Volksmorg - Volksmorg

Volksmorg - Volksmorg

Volkmorg is a joint aktion on Terror records featuring the "heaviest and fattest guys from Lithuanian scene", Pogrom and Body Cargo. This is dead Industrial/Noise. Not in the sense that it doesn't exist anymore, but the sound itself feels dead, I think many refer to it as Post-Mortem but with this release that term may just miss the mark a bit. This specific type of Noise relies directly on its ability to conjure a scene to the listener. It needs to be evocative enough that it does not become common background music, but it shouldn't be so excessive that the listener gets deadened to its flow and crescendos. A difficult task, really. Luckily neither of these pitfalls apply here, and 2 drunk men were able to pull it off.

The departure point for this release from either projects previous material is in the organization of sounds. You can feel both projects here, but at the same time you probably wouldn't be able to tell who had been here if this was an anonymous undertaking. Violence is demoted in favor of repressed tension and control. The main elements are building, indefinably feral yet aesthetically-driven, droning uproars and drawn out waves of static and crunch that glides with a sense of creating cacophonous spaces through an ascending noise-contralto. Layers mesh gently as the tracks reach for an apex, a release of tension, that never really comes, instead separating and allowing the foundational sounds to complete themselves in straightforward drawls. This simplicity and almost simple-minded approach consequently never relapses into boredom and doesn't seem to be straining itself in order to avoid overindulgence, it just does it on its own. The sound, the production here is deep and raw but clear enough to show the attention to detail these guys give the sounds. Volksmorg is possibly a different approach to the same vision of other "dead" Industrial acts with a familiar sound, like Mauthausen Orchestra or M.B.

Overall this is a solid effort from both artists. I would hope they tag-team another tape with the same dreaded feeling that this one aspires to. For more information on this project and label stalk them here: http://www.terror.lt/index.php?page=releases

Crown of Cerberus - Salome

Crown of Cerberus - Salome

Crown of Cerberus puts an emphasis on weaving lengthier tape loops together in a very original way that is hard to compare to anything else going on right now. Taking his source material from all over the place and putting them into sensory engaging motions that have no other choice but to degrade. Beautiful in the same way that death is, Mack referring to his music as "feminine" I see it as a deconstruction of feminine, softness into a quiet conflict, and that conflict into the serenity of resolution. Reflecting my own feelings on to this music I feel a tender perversity (not generally sexual, rather a provocative yet defiant perversity) that eludes most Noise or Power Electronics material.

Side A begins quietly and open, uncompressed sounds scattered about that slowly morph as a female sings, or rather moans, as she begins to become washed out by sharper layers of high-end echoing resonance. The flat yet agile eclipsing of sounds from one to the other makes this less dreamy, somewhat darker, than the other Crown of Cerberus releases to date. The range of sounds here sound organic and perfectly natural while the choice of loops enwrap a series of ideas in a poetic reversal and reaction. Flipping the tape over and the sounds of water appear, the track being called "Watching Her Majesty As She Waves Through A River of Her Enemies Blood" makes this idea clear and only lends itself to the darker feeling of this tape. The wet sounds become layered, one bouncing off the other while the tape hiss below helps these layered sounds not become overwhelming and boring. Like on side A these initial sounds slowly get taken over, put to the side by a sharper sound, almost metallic, until the track washes itself out ending this tape the way it began.

Every little element of this tape is assembled competently and the sounds are well composed, occasionally feeling almost orchestral sometimes making the sound throw the listener into a meditative state, the sounds trumping emotion. This type of Noise can become dull quickly but somehow Crown has not let this happen to his music and the aesthetic of his work is still growing, not pinned down just to one specific area and it never seems fabricated or made just for the sake of making something to release.

Machismo - Humiliation in Attitude

Machismo - Humiliation in Attitude

Machismo is a new act in the American Power Electronics scene that sounds anything but "contemporary". Machismo has taken perverse, diseased electronics and muddy, static-drenched production to a mesmerizing extreme. The idea behind the cassette comes across completed unwashed and unrefined. Each sound and pulsation feels like it was forced into existence, Omar (Anabolic Dimensions) does not let his Noise ride out on autopilot like a lot of the shitty acts coming out of this great country.

Clanging metal scrape's about until some over effected shouting becomes the main focus, the protagonist taking a singular angry tone implying a grim and cold detachment from his audience. You are here to watch, to listen, please don't interrupt. Distorted synth's dance around in a gutturally raw fashion until they almost become rhythmic and the vocals dust themselves off, taking the effects down a notch or two but keeping a certain servility. The soaring and piercing yelps never drone about, they always hit hard and have a very obvious "William Bennett" vibe to them at times, minus the goofiness that William sometimes exhibited when he got a bit too excited. The clashing, the synth bleeding and vocals all mesh perfectly well together and never miss a beat. You really have to give the man a hand at his mixing technique.

