Antikatechon -- "Privilegium Martyrii" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1038
Thick and spectral dark ambient, full of soft and flowing pads stratifications, involved in deep and penetrating low frequences coils, lightened by delicate and touching melodic inserts, broken by echoes of reverbering mettallic noises, clanging chains, circular mechanical movements, waves of unaudible hisses, distant and suffering human voices... Great first issue CD for the Antikatechon project, involving the Davide Del Col's eclectic personality, unique mind of the Ornament project, and key man of more recent collaborative project like Echran and Molnija Aura. [label info]
[myspace]
Artefactum -- "Foxgloves & Bluebells" -- CD -- €13
2011 Old Europa Cafe, OECD143 / Ur Muzik, UR 005, (ltd. 300)
Lie down on the soft summer grass, deep in the woods just before twilight, and perhaps you will be lucky enough to encounter some good-natured tiny beings of pleasing appearance. Under their spell you may want to fall asleep, but you may also want to... dance! Being one of the very few representatives of what might be labelled as feminine ambient music, Artefactum remains the embodiment of unique characteristics: deep and warm ambient intertwined with sounds of nature, ritual bells, remote drumming and sensual vocals – in the case of Artefactum you simply can’t mistake the music for any other artist’s work. Merissa d’Erlette’s new opus “Foxgloves & Bluebells” has at last taken its final shape after five long years since the release of “Rosarium Hermeticum” – her last full-length album. The music is richer and more varied than anything else she has ever made – while still within the borders of ambient, the release contains at the same time a collection of beautiful songs inspired by old poetry and mysterious folklore. With wonderful guest appearances from neo-medieval THE SOIL BLEEDS BLACK, British folk singer ANDREW KING (Duo Noir / Sol Invictus) and neo-classical DAWN & DUSK ENTWINED, “Foxgloves & Bluebells” is a must-have release for anyone into esoteric post-industrial music. Released in collaboration by OLD EUROPA CAFE and UR MUZIK as a 6 pannel digipack. [press-release]
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Bad Sector -- "Raw Data" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2011 Taalem, alm 71
Active for almost twenty years, Massimo Magrini / Bad Sector has a solid discography with many releases on respected labels such as Old Europa Cafe, Waystyx, Drone Records, Afe Records or Blade Records. Recorded in 2006, these short tracks were originally released as an interactive webpage in 2007. They were remastered and re-shaped especially for this 3" in January 2010. Massimo says about "Raw Data": "The goal was to create interesting soundscapes that have no link to human manufacts/intentions: they just sound like directly recorded from sort of special, non musical device. Only apparently cold, their microstructure is so complex that a top-level macrostructure is totally unnecessary". [press-release]
[listen]
Baker, Aidan -- "Noise of Silence" -- CD -- €13
2007/2011 Essence Music, ESS015, (ltd. 400)
Barbarossa Umtrunk / Dronerune -- "Distant Shores of Hvetramannaland - A Tribute to Miguel Serrano" -- CD -- €9
2011 Ufa Muzak, UFA 41, (ltd. 500)
Military Pop / Dark Ambient / Drone doom. We present this long awaited split album of awesome quality. One of the best releases of UFA Muzak corporation, hard and important for understanding and inner interpretation. The long monumental material of this otherworldly dedication to the most significant figure of mystical aryan movement consists of equal parts - contributions made to the full extent and dignity by French military ambient and Argentinian guitar drone noise. This album is like an initiation, to pass it through, listen and submerge in it, one has to have a strong will and true belief in immortality of human soul. Through noise, slavery and pain of this world belonging to the Tsar who captured souls in senseless and eternal circle, appear exceedingly delicate gleams of light, coming through into the continual space, these flamy messages of runic forms, true symbols against death and entropy. They exist, come through the chosen ones and represent the last hope. The voice of gnostic prophet Miguel Serrano is heard in sparse spheres, his speech is eternal, once said, wherever he is now. From the stars, it's breezing real all-penetrating cold... 8 tracks, 78 minutes, A5 cardboard sleeve. [press-release]
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Becuzzi, Gianluca -- "[In]visible Fields" -- 2 CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1145
INVISIBLE FIELDS is collection of tracks created in order to non-compositional works: sound and video installations, theatre, performances, live set. The first CD includes 5 tracks from various installations and theatre pieces. FOR E.A.P. is a reworked audio section for a theatre piece based on E.A. POE novel "The Pit and the Pendulum". THE CAGE is a performance made for the art exhibition "Strade Bianche". Gianluca Becuzzi played, into an etruscan barrel, a big empty aviary, scraping and beating it. RADIO TRANS IT was composed for an installation by Pietro Riparbelli / K11 entitled "Camera Sonora for 4 Radiodramas" presended at eXperimenta 02. WATER MEMORIES is the title of a site specific work presented at eXperimenta 03. BREATHS is the soundtrack of a series of video portraits by Francesco Arena. The second CD includes the long title track (IN)VISIBILITY, a semi-impro electroacoustic live set. The performance was created with a laptop playing a backing track (field-recordings, processed frequencies, concrete sounds) and objects (paper and stones of different form and size). [press-release]
Bianchi, Maurizio & Jan-M. Iversen -- "Rekviem MB-JMI" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1144
A "classic" minimal ambient album; just one long track, a bit obscure, of a static nature but unarrestable as a matter of fact and slowly developing, built with layers of soft and 'round' sounds, heavily processed and effected, whose origin seems to be an organ... "Atypical" for sure, if confrontated with the huge and widely diversified productions of Maurizio Bianchi, this new album is probably one of the last and not to be missed releases signed by 'M.B.', since he has already announced his definitive departure from the musical scene. Another extraordinary collaborative CD, involving this time Jan-M. Iversen, an artist of international fame who managed to enrich and elaborate with great effect the "sound materials" provided by Maurizio Bianchi. [press-release]
[youtube]
Bladh, Martin -- "Study For A Theater Of Cruelty" -- CD -- €10
2009 Annihilvs, APEX006, (ltd. 300)
This is the long-delayed and anticipated solo release by the genius frontman of Swedish industrial legends IRM. Aktionist, provocateur, visionary: Martin Bladh has composed an eerie score for impossible performance art, incorporating sparse, stringed drones and chilling atmospheres similar to Bladh's work with performance artist Bo I. Cavefors. Standard edition jewel case. [label info]
Bradley, Paul & Cria Cuervos -- "Moraines II" -- CD -- €8
2007 SmallVoices, SVR 07025
Moraines II is a radical re-working of the limited release Moraines (Twenty Hertz / Sileat, 2006). The original recordings have been augmented, re-worked and newly mixed into an entirely different piece of music. The final result is a far heavier and more substantial work that creates a light and dark relationship with the original release and is much more than a simple 'remix' of Moraines. Glacial drones melt to liquid and degrade to static. Andrew Liles also contributes a track which that takes elements and unique contributions to twist the work into his own personal sound world. Packaged in a textured digisleeve. [press-release]
Burmese / Fistula -- split -- CD -- €10
2004 Crucial Blast, CBR 38
Hyper destructive low-end violence from two of the American underground's most ferocious hate-sludge outfits. A dual assault from feedback-warriors BURMESE and battle-sludge titans FISTULA. BURMESE annhilate everything before them with a lethal blast of low frequency skree tantrums, cough-syrup drenched blastbeats, WHITEHOUSE-worshipping noise, and demonic free improvised violence. Think KHANATE, DROPDEAD, EARTH, and MERZBOW in an earth shattering, widow-making basement deathmatch. Ohio's FISTULA batter up with megaheavy sludge, blistering blackened thrash, diseased rock, and some incredibly infectious riffs. Hear these tarpit battle anthems, hail the low frequency berserker. BURMESE burn you down... FISTULA pisses all over the ashes. [press-release]
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Children's Noise Orchestra of Children's Arts School #1 -- "Floating Laundry (Tale in 3 Parts)" -- CD-R -- €7
2011 Operator Produkzion, OPERPRODUKT84, (ltd. 18)
On the second full length the sound of Children's Noise Orchestra has become closer to Musique Concrete / Industrial Avantgarde in best traditions of St. Petersburg's Experimental Sound Gallery (ESG-21). Samples of traditional instruments, domestic noises, enigmatic solos, poetry recitations. For the fans of Sergey Kuryokhin and Nikolay Soudnick. DVD-box, handmade cover. [label info]
Cisfinitum / The [Law-Rah] Collective -- "[ANS]werk" -- CD -- €13
2011 Fario, fario cd 11
Collapsar -- "Beyond The Event Horizon" -- CD -- €10
2009 Malignant Records, TUMORCD38
Malignant presents another rising star within the dark ambient scene, this time in the form of French act Collapsar. With their debut CD, “Beyond The Event Horizon” Collapsar transports the listener on an epic journey deep into the cosmos, forging a path across a vast, inky void, and steering a course around a roiling galactic core of hyper-dense stars and black holes. The sound is epic, expansive, and most of all, HEAVY. There is beauty and tranquility within these realms, but there is no light – just massive, pulsating textures coalescing into shimmering drones, rippling sound waves, and billowing, multi-dimensional layers of powerful dark energy. “Beyond the Event Horizon” is without question, dark ambient in its purest form and one of the more genre defining releases of the last several years. A must for fans of Inade, Lustmord and the like. In 6 panel digipak, with design by ::: Eye.Lyft :::. [press-release]
Column One -- "Feldaufnahmen I" -- CD -- €10
2007 Auf Abwegen, AATP21, (ltd. 500)
Feldaufnahmen I is the first release in a series of pure filed recordings by german multi-disciplinary experimental group Column One. The 12 recordings where collected in east Germany in the Polenztal within the mountain range called Elbsandsteingebirge in 2000-2001 with the simplest equipment. The recordings where edited and rearranged by Robert Schalinski in Berlin in 2006. Feldaufnahmen I is a new phase for Column One who have continued to change and evolve in their musical career. The group was renowned for post-industrial atmospheres, media collages and cut-up dadaist humor now they enter the terrain of sound ecology with their own twist. The 12 pieces on the disc radiate with beauty – they demonstrate the full spectrum of sounds that can be found in any relatively quiet natural resort: dogs barking, humming of insects, crackling of twigs, footsteps, wind and more... The CD Feldaufnahmen I is presented in a full colour digipak with a 16 pages booklet with full colour reproductions of photographs taken by Column One in the area where the sounds were recorded. [label info]
Coniglio, Enrico / Under The Snow -- "Dialogue One" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes, cd 201128
This is the first split work between UNDER THE SNOW and various artists/friends. Nearly an hour of suggestive "border" music, equally divided between the relaxing and ambient atmospheres contaminated with experimental elements created by Enrico Coniglio, and the low-fi/rough sounds and atmospheres crafted by Under the Snow (Stefano Gentile (Seamus, Seele) and Gianluca Favaron (Lasik Surgery, Ab'she)) - not so different but with a more dramatic, tense and hypnotic doom - built on deep drones stratifications, often hard and cutting, with a wide collection of noises, electronic hassles, ununderstandable wispherings, concrete moments... A perfect join-venture, a mix among two different music projects that gather coherence and inspiration to "sustain" a split album that showcases a not to be missed fusion of styles among the involved artists, oriented on parallel patterns, clearly increasing the value of their own personal and somehow different sonic directions. [press-release]
[soundcloud]
Deison -- "Night Sessions" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1149
A collection of fascinating and obscure nocturnal sessions alternating "classical" electronic inspiration parts based on sequencers and synthetizers to more abstract and minimal sonic episodes, deep drones, musical mix ups, distorted and extended guitars, deformed human voices, static and moving more typical "ambiental" movements, cold insets of more pulsing and "techno oriented" sounds, suggestive atmospheres build on bizzare loops, more typically "glitch" inserts and hisses... a great collection of collaborations with Teho Teardo, Philippe Petit, Under the Snow, Jim Coleman, Franck Vigroux, Testing Vault, Annen Berg. [label info]
[youtube]
Deutsch Nepal -- "The Silent Container" -- 4 CD -- €25
2009 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 121 + OECD 045
Finally here comes the re-edition into digital format of the “SILENT” tape trilogy out some years ago on OEC, long time sold out and much requested from all Lina's fans. Here you can really hear all Deutsch Nepal different sounds in a long, accurate and complete work. Who knows Lina's sounds don't need many words to understand that this is for sure, if not the best, one of his very best works ever, a true classic for all Industrial lovers. Everything was re-mastered in high quality CD standards by Peter Andersson (RAISON D’ETRE). This is the complete "Silence" saga with the new triple CD digipak plus the old "The Silent Siege" single CD digipak, the whole comes inside a slip-box and includes also a set of 4 inserts. The re-edition of "The Silent Siege" album comes with a complete new label design similar to the "Silent Conteiner" triple CD set... [press-release]
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Division S -- "Something To Drink V" -- CD -- €13
2011 Old Europa Cafe, OECD142
Here comes DIVISION S second CD, the fifth chapter in the “Something to Drink” saga. A new small treasure of minimal Noir-Cabaret with Mediterranean sounds, with Rock’n’Western saloon melodies, with vintage fashioned hits dealing with “60’s like” sounds. Songs to be listened while drinking a good Italian red wine and smoking an unfiltered cigarette. Songs for nostalgic rainy days and for summer sunset light. Songs for lovers and suffering broken hearts. Songs for drunken and dandy urban cow-boys & cow-girls. “Something to Drink V” continues where the last album ended, from the last drink, from the last glass of whine… “Alla Salute!” [press-release]
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DOR -- "Life in Russhausen" -- CD-R -- €8
2011 Ufa Muzak, UFA 42, (ltd. 120)
Power Electronics. Boundless distance of dark areas, corridors, side streets, bottomless niches. Catacombs of endless labyrinth, suppressing with monumentality of its cruelty. Everyone who is here feels horrifying despair, because this territory is not somewhere outside, it is inside of people. Those who are entrapped, beaten and humiliated. Who lives in a country where treachery and violence has become the basis, where all human rights are defied, and there's only one freedom left: survival and slave submission. The project of harsh analogue anti-music in Power Electronics style, presents its requiem suite of the basics of people's structure resulted in a formula: "Hate your neighbour as yourself". Eight tracks of manic depressive convilsions. Sick therapy session either going to cure you, or plunge deeper in the abyss of the vicious circle. To all born in the period of new distemper. Russia is an ordeal... 8 tracks, 45 minutes, 8-page cardboard booklet. [press-release]
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Echran -- "In Offret" -- CD -- €8
2009 A Silent Place, ASP42
In Offret is the second Echran full length after the acclaimed self-titled debut (released by the Italian SmallVoices label in 2005). Echran is the electronic project of Davide Del Col (Molnija Aura) and Fabio Volpi, who has worked over the last few years with the Milanese audio/video collective Otolab. Starting in 2003, the project joins two different kinds of experiences: one is gloomy and ambient, the other is noise-based with a psychedelic attitude. Echran's dark electronic soundscapes are not easy to pigeonhole: there's a constant metronome-like pulse that could be compared to Pan Sonic or some Basic Channel-inspired minimal techno, but at the same time it's not really ambient or droning. French lyrics give the record an elegant touch of soft velvet atmosphere. [press-release]
[myspace]
Ehnahre -- "Taming The Cannibals" -- CD -- €10
2010 Crucial Blast, CBR 89
The new full length (number two) from the Boston based avant-black/death/doom band Ehnahre, Taming The Cannibals, is one of the more cerebral and challenging "death metal" albums to have come through the Crucial Blast headquarters this year. After being turned on to their excellent debut from 2008 The Man Closing Up, I've been itching to hear more from these warped death abstractionists; their debut instantly dazed me with its jarring, alien approach to bestial slow-motion death metal, drawing heavily from the twelve-tone serialism of composer Arnold Schoenberg and the outer fringes of free-jazz and free improvisation as much as they do from the foul black pit of early 90's death metal and doom. Even after years of devouring the most dissonant strains of death metal that I could get my mitts on (Gorguts, Demilich, Immolation, Portal, etc.), these guys stunned me with their extreme chaotic dissonance and pitch-black chthonic textures, a combination of atonal 20th century classical music and vicious blackened death laced with squalls of free-jazz horns, stretches of intense choral ambience, and blasts of calcifying glacial doom... [label info]
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Eidulon -- "Idolatriae" -- CD -- €10
2007 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD33
With the release of Eidulon's debut CD Idolatriae, we at Malignant are pleased to welcome another new project into the cozy confines of our slowly expanding roster. 7 tracks of ultra bleak, abstract atmospheres, with sounds and textures that seem to seep from catacomb walls and come slithering out of subterranean chambers. Certainly, this can be classified as a dark ambient record, but at it's core, it's more than just that simple classification. There's a gritty, more jagged edge here, with tetonic shifts, deep rumblings, and crackling, climatic squalls buried under a bed of ghostly reverb and haunting tonal resonance. Fits in nicely with past Malignant releases such as R|A|A|N's 'The Nacrasti', Heid's 'Arktogaa', and even Caul's 'Crucible' CD. In elegant 6 panel digipak, with stark black and white, carefully arranged illustrations inspired by Taschism and Spatial art. From gothtronic.com: "I am deeply impressed by this release, seven tracks of the finest dark ambient recommended for all people who like this kind of music. This is pure beauty with great atmospheres making you dream away to the furthest regions, to places were no man has ever put his feet. Be nice to yourself and purchase this great release." [press-release]
Encomiast -- "Malpais" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2010 Taalem, alm 68
Founded in 1999, Encomiast is now the solo project of US sound artist Ross Hagen. A handful of beautiful releases were issued through various labels such as Lens Records, Gears Of Sand, Mystery Sea or Crucial Bliss. "Malpais" is a single long piece derived from an old folk song from an archival collection Ross was working with a few years ago. It uses a lot of other pieces from that collection as source material throughout. Expect layers of slowly evolving drones... [press-release]
[listen]
Erdlicht -- "Urlicht: Erster Kreis" -- CD-R -- €8
2011 Ufa Muzak, UFA 39, (ltd. 120)
Nordic Ambient. Icy horizon, isolated and empty, no manifestation of life, it stays infinite and reachless, but this is just an illusion, a facet which will fall like morning mist. Like a drawing on glass, it takes a hot palm pulsating with living blood, and spreads with water carrying away the memories, words, never stopping, never ceasing. Spheric sound preserved in a glacier, runic prayer in front of horizon dying in flames, the Sun enlaces still visible silouettes with sine waves. Retreat and inclination of concentrated and peaceful consciousness to the ultimate secret land, radiating light mirages before dusk, even greater mystery behind them. Leviathan continues his way among the dark cold of depth, everything is silent and watching his movements. In this album of the German project ERDLICHT all valuable ingredients of his nordic ambient production are preserved: depth, expanse, colour. From sound devices elemental spirits appear in the air, and the story of their wordless speech will submerge you in bright and lucid dream. Be careful and don't believe them... P.S. This disk includes the original EP "Mitnachttrost", dark ambient with martial elements dedicated to Miguel Serrano, plus two previous albums "Erster Licht / Wilde Jagd" (Licht Und Stahl, 2009) and "Morgenrothe / Abendroth" (Tosom, 2009)... 11 tracks, 78 minutes, cardboard cover + 3 cards. [press-release]
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Five Elements Music / Andrea Marutti / Jim Haynes -- "Tri-Ton" -- CD -- €10
2011 Observatoire, obs 027, (ltd. 400)
Some words on the story behind this disc. One of the members was offered to create a deep tonal composition based on a written description of some other composition. Sergey & Maria from Five Elements Music recorded such a track in 2010. This track was highly appraised by two other artists invited to work on this disc, and it served as a reference point for this split-album - American sound artist Jim Haynes recently collaborating with Brendan Murray, and Andrea Marutti, known in Russia for his Amon project. The idea of three long drone compositions with distinctive textures and technological and tonal touches has been successful in it's result. Listening to "Tri-Ton" submerges into the relief atmosphere of almost geological irregularities with individual accents in various sonorities and author's intellectual investigations... [press-release]
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Flesh & Space -- "I'am Jesus" -- CD-R -- €5
2011 Rapen Winter Records, RWR-0210/O, (ltd. 100)
Darkwave / suicidal ambient. "One of the most unusual representatives of the dark scene: music created obviously with some help of drugs (you can see this from the lyrics) and forbidden for sale in Europe and Russia. This prohibition is connected with the project's bad glory - people say there were many suicides after listening to their music. One of them was their guest guitarist who helped to record one of the albums "From..." Some parallels can be seen with such bands as Sopor Aeternus and Dvar, but in general the music of Flesh & Space is very original and distinctive, and it will definitely cause very different emotions." [Dark Monastery] Jewel box with 4-page booklet.
