Hello again my friends, here’s the new batch of reviews,
Hopefully as always I promise that some will be post sooner than between the
last post and this one, but here’s the last batch, enjoy and rock on!
A18 Dear
Furious
(Victory; 13 tracks; 34 minutes
05 seconds)
(File
under : Mosh core)
Something
funny here… The press bio say that A18 (sorry dudes but your bandname is awful
by the way) are members of classic bands like Insted, Strife, A Chorus Of
Disapproval and Outspoken but just say after that it’s not important on what
bands they were before, it’s more important to know where they are now. If it’s
the case so don’t tell us about your past band, because you should disappoint
people like me who was curious to know if these band’s sound was still present.
But I really can understand this vibe and I guess this is all about that. After
all, are you the same you were last year? So they are hopefully nopt the semane
they were 10 years ago. Every human should evolve someday! If you got the
nostalgy of Instead as I do, check out their recent discography collection.
Back to this album. Musically, it’s in the vein of something like a cross
between Madball with the pissed off attitude of Blood For Blood. The bio said
they do sounds like Terror but sorry I never heard about that band and I really
feel like I miss something. The lyrics are really pissed off against the world.
I really appreciated a line saying something like “stop crying, it’s a waste of
suffering…” Fuck! These are loud lyrics. The one that stuck me the most is the
last track’s lyrics that didn’t appear in the booklet. The lyrics are like
about the hard way of still being part of a subculture as growing up. They say
something like “in search of a quiet life, we all fall down, in search of a
righteous life we all fall down.” That’s why I do appreciate this band, they
are still doing it and they don’t wanna sound like their previous band. They do
have hardcore in their veins and I guess I have no lesson to give them. It’s
not really my kind of pie but I guess they deserve my respect. I don’t know why
they called their band A18, it’s not that much a memorable and hooking, at
least I don’t. Maybe all Victory’s bands got somewhat horrible names… But I
guess it’s a safe value if you want to get a good hardcore album, their
experience speak of itself and their maturity is speaking in their sound. Not
groundbreaking, but enjoyable!
A Perfect Murder Unbroken
(Victory; 14 tracks; 36 minutes
33 seconds)
(File
under : Violent Metalcore)
The
local kings of heavy hardcore explode here with their debut album for Victory.
I never been a fan of A Perfect Murder before but I had a strong respect for
them, but now I must say that they impressed me. As I remember their sound was
not that tight and the fact that they featured 3 guitarist never make their
live sets memorable in my head. But at the very first moment I put this one on
the stereo, I changed all my ideas about this band. Even them say that they are
not the most innovative project they just follow a live of heavy hardcore band,
but in my sense when you follow that way (Cro-Mags, Merauder, Hatebreed, etc.)
a lot of projects sounds like shit but here’s not the case. This record was
recorded at the legendary Trax-East studio, the place where bands like
Snapcase, Lifetime, Catch 22, Turmoil and Deadguy (mmmm, Deadguy!) recorded
years back. When you don’t want to pretend doing original things I guess the
way you do it matter and with a very tight and raw sound like on this record.
There’s something that really put me nut is that this very brutal and fast
hardcore record got a pretty nice rock overtone, there’s some rock riff that
just can’T make you smile and put the difference between a cheesy band and a
good one. The solo are pretty incredible and reminds me a lil’bit of those of
Guns’n’Roses (don’t laugh, I like the Guns!). I guess no song is distinctive
from another but sometimes it’s good thing. I wont sounds nationalist, but I
really wonder how it should sounds if they do one track in French? But over all
I guess it was about years since I hadn’t had that fun with that kind of
hardcore shitte! Seriously, you need a good hardcore album don’t look further.
