There’s also some discussion with my old time collaborator about the coming of the long-awaited new issue of the printed ITFOR!!! Stay tuned for more info, but know that the possibility of this new printed issue in nearly 2 years exist!!!
Thank
you!!!
____________________________________________________________________________________
(File
under : Post rocking loud sonic ambience)
(File
under :Warped Lunar Sludge-Core)
http://www.maxpages.com/blackmayo Black Mayonnaise
http://www.emperorjones.com Emperor Jones
(File
under : Melodic thrashy metalcore)
http://www.deadtofall.com/ Dead To Fall
(File
under : Cinematic Dark Ambient)
I guess Ellende is one
of the most strange project in the world of noise/ambient. I guess if I really
understand that it is a kind of collective from people all around the world and
contributing together to do some noise. I don’t really know and I guess few
people do. Whatever, the results is a very interesting one. The first track on
this is good release is some very nice ambient with some claustrophobic high
tones. Like if you were lost in the brain of a guy who just lost all his money
on casino and just realised he lost everythingand don’t move for about 8
minutes and just seems to fly in regrets before at the end returning into a
distorted for of reality. Not to mention the very cool title of this one, “Am I
A Coward When I fear Death”. The second track is more like an ambient track
with a kind of bouncing atmosphere and a weird musical loop behind going from
percussion do keyboard I guess and some more stressing high passages. The third
track feature some ambiences with some heavy piano shots and some very cool as
usual high ambiences. The piano on this one make a certain difference and give
a more dramatic sense to the track. The title’s also nice : “In Life There Is
Nothing I Fear More Than Death”. It can also help you to feel the anguish The last track is like more than half of
this recording, clocking at 24 minutes. This the main plate of the album but it
never really goes away from what was demonstrated in the beginning of the CD, I
guess 24 minutes is a little bit long but the quality of this make it
accessible. I guess Ellende git a very interesting sense of cinematic. You can
always imagine some kind of scene of life when you listen to them and it’s not
only people fucked in the head or with suicidal tendencies. There’s more of a
kind of feeling of strangeness and contemplation mixed together. Very
interesting.
http://www.stridulum.net Stridulum
(File
under : Behemoth Noise Comp)
I guess
it’s common these days to release huge, I mean fucking huge comp. After the An
End To Masterpiece compilation here’s another comp assembled on two c-90 tapes.
This time the label that put it out was really strict, only tracks between 10
and 20 minutes should be submitted. Heavily submitted by Truculent mastermind
Jeff Plummer, you know the result should be very abrasive since Truculent is in
my sight one of North America’s most important purveyor of brutal harsh noise.
First track on the first side of the first tape this comp is from a Texas
project called Threshing Floor. This combo made of Greg from A Fail Association
and Kevin of TEF, two project I truly like, they nicely begin this comp with a
standard noise track, not that bad, but not that impressive too from noise
project that usually deliver memorable noise. My plant are still sick of the
TEF CD on Harsh Noise. But this track is just okay, no more… The second track
is from what is the biggest surprise of the comp. This is a project called
Horchata. I never heard about this project but I really like their long
performance in very subtle minimal ambience. I don’t know how long is the track
but the mood is really nice, very stressing and indulging. And at the moment
you feel good with this track it ends and the Inhalant track starts. Inhalant,
one of Texas’ sickest give you a ride for your sickness. This track is very
abrasive noise attacks with dirty sick vocals. You know that kind of track that
make you think that your life is not that bad after all… On the second side of
the split there’s maybe the best track of this compilation, the one by Wilt. I
just realised that it’s been a very big crime to never heard this project
before. This track is a very good dose of dark sounds with very nice noises.
That’s really the kind of noise I love. It’s a good surprise to realise that
the 2 project that impressed me the most on this comp released a CD on Ad
Noiseam the same day, I guess there’s a label that will have an order soon).
The track is a kind of very tragic ambient track with some noise passage very
well constructed. The balance between noise and dark ambient is really well
done. So this is my favourite pick of the comp! The following project on the
comp is also one of my favourite one, the Oscillating Innards one. This young
project from North California delivers his personal style of very fast classic
noise mixed with dark ambient passage. I really like the project and this one
is a very beautifully done track full of speed and dark passage, what more do you
want? Peter Lee’s Bereft end what I guess is the side of the comp. Not getting
away from what the project presented on the amazing “First Degree Of
Separation” tape. I guess this is a good way since the style of the project is
very powerful, like a kind of very well blended old school death industrial
with very dark atmosphere and fierce vocals. I guess God is warned that his
enemy is going very stronger!
