ZHELEZOBETONhttp://zhb.radionoise.ruSubscribe to the newsletter | Unsubscribe from the newsletter |
facebook -
instagram -
bandcamp mixcloud - vk - telegram |
Today we have a small yet quite multifarious mailorder update: from neofolk and martial to noise, avant-garde improv and pure experiments. Pay particular attention to the new releases from such projects as Vetrophonia, >o< and labels NEN Records, Intonema, Spina!Rec as well as cassette reissue of a rare Bad Sector album "Pressurized Music" on Luce Sia label.
The new podcast with selected tracks from this update is available here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/Kryptogen/zhelezobeton-mix-6-april-2017/
Take care,
M.M.
04.04.2017
I. Reviews
Closing The Eternity "Forever and a Day" CD:
II. Forthcoming events
08.04.2017
X3D5, SNEZHANA REIZEN, UHUSHUHU
St. Petersburg, Cliche. More info...
12.04.2017 - Kosmonoize 2017
GOVORIT RADIO KOSMOS, OGNI VIDENIY, SVETLO111
St. Petersburg, Hexagon. More info...
12.04.2017
A.T.M.O.M., PROJECT HYPOXIA
St. Petersburg, Gor'kiy Pub. More info...
15.04.2017 - Arkhaika
AD LUCEM TENEBRATUM, ADRIVA, CTHULHU, N.K.R.T.
Moschow, Shagi. More info...
22.04.2017 - dRёma
CREATION VI, LUNAR ABYSS / HATTIFNATTER, OGNI VIDENIY, SYSTEM MORGUE, 73!, UHUSHUHU
St. Petersburg, Silen Tea. More info...
25.04.2017 - Forgotten Universe
A.T.M.O.M., DEEPDARK, EIVA ADA
St. Petersburg, Sound Museum. More info...
III. New items in mailorder catalogue
CDs & CD-Rs
>o< -- "Aurinkoinen" -- CD-R -- €8
2017 Paper Moon Republic, PMR_8, (ltd. 45)
Mysterious Project >o< with a physical embodiment of a long-awaited album of 2014, which was previously distributed only via bandcamp. Retrospective of the psychedelic experience of walking through the pine forests of Ingermanland and mast meadows Privolhovya. Music of weary sun hallucinations for lazy sultry rituals without beginning or end. Listen and overgrown with dry of violet dust. Psychedelic/Drone Ambient/Abstract/Folk. CD-R with printing on the surface, packed in half-DVD-box. [label info]
2673 -- "What Reveals The Heavens Can Be Found On Earth" -- CD -- €10
2011 Cipher Productions, (sic 62), (ltd. 100)
Kevin Winter's 2673 project is perhaps known best for the unknown, and for What Reveals The Heavens Can Be Found On Earth he unveils a chilling minimalism built around icy synth tones and careful dynamic blocks, the disc as much about its shifts between tracks as it is within tracks. Five cuts of demanding, unhurried, precise and poignant statements stripping away all but the most essential sounds - be they grand in gesture or minute in statement. Pro-pressed CD limited to only 100 copies, packaged in Stumptown 'Arigato Packs' adorned with bittersweet family photographs. [label info]
Allerseelen -- "Fruhgeschichte III - Autdaruta" -- CD -- €12
2016 Aorta, AORCD 18 / Indiestate Distribution, IST 091 CD, (ltd. 300)
The third in the series of early Allerseelen soundworks re-issues, this time it is dedicated to Greenland shaman Autdaruta and it has a very Northern mystical feel inside. The extensive use of loops Gerhard made with natural instruments such as kettledrums, violins and the others, have created some great ritual industrial album which reminds more of earliest Hybryds or Zoviet France works than the nowadays Allerseelen music, but still the unique and distinctive artistic nature of Gerhard is easily recognisable. A small masterpiece from the early 90-es, not to be missed! [label info]
[youtube]
Anarcocks -- "Desert Rose" -- CD -- €10
2014 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 199, (ltd. 300)
And I ask my lovers "Do you know where the Desert Roses bloom and grow?"... Following the disband of BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS in 2012, Massimo & Pierce are releasing their first album as ANARCOCKS. Exposing the fictional character of teenage Johnny as he joins the underground revolutionary army of the Wild Boys, Desert Rose is the first installation in a trilogy called europArabia. An aural investigating of the intertwine between west and east, north and south, militance and desire. The original lyrics in Italian were written by Massimo Villani over a period of twenty years. Pierce created the two parts cinematic cut-up and fond-in soundscape drowning inspiration from Bedouin chants, Marrakech porn and the epical soundtracks of Middle Eastern vintage films. Massimo & Pierce are and was also well known for being part of the COIL collective especially during their live shows. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Art Abscons & Gnomonclast -- "Songs Of Hate + Hate" -- CD -- €10
2014 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 195
Collaborative release by those 2 primer German / US art-dark-folk projects. A lovely bounch of superb Noir-Cabaret charming songs. The songs comprising "Songs of Hate + Hate" were solitarily composed and authored respectively by Art Abscon, J1 StatiK, and N2 ItinitI. In the span of one week, having met in Abscon, the three made record of these disparate compositions and agreed to ceremonially burry several corpses by way of lyrical effigy. It had long been their ambition to speak clearly; that their meaning be readily understood. In the plainest words, their "Songs of Hate + Hate" are a praxis for what is to come and a faithful record of what came before; as was once sung in song: "Do this for love, but first honor hate" [Luftwaffe, Ere I Perish]. These songs are dedicated to those who would profit from borrowed accomplishments, but have nothing of their own to create. Art, J1 and N2 give their assurance that from their words and signs no theft will bring benefit. For after the last lie is redacted, what remains is often unkind. The jackals and hyenas know who they are; this album is dedicated to their dishonor. [label info]
[youtube]
Aura Shining Green -- "East Of The Sun & West Of The Moon" -- 2 CD -- €14
2015 Anima Arctica, AUER-014
Released on the name day of Joonatan, the massive retrospective compilation double-CD of Joonatan Elokuu's wandering psychedelic folk group Aura Shining Green sees the light of day and the bright moonlit night. The first part "East of the Sun" carries the soft fragrance of flowers and the sunlit forests, reminding us perhaps of the works of B'ee (In Gowan Ring & Birch Book), Nick Drake and even early tunes Leonard Cohen. Second part "West of the Moon" takes us through the mysterious moonlit nights filled with wonder & magic. Bearing the ever present strong psychedelic folk aura and possibly some hints the artists mentioned earlier, these stories are murkier and full of feeling and intimacy. One might even hear some reminiscences of works of Timothy Renner (Stone Breath, Crown Tongue...) or even legendary Coil or Tangerine Dream in more ambient parts and synthesizer works. The beauty and depth of detail of his magnum opus is underlined by masterful guitarwork and his utterly soft and tender vocals. [label info]
Autogen -- "Mutagen" -- CD -- €10
2012 4iB Records, 4iB CD/0712/002 / Sturm, Mandat nr. 36, (ltd. 500)
This is an intelligently orchestrated ambient and pulsating rhythms of the Cold Elektro, during the period of 2008-2012, all 12 tracks are written and arranged by Kaps. Mutagen is an aural journey of post-industrial influences, all echoing a soundtrack atmosphere that is overwhelming, dreamlike and surreal, Mutagen’s soundscape of electronic textural layers and minimal sampled digitized voices will provide you with a mesmerizing experience of a post apocalyptic emotional ride, struggling between the tensions of despair and hope, order within the realm of chaos. [label info]
[youtube]
Awen -- "Grim King Of The Ghosts" -- CD -- €10
2014 Old Europa Cafe, OECD197
The second album from Awen, five years in the making, stands as a sonic dedication to the ties that bind this world to the spectral. The album is rooted in the concept of the Grim Grey King, which forms a binding tie throughout with interpretations and translations of the opening poem featured in Swedish, German and Italian - cropping up like standing stones along the path of the listener's progress. The 'King' of the album's namesake encompasses not only the sinister martial aspects of Woden, Gwyn ap Nudd and the endless Wild Hunt, but also the notion of a more abstract and cold custodian of the souls of melancholy lovers lost, their desperate palliations sought through suicide. From dense percussion evocative of megalithic rites to the Arcadian chords of acoustic strings, the whole is tethered throughout by the howling tension of hungry ghosts and conducted by the commanding voice of Erin Powell. 'Grim King Of The Ghosts' is a synthesis of the ancient and the contemporary, with the heartfelt acoustic cover of "Seeker" by Fire + Ice and modern interpretations of traditional songs from the British Isles such as "Grim King Of The Ghosts", "Cradle Spell", and "Sons Of Exiles" shifting like glimpses through a stygian mist into the tonal terrors of "Grym Grе Kung", "Bitter Augur" and "Il Re Grigio Cupo". This world and That, Then and Now, are One... Featuring guests b9 InVid (Et Nihil / Luftwaffe), Gaya Donadio (ANTIchildLEAGUE / Six Comm), and Freya Aswynn (by virtue of a recorded personal rune reading for Erin Powell). [label info]
Barbarossa Umtrunk -- "La Fosse De Babel" -- CD -- €10
2014 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 186, (ltd. 300)