Side B begins with a charging drone like water crashing up against a wall in some cellar you're locked up in. Some precise and detailed metal work is heard in the room next door and fluttering electronics twitch about the basement dirge. Chains drag, pieces of metal and junk rattle giving a sordid feel to the whole mess. Nothing is shown at face value until about half-way through when harsh bursts of buzzsaw synths play hit you square in the face. An adept of base and self-seeking pleasures. Vocals, or possibly samples/victim tapes, are buried beneath it all adding to the grim and degenerate feeling of being alone, somewhere distant with nothing but the sounds of an experienced deviant who has proven that he has the ideas, aims, and skills.

Chloroform Rapist - Chloroform Rapist

Chloroform Rapist - Chloroform Rapist

 An anonymous project on the label of Pekka PT of Sick Seed fame. Promised to be a hit with fans of Filth & Violence and TF/PE which, as everyone knows, I am a huge fan of both and I can definitely say this does not disappoint. Perhaps being a fan of these labels has biased me. I feel that I have no use for artists who have lost touch with tradition and sincerity and see the brutality of the modern world only second-hand. Choloform Rapist is far from original, but seeing the eccentricies and interpreting them is something that entertains me and that is what music of any genre is really all about when it comes down to it. Plus there is something intriguing about learning to see the world through the eyes of a pervert and I think that material like this, when it is sincere, gives one a better idea of the vile forms of life without judging them impartially. Human nature demands the satisfaction of vice and curiosity and for me these two things exist perfectly together in these genres.

Side A is minimal the Noise is happening and you hear it yet you're almost completely ignorant of the fact it is there because the malicious sounding vocals which are hard to make out because they exist on the same wave length as the sounds. Halfway through we are jolted with small slices and jabs of feedback that eventually become the main instrument. When all was said and done I felt as if this side of the cassette had left me with the same feeling that the first Snuff album did but it was condensed into just under 10 minutes. I believe it hit its target.

Side B has more "going on". More build up and more nuances. The crispy noise is interrupted by streams of thick rumbles that drag through seamlessly. Like the feedback on Side A this interruption soon becomes the center piece until our vocalist re-enters the picture. The voice is louder this time. Dominating, on top and in control a magnetism making it all come together; the rumbling, the crashing of junk and sheets of noise coexisting with vocals to form a few minutes of intense and pure Power Electronics intoxication.

Mania - Grotesque Mirth

Mania - Grotesque Mirth 7''

Mania has a deep career spanning 6+ years of dishing out this idiosyncratic blend of Harsh Noise with a P.E. feel and some occasionally strange samples, i.e. "Armed To The Teeth" and the scattered assistance of Aaron Dilloway. All of the Mania material, from start to finish, have the trademark sense of turbid anxiety. Along with his obsession with firearms, it is this anxious feel, this audial frustration that is the standout quality which I have come to know, and enjoy, from Mania. 

Sometimes when it comes to such an artist, one who has been releasing material since the early 90's under a few different names, the question may arise as to whether the relentless fetisization of the actual artist and his discography and the collection there-of actually does him any favors within the context of new material. I know, for me, at first, it didn't. I wouldn't let myself enjoy Mania as much as Taint (who you all should know by now is my favorite Power Electronics unit of all time). I've compared it to having a dog for 14 years, a dog you have owned since childhood, and then it gets hit by a car and dies and you go pick up a new one. It's different and takes a bit to "warm up" to. I had to warm up to Mania, and it took some time.

On "Grotesque Mirth" the listener gets handfed two 5 minutes tracks of a more cogent and direct material. Both tracks are very active, yet when compared to his other work there are moments here that seem almost "laid back". It is direct, more exact and meticulous. Side 1 - in full on attack mode, Keith fashions together hazy static hissing out of filtered synthesizers atop some metallic percussion (44 gallon drums?). This is the type of track I think of when I think of present day American Power Electronics; patiently violent, "prowling electronics". The second track is where this 7 inch really shines. A downpour of reverberating bass thunder slams out of the speakers as a small wash of flanged, warbley mid-tones escapes the flood. Vocals are present here, in that archaic-effected-shouting style that Keith is known for, which is always a pleasing addition to any Mania record.

I appreciate Mania on many levels, one reason is because Mania makes sure that there is always an element of diversity inherent in the "music", unlike a lot of the Harsh Noise and P.E. out there today, and in Mania's case this seems to be the crux of his success, in my opinion. It distinctly feels as if there was a good deal of effort that went in to this records construction. By the way it flows, with almost nothing impeding its motion the listener can easily hear what authentic "experimental" music really is. "Grotesque Mirth" is also the result of a long process of evolution; Keith has been cumming material out for over twenty-fucking-years now, and although that little bit of subjectivity allows one to slightly favor earlier releases such as "Isolation Is Lonely Murder" and "Eros + Massacre", it would not be unwise to say that the man is at the very peak of his career with this 7''.