This will possibly be the best album from a Quebec band if Cryptopsy or Gorguts
won’t launch an album before the end of the year. Stay out of the pit when they
are on the stage if you’re a nerd like me or your ass will be kicked… Hard
shit!
http://www.xaperfectmurderx.net/ A
Perfect Murder
As All Die East-West
Noise Pact
(Foreshadow; CDR; 3
tracks; 34 minutes 27 seconds)
(File
under : Militaristic Dark Ambient)
This
time Clint Listing took the eastern front of WWII as subject for this release
on a polish label that seems to release very cool stuff. The first track is
synth oriented ambient track and got a superb title I can’t dislike : “Death In
The Snow”. It reminds me of the keyboard at the beginning of Steve Von Till’s
last album but never starts to sing…. It’s really emotional compared to the
other tracks. A very nice death in the snow… The second track of this release
looks like the main plate of this dinner and is called The Russian Front. This
track is a long synth oriented ambient track too and feature deep vocals. These
vocals sounds sometime very cheesy and sometime really interesting by their
expression, something like a non heavy growl. I like the breath on the
background when it’s not talking. It’s back with some background noises, not
more. That’s a really minimalist but not boring although it’s a 21 minutes
track. The third one is guitar oriented with some keyboard and voices. I guess
this is my favourite of the album. This record is presented in a beautiful
package in a DVD case that looks like a book with Russian war propaganda on the
front. You know how much I like Russian propaganda (maybe you don’t know, but
now you know), so I like this one. There’s an American war propaganda that is a
“civilization calls” for woman and child. You see how American propaganda
always sucked compared to Russian ones… But it really looks like a book and
looks great. Sincerely this is a release that seems to miss something like
another track that should have combine element of the three tracks should have
make a difference in the cohesion of the release, but it’s a very interesting
release. Very recommended!
As All Die CCClint
(RRRecords; CDR; 4 tracks; 29
minutes 35 seconds)
(File
under : Militaristic Dark Ambient)
There’s
some meeting that make one disadvantages toward another of the meeting. Here’s something
fucked up, Rhode Island’s militatistic folk/ambient/noise project As All Die
heading at the very ludic RRRecords. So you got a conventional RRR package with
tortured people medieval picture on one side and a soldier with scandinavian
Runes on the other side printed on coloured near psychedelic paper. That don’t
scare the shit as other of the Rhode Island does, at least it don’t looks
serious. But the music inside is not as funny as the cover is. Apparently this
release is exploring the world of martial art or something like that. The first
track is putting us in a mood for violence, like it’s some timbales banging
sampling with dark electronics and someone telling I don’t know what with a
deep monotone voice. The voice says something like do not become emotional and
then a darker and noisier vibe come in. Very nice! The second track is a
synth-oriented ambient track. It’s well driven but it develops the impatience
to know the rest since the first track was so nice. The other track is fucking
strange it’s like distorted guitar with some militaristic drum rolls with the
monotonous voice that characterizes As All Die. It sounds really chaotic
although the distortion in the back sounds a little new-agy, but the kind of
wall of noise at the end with some more barking vocals put the song in a better
way. The last track is another ambient track on keyboard I guess. This record
is the best one I heard from As All Die I guess, not only because it doesn’t
look serious because of the great label that released it, but because the music
seems like a more complex release than another. I guess RRRon shouldn’t have
release that kind of thing if Clint was not his buddy, bless the fact that they
are friends. That’s not the kind of release RRR does, but I guess it make a
funny-looking records from a very serious project, but the music is very deep
and powerful. Maybe one of his ambient guitar track should have made it a
better release, but it’s a very good one that way! Very nice release.
http://www.beautyandpain.com As All Die
Atreyu The
Cure
(Victory; 13 tracks; 29 minutes
35 seconds)
(File
under : Multi-influence Metalcore)
I
don’t know what to think about this band, I guess it’s maybe the most emo of
the new American Metal scene (Lamb Of God, God Forbid, Darkest Hour…) or the
most metal of the emo bands. But it’s a little weird. I guess they play in the
big league with big sellers like Eighteen Visions and Poison The Well for the
most commercial “hardcore” band around. I guess people in this band are multi
influence, there should be a guy into In Flames, another into AFI, another into
Coalesce, another into the Deftones and
another into Victory-style emo like Taking Back Sundays and Thursday. But I
guess this is a good way to describe it. Some tracks are more into melodic
death and then the other track sounds like a Deftones track and with a very
good throater and a more melodic voice. I guess it makes a not that much
coherent album but that’s maybe what’s making the charm of this record. I guess
everybody will like something in this band. The very good production of GGGarth
(of RATM’s fame) make it also very interesting and enjoyable, the sound is what
that band needed, sharp and direct. The cover feature a cute vampire girl which
don’t impress me that much but help us to show us the kind of feeling the band
got. This is dark personal lyrics, I mean you know personal lyrics I guess mean
that the guy is not good in his skin and want to let know the world he’s sick
of himself and the world… Kinda reminds me the attitude of AFI these days. The
picture of the band inside the tray card. There’s definitely something behind
this record, there’s a special mood made of diverse influences that make this a
special experience. In my book that’s not the best record I hear but it makes
me smile and enjoy it. And a final word, although it’s not as dumb as naming
your band Gandalf, but do you think naming your band after the name of the hero
of Michael
Ende’s The Neverending Story (and of course the movie series based on
this) will provocate interest toward your band… I doubt about it. It’s a cool
sounding name but the origin of it are not that heavy… Outside that, this is a
nice album, not more.