On the
second tape the first track is from Holland’s own Fever Spoor. I guess I’m not
the only one that was surprised by this one. The result is amazing, there’s a
king of long to start track with some more textured passage and thicker passage
but always clear and fluid. It’s very nice and perfectly assembled… Due to
conflicts of interest I won’t talk about the track from Montreal’s purveyor of
cool noise Foutredieu!!!. Bacillus is on a candy pot on a comp called like
this. Backed with a message about the fact that USA is a country without real
politics to fight the danger of epidemics, Bacillus expand the danger through
his old school brutal noise. That’s actually the first time I was contaminated
by this reborn veteran of the west coast noise scene. I also raise my hat for
titles like “In The Eyes Of Disease, All Men Are Equals” and “Spread Throughout
The Body And The Nation”, I guess Bacillus scared me a lot and make the reader
of Ulrich Beck happy. I guess Portland’s Masonna clone Nkondi did one of the
least impressive track on this comp. I don’t really like that kind of noise,
for a few minutes it’s nice but I never been able to tolerate Masonna and it’s
nearly the same with Nkondi. Too much noise for the loser in me. It’s fast,
brutal, well constructed in the genre and dynamic, but not my piece of pie. In
a way let’s proclaim him king of noise since noise is sounds that give nausea,
well it works for me… I hope he’ll end up with a more constructive style soon
because it’s kinda very redundant and less and less interesting with time I
guess. The Last side begins with the very awesome Texas project Concrete Violin
that delivers here their strong concrete country-style harsh noise that always
makes me smile. Concrete Violin is among my personal fave and I still
understand why with this one… The other project is an unknown one called
Parrot. It begins with very crazy vocals that some who are aware of the US
noise scene may recognize with some pretty nice loud grating and loud
ambiences. There’s some more melodic synth at place. This is like a 5 parts
track. The second track begin with very high microphone feedback and some heavy
grating and then there’s spoken with distortion parts before getting in a hall
of feedback with loud noises and some screams that were cut straight. The
second one goes in the same vein with more of kind of percussions and synth and
screams before a very disturbing atmosphere come and kick some serious ass.
Although we had the impression this was a joke project and at first sight I got
the impression that it sucks this is another one of my favourite part of the
comp since it’s 2 persons doing very intense projects joining forces here. The
dark atmosphere mixed with very disturbing vocals and some more loud and noisy
passage make me smile a lil bit and I can now understand why I told to one of
the member of the band that I though it was childish he reacted bad, seriously,
I guess I was in another planet at first sight. The emotion and the violence is
there what else do you want? Last project on the comp is another really good
discovery, Neuntoter Der Plage. I guess it’s a project from Michigan in the
Stop-Eject always strange named projects. The first of their two track is a
very minimal repetitive track. There’s a loop so fucked up that you’ll whistle
it for the rest of your day. That’s a kind of very dark death industrial with
some crazy loops, my kind of shitte… The last track of the same project goes
more with some PE vocals doing an Autopsy track. Man, an Autopsy track, that’s
pretty killer!!! Just for this move I want more of this project. Very promising
project…
The
compilation is presented in a very killer 2 tape case with some acetates with
some pictures making a very nice superposition. There’s info on each bands
inside. So you just see that outside the Nkondi track that is under the par I
guess most of the project give their own sound at their best. And doing ten
minutes track I guess Jeff from Truculent did a very strong picking and
assembling for this one. I guess he refused some project do put very high
quality here. But here’s so much awesome track and I guess it’s hard to assemble
a comp with only 10+ minutes material that can’t not fail in boringness. Most
of the projects achieve doing lengthy tracks and that’s admirable. That’s
sincerely among the best compilation I’ve seen in my life... Destinated to be a
KVLT release I guess due to it’s very limited nature… So that’s why I kept all
my artist copies to sell them on Ebay… See ya on Ebay in ten years if you don’t
have it yet… You’ll regret it because unless you’re an hostage in Iraq you have
no reason for the moment to miss this comp so jump on it soon because it’s a
true documental masterpiece of the 2004 noise scene…
http://www.truculentrecordings.net Truculent Recordings
(File
under : Brut Noise!)