Various Artists - Sonno Ferrum

Various Artists - Sonno Ferrum

I received (finally!) a furtive little tape featuring new comers and veterans all taking on junk abuse and trash art. All you get in order to understand this are the words "Sonno Ferrum" written on the side and a listing of who is on the tape in no order, no track-listing to tell you who is playing what, which track is theirs and if this was released by a label or just a private one off release. All the better I suppose and although I don't think it was the intention of the artists and the person who put this out but this cassette shows how different Noise/P.E. really is. We have probably all been asked how we can listen to this type of "music" and that everything "sounds the same". But it doesn't. You can really tell that there is a group of different individuals doing different tracks with very different outcomes. The only problem I have with this set-up is just in reviewing it because although I know the order of tracks on the A-side and pretty much added up the B-side from that information, I'm not a liberty to tell you who is doing what.

Creating extrinsic and subjective aurally challenging music which is not particularly straightforward nor easy to outline or expound upon is obviously not something that just anyone can embrace. It goes beyond simple sounds almost always and even steps over aesthetics on occasion. When you have decided to go "all out" than you've got to be extra careful to justify the acknowledgment and satisfaction which you're demanding of your audience. Individuality sticks out here by a group of good artists who are clearly not competing for listeners and who completely believe in and understand the sounds of Industrial and Noise music, a genre that sometimes flirts with pretentiousness and exhausted ideas, these artists remain clearly on the side of profundity and creative sincerity.

The first thing, sound wise, that needs to be addressed is that this cassette is dedicated to metal/junk abuse in its finest forms, dripping with progression while maintaining a beauty within its severity. An ambitious idea that works because of the people involved who can communicate their ideas without lyrics or pointing it all out for you. The textures are a lot more varied below the surface, the choice of frequencies and varied metallic objects works well with the hypnotic abuse thrust upon those objects, all of this working out to sound great. And to sound as good as it does I believe that this style must rely on the exact moment when it is happening without any need to contemplate whatever it is to come. Great Noise works like this - to lose the artist in his work at once and the listener cannot helped but being sucked in. A massive amount of different material is being aggressively used all over this tape - chains, nails, drums, most anything you can think of, rewarding your attention with sizable payoffs. Track 1 with its percussive writhing being of primary importance gets trampled by a speaker rattling (literally) track of smothering low-end bass crunch inflating the thick atmosphere with whipping metal work. The first track on Side B is my favorite, I actually have found myself unconsciously listening to these tracks in my head which has never happened with Noise. Other tracks exhibit high-end or mid range tones, some at a tortured pace while others run right through you. This is a great tape with plenty of variation and a great take on one of the best sides of Industrial music. Any fan of Noise and Power Electronics must own this and this will undoubtedly fall into the category of top 3 Noise/P.E. releases of the year for me.

Kakerlak - Crawling to Objectify

Kakerlak - Crawling to Objectify

Sometimes there is a release that I listen to and just feel like I need to review it but then ask myself exactly what I am going to achieve by doing so. Some releases speak for themselves, not by the past work from the artist nor their stumbling mass of fans surrounding them, rather by defining themselves as true artists with quality releases, and one or two break-thru releases. "Crawling to Objectify" is a break-thru release for Kakerlak. If you are not aware of this artist than you may be aware of his label, Harsh Thorax Cassettes. His label and Noise project both have a decent number of releases under their belts. On this tape, which is a "True Force/Pain Electronics Product" (being TF/PE's 13th release to date without ever shitting out small and quick torrents of rubbish, instead they obviously look towards quality, and not quantity) you receive Harsh Noise delivered without caution or yawning boredom. Kakerlak has always had a somewhat "old school" feeling to his releases and teaming up with this label really brought that mood to a boiling point. 

An opening track lasting a few minutes (3-4, maybe a bit more) prefaces this tape with broken metal scraping, splitting and springing shards of basement junk abuse completely strained and wavering through nothingness, just a mass of undiluted and pure metallic frenzy. This track comes to a forcibly abrupt end while the second track quickly jumps in tossing itself headlong into roaring yet dim currents of electrical interfaces building up quickly into a steamroller of driving crunch. Repetition points out traces of something happening, too dark at this point to tell exactly what it is. And then the stuttering of a voice writhes in, calm and focused, far from soothing. No need to hint towards, nor model this, as an exercise in the effects of aggrandizing tension. His previous output of material has helped him with that already. The B-side is cruel and unrelenting low-end textures with a metallic foundation. The sounds are altogether genuine, pure enough so that the audience can find an evolving and varying array of intricacies with each new listen. Progression, sometimes subtle and swift, is continually instituted with building violence, irritation and hate and it is all particularly sincere when it comes to the delivery of this cassette as a whole.