[youtube] [myspace]
Folkstorm -- "Folksongs" -- CD -- €13
2011 Old Europa Cafe, OECD144
Folkstorm returns to follow up the successful 2009 album "Ortodox" with another crushing assault on your senses. This time Nordvargr pushes the sound even further and adds a more classic songstructure and vocals to the album - hence the title. While still maintaining a harsh old-school industrial vibe, these recordings takes Folkstorm to a whole new level. Welcome to explore the wrath of a man gone seriously pissed off with everyone and everything. Don't loose the chance to taste the new Folkstorm Combat Folk-Pop(?)! [press-release]
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Franck, Yannick & Pietro Riparbelli -- "Whinny Muir" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1148
A singular long, deep moving, slow and expansive drone-track, built on always changing sonic masses, low frequencies, strong electric-electronic sounds, field recordings, feedback, buzzes, hisses, rough distortion, fading organ chords, cellos and orchestral parts. Alternation of progressive crescendos, ambiental pauses, sudden, dramatic and catchy dynamic shocks. An evolving and extraordinary trip through an obscure sonic journey, convincingly assembled by Italian Pietro Riparbelli (K11, PT-R) and Belgian Yannick Franck. (Y.E.R.M.O., Idiosyncrasia). [label info]
[youtube]
Geisha -- "Die Verbrechen der Liebe" -- CD -- €10
2008 Crucial Blast, CBR 68, (ltd. 1000)
This hour-long, six track monolith follows Geisha into a psychedelic black storm, their blown-out and raw rock infused with a bone-rattling recording and covered in a thick sheen of white noise and gritty distortion. As with their previous album, the spirit of seminal noise rock / sludge rock (think Cherubs, Melvins, My Bloody Valentine's "Isn't Anything" for coordinates) is combined with violent, chaotic NOISE and tainted with blurred VHS cassette visions and vague allusions to BDSM, and then jammed through an orgone accumulator, forming a ferocious, crushing rock beast that reveals it's powerful hooks and melodies underneath the churning distorted bass rumble and sludgemetal riffage, blasts of psychedelic drone-noise and corrosive skree, percussive pummel, and deranged singing. The sound is immense, and the first five tracks on Die Verbrechen Der Liebe deliver Geisha's in-the-red heaviness and hooks in surplus. "Prelude To Amber Pays The Rent", "A Wilderness, Except By Sight", "Sportsfister" - every one is a crusher. But then Geisha pull out the monstrous thirty-minute, thirty-five second closer "Theme From Diana", and the tone changes completely. This track is a re-working of a "metal percussion" set that Geisha originally performed live several years ago, and it begins as a slowly building fog of voices and effects and shimmering metal that blooms into an expanse of droning, fx-heavy guitar, looping samples, cosmic effects, and improvised percussion. It's a kind of rumbling industrial dronescape that stretches out forever, until suddenly in the last few minutes the drifting drones and psychedelic guitars and sampled voices suddenly explode in an immolating nuclear blast of overdriven, speaker-annhilating noise and the track immediately, terrifyingly changes shape into a monstrous lumbering noise-metal dirge that bulldozes out of your speakers, whooshing Hawkwind effects swooping overhead, the band knotted together into a white-hot blast of ultra heavy riffage, distortion, and a wall of percussive force. "Diana" is one of the most crushing pieces of music that I have ever heard from Geisha, like some majestic and brutal conglom of Swans, Skullflower, Merzbow, and Burmese forged into a destructive space-metal supernova. Crucial Blast is releasing the CD version of Die Verbrechen Der Liebe in a limited edition of 1,000 copies, packaged in a full-color gatefold jacket. [press-release]
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Geisha -- "Mondo Dell'Orrore" -- CD -- €10
2006 Crucial Blast, CBR 52
Devouring/rebirthing the concept of "noise rock" into something frighteningly beautiful and brutally heavy, GEISHA deliver crushing blasts of impossibly hyperdistorted rock baked in massive frequency overload and massive hooks and melodies and sinister crushing riffs, all of it slathered in filthy throbbing feedback and white noise horror holocaust, like the early 90's alt rock of Isn't Anything-era MY BLOODY VALENTINE and DINOSAUR JR. mashed together with the most brutal sort of UNSANE/Am Rep style racket and distortion-drenched psych/noise into a sludgy metallic mass, jamming with a small army of pedal-smashing harsh electronics troglodytes playing awesomely catchy/crushing pop songs buried beneath a hellish storm of skree and amp-blowing fuzz. Terrifying. Beautiful. [press-release]
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Gnaw Their Tongues -- "All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity" -- CD -- €10
2009 Crucial Blast, CBR 78
...Picking up where 2008's An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood left off, Gnaw Their Tongues is back with nine new tracks of fearsome blackened orchestral chaos and abstract horror that still sounds like little else out there. On Dread, we're feeling an even heavier bass-assault compared to the other releases, and this is easily the heaviest Gnaw Their Tongues release yet. This monstrous, noxious bottom-end roar that skulks and slithers throughout the album suggests a foul fusion of Abruptum (which is still the closest reference point to Gnaw Their Tongue's black chaos) and Leonard Rosenman's most nightmarish film scores, piled in towering heaps of sadistic noise, warped orchestral strings, degraded samples, shrieking voices, and punishing lurching doom draped in suffocating atrmosphere. Hyper-abstract black metal sound-collage? Wagnerian avant-doom psychosis? That's one way of putting it, but Gnaw Their Tongues is ultimately impossible to pin down, defying simple categorization as this album plunges even deeper into a black pit of total cinematic horror, sexual perversion, and shapeless heaviosity.... [label info]
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Gnaw Their Tongues -- "An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood" -- CD -- €10
2008 Crucial Blast, CBR 69
Gnaw Their Tongues, an enigmatic project from the Netherlands that has wowed fans of messed-up heaviosity with the phenomenal Reeked, Pained and Shuddering CD that was released on Paradigms along with a host of super-limited CDR and cassette releases, is joining the Crucial Blast roster for the CD release of the new full length An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood, which was released as a limited edition vinyl release at the beginning of 2008 on Burning World Records. This undefinable mass of black amorphic horror is one of the most intense listens we've engaged in recently, a nihilistic pit of howling orchestral strings and blackened abstract doom, operatic female voices plunging into a fetid sewer of filth and blackness, equal parts avant black metal and splattered sludge and symphonic horror movie score. An overwhelming deathscape scrawled in jagged figures across pieces like "My body is not a vessel, nor a temple. It's a repulsive pile of sickness" or "Sawn asunder and left for the beasts", and flecked with moments of unbelievably crushing beauty that may surprise fans of Gnaw Their Tongue's previous work. [press-release]
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The Golden Oaks -- "Autumn Testament" -- CD -- €8
2005/2008 A Silent Place, ASP17
And finally, unto the earth, The Golden Oaks are borne. Comprised of Brad Rose (The North Sea) and Keith Wood (Hush Arbors, Sunburned Hand Of The Man), The Golden Oaks are acoustic folk magicians springing forth candles from wooded sanctuaries. Composed by mail, "Autumn Testament" is a hymn to the season of red, gold, and orange. A canopy of leaves shelters the proceedings from the fog that threatens to obscure these sounds. This is a glorious combination of organic grace, blessed by the forests of past centuries. Digifile. [press-release]
The Goslings -- "Spaceheater / Perfect Interior" -- CD -- €10
2006 Crucial Blast, CBR 51
Spaceheater/Perfect Interior collects the first two EP's from husband-and-wife duo the GOSLINGS, originally released as short-run CD-Rs on low-fi/indie noise imprint Asaurus Records in 2003-2004. Working with a signature palette of melted, low-fi indie pop and muggy/smeared psych-drone ambience ground through overdriven amplifiers and shot out into pools of swirling basement shudder, The GOSLINGS adorn their gorgeous powermurk with eerie field recordings, ghostly subterranean vocals, and crackling cable buzz. If SUNN O))) had, in actuality, been a late-80's dreampop outfit on 4AD Records, or if cult shoegazers MEDICINE had ever collaborated with drone-axe sorcerers EARTH, the resulting fug may have been similiar to this black-sugar avalanche. Simultaneously ethereal and blown-out, angelic strains of four-track mud-majesty shaking the walls of the ancient well it's buried beneath. [press-release]
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Grey Daturas -- "Dead In The Woods" -- CD -- €10
2004/2007 Crucial Blast, CBR 62
A re-issue of the out-of-print 2004 monsterpiece from the Melbourne, Australian trio Grey Daturas. Originally released through the band's own Crashing Jets imprint, Dead In The Woods is a massive exhortation of lumbering metallic sludge rock, freely improvised amplifier noise and crushing riff splatter, and massive, sky-streaking psychedelic corrosion. The Crucial Blast re-issue of Dead In The Woods features a full remastering by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound, and also comes with a brand new packaging design via a 4-panel case printed by Stumptown Printers. [press-release]
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H.W.R. / Hatekod -- "Totenmarsch / Anti-NWO" -- CD-R -- €8
2011 Ufa Muzak, UFA 43, (ltd. 131)
Martial industrial ambient / Postmortem power electronics. Conspiratorial underground. Red light illuminates the hands. Faces covered with masks. The noise of heavy leather shoes. Cloths with images of old symbols on the walls. New secret fire is modelling in front of their concentrated eyes. Echo is heard through narrowed consciousness - an old German song. Split of two clandestine projects from France, a pile of black & white photographs scattered on a table: archive and modernity. H.W.R. - wakeful ghosts of the past, in absolute silence, on the places of old battles, they come out and become visible. Old discoloured uniform with hardly seen badges, pale hair and faces, whisper. Hatekod - fragments of modernity where the idea spreads turning into growing red branch on a map. From a screen hissing with snow shows up the footage of streets drenched in blood and houses with forbidden symbols drawn. Dark, malevolent and hoax filled audio document, a deadly strain transmitted in encoded form... 10 tracks, 45 minutes, A5 cardboard cover, insert. [press-release]
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Haisha / Mizuko -- "Happily Never After" -- CD -- €10
2001 Crucial Blast, BLAST 10
A meeting of two demented forces from the filthiest gutters of Los Angeles. HAISHA opens with a seriously grotesque noisecore/grind/trash hybrid, powered by jackhammer drum machines and miles of bad fucking attitude. Think early EARACHE grindcore, japanese trashpunk a la CONFUSE, and hardcore gabba smashed up in a crystal meth milkshake. Things only get worse when MIZUKO follow up with event-driven found sound, grisly power electronics, and queasy death industrial that is misanthropic to its very core. Black transmissions from a rotting planet, unleashed on an unsuspecting ghost world. Presented in a sleek glossy gatefold package. [press-release]
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Hull, Scott -- "Audiofilm I" -- 3"CD -- €7
2008 Crucial Blast, CBR 71, (ltd. 1000)
Scott Hull is already well known in the grind/metal underground for his devestating riffage in Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed; outside of extreme metal, however, Scott has also worked on dark, sumptuous soundscapes and ambient film scores at his Visceralsound lair that have just recently began to appear in recorded form over the past few years. Scott's Requiem CD that came out through Relapse Records earlier this year was one of the first official releases of his film score/soundscape work, and was widely embraced by fans of bleak cinematic ambience and chilling electronic sound sculpture. Crucial Blast is following that amazing disc with a series of limited-edition 3" CDs that each feature a short, 10+ minute piece of fearsome dark ambient music from Scott that showcase his skill at blending blackend Lustmordian drift with terrifying mixing techniques that clot the mind's eye with unnerving, nightmarish sound events. [label info]
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Hull, Scott -- "Audiofilm II" -- 3"CD -- €7
2010 Crucial Blast, CBR 79, (ltd. 1000)
The second installment in our series of limited-run 3" CDs from Scott Hull. Best known for his amazing thrash/grind riffage in the bands Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Scott has been gradually revealing another side of his musical persona over the past few years, an obsession with cinematic soundscaping and dark evocative film scores, mutant electronic textures and pitch-black isolationism that employs brilliant production trickery to immerse the listener in a vibrant, active aural environment. The first disc that we released, Audiofilm I, was a terrifying, lightless driftscape, filled with creepy vocal loops, massive low end ambience, and an all-around horrific vibe that had us comparing it to works from Lustmord, Lull, and the Ambient disc from Painkiller's Execution Ground. But on this follow-up, Scott creates a much more frantic and energetic soundscape, this one alive with minimal bass-shuddering pulses and keening tone manipulations, layered swarms of insectile electronic chitter, swells of shadowy ambience, brain-melting plasma blasts, and vast tectonic drones. A brief (at 12 minutes) but amazing dose of abstract dark ambient/noise that will appeal to fans of Bastard Noise, Astro, and freaked-out 70's sci-fi synth soundtracks. As with the first disc, this 3" CD is packaged in a full color miniature folder with awesome artwork/photography from Seldon Hunt, and pressed in a one-time run of 1,000 copies. [press-release]
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The Human Quena Orchestra -- "The Politics Of The Irredeemable" -- CD -- €10
2009 Crucial Blast, CBR 76
...Crushing and oppressive, a crawl through abstract fields of low-end sound that move from punishing blasts of ultra-heavy machine-doom and earth-shaking tectonic riffs, to thick fogs of black electronic ambience that shimmer with subsonic pulses and celestial drones, the presence of malevolent electricity crackling in the air around the lumbering, nightmarish electro-sludge monstrosity of the Human Quena Orchestra. And at the same time, there are passages of immense beauty on this album that lurk at the peripheries of HQO's malevolent crush; the track "Aspirations" for instance, where pummeling slow-motion industrial percussions grinds in an infinite loop beneath a swirling nightsky of kosmiche synthesizers and heavenly, blissed-out ambience... [label info]
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Jennifer Gentle -- "A New Astronomy" -- CD -- €8
2005/2006 A Silent Place, ASP13
Official re-issue of the ultra rare 2005 Sub Pop release (Ltd x 100 copies), now in a digipak. This album is dedicated to Giovanni Paneroni, amateur astronomer and misunderstood genius. "A new astronomy" is probably the most eccentric and out-there JG release to date. Recorded mostly in Marco Fasolo's bedroom on a 4-track cassette machine, the album was conceived as the imaginary soundtrack for some of their most bizarre, vivid dreams - obviously interspersed by the occasional nightmare. It's made by grainy, hallucinated musical scores trying to depict the beautiful, the scary, the annoying and the simply absurd inhabiting dreams. It runs the gamut from ghostly ambient drones to brain-damaged acoustic sketches, covering everything in between - furious guitar freak-outs and a homage to British 60's producer Joe Meek included. [label info]
Jennifer Gentle & Kawabata Makoto -- "The Wrong Cage" -- CD -- €8
2002/2008 A Silent Place, ASP34
Re-release of "The Wrong Cage", the superfreaky, acid rock album that introduced Italian psych-pop mavericks Jennifer Gentle to the rest of the world, leading to their subsequent Sub Pop signing. Originally self-released in 2002, "The Wrong Cage" saw the young Italian quartet join forces with Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple) for a live album that captured the band at it's most ferocious. Over 30 minutes of wonderful sonic carnage: two long, ultra-heavy guitar freakouts plus a eerily beautiful solo sarongi track played by Kawabata. All in all, a must for all fans of heavy, guitar-driven psychedelic avant-rock. Inlcudes a bonus track - an 18-minute long version of "Bring Them" from another night of that tour. Digipak. [label info]
jgrzinich -- "Ferric" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2007 Taalem, alm 46
Active for more than ten years now with releases on various international labels like Staalplaat, CMR, Cloud Of Statics or more recently Edition Sonoro, also known for his frequent and numerous collaborations with Seth Nehil or Michael Northam, American sound artist John Griznich offers here a new solo work, a 20min long track based upon source recordings collected from field recordings, a wind harp and various improvised wire and metal constructions found around southeast Estonia (where he lives now). A truly fantastic & rich piece of art... [press-release]
[listen]
Judah -- "s/t" -- CD -- €8
2007 SmallVoices, SVR0720
Second full album by those clones of NY's legend Suicide! This album is even more close to the very typical Suicide sound than the first one.. they sound extremely close to the originals! An incredible collision between cold and analogue minimal electronics with toxic and vicious vocals, rock'n'roll and savage punk. A real cult project / cult release. [label info]
Julie's Haircut -- "Our Secret Ceremony" -- 2 CD -- €12
2009 A Silent Place, ASP38
"Our Secret Ceremony" is the fifth album by Julie's Haircut. The record lives on the osmosis of different styles and approaches, from pop to electronica, from psychedelic rock to experimentation, still never lacking in coherence and unity. The first disc has a more classically orientated song structure, accompanied by the second part which has a looser feel. In a way, it's as if there are the two basic aspects of the creative process and, ultimately, of the human existence, living side by side: light and shadow, consciousness and unconsciousness, reality and dream. Presented in a hardback cardboard 6-panel digisleeve. [label info]
[myspace]
Julie's Haircut & Sonic Boom -- "N-Waves / U-Waves" -- CD -- €8
2007/2008 A Silent Place, ASP19, (ltd. 750)
In late September 2005 Sonic Boom, (Pete Kember of Spacemen 3, Spectrum and Experimental Audio Research) meets Julie's Haircut at Studio Alpha in Bologna to co-operate with them in the final editing of their latest album. Only a part of 3 days of studio recordings was released in the original 10" edition of this release (Ltd 524). "N-Waves / U-Waves" contains two takes produced in that session: 'Gemini, pt. 1 & pt. 2' presented here in its first take; and 'Scarfo Spanks DC' - another completely unreleased improvisation. Two more studio improvisations complete this CD release, with Sonic Boom playing exotic electronic devices such as the Raagini, Kraakle and the EMS Synthi AKS sinthetizer. CD slip with embossed outer sleeve. [label info]
Konrad Kraft -- "Temporary Audiosculptures And Artefacts" -- CD -- €10
2011 Auf Abwegen, aatp33, (ltd. 300)
Trying to set musical events in a sculptural form, the Düsseldorf/Wuppertal based artist and musician Detlef Funder (a.k.a. Konrad Kraft), develops the temporary audio-sculpture. Knowing that a tonal event can never take the materiality of a real sculpture, Konrad Kraft attempts this special transformation with the help of various elements. Human imaginativeness, time, as well as the tonal event itself are the elements for the listener to form an individual audio-sculpture and to let it develop in their heads. The audio-sculpture with its acoustic body, around which various tonal/sound elements and events float, appears with a physical structure, a dimensionality. Tonal/sound elements are of various origins. In part elicited from nature, or being conjured up synthetically, or just being put together randomly, all elements are enhanced and altered sometimes significantly to the point that the character has changed completely and can hardly be identified. The term ‘artefact’ relates to the fact that sound fragments, through the synthetic alteration, are broken-up and only exist and appear as particles. They flow as ‘artefacts’ in the tonal range... It sounds like floating metallic sound units interfere with small concrete sounds in the foreground. It reminds us at times of some of the work by Illusion Of Safety, Controlled Bleediung and Cisfinitum. [label info]
Korperschwache -- "Evil Walks" -- CD -- €10
2010 Crucial Blast, CBR 88
Evil Walks is the first widely available cd release for Crucial Blast from Korperschwache after almost a decade of smaller, limited-run discs released through the label's Crucial Bliss sub-imprint. It's also the most focused work yet from this utterly demented Texas outfit that started out in the mid 90s as a pure noise project but gradually evolved into this weird, lumbering black-dirge that we hear now. The eight songs that make up Evil Walks feature the signature Korperschwache moves: thumping minimal drum-machine pound courtesy of the relentlessly decisive Doktor Omega, droning dissonant riffs that veer from hypnotic noise to dismal quasi-black metal buzz, RKF's narcoleptic croaking and malevolent sneer bathed in reverb and amp skuzz, guitars humming and droning against cranked-up amps while creepy news sound bites, the distant sad howling of wolves and ear-piercing screams drift across the background... Strange post-punk reverberations rumble all throughout this disc, nothing new to those who are familiar with the myriad other Korperschwache discs that have come out since 2001 when RKF first began flirting with his odd mix of simple, mesmeric gloom-guitar and black mechanical slime, but it's never sounded better to my ears than it does here, when the music forms into this stoned blackened hypno-rock thing, the buzzing guitars and acid-scorched melodies looping over the skittery industrial beats and weird dubbed-out snares and concussive Godflesh-esque rhythms, turning into something that sounds remarkably like a mutant cross between late-80s British psych/drone rockers Loop and those notorious improv-black metal freakazoids Abruptum... [press-release]
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Le Masque -- "Fu Languore" -- mCD -- €10
2011 Oltrelanebbiailmare, CD201106
After several years of silence, LE MASQUE are back with a brand new mini album (23 minutes) of unreleased music... and there are simply no words to describe their poetry. Musically speaking, it is a return to some of the atmospheres we heard on albums like "Il Signor Gustavo Coscienza" or "La Memoria di Venere", showcasing an acoustic approach and their usual poems that are simply stunning. [label info]
[youtube]
Lebedev-Frontov, Alexander -- "Bio Versus Mechano" -- CD-R -- €9
2011 ALF Produkt, No. 17, (ltd. 60)
This disk is a collection of previously unreleased noise constructions produced in 1988-1992 undear heavy hypno aesthetic influence of so called "music of machines" and in presentiment of forthcoming triumphal march of biological mechanisms on planetary scale. Special thanks for inspiration to KRAFTWERK, Gary NUMAN, Paul HINDEMITH, Ernst TOCH, Hans Heinz STUCKENSCHMIDT, and also A.ANDRIEVSKY. [from the author]
Legendary Pink Dots -- "Faces In The Fire" -- CD -- €14
1996 Soleilmoon Recordings, SOL 42 CD
Light Collapse -- "Walls" -- 2 CD-R -- €10
2011 Operator Produkzion, OPERPRODUKT94, (ltd. 24)
HNW, mainly hypnotizing rumble sometimes intersected by more varied Harsh Noise materian in vein of Masonna. Vinyl box, cover made of wallpaper, insert with info. [label info]
Lullabier -- "Veritа Rivestite D'Ombra" -- CD -- €10