74 minutes of bombastic, neoclassical & tribal post-industrial muzak which describes dark “survivalists” martial processions and post-apocalyptic landscapes. The album invites guests and brothers in arms as like: TSIDMZ, Vir Martialis, Front Sonore and includes the well-known propagandist and militant hymns in support of Ba’athism and Hezbollah “In Bashar we Trust”, “Army of Mahdi” and “Syria” with speeches of Aleksandr Dugin, Raymond Abellio, Jean Parvulesco, Vladimir Putin, Bashar-Al-Assad & Hugo Chavez… “La Fosse de Babel” is an apocalyptic and combative soundtrack for the final eschatologic battle of the end, a sacred doctrine to built the Transfigured New Man to come… When the Red Sun of the Great Eurasian Imperium will rise and Imam Al-Mahdi will come. [label info]
[youtube]
Chessex, Antoine -- "Selected Chamber Music Works 2009-2013" -- CD -- €10
2014 Tochnit Aleph, TA122, (ltd. 300)
Four chamber music pieces by Swiss composer Antoine Chessex. Including: Angst Miniature (for strings and tape, 2009), Metakatharsis (for ensemble, live-electronics and tape, 2010), Ritournelle Fulgurante (for ensemble, 2013), Schichten (for ensemble, 2011). Comes with 12 page booklet. Edition of 300 copies. [label info]
[soundcloud]
Drouin, Jamie & Hannes Lingens -- "Alluvium" -- CD -- €10
2017 Intonema, int021, (ltd. 200)
One more duo on Intonema! Canadian artist Jamie Drouin, who uses a small selection of electronics, and German artist Hannes Lingens on snare drum and floor tom, have recorded this new album in an unusual way: Improvising in the studio using headphones, rather than monitors, the musicians were able to focus on meticulously detailed microsounds. In particular, the sounds derived from the close mic’ing of Lingen’s percussion instruments, combined with Drouin’s using that input as a sound source for his own electronics. The "Alluvium" recording process allowed their independent gestures and textures to cross pollinate each other’s, blurring the definition between their otherwise distinct instruments. [label info]
[soundcloud]
Duncan, John -- "Phantom Broadcast" -- CD -- €13
2002 Allquestions, AQ-04
At one point in an artist's life there's a sort of revelation, something telling him all the routes took so far have finally fused in a single course, lightened by a "north star" indicating all his next choices and moves. In John Duncan's case, I feel his continuing exploration of frequencies' manifestations has lately yielded a music that reaches a calm detachment, even when emotionally charged at its most. Now, what do I hear in the 47 minutes of "PHANTOM BROADCAST"? The answer is: powerful harmony (both in musical and "inner self" sense), shifting orchestral chordal streams, a stretching tubular bell sound, male and female voices, a trembling cello in the realm of low notes, a couple of jet engines during a slow transit towards somewhere I could not figure out, a pumping, massive breathing by all human beings remaining alive despite ongoing tragedies; all in all, I felt wrapped in sound and protected. Were all these things really there? Of course not, as this record was made with modestly treated shortwaves only - just like that, but it's maybe one of the best, if not THE best among Duncan's "static" releases. I'm afraid I'm forever trapped in your radio frequency, John - but please don't show me the way out. [Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes]
Duncan, John / Francisco, Lopez -- "Nav" -- 2 CD -- €14
2000 Allquestions, AQ-02 /
With two names like these, it's guaranteed. The first of the two CD's, NAV-gate, presents López and Duncan chiselling vibrations that are often suspended at the limit of the audible, and it's true that playback via headphones brings discoveries to the ear that speakers not in a setting of total silence don't catch. The color of the sound seems dark, galactic, in a limbo that contains spirits now ready to make the leap to the center of the earth, to know once and for all the origin of its continuous tremors. A few percussive touches seperate the parts, and in the end you'll find yourself disoriented, needing to understand yet aware of invisible forces new to us. The second disk, NAV-FLEX, starts off from a sort of electroacoustic 'lightning', a dry flash of frequencies that start together as a chord, but then are divided, chasing each other and almost disappearing, only to return and show themselves in the distance, meteorites not flying wild but driven by the same great centripetal force that sends the mind and body to absolute unity: the achievement of perfection... It's a matter of choosing where to stand: through their work, there are artists who open the mind much more than a thousand books, thanks to a simple concept taken through analysis; John and Francisco are in this company. [Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes]
Fecalove -- "Great Northern War" -- CD -- €10
2015 Narcolepsia, narco066 / Untergeschoss, UNTER35
Italian Power Electronics / Noise unit.
[bandcamp]
Freya Aswinn -- "Shades of Yggdrasil" -- CD -- €10
1993/2002 Fremdheit, FREMD CD 93
Known for her work with Current 93, Death In June, and others, Shades Of Yggdrasil is Freya Aswynn's first solo endeavour first released in 1993. The new pressing comes in a Digipak re-mastered with bonus tracks. Lyrics composed by Freya Aswinn, Ian Reed, also adapted from Edda, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and Alister Crowley.
[youtube]
Haino, Keiji / KK Null -- "Mamono" -- CD -- €10
2006 Blossoming Noise, BN018CD, (ltd. 1000)
Collaborative studio album from Keiji Haino of the legendary FUSHITSUSHA & KK Null the man behind ZENI GEVA. Limited to 1000 copies beautifuly printed with vegetable based inks using both traditional letterpress & offset printing methods on custom black folders.
Higuchi, Keiko / Cris X -- "Melt" -- CD -- €10
2014 Musik Atlach, MA012
Italy's Cris X has been reviewed before and his works are sometimes in collaboration with others, mainly Japanese, musicians such as Merzbow and KK Null and here with Keiko Higuchi. I never heard of her, but she's a singer and piano player. They recorded this album together, already in 2010, in Rome. This is certainly not easy music. It's orchestrated, but quite sparsely at that. It's full on an empty space, if you know what I mean. Everything seems careful here. The piano playing, the singing, the electronics, field recordings or the rattling of a metallic percussion in the title piece. Everything is performed with care, with space between the music. It has a vague, modern classical feel to it. It is very spacious, yet not entirely in the world of cosmic music. The opening fire crackles of 'Ceaseless/Do You Care?' reminded me of Etant Donnes circa 'Blue' and makes this is all a bit more musique concrete like. At thirty-five minutes this may seem like a rather short album, but it's an album that requires a lot from the listener. Probably this one of those albums if you listen only without much effort or concentration, one that will easily be dismissed; however if you open up and fully concentrate on this music, you will find there is much beauty in here. [FdW, Vital Weekly]
Izanami's Labour Pains -- "Destination: Toujinbout" -- CD -- €10
2011 Phage Tapes, PT:141 / Small Doses, DOSE108, (ltd. 250)
Incredible and varied harsh noise from Germany’s Sascha Mandler (Namazu Dantai, Mazakon Tactics). Elements of power electronics, drone, and cut-up noise combine to form one of the most impressive noise assemblages I’ev heard in years. Packaged in 4-color screen-printed arigato packs. [label info]
Karma Marata -- "Das Sturmlauten" -- CD -- €14
2012 SkullLine, SLCD011-12, (ltd. 300)
Elite German Neofolk from the Thüringen, Germany, featuring Spreu & Weizen. Jewel case. [YAOP]
Karma Marata -- "Nepal 23 / Ein Abschied" -- CD -- €14
2014 SkullLine, SLCD027-14, (ltd. 300)
Elite German Neofolk from the Thüringen, Germany. Jewel case. [YAOP]
Kucz, Konrad -- "Nagrania Bardzo Archiwalne 1988-2004" -- 2 CD-R -- €10
2004 Requiem Records, 20 | 2004
The anthology of works by Konrad Kucz created for theater, cinema and as standalone works. Ambient varying from technogenic works close to Asmus Tietchens and Aube to spacious landscapes in vein of Berlin school. Double slim-DVD box with full colour cover and beautifully designed booklet. [YAOP]
Kylie Minoise -- "Spank-Magic Lodge" -- CD -- €10
2006 Kovorox Sound, KOVO-018
If any release within these pages fills me with hope then it's this one. If any release shows that noise can travel in new directions giving the listener an enthralling, exhilarating, erudite, blasting, blissful trip then it is this one. For this is the best release to come into these hands for many an issue and one that fills me with hope for the future of noise. Not that this is an all out ball busting 58 minute bowel warping blast of ear drill. No siree Bob. This has depth and subtlety and nuance that makes all those sudden noise blurts all the more effective. Gives it more impact. Knowarramean? Because a noise CD doesn't have to have a cover of a shit eating woman, it doesn't have to be aimless aggression, 70 minute solo sets, a table full of gadgets that your dad bought you. It can be Myra Hindley on the cover though with drawn in laser eyes. Keeping one foot in the old school and sticking two fingers up to it at the same time by drawing in laser eyes. Track titles bemuse, confound and raise titters: 'They turned away, together from the horror, and wrapped their arms around each other, then picked their way through the carnage to the car' - a track that starts and ends with slightly reverbed church bells and has a blistering noise barrage for filling. The opening track, 'Hot Teens Hooked on Cosmetic Surgery' opens like a bomb going off in a disco and ends with a cradling hum. 'SpreeVSteal' is but data transmission flurries, 'Acid Ass Ass In' is but 50 seconds of white hiss. All 14 tracks show that a fertile mind is at work. Anyone with the right equipment can churn out a half decent 60 minute noise CD these days. It takes someone special to come up with something as original as the ear tickling blisters of 'How to Ruin Someone's Life' to the looped bass riffs of 'The Last Survivors of a Band of Nude and Long Haired Thieves'. The most original and utterly brilliant noise related release that it has been my pleasure to review for quite some time. And the best bit is this; American? Japanese? How about English? Put that in your noise war CDs and shove it up your arse. [Idwal Fisher]