http://www.atreyurock.com Atreyu
http://www.victoryrecords.com Victory
Records
chefkirk Vegetable
Rush
(Stop/Eject; coloured CDR; 9
tracks; 50 minutes 26 seconds)
(File under : subtle minimal analogue noise)
Ok,
here’s a new chefkirk release. I felt sad since I got some recent releases from
this genuine North Carolina project since I declared them one of my fabourite
project and I didn’t review them. I really anticipated this release since it’s
coming from a label from Michigan that seems really cool although I know no
other projects on the label. The presentation of this one is as ever from a
chefkirk, awesome! This one come in a green DVD case with some abstract art
printed on orange paper and with a booklet with Roger I guess on the front and
some pictures of grass and some few info. The CDR is spray painted I guess with
some object that obstruct the spray that make some line, I don’T know how to
say that but you should know what I mean. Personally I would never ever release
something on a DVD case, I hate that. First it’s big and take place and when
you have to post them it will cost you one of your arm (actually that’s the translation
of a French-Canadian expression)… The
CDR is an orange one, I never know they make CDR orange, that seems really
cuter than green ones. The music on this one is apparently older one from
chefkirk but it’s still on the same way as ever, when a recipe is great I guess
we can just be happy about it. The chefkirk sound is a kind of whole assemblage
of succession of minimally created noises. The only complaint with this record
is that it’S a little bit long, more recent chefkirk releases I guess are
shorter. I guess you should listen to chefkirk if you like noise done in a more quiet way but never boring. That’s
interesting minimalism. Sometime people pretend to be nice while playing
minimal noise but it’s just plain shit. chefkirk is a very distinct noise
project and maybe have nothing to prove to nobody and that’s why it’s great.
It’s different and enjoyable. It’s noise but even non noise fan should like. I
guess they deserve more hearing because it’s a fucking great project!
http://www.tibprod.com/chefkirk.htm chefkirk
Cleric s/t
(self-released; 4 tracks; 30
minutes 17 seconds)
(File
under : Violent Mathalcore)
I never
heard about this New York band before but I guess we should heard about them
since they are really cool. I had no clue about what does that band sounds like
since the artwork is very neutral and can’t really reveals what kind of music
it is and as people into all kind of music send me stuff the only way to know
is to play the disk. Cleric here delivers a great dosage of some metalcore
project I like and that in my connaissance was not that done. They kinda mix
the chugga chugga riffing of Candiria with some more aggressive attitude of
bands like Dillinger Escape Plan or Every Time I Die (well, they are not that
aggressive but you know possibly what I mean). I don’t think a lot of people
reproduced the kind of chugga riffs of Candiria and hearing it was really cool
since it’s a band I still like after all these years. The instrumental
performance of the band is nice, I guess band that jump in the metalcore world
nowadays should be awesome musician because the standards are more and more
heavy. The band should be also in another kind of stuff. When you put out a 4
track CD that should be a demo or something you don’t put a long instrumental
track. Sometime band put short interludes in their album just to show that they
are dark and have emotion, but here I feel it’s more honest. That show that the
band is above a lot of bands that are singed to label. The hidden track is also
pretty crazy it’s a kind of cut up inverted sound with distortion. Really harsh
shit! I really can’t say something bad against this one because it’s a near
perfect demo. It’s nearly criminal that this band is not more known, maybe it’s
because they don’t know how to promote themselves (I doubt about it, at least
they send copies to zine for review, what a lot of band don’t do) or that’s
because labels are too dumb to sing them. They should be nice live too, I hope
they can come to Montreal someday to play.
http://www.clericmusic.com Cleric
Dense Vision Shrine Litanies
Of Desire
(Beauty And Pain; 9 tracks; 56
minutes 45 seconds)
(File
under : Emotive Dark Ambient)
The
term “gothic drama” to describe this release and the artwork featuring a
sinister guy that looks like Jesus with arm in cross makes me perspicuous about
this release. The result of this is pretty much into what I was expecting but
ways better. It’s hard to describe how it sounds and in a way it’s easy to do.