2011 Oltrelanebbiailmare, CD201107
Delicate and fragile dreamy atmospheres, melodic and hypnotic ambiental light touches, sonic landscapes... now semi-acoustic, then nearly shoegaze... lyrics with introspective views, whispered by a simple and gentle voice, mainly based on evocative and shining, delicate and expanded, electric guitar riffs, on discreet rhythmic bases, sometimes followed by more simple ethereal folk guitar chords, in a singer-songwriter mood. An intense album, simply elegant, and at the same time competent and extremely touching... [label info]
[youtube]
Muslimgauze -- "In Search Of The Abraham Mosque" -- CD -- €13
2011 The Muslimgauze Preservation Society, TMPS05, (ltd. 500)
Muslimgauze / The Rootsman -- "On-Line Jihad" -- CD -- €13
2011 The Muslimgauze Preservation Society, TMPS06, (ltd. 500)
My Cat Is An Alien / Steve Roden -- "Cosmic Debris, Vol.II" -- CD -- €8
2007 A Silent Place, ASP23
CD re-issue of the second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. California visual / sound artist Steve Roden's contribution represents the unique experience of hearing him literally 'playing' guitar chords. MCIAA deliver another piece of 'cosmic debris', centered on multilayered echoes of voice, toy piano, space drones raising from a distant horizon, and their own physical gestures performed during the recording, which reproduce themselves through the air, re-play and give birth to echoes of real time that overcomes its own essence, becoming field recording itself, mirror and spectre of its immutability. Their track entitled also features Ramona Ponzini's Japanese bells contribution. Digisleeve. [label info]
My Cat Is An Alien / Keiji Haino -- "Cosmic Debris, Vol.III" -- CD -- €8
2007 A Silent Place, ASP28
CD re-issue of the third installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.III sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Japanese cult musician and dark shaman Keiji Haino. Imagine a cosmic bomb exploding in your brain, and you'll have an approximate idea of this collaborative release. These two long tracks were recorded during live performances in their hometowns, respectively Torino and Tokyo. Haino's track is one of the highlights of his long career, and MCIAA's track is one of the brothers' most ass-kicking for sure! Digisleeve. [press-release]
My Cat Is An Alien / Mats Gustafsson -- "Cosmic Debris, Vol.IV" -- CD -- €8
2008 A Silent Place, ASP33
CD re-issue of the fourth volume in the ongoing "Cosmic Debris" series of split ART-LP releases set up by the Opalio brothers, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. This time the space improv duo from Torino, Italy, shares one side of the vinyl with Swedish radical saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. On his track 'I Have Not Set Any Time Limits For The Attempt' Gustafsson plays tenor and slide sax, weevil sax, and electronics. In MCIAA's 'Everything Burns Like Cosmic Debris' the space brothers play astral and cosmic guitars, vocals, mouth harmonica, space toys and burning percussions. Digisleeve. [press-release]
Nadja -- "Desire In Uneasiness" -- CD -- €10
2008 Crucial Blast, CBR 65
Following a wave of recent reissues and re-recorded versions of older CD-R titles, Desire In Uneasiness is an album of all new material from the acclaimed Canadian dreamsludge weavers Nadja. Five colossal jams of eternally-fuzzy, ethereal dirge that are powered by the interlocking bass guitars of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, who set loose a wave of monstrous grinding bass riffs amidst a fog of beautiful, swirling electronic effects. Desire also marks the first Nadja album to feature a live drummer in place of the drum machine programming that has driven the band's previous recordings, and the difference in the band's sound is apparent from the first crushing beats of album opener 'Disambiguation'. The organic drumming here takes Nadja's music into new realms of spacious jazzy exploration, dubby rhythms and cavernous psychedelia, while also delivering some of the band's most grooving, crushing hypno-bliss yet. Desire also stands out from the rest of the Nadja catalog for it's bizarre artwork that Aidan commisioned from his friend The Reverend Aitor. Aitor's bright, bold lines and textured magic marker artwork gives the gatefold jacket we've presented this disc in the look of a twisted children's book on acid, with weird images of chickens, trees growing through chairs, and more. The package is a sturdy 4-panel gatefold jacket printed by Stoughton, and it looks killer. [press-release]
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Negru Voda -- "Vald De Luxe" -- 3 CD -- €15
2011 Malignant Records, TUMORCD42
Originally begun as a side project to the new defunct Megaptera, the purpose of Negru Voda was to be a more personal and expressive solo outlet for death industrial veteran Peter Nystrom. Compared to the perhaps darker, more layered sound of Megaptera, Negru Voda is stripped down, unrefined, and to the point – old school, true to form, and primitive industrial music heavily influenced by pioneering electronic artists such as Test Dept, S.P.K., The Klinik, Cabaret Voltaire, Severed Heads, and the like. Primarily built upon a strong foundation of punishing and persistent rhythms and cold, analogue pulsations, these are colossal soundscapes, where harsh, factory corrosion is met with insidious waves of distorted, electro-shock blasts streaked with highly ominous and bleak atmospherics as fueled by pints of lager, drams of Islay single malt, alienization, media wastelands, and cold Scandinavian winters... With Vald de Luxe, Malignant presents a comprehensive 3CD overview of the complete Negru Voda sound, combining a slew of new, unpublished recordings, coupled with a collection of out of print, completely re-mastered works, including the full length Dark Territory CD (Old Europa Cafe, 1998), plus 3 bonus tracks, as well as the des Esseintes split 10” (Fin de Siecle, 2001) and the AVA: (dunk) picture 7” (Formosan, 2002). Also featured is the enlisted help of such notables as Magnus Sundstrom (des Esseintes, The Protagonist), Ulf Soderberg (Sephiroth), Kristoffer Oustand (V:28, K.N.O., Plague Machinery), and Christian Pallentin (P.A.L)... Few can stake claim to the immeasurable influence and legacy of Peter Nystrom, and with Vald de Luxe, it becomes immediately evident that authentic, old school Swedish industrial still reigns supreme. In 8 panel digipak, with exquisite design by Kristoffer Oustad and Marten Kellerman. [press-release]
Nekrasov -- "Extinction" -- CD -- €10
2010 Crucial Blast, CBR 86
...Riding atop the recent wave of black metal/noise hybrids who combine the bleak frosty riffs and blackened ferocity of underground BM with blown-out and corrosive strains of industrial noise (see also WOLD, Emit, Grief No Absolution, Enbilulugugal, Vargr), the Australian one-man band Nekrasov has so far made a substantial mark in the realm of extremist necro-racket with a series of limited edition, brutally abrasive albums (Cognition Of Splendid Oblivion, The Form Of Thought From Beast, etc) that have mostly been self-released, save for some recent offerings on labels like Siege Of Power and Chrome Leaf. Early on, Nekrasov's sound was steeped in caustic noise, a blazing industrialized black metal assault that was doused in heavy levels of irradiated distortion and Merzbowian skree. But more recently, it's mutated into less metallic regions, alternating the hyperblast black metal with forays into crushing, demonic wall-noise and blasted ambience. Now, Nekrasov is back with a new full length (the first for Crucial Blast), and it's the most advanced slab of their blacknoize terror that we've heard so far. An octagonal prism of isolationist drone, flesh-rending mechanical black metal, abstract otherworldly beauty, claustrophobic industrial dread, and the most violent, suffocating strains of harsh noise, Extinction is pure cyclonic contempt for humanity.... [label info]
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Nimh -- "Krungthep Archives" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1042
After the post-industral / power-electronics "diversions" of hise recent collaboration with Pierpaolo Zoppo / Mauthausen Orchestra in "From Unhealthy Places", and "Forgotten Realm", the "second chapter" of the Halls of Mirrors projects with Andrea Marutti / Amon in dark ambient "territories", Nimh (Giuseppe Verticchio) returns as a "solo" artist in his newest "Krungthep Archives", rediscovering the sounds of his oriental ethnic instruments, collected in he Far-East, mainly in Thailand. The recordings of these "Archives from Bangkok" (the "City of Angels" or Krungthep in the local idiom) are often submerged with electronic sounds, drones, voices, urban noises, field-recordings, loops, rhytmic fragments, lively and dinamically reach sound waves. Otherwise, sometimes the traditional instruments own natural sounds emerge, giving life to suggestive and catching semi-acoustic soundscapes. New ambitious Ethnic-electronic-experimental evolutions stylistically located right among "The Missing Tapes" and "Travel Diary" previous CDs. All the contrasts of a geographical universe perpetually suspended between ancient cultures and an out of control modernism, perfectly translated in in music by a careful and sensible expert of those places and cultures. [press-release]
[youtube]
Nocturnal Emissions -- "Duty Experiment" -- CD -- €13
1995 Soleilmoon Recordings, SOL 5 CD
Noism -- "±" -- CD -- €10
2008 Crucial Blast, CBR 67
The first real release from the Japanese glitch/shred duo Noism, following their appearance on the Relapse compilation Drummachinegun and a series of demos. Formed by guitarist Yoshiro Hamazaki and programmer Tomoyuki Akiyama in 1999 in Tokyo, Noism focuses on ridiculously complex and spastic death/grind instrumentals using programmed drums that are cut up and spliced back together into impossible rhythms, a million brain-melting riffs and dissonant shredding, all of which is chopped up and processed into abstract death blasts that defy physics. This twelve-song, twenty-one minute disc features a unique, glitched-out chop shop of Planet Mu-style beats delivered at truly meth'd levels of chaos fused with sweeping technical death metal. Insane. Highly recommended for fans of extreme, way-out avant-guitar spazz and absurdly technical deathgrind. [press-release]
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The North Sea -- "Archaic Spines" -- CD -- €8
2007 A Silent Place, ASP20
An interesting selection of both acoustic and electric instruments and a shimmering tension created by the juxtaposition of old song forms / instruments with new ideas and technologies from Brad Rose's project. 'Archaic Spines' may surprise even the most dedicated The North Sea fans, as we are presented with a fine selection of very sparse and lovely meditations for bouzouki. The sound is raw, apparently released as recorded with few (if any) overdubs or effects. The effect is mesmerizing and refreshing, one instrument played with feeling and an unerring ear for the folk rivers that feed The North Sea's ocean of sound. Digifile. [press-release]
Northam, Michael -- "Memory Of A" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2009 Taalem, alm 57
Michael Northam could be considered as much as a sound artist as a world traveller... His work is the continuation of more than fifteen years of visiting, working with and learning from over ninety artists (jgrzinich, Yannick Dauby, Loren Chasse, Martin Franklin, Francisco Lopez or Hitoshi Kojo / Spiracle to name a few) over fifty locations in twenty-five countries! A perfect example is this piece recorded in India then mixed in Germany, probably rawer and rougher than some of his other works... [press-release]
[listen]
Opium & Sostrah Tinnitus -- "Stain" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1041
Warm, involving, deep and penetrating sounds... Flowing sounds patterns, vibrating drones permeated by a discreet sense of tension, evolving in dark, obscure, foggy, nocturnal atmospheres, violated by raven voices, mysterious noises and sounds of metal objects in motion... And then concrete noises, confused and elusive melodies, feeble light flashes, buried echoes of human voices, distantr whispers, sudden passages of rough sounds, undefined nuisances, subliminal and hypnotic sequences, just like a recollection of unreal and dusty sounds from an old carillon... An extraordinary and not to be missed journey in the darkness, lead with great skill by two of the most remarkable artists coming from the Italian ambient/dark-ambient scene of the last decade. [press-release]
[youtube]
Origami Galaktika –- "Live In Central Europe"-- CD -- €14
2004 Vendlus Records, Vend003 / KomKol Autoprod, 144
Hypnotic minimal ambient music from a member of the Origami Republika family. 4 tracks, close to 40 minutes in total. "...for a live recording of this nature everything sounds shockingly perfect. The drones are very full and resonant, with some of the more organic foreground sounds really coming off as completely natural and truly possessing the feel of a live set." (Aversionline.com)
Orsi, Fabio -- "Find Electronica" -- CD -- €8
2007 A Silent Place, ASP21
"Find Electronica" is a wonderful album full of fine lyrics, structured as a long drone / ambient suite divided in two portions which are the frames of the articulated central track. A strictly personal exercise on the "Weird Folk" theme, hypnotic and seductive. The "found" electronica meets the sonorities made by the six chords, projecting enchanted landscapes on a vibrant horizon, with an intimate sensibility. Abstract and emotional, deep and dreamy. Digifile. [press-release]
[myspace]
Orsi, Fabio -- "Light Was The Day" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2011 Taalem, alm 77
Active since 2005, Italian musician (now based in Berlin) FABIO ORSI has built an impressive discography with more than thirty releases on various labels like A Silent Place, Ryonkt's Slow Flow Records, Digitalis or Foxglove. Known for his elegant and melodic drones based upon field recordings and guitar, "Light Was The Day" is a perfect example of his skills! [press-release]
[listen]
Orsi, Fabio & Valerio Cosi -- "We Could For Hours" -- CD -- €8
2008 A Silent Place, ASP26
"We Could For Hours" is instability. It represents the will to open the gates of unknown. It is the dark, whispered sounds and hidden truths. Chaos. And now here it starts, everything takes form, sensations rise, objects acquire colours, distorted vision but still a vision of reality... Silence. Sounds follow themselves but always hidden in a veil of mystery, words are mute, everything is listening attentively to the enchanting melody of nature... Everything is nothing. Nothing is the time. Time becomes memory and memory brings us to happy thoughts that rise first, then fall in the end. Hallucinations. The precariousness feeling is overwhelming us, tollings of a clock without hands are molesting our ears and they scan the slow and endless flowing of life. Too late to be back. There's no possibility. We have to live desolate countrysides burnt by an August sun. Lysergic vision. Void. [press-release]
Painting Petals On Planet Ghost -- "Fallen Camellias" -- CD -- €8
2008 A Silent Place, ASP35
Second full-length album from Italian brothers Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and vocalist Ramona Ponzini (Praxinoscope). 'Fallen Camellias' is a tribute to one of the greatest poetess ever, Japanese Yosano Akiko, whose work in literature in the early 1900's is considered as manifesto of the Japanese Romanticism. Imagine a Vashti Bunyan or a early Marianne Faithful singing sweet melodies in Japanese language, and you can have an idea of the musical and poetical universe of PPOPG. The songs of 'Fallen Camellias' are built on acoustic guitar melodies and are made of the same pure, melancholy of the legendary Nick Drake. Let 'Fallen Camellias' be your warm blanket, as well as the promise of a new future spring. 6-panel digipak. [press-release]
Phaenon -- "His Master's Voice" -- CD -- €10
2010 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD45
After the well received debut Submerged, Phaenon follows things up with an even deeper immersion into a world of bleak, isolationist sounds. Whereas Submerged was one long and infinitely expansive drone piece, His Master’s Voice is broken up into four separate, but flowing tracks of sprawling and spacious ambient drift, laced with interstellar disturbances, probing, alien tones and icy shards of celestial debris…a whirling specter of darkness and void-ic space, thematically based upon the 1968 novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem, which is centered around the efforts by scientists to decode, translate and understand a series of extraterrestrial transmissions. As a whole, His Master’s Voice represents a logical progression in Phaenon’s sound and is the ultimate in headphone listening. In gorgeous 6 panel digipak. [press-release]
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Phaenon -- "Submerged" -- CD -- €10
2007 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD30
With the debut release from Phaenon, it is immediately evident a heavyweight has arrived. The brainchild of Polish born, but current Maryland resident, Szymon Tankiewicz, Submerged is a dark ambient tour de force. Visually and sonically enveloping, this is an album of space and texture, slowly revealing a psychoactive soundscape of majestic, arcing timbres, circadian buzzes, and expansive drones. Heavy, and cosmically weighty in the beginning, Submerged evolves into something more minimalist and serene, radiating a celestial beauty, yet becoming even more bleak and suffocating as it progresses over it's 66 minute time frame. Experienced from start to finished, there's a palpable sense of drifting and drowning, of being carried away into an endless, interstellar vacuum. An exciting new project, and a must for dark ambient purists. In stylish 6 panel digipak, artwork by K. Enderlein (LOKI), mastered by Thomas Garrison... [press-release]
[listen]
Plastic Crimewave Sound -- "Painted Shadows" -- CD -- €8
2009 A Silent Place, ASP30
On "Painted Shadows", the Chicago group scales back the guitars just a touch in favour of vaguely tribal textures as on the hypnotic lead cut "I Feel Evils." There's a more cosmically devoted feel than past albums, touching on elongated Kraut-like soundscapes. But the group's trademark kitchen sink take on avant-rock - incorporating everything from Hawkwind space-rock to post-MC5 freakouts to widescreen Neu! aural landscapes - remains firmly in place. Digisleeve. [label info]
Rasalhague -- "Rage Inside The Window" -- CD -- €10
2011 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD49
Following the self released 3inch CDr from a few years back, Rage Inside the Window is the astounding formal debut of Indiana based dark ambient artist Rasalhague, offering some of the most haunting, dread filled, and yet dynamic atmospheres we've come across in some time. Inspired by the true events of a young girl neglectfully imprisoned in filth and squalor by her thoughtless and uncaring mother. Rage Inside the Window takes the listener into the mind of a savagely depraved soul. Don't expect ambient of the spaced out, blissful, and softly textured variety. This is dirty and impenetrably dark, with an intertwining mass of demonic squalls, intense probing, highly ominous tonal drones, distant monolithic pulsations, and bleak isolationism. 6 lengthy tracks of pure psychological horror are presented here, with each piece segueing into each other in transforming waves, progressively getting darker, brooding, and more menacing as it goes. Finally, with the final track, some semblance of solace is achieved. Reference points can be made to Atrium Carceri, recent Raison d'Etre, and the like, but ultimately, Rasalhague operates within its own realm. In 6 panel, full color DVD Digipak. [press-release]
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Renou, Christian -- "Gone With the Wound" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2007 Taalem, alm 39
It's a great pleasure for us to welcome Christian Renou in the taalem series. Active for more than 20 years, first under the Brume alias, he has released many discs (and countless tapes in the old days) on many international labels like Staalplaat, Release, Ground Fault, Drone Records, Old Europa Cafe and more recently Fario or Waystyx. This in two parts is a highly evocative journey with constantly evolutive sounds between experimental, ambient and drone... processed recordings from various different sources for a captivating & fascinating result. [press-release]
[listen]
Rocchetti, Claudio -- "Every Live Is Problem Solving" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1147
A suggestive gallery of abstract images, confused fragments of life and real living experiences, sights of urban landscapes... Noisy and electronic interferences, mechanical machines movements, concrete noises, low frequences fluxes, hissing sounds, interferences, but also melodic acoustic guitar pieces, human voices and other field recordings... A brave, uncompromising and heterogeneous "decomposed" mosaic of avantgarde sound art beyond time, beyond any point of view and any geometric coordinates. [label info]
[youtube]
Rosa Rubea -- "The Fire And The Rose" -- CD -- €15
2011 Old Europa Cafe, OECD136
Rosa Rubea is born by the collaboration between Daniela Bedeski (already known as the lead soprano voice of Camerata Mediolanense) and Pino Carafa, alias SynthEthic and Pavor Nocturnus, who previously also collaborated with Camerata Mediolanense. Daniela and Pino have been long since active on the underground music scene of Milan, that they have widely experienced. Together with them, works the talented cellist Zeno Gabaglio (Frankie Hi NRG, Les Jumeaux Discordants, Paolo Saporiti) and the pianist Marco Bosio. "Rosa Rubea" is the alchemical Rubedo, the ultimate phase of the "Opus Magnum" or "Opus Chemicum", announcing the transmutation of vile metal into Gold. Rosa Rubea is Expression, Vision and Manifestation. "The Fire and the Rose", Rosa Rubea's debut EP, celebrates Life-Death-Rebirth through the four elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water. It features five oniric, evocative songs based on lyrics by Daniela Bedeski and by the great American/English poet T.S. Eliot and the French poet Christine de Pisan plus an ancient Scottish ballad. [press-release]
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Sacher Pelz / Amun Cell -- "Hibakusha" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1146
Cyclic loops based on static drones, intersected by electronic frequencies algorithmic variations of undefined sonic materials, moved by delays and landscape perspective variations recurring in space, a sequence of metallic waves in a continuous tone variation, heavy dissonance sonic stratification in progressive and pseudo-random composition / decomposition; desolate silences corrupted by resounding echoes of evolving electric rhythmic impulses. Long awaited re-issue of this unbelievable album by Maurizio Bianchi / Sacher-Pelz and Sandro Kaiser / Amun Cell, previously only available on a limited release. [label info]
[youtube]
Sammohana -- "Chakra Of Black Hole" -- CD-R -- €5
2011 Rapen Winter Records, RWR-0110/O, (ltd. 100)
Drone / meditative ambient. Sammohana is a one-man project of Munruthel - former member of a well-known Ukrainian black metal band Nokturnal Mortum. "Atmospheric drones, Time warp, Meditations, Trip in space emptiness, Aryan initiation, Knowledges... This trip was inspired by the Might Of Eternal Endless Universe and Our Great Ancestors which could make these space travels really... SAMMOHANA is not a game with modern fashionable doctrines in a view of ecumenism and assimilations of all and all. SAMMOHANA is a research of the distant closed corners of subconsciousness and a reconstruction of the lost parts of a circuit by means of studying Archetypes of Patrimonial Cultures on the basis of principles of syncretism. SAMMOHANA is DEstruction of the perverted philosophical categories and Revival of the Knowledge destroyed by grey race of newcomers. SAMMOHANA is steps of the Wolf requiring the Salt of the Cognition in a belly of hidden Caves, it is the Way Home through the Cemeteries of Stars, slow run of fingers on Star Strings, traces in the Dust of the Sun leading in an eternal Distance..." [AR] Jewel-box with 8-page booklet.