Leidungr -- "De Nio Kraftsangerna" -- CD -- €10
2013 Equilibrium Music, EQM036
“De Nio Kraftsångerna” is the long awaited debut album by LEIDUNGR, the latest project by H. Möller (of ARDITI and PUISSANCE), M. Belfagor (of NEFANDUS and OFERMOD) and P. Stеhl. Crafted by weaving ritual elements into traditional folk, the trinity's mesmerizing work is also imbued with an indelible martial aura which reinforces the underlying heroic mood summoned on these recordings. The potent and evocative combination, which spreads across various genres, often re-creating their common formats, allows LEIDUNGR to carve their unique brand of Nordic Ritual Folk - a term which perfectly defines the genuine atmosphere of this work, now finally available on matt varnished Digipak CD with copper printing, featuring artwork by Freki Wodenswolf, a talented artist known his unique handcrafted creations, made from natural materials as leather, wood, horn, bone and metal. [press-release]
[youtube]
Lunde, Eric -- "Technot (Recordings 1995-1998)" -- CD -- €10
2011 TraitMediaWorks, tmw026
Not really Techno, but a collection of various audio excursions into the domain, utilizing then-current MIDI hardware of the '90s. Never before released, the approach isn't dance oriented pop but struggling loops and layered signals. [Amazon]
Manifesto -- "Rust" -- CD -- €10
2012 Silken Tofu, stx.07, (ltd. 500)
Silken Tofu is proud to present RUST, the third album by Swedish artist Magnus Zetterberg aka Manifesto. Emotional and mental decay, self-contempt and depression being the main themes, RUST consists of seven brooding yet introspective tracks, following the proud death industrial tradition of other Swedish artists as Megaptera, Mental Destruction et al. After releases on such labels as Plague Recordings and Quartier23, this is Manifesto's most accomplished and mature work. [label info]
[youtube]
Mikawa, Toshiji -- "Gyo-Kai Elegy" -- CD -- €10
2007 Anoema Recordings, NOCD050
Pioneer, innovator and visionary are words easily associated with Toshiji Mikawa. One of the prime movers of Japanese noise, he started his musical activities in the late 1970s and joined the legendary and notorious Hijokaidan. In 1981 he formed Incapacitants to pursue his interest in pure noise, in contrast to the more performance art oriented Hijokaidan of that time. Initially a solo project, later he was joined by Fumio Kosakai to make Incapacitants a duo that has been widely acknowledged for their extreme sound and intense live performances... Gyo-Kai Elegy is the debut CD release under Mikawa's own name. It grants us a close-up view of his sound which is normally immersed inside Incapacitants' mighty sound structures. We get highly detailed, unforgiving electric annihilation, invoking images of imaginary lifeforms trapped inside cages of silicon crystals. Occasionally the sound expands into juggernaut drones or floats away into a cavernous space that seems to be inhabited by morbid bats screaming at piercing sub-ultrasonic frequencies. Once again, Mikawa-san shows us all how to create noise with intensity, perspective and character without a hint of compromise. [label info]
[youtube]
Minotaur -- "Obsession" -- CD -- €10
2012 Phage Tapes, PT:160 / The Institute For Organic Conversations, {OR/CO} 40, (ltd. 200)
Minotaur is a power electronics project featuring James Keeler (Wilt) and George Proctor (Mutant Ape). Obsession deals with sexual themes with lyrics appropriated from the book Delta of Venus by Anais Nin. Nin is known for writing short stories in the 40’s about taboo sexual experiences but often discussed erotic situations from a feminine point of view. [label info]
[youtube]
MK9 / Michael Nine -- "Discography And Video 2001 - 2006" -- 2 CD -- €10
2012 Neural Operations, NO 9, (ltd. 500)
A six year retrospective of Michael Nine's work between 2001 and 2006. Material contained on this disc are tracks released under his own name as well as under MK9. Included on the enhanced disc is a web interface with an image gallery and three videos. MK9, is the current project of Michael Nine, it began in the latter half of 2001. Proceeding the end of the controversial and confrontational performances as the renowned project Death Squad, MK9 brings the initiation of a different level of psychological intrusion. Through video projection and audio constructions and performance, MK9 continues to investigate the varying aspects of extreme emotional states interrelated with the human condition and psyche. Under the appellation Death Squad, Michael Nine has performed extensively across the globe. In 1992 he founded Spastik Kommunikations, a record label dedicated to documenting and releasing works from Death Squad and parallel projects. With the inception of his new project a new record label evolved, “Neural Operations”. Which became more suited to the current activities, performances and recordings. Since 1992, Michael Nine has released and produced over 40 solo and compilation audio and video works which have been distributed internationally. Starting in 1995 he began touring and has performed nearly 300 shows around the world. [Amazon] Super jewel case edition.
[youtube]
Murphy, John & Ben Taylor -- "s/t" -- CD -- €10
2014 Cipher Productions, sic 71, (ltd. 500)
This lengthy CD compiles a series of improvisational vignettes recorded by Ben Taylor (Bordel Militaire, Ebola Disco, Chrome Dome) and John Murphy (Shining Vril, Knifeladder, Krang, Death In June and many more) during 2004 and 2005, clandestinely avoiding Ben's ex-girlfriend's intrusions as well as her overly-religious landlord. The results vary from sparse ambient and percussive thrusts to pushing industrial and hallucinatory noise episodes: reflections of the duo's interplay, the weather, the environment and an avoidance of strategy. Jewel case CD with artwork by Rus Brockman. Edition of 500 copies, jewel case edition with 8 page booklet. [label info]
Namlook, Pete & New Composers -- "Russian Spring" -- CD -- €6
2005/2006 Manchester Files, CDMAN 284-06
The music of New Composers plunges the listener into "nirvana" with its spacious sound, absence of boundaries of space and time, its cold nordic beauty. This music is objectively the product of human mind but somehow it manages to reside outside of its realm of understanding, working hypnotically on the listener's consciousness. Paradoxical as it may seem, this is the case when music affects the emotional sphere, brings it under it's own control, "switching off" from the outer world, plunging in endless distant estranged areas of space. The new album was recorded together with Pete Namlook, the master of German electronic school. The album is called "Russian Spring" and indeed one can hear great amount sounds coming from living nature and electronics evoking images of various natural phenomena. [label info]
[youtube]
Notchnoy Prospekt -- "New Physicists (Novye Fiziki)" -- CD -- €6
2004 Random Music / Azia Records, RN-AZCD-1165, (ltd. 500)
"This album comprises fragments of two performances of the landmark "New Physicists" program by NOTCHNOI PROSPEKT with the classic line-up of Alexei Borisov (guitar, voice), Ivan Sokolovsky (keyboards, devices), Dmitry Kutergin (electric violin, devices) and Sergei Pavlov (drums). Recorded live in Tallinn and Vilnius, these concerts are a fascinating snapshot of that time, full of the sort of pounding experimental moments. The original edition includes three instrumental studio out-takes, and the booklet with rare photos and commentary notes by Sokolovsky." Essential for those interested in experimental Soviet new wave. [Fulldozer]
[youtube]
Petrichor -- "In Flagrante Delicto" -- CD -- €10
2014 Cursed Tapes, BANE001
A fifty-minute glorification of death delivered in the form of death ambient of the organic, corrosive, ritualistic and even psychedelic kind. Bring your nightmare horrors to life. Digipak CD. [label info]
Psicopompo (Hermann Kopp + Lorenzo Abattoir) -- "Synchronicity (Theory Of Carl Jung)" -- CD -- €10
2015 4iB Records, 4iB CD/0115/012, (ltd. 250)
Psicopompo is the death guide that accompanies the dying to the afterworld. Synchronicity is the occurrence of two or more events that appear to be meaningfully related but not causally related. From the conceptualization of these two themes combined, German composer/musician Hermann Kopp (of Jorg Buttgereit’s Nekromantik and Der Todesking soundtracks) and Italian Noise Experimentalist Lorenzo Abattoir (Nascitari) merge their unique compositional techniques and source equipment (Hermann Kopp: Violin, Tambourine, Electronics / Lorenzo Abattoir: Shruti Box, Timbal & electronics), leaving the results entirely to chance. The final result is the unity of an audio event joining together 2 separate executions of melody and rhythm without any post production or added effects, bringing out the forlorn emotions of being on the journey to the new world upon death. [label info]
[youtube]
Puissance -- "State Collapse" -- CD -- €10
2004 Regain Records, RR0311-043
Martial industrial / Neoclassic from Sweden.
