce and full-figured fires roaring at the grate. Whatever vestiges remain, clearly they ain't going out without a serious, and seriously singular sssss-

smother.


Digest spew
The last vestige of seriously singular commitment to unfettered mic abuse steeped in exceedingly condensed range of frequencies, bitter taint of sharp, tangy, metals saturating the grate. Gratingly abrasive cybertronic engines roar through brittle rasps of psych-tinged abrasion, fighting heftier thunders flatulating beneath the surface. Come the flip and its all thunder all the time, blown out orifices in a world of butthurt, the descent of Crunch Almighty, the inexorable steely fisted death-grip, the last limping vestiges of malehood ripped clean their moorings, bleeding in drizzled pathos, pathetic whistle-bleats reduced to unintelligible wracks of pain.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

ConcreteMascara

^^ that tape sounds right up my alley! thanks Bloated for the in-depth review

this past weekend I mostly took a break from Japanese psych rock and noise to work on some of my own music and to take a left turn into FLA country.

Ok except I gave Mortal Vision's "Nacht Musik" Urashima reissue on Friday. Just picked it up hoping it would satisfy my lust for both Japanese noise and psych and also help me slowly build my reissue based collection of GROSS material. First impression is it's good but not the sharp kick to the brain I was expecting. I wasn't expecting balls to the wall heaviness or heavy psych vibes but I also wasn't expecting how freeform it all felt, or the specific nature of the sound. I'm not sure if it's just a 50 minute single session straight to tape or something with more editing but I'm guessing the former. Once full stride is reached maybe 10-15 in I was really enjoying it but the specific sound of the guitar kept me at arms length. Although I wasn't able to give it immediate subsequent listens, it is already calling my name so I have a feeling its one I'll warm up to, even if I never worship it.

as for Front Line Assembly, I tried listening to my old copy of Caustic Grip on CD but it's so beat up from my high school years I couldn't get through it. I thought "fuck it", I'm buying this on tape only to realize seconds before hitting that order button that I already owned it on tape. Whoops! although being my favorite FLA album by a mile, I wouldn't mind owning it thrice. track 3, "Overkill" gets me so hyped up I can't help but tap my toes and shake my fist. What an anthem! Listened to Tactical Neural Implant and Gashed Senses & Crossfire for good measure too. Took me back to those early days of partying all night, trying pitifully to fuck on too much coke and the extreme depression for days following. Good times? I certainly miss parts of it but I could never have the good without the bad. But the same isn't true with FLA. As long as you stop listening after Tactical Neural Implant  and Total Terror comps/albums(?) you can avoid basically all of the awfully bad stuff they did.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

Bloated Slutbag

#7917
Glancing quickly over my comments on this and thinking a quick glance-over might create an impression somewhat other than intended-

Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on June 22, 2020, 09:42:59 AM
Star – Last Vestige of Malehood (White Centipede Noise)

Perhaps not worth saying but I just thought it better to emphasize that discog's 61st namesake sounds nothing like the several (mostly Japanese) names mentioned. With regard to some of the textural highlights, yes. Ditto the narrowed, focused, frequency range. But in general, it is more in the sense of doing more with less. And doing that very well. The project would seem to have a pretty minimal set-up and is all the better for it. (Though I wouldn't think any of these aspects is mutually exclusive in any event.)

edit
Guess I'd ultimately felt it needless to say "Needless to say..." Then the usual post-comment guilt kicks in.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Baglady

STAR - Last Vestige Of Malehood is great, I concur. The sounds themselves are nothing new, but there's something about the execution as a whole that's just a little bit awkward, which makes it great. Alot of odd and unpredictable twists and turns. The artwork and the titles follow that (lack of) principle as well.

NOEL MEEK & BRUCE RUSSELL - Say No To Hate LP (Ikuisuus, 2020)
The store's little note on the protective sleeve calls it a mix of classic Dead C guitar skronk and Alchemy noise. Not sure about the latter, but there's definitely an element of the more purely electronic kind of noise here, although the droning and feedbacking guitars are the main thing here. The cover art is more than an homage to the first Harry Pussy album, so there's that too. Good one!