Samus -- "Desengano" -- CD -- €10
2002 Crucial Blast, BLAST12
"Desengano" is a surreal landscape of mutated freaked-rock comprised of lumbering sludge riffs that contort into tape/turntable manipulations amidst melodious keyboards and sustained guitar tones/drones. Ranging from the crushing droning doom-laden EARTH-esque guitar thud of "The Happy Sultan", and the bountiful melodies that playfully flow under the sugary electronica and plunderphonic jazz of "Super Orthopedic Caravan", to the expansive Ennio Morricone-influenced slide guitar ambience found in "Who's Pumping Estrada" and the wall reverbating drones and tape oscillating backwash that drifts into the no-wave dissonance of "Bone Ape Tit", SAMUS create a cohesive, multi dimensional soundtrack comprised of heavy duty psychedelia, avant-rock experimentalism, and opium-den cartoon soundtracks. [press-release]
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Sektor 304 -- "Soul Cleansing" -- CD -- €10
2009 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD43
Equipped with a frightening and impressive array of primitive instrumentation pulled from junkyards and scrap metal heaps, this Portuguese outfit has delivered an astounding formal debut – a heady mixture of truly old school industrial in the vein of Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and S.P.K., and the grinding, bass heavy dirge of vintage Swans and Godflesh. These are anthems to the past, but geared towards an apocalyptic and bleak future… a form of counter-culture using what is most evident in modern western society: the debris, the abandoned objects, the waste, the noise, and the interference... With a solid foundation of rusty, oil drenched percussion, Sektor 304 adds layer upon layer of squalling industrial clangor, hammering metallic noise, grimy atmospheres, heaving masses of haunted factory drones, and threatening tribal batter, with a strong and commanding vocal presence. The sound here is almost physical in nature – provocative, persistent, and demanding. No one is doing what Sektor 304 is doing right now. Anyone into TRUE industrial (and that includes not just the aformentioned old guard, but also things like Strom.ec, Militia, Negru Voda, and Knifeladder) really should not miss out. In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Steel Hook Audio. [press-release]
Skullflower -- "IIIrd Gatekeeper" -- CD -- €10
1992/2007 Crucial Blast, CBR 63
A reissue of Skullflower's acclaimed 1992 album IIIrd Gatekeeper, featuring the lineup of Matthew Bower (guitar), Stuart Dennison (drums and vocals), and Anthony DiFranco (bass). IIIrd Gatekeeper is an immensely heavy album that was originally released on HeadDirt, the label run by Justin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu/Final fame back in the early 90's, and featured Skullflower at their heaviest, grinding out slow, sludgy riffs and crushing, almost industrial rhythms amid a tempest of psychedelic guitar noise and dense sheets of feedback - easily the most crushing, rock-based music that Skullflower ever produced. IIIrd Gatekeeper served up a skulldozing dose of post-industrial dirge rock that sat comfortably next to Godflesh, Swans, and Ramleh in terms of dark, druggy, hypnotic lumbering heaviness. This is one of our favorite albums ever at Crucial Blast, and we are presenting this reissue with new liner notes, a new package design that retains all of the original artwork from the HeadDirt release, and a remastering job courtesy of Scott Hull at Visceral Sound. [press-release]
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Skullflower -- "Orange Canyon Mind" -- CD -- €10
2005 Crucial Blast, CBR 45
The new full length from the legendary UK free/drone/psych outfit Skullflower, featuring some of the most searing, synapse scorching droneworks that Matthew Bower (the man behind Skullflower, as well as Sunroof! and The Hototogisu) has unleashed to date, in our humble opinion. Orange Canyon Mind is the follow up to 2002's awesome Exquisite Fucking Boredom (Tumult Records), and continues that albums utter mutation of stoned out riffs pulled taffy-like into eternity/oblivion and star-rupturing blasts of sonic white light. Over the 8 tracks/60 minute running time, Bower and cohorts build massive horizontal drones and melodic supernovas. Superb, beautiful, brain melting stuff. [press-release]
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Slogun -- "We Human Animal" -- CD -- €10
2011 Circle Of Shit, C.O.S. 25, (ltd. 300)
A welcome release of new material from Slogun in quite some time, and what a beast it is. "We Human Animal" is a scathing attack on humanity, delivered with precise, focused energy and contempt. Musically, it strikes me as a darker release, with a more restrained approach. But let's get this straight, that's strictly in comparison to some of John's other works. In reality, this is incredibly intense and sonically violent - swirling textured distortion and turbine charged electronics, with screamed, in your face vocals delivered in the classic Slogun style. Still, there's more variation here than a lot of previous works (John told me he "really layered this sucker", and it shows), with claustrophobically atmospheric passages that make for a very complete release. Killer.... but then, what did you expect? [Malignant Records]
Slumberwood -- "Yawling Night Songs" -- CD -- €8
2009 A Silent Place, ASP43
Debut album from this collective from the North Italian town of Padova, drawing inspiration from artists as diverse as Werner Herzog, Coil, Big Star and This Heat. From laptops to tree-tops - and mixing acoustic instrumentation with a twisted brand of psychedelia - Slumberwood developed their own musical language, brewing a weird amalgamation of sounds. "Yawling Night Songs" extracts nature's many melodies and cacophonies to create a portrait of the heavily romanticised conception of an enchanted European wood as it exists for the youth of the 21st century. A dramatic interpretation of the woods' ambience, leaving a pretty clear sense of what's hiding in the shadows, waiting to be found. Recorded and produced by Marco Fasolo (Jennifer Gentle). Digifile. [label info]
A Small, Good Thing -- "Slim Westerns" -- CD -- €14
1994 Soleilmoon Recordings, SOL 23 CD
Souvenir's Young America -- "s/t" -- CD -- €10
2006 UndeRadar, UR08
Monstrous instrumental post-metal from Richmond, Virginia that crushed our skulls! We've heard previous recordings from these guys that we really liked, which saw them working with a mixture of spare Neurosis/Godflesh informed heaviness and cinematic post-rock like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Explosions In The Sky. Really good stuff, very pretty at times, and heavy n' crushing at others. Well, this debut full length on the ever-stellar Underadar label takes those basic ideas and carries them into a whole new realm of beautiful, flowing, HEAVY instrumental music that we have totally fallen in love with. These songs are heavily layered, masterfully assembled instrumental creations, emotionally moving and majestic like Red Sparowes, filled with dense shoegazer buildups and gorgeous droning electronc swirl, massively heavy prog-rock dirges and sludgy piano-accompanied rock, never descending into boring noodling or overextended jams. A range of instruments are used here, keyboards, percussion, samples, guitars, accordion, xylophone, cello, and much more. The whole album sounds like a soundtrack for a killer lost road-trip movie scored by members of Neurosis and Godspeed You! Black Emperor doing a weird mix of 70's prog and biker rock, and 80's soundtrack metal, but with all sorts of forays into lonesome, dusty country guitar-twang, long droning expanses of floating electronic drones, supremely beautiful and often super-crushing !!! This is ABSOLUTELY A MUST GET for fans of heavy instrumental ambient metal/post-rock (Red Sparowes, Mogwai, Mono, Pelican, Isis, etc.), and soundtrack-influenced heaviness (Zombi, Chromelodeon). Very very highly recommended!!!! [Crucial Blast]
Souvenir's Young America -- "An Ocean Without Water" -- CD -- €10
2007 Crucial Blast, CBR 61
Richmond, VA's cinematic instrumentalists SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA present their second full length, "An Ocean Without Water," which will be released through Crucial Blast on both CD (on July 24th) and LP (shortly thereafter). The album was recorded with John Morand (Labradford, Sparklehorse, 4 Walls Falling) at Sound of Music. "An Ocean Without Water" comes in a 6-panel digipack designed by Sasha Barr... Lush, shimmering guitar ambience and hypnotic, propulsive instrumental heaviness wind through the dusty highways and burnt twilight skies of "An Ocean Without Water," the sophomore album from Richmond's Souvenir's Young America. Divided into six flowing movements, "An Ocean Without Water" is filled with intensely beautiful melodies that drift on lonesome harmonica strains and sparkling, celestial electronics, shot through with mystic, western slide guitar, passages of crushing angular riffage, rolling tribal drumming, and transcendent blues. Through their intricate song arrangements and moody textures, Souvenir's Young America has created an epic, emotional narrative. The sound draws from the collected DNA of forebears like Popul Vuh, Earth, Labradford, and Neurosis, yet they form a powerfully evocative instrumental language all of their own. Features collaborations with Aughra (Magic Bullet Records) and Nick Forte (Sublight Records, ex Rorschach / Beautiful Skin)... The band has developed their sound even further with this new album, and we couldn't be more stoked over the epic, moody sounds that onfold over "An Ocean Without Water's" 40 minute running time. [press-release]
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Steel Hook Prostheses -- "Atrocitizer" -- CD -- €10
2008 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD34
As long time admirers of this Texas two piece, it seemed only a matter of time before Steel Hook Prostheses would find a home with Malignant. While Atrocitizer will probably not be considered their most aggressive release, it is unquestionably their most unsettling and creepy. 10 tracks in total and close to 50 minutes of death industrial in it's purest form, dripping and oozing with sinister intentions, and full of grim electronics, unnerving pulsations, and cold frequency spasms that swarm from a fetid pit of malevolence. Add in a steady stream of ultra menacing, processed vocals and nightmarish samples, and surely you have one of the more disturbing releases ever to be released on Malignant. Steel Hook Prostheses formed in 1999, and since then have amassed an impressive discography of limited CDR releases. Atrocitizer is just their second full length non CDR release following 2005's Light Reflected From A Cold Cutting Table. In 6 panel digipak. [press-release]
Strup / .nyctalops. -- split -- CD-R -- €7
2011 Спаси и Сохрани Records
Two noise projects from Belarus and Russia. Strup presents long atmospheric radionoise track dedicated to Jan Palach. .nyctalops. performs good varied Harsh Noise. DVD-box. [YAOP]
Subarachnoid Space -- "Eight Bells" -- CD -- €10
2009 Crucial Blast, CBR 81
...Eight Bells is the first new release from Subarachnoid Space in four years (following 2005's The Red Veil on Strange Attractors). Featuring the recording lineup of Daniel Barone, Melynda Jackson, Lauren K. Newman, Daniel Osborne and Steven Wray Lobdell, the music of Eight Bells continues in the heavy lysergic vein as their last couple of post-Release albums, fusing wicked metallic crunch with ethereal fx-laden guitar freakouts and some of the band's most narcotized jamming yet... [label info]
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Terra Sancta -- "Disintegration" -- CD -- €10
2008 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD35
Four years after the release of the highly acclaimed Aeon CD, Disintegration finds Australia's Terra Sancta in fine form, having delivered another sweeping, dark ambient epic. Expanding on the sounds explored on his previous releases, Disintegration pushes the levels of intensity to new heights, featuring four long and texturally turbulent emissions of formidable power and depth. With it's enormous washes of stormy drones and billowing, multi-layered atmospheres, these are tracks that grow and build to such a degree they seem to collapse and erode under their own weight, strewing particles into a vast horizon and creating a broad panorama of ever changing desert colored hues. A completely enveloping and engulfing release, this is dark ambient on a massive scale, something Terra Sancta seems to have a knack for creating and something few do so well. Jewel box with 6 panel booklet, designed by Vestigial. [press-release]
Theologian -- "The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel On My Face" -- CD -- €12
2010 Crucial Blast, CBR 87
The Further I Get From Your Star, The Less Light I Feel On My Face is the latest chapter from New York power electronics/synth-death demon Leech. This is the first full-length, widely available release from Leech's new incarnation as Theologian, which picks up where he left off with his long-running project Navicon Torture Technologies. Over the past decade, Navicon Torture Technologies blurred the edges of power electronics and dark industrial on albums like The Church Of Dead Girls (2002, Malignant), VTERVS (2008, NCC) and The Gospels Of The Gash (2009, Malignant) before ceasing operations in 2009. Now reconstituted as Theologian, Leech again explores the further realms of experience with a new form of blackened synth dread that combines many of the sounds that made up NTT's crushing electronic attack (Swedish death industrial, classic power electronics, harsh noise, powernoise) with a new level of heaviness and droneological power... [label info]
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Tietchens, Asmus -- "Eine Menge Papier" -- mCD -- €9
2009 Auf Abwegen, AATP27, (ltd. 500)
“Eine Menge Papier” assembles 20 minutes of sounds derived from using paper as the sound souce. Two tracks originally came out as a limited 7” record on the austrian Syntactic label in the 1990ies and appear here for the first time on CD. The other two tracks were planned for a follow up 7” on the same label that never materialized. The fifth track is a study of sonic material in the same series. There are two further tracks from the P.I.G. series that are considered by the artists as failed attemps. These remain in the closet. The five sonic movements on “Eine Menge Papier” go back to the Tietchens sound right before he started the Mengen series, using primarily sine waves and white noise. “Eine Menge Papier” is an interesting documentation of the transitioin in Tietchens’ sound from the concretish, post-industrial rumblings and textures to the more refined, abstract and cold atmospheres. [label info]
Tietchens, Asmus -- "Marches Funebres" -- CD -- €12
2010 Auf Abwegen, AATP32 / Die Stadt, DS 112, (ltd. 600)
The central piece on MARCHES FUNEBRES is “Grünschattiger Nachmittag”. Work on the composition began as early as 1979. A rough sketch of these first steps utilizing analogue rhythm machine and Minimoog is included as the bonus track on this disc. It became obvious that “Grünschattiger Nachmittag” was impossible to realize on the Fairlight CMI. It took nine years for the equipment at Audiplex Studios to match the technical standards needed for the recording of the orchestral version of the piece as it was originally intended. Aided by my teacher and mentor Okko Bekker and equipped with numerous samplers and a sophisticated music software the piece was finally realized in 1988 after several weeks’ hard work. The mockers would have it that I tried to have Django dancing the Bolero. Maybe they were half right. As you know, I am not not a friend of soft entertaining sounds but if it has to be kitsch then do it full-on. Hence even today I am standing in a “greenish afternoon shade”, if you know what I mean... “Linea 5” was placed on the original LP to balance out “Grünschattiger Nachmittag”. I was hoping to create something equally austere as “Linea 1-4”. But, “Linea 5” got out of hand. Carried away by delays and echochambers I lost myself in erratic mountains of sound (complete with sceneries of St. Elmo’s Fire and alpenglow) until I was wholly exhausted. For my better I was saved by some good St. Bernhards wearing their bootles of brandy around their necks. Who knows where this journey of belated psychedelia would have ended without them. This time, the mockers’ questions remained unanswered... MARCHES FUNEBRES was the second time I tried my hand at something vaguely symphonic; a slippery ground for me. It was preceeded by the “Faircomp”-series and followed by the collaborative LP “E” with Okko Bekker. Then this chapter was closed. “Cobbler, stay at your last!” as they say. Still, for such an LP as MARCHES FUNEBRES to come out shows how the scope of what was possible had broadened by 1989. From now on, at the gate to the decade of the 1990ies, there shone an alternative to the quickly fading legacy of industrial at the horizon. Computers became affordable, CD began replacing vinyl, new ideas generated a musical diversity hitherto unheard of. In 1989 the new beginning was near. [from the author]