[youtube]
The Rita -- "Ballet Feet Positions" -- CD -- €10
2014 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 193 / Elettronica Radicale Edizioni, EREAU004, (ltd. 300)
THE RITA’s new full length work is a complex work of obsessive research on discipline, elite beauty, and suffering in the world of Ballet. Edition of 300 copies in digipack with 12 pages booklet including an unsettling text by ex-dancer/writer Simone Paget and Marco Deplano (Wertham)... The main piece of the album is a lengthy composition that starts extremely minimal with subtle textural sounds, interrupted by samples of actual ballet training sessions. Sounds slowly builds up in a over the top harsh noise machinery that brings Sam McKinlay’s classic trademark that crowned him as the godfather of harsh noise wall, with a monolithic build up of violence and intensity... Second track is a power electronics rework of the the same sounds executed by Insubria hostile electronic unit CALIGULA031 that mixed all material with analog/modular sounds and in your face vocals, underlining different possibilities of textural processing... Regarding the original sound sources, Vancouver musician, media artist, trained dancer Kelly Davis rigorously went through various feet positions and movements of classical ballet including ‘Battements’, ‘rotary movements’, ‘connecting and auxiliary movements’, etc. while a Traumatone contact microphone was rigged with a knee support brace to the side of her knee / thigh to capture the sounds of any hint of movement. The different chapters of sound were all repeatedly processed live by THE RITA as Davis went through her various positions and movements. [label info]
[youtube]
Roigk, Stefan -- "The Rising Of Matteo" -- CD -- €12
2015 Tochnit Aleph, TA110, (ltd. 350)
New composition by Berlin-based sound artist Stefan Roigk. "The Rising Of Matteo" is a highly dynamic and eclectic ride between directed feature, audio-art and faked diary. Out of field-recordings made during an artist-residency in Milano and the audio material of his recent installations, Roigk molds spatially complex and overlapping plattforms for tedious noises playing sonic protagonists in an exclusively acoustic audible theatre piece. The hypnotic swarms of organic chants, cascades of rustles, rattles and drones, short cracklings, scratches and moments of exhausting compressions or restfully silence generate a rousing maelstrom of fragmentated narrations with expressive gestures. From density to decay and from intimacy to vast - Roigk creates a dense and highly differentiated composition of intense associations and dramatic film-like atmospheres. [label info]
[soundcloud]
RXAXPXE -- "Of My Own Free Will" -- CD -- €10
2012 Assembly Of Hatred, AOH07, (ltd. 300)
After bombarding us with a number of vicious split EP and cassette appearances on labels like Industrial-Culture and Filth And Violence, the German black-cloaked purveyor of Satanic power electronics RxAxPxE delivers its second album with Of My Own Free Will, a half-hour horror show of cruel feedback, rhythmic engine-like rumbles, and unhinged screaming that I can't get enough of. Not to be confused with the cyber-grind project of the same name, this RxAxPxE has been around since 2005 and has spent the subsequent last couple of years perfecting a sound that is a goddamn perfect fusion of morbid Atrax Morgue-esque drones and insane black metal style screaming, always a winner with me. There's five tracks of that harsh electronic hatred on this album, with suggestive titles like "Despotism (Thy Will)", "Prophets Of Lust" and "Total Devotion (We Are Guilty)" all pointing towards the undercurrent of hardcore misanthropy that creeps through every minute of this disc. The "songs" are mostly minimal sequences of grinding industrial noise, feedback, rhythmic pulses and sudden bursts of spiteful reptilian shrieking or whispered litanies to Satan that suddenly blast out of the background of the mix, rushing up out of the blackness in a gust of reverb-drenched terror. It's an incredibly oppressive listening experience as each track offers some sort of variant on this signature sound; some ultra-distorted percussion shows up later in the album to bring some semblance of variety, as powerful oil-tanker rhythms are banged out endlessly over churning oceans of smoldering black electronic noise. And man, it can crush, with lots of super-heavy electronic drone and seething violence that fans of Slogun and Deathpile will dig. Can't recommend this enough to anyone into heavy, pitch-black power electronics and harsh industrial, this has an evil, single-minded intensity that's all too often lacking in modern PE albums. Comes in jewel case packaging, limited to three hundred copies. [Crusial Blast] This CD is banned for sale at discogs.com.
[youtube]
Sadistic Bliss -- "I & II" -- CD -- €10
2011 Filth And Violence, FILTH&VIOLENCE-52
"Slow, monotonous, filthy audio violence based on repetition, played on bass and drums. No guitar. It's not a man's instrument, you play it like a harp or as if you're working with lace. Ultra dirty yet powerful sound. Harsh vocals. Like slow, prolonged torture and abuse. Starving or alternatively feeding someone to death. Hours of anal rape again and again. Dead or passed out whore and then 'take all the time you need'".
[youtube]
Shock Frontier -- "Mancuerda Confessions" -- CD -- €10
2013 Malignant Records, TumorCD64
Founded some time during 2010, Shock Frontier is the brainchild of Psychomanteum’s Robert Kozletski. Born from an increasing interest in harsher industrial sounds, and aided by long time friend Kyle Carney (Defiantly Fading), Mancuerda Confessions is an expertly composed and finely honed collection of shape shifting, nightmarish emissions and radioactive tonalities, drawing inspiration from some of the early death industrial pioneers, but adding an unique, densely layered and atmospheric style. This is a soundtrack to a world that ends not in a cataclysmic, fiery fashion, but one that slowly decays and rots into oblivion, where swathes of ghostly textures, samples, and disembodied noises morph into murky ambient realms, and caustic frequency reverberations pierce through a bleak, post-apocalyptic haze. After 19 years in existence, it’s arguable that a definitive Malignant sound exists, but if it does, Shock Frontier has managed to come awfully close to capturing it with Mancuerda Confessions. A must for fans of Megaptera, Steel Hook Prostheses, Soldnergeist, and the early CMI sound. In 6 panel eco-wallet, designed by Brian Vdp, and mastered by John Stillings/Steel Hook Audio. [label info]
[youtube]
Shroud Of Vapour -- "Suicide Forest Sessions" -- CD -- €10
2015 4iB Records, 4iB CD/1114/013, (ltd. 250)
Hiroshi Hasegawa, Rohco, L’eclipse Nue (Daniel Sine) and Yoshiko Honda collaborate with one another as Shroud of Vapour in this special project entitled Suicide Forest Sessions. The Suicide Forest in Aokigahara, Japan serves as the recording ground due to its strong historic association with demons in Japanese mythology as well as being a popular place for suicide in Japan. The dense forest and it’s still quiet void of almost all wildlife bring out the very nature of the artists true intent, reflecting the atmosphere of desolation and despair of a haunted suicide ground. The weaving in and out of distant female wails and ambient like soundscapes seem to echo the lost spirits of those that have chosen to take their own lives here. This entire project was recorded using only equipment that required no electricity and relied purely on battery power. Strangely enough, out of a total of 3 recordings that were done that day, only 2 were able to be retrieved, and are thus presented here in their true form. [label info]
Silent Servant -- "Negative Fascination" -- CD -- €10
2012 Hospital Productions, HOS-357
Negative Fascination is the first official full length album from Silent Servant. Juan Mendez has achieved international acclaim as a DJ and is one of the founding producers of the infamous and highly influential Sandwell District label. Long-time followers will feel the effects of a die cast over a decade of precision and dedication to underground minimalist electronic music. Mendez blends his previously stated interpretations of early post-punk, filtered through the monolithic works of Basic Channel with his own progressively nihilistic vision of Industrial. He utilizes a relentless and uncompromising mastery of hard-as-nails sequencer techno at the forefront with dystopian atmospherics filling the void. Negative Fascination bridges disparate factions on ideological grounds, regardless of sound in the age of mutation. [label info]
Skorneg -- "Foehn" -- CD -- €10
2014 Malignant Records, TumorCD75, (ltd. 500)
ollaborative effort between Frédéric Arbour of famed dark ambient label Cyclic Law and his solo project Visions, and Montreal based ambient/experimental project, Skinwell. Conceptually it oscillates around the northern elements of Glaciers, Winds and the exploration of such rugged territories, both physically, intellectually and spiritually. Musically, it brings us 4 tracks of massively scaled power drones, barren ambience, and black hole atmospherics, each piece starting in a more minimal fashion, then slowing escalating into a hypnotic spectrum of melting drift, ascending and descending tones, and undercurrents of distant industrial churn. Only time will tell if this is a one off project, but for now, drone enthusiasts and dark ambient purists can unite and revel in this fantastic offering. 4 panel digipak, lmtd 500 copies. [label info]
[youtube]
The Skull Defekts -- "The Drone Drug" -- CD -- €10
2008 Release The Bats Records, RTB#41, (ltd. 500)
Nordic noise mavens Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall occupy a dark, industrialised end of the drone spectrum, making sounds that are more likely to be associated with machinery or the sounds of a particularly disastrous smelting accident than anything that could be termed as musical. These smoggy stretches of rasp and rumble are at times exasperatingly harsh and prolonged, further compounding the idea that this is more akin to the terrible after-effects of an industrial process than something made artfully, or for that matter deliberately. As the title alludes there's still something oddly engrossing about all this unpleasantness, and its coarseness and ferocity make for a compelling antidote to the more ambient, or academic drones that so often find favour within the genre. [Boomkat]