Texas’ most evil unit
is back with another small demonstration of his brutal noise. I must admit that
I guess I was never as stimulated by Goat as much as people are (maybe because
I never witness his demonic live performances) but a recent interview with
Marcos Alcocer of the soon to be defunct webzine Sekuencia De Culto raised my
apprehension to this project. This small release is a small demonstration of
the radical brut noise the Goat is proudly doing. Expect very direct monolithic
harshness with very few noise change at the end. Goat’s style is made of very
long and direct track and it works very well since I got the impression that
this single 15 minutes track is not enough. I guess somewhere there’s a kind of
very intense feeling the listen give you. Sadly it’s not long enough I guess to
bring you where it should bring you… But I guess this made a very strong
release from a great project when you need more. This gentle release is
presented in a small 3” plastic sleeve with a beatyfull inlay presented in a
sprayed gray cardboard with a kind of dark factory. I really like that dark
factory imaging from Goat that appears on the other Goat release on Snip-Snip.
The least interesting part of this release is the fact that it’s limited to 59
copies. So fan of excessively harsh noise jump on this one…
http://www.gmby.net Game
Boy
(File
under : Harsh Noise Masterpiece)
Guilty Connector is in
my sense one of the most interesting Japanoise act around today. Successfully
bringing the punk and dirty metal attitude with the power of the japanoise
sound. Just look at the cover of this and you’ll see, it looks like a cover of
an old Earache grind bands like Terrorizer or Napalm Death. The drunken collage
inside the sleeve and the picture of Kohei “The Fast” performing with bullet
belt make your punk-o-meter raise too. The sounds of this noise project is also
what the noise punk in me likes. This second full-length was a little bit
controversial in the world of noise since it featured mostly previously
released stuff from Kohei the Fast, many labels refused to do the release
because of that. Well I guess those too much collector for me people can still
cry, but this is a strong records. There’s so much nice limited release that
you can’t get a hand on that this kind of release (and like Control’s The
Cleasing) is a very very nice thing. The first track was taken from the split
with John Wiese on a French label. This is a very very dirty abrasive electro
track that make you happy to hear the GxCx noise again. It also switch to the
other track very nicely. The other track is a more progressive one starting
very slowly and getting harsher with a very stressful loop. Trust me, at the
time you’ll heard this loop you’ll be scare and then some metal banging loop
come and that’s it, your end is near! The third track is from the same records
is a very sick hash track with a kind of
very nice bass line under the ton of bash layer, listen to t with a good
pair of headphone and you’ll know what I mean but you’ll lost that loud bass
sounds fast because the track is so harsh. The fourth track starts with very
melodic sounds before continuing in another mayhem of noise with a kind of
scream and applause interlude. The
fifth track is from a record I didn’t had the time to get that I sadly don’t
own. This is a “cover” of Black Sabbath’s Symptom Of The Universe. I mean this
is a harsh track with the opening riff of the Sabbath classic. The noise is
pretty well done and with this classic Sab track. The track after begin with
more silent metal banging that sounds very oriental with a kind of loop on the
back and at five minutes it suddenly fell into a crazy Armageddon of noise.
Another great track, it was on a split with Kelly Churko that also mastered
brilliantly this whole record. The other track is is a very noise one that
suddenly stop and we hear some Buddhist chant and then some noise to then fall
in metal banging. The ninth one is another dense noise track ending in some
more mellow manipulations before the finale of the records which is some
recording coming from a release of field recording in Buddhist temples. That’s
a great way to end another very very strong record from one of my very
favourite project in the world of noise. I guess this is a record to check out
for any noise fan. All my friends who are not into noise outside Merzbow are
crazy about this, I guess this is a proof that it’s crazy and accessible. A big
hitter…
http://www.3peace.com/deadlinerecordings.htm Deadline Recordings
http://www.membrumdebile.de Membrum Debile
http://www.geocities.jp/GxCx666/ Guilty
Connector/Utsu Tapes
(File
under : Super Dark Ambient)
The first time I heard
this gentle incarnation of half of Steel Hook Prosthesis I quickly asked the
project to do a split with me! This full-length release was really anticipated
from me since it come from a label that release very very nice shitte. This one
is no exception. Presented in a so-so slimcase DVD case this nice piece of
plastic reveals one of the best dark ambient release I heard in a while. Each
track is very well constructed with some very loud drones, extremely intense
small electronics passage and subtle samplings. All the sounds are really well
processed and well panned. The sound diversity is not that much of the case
here, but when you’re speaking of dark ambient, diversity is not the motor of
the style. The only deception of this track is the last one, that’s a kind of
very cartoonish distorted medieval music with some weirdly distorted vocals. I
don’t know why this track is on this album but it really command you to get
another CD in your stereo. That’s sad that this album end up with a boring
track like that. Seriously this album is one of the better in the Dark Ambient
genre if that last track is well skipped. I never really know how to describe
Dark Ambient release but this one is a very nice one. Habeeb are also not too
cheesy in image, I like this kind of renaissance-style imagery of death,
because sometime ambient imagery are very cheesy. I make me think that this
project is not done by people that want to look sick and maybe have fun in life
but know how to perform very intense dark ambient. So, check this album if you
don’t want poser dark ambient, this is a solid release with a very dark vibe!