Tietchens, Asmus + Richard Chartier -- "Fabrication 2" -- 2 CD -- €15
2010 Auf Abwegen, AATP29, (ltd. 500)
“Fabrication 2” is the sequel to “Fabrication”, the first collaboration between Richard Chartier and Asmus Tietchens released in 2007. Whereas for the first collab the idea developed from the project around reinterpretations of Chartier’s “Postfabricated” this time the efforts where directly focussed on the reinterpretation of specific basic sound material. This basic sound material can be found on the first disc in the set “Prefabrication 2” which was constructed by Richard Chartier alone in Montreal and Washington, DC. “Fabrication 2” is the reworking of this sonic basis by Asmus Tietchens. Whereas the first CD has traces of subtle dematerialized rhythmic structures the second disc is a study in minimalism and concentrated sound manipulation. [label info]
Toy Bizarre & Pierre Redon -- "Saisons" -- CD -- €10
2008 Auf Abwegen, AATP24, (ltd. 500)
This collaborative effort brings us some of the most beautiful and atmospheric instances of composition with nature. The four tracks, some solitary works, some creatied by using field sourcings of the opponent, feature subtle wildlife field recordings, detailed electro-acoustic passages, swelling metallic drones and amplified silences. [label info]
Transistorwald -- "Sleeping Eiktyrnir" -- CD-R -- €9
2011 Ufa Muzak, UFA 44, (ltd. 131)
Aryasophic dark ambient. His haunting sight appears and disappears in perspective, the air is filled with foreign presence. In a dream you enter their eyes and become their essence. Here's a snowy road trampled by footsteps, emergent lines of blood deceive and breath of the beast becomes heavy and frequent. Tree branches are so low, darkness looks out with shadows from holes. Hunter and prey are merged, their transformation slows down to reach the last apogee and burn away. Symbolic hunt has happened. Those who played their roles don't exist, but reality prompts with symbols that this was a special dream. The Transistorwald project is a dash of refined hearing, sight and smell of that place where everything happens again and again. In order not to lose the way fire will bring you to secret places of exceptional unconsciousness. One returns altered from there. Long like slow waves of a subterranean lake, melodic elements of Transistorwald are the new tales about old, told without words. Whistle of cold polar night, whisper of trolls, undead warriors lying in hills, girls' laughter coming from water, wicked old woman in a house and above all this - radiance of galloping stars... 8 tracks, 45 minutes, 6 panel cardboard package. [press-release]
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Trees -- "Freed Of This Flesh" -- CD -- €10
2010 Crucial Blast, CBR 83
The mysterious Portland ensemble Trees return with their second offering on Crucial Blast, Freed Of This Flesh, with two new fetid death rituals scraped from the crypt. Each of these tracks averages around fourteen minutes, an extended death-rattle formed from black glacial riffs suspended in space, tectonic percussive rumbles, anguished shrieks of torment and abject suffering, deep guttural demon-toad throat singing, and endless sheets of glistening metallic feedback that spill and drift to the far edges of their extreme time-stretched ambient doom, a crumbling, blighted majesty, noxious ambient blackdoom adrift on putrescent tides. The wretched vocal effluvium creeps formlessly across austere slabs of crushing heaviness arranged into ghoulish constructs of atmospheric dread, moving so slow that the music seems to lose all sense of propulsion at times, becoming lost in a fog of howling amplifiers and buzzing feedback, the guitars stretched into massive decomposing drones, the spaces between infested with controlled bursts of drums that skitter and rumble, almost "jazzy" in a vague sort of way, but still incredibly slow and ponderous. Freed Of This Flesh inhabits the same sort of black-tar depths as the likes of Burning Witch, Monarch, Khanate, and Bunkur while stripping the slo-mo heaviness into their own twisted, skeletal configuration. [press-release]
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Trees -- "Lights Bane" -- CD -- €10
2008 Crucial Blast, CBR 66
The debut album from the Portland quartet Trees delivers two epic tracks of monolithic, blackened doom metal with a twisted, noise-damaged approach and a dank basement vibe. Trees craft glacial abstract riffs and rivers of ashen amplifier goo that fans of feedback-laden heaviosity will find highly satisfying, a kind of grinding, slow-motion black hole psychedelia that has a similiar hypnotic death-ritual quality as artists like Bloody Panda and Khanate, but with their own unique trance state of swirling guitar textures, horrific jet black dronescapes and ghoulish, excoriating vocals. Features members of the PDX psych-sludge outfit Tecumseh (Important Records). This CD edition of the TREE's debut comes in a Stoughton printed 4-panel gatefold case. [press-release]
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TSIDMZ -- "We Are Time" -- CD-R -- €9
2011 Ufa Muzak, UFA 45, (ltd. 115)
Apocalyptic ambient shoogaze / Drone doom. A release with otherworldly genealogy. A new chapter in tearing the fabric of the sonic field. TSDIMZ - the Italian project of apocalyptic noise art. Events happening in some hermetic space, noone can change the importance of their impact on the chain of things happening outside. Faces gleam in memories and prophetic dreams of all mediums and prophets. They can't help in any way, because the arms of the Highest ones are unbound and spread over those lowered in extatic grief and admiration on all squares in all countries. From the Arctic center come the waves of power flow, its sonic reflection puts into the state of imminence of forthcoming Storm. Recollections of strangers recorded on old tape. Meditative connection with the point of eternity. Musically and ideologically similarity with Turbund Sturmwerk. Austere chapters in the federal book of Memory... 5 tracks, 34 minutes, A5 cardboard sleeve. [press-release]
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Turra, Luigi -- "Enso" -- CD -- €8
2007 SmallVoices, SVR 07028
An organic and contemplative three-track warm ambient epic (50 minutes), that resonates on subsequent listenings. Infused with Japanese sonic architectures and rigorous reductionist principles, this is a deeply meditative world of gently plucked instruments, drifting tones and faded atmospherics, peppered with closely focused tinklings and crystalline shards to add texture. Best appreciated in a solitary environment, these restful pieces will bring calm to an engaged listener. Digisleeve. [label info]
Under The Snow -- "Delta" -- CD -- €10
2011 Silentes, cd 201129
Extended sonic fluxes of synthetic imprinting mixed with delicate acoustic and electric guitar chords and riffs, crowd noises, fading melodic scrubs of unknown origin, feedback, echoes, pulses, vibrations, hissing waves in continuous movement... but also sudden pauses, unbelievable interludes of folk blues radio spots, crystal water sounds, static, evolving and dramatic electronic tracks, metallic ticking. An extraordinary collection of sounds and atmospheres for this new, ambitious and exploratory project by Stefano Gentile and Gianluca Favaron. [press-release]
[youtube]
Voice Of Eye -- "Primaera" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2010 Taalem, alm 62
Founded in the late 80's on the ashes of Esoterica Landscapes 7, Voice Of Eye is the duo of Bonnie McNairn and Jim Wilson. They released several discs during the first part of the 90's on their own Cyclotron Industries, a 7" on Drone Records, a live LP on Anomalous Records as well as collaborations with another ethno/experimental/ambient band Life Garden, all of them documenting their fascinating and captivating atmospheres mostly made from self-built instruments, creating a unique sound. After a 12-years hiatus, Voice Of Eye was back in 2007 for a US & Europe tour together with Ure Thrall, unleashing two new self-produced discs (recently re-released by Old Europa Cafe) proving the magic wasn't gone. This 18min track, especially recorded for taalem in 2008 confirms Bonnie & Jim haven't lost the touch! [press-release]
[listen]
Volume Sick -- "Night Raider" -- CD -- €10
2011 Oltrelanebbiailmare, CD201105
A "lost" album from 1993... Well known for their "Six Razor Blades" album published in 1991 by Contempo Records, Volume Sick were born from the ashes of Rinf (one of the first italian new wave projects) and published also a couple of 12" before disappearing... Now we have the chance to finally discover this album, originally recorded for a possible Contempo releases but "lost" after the bankrupt of the famous label. The album is produced by Paolo Favati (well known for his wonderful work with Pankow during the 80's and the 90's)... Night Raider sounds actually in the same vein of Talking Heads, with a weird sense of humor and great rhythms. Guest on one song Billy Blade from Italian legendary band GazNevada! The drawing on the front cover is an original made by Tanino Liberatore. Don't miss it! [press-release]
[youtube]
Von Hausswolff, Carl Michael -- "Perhaps I Arrive - Music For Ataturk Airport, Istanbul" -- 2 CD -- €15
2008 Auf Abwegen, aatp25, (ltd. 500)
This double disc set includes some of the most unusual sounds you will have heard from Carl Michael von Hausswolff. The story goes like this. Von Hausswolff was chosen by the 1997 Istanbul Biennal to create a sound installation for Atatürk Airport. His classic sound combining low frequency rumblings, very monotonous oscillations and hissy non-narrative sequences was deemed too confusing for the commutors... It was feared, von Hausswolff’s sound installation might be mistaken for an alarm and would be capable of causing serious panic at the airport. Hence the original soundtrack for “Perhaps I Arrive” was neglected. This music can now be heard for the first time on disc 1. Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s response to the artistsic restrictions was to produce the four tracks you hear on the second disc. These only make use of the very basic pre-set industry sounds included in the Yamaha QY22 and show a new side to the von Hausswolff sound. Very simple, post-nuclear lounge music. These four tracks – you guessed it! – where happily used in the context of the Biennal exhibition... Art is a three-letter word. (William S Burroughs) [label info]
Wildildlife -- "Six" -- CD -- €10
2007 Crucial Blast, CBR 64
Heavy, crunchy riffage rolls over celestial FX freakout and gang choral voices: part gluey pop hallucination, part psychedelic blast furnace, part metalloid skullcrush. Super melodic and catchy but vaguely menacing and dark at the same time: this is WILDILDLIFE. Their debut full length Six follows up a fistful of CD-R and vinyl documents and summons a wicked whirlpool of dense distorto crunch and freaky singing, raging metallic percussive pummel, tribal rhythms and crushing effects-soaked guitars, subdued floatational drones and ecstatically gorgeous melodies, all let loose in a series of psychedelic slowcore eruptions and swirling cosmic sludge. Going back and referencing a review that Terrascope Magazine printed about one of the band's earlier CD-R releases, this sounds vaguely like Black Sabbath and Butthole Surfers jamming together with ancient forest mystics, an experience both brutal and beautiful, and which proves that Wildildlife have already established themselves as serious purveyors of blown-out mindmelt heaviness. [label info]
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Wolvserpent -- "Gathering Strengths / Blood Seed" -- 2 CD -- €13
2011 Crucial Blast, CBR 90
Previously known as Pussygutt, the duo of blackened psychedelic dronemetallers from Boise, Idaho changed their name to the much more ominous sounding Wolvserpent in 2010. The name is the really the only thing that changed, as the occult hypno-doom and grim, folk-stained nightmares that populated their previous albums are all intact here. This double disc from Crucial Blast collects both the Gathering Strengths Lp (Olde English Spelling Bee) and Blood Seed Lp (20 Buck Spin), both of which were previously available only on limited edition vinyl. The material has been remastered for this format, and comes in an eight-panel digipack that features both the original album artwork as well as new imagery that further compliments Wolvserpent's avant-garde witch-sludge... [label info]
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Xerox 667 -- "Xerocopy 24.12.2002" -- CD-R -- €7
2011 Operator Produkzion, OPERPRODUKT81, (ltd. 23)
Legendary project from Nikolay Kalmykov (Hladna). Minimal Old-School Industrial, automated robotic muzak with noise bursts and some infernal touch, close to early S.P.K. and rhythmic tracks of Irikarah. [label info]
Z'EV -- "The Deep Path" -- CD -- €10
2011 Seven Solar Metals, Season One
A monumental album featuring three impressive tracks in which Z'EV (mythical avant-garde experimental artist, percussion master and world wide performer), collects and exhibits brave and incredible sonic solutions, mixing and alternating enormous, deep and sometimes exploding and devastating sound masses based on low frequencies, to noisy metallic sounds, gongs and cymbal stratification... all oriented in temporary resounding "tunnels", where sonic elements are mixed through suggestive cyclic echoes and reverberations, infinite pauses, joining and integrating to other sonic tracks, for an important and unique listening experience. An unmissable masterpiece! [label info]
[youtube]
Z'EV & Ramona Ponzini -- "Ankoku" -- CD -- €8
2008 A Silent Place, ASP32
Ramona's personal touch is certainly her own particular Japanese chant, together with the use of traditional percussion, bells and cymbals from Japan. Z'EV, enchanted by all those elements, asked Ramona for this cooperation. "Ankoku" is a Japanese word which means "deep darkness". For this debut Ramona's voice and percussion was processed by My Cat Is An Alien in their mysterious studio, placed somewhere in Western Alps, adding some field recordings. Those recordings were then sent to Z'EV who has processed them with some of his typical percussion. Z'EV deconstructed the sweetness of Ramona's chants, enfolding the pieces with a darker atmosphere. 5 obscure tracks, structured on charming vocal melodies moving out from a "haunted house". Digifile. [label info]
Zinc Room -- "Industrial & Postindustrial Scum Sound" -- 2 CD-R -- €8
2011 Evil Dead Productions, EDP 007
New works from the Siberian artist Alexander "i" aka Zinc Room. The first disk contains about 40 minutes of dirty distorted sound played live on bass guitar, percussions, springs and metal junk with some samples and prepared recordings. 100% true industrial atmosphere for the fans of this genre: from calm rhythmical pieces to furious noise rampage. On the second disk you'll find a video clip and a collection of Alexander's photos that inspired him for creating this music.