This Norwegian project plays a very loud and subtle ambient drones with a very
emotive, near gothic, sense. Most of you know how I’m a gothophobe, but I do
like this one, I guess it’s a very strong release it’s not only long dark
tracks, there’s something really interesting in the way the tracks are
constructed and assembled. The last track is particularly strong since it’s the
loudest one and the most melodic one. It’s a nice record but I do feel that I
need to do something while listening to this one. It’s a perfect record for
reading. The whole disk is an enjoyable one, but nothing more I guess. I don’t like
dark music like that I feel it’s not that much honest. That’s what I got
against goth attitude, I feel like it’s fake stuff. This one is not in the
cheap ass kind of atmosphere most of Goth band/project got and that’s what it
makes it strong.
http://www.neokunst.com/dvs Dense Vision Shrine
Filthy Turd/Romance/Bongoleeros Creeping Crawling – Screams Of Undertaker
(Voltagestress*r;
3 tracks (one each); 56 minutes 45 seconds)
(File
under : 2 x live harsh noise + Wakcy fucked up performance)
Here’s
recordings from a live set that was held in Newcastle in England in March 2004.
I haven’t heard some new Filthy Turd for a while and this make me happy to
check this fine England noise exportation. The king of Filthy noise performs
here a nearly 20 minutes of “Live Filth”. I really appreciate the sound of
Filthy Turd, it’s dirty but always intricating, it kinda reminds me of Concrete
Violin’s one. Here the sets is a long dirty sound that suddently fall in a very
high part and some noise performances in the way Filthy Turd can only do it.
Very impressive and as we can hear by the applausing at the end, it’s was
recorded live, not only from a deck plugged on electronics. The sound is really
nice for this one and for the Romance part. Romance is a young project that a
lot of people are talking about and here’s the first time I got the chance to
hear them. Their performance is a very fast and precise harsh noise
performance. I really appreciated it, it’s like a lot of project does but it’s
live so we can see that the project manipulate noise in a very thigh way. I
can’t wait to hear more about the project. Bongoleeros’ part is not as amazing
as the other projects’s ones are. It consist of guy saying stuff like “Pee my
pissy dream” and “Popin My Weasel” in a microphone while banging on cymbal and
doing some other noises. Not really impressive, I did prefer their split with
Fckn’bstrds. So as I said before about these kind of projects, it should have
been cool live but on recordings it sucks! But you really should check out this
release for the Filthy Turd and Romance’s performances. They are really nice.
Usually I don’t dig live recordings but these ones sounds awesomely nice and
are very enjoyable. That’s a great release if you skip the Bongoleeros part
from one of U.K.’s most interesting very-DIY label.
http://members.tripod.com/~sore_throat/stress/ Voltagestress*r
Fckn’bstrds/Bongoleeros split
(Voltagestress*r; 3 tracks (one
from Bongoleeros and two from Fckn’bstrds); 56 minutes 45 seconds)
(File
under : Wacky live noise manipulations)
Ok,
here we are in the wacky side of noise. The Bongoleeros from the UK starts this
crazy split. The Bongoleeros I guess are a noise band from UK featuring the
legendary Eeyow Karoom (Filty Turd’s fame and a metric ton of other project)
with another guy maybe. This one looks like it’s been recorded live. Starting
with some ukulele and then falling in the noise manipulation and some keyboard
somewhere. I like the craziness of this. That’s a kind of recording that I
doubt of the importance of this. It should have been a very fucked up live set
but I guess listening to this recording is not very my piece of pie. But I do
like the atmosphere of the recording. It’s a direct assault of wacky noise. The
Fckn’bstrds from Holland are one of the genre leaders of crazy noise live
performance. Here’s it’s a buch of fucked up vocals with some crazy
electronics, pulsing beats and sampling. The assault here is also as crazy as
Bongoleeros are. I don’t know if this was really recorded live since the sound
quality is not that sounding like a live one. The second track is less long
than the 15 minutes other one. It concist of people screming and banging on
stuff and talking… Both should be very fucked up live performance but like when
I’m listening to the Cock ESP recordings, I feel there’s something missing.