http://habeeb.steelhookprostheses.com/ Habeeb
http://somnambulantcorpse.com Somnambulant
Recordings
(File
under : Neurosis)
http://www.neurosis.com/ Neurosis
http://www.neurotrecordings.com Neurot Recordings
(File
under : Post rocking loud sonic ambience)
Providence’s bringer
of harshness is back with a full live recording. I’m not really familiar with
the more DIY catalogue of Dom Fernow’s works, but I must say that this one is
really different from the previous releases like the stunning History Of AIDS
or the marvellous Troubled Sleep, but it’s a very very cool record. It’s nearly
different too from the live performance I catch. This record was recorded live
on Valentine day of 2003 with a full line up of 6 persons including Jeff from
Immaculate:Grotesque and Ben from the legendary Drop Dead. It makes you go into
a million of very intense sounds one to each other, from more melodic ambient
sounds to very very high parts feedbacks that makes my cat go nuts. When my cat
go nut in the listening of noise record you know it’s heavy and he always freak
out when Prurient is in the stereo… So the record consist of two very lengthy
tracks, one called “With You” and the other called “Waiting”, both are somewhat
as twice long as a Prurient full-length is… The whole result is very
disturbing, very sharp and strong record. I don’t know if everybody play at the
same time but the whole thing is very cohesive in its destruction, very
uncomfortable, too stressing but quite enjoyable and nice. I don’t think this
record is better than previous full-length but in it’s genre it’s very
interesting, not worst than the previous releases, just different. The artwork
is pretty cute too as all Prurient releases are. It consist of picture taken by
Dom Fernow in a kind of deserted places like in Trouble Sleep and there’s a
picture of a guy beaten up on the tray card which is Deminik Fernow itself.
There’s feet also on the eroded rock on the cover and that’s Dom’s mother own.
She’s the one who composed many of the lyrics of Prurient’s stuff, Jean
Ferneca. How can you don’t be scared by someone singing her mother’s poem. In
my head is sounds brutal… He also composed the poem on the tray card with her
mother. As always I guess this Prurient release is a mandatory one, it sounds
great and it’s very different but still the most wicked here. Very Very Very
recommended.
http://www.truculentrecordings.net Truculent Recordings
http://www.hospitalproductions.com Hospital Production (Prurient)
(File
under : Brutal noisy tech-core)
This was given to me
by the dude selling merch for The End last time I catch this amazing Canadian
band live (with Cryptopsy and Cephalic Carnage) with the comment : “That’s my
band, you can take it.” I didn’t knew what to expect since the cover art is
very abstract and give you no clue of what’s to come… The no that attractive
and catchy name of the band don’t let you perceive what’s to come Only the
close reference to The End as one of the member is their roadie can be an
interesting path of what’s to come. And what a fucking revelation. This band
plays a really tight and technical Dillinger-core with really strong vocals and
nice arrangement. The first track end up in a complete harsh noise mess, what a
nice surprise. This harsh noise (mostly analogue reverb stuff) is really good
compared to the tons of metal-core that put noise part on their records and
failed in doing it nicely… That was the best part that make me think that this
is more than a Dillinger-clone band. They are original and brutal, what else do
you need? The sound of this is also very punchy and not that bad for a demo.
The full-colour glossy slimcase is also very cute. I guess we should check out
these Ontario rockers since they do the hammer style very well. I hope a good
label will sing them soon to hear new stuff from them since it’s was a really
nice surprise. Sadly too brief…
http://www.starringjanetleigh.com/ …Starring Janet Leigh
(File
under : Instrumental Majestic Drone)
(File
under : Guitar/Bass/Drum improvisation…)
http://www.ipecac.com/ Ipecac
http://trevordunn.n3.net/ Trevor
Dunn
(File
under : Post-apocalyptic neo-barbarian loud black/death!)
http://www.v28.com V:28
http://www.vendlus.com Vendlus
(File
under : Harsh noisecore)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/voltagestressr/ Voltagestress*r