[youtube]
The Vault / Ames Sanglantes -- split -- CD -- €10
2009 Sophisticate Pleasure Records, SPR-001
Split release of varying atmospheric consolidations sprinkled with a touch of harshness, and swarming frequency agitation and raw rumble reaching almost bombastic proportions. Excellent! [Cipher Productions]
White Walls -- "Malattia Mentale" -- CD -- €10
2011 Peripheral Records, PR002, (ltd. 99)
White Walls — Malattia Mentale, a disturbing journey into mental illness, that purges the depths of Industrial Noise, epic Dark Ambient and terrifying samples. White Walls is a project of K.Mitchell (also of Inhibition) from +Final Trauma Recordings+ and his new label: Reverse Records UK. Highly Recommended!! [label info]
Whitewater Orgasm -- "When Was I Ever Wrong?" -- CD -- €10
2012 L. White Records, LW-070, (ltd. 200)
Do you like power electronics from Finland in the way of FREAK ANIMAL or FILTH&VIOLENCE? So here you can have it! 3 releases from WHITEWATER ORGASM before came only in a limitation of less than 50 copies each! A fulltime album of finest power electronics mixed noise walls, blowingly harsh vocals and ritual synth landscapes! [label info]
Wolf Eyes & John Wiese -- "Collection" -- CD -- €10
2006 Hanson Records, HN 155
This CD is a collection of the WOLF EYES w/ JOHN WIESE 7-inch and two CD-R's originally released in very limited editions on AMERICAN TAPES in 2003-04. Digitally re-mastered by Wiese this year, and finally available all together! Also features original artwork for all releases in FULL COLOR! (originals were black photocopies on colored paper). note: This should NOT BE CONFUSED with the recently released WE&W - EQUINOX CD on TRONIKS!!! [label info]
[youtube]
Zeitkratzer / John Duncan -- "Fresh" -- CD -- €10
2002 Allquestions, AQ-03 / X-Tract, x-t 2005
ZEITKRATZER is an experimental / improvisational ensemble from Berlin using classical instruments, here they re-work two pieces of JOHN DUNCAN and create two great drone ambient – pieces with lots of unusual sounds in it (but nearly nothing reminds on the original sound-sources), and very intense noisy parts in piece 2. One of our favourite CDs from the last time here at drone-headquarters, so we really recommend to check it out to ANY drone-lover! [Drone Records]
[youtube]
Cassettes
Bad Sector -- "Pressurized Music" -- C-52 -- €9
1997/2017 Luce Sia, 027, (ltd. 60)
LUCE SIA is extremely proud to announce its release n. 027!! Our reprint of BAD SECTOR's "densest noisiest and rarest" (a/n) album, originally released in his early and more industrial-oriented years by the American label Freedom From..! Available as usual in a limited and numbered edition of 60 copies only!! [label info]
Belorukov, Ilia + Luis Lopes + Konstantin Samoilov / Albert Cirera + Dmitriy Lapshin + Ramon Prats -- split -- C-52 -- €6
2017 Spina!rec, sr032, (ltd. 60)
We glad to present two improv trios on the first Spina!Rec's release in 2017. Last year, Luis Lopes, Portuguese guitarist, visited Russia: Ilia Belorukov (alto saxophone, electronics) and Konstantin Samolovov (drums) met him in St. Petersburg and made a recording at Spina!Studio. It turned out to be a no-ordinary mixture of free improvisation with quiet noise where scratchings and rustles were followed by a powerful wall of sound. The Russian tour of Spanish duo of Albert Cirera (soprano and tenor saxophone) and Ramon Prats (drums) took place on last September: they have played a concert in Moscow with Dmitriy Lapshin from Brom band. Now, the listeners can feel the atmosphere of that evening: a naturalness of acoustic improvisation with solos and unprecedented teamwork gave us another remarkable example of international collaboration. Spina wish to say a special thanks to our Moscow partners from NoBodiesMusic booking-agency who made these concerts possible. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Blank Disc Trio / Ex You -- split -- CS -- €5
2016 Spina!rec, sr028, (ltd. 25)
Spina goes further to Eastern Europe! We have prepared the split record of two Serbian trios, Blank Disc Trio and Ex You, featuring guest musicians. This is an improvised music in all its colors: non-standard use of traditional musical instruments, their preparations, electronic processing. Blank Disc Trio are veterans of improv scene, they have been around since 1997 and have performed at various European festivals. On their side, the unit consisting of electro guitar, electronics and saxophone were joined by a grand piano and a second electro guitar. This quintet produces a surprisingly delicate and chamber sound. Ex You is a modern but already experienced collective, one of the most prominent in Serbia. Electric guitar, electronics and percussion with invited cello; saturated and slowly developing textures attract attention in an unobtrusive way. [label info]
[bandcamp]
Dupleix, Leo & Lauri Hyvarinen / Radioda -- split -- C-54 -- €5
2016 Spina!rec, sr031, (ltd. 40)
We are glad to present the split cassette by young european improvisers! Finnish guitarist Lauri Hyvärinen is known to our listeners as the half of duo with Ilia Belorukov whose recording was released on Spina!Rec in 2014. At this time, a resident from Helsinki introduces his duo with Léo Dupleix from France who plays on laptop and contact mic. Their music is filled of fragility and mystery with hidden internal energy. This is a new reading of acoustic guitar and electronics! Radioda is a duo of Piotr and Mikolaj Tkacz from Poland who work with several radio receivers. Their music is more expressive but not least focused on sound colors. By limiting themselves to use only radio sounds without any mixtures, duo builds textures in collage-sonoristic style where the famous songs as well as different patterns of noises and disturbances can be found. Listen to the radio! [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Grimoire -- "La Sorcellerie (Demo 2)" -- CS -- €27
2008 self-released, (ltd. 1)
Russian Lo-Fi Dark Ambient with gothic influences recorded in home studio on a tape recorder. Primarily synthesizer music with lots of unusual sonic moves, drawing inspiration from Middle Age aesthetics and horror, reminding also the retro electronic soundtracks for old Soviet sci-fi movies. For the fans of such Russian underground projects as Navia, Hladna, Lord Black, Zevodvozgon', etc. Hand-painted cover & cassette shell. The cassette is marked as # 1/0, so you're getting a real unique artifact here. [YAOP]
Mars-69 -- "Povstrechal Gaute Granli" -- CS -- €5
2016 Spina!rec, sr030, (ltd. 25)
Mars-69 povstrechal Gaute Granli. Where did they meet? They met In St. Petersburg at Spina!Studio. When was it? It was on June of the year 16. Gaute brought Champagne but the singers-improvisers were serious and otmechali prazdnik. There was no produkt pervoi neobhodimosti and one of them had to progulyatsa po bezdorozhyu waving away osa, while most stoic have been setting up the equipment. After only half an hour the session poshla nakonec-to and Russian discordant songs with the touch of Norwegian flair came on. So, molchalivaya opera turned out. Look forward for the next meeting! [label info]
[bandcamp]
Restive Plaggona -- "Orders Rejected" -- CS -- €8
2017 NEN Records, NEN14, (ltd. 45)
Restive Plaggona is a Greek project, which grows more and more intriguing with every release. This new album by Dimitris Doukas, a producer from Corfu, has a bright cinematic character and would perfectly suit a cyberpunk dystopia. The plot is populated by sharp-toothed post-industrial creatures with a technoid bite (do you remember that dream you had last night?). However, narrative is not limited to playing cat and mouse with monsters. Rather, a supposed protagonist enters into rather whimsical relationships with them. The album's name, according to the author, is "political in nature and refers to our obligation to reject any relationship with power and order". In this case the disturbing tunes of 'Orders Rejected' can be treated as a story about dangers on the way to Edem of social self-organisation (or its unexpected implications). [label info]
[bandcamp]
Svibovitch, Andrey & Sergey Vandyshev -- split -- CS -- €5
2016 Spina!rec, sr027, (ltd. 25)
Spina continues diving deeper and deeper into the experiments with electronic sound. In this time, it's our great pleasure to introduce two musicians from the city on the Neva river creating their compositions based on digital signal processing techniques and algorithmic approach. The work of Andrey Svibovitch lies on the basis of voice samples processing: their deconstruction and subsequent manipulations allow to create a completely new palette which is used for designing abstract sound canvases. For the first time, this work has been presented at MARS Center during "Life Zone" exposition (Moscow, 2015) as an audio-visual installation prepared in collaboration with video artist Maxim Svishev. On the B-side, one can find Pure Data experiments of Sergey Vandyshev. He is engaged in electronic music composing for a long time, but his debut performance took place only this year with the support of Spina. Creating digital generators with the granular synthesis algorithms, Sergey gets the very interesting timbres which self-organize in an almost song compositions. [press-release]
[bandcamp]
Video
Vetrophonia -- "Vizualizacija" -- DVD -- €10
2017 Ultrasomnambula, USU 01, (ltd. 450)
The video disc "Vizualizacija" by St. Petersburg-based project Vetrophonia (Alexander Lebedev-Frontov & Nick Soudnick) consists of several parts. First of all, this is the completely new multimedia album created in 2013-2016 with the help of Yuri Kovalskiy (Worms, Monument Straha), entitled "33 1/3". The album is comprised of the carefully crafted half-hour long collage of various industrial and retro-futuristic sketches, analogue video-noises and meticulously constructed soundtrack perfectly matching the visual part. Despite the quite abstract nature of this work, it keeps the viewer in suspense during all its length and dense saturation of images is compensated by the peculiar sense of humour. The disc also contains the digital version of the live material "Turning Virgings Into Doves" originally released in 1996 on VHS, and the recording of a gig in Experimental Sound Gallery (ESG-21), St. Petersburg, played on 11.03.2013 to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of publication of the famous "L'arte dei Rumori" manifesto by Luigi Russolo.