Maybe it should have been better to release it on VCD or DVDR, that should have
been more memorable. Because now it’s just some fucked up sounds united
together. I like the atmosphere of both projects but I doubt it will be a
record that will be in my stereo often! Oh I forgot to told you about something
that will interest you, there’s a 2005 calendar as bonus in the recording!
http://members.tripod.com/~sore_throat/stress/ Voltagestress*r
Hawthorne Heights The
Silence In Black And White
(Victory Records; 11 tracks; 43
minutes 00 seconds)
(File
under : Generic Post-Hardcore)
Ok,
I don’t consider myself emophobe but I got no emo-tion in the listening of this
record. I’ll be direct, it didn’t impressed me. It’s not that I always want
thrash parts in my music, but I just think these guys are one of the most generic
band I heard in years. Took all the popular indie rock of the last years like
Thursday and Band New and now you have a more diluted product. The worst thing
is that Victory put a sticker on the record to say that it sounds like Taking
Back Sunday and Thusday. Trying to reproduce the style success of the label is
not a really good thing sometime. Here’s is just that the recipe is too much
used. I guess the band will get a certain success but it doesn’t impress me. I
guess the last track of the record is the one that I felt the better, the
vocals are aggressive and the distortion is up too but not much than that. The
artwork is not that great too. I guess that’s my opinion, but I didn’t liked
this album, period.
http://www.hawthorneheights.com Hawthorne
Heights
Never Presence Forever/Dead Raven Choir Rozrywa Szwy Ciszy
(Somnambulant; CDR; 5 tracks;
34 minutes 10 seconds)
(File under
: Powerful Dark Ambient Collaboration)
Another
great release from Somnambulant! This is a collaborative from Poland’s Dead
Raven Choir and Virginia’s Never Presence Forever. I don’t know but it’s been
month and month if not years before Never Presence Forever release shit and now
there’s ton of pretty cool release from this awesome project that just been
released and this one is a great one. This is something that should be a mail
collaboration between the two project since I doubt they meet themselves. The
result is awesome! I never heard about DRC before but in the Relapse mail order
catalogue they describe them as “What happens if Masonna and Yo-To Ma got
together to play incest ballad?” Okay I do really need to hear stuff that it’s
not that collaboration since I guess I do really need to heard what that kind
of mix do! Returning to the collaboration. This one is pretty nicely done, there’s
some violin on the first track and some piano done very minimally. The texture
is very well balanced I guess with the sound which make this release very
memorable. I guess every project is giving to the other one something great and
this record got a nice length, not too long, not too short. The artwork is very
minimal, like a 5” X 8¼ “ cardboard with something like two bones in cross. On
the other side there’s the title names in both Polish and English, there’s also
pretty crazy vocals in Polish on the fourth track. I guess this is a crazy
language to sing loud. The result of this is very awesome seriously! If you
like dark noise with some organic sounds, check this out because it’s a pretty
nice record!
http://www.holyterror.com/neverpresenceforever Never Presence Forever
Nothingisttrue Sterilization
(Anti-Humanism; CDR; 3 tracks;
65 minutes 13 seconds)
(File
under : Infantile Harsh Noise)
There’s
project that their insistence to release stuff on every label will play against
them I guess. There’s project once in a while that comes around, harass people,
thinking they got it and then fades out. I don’t know if it’s the schematic
Nothingisttrue will do, but let’s say they accomplished some on this one. This
record is from a small DIY label called Anti-Humanism from Belgium I guess and
is presented in a small cardboard sleeve. I got some problem with people you
need explanation about the presentation. Apparently as Kyle from Nothingisttrue
told as I was laughing or was indifferent to a record with swastika (yeah I’m a
PC fucker, let it be) that this cover with swastika on it and a skull that it’s
“more
a homage to a Trevor Brown painting then anything to do with national
socialism.” Let’s say that I don’t care in either case since it’s not apparent
and the common loser like me will think it’s a nazi noise thing… And it’s
ambiguous too since their release on Freak Animal feature a king of logo that
look like the SA one… Anyway, it doesn’t look like a Trevor Brown (who did the
cover of the Whitehouse releases and John Zorn’s The Gift and Venitian Snares’
Winter In The Belly Of A Snake) and apparently this is the skull of the Marquis
De Sade, ok, but a skull remain in my sense a skull… I guess everything should
speak of itself with a release and when the confusion remains intact, I don’t
want to e-mail people to know what the fuck’s going on with his cover when it’s
time to review them. True art speaks of itself and here’s that’s not the case,
sorry. Anyway, there’s music on this one. The first track begin with very
brutal and direct noise with direct PE vocals and end up in a techno track
there’s some ambience too that are not really displeasing, seriously. I end up
being very surprise how this record sounds, that’s once again a question of
presentation and attitude I guess. The second track begins too with some vocals
which I don’t really understand and some other long hard noise stuff. It’s very
harsh and heavy and fast I guess. The whole problem I got toward this is that
with time it gets a little boring. If you read a lot of my reviews, you must
know that long noise release are not my favourites although sometime I like
some but they are big exceptions. In this case I became tired on the third
track. Sincerely this is way better than I expect, the project need some
working on his image and music, but this can be definitely a good project. I
don’t know if you should check this record but if you like harsh heavy DIY
noise, go ahead!