Wince - Vasovagal Syncope

Wince - Vasovagal Syncope 

Wince is an American Harsh Noise project from the man behind the label White Centipede Noise, who has been interviewed for this blog before. Currently, in my opinion, Wince is one of the best projects to come from both the Harsh Noise scene and America. Wince, who on earlier material had more of a "Wall" sound going on, definitely mines this genre for all the emotional frustration and power it is worth using everything at his disposal to make surprisingly simple, yet long and monumental, passage ways of noise.

Side A begins with a spoken sample of how one should go about checking a male anus for lesions and other fun problems. Beneath the sneer consultation is a wave of long static pieces with rippling feedback interludes until the talking is completely drowned out in the fluttering rumbles. Within minutes the track slowly lets in more sputtering feedback and buried pieces of junk/metal play effected to hell and bent back and forth with stealth pedal work. Vocals never show up in this track, or any Wince track I have heard to date which is good in this specific context; it would simply break the spell. This track has an easy quality about it - a fluid and steady atmosphere from a genre of music that customarily rips and tears apart at any turf it finds room and board at. One could easily just zone out within its terrible beauty.

The first thing that hits me about Side B is the accelerated feel in the movements of Noise. It is enough to give you an anxiety attack. A firm wall of wailing, sharp hissing static forms very quickly at the onset and continues in ferocious sweeps that keep everything in motion through-out the entirety of the track. The very first time I heard this track I thought that there was a good possibility that he was manipulating a tape loop to sound faster than it was. I'm sure this isn't the case now but it gives one a good idea of what to expect. Admittedly it takes awhile to differentiate all of what is happening here. You can hear the feedback and wash of static easily but it takes more listens to hear all the truncated sounds developing below, instead of one big blanket of biting Noise. 

Male Compliment - Male Compliments

Male Compliment - Male Compliments

Male Compliments succeeds at suggesting, at hinting, by use of a strong and rigid set of nuances found in a certain style of Power Electronics that is a are commodity in the current era of the scene. A thought process that can be coherently followed from one track to another even in the dirtiest clamor of an increasingly busy conversation. Every aggressive birthmark is sliced open with the dullest end of a sonic shank dug furiously into your ear. This is far more dirty than anything you will ever shove into your own mouth. 

A swirling note immediately puddles up around angry shouting muddled by effects which bestows a hazy, popper fueled orgy of sounds that push through and immediately cut up the disembodied static drones that once laid the scenery. The second track definitely evokes memories of Bastard Noise and the modern worship of units like Disgust and Constrictions who both carved their own names into that specific sound. A towering and surging bass throb crackles and stammers through a devolving lyrical pattern and a roaring hiss escaping it all like some noxious gas from pounding cylinders and leaky vents. This gives way to one of the best tracks on the cassette, "Cruising". I could listen to this one all day. It's greatness lies in its straight forward undiluted power - full-strength without any shading. The feedback is an obvious stand-out but the shuffling and instrumental processing gives it a disturbing undercurrent, implying that something frightening might be hiding just below the surface. This isn't "cruising", it is stalking. The track that follows is simply a gateway into the finale, any movement besides the vocals is minimal thus forming a quick break in the violent and incautious exercise in texturing that has taken the listener this far. The final track is 15 minutes of undying, boundless fury which positions itself within a threatening environment, a return to its home. Like any good Power Electronics album its hammer-driven sounds and gripping vocals, while neurotic and rough, are merely a habitat built to house the perversion of a very simple human emotion. Exactly which emotion that is is what you will need to find out for yourself.

Body Cargo - Secret Domain

Body Cargo - Secret Domain


Body Cargo continues to play the tempered style of cold Power Electronics with an obvious ambient and "Death Industrial" feel that we have come to expect. You should know, generally, what you are getting when you pick up a Body Cargo release. His sound directs a listener's attention to texture. Once you know you're getting those long rumbles and gradual changes, you focus more on the details and the assemblage of chosen sounds employed to provide the mood. In my opinion this album makes most sense, and is best heard, as a brief addendum to the 2 prior releases which came chronographicly before this cassette. Of course that isn't to say that you shouldn't get "Secret Domain" if you don't own the other releases, this cassette sounds great on its own as well. It can also be viewed as a somewhat methodical recapitulation of his career's primary themes, modes of expression and techniques to date.

On "Secret Domain" you can hear a bit of a progression in those familiar atmospherics, this time around there is more tension, a tension that can come to a climax at times and boil over, this is a bit of a change of pace for Body Cargo. There is more variety with those densely layered and immersive textures as well. Samples and vocals stand out more so than on previous works. These tracks vary from one to another (sometimes blatantly) in their construction materials and arrangements of said materials, yet each of the four tracks seem built to gradually reveal themselves as one seamless whole. I believe that the medium used here (a cassette) was a very smart choice in that the listener has to hear the material from beginning to end without skipping around, and this is the best way to take this album in, as a whole instead of a collection. The cassette is opened by a sample that is eventually capsized, the voice becoming faint as it echos away into the depths of the raw rumbling thickness of the recording. This is, essentially, a good representation of Body Cargo's sound in general. The adjective that I believe best suits the Body Cargo sound is "disembodied". A lo-fi, dissonance of disembodied electronic soundscapes drifting between samples, vocals and repetative Industrial crunch mashed together to create that thick, dense sound.