V/A -- "Trax Reprint 2 : Notterossa/Rednight" -- 2 CD + zine -- €12
1982/2008 SmallVoices, SVR07026
This is the first in a series of reprint programme of the most representative titles from the TRAX catalogue, one for each letter of the name: T for Traxman, the comics series created for Frigidaire magazine by Massimo Giacon and Vittore Baroni; R for Rednight, a collective homage to the work of William S. Burroughs; A for Anthems, alternative national hymns for real and imaginary countries; X for Xtra, audio works composed at distance through a process of crossed interferences. Each reprint, accompanied with old and new texts, contemplates a digital remastering of the original works with the addition of remixes, remakes or new compositions created in concordance with the peculiar and distinctive "modular" approach of TRAX. This is an extended reissue of the cassette from 1982 (Trax, Ltd x 500). CD1: "Notterossa" is the full length orginal tape edited by V. Baroni & D. Ciulini. CD2 "Rednight" is a new creation by Giancula Becuzzi, assembled in 2006 at KXLab. Comes in an A4 sleeve. [label info]
µ-Ziq -- "Tango N' Vectif" -- 2 LP -- €25
1993 Rephlex, CAT 013
Aardvarck -- "Gensin" -- 12" -- €12
2003 Delsin, 37 dsr/aar4
Arnica -- "Mascaradas" -- 7" -- €11
2011 Fronte Nordico, AR I, (ltd. 150)
Second in the 7" series on Fronte Nordico. Arnica is a folk project from Catalunya known for their brilliant album on Percht / Steinklang and some remarkable compilation appearances. Using handmade instruments they create an authentic sound atmosphere of ancient folk rites that still alive in different rural and mountain areas. Their versions of two such Spanish carnivals are presented here on this 7". Original samples of sound recordings made on these fiestas are mixed with Arnica’s own vocal and instrumental parts, recreating the dark and mysterious feel of these gloomy winter masquerades. The effect of presence is completed with documentary pictures from these events. Regular edition: special die-cut rounded silkscreened fold-out package made of textured hard orange paper tightened by four metallic cringles and fastened with a magnet fixator, three round 7" full colour inserts with photos and lyrics. [press-release]
Arnica -- "Mascaradas" -- 7" + 3"CD-R -- €23
2011 Fronte Nordico, AR I, (ltd. 50)
Advanced edition: 3"CDR in a full colour folder with original authentic recording of «La Vijanera», special die-cut rounded silkscreened fold-out package made of textured hard orange paper tightened by four metallic cringles and fastened with a magnet fixator, three round 7" full colour inserts with photos and lyrics, the whole set is tied up with rope and sealed with green wax by the genuine fronte nordico logo stamp. [press-release]
Arovane -- "Cycliph" -- 12" -- €12
2002 DIN, arovane 5
Art Abscons -- "Am Himmel Mit Feuer II" -- LP -- €17
2011 Fronte Nordico, AA I, (ltd. 146)
Fronte Nordico’s first release from one of the best today’s neofolk young projects Art Abscons. «Am Himmel mit Feuer II» is a total remake of CD out last year on Dead Scarlet Records. Most of the tracks were re-recorded, many got totally new versions, some new tracks were added and some old omitted, and the tracklist was commpletely resorted. The result is a completely different album - as matured, integral and professional as best neofolk classical works by Sonne Hagal, Forseti and Orplid. Brilliant melodies, charming voice, sophisticated soundwork and german poetry full of melancholy, sadness and irony are melting together to form a perfect gem of rare beauty – not to be missed by any fan of dark folk magical art! Regular edition: embossed die-cut thick grey rough carton cover with full-colour picture in the centre, attached full colour 12" info sheet, golden vinyl in an attached black special paper original fronte nordico cut-out inner sleeve. [press-release]
Art Abscons -- "Am Himmel Mit Feuer II" -- LP -- €40
2011 Fronte Nordico, AA I, (ltd. 50)
Advanced edition: full colour 60x90 cm flag with Art Abscons logo tied up with ribbon and sealed with golden wax by the genuine fronte nordico logo stamp, embossed die-cut thick grey rough carton cover with full-colour picture in the centre, attached full colour 12" info sheet, golden vinyl in an attached black special paper original fronte nordico cut-out inner sleeve. [label info]
Camden, Ken -- "Lethargy & Repercussions" -- LP -- €20
2010 Kranky, KRANK 140
Digitonal -- "The Centre Cannot Hold" -- 12" -- €13
2004 Seed Records, SEEDEP10
Dntel -- "Early Works, Later Versions" -- 12" -- €13
2010 Phthalo Records, PH56
Doormouse -- "Major Changes" -- LP -- €17
2005 Hymen Records, Y408
Glitterbug -- "Privilege" -- 2 LP -- €23
2010 c.sides, 007-LP
Imminent -- "Cask Strength" -- 12" -- €15
2009 Hymen Records, Y056
Leidungr -- "Hell Eder Asar" -- 7" -- €11
2010 Fronte Nordico, LR I, (ltd. 150)
First in Fronte Nordico 7" series. Leidungr is a new project of H. Möller (Puissance / Arditi). Together with M. Belfagor (Nefandus, Ofermod) and P. Ståhl he is doing a kind of ritual archaic pagan folk with some ambient and martial elements and ancient Norse lyrics reminding of Waldteufel, Blood Axis and Werkbund’s «Rungholt» series. Regular edition: special die-cut rounded silkscreened fold-out package made of textured hard black paper tightened by four metallic cringles and fastened with a paper magnet fixator. [press-release]
Nymphomatriarch (Venetian Snares + Hecate) -- "s/t" -- LP -- €20
2003 Hymen Records, Y043
Sonne Hagal -- "Only Echoes Remain" -- 2 LP -- €31
2011 Fronte Nordico, SH I, (ltd. 125)
The vinyl reissue of the soundtrack from the same name DVD release made in 2009 by Der Angriff which was highly acclaimed by critics and audience. Being recorded to professional multichannel device and then carefully mixed and post-produced, these tracks from live performance made in October 2008 in Saint-Petersburg are surely one of the best neofolk live recordings ever and they surely deserve the right to see the daylight being pressed on wax. In addition to the DVD material, our edition also contains 4 tracks unavailable elsewhere which were used as overtures for Sonne Hagal live performances in various times. Regular edition: sand-brown folder made of special paper, two vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of sand-brown special paper, 12" inlay printed with dark-brown on sand-brown special paper. [press-release]
Static -- "Ghost Boy" -- 12" -- €9
2003 City Centre Offices, BLOCK 021
Velehentor -- "Ceremonial Death" -- 7" -- €9
2011 Vegvisir Music, o:012.1
Ritual Drone Ambient. Two long untitled tracks. Resonant enveloping sound, ritual and meditative... Dungchens, dunkars, kanling, rolmo, percussion and bells, gong, without any electronic or electric devices. Two chtonic trance hypnotic rituals. Sonic incarnation of the firstborn chtonic darkness alike ritual practices from the Eastern mountains and mountains under the Polar Star. Ritual death, mystical death, irreversible transformation into unhuman. Alienation from identity, depersonification, dissolution in primordial substance of absolute blackness that was before light and darkness, leaking through the holes of reality. It breaks through into the world in secret valleys paved with bones, in caves to those who are opened when there are signs, in cold deserts under glaciers, in bottomless swamps of North and South, in icy masses where frozen are the remains of those who were before humans. Matter coming before light. The monolith of pre-ordered darkness, pre-reality - absolutely chaotic and absolutely ordered by this. Something that grows in a circle of people when one can hear only whistle of dried thighs and singing of ancient copper, responding to the touch of petrified ashtree. Something you can hear only in ecstasy of many days of whirling, when directions are no more distinctive, and zenith is equal to nadir. Something that exists only in vibrations coming from the womb of a man sitting above an open grave in the ice of bottomless swamp, a grave not yet warmed by human flesh, through the bottom of which one can see the smiles of rotten wooden teeth of those who are eternally buried in transparent quiescence of cold and doomed to break from unlife leaving flesh on its sharp edges. Ceremonial Death is two clots of elemental blinding black darkness materialized on black vinyl. Released in the middle of 2011, a bit less than 500 copies, in sturdy matted cardboard sleeves, artwork by Cold Graves. [label info]
[mp3]
Von Thronstahl -- "Imperium Internum" -- 2 LP -- €30
2010 Fronte Nordico, VT I, (ltd. 150)
A first volume in Fronte Nordico series of deluxe vinyl reissues of Von Thronstahl’s big and glorious legacy which in its most part has never been out on wax before. The aim of the series is to offer best of the main releases of this great martial industrial project in format of 2LP with bonus tracks, special artworks and outstanding packages. The first in the series is «Imperium Internum» (originally by Cold Spring), it includes the complete album program on its three first sides and four bonus tracks from the compilations of the period - «Riefenstahl» (VAWS, 1996), «Thorak» (VAWS, 1998) and «Notre Domicile Est L'Europe» (Thaglasz, 2001) - on side four of this 2LP set. Regular edition: silkscreen printed folder made of special black paper, two black vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of black special paper, 12" inlay and 3 inserts printed on designer's matte white paper. [press-release]
Von Thronstahl -- "Imperium Internum" -- 2 LP -- €35
2010 Fronte Nordico, VT I, (ltd. 100)
Special edition: deluxe silkscreen printed folder made of special deep black texturized paper, two red vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of red special paper, 12" inlay and 3 inserts printed on designer's matte white paper. [press-release]
Von Thronstahl -- "E Pluribus Unum" -- 2 LP -- €30
2010 Fronte Nordico, VT II, (ltd. 150)
Fronte Nordico is happy to present its new release - a second volume in a series of deluxe Von Thronstahl's complete albums vinyl reissues. «E Pluribus Unum» (originally by Cold Spring, 2001) is out now, it includes the complete album program on its three first sides and four bonus tracks from the vinyl releases of the period - «Sturmzeit» (Eis&Licht, 1998) and «Leipzig «Lichttaufe» 2000» (Fasci-Nation Recordings, 2001) - on side four of this 2LP set. Regular edition: silkscreen printed folder made of special black paper, two black vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of black special paper, 12" inlay and 3 inserts printed on designer's matte white paper. [press-release]
Von Thronstahl -- "E Pluribus Unum" -- 2 LP -- €35
2010 Fronte Nordico, VT II, (ltd. 100)
Special edition: deluxe silkscreen printed folder made of special deep black texturized paper, two red vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of red special paper, 12" inlay and 3 inserts printed on designer's matte white paper. [press-release]
Von Thronstahl -- "Sacrificare" -- 2 LP -- €30
2010 Fronte Nordico, VT V, (ltd. 135)
Fronte Nordico continues its Von Thronstahl reissues series. We are proud to announce that the band's fifth album «Sacrificare», which is by right considered as one of the best and strongest band's works ever, has finally got its vinyl incarnation. This milestone of martial industrial (originally by Fasci-Nation Recordings, 2007) is now available as deluxe 2LP set containing the entire album program plus 15 minutes long «Pessoa/Cioran Mix» originally included only in the limited «Collector's Edition» of «Sacrificare» (Cold Spring, 2007). Regular edition: silkscreen printed folder made of special ultra white paper, two black vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of white special paper, 12" inlay and 3 inserts printed on designer's matte white paper. [press-release]
Von Thronstahl -- "Sacrificare" -- 2 LP -- €35
2010 Fronte Nordico, VT V, (ltd. 135)
Special edition: deluxe silkscreen printed folder made of special white textured paper, two white vinyls in original fronte nordico cut-out and embossed inner sleeves made of white special paper, 12" inlay and 3 inserts printed on designer's matte white paper. [press-release]
Von Thronstahl / Spreu & Weizen -- "Pan-European Christian Freedom Movement" -- LP -- €17
2011 Fronte Nordico, VTSW, (ltd. 150)
Another Von Thronstahl release on Fronte Nordico, this time it's a split with a young German martial industrial band called Spreu & Weizen with overall topic «Pan-European Christian Freedom Movements». Unlike previous Von Throstahl's reissues this LP contains only original exclusive tracks and versions never released before. While Von Thronstahl's style and sound would rather need no introduction, Spreu & Weizen music could be described as true martial at its best, with orchestral samples, military drums, angry guitars and lyric themes typical to the genre. Being a keeper of traditions, at the same time S&W offers a new fresh look on the style, having an ability being as enthusiastic and hitmaking as it's really necessary to do the great martial record. The band has already released two full-length CDs, and the second one called «Gott vergelt's» (Lichterklang, 2011) which includes a few different mixes of the tracks from this LP, has already gained a big interest from the audience. The LP contains 8 tracks, 32 mins in total. Regular edition: silkscreen printed folder made of 2mm thick grey rough carton with die-cut window showing fullcolour picture on the front, full colour 12" inlay attached to the left inner side of the folder, silver vinyl in original fronte nordico cut-out inner sleeve made of black special paper attached to the right inner side of the folder. [press-release]
Lebedev-Frontov, Alexandr -- "Nichevo" -- MC -- €6
1993 self-released
Some of the early recordings by Alexandr Lebedev-Frontov (Linija Mass, Stalnoy Pakt, Veprisuicida) made in 1987-1991. Collage noise music.
You can download the full list of rare & used items here.
1000schoen -- "Amish Glamour (Music For The Sixth Sense)" -- CD-R -- €10
2008 Lucioleditions, llns one
1000schoen is Helge Siehl, a German audio/visual artist, ex member of Maeror Tri. He released only a handful of limited edition discs for various German labels. His earlies works were strongly influenced by Zoviet France and Rapoon but "Amish Glamour (Music For The Sixth Sense)" clealry shows he has now digested and assimilated those influences to create his own personal sound... Captivating ambient/experimental atmospheres! [press-release]
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ARC -- "Glassine 1" -- CD -- €8
2008 A Silent Place, ASP22
Glassine I was recorded live at the Ambient Ping in Toronto on 03/07/2006; and can be easily described as an organic space ambient, with very strong references to Pink Floyd (Ummagumma), Popol Vuh, Ashra Temple, Jackie-O Motherfucker, O Yuki Conjugate, AMP and Flying Saucer Attack or "Fourth World" ambient music! Four tracks of pure vibrant multi-layered psychedelic drone music! Now, close your eyes, listening to "Glassine I" and start for your trip even without the intake of any substances! [press-release]
Aube -- "Blau + Rot" -- 7" -- €7
2007 Auf Abwegen, AATP_Difficult, (ltd. 500)
On these two tracks, released for the first european tour by AUBE in eight years, Akifumi Nakajima worked with an old Roland SH-12 percussive synth. The result are two long tracks (each over 6 minutes) with a nice floating mood that sometimes changes into aggressiveness without losing its warmth. A great little record by one of the most important experimental musicians from Japan. [label info]
Aube -- "Millennium: October" -- CD -- €10
2002 Armonika, KA200010, (ltd. 500)
October part of the "Millennium" series. Sound source material: air.
Aube -- "Millennium: November" -- CD -- €10
2002 Armonika, KA200011, (ltd. 500)
November part of the "Millennium" series. Sound source material: air.
Aube -- "Millennium: December" -- CD -- €10
2002 Armonika, KA200012, (ltd. 500)
December part of the "Millennium" series. Sound source material: air.
Aube -- "Reworks Nimh Vol. 1" -- CD -- €10
2007 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 0611
Another must have work by audio decomposition-genius and sound-sculptor AUBE. Ethnic-electronic sound sources (as with "The Missing Tapes" by NIMH) transfigured and remodeled into completely new sonic lifeforms with state-of-the-art audio processing algorithms. Residual fragments of the original sound-sources occasionally appear in the mix like aquatic fauna swimming to the surface for a brief second. A magnum opus in four movements. Intensely facinating work by the unparalleled master of experimental sound design. AUBE is peerless. A minimal mosaic of sound that takes the listener on a slow-motion expedition into the very fabric of tone. A ocean of sound-grains for the listened to swim in. Spoken language doesn't (yet) contain words that properly describe these sounds... an absolute must have for the experimental music devotee. [press-release]
Baciamibartali / Winter Light -- "The Mournful Gloom" -- CD -- €10
1982/2009 Oltrelanebbiailmare, CD200902
Rhefined and superbly workmanshipped Elettro-wave music, brought to your attention by two unforgettable and unforgetted italian bands that left their own mark during the Eighties. Collected here on a single and extraordinary CD are the remastered versions of Baciamibartali’s “The Mournful Gloom” 12” vinyl and the “Baciamibartali / Winter Light” split 12” vinyl originally released between 1982 and 1984. An unmissable CD for all the band’s aficionados who were lucky enough to follow them since the early days, and a unique chance for the New Wave music lovers who still haven’t known and appreciated them. [label info]
[myspace]
Bardoseneticcube -- "The Sacral Member" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2006 Taalem, alm 36
Bardoseneticcube is a now well-known artist from Russia, with releases on various labels like Drone Records, Steinklang, Athanor or Mechanoise Labs. For this 3", Bardoseneticcube has looked into his archives and found these two tracks in an ambient/ritual style, sometimes rhythmed by percussions that could remind our dear Internal Fusion. [label info]
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Bashnya Ledyanyh Voronov -- "s/t" -- CD-R -- €7
2008 Valgriind, VG 13, (ltd. 50)
The new release of the young Russian label Valgriind is a debut recording of a project with an epic title Bashnya Ledyanyh Voronov ("Icy Ravens Tower" in Russian). Three tracks recorded live apparently on a dictaphone. The 1st track "Gates to the crystal vast" contains slow mouth harp playing accompanied by female voice, singing a wordless song. A feeling of something winter-Slavonic... The 2nd track "Rising up the snow-clad steps towards the non-existence" really contains the recording of steps, wind, something crackles, knocks during almost 6 minutes. The 3rd track "Emptiness of icy silence" - again long monotonous mouth harp piece. Minimalism. Packed in a slim-box with attached foil rune.
Becuzzi, Gianluca -- "Memory Makes Noise" -- CD -- €8
2006 SmallVoices, SVR06021
With this new release by Small Voices, Gianluca Becuzzi, for the first time, presents his work under his birth name, confining the aka Kinetix as an extension of his name. "Memory Makes Noise" is an important passage in the long carreer of our Tuscan sound-artist, projecting him to the achievement of his own creative dimension. Left the cold digital aesthetic, Gianluca Becuzzi, is focusing his re-search on electro-acoustic sounds, livening "Memory Makes Noise" with throbbing concrete noises, material manipulations and deep enviromental reverberations. On the back-ground of this soundscapes, exacts and fascinating at the same time, there are the shadows of the cut up evoked by the author: from Luc Ferrari, Ivo Malec and Morton Subotnik, to Rolf Julius, Bernhard Guenter e Kozo Ikeno. "Adductionism" as activation of the memory, which rush in the present confusing with it, to avoid any kind of linear sequence. In the ethernal present time, where every sign contains its own opposite, the echo sounds before its source: "Memory Makes Noise". [label info]
Becuzzi, Gianluca & Orsi, Fabio -- "Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines" -- CD -- €8
2006 A Silent Place, ASP12
Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines' is the brand new album released together by Fabio Orsi and Gianluca Becuzzi. This album will be certainly followed by other cooperations, considering the big friendly artistic sodality between them. Fabio e Gianluca are a strange duo, considering the big differences of their artistic back-ground. Fabio Orsi is a young and unexpected talent. After his first album, "Osci" (LP, SmallVoices 2005), produced by Gianluca Becuzzi, he got a lot of positive feedbacks, worldwide, by the most important international media, confirmed by his second official release "For Alan Lomax" (CD, A Silent Place 2006) splitted with cosmical Italian duo My Cat is an Alien. Gianluca Becuzzi is a very well known character of the Italian experimental scene since from the 80s, under many different alias. Recently known as Kinetix, Gianluca latest release is the very well appreciated "Memory Makes Noise" (CD, SmallVoices 2006) a great electroacoustic pearl. The unexpected uncounter between different forces, experiences and visions of this two artists is prefectly melted in this album: strong and tied, an imaginary place where folkway and research, past and present, distance and closeness, mud and clouds, ghosts and machines meets. Shreds of ballads, guitars and old keyboards floating on the vibrant surface of this faery river and disappear, towed off by drones and rumors, pouring between distant voices and centenary blues songs from the Alan Lomax archive. Raptur and sweet lostness: this is the main sensation. It could be listed as Avant-Folk, or Experimental-Blues, Ambient- Roots or contemporary aesthetics and aching nostalgia... [press-release]
Bianchi, Maurizio (M.B.) -- "Bactérie" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2006 Taalem, alm 34
The Italian industrial legend, Maurizio Bianchi, is back. More prolific than ever, he proposes here a 24min track which should put the listener in a trance-like state... Rather ambient & evolutive construction with venenous & penetrating sounds... "This microbic "Bactérie", conceived and realized at the beginning of 2005, is profaning the rigid stoicism of our educational orthodromy, while a dichromatic decontamination accustoms the agoraphobic atomicity. The captious escape is vulcanizing the mutant manipulation of some articulated blastogenesis... Another altruistic bacterial sickness?" Maurizio Bianchi / M.B. [press-release]
[mp3]
Bianchi, Maurizio (M.B.) -- "Ludium" -- CD -- €10
2009 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1033
A long and almost “solemn” track built with reverberated piano notes, a slow and rhythmical flow leaned on a background made of clashing hisses and vague, distant, rustling ambient noises… A brief interval based on obscure drones moving in circles, inexorably entangled on themselves… Therefore another long piano-based track, this time more dilated, confused, ethereal and prim, so much that it takes the distinguishing features of an indecipherable sonic mass, abstract and booming, estranging, deep and psychedelic… A few and minimal elments, “directed” in a masterly fahion and assembled in an absolutely fundamental work, from the brightest mind of Italian experimental scene and of all the music “without compromises” of the last thirty years… One of the last contributes to the History of Music from an artists that, even in a phase of extraordinarily and unstoppable creative mood, has recently choose and officially announced to quit his long artistic activity. Simply essential. [label info]
Bianchi, Maurizio (M.B.) -- "M.I. Nheem Alysm" -- CD -- €10
2005 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme0502
The brand new album by MAURZIO BIACHI is the first in a series on SILENTES. M.I. NHEEM ALYSM is a decompositive triad for reverbarating piano and osmosized keyboards, idealized and carried out between the autumn 2003 and the spring 2004. Dedicatated to all the people they proclaim the liberation of the modest minimalistic sound. A true manifesto. [press-release]
Bianchi, Maurizio (M.B.) -- "Menstruum Regles" -- CD -- €10
2008 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 0716
Decomposition instead that composition. De-structured music that instead structured music. Not to complex and articulated technologies for recording, mixing of the parts and mastering; not to one sophisticated production and maniacal and defined participations correct in post-production... This the new "challenge" capacity to the extreme limit from Maurizio Bianchi, a new musical effort, "directed", "raw", immediate, absolutely uncompromising new, to outside of every law and from every pre-constituted rule... Fragments of music, short fragments of sonorous material of varied extraction, now short, now long, placed in sequence one behind the other, in a "dry" way, following absolutely unforeseeable times and dynamics. Continuous loops, raw unexpected cuts, noise alternated to musical parts, single sounds, drones, notes of piano, buzzes, soft pads, electric current workers... Two long traces, 75 minutes, a listening experience over any edge and reliable definition... This CD was released as part of a trilogy entitled "An Absurd Trilogy", the other titles being "The Self Portrait Of M.B." (sme 0715) and "Dead Colours" (sme 0717). [label info]
Bianchi, Maurizio (M.B.) & Appelbaum, Maor -- "Mene Teqel Farsin" -- CD -- €10
2009 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1034
Storms of cosmic energy, boiling and gurgling electronic fluxes, sonic masses made of monolithic and impenetrable drones, visions of smoky afterdeath landscapes, scorching and infernal… A neverending tunnel with no way out, a sense of deep anguish, of desolation and resigned impotence that lead the dark journey from the beginning to the end of this hallucinatory path. The sound quality and the sharpness of details are absolutely insuperable, they will offer you a “wrapping” and emotionally all-involving listening experience. [label info]
Black Sun Productions -- "The Milky Smell of Phantom Sperm" -- CD -- €13
2008 Old Europa Cafe, OECD112
This Black Sun Productions new album features collaborations with PSBEUYS, Sudden Infant, Niko Skorpio, Baraclough and Devotchka's Conundrum. Conceived by Massimo & Pierce as the darker counterpart to their 2007 post-pop album Chemism, The Milky Smell of Phantom Sperm marks Black Sun Productions' return to the realm of abstract, experimental musick. Magick, trance sounds... [press-release]
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Chaos As Shelter -- "Message" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2002 Taalem, alm 9
Chaos As Shelter, from Israel, is one of those bands that don't really need to be presented. He has fastly become a big name in the ambient industrial world thanks to a handful of releases on various labels around the world. For this 3", Vadim has worked from a spy message he had captured on his shortwave radio. The always evolving 20mn track he has composed is simply fascinating and obsessive. At the first listening you're hooked! [press-release]
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Cria Cuervos -- "Des Tempes qui se Vitrifient ou se Marbrent" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2005 Taalem, alm 28
Cría Cuervos, from Italy (as its name and the track title don't show it) proposes here a truly beautiful piece of dark ambient, after some other releases on Thisco or Mystery Sea. The best image I could use to depict this piece is to describe it as a mysterious living being getting out of its lethargy and discovering an hostile world... Slowly evolving, the sound constantly progresses to reach an unexpected climax... Beware, the beast is alive. [press-release]
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Deison & K.K. Null -- "Into" -- CD -- €10
2009 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 0931
Penetrating “Hi-tech” music, always on the border between sound, silence and noise… Splinters of sonic fragments, buzzings, electronic hisses, pulsations, hypnotic loops, ambient textures, sudden rays of light… A kaleidoscope of syntethic sounds and digital glitches, in a universe dominated by binary codes, that evolves through the cold-hearted control of sophisticated algorhythmic mutations programmed by human entities that already reached a level beyond the borders of our earthly knowledge… [label info]
Des Esseintes -- "Les Diaboliques" -- CD -- €10
2005 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD23
If Magnus Sundstrom's more well known project The Protagonist is DrJekyll, then his side project, des Esseintes can certainly be seen as a MrHyde... a more sinister alter ego, bent on destructive behavior, representing a liberation of the dark side and a more primitive being, that once freed from the bonds of conscience, becomes harder and harder toc ontrol. And thus, we have des Esseintes. Based on a collection of short stories by Jean-Barbey d'Aurevilly, Les Diaboliques is the first full length album for des Esseintes, and it's truly a masterwork. The result is an existentialistic inferno of various musical trash and harsh rhythms, with clanging, mechanized percussion barely cushioned by a menacing ambience of cinematically styled electronics igniting the background. These are dark regions explored on the six tracks here, populated by stomping behemoths that threaten to crush with every step, and shards of visceral, dynamic textures that slice across the proverbial sonic landscape. And while Magnus' work has certainly garnered recognition, Les Diaboliques may just solidify him in the lexicon of the industrial public, or take him to a whole new level. Greatly appealing to not only fans of old school greats such as SPK and Test Dept, but to thosefans of CMI and even some Hands material. [press-release]
Desiderii Marginis -- "The Ever Green Tree" -- CD -- €16
2007 Kaosthetik Konspiration, KSTK 005, (ltd. 1000)
In the pure vein of his previous realization, Dark ambiant industrial with very personal feelings and innovations. "The Ever Green Tree" is a concept album based on eternal youth, eternal values, fame and immortality. 'The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.' - A.N.Whitehead (1861 - 1947). Comes in a textured digifile, first eddition limited to 1000 copies. [label info]
Desiderii Marginis -- "Songs over Ruins" -- CD -- €14
1997/2001 Cold Meat Industry, CMI.56, 2nd ed.