Omei One
Single Sickened Cell
(Beauty And Pain; 7 tracks; 72
minutes 42 seconds)
(File
under :)
When
Chris Goudreau of Sickness goes out with a more ambient project, you know it
won’t be just a single generic ambient stuff. Let’s just say it’s not ambient
for the weak. Omei is a more allongé sounds than Sickness, I guess the
term that goes to my mind to describe it is surgical. The sound is maybe the
most important factor that put this record in the ambient noise genre. Because
it remains noise. The claustrophobic ambience of it is pretty awesome. The music
is not that much complex, it consist nearly of few layers. Most of them consist
of some samplings, some drones and some oppressive noises. More than this we
should consider this minimal… The force of the project lays around this work of
the sound. The sound in my sight is very well conceived and I read that he did
all these recordings one take or something which make the whole thing crazier...
There’s few diverse sounds, but they do their job : the more noisy parts oppresses
and the more ambient part help to make a desolate sound of the whole thing. The
fourth track is particularly epic with a king of angelic sample loop and some
very nice sounds around. The whole thing was mastered at a studio called Gench
Studio which make for sure a pretty fucking nice sound. That helps making a
pretty crazy sound of the whole thing. The whole thing is pretty amazing. This is a fucking awesome way to start a new
label (well not really, Beauty And Pain is just the new name of Dragon Flight
Records, know if the new name is better than the other one…) because this is
one of the most professional ambient noise record I heard. I guess Chris
Goudreau is in a Classe à Part in the world of noise. His creation is
making the professional and serious at extreme of the genre. That’s great to
see that somebody is putting the standards on higher level. With Omei, I guess
he is doing the same thing as he did a couple of year ago with Sickness’ I
have become the disease that made me. This time it’s just no as harsh, it’s
just addictive, I played it maybe 20 time during the first weeks I got it,
that’s the sing that this is a great record. Not just recommended, I consider
this mandatory for any people really into noise!
http://www.beautyandpain.com Beauty
And Pain
Organ Apoplexy
In Six Part
(Beauty And Pain; 2xCDR; 4
tracks; 18 minutes 27 seconds)
(File
under : Instrumental Black Metal + Trance Electronica)
Okay
here’s the deal, my stereo don’t take all CDR at first and then he took the
bonus CD instead of this one so I was very surprised by the quality of that CD
that the other CD was a little bit a deception in my sense. This is a black
metal trio from Norway that is
instrumental. The main CDR (the other is a bonus CDR) is a six track apoplexy
crisis I guess. I don’t know but I do really like the high intensity of the
project and the very nice instrumentation but I do feel that something’s
missing. I don’t want to be that conservative toward metal music but it looks
very amateurish by the fact that there’s no vocalist. It looks like the guys
lost their vocalists before the recording session and decided to record it
anyway. It’s not that bad sincerely there’s really nice synth, nice melodies,
very heavy pounding drums, but there’s something missing. If there was some
electronics that can be an alternative to a singer. There’s nice sampling too
like this girl puking after saying she like to suck cock and the kind of Donald
Duck singing Tyrolean songs. I’m really curious to know what will happen of
this band since it does sounds great (maybe the bass drums are badly recorded)
and musically it’s perfect but I stay firm, there’s something missing. Sometime
like the fifth track there’s some sampling that whistling that tends to do the
job but it’s not that memorable. The theremin/moog solo on the same track is maybe
the most concise part of the record. Maybe is something high that is missing on
the sound, more than just guitar The high of my deception come from the fact
that I played the bonus CDR first instead of the main one. This is another things
that reveals that these dudes are not common lousy metal dudes. This CDR
consist mostly of electronica tracks. More in the ambient trance or whatever
you call it. I mostly liked this one better. This CDR is pretty weird to be honest,
I don’t know if it’s genius or shit. I’m pretty curious about what will happen
with this project since I really don’t know what to think about it... Very
promising!