Overall, the only negative comments I can make is that this cassettes relatively short duration can leave you wanting more. And I also don't like the cover art. I really think that badly generated computer graphics should stay with Power Metal and Pop and should not be used for Noise/P.E. albums. But those are 2 very minor, and very picky, personal gripes. Throughout the album Body Cargo's focus, attention to diminutive details, choice of effects and "hands-on" craftsmanship allow these 4 short pieces to continuously yield new discoveries, while clearing a route for the next stage of Body Cargo's discography. If you can get a hold of this do so. If you can get a hold of "Konkrete" (put out by Waterpower) and the "Conspiracy of Containers" cassette on Autarkiea as well then I would highly suggest that you grab those up and listen to them sequentially in one sitting.

Civilian - Unclean

Civilian - Unclean


If you have even the faintest love for crude noise, industrial and/or power electronics, Civilian may be something of a pinnacle within the current scene. That is in no way a hyperbole. If you are the breed of "artsy cunt", you know the type, those who like Noise for the sake of being "weird" I think you will be scared away. If you are one of those fans like myself who judge the sounds on their own merit and enjoy the originality, brutality and creativity of Power Electronics than I am sure you will like it. What is being generated in these 3 tracks is the evolution of many great traditional formulas. A recorded document of assaults, bare bones assaults of heavy electronic primitiveness.

Each track is very unique, be that as it may you can still understand that each track is by the same group/individual because of his unique style which takes you on a trip across the globe where at times you may think that this must be straight out of Finland, or Italy circa 1985 and at other times it is wholly American. Huge patches of junk metal abuse and grating static crunch melt together. The first track has sparse vocals that seem to be submerged in a sea of effects so, like many Noise artists, the vocals here are used as an instrument rather than a clear message. All of these sounds change directions quick enough as to not dry you out (but the changes aren't so quick as to be laughable or "cut-up" shit). Not too many other groups can pull this off just right, only a few units that come to mind immediately are Mania, Coma Detox (namely the latest output from Filth & Violence) and some Bizarre Uproar material. Imagine this co-existing with the same style of sound of the devolving and crumbling masterpieces evoked by Mauthausen Orchestra. Side B starts out with a track titled "New York Sodomy" and it features some type of soft elevator music loop buried deep in the background as mounds of hiss and distortion drenched crackling junk play tangle themselves up together. The final strike has a backbone made up of collapsing, crashing rummage and scrap metal as chunks of thin static snaps into thicker rumbling Noise. Out of all 3 track this one if the least violent but it stands out as one of my personal favorites due to the basically undiluted spoken vocals and crawling old-school atmosphere. When you think all is said and done a quick little "outro" of completely unaffected and lucid classical music filled with dreamy pianos and droning pads makes you wonder what the fuck just happened. I don't know what the intention was here but it only last but a minute and oddly settles the burning intensity of the past 3 tracks.

Aesthetics, as seen above, meet the usual TF/PE "requirements"; black and white, simple and direct - "Death is Certain Life is not." I beg Civilian to release a full length in the near future as I see this project getting larger than their contemporaries.

Luciation - Occultious Inlightmentsasion

Luciation - Occultious Inlightmentsasion

With 4 albums released in just one year you would think that the band would start to turn stale. But they haven't. 4 albums in one year, for any band, is going to be a stretch. But Luciation keeps each new tome dramatic and fresh enough as to keep a steady sound and a steady fan base. Any type of music this intense and merciless chokes out criticism with it’s very existence. Try to reason with nihilism. Fuck you if you like it or not.

Luciation pulls off... ritualistic Blackened Death Metal, or Goat Metal, or Bestial, or War Metal, whatever you kids call it these days, these guys do it perfectly. Like they were raised to do just this. It's straightforward in its brutality and has a neanderthal element that bands like Von or Archgoat used to haunt. The core of the tape is a consistent pace of heavily distorted Guitars being picked at quickly creating a roar of quick fire power chords, almost always low enough note-wise to form a hollow and large sound while the cymbals and jackhammering snare rolls create a whirling din of hissing. Add the bass in the mixture and you get a heavy fucking bulldozer of sound. It's like an evil construction site in hell. Bestial Butcher 666, our vocalist, is like the boss who is screeching and gurgling out his nasty plans. With any good album the listener should be led to believe that they are there, in that atmosphere, in that devilish construction site, instead of their mothers spare bedroom. Put your headphones on and you're there. Most of these tracks follow a simple pattern, as laid out above, the exception is one short intermission shoved in between this 7 track binge of unholy atmospherics, titled "Loas Psychosis" which is a little bit reminiscent of Beherit's ambient experimentations without the queer electro-dance drums. The lack of variation is not really a downside. Maybe I have grown used to it, or maybe it is just because I am better than you, either way the repetition and seemingly small changes are welcoming rather than excruciating.