The tune of a little bell overlaid by strange voices seemingly far away. Melodic atmospheric ambient sounds, one piece with straight rythms, the other very slow and quiet like musical description of a tree without its leaves, haveing cold and waiting for spring that never comes... [label info]
Djen Ajakan Shean -- "Crows Heading For Point Blank" -- 3"CD -- €7
1995 Amplexus, XUS 03, (ltd. 1000)
Beautiful ethno-ambient in the vein of Vidna Obmana (who incidentally mixed the EP). 21 minutes captured on a 3" CD, as part of the highly collectable series on Amplexus. Packed in glossy A5 card wallet in PVC slipcase. Limited edition of 1000 copies. [label info]
Dronaement -- "Fuer Mur" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2004 Taalem, alm 20
Dronæment should need no introduction as he has now gained a strong reputation in the ambient world thanks to some releases on various labels like Drone Records, Dachstuhl (Tarkatak's home), Afe or Mystery Sea (yes, again !). Marcus presents here two melancholic and nostalgic tracks, the first with softer sounds, based on the wonderful "Für Alina" by Arvo Part, the second (an older piece found on a long-lost tape) with some more aggressive sounds, full of analog synths. Two sides of Dronæment's beautiful music… [press-release]
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Ellende -- "Bitter Lemons" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2004 Taalem, alm 18
Ellende is a mysterious project. No one knows exactly who contributes to Ellende. All we can say is that some people contributes sound to one Dutch man living in Japan. This man carefully builds (he's an architect) his tracks with these sound contributions et voila! Active for many years but releasing his music for only 2 years, Ellende has fastly got a very strong reputation in the dark ambient/experimental scene thanks to a bunch of cd-r's and mp3's releases on many labels all over the world, creating unique atmospheres that can't be compared to anything else. This 3" gives a perfect example of Ellende music, maybe a little harsher and darker than previous works... [press-release]
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Goem -- "Robbed" -- CD -- €8
2007 SmallVoices, SVR07023
Originally Goem used to be a trio of Frans de Waard, Roel Meelkop and Peter Duimelinks, and while they still exist as a trio, there have been several solo and duo releases by the various members under the name of Goem, the latest being a solo work by Roel Meelkop. All the source sounds for 'Robbed' were sampled from one single CD; we are told that the details should remain secret, but except for the conceptual delight and above all the fun of wondering what it could be (mainstream pop? A rock hero? 1990s Euro trash dance?), it doesn't really matter anyway, since it seems next to impossible to trace back the origin of the sounds and they can well stand on their own. Goem's trademark is the straightforward rhythmic pulse, but it's probably needless to say here that the music isn't fully suitable for the dance floor. This doesn't mean, however, that the music on 'Robbed' is devoid of groove. The tracks are based on short loops, consisting of one or two recurring elements, which go through varying combinations, and the resulting rhythmic patterns offer a taste of minimal funk that thrives greatly on the strictly repetitive character of the music. The overall sound is of remarkable digital warmth and fullness, and far away from the standard vocabulary of clicks cum sine waves. Cleverly switching between up- and down-tempo passages, Roel Meelkop achieves a nice balance between various moods. Some of the tracks evoke a relaxed, at times even dub-like feeling, while others include odd contrasting elements, which give them an insistent, driving character. Goem's music is well structured and demands repeated listening to discover the complex micro-variations within the rhythmic patterns; but what makes 'Robbed' truly likeable is that it succeeds in blending these characteristics with a swinging, thoroughly pleasant overall atmosphere. [MSS, Vital Weekly]
Hall Of Mirrors -- "Reflections On Black" -- CD -- €10
2007 Silentes, SME0713
A dark transmission utilizing an immense range of synthesizers and obscure electronic equipment. Complex compositions created with various sequencers, backing tapes, field recordings, electric guitar and masterful audio processing techniques, combined with expert assembly (mixing / digital editing). With "Reflections in Black" Hall Of Mirrors redefine the genera of dark ambient. A must have for fans of Lustmord and Darker / Gothic atmospheres. "Reflections In Black" is isolationistic music for midnight rituals: post-millennium soundscapes and darkest beauty personified. [press-release] A collaboration project of Giulio Biaggi, Andrea Marutti (Amon, Never Known), Giuseppe Verticchio & Daniela Gherardi (Nimh).
Horologium -- "Earthbound" -- CD -- €13
2008 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 107
The 3rd full-length album from Horologium, who offer 43 minutes of monumental, fierce, yet listenable music. Aided by TROY SOUTHGATE, MARIA SOUTHGATE, MERISSA D'ARLETTE and EUSTACIA VYE on vocals, Grzegorz Siedlecki takes you on a Nietzschean trip once again. Postindustrial dirt meets martial drums, opera arias and neoclassical sublimity. Do you remain true to the Earth? Some of the lyrics include fragments from H.Hesse, F. Nietzsche and O. Spengler. 'Earthbound' may also be perceived as an antidote to a slowly emerging neo-christian scene within the postindustrial/martial paradigm. Horologium scorn fanatics. Artwork designed by K.Meizter for a luxurious digipack release with additional booklet! [press-release]
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Hum -- "Caldron of Winds" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2007 Taalem, alm 47
Russian artist Dmitry Chistov is an extremely busy bee! Known under various aliases (Sphogha, Maw, Mikosterion or Small Town Zombie to name a few), he has self-produced many releases for around ten years. First labels to notice his evocative drones were the usual suspects Drone Records and Mystery Sea. Composed in 2004 and 2005, "Caldron of Winds" shows Dmitry's ability to create subtle & melancholic drones mixed with natural sounds... [press-release]
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Hyios -- "Consuetudines" -- CD -- €10
2009 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD40
The alluring debut from Leipzig Germany's Hyios, Consuetudines offers 7 lengthy compositions of cold ritual drones, arching trajectories, and visceral descents into subterranean caverns, where rich, kinetic textures and deep resonant tones move and morph in a fluid, serpentine fashion, sprinkled with the debris of an ancient culture and something more otherworldly and primordial. Leipzig has historically proven to be fertile ground for dark ambient and Consuetudines continues in the fine tradition set forth by such notable acts as Inade and Herbst9. In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Secret Lab. A great new discovery. [label info]
Kinetix -- "Selected E_Missions" -- CD -- €8
2003 Small Voices, SVR 03007
SMALLVOICES proudly present the first official cd album of new italian project KINETIX. Since 1999, KINETIX is the new moniker of Gianluca Becuzzi, artist active since the first half of the 80's. This CD includes material written during the first years of KINETIX artistic activity (2000/2002). It's constituted by six tracks (identified by graphic signs) presented in totally unreleased versions. This work can be considered as KINETIX official debut; the start point to approach to the KINETIX aesthetic dimension. A collection of deep and wrapping digital soundscapes, dotted by micro-noisy granular material, resonant fields where time and space humble themselves in a single perceptive continuum. Contemporary, abstract, minimal, cold, intense and evocative drone music. First volume of the SMALLVOICES series of KINETIX releases. Released in an elegant digipack. [press-release]
Kinetix -- "White Rooms" -- 2 CD -- €12
2004 Small Voices, SVR04014
Kinetix is the new moniker of Gianluca Becuzzi (LIMBO). Kinetix' second official release on Small Voices, "White Rooms" is a work which conjugates radical electronica and expressive power in a unique formula made of stylised and very personal minimalist sound-design. The relationships between physical space and acoustic space constitute the main theme of this double-CD, packaged in an elegant digipak. "White Rooms" is a limpid digital gallery through which the listener is invited to discover bright and resounding spaces, white flats inhabited by concrete sounds, ultra-frequencies, noises, voices and silences. An aesthetic experience placing itself beyond the genres in territories of pure contemporary avant-garde." [press-release]
Korperwelten -- "Avatars Of Rape And Rage" -- CD -- €10
2008 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD36
Having started the process way back in 2002, this collaborative project between Swedish powerhouse Nordvargr and US apocalyptic industrialists Navicon Torture Technoloies finally sees the light (so to speak) in 2008, having been re-worked and re-structured as a perilous 40 minute plunge into a black hole of sound. Waves of grim, doom filled atmospheric sludge crossbred with buzzing black drones, grinding distortion, and a seething underbelly of rhythmic pulsations, ultimately delivering everything you might expect from these two giants of the industrial scene. In 6 panel digipak, with extreme and controversial, Jonathan Canady (http://art.malsonus.com/) designed artwork sure to be banned if it falls into the wrong hands. [press-release]
Marutti, Andrea -- "Traces 94-95" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2001/2005 Taalem, alm 1
You might not know this name but if we tell you that this is the man behind the great dark-ambient projects Amon and Never Known, we think you'll see who Andrea is... Here he proposes us three tracks recorded some years ago and mastered very recently especially for this release, a bit close to the old Never Known sound. Not really dark-ambient, a liitle more experimental yet still melodic. [press-release]
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Meelkop, Roel -- "5 (Zwischenfälle)" -- CD -- €10
2007 Auf Abwegen, AATP18, (ltd. 500)
5(zwischenfaelle) is the latest release by dutch electronic musician ROEL MELLKOP (also member of Kapotte Muziek, THU20 and GOEM). It is a special release in Meelkop’s catalogue because it is consist of five piece that were originally used in the context of sound installations running over a certain period of time in specific special surroundings. For 5 (zwischenfaelle) Meelkop has set himself the task to compress these soundscapes into five dense and still minimal audio pieces that could work outside the context of the original installations. 5 (zwischenfaelle) is focussed on single sound events and stark beautiful dynamic movements in a certain area of sound and does not have the bruitistic research-like feel of other solo works by Meelkop. 5 (zwischenfaelle) makes for concentrated unpolished ultra minimal listening with maximum effect. For all friends of Bernhard Gunter, Francisco Lopez, Joe Colley/Crawl Unit or Marc Behrens this is a definite work! [press-release]
Megaptera -- "Staring Back At You" -- CD -- €10
2007 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD29, (ltd. 800)
In a final celebration of Megaptera's 15 year anniversary, Malignant presents the definitive last statement from this prominent and highly influential death industrial project. Staring Back At You concentrates on demo versions, outtakes, and rare songs from various arenas, including the compilations Zyklon B, Beating the Meat, Slaughter Age '95, The Book ov Shadowz, Death Odors II, as well as material from the Deep Inside mLP, and more. These tracks capture Megaptera at their grittiest, creepiest, and most horrifying...a grinding, lurching monstrosity fueled by the madness, violence, lies, wars, and disease that plague the world. Lmtd to 800 copies, and coming in a 6 panel digipak designed by Marten Kellerman, this has been re-mastered by Magnus Sundstrom (The Protagonist), with additional boosting courtesy of Thomas Garrison (Control). Staring Back At You is final nail in the coffin for Megaptera, and may they rest in peace, but continue to deliver nightmares, maddening thoughts, and the darkest of obsessions. Track listing: More Disturbance (demo version), The Passage (demo version), Disoriented (Totally Different demo version), Lurking Fear (Pre-damaged demo version), Frozen Corpse, The Final Day (excerpt), Morior, Mass Murder, Antropofagi, Deep Inside. [label info]
Megaptera -- "You Will Never Survive This Nightmare" -- 2 CD -- €15
1995/2006 Live Bait Recording Foundation, LBRF 026
In 1995 Slaughter Productions released a cassette tape called "You Will Never Survive This Nightmare", by cult Industrial act Megaptera. This cassette was a milestone in the development of genre of Death Industrial. Containing a re-mastered version of the debut cassette "You Will Recover" originally released in 1991 on Nuxdorf Recordings, as well as the three track cassette "Nightmares" and three unreleased bonus tracks. The formation of Live Bait Recording Foundation could be traced back to the acquisition of this cassette. So, it is with great excitement and honor we announce the re-issue of this seminal Death Industrial release for the first time ever on CD, completely re-mastered in the summer of 2006. Fleshing out this 125 minute double CD is a long forgotten 6 track live performance from London in 2001. Featuring a completely obscure set-list featuring favorites like "Someone's at the Door" and "Plague Spot". Get re-acquainted with your Death Industrial roots, or ours at least!!! [press-release]
Menche, Daniel -- "Scather" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2005 Taalem, alm 23
Taâlem goes noise :-) Another great artist in the Taâlem series that should need no introduction. Daniel Menche has fastly gained a strong reputation in the experimental/noise scene thanks to many releases on various labels all around the world (Tesco, Soleilmoon, Beta Lactam Ring, Antifrost, to name but a few) and extremely physical live performances. Here's another fine example of his huge talent to create loud and powerful but subtle music! [press-release]
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Modell, Rod -- "Plays Michael Mantra" -- CD -- €10
2007 Silentes, 200720
"Plays Michael Mantra" is an atmospheric project by Rod Modell (deepchord / echospace) consisting of two 30-minute long tracks. Here Modell portrays the feelings and sensations that he was experiencing on a recent late-night train ride, where he was listening to "a/b" by Michael Mantra on headphones, and was fascinated with the way a/b blended with the sounds of the trip. On "Plays Michael Mantra" Modell created soundscapes that are reminiscent of that night, and then had Mantra's a/b playing in the background (as it was on the train). Made from delicate chime sequences, synth tones, space-echoes, and recordings of distant trains passing through the night. The overal effect is somewhat melancholy, but very soothing and familiar, like sleeping on a rainy night. Epic and majestic ambient sounds that twinkle like stars in the night sky. Extraordinary for late-night listening. [press-release]
Moljebka Pvlse -- "Fall In Woodland Cemetery" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2008 Taalem, alm 49
With his first works released on well-known labels like Cold Meat Industry, Eibon Records or Fin de Siecle Media, Mathias Josefson's Moljebka Pvlse has fastly gained a strong reputation in the dark ambient/industrial world. Including more & more field recordings in his sound, Josefson soon departed from his typicial "Swedish roots" to more droney sounds like his more recent productions on Mystery Sea, Gears of Sand, Drone Records or this very 3". Minimal yet captivating droney field recordings! [press-release]
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My Cat Is An Alien / Marclay, Christian & Lee, Okkyung -- "From The Earth To The Spheres Vol. 6" -- CD -- €8
2006 A Silent Place, ASP09
This is the re-release of the split ART-LP (Opax Records - special SPACE ART ltd ed of 100/ original 31x31 cm painting on wooden support by Roberto Opalio as cover). Last release in the "From the earth to the Spheres" split series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio aka My Cat Is An Alien on their own Opax Records imprint, sees the Italian cosmic duo splitting the media with well-known audio visual artist, performer and turntable-art innovator Christian Marclay together with cello improviser Okkyung Lee, ubiquitous figure of downtown NY avant-garde scene. Their track "Rubbings" is the result of a live performance recorded at Tonic NYC in December 2003. Christian Marclay's trademarked technique of mixing several ranges of Lps on his multiple turntables, manipulating, fragmenting and altering the phonograph records' sonic nature in accordance with his "theater of found sound" esthetics meets the uncompromising and passionate playing of Korean-born performer Lee, whose powerful cello's stabs interact with Marclay's waves of screaming sounds creating a unique, stunning scenario. My Cat Is An Alien's piece "Beyond the limits of the stars/ Beyond the limits of the grooves" was recorded in 2003 at their Space Room studio in Torino, and has been kept safely in their archive 'till September 2005, when it's been completely remixed and edited appositely for this release. One of their heaviest conceptions to date, the piece is built on electric guitars' strings moaning onto walls of space drones and electronics like ectoplasmic presences emerging from the brillliance of the Void. The initial minimal and claustrophobic guitar chords become more and more an ocean of howling moduled feedbacks combined with fragmented and distorted real-time inserts of post-romantic classical music from old 78rpm shellac records, sounding like radio frequencies transmitted via ether from the furthest reaches of the Cosmos. As the title suggests, MCIAA's need of a non-finite "space music & art" aesthetics research has led them to etch a ghost track (instead of the final lock-groove you can find on the original vinyl) to un-seal the sounds from their actual support; a purpose expressed throughout the whole "From the earth to the Spheres" series' conception. [press-release]
Nadja -- "Autopergamene" -- CD -- €13
2010 Essence Music, ESS013
Nakajima, Akifumi -- "Water 1991" -- 2 CD-R -- €13
2008 Kokeshidisk, kodi 11
With "Water 1991", Kokeshidisk continues the re-release of pre-AUBE releases. Like "Water 1990" we released in 2005, this is the soundtrack to an exhibition by Arichi+Sasaoka in 1991 and is a two-disc set (to respect the format of the original release) designed to be played at the same time. Don't worry they can perfectly be played separately, though! Nakajima-san follows the same path started on "Water 1990": using mainly water as sound source, he composed an almost peaceful soundtrack with a (not so) surprising noisy finale, announcing the first AUBE works... [press-release]
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Netherworld -- "Hallucinations" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2007 Taalem, alm 40
A few months after the highly successful Cryosphere compilation he released on his own Glacial Movements label, Netherworld proposes us a perfect example of his fine dark ambient: processed field recordings (done in Scotland), acoustic & electronic sounds mixed together to create deep & droney atmospheres in the great Italian ambient tradition. [press-release]
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Ninth Desert -- "Black Session" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2006 Taalem, alm 32
"Black Session" was created with two generations of sound material: sequences recorded between 1997 and 1999 by Exotoendo (archived, never used or re-treated) and sources created between July and September 2005 by Ninth Desert. This sound clash was organized on a principle of tape speed of the chosen sequences, their stretching in time or their dissection. The confrontation of these extraneous sequences questions the time between the previously distant periods and, wthout filling it, suggests injecting a past sound material to the present. Black Session is a body made of different (mental) sound layers where the "past" material considers causing interference on the "present" one and, on the contrary, the present contaminates the past - or tries to assimilate it. The Ninth Desert project was created in September 2005 by Cyril Herry (Exotoendo founding member 1996-1999 and Lecanora) and basically works on the sound perceived as mental and temporal medium - a material subjected to infinite combinations and potentially neverending transformation. [press-release]
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Nordvargr -- "Interstellar 2 +" -- CD -- €15
2009 205 Recordings, 205REC-889, (ltd. 100)
Second edition of 100 copies, features 1 additional track not found on the original. As the name suggests, this one's on the spacier side of things - drifting black currents and desolate cosmic emptiness. [Malignant Records]
Nordvargr -- "Resignation 2" -- CD -- €10
2010 205 Recordings, 205REC-895, (ltd. 200)