http://www.beautyandpain.com Beauty
And Pain
Oscillating Innards/nkondi Split
(dfrp; tape; 4 tracks each; 30
minutes)
(File
under : Harsh noise at it’s best I guess)
Very
nice project from these two not that old project from the west coast.
Oscillating Innards (why does the name is in plural since he’s alone doing
that?) is a Californian project that impressed me last year with a CDr that I
don’t remember the name and this time I guess they impressed me more. The
project is what I like in noise very fast change and always new sounds cut up
that really reminds me Merzbow of the glory days. Sincerely it’s a very
stunning side. If OxIx sounds like Merzbow, Nkondi from Portland sounds like
the other great japanoise dude, Masonna. It’s sharp fast and high. I’m not the
kind of noise I’m crazy about but it’s really well executed, nkondi does it in
a non boring way. Well I don’t have more inspiration to describe this record
but I sincerely recommend you this split, real noise dudes shouldn’t hate this
one, it’s the heart of the style in term of sound. Check out other shitte from
both project but this one is a very great introduction to both. It’s presented
in a normal tape case with a printed on colour paper inlay with info. Nice
shitte!
http://www.iheartnoise.com/dfrp/ dollfullofrivets
Survival Unit/Tugend split
(Somnambulent; 14 tracks (three
from Survival Unit and eleven from Tugend); 64 minutes 37 seconds)
(File
under : Power Electronics/Bleak Ambience)
Here’s
powerful meeting. Cultural terrorist Survival Unit from Sweden bring 3 tracks
of their mind altering power electronics. The first track consist of repetitive
that me of Exsanguinate with some vocals and woman screaming. The second one
got some louder vocals with some backed repetitive noises, can’t say really
more. Power Electronics sometime is boring me. The third one is some loud
electronics mixed with ambient drone. What’s pissing me about the Survival Unit
part is that all the tracks end up suddently like if the guy push stop on the
recording deck. That’s small things that harass me sometimes. The Survival
Unit’s part is not that bad, in the way of many power electronics project, not
bad but no novelty here. Tugend’s bleakness is more interesting. Tugend from
the States are more in the desolate and dark side of the ambient world. Their
part of the split consist more of low sounding dark ambient tracks with a
desolate feeling. Like a collections of bleak tracks. One of these tracks got
out of the canvas at the middle. This track consist of loud pulsing beats that
will sets you in a mood for a trip to the asylum. The feeling about Tugend’s
part of the split is definitely awesome. These “Occult Transmission” are
supposedly audible “to those who are attuned”, “behind the headlines, between
the frequencies, beneath the surface.” I don’t know if I catch these so-called
occult transmission, but I really liked what I heard! I appreciated the music
but I’m not that much impressed by the aesthetic of Tugend. Songtitles like
Black Sun Rising or Bridging the Abyss really don’t impress me. As much as
other recordings from the project like one WWII-inspired called “Optimism Is
For The Weak” didn’t attract me that much… But the cover art is really cute and
help to enter the desolate sound of both project. The picture on the front is
something like a guy who seems to think in an sand pit. This split is presented in a jewel case
packaging. I guess it’s important to say that it’s CDR but it seems to be pro
copied CDR as the whole album came in a sealed packaging. Those who like the
Cold Meat-style noise should shit in their pant with this release. I guess it’s
a pretty nice record only for the Tugend’s part. Survival Unit are enjoyable
too but not as cool. Definitely a nice split from a label that is slowly
becoming a sympathetic label for dark ambient in the US.
http://www.somnambulant-records.org/tugend Tugend
http://www.survivalunit.cjb.net Survival
Unit