Vetrophonia -- "Vizualizacija" -- DVD + DVD-R -- €14
2017 Ultrasomnambula, USU 01, (ltd. 50)
First 50 copies of "Vizualizacija" come with an additional DVD-R "Vetrophonia Pour Eugene Deslawe" containing two films by Eugène Deslaw - the avantgarde director from 1920-s - with specially created soundtracks by Vetrophonia.
Flea market
Duncan, John / Kontakt Der Junglinge / C.M. Von Hausswolff - s/t - CD - VG+ - 2007 - Die Stadt - DS104 - Ltd. 500 - €10.0Gendreau, Michael - 55 Pas De La Ligne Au No.3 - CD - NM/VG+ - 2002 - 23five - 23five 002 - €10.0
Lust For Youth - Solar Flare - CD - M/VG+ - 2011 - Avant! - AV!010 - Ltd. 300 - €10.0
Nazi UFO Commander - Radiant Entropie - CD - NM/VG+ - 2008 - Old Europa Cafe - OECD 102 - €10.0
Northaunt & Svartsinn - The Borrowed World - CD - NM/VG+ - 2013 - Power & Steel - PAS 34 - €10.0
Novatron - New Rising Sun - CD - NM/VG+ - 2000 - Cold Spring - CSR28CD - Ltd. 1000 - €10.0
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio - Make Love, And War (The Wedlock Of Roses) - CD - VG/NM - 2000 - Cold Meat Industry - CMI.84 - €15.0
Smell & Quim - The Christmas Album - CD - VG+ - 1993/2010 - Industrial Recollections - €10.0
Smell & Quim - A Sod's As Good As A Wank To A Blind Arse - CD - VG+ - 1993/2010 - Industrial Recollections - €10.0
Don't forget to check the full list of rare & used items with all details, it's here.
IV. Back in stock
1000schoen -- "Amish Glamour" -- 2 CD -- €12
2008/2012 Nitkie, patch ten, (ltd. 500)
Reissue of the album, previously released on CDR (Lucioleditions / taalem, 2008). Set of two CDs, the first of which contains remastered version of album "Amish Glamour", the second - "Forests At Night" - a new work of Helge Siehl (ex-Maeror Tri), consisting of two parts. Limited edition of 500 copies in a six-panel digisleeve. [label info]
[youtube]
1000schoen -- "Paintings At The Nightsky" -- 2 CD -- €14
2014 Nitkie, patch 11, (ltd. 500)
New milestone work on double CD from the german experimental music old stager Helge Siehl (ex-Maeror Tri) is devoted to destroying power of mankind, spreading its essence in war. The music is originated from the old photo made in times of WWII you can see at the albums cover - the air raid of allies over Kiel, which totally destroyed this city. Based on the vibrating sound of metal sheets and rhythmic patterns of bomb explosions, the music transposes this image to another dimension, embracing the tragical eminence of this eternal ritual of war. Limited edition of 500 copies in a six-panel digipak. [press-release]
[youtube]
1000schoen -- "Yoshiwara" -- 2 CD -- €12
2011 Nitkie, patch seven, (ltd. 500)
Esoteric realism is the good term for 1000schoen works. With every new album, the meaning of this wordplay is getting more obvious, though also unexpected at the same time. "Yoshiwara" is not exception, it was first released by Kafue Systems in 2007, in very limited run on CDR with handmade photographic cover. The title should be familiar for those who knows the famous movie "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang, it was the nightclub where the main character Maria was working as the dancer. But it's also the red light district name, in 17th century Tokyo. However, the music we can find here can be hardly imagined as the soundtrack for the new version of "Metropolis". It's a trademark ambient symphony, with melodies dwelling somewhere on the edge of harmonic spheres. Both in short and long tracks, the impact is incredible - for the fans of experimental ambient sounds, it's another adventurous listening experience. This re-edition includes the second CD with two new and previously unreleased tracks, recorded in 2011. [press-release]
Altieri / Balestrazzi / Becuzzi -- "In Memoriam J.G. Ballard" -- CD -- €10
2012 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 159
James G. Ballard (1930-2009) was one of the most important and brilliant contemporary writers and his death has left a big cultural void. The influence of Ballard’s aesthetics has produced on millennium-end generations a true cult, inspiring artists and art-works in all disciplines. Yet nobody, until now, has decided to dedicate an entire work to his memory. Thus, by mutual agreement, Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, TH26 ..), Simon Balestrazzi (TAC, Kino Glaz, Candor Chasma, Dream Weapon Ritual ..) and Gianluca Becuzzi (Limbo, Pankow, Kinetix ..), have decided to dedicate this album to the master of post modern literature and his work. The nine tracks of that album take their titles from so many Ballard novels, trying to recreate his special visionary mood into music. A universe ruled by free dreaming associations: eroticism, technology, consumerism and cruelty mingle together to create a new perception of reality. A constant dialectic between micro-events and macro-rumorism, between digital pointillism and white noise, in between static drones, fluctuations, shifts and sudden changes of scenery. The changing environment is producing sound architectures where the organic and the inorganic are no longer self-conscious, casting vague on each other. The Marilyn Monroe hologram projected on the wall of a motel near an airport is sexier than the original. James Ballard is dead, long live James Ballard. This is best Italian Industrial in good old-school mood! [press-release]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
Anal Sadist -- "Ugly, Still" -- CD -- €10
2010 Impulsy Stetoskopu, 024, (ltd. 250)
A solo act by William Christman, a US performance / noise artist and owner of Turbine Cassettes. "Ugly, Still" reissues two tapes ("Austere" and "Chaw / Shotgun Head") and unreleased live tracks, spanning the years 1987-1997. Inspired by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varese, Morton Subotnick, Fre Firth, Merzbow and other Japanese noise artists, Anal Sadist has managed to come up with his own style of industrial. Ltd x 250 copies in black sandpaper envelopes. [Cold Spring]
Beyond Sensory Experience -- "Ratan" -- CD -- €10
2003 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 064
Third & final part of the BSE trilogy during 2003 ! It takes off where Urmula ended, spiralling further down the dark ambient soundscapes. wonderfull dark ambient sounds with exoterical inspiration from Mr. Drakh (star of MZ.412) & the scientist K. Meizter, digipack plus booklet in the same vain of the 1st & 2nd album! [label info]
Bianchi, Maurizio & Mauthausen Orchestra -- "Spiritual Noises" -- CD -- €10
2012 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 155
Historical collaboration between two of the fathers of Italian (and not only Italian) Old-School Industrial: MAURIZIO BIANCHI [M.B.] and PIERPAOLO ZOPPO [M.O. / MAUTHAUSEN ORCHESTRA]. “Creating noise is determined by the presence of an original particle to which randomly apply an alteration to convey a voltage-activated disturbing that determinates the electro-phonic perturbation. As a result we obtain the SPIRITUAL NOISES”. Sounds by M.B.: ancient loops, modern metals and futuristic waves, M.O.: synthesizer, loops, noise effects. Final sound manuipulation by Gianluca Favaron: masterful amalgam and mixing. [press-release]
[youtube]
Bischoff, John -- "Aperture" -- CD -- €10
2003 23five, 23five 006
John Bischoff has been composing music with computers and electronics since the mid 70s, and has always focused his compositions towards malleable forms that best suit live performances. Within this context, Bischoff seeks to position the construction of sound far beyond the common perception of synthetic music as a mere simulation of the intrinsic sounds of traditional instruments. Instead, Bischoff qualifies his work as the realization of a "reflective intention," where he determines sonic structure not only through the predetermined elements which go into a piece, but also through the active process of listening to the music as it happens and responding accordingly. In describing his initial attraction towards computer technologies, Bischoff states, "Here was a single device that could contain a seemingly infinite range of pieces or configurations of elements and that could be interacted with in real-time." During the '70s when programming involved crude systems of binary code, Bischoff’s vision of the possibilities for computer-based composition fused to performative agency seemed implausible; yet in hindsight, his artistic imperatives were incredibly prescient of contemporary tools such as the nearly omnipotent audio synthesis language Max/MSP, which has been at the core of Bischoff's recent work... An aptly named set of compositions, Aperture opens the possibility for multiple readings through a series of diverse techniques ranging from additive synthesis to FM synthesis to sampled-based processes. Each of the pieces within the album was recorded in real-time with no overdubs. Aperture introduces itself with clusters of samples that sprawl with the deliberate pacing of Morton Feldman’s later periods, yet Bischoff renders what might be recognizable citations of a piano or percussion as pointillist condensations of digitized pixels and precise plastic details. During the ensuing pieces, Bischoff unleashes coarse streams of electrons which flange and pulse within the caustic firestorm of divergent timestretching, giving the impression that Bischoff is quite literally tearing the fabric of sound. Bischoff also presents a collaboration with Kenneth Atchley in complementing the oversaturated physical noise of Atchley's water fountain sculptures with short digital articulations that ride on the top of Atchley's dense texture. [label info]