Roughly one year after the mysterious debut release of Resignation ("1897") comes the second chapter, however this time under the Nordvargr banner (reason being is that the other half of Resignation, decided to leave the project in order to pursue new opportunities). Soundwise we have an album similar to the first album, though perhaps more structured and even more melancholy; cold, nostalgic sounding ambience mixed with somber and bleak orchestrations with a minimalistic syncopated "rhythm" (and I use that term loosely) hypnotically pulsating in the background. This is the sound of music left out in the Arctic cold for a century, only to be thawed and patched back to life by a master of his trade. Like the first one, this comes as quite recommended!! [Malignant Records]
Oblivion Ensemble -- "Seraphim Hallucino" -- CD -- €10
2006 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD28
The music of Oblivion Ensemble remains as elusive and surreal as the ever-shifting cast of musicians and performer swho participate, knowingly, or unknowingly in their work. Founding members are John Bergstrom and Brannon Hungness (aka Figure). Hungness is a virtuoso experimental guitarist and composer and a former member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble. Bergstrom is a computer-music gearhead and a film composer with a classical music pedigree, and mastermind behind the industrial-noise assembly Torse. Seraphim Hallucino is Oblivion Ensemble's fifth full-length release, the first since the virtual opera "Nightmare: Sinistrotorse" (Complacency, 1995). At Seraphim Hallucino's source are strange, electro-acoustic improvisations of percussion, trumpet, voice, synthesizers and guitar. These improvisations are sculpted and sampled, twisted and turned, shaped into building and diminishing moments, and, at times appearing alone, pure and unmodified. Deeply imbedded in the music and fragmented lyrics are secrets, intertwining themes, voices, and imprinted messages. All come together to create an enormously complex, mercurial mix of surreal, dynamic and dark sounds. To fully appreciate the scope and intricacies of Seraphim Hallucino, headphones in a darkened room are highly recommended. "The band most likely to compose a fitting soundtrack for the end of the world". (Sorted magAZine) "Visionary gothic pyschedelia". (The Wire) "The most undefinable gorgeous musical anything that I have ever witnessed ... a beyond great performance, chilling and anxious". (Best of Times) In superb digipak, with artwork by Matt Vickerstaff of darkwaveart.co.uk. [press-release]
Opium -- "Etere" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2008 Taalem, alm 50
Known for his solo albums on respected ambient labels like Hic Sunt Leones or Silentes, as well as numerous collaborations with Stefano Musso / Alio Die (Sola Translatio) or Francesco Paladino (Nosesoul), Italian ambient master Teo Zini describes Opium sound as "a river of different frequencies". A perfect definition of "Etere": luxurious ambient with multiple layers & samples, ethnic percussion and field recordings... [press-release]
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Pholde -- "In the Subset of All Elements" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2005 Taalem, alm 25
Pholde is the ambient side of Canadian Alan Bloor that the noise maniacs will probably know under his other alias, Knurl. Absolutely no noise here, just beautiful deep and scrapey metallic drones, sometimes even melodic, full of details... Those who loved the Lecanora 3" we released before (see alm 4) shouldn't miss this one, they won't be disappointed... [press-release]
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Phragments -- "Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood" -- CD -- €10
2008 Malignant Records, TUMOR CD37
You've seen it before. Certain bands or artists delivering their finest work with their first recording. Then, in futile attempts to capture some of the same magic, becoming formulaic and stale, rehashing ideas and never really achieving the same caliber of work. Others, expanding on the elements of their prior releases, and through a natural maturation process, get stronger with each release. That would certainly be the case with Phragments. With their third full length studio CD, this Slovakian duo have made remarkable strides not only in quality but in scope. Equipped with an enriched sonic palate, Earth Shall Not Cover Their Blood mixes forceful brass and dark orchestral strings with rolls of powerful tribal percussion, somber wind instrumentation, ominous atmospheres, industrial clangor, and a strong and commanding vocal presence, particularly on tracks like "Over Deadlands" and "The Kin of Cain". Cohesive, complete, and epic, this is a release that will open some eyes to new found authority of Phragments. Yours to discover. In 6 panel digipak. [press-release]
Ruhlmann, Mathieu -- "Somne" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2004 Taalem, alm 19
After a full length cd-r on S'Agita Recordings and just before another one on our beloved Belgian friend Mystery Sea, here comes the first 3"cd-r of a newcomer in the ambient world. Mathieu Ruhlmann is a Canadian composer who carefully builds his pieces starting from his own field recordings. Add drones, subtle sounds and here's the result: a 20min long track, very calm, ambient, dark but luminous in the same time, cold and refreshing. Perfect for the winter! [press-release]
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Shyopot Run -- "s/t" -- CD-R -- €7
2008 Valgriind, VG 03, (ltd. 50)
Mysterious Russian acoustic neofolk. This acoustic project uses such native instruments as pipe, balalaika and other. Beautiful guitar playing and wonderful female voice. Like a wind playing with leaves in a spring forest... No doubt, one of the most talented representatives of this style in Russia. A project of the members of NSBM-band M8l8th. Slim-box with a birch bark insert. [YAOP]
Skullflower -- "Tribulation" -- CD -- €10
2006 Crucial Blast, CBR 55
Tribulation. The new emission from the UK trance-noise legends SKULLFLOWER. A black-void beaming of utterly destroyed drone rock and crushing amplifier obliteration that rains down black ash and punishing blasts of feedback skree on the listener. A dynamic, bleary-eyed meditation. An avalanche of powerdrone that threatens to take your cranium apart and transport your grey matter into filthy new dimensions infested with melodic razor cuts and submerged mantras. A triumphant eruption of apocalyptic meta-metal and radioactive raga swarms, guaranteed to loosen eardrums. This album is one of the heaviest, harshest slabs of guitar armageddon from Matt Bower since the glory days of Total, and bridges the void between the krautrock/celestial free drone influence of the last few Skullflower albums, and the blackened molten death of his Mirag material. [press-release]
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Spielerei & Mantacoup -- "Cold War" -- CD -- €10
2007 Silentes, 200718
An enthralling cosmic excursion, utilizing a universe of electronic tones, binary codes, digital trances, visionary software, and microchip meditations... utilizing sequencer riffs, electronic swells, tight rhythmic programming and pulsing analog arpeggios to pull listeners throught the frontiers of space and time. Melodic, soft sounds expand and gently caress the listener while submerging them into vast digital panoramas. Propulsion through the science of sound. Seven fantastic tracks realized during a collaboration between Dennis Knopper (of Spielerei) and Jeroen Vermeent (of Mantacoup). [label info]
Stormfågel -- "Den Nalkande Stormen" -- CD -- €14
2005 Cold Meat Industry, cmi149
Deep in the forests of Sweden we found a lumberjack (but he's ok...) and a transylvanian songbird... - together they are Stormfågel. The act itself may be new but the main character in the band, mr lumberjack himself, Andreas Neidhardt has been lurking around for a good 10-15 years in various lesser successfull constallations. This time he manage to surpass himself and created something charming and different. A mixture between folk, martial and neoclassical music! - Strange? and what about adding a very unique and personal female voice in Hungarian to this?! Not heavenly, but hellish and folkish.... Their sound whispers of atmospheres from the past. Romantic, melancholic and decadent, at time even with a bombastic touch. If necessary, they may be compareable with very early Blood Axis and Moon Lay Hidden. [press-release]
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T.A.C. -- "Splintered" -- CD -- €8
2004 Small Voices, SVR04009
Here they are again! Less than a year's passed since the release of "Twilight Rituals" and T.A.C. are back with a new full length album, maybe the band most accessible effort to date. But don.t expect a pop oriented sell out. Instead be prepared to fall inside T.A.C.'s kaleidoscope once again. And again. While supposed to slow down their recording activity for a while, during the summer of 2003 the band undertook a series of free form improvisational sessions that in a very short time brought to a bunch of fully produced new compositions. Their twelfth release actually. T.A.C. sonic trip goes on through unexplored territories, forcing the borders between electronica and new psychedelic soundscapes, making room for gentle ballads merciless deconstructed. Enter now T.A.C.'s surreal and swirling world. The tribernetic shamans are back. [press-release]
T.A.C. -- "Twilight Rituals" -- CD -- €8
2003 Small Voices, SVR03003
This is the brand new album from T.A.C.!!! "T.R." was recorded in the same sessions of "Waiting for the Twilight" and include 14 new exclusive tracks..., a sort of "Waiting..." twin album. "Twilight Rituals" is the complementary twin album to "Waiting For The Twilight", created during the very same recording sessions. T.A.C. keep on in pursuing their aural alchemy of psycho-ambient soundscapes, and hypnotic songs achieving atmospheres not so distant from "WFTT". This time sounds are more determinate and static but once again not easy to be classified and still carrying the listener in a surreal world without any fixed reference-point. "Twilight Rituals" also is the matrix of "WFTT" but, according to T.A.C. wicked logic, being conceived before it had to be released after. This is the definitive sound-trip from the future past. [press-release]
T.A.C. -- "Waiting for the Twilight" -- CD -- €8
2002 Small Voices, SVR02001
This is the first issue of Small Voices. We are very proud to present the return of T.A.C. after five years from their last release "Apotropaismo". After a long time of hibernating sleep, this unforgetted experienced italian band is back in a magnificent body-form, with a new upsetting sonic paradox... T.A.C. has created a virtual drome where never heard acoustic waves collapse into boundless technoid cages, wrapping dehumanized scared voices from the atavistic twilight of dying future! The shining (master)mind of the S.B. restrained this symptons in form of luminouses distant experiences in an alien urban dimension. A tribernetic shaman will transfer you in a world of visions, combining sicked chants with electronical sounds, destructured (un)human female voices with unbelieveble acoustics soundscapes... Image a sort of cross between Coil, Matmos, a sort of post-modern obscure evolution of trip-hop and future hyper electronics music...! A swirling interplay that aims at sweeping away old musical categories, anyhow doomed to strain and break under their own burden. They pursue a declared commitment: to explore the depths of the human nature and to stimulate the listeners' imagination. [press-release]
Tarkatak -- "Eschgl Hel" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2005 Taalem, alm 27
After many cd-r's (on various labels like Blade Records, Prion or Staalaplaat's sublabel Bake Records), even tapes in his first days and some 7"s (including one on Drone Records), Tarkatak offers with this 22min track a perfect example of his beautiful sound: droney dark ambient, slowly evolving with low rumblings, natural sounds & many details in the background... His past works have often been compared to some Zoviet France works or Andrew Chalk; we couldn't agree more. [press-release]
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Telepherique vs. S·Core -- "Past-Art" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2007 Taalem, alm 41
While preparing the "Result of a Mail-Art 1992" re-release, we've had this idea: why not asking Telepherique to rework/remix some S·Core tracks 15 years later? It should be interesting to confront material from the past with technique from today. Unfortunately, as Japanese artist S·Core has gone missing for a few years now (if anybody knows how to get in touch with him, please tell us!), we had to choose a previously released disc. "Tarnish" 7inch was an obvious selection as it was issued on Telepherique's label (Drahtfunk-Products) in 1995 and moreover as it's a perfect example of S·Core talent to create unique atmospheres. The result is indeed unique: raw & crude sounds from Japan remixed/reworked/refined by the German artist. To complete the release, Telepherique created a very special track they define themselves as "a musical acoustic history about my project-name Telepherique". It's a beautiful opposition to the previous track, gentle, soft & very atmospheric. [press-release]
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Templebeat -- "The Grey Space" -- CD -- €11
2010 Silentes Minimal Editions, sme 1035
Templebeat was an Italian electro/industrial group related to Thee Temple ov Psychic Youth and its Italian branch T.O.P.Y.TV. Templebeat released a number of eps and tapes in the early 1990's. This album gathers tracks from their tapes "Interzone", "Treviso Underground" and "V.I.T.R.I.O.L. #3", remastered as usual. Includes a cover of DAF's "Der Mussolini". Musically, this is more in line with say Clock DVA than Psychic TV, also more or less reminiscent of the band's more famous country mates Pankow and Limbo. This is a radical departure from the Silentes label catalogue that mostly focuses on lush ambient soundscapes. Nevertheless a historical release! [Some Place Else]
Thelema -- "Burnt Memories" -- CD -- €8
2006 SmallVoices, SVR05016
Nine years after their last release (Night of Pan), the Italian dark Wave band par excellence have finished a new collection of songs, now available on SmallVoices. The band was born in the winter of 1984, when former Throbs of Pleasure Giorgio Parmigiani and former Les Blousons Noirs Massimo Mantovani met in some punk rehersal room in Modena, their hometown. The third original member was former T.A.C. Gregorio Bardini, and together they gave birth to a band influenced by the ideas, philosophy and magickal opus of Aleister Crowley. 'Thelema' was the obvious choice for a name. Thelema were immediately hailed as one of the best gothic bands in Italy, even if their roots were punk and their leanings were more towards experimental and industrial sounds, as the many tapes produced through the years testify. The original cell, Giorgio and Massimo, has never been broken, altough many other musicians have joined them through the years. One thing must be said: even if their releases are not many, they never quit. Even when the band split (more than once and for long spans of time), the magickal link between them always kept them busy working, through music or other media, on the discovery and realization of their True Wills. And now they're back. Mature and disillusioned, self produced. Once again, they're hard to label. Once again the sounds have changed. BURNT MEMORIES is different from NIGHT OF PAN, which was different from TANTRA, which was different from ROSA+CROCE (see their site - www.thelemaband.com - for a list of all their releases). The old strenght is not immediately here, as the music seems softer (but - who knows? - the live set could be a BIG surprize) and more oblique (Eno is one of Massimo's heroes) than ever, but the violence is still present in the lyrics and in the story/concept which links all the songs in BURNT MEMORIES, and so is the Magick, that they never abandoned and which has never abandoned them. [label info]
Troum -- "Eald-Ge-Streon / Abhijna" -- 2 CD -- €19
2009 Beta-lactam Ring Records, mt181/183, (ltd. 500)
CD plus the bonus album "Abhijna" issued in an edition of 500 copies in a full color deluxe gatefold book bound cd case. Design, layout and artwork by Stephen O'Malley. Welcome to the Thunderdome. Troum’s bone-cracking reverberations respirate with such ferocity that all non-Troum molecules are blown away. Eald-Ge-Streon is a massive, rising beauty. It is a great becoming, and we are nothing but an ant in the afterbirth. Troum has set its controls beyond the heart of the Sunn. The pulsating inferno of these 7 drone concertos may require an insurance adjuster, but what a lovely way to burn. It is in your nature to do one thing correctly. Before Troum, you rightly tremble. But fear is not what you owe Troum. You owe Troum awe! [press-release]
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Tzesne -- "Crossing TierraHueca" -- 3"CD-R -- €6
2009 Taalem, alm 55
Tzesne is a Basque sound artist who perfectly combines field recorings and eletronic processings. His previous works were released by Drone Records, Mystery Sea or his own imprint Series Negras. "Crossing TierreHueca" is a collection of four quite short tracks, maybe more on an ambient side than some of his other works... [press-release]
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Vromb / Telepherique -- "Paradigma" -- CD -- €13
Fario, Fario CD 07, (ltd. 700)
The Fario label was created in 1998 by the staff of the French magazine Fear Drop. The concept behind Fario is the meeting: collaborations between two artists. Each record shows two halves created separately and a common track (here: two), a moment to share views or to oppose feelings. All tracks are previously unreleased. As they had planned to meet for a long time, Canadian artist Hugo Girard alias Vromb and German outfit Telepherique were more than happy to work on Paradigma, maybe to consider their own paradigms. Vromb is a one man project which appeals to different electronic and industrial roots as well as imaginary landscapes of rusted and spinning rotors. Free from gravity, these strange rhythmic lifeforms born from disused factories and psycho scientists are like the perfect bunker soundtracks. Sometimes the bunkers change into rockets silos and Vromb feels then ready for a space program. Telepherique is family affair. Led by Klaus, Danijela & Rene Jochim, Telepherique is a pot of powerful forces, magma and images, rhythms and voices, melancholy and energy. Their music is one of the best and most beautiful extension of industrial music. Always moving, like a river, like air, it's rich enough to become a complete cinema. [label info]
Wintersilence -- "Transmission Fields" -- 2 CD -- €10
2004 Weird Amplexus, WAX10
An impossible melting between rock and ambient with influences from many other musical styles and from Indian, Arabian and North-African culture. A surprising and ambitious trip from ambient to cosmic paths. This work has various influences, but all titles have something in common, they all seem to run after to an evocative attitude: all compositions could be referred to particular images and landscapes, and stimulate the listener's imagination to penetrate obscure dreams, at the edge between fear and tranquillity, where the soul feels unable to understand the substance of reality, and sometimes is got by a spiral of nightmares' fragments, over any rational rule. [label info]
Wolfskin feat. Last Industrial Estate -- "Stonegates Of Silence" -- CD -- €10
2010 Malignant Records, TumorCD46
And so the journey formally ends for Wolfskin, 15 years from whence it began with the release of the Hidden Fortress cassette back in 1995. The essence of Wolfskin has transformed and mutated throughout the years, reaching on "The Stonegates of Silence" it's simpler form….one of desolation, solitude, insanity and death, the final frontiers of human existence. As he did with The Hidden Fortress: A Revisitation CD, Wolfskin once again pairs up with Anders Peterson of Objekt 4 fame, now operating under the name of Last Industrial Estate for the purposes of this recording. This is Wolfskin at its bleakest and most restrained, offering 5 tracks of enveloping ambience built around foggy, ambiguous textures and an endless flow of drifting isolationism, shapeless horrors, and oppressive subterranean heaviness. In the case of Stonegates, Wolfskin goes out not with a bang, but with a slow, evolutionary creep into the shadows, forever etched in the lexicon of dark ambient music. In 4 panel digipak. [press-release]
Yen Pox -- "Blood Music" -- 2 CD -- €15
1995/2010 Malignant Records, TumorCD41
15 years after it’s original release, and out of print for almost as long, Yen Pox’ Blood Music has finally been re-issued. Regarded by many as a benchmark recording within the realm of dark ambient music, this deluxe 2CD edition contains a completely re-mastered and remixed version of Blood Music plus a previously unreleased track on disc 1, as well as the first cassette and various compilation and 7” releases on disc 2. Combined, the discs offer well over two hours of colossal, mind bending atmospherics of the highest order, the sounds radiating outwards into a sprawling horizon of sulfur dark skies, then descending into a relentless maelstrom of shifting textures, treacherous reverberations, and endless, sinister drift... Packaged in a luxurious 8 panel DVDdigipak, with completely new design by Andre Coelho (Sektor 304), this is the perfect marriage of both music and packaging, and will further solidify Blood Music’s status as one of the all time classic dark ambient releases. [press-release]