This material still hearkens back to those days of 2nd generation Archgoat and Von demos being passed around by friends, with the already grating production values stewing in an added bath of static. It works perfectly in their favor. Oh, and this is from Denmark and, as we have seen in the past few months, they can do no wrong.

Review - Body Cargo - Conspiracy of Containers

Review - Body Cargo - Conspiracy of Containers


Clo Goelach was a Lithuanian Power Electronics project that sprung up from nowhere in 2008 offering, from its birth to its death, 11 strong releases including splits with Noise projects from around the world. Last year the project died and was given an afterlife as Body Cargo. If you watched the progression of Clo Goelach you could point to the later releases and see that he was going somewhere different and a name change was almost mandatory. The constrained and prolonged atmospherics of Body Cargo makes it stand apart from both Clo Goelach and a decent amount of active Power Electronics projects who are releasing material in this day and age.

Conspiracy of Containers moves slowly with a measured and cold-blooded energy of rationed movements and withering pressure that can't ever seem to liberate itself. First. A machine sounds as the cassette opens, keeping itself together under the arrangement of static wash that floats to-and-fro like a burning field underlined by an echoed sample who is deep enough with the grain as to be hard to distinguish. Both of the following tracks, "Pyramids of Shining Skulls" and "Feeding The Sharks of Jungle" are convincing and ethereal but they don't give you a clearer picture of what's going on through-out the tape. It does not, by any means, ruin the listening aspect, however. It only blurs the lines more than before. Like Mysticism, where only a "master" and an initiate can be conscious of it all. Like a doomed master in ritual garb evoking feelings of disgust and spite, offering nothing in return. This track,"Pyramids of Shining Skulls" is the most busy of all 5 but even when it's movements are gushing, the atmosphere is always confined and engulfed with Body Cargo's signature crawl. This is an ideal style for which the subject matter explores best, while also a style whom our friend seems to work brilliantly with. That is not to say that the brutality of his past project, Clo Goelach, was great in-and-of itself, it sometimes seemed forced. With Body Cargo you don't get that feeling, quite the opposite. The 3rd track has a pace perfect to act as a sling shot into the 4th track titled "Above The Green Hell of Hungry Beasts" which is a 13 minute long devotion to simplicity in its most cruel form. It impairs your perception and awareness immediately, as some ominous feeling of being deep in the jungle without help creeps over you. Just like through-out most of the cassette there are deformed samples which stand out, "The Green Hell"... is no exception whilst a deep, thinning rumble threads a background, silently. The ender may be one of the more "noisy" tracks found here. Volleys of rumble accompanied by barrels and other various junk being scratched and slapped around.

"Conspiracy of Containers" stalks you, it defeats your sense of space and direction. The entire album, due to its minimalist approach, has a deep feeling of unrevealed deprivation surrounding it, and no matter how consistent the hypnotic stretches of Noise are this is not a harmless tape. The layering is undividedly precise. Rumbling and crumpled up shrouds of static co-exist with simple drones maintaining a slow suffocating momentum. Since the sad death of Clo Goelach, Body Cargo has been busy - 3 cassettes in 2010 and 1 in 2011. If I were to suggest any of his releases as Body Cargo I would, without doubt, put "Conspiracy of Containers" release by Autarkia first, and then "Konrete" which can be easily obtained through Waterpower.

Review - Deeper Wells - Untitled

Deeper Wells - Untitled


Fans of Noise and Power Electronics often argue about the differences between both genres. In my opinion Power Electronics displays a few characteristics which separates it from Noise, the most important characteristic is methodology, or structuring, followed closely by mood. The structure can be loose, as is the case with stuff like Snuff or a lot of Taint material, or it can be tight, Brethren is probably one of the best examples of this, a lot of his material has a typical verse-chorus-verse structure to it. Waterpower has been squirting out tons of good releases this year, almost all of which fall under the flag of Power Electronics (Richard Ramirez and Skonhet are the two obvious exceptions).

What Deeper Wells displays on this cassette is pure Power Electronics teaming with violence and aggression. Every track has structure, a nice foundation of sounds of which it builds itself into, not around. The menacing pulsations and stuttering synth action on Side A (at least, this is what I will refer to as Side A since the tape is not marked) is quickly and frequently leavened by Vocals and volleys of static agitation. There is a paranoid ambiance to this side of the cassette, a slow burning and threatening mood that retains a cold and "in your face" brand of neanderthal brute violence. The current coterie of American P.E. artists surely must feel a wake up call from this, and we need it. The tape could have ended here and I would have been happy, but flipping it over and letting it get on bottom makes for just as satisfying of a second romp as the first fuck-fest was. This side demonstrates this duo's obvious recognition of the power of "build-up" and setting a mood. Intense feedback interrupted by a thunderous burst of bass filled crunch, and then silence, then an even louder explosion erupts and feedback slices its way back in and then silence. This simple but brilliant scheme goes on for a good amount of time as it becomes a bed over which the tweaking of buried vocals, which could probably evoke Demons if needed, lay down their final demands. The only negative comment I really have about this tape was that the tracks all seem to end abruptly like they are just cut-off out of nowhere, but in comparison to how on point the tracks themselves are, it doesn't take anything away from the overall experience.