[youtube]
Brume & TBC -- "House Unwillently" -- CD-R -- €7
2001 Wachsender Prozess, WP 05
Collaboration work between Brume & tbc from sold out LP record. You'll hear a rich varity of diffrent industrial styles: rhythmical, droning, cut-up and even melodical parts in short compositions. It's electro-acustic music with a popular feeling. [label info]
Cloama -- "Revisionist Knowledge" -- CD -- €10
2005 Freak Animal Records, FREAK-CD-028, (ltd. 500)
Brutal Finnish power electronics.
Coelacanth -- "The Glass Sponge" -- CD -- €10
2003 23five, 23five 004
Authored by the Coelacanth duo of Loren Chasse and Jim Haynes, The Glass Sponge takes an abstracted yet empathetic view of its allegorical subject. Throughout The Glass Sponge, Coelacanth sets textural flutters, squeaks, and scrabblings in motion. These brittle events punctuate the boundless excursions of minimalism brought to life through elegaic bell tones, ghostly feedback, and tuning fork resonance, all spiralling together into translucent drones. Despite the obvious submariner references for this album, it may be a surprise that very little water spilled into the recording of The Glass Sponge. Loren Chasse is also heavily involved in the much acclaimed collective Jewelled Antler, where the multiple personalities of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, The Franciscan Hobbies, The Famous Boating Party, Child Readers, and Of speak in the tongues of pastorally psychedelic improvisations. Jim Haynes is an artist describing his craft in the former with the pithy statement, “I rust things.” He might also be known for his writings from The Wire. [label info]
Contagious Orgasm -- "Invasion" -- CD -- €10
2009 SSSM, SSSM-111
From the outside space to the inner space. Processed field recordings & electro-acoustic sound art collage, a mixture of constituted delicately industrial and noisy ambient sounds. [label info]
Current 93 -- "A Little Menstrual Night Music" -- CD -- €8
2003/2008 Soyuz / Durtro, DSM 5485-08
Russian official reissue of this album - with all titles and notes in Russian language only.
Failing Lights -- "s/t" -- CD -- €10
2010 Intransitive Recordings, INT036
An evocative work of bleak electronic atmosphere and suffocating dread, Failing Lights is the intensely personal vision of Michigan (via Lexington, KY) artist Mike Connelly. While he has toured the world as 1/3 of legendary industrial/noise units Hair Police and Wolf Eyes, Connelly spends his days crafting a much different sound on his own. Under the Failing Lights flag, he has self-published a nearly uncountable number of cassettes and CDRs of rough drones, detuned improvised grit, blown-out burl, and unstable acoustics in tiny editions that quickly vanish into collector-land. Intransitive is proud to present the defining – and first widely available – Failing Lights statement, an album of sinewy horror with a fine-tuned beauty within its darkness. A single piece in five sections, Failing Lights begins with disquietingly barren negative space. As the album creeps forward, it steadily dispenses sheets of diffuse throat-scratch and skittering strings, culminating in a blast of molten organ. Not noise, ambient, improv, black metal, or anything else: this is pure Failing Lights. [press-release]
Fire In The Head -- "As The Nest Burns" -- CD -- €10
2005 Autarkeia, acd 009, (ltd. 400)
Fire In The Head is probably one of the garish artists of noise/power electronics, representing the famous school of the USA. The project's author Michael Page previously participated at live performances of the legendary Giovanni Balistrer's project SLOGUN, also closely linked to the livery of NY sound terrorists. As The Nest Burns is short, but highly hysterical, brutal and dark album of noise/power electronics stylistics. Michael Page masterly plays with amplitude of different tracks intension. Slackened, leaden, psychedelic sounds overgrow into the avalanche of terribly aggressive and hysterical noise, gradually flooding back as unusual and uncomfortable sound stream. As The Nest Burns is a sort of element of otherworld civilization, starting its sudden extension, transformation and smashing attack. There are many fragments of distorted vocal in this album, making the tracks especially threatful. This is a completely new, reformed attack of USA power electronics tradition against the normal and moral world. Do you know what happens as the nest burns??? Then the children burn!!! [press-release]
[mp3] [mp3] [mp3]
First Law -- "A Future So Bright" -- CD -- €12
2012 Loki Foundation, LOKI 58
In its 20 years of existence -meanwhile the mastermind Andreas Wahnmann also has been active in several other musical projects- FIR§T LAW released six full length CDs up to now and developed a trademark in sound research that is truly genre defying. The album title and the cover art for this magical 7th album stand in strong contrast to the musical content and the album manifests its ironical and deliberately conflicting nature right from the start. Deep and throbbing rhythmic patterns, endless layers of guitars droning and manipulated vocals are opposed by disturbingly beautiful melodies. The complexity of the recordings just emphasizes its depressing nature and takes the listener on a journey through sound and emotion. A FUTURE SO BRIGHT is nothing less than an outstanding sound-scape that flows like a hallucinatory maelstrom and marks the darkest release of FIR§T LAW so far. [press-release]
[soundcloud]
First Law -- "Terrorforming" -- CD -- €12
2009 Loki Foundation, LOKI 49
The 6th full-length album of FIR§T LAW is setting real moments of artificial and creative substance. Intermittent bass and percussive elements as well as thrilling sound structures arrange a wide aural spectrum from ambient to drones through analogue modulations to complex compositions with outstanding vocals on top. Conceptually don't get it wrong, this album is not about religious airheads getting their way. This is not about the threat terrorist attacks impose on any of us nor has it the intention to proliferate violence as a viable way to change the status quo. At the least, as long your opinion stands against the opinion of the majority, you are pretty much out of luck. No, this album is about leverage; it is about deception and opportunity, by accident or by design; it is about resignation and self-delusion; but most of all, this album is about fear. [press-release]
Grunt -- "Someone Is Watching" -- CD -- €10
1998/2011 Force Majeure, Force 001
Finally re-issue of this 1998 tape! Perhaps 8 years ago started re-issue project has slowly moved towards completion. Back in 2005 Hermetique remastered original tape material for CD. And now finally out and available! Late 90's style noisy PE from Grunt. Themed on surveillance, control society and big brother paranoia. [Freak Animal]
[youtube]
Hegre, John -- "Colors Don't Clash" -- CD -- €9
2006 Dekorder, Dekorder 017, (ltd. 500)
Returning to his original instrument the electric guitar, Hegre has produced an extremely diverse album mutating from hypnotic computer-loop drones to some glorious free analogue noise, from abstract banjo-like sketches to thick washes of sludgy doom metal and roaring noise rock, from divine electroacoustic sounds to otherworldly country-esque and classical guitar picking, all within one track, and often all at once, with small and simple melodies lurking within huge drifts of sound. And not one element sounds out of place here, it’s rather like the collages of seemingly inappropriate bits and pieces create a totally unique surreal and creepy atmosphere. Dozens of small details suddenly appear from nowhere, transforming even the most brutal noise attacks into complex textural arrangements, making this the most essential guitar album of the year. [label info]
Heinz Hopf -- "Gothenburg" -- CD -- €10<
2013 Triangle Records, TR-52 / Outcry / Random Monster, RanMon:1
After having delighted in a few excellent tapes and a LP it is time to enjoy this first CD of the duet from Gothenburg, Sweden. Dan Johansson and Matthias Andersson are some of the best at what they do. The noise is solid, dense like lead, free of intricate experiments and gloomy pathos. It is made of simplicity and power. Pure pleasure. [press-release]
[soundcloud]
Hogan, Anni -- "Mountain" -- CD/DVD -- €10
2011 Cold Spring, CSR132CD