TOUKASEIBUNSHI - Stratosphere Sound LP (Art Into Life, 2014)
This is one strange looking LP. The cover art would have made more sense had this been some dreamy This Mortal Coil album or whatever, but if that's what you're after you'll be disappointed. Seems like Hironari Iwata picked up where he left of in the 1980's and recorded some more of that strangely hypnotizing old style industrial. Chilling, slightly distant and nightmarish sounds weaved in fog and hiss. Seems like there's plenty of copies left of this, which is a bit sad as I'm sure  anyone into old industrial would appreciate this. I really need to get that CD P.S.F. released in 2009.

Eigen Bast

I greatly enjoyed the latest batch from Easy Listening. 3 60 minute tapes gives each of these artists room to breathe. While given that the shitswirl of the modern world is eroding all of our attention spans, there's something comforting about diving headfirst into 60 minutes of sound.

Witches of Malibu - Ills C60 (Easy Listening)
Deepsea trogotronic abuse. Cavernous reverb and the insect hum of electricity as only Nelson's artillery can produce. Having used some of these devices, I've come to appreciate W.O.M.'s "restraint"; subtle movements inducing tidal change.

Minoy - Red Tape in the Sunset C60 (Easy Listening)
No surprises here - tape saturated to the point of liquifaction. Churning alien groans from 93.

Mental Anguish - This Isn't Kansas, Dorothy C60 (Easy Listening)
Not familiar with Mental Anguish prior, I was pleased to find something neither harsh nor rhythmic, seasick synthesizer tones rolling over each other, aquatic in aspect. Where this kind of thing can come off as "noodly" there's a sense of focus here - one tone follows the next, never repeating, never turning to pure drone - always churning.

Mo*te - Love the Junk of Society C20 (Skeleton Dust)
a total ripper fro Mo*te. I dug this tape a bit more than the New Forces tape (though that one is rock solid too) - bizarre and nearly rhythmic noise. Psychedelic in approach and execution. Hyperkinetic, with an industrial aspect calling up Tetsuo the Iron Man through bizarre vocal samples and ringing klaxons.

Crazy Doberman - Illusory Expansion (Astral Spirits)
This variation of C.D. open with some of their most rhythmic material, almost ...catchy? jazz jams that eventually decay into (presumably) Olson's trademark reed abuse horn blasts. It's easy to throw psychedelic around as a descriptor (see directly above) but how the hell else do you describe a room full of 16 competent musicians going from amorphous jams to tightly played jazz and back again? Freaked out stuff and some of their strongest material yet. Great layout in the style of Robert Beatty too.

Worth - Satan Witches Lactate Pincer 3" CD-R (Nefarious Activities)
It took forever to get this CD to work, anyone else have that issue? REGARDLESS!! Strange and chaotic noise. Somewhat less contructed than other material I've heard (using Hidden in Christ as a reference point). There's a brief lull you could consider a break in the chaos, but otherwise 20 minutes of blissfully urgent sound.

Arvo Zylo - Children of the Stones Re-Envisioned 2x 3" CD-R (Ballast)
As typical for Ballast, a beautifully packaged 2x 3" CD-R collection using the BBC classic "Children of the Stones" as source. Vocal passages repeat bizarre mantras, strange synth passages burn out into something ugly...fans of the series will likely get the most out of this, recognizing how plot points can be translated into wigged out chaos, but these pieces stand alone, particularly the bleak final track.

Run for Omniphobia - The Mall of America Suite (Detachment Programs)
Where as there was something almost playful in Executive Order 13603, the Mall of America Suite instead opts for sheer bleak consumer abyss. Thick with tape hiss, this hits a vague voyeuristic note; private eye sitting in a sunbleached Sports Authority parking lot waiting for a deadbeat dad to emerge reality.

EmptyDNA - Moon Crawls Above (Hospital Productions)
Curiously this was the first thing to sell out from the latest Hospital batch, so I am glad the whole thing is available on the bandcamp. After the subtle and ominous opening track, the rest of this tape evoked the neanderthal dub of John Olson's Henry and Hazel Slaughter project layered with morbid synth work. Slasher movie soundtrack dunked in Ketamine.