Deeper Wells leaves nothing in its wake. It simply implodes in on itself leaving behind a trail of starvation for something that will some how top the experience you just had, but what experience? The feeling that this tape gives off is hard to explain, the nominal artwork doesn't even hint or help you analyze what is happening here. I usually listen to a cassette a good 10-15 times before reviewing it here, this way I can catch the sounds with different moods and through different mediums (headphones, car stereo, etc). I listened to this tape at least 40 times in a two day period. That is the only way I know how to explain what is "happening here": Powerful, intense electronics - Power Electronics. If you are still reading this and you haven't gone to the Waterpower site to buy a copy than you are probably retarded or it has sold out already - get this now.

Review 08 - Glossolalia - Gold in the Throat

Glossolalia - Gold in the Throat (2010)



The Black Twilight Circle have made their signature, carved deep into stone with a whirlwind of musicians and ideas all trying to express themselves while also helping to do the same with one another. Each entity contains within them a few predilections with their label roster: lo-fi atmospherics, despair, fragile tones, creativity (it appears as if they all share the same nationality as well, like it is a prerequisite). Each band, however, have their own unique flavor. Glossolalia fits nicely under the Circle's banner, no doubt, and he (them?) can also work outside of that same banner with relative ease. Because this is a compilation of older material, dating back to 2007, it seems as if this material was unknowingly incarnated to fit into the grand theme of the Circle. It fits extremely well within the catalog while preserving a genuine theme all its own.

The guitar riffs all suggest a level of distinction in metal that transcends black metal convention altogether. The leads are fluidic and one of the definite high points of the album. If this was instrumental it would still be a good cassette, but that is not to say that the Vocals are not fitting, in all honesty any other vocalist would sound entirely alien. If Vidar Vaaer stepped in this tape would make a quantum leap and lose what makes it...it. The scabrous vocals circle the Guitars like vultures pecking at each other over a dead carcass, never getting locked up, continually sharp and distinct. Our vocalists aims stay stentorian from Resurrection and Reckoning to Ropes always making his voice silhouette those images he wishes to paint without ever dumbing it down and spelling it out for you. Every transition, both instrumentally and vocally, glides, no cracks or unnecessary pausing. Glossolalia's drumming is fairly common territory for American Black Metal. They are not so one-dimensional as to fall back or lack their own place in this world but the blast, although steady as a metronome, isn't anything that we haven't heard before. Fills are rare and the trampling bass kicks drive the pace in the right direction at all times.

Production is a familiar ground. It is raw but clear, something that seems as if it was plucked piecemeal from the Black Twilight Circle archives. This crisp rawness is not overly done as to be annoying, resulting in as near to perfection as one would hope to get with this style of music. No need for change, just refreshment. Throughout this tape, the ritual for nostalgia that penetrates so much of our modern Black Metal, gets inverted but one can still pick out each influence if they listen hard enough. The more music Black Twilight Circle release, the more they inch away from the competition. Their work is singular - of course this is basic, to the bones Black Metal - but there really isn't anybody else releasing any Black Metal quite like this. In a genre where the next sound is frequently imitated with no thought, what BTC does is not an easy thing to achieve.

Review 06 - Antipakt - Fuck Them Where They Breathe

Antipakt - Fuck Them Where They Breathe
If this is simply "average", pedestrian, whatever, it is only because I hyped it up in my own selfish head. Apparently this sold out quickly so maybe I am not the only one with such a pestering and boring musical life as to excite themselves unintentionally over a 7''. In all fairness, Filth & Violence has such a thoroughly good catalog that doesn't lend itself well as a gauge which to compare new projects, most will crumble under the weight, this did stand up to it so it is obviously doing something right and still wins out over half of the monotony which has passed through these ears since the beginning of the year.


Two untitled tracks. Our first peek into the world of Antipakt doesn't wait for you to join, it quickly harasses with a humid and claustrophobic looped rumble and screech. Vocals soon join in and the first thought that came to my head was to figure out who was in this project, but I can't really put a name to that voice. With lyrics like "Fist and cock" and "Flesh over spirit" I would assume that this may have sprang from Pasi's creative corpus in a way that he may have more to do with this than just releasing it on his label. But I can't be certain. The vocals are up front and dominating almost parallel to Snuff and the lyrics can be easily heard over the washing scrapes and crunch, a necessity for a duo with such a staunch opinion. The mic seems to be let down from the mouth every now and then and some feedback works itself out over the hypnotically repeating loop peppering the track with just enough movement without being overbearing. Flip it over and a deep throbs rattle speakers and bookshelves. The static transmissions rise from the bloodied ground and first impressions reveal a short stretch of fecund hostility, a myriad hate. Our vocalist seems to have changed and makes good use of delay which hints, rather quietly, towards some genuinely ominous scenes - look at the insert. A quickly non-dramatic, anti-climactic end releases the built up vigor and wraps this rough assault up nicely.


Although it is hard to tell much from 2 tracks Antipakt seem to be on the correct brick road. The thematic threads, although not original, emerge explicitly clear yet the sounds are still a bit too faint to trail. My foolish, unconscious "hyping" makes me wonder what else I've missed since falling out from under myself.

Review 04 - Raspberry Bulbs - Lone Gunman

Raspberry Bulbs - Lone Gunman

A cohesive album is made - only - when all of the songs are fundamentally linked internally by atmosphere, idea and concept while not bleeding into one another. The enigmatic Raspberry Bulbs seem to do this naturally with each and every release, but it feels best on 2010's "Lone Gunman". A simple piece of work executed on an opiate energy and quickly exhausted in a short bath of twinkling post-punk rhythms housed by isolated black metal atmospheres. This tape provides a gray area between many genres and it does so in spades of distinct tension and unease that purges itself by the use of 3 flowing and simple tracks. The jammy approach coupled with the extremely repetitive nature of this cassette makes for its own dissonance, nothing else is really needed in order to taste that "soul swinging" lo-fi punch that breaks itself out of the bindings which held it. And even if the restraints were pleasurable in and of themselves everything needs refreshing and it does so while combining those familiar formulas with an even less expressive sound while being able to remain completely poignant.


For me this cassette is the apex of the material which funneled itself through-out the past year or so, and all of the previous pieces came to a climax which erupted into this short collection of unsettling reveries spun out through a small, quick torrent of expositions. The musical setting for "Lone Gunman" seems "cleaner" than before which lets the audience focus its lonely tastes and ideas into a diamond sharp edge, but sheltered in these cleaner sounds Raspberry Bulbs force down that same dirty raw energy found within the bands past kaleidoscopic take on simplistic Black Metal and jarring "post-punk", whatever that may mean. The 3 tracks here traverse an uncommonly well done landscape and combine simple elements to give birth to something confusing but whole. A few riffs per song is what one should expect but with a flowing style that soars far above the usual rhythmic, monotonous moil while punk beats keep the steady rhythm for the corroded vocal attacks by none other than the sole member, "He Who Crushes Teeth". This sprawling of concise and lucid sounds achieves a rare sense of consequence that is rarely ever heard in music. This will win no races but it needs to be in most collections. The non-existent sonic diversity is, in the end, why "Lone Gunman" makes complete sense. A living idea in a dead world.

BUY HERE
http://www.seedstockrecords.com/store/raspberry-bulbs-lonegunman.php

Review 03 - Absurd - Facta Loquuntur

Absurd - Facta Loquuntur



How can something so great be described without ruining its originality by muddying up it's waters? And in Absurd's case: How can something so simple be so effective?


"Facta Loquuntur" is an album, that upon first glance, feels like most hybrid Punk Black Metal bands of both the 90's and of today. But it is so much more than that. It is much more than "punky/RAC BM" with predictably minimal structures that turn into a 40 minute hypnosis session. There is a very virile and challenging feeling through-out this entire album that doesn't lend itself to the more abstract, diverse and experimental side of the Black Metal genre which some individuals might pigeonhole this album into. (Well that and the bands "extra-musical" exploits.) No blast-beats or anything that would be considered "fast" in the Black Metal underworld. There are clean vocals celebrating nationalism, which are always perfectly suited to their appropriate stations and (thank Satan or Wotan, whatever) there isn't any over amplified attempts at being cold or sinister.


This is great Black Metal reliant on simplistic and militaristic marching drum beats, raw production, two or three riffs per song and of course great lyrics that aren't super sophisticated, but neither were most of their contemporaries. These should never be seen as flaws. This is real music; there is nothing standing between the listener and the clear intentions of the band, as it should be. There are no middlemen/producers shitting out their own interpretation of the music and stinking up the album. No embarrassed label asking for things to be pacified. The timing was right.

I have heard the argument before so here is my answer: "Facta Loquuntur" isn't the inexperience of youth, it is the exuberance of youth. That is what created this marvelous monument of Black Metal history. I don't ever want to be that middleman so that is how I "describe something so great". Leave them at it. But it is a sad truth that Absurd only continues on in name. I feel that a small select group of bands can come very, very close to meeting the standards set by this album, Akitsa comes to mind immediately. But I honestly feel that no one will ever top this. Not here.