'Mountain' is an artistic collaboration between musicians Anni Hogan, Robert Strachan and Itchy Ear, film maker Bob Wass and mountaineer Cathy O'Dowd. Hogan and Itchy Ear originally worked on a series of piano pieces inspired by Rene Daumal's 'Mount Analogue' and the superior wisdom of mountains, using O'Dowds Himalayan conquests for particular authentic inspiration. Robert and Anni used these pieces and the Himalayan peaks as a template for painting a soundwave soundscape around the piano compositions. Cathy has supplied all the photographs for the album sleeve, beautifully edited by Abby Helasdottir, and Cathy has performed a fascinating and revealing monologue over the piece 'Deathzone'. The 'Mountain' film has been created by Bob Wass from Cathy's original film footage of her Everest expeditions. The film and soundtrack are an experimental 'journey' to explore sonically and visually the nature of 'journey and mountains'. DualDisc. [press-release]
[youtube]
irr. app. (ext.) -- "Kreiselwelle" -- CD -- €10
2009 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 016
irr. app. (ext.) is the sound-engineering project of Californian M.S. Waldron, whose liminal slippages and detourned croons have been spotted recently on stage in Nurse With Wound. Yet for all of the antics that are required for the NWW spectacle, Mr. Waldron still dedicates himself in the parallel pursuits of irr. app. (ext.) with a discography that reads more like a wunderkammer of uncanny investigations into futility declared as its reverse... Kreiselwelle is the third and final installment to a body of works that irr. app. (ext.) has composed under the influence of Wilhelm Reich, the unorthodox 20th Century psychologist who proposed amongst many hypotheses, an interconnectivity between energy, organisms, and the entire cosmos. The title to this album translates as 'spiral wave,' a structuralist form which Reich had observed throughout nature within numerous systems, whether that be the grand arcs of galaxies down to the radial symmetries of micro-organisms. For Kreiselwelle, Mr. Waldron returns to the same collection of field recordings which began this trilogy that includes Ozeanische Gefühle and Cosmic Superimposition; however, he restricted himself to those sounds with spiralling origins: resonating springs, the sounds of the ocean cyclically churning over pebbles on the beach, the wafting of air around various objects, or simply a lamp-shade spinning in place. The resulting recording develops as an organic sublimation of one sound transforming from one state into another and then another. Motorized sounds of mechanical toys set askew settle into a tremolo phase pattern of electrical vibrations. These in turn morph into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. Many of the sounds seem to have origins in objects that are broken, obsolete, or just plain wrong; but through Waldron's deft alchemy, these sounds are allowed to flourish in this richly dark and oddly serene amalgamation. [press-release]
[youtube]
irr. app. (ext.) -- "Ozeanische Gefugle" -- CD -- €10
2001/2004 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 002
irr. app. (ext) is the work of California-based sound artist Matt Waldron, whose collected body of work is far too important to continue to be forgotten. During the past decade, only two full albums -- Dust Pincher Appliances (2003 on Crouton) and An Uncertain Animal, Ruptured; Tissue Expanding in Conversation (1997 on Fire, Inc.) -- have seen the light of day despite the fact that perhaps a dozen albums have been completed. The public silence for irr. app. (ext) was never by Waldron's design, as numerous recording deals collapsed, one after the other. The story becomes all the more of conundrum as these misadventures of neglect and ignorance occurred despite Waldron's high-profile collaborations with Nurse With Wound and Stilluppsteypa. If a humble organization like the Helen Scarsdale Agency can have its say, then we speak to remove whatever curses that have haunted irr. app. (ext.) in the past and provide the world with the opportunity to revel in the spectacle and the beauty that is Matt Waldron's art. Had things gone differently, Ozeanische Gefuhle would have been one of the lost irr. app. (ext.) recordings. That would have been a shame for Ozeanische Gefuhle stands as an impeccable composition of post-surrealist dronescaping rivaling such masterpieces as The Hafler Trio's Kill The King, Jonathan Coleclough & Andrew Chalk's Sumac, and Nurse With Wound's Soliloquy For Lilith. The title has origins with Freud and earlier thinkers; yet Waldron came across Ozeanische Gefuhle (which translates from the German as "oceanic feelings") in his studies of Wilhelm Reich who referenced the term to describe the natural state of every healthy organism as connected to and engaged with the world around it, with its energies flowing from the center outwards. For Waldron, Reich's ideas became the starting point for a metonymic exercise seeking to discover that which is near a signifier and spiral beyond each successive discovery along a complicated aesthetic thread by way of intuition and accident. The album tumbles through a series of sympathetic dronings, field recordings, and performative gestures, continuously traversing the emotional polarities of psychological tension and externalized jouissance. The album begins with a heavily processed flutter of sustained woodwinds accompanied by thunderous rumbles in the distance before dispersing amidst Bernhard Hermann-esque slashings of discordant strings. Later on, the grotesque pathos of a Wurlitzer organ dissolves into a blackened emptiness that envelopes the complex resonant frequencies from Waldron's slow, deliberate performance upon bowls and bells. Despite the incredible depth of his source materials, Waldron displays an uncanny intellect that reflects all of his wandering passages through the lens of a melancholic ambience. Simply put, Ozeanische Gefuhle is a wonder to behold. [press-release]
Isomer -- "Face Toward The Sun" -- CD -- €10
2009 Tesco Organisation, TESCO 076
Isomer's third cd with Tesco takes a sharp turn toward more aggressive territory, with the raw industrial hinted at in previous outings getting a proper airing. The dark ambient textures for which he is known still feature, but Face Toward the Sun forges new stylistic ground for the project. From the throbbing electronics of the opening track, through power electronics, walls of noise, violent vocal deliveries and carefully structured dark ambience, this is a characteristically varied album. Never one to shy from a dirty old blending of styles, a nice little martial ditty even makes an appearance for the militant in all of us. Face Toward the Sun was assembled from improvisations, previously unused material and nights of MS-20 hard-ons, making a lusty, varied album of industrial music. Some of the tracks here has been already presented on the well received DVD Cold Meat Live in Australia, where Isomer delivered one of the most surprising gigs of the festival. The studio versions of the tracks here will appeal to listeners of martial industrial as well as to an industrial dark ambient audience. Presented in a double gatefold digipack with potent imagery, total running time: 58 min. [press-release]
[youtube]
Kahn, Jason -- "Vanishing Point" -- CD -- €10
2009 23five, 23five 015, (ltd. 500)
The American sound-artist Jason Kahn is an exacting technician when it comes to the principles of noise. However, his application of noise in composition is not that of Merzbow or Masonna, with teethgnashing explosions of distortion, feedback, and volume; rather, Kahn's psychoacoustic techniques employ the specific frequencies of white, pink, brown, and blue noise in works that reflect the ideals of minimalism. These are sounds that regularly occur through the constant vibration of machinery; and Kahn is more than happy to appropriate such events through field recording. He also generates complementary noises through systems that involve the rattling architecture of a drum kit or through his trusted analog synthesizer... Vanishing Point is a 47 minute composition, which Kahn has dedicated to his daughter who died shortly before Kahn began working on this piece in 2007. For all of the phenomenological studies and stoic mesmerism attributed to much of his catalogue, Vanishing Point is a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and those aforementioned colored noises. Soon into the piece, Kahn introduces a flickered ghost of melody whose luminous tones manifest ever so slightly against his contrails of noise. The upper register hiss and statics of these layered noises slowly drop in pitch and frequency over the duration of the piece, revealing subharmonic rumblings and an oceanic current that tugs at the agitated textures of Kahn's surface noises. This glacial, minimalist shift renders Vanishing Point elegant and meditative... In Kahn's own words, "At first I thought of the title in reference to Louise's passing, that point where she vanished from our lives, but on further reflection I came to see the compostion as dealing with other vanishing points. I address the idea of one's sense of time vanishing, being immersed in sound and entering a place of timelessness. There is also the idea of boundaries between electronic and acoustic sound vanishing, as in this piece I draw on both sources. And finally, in the sense of aural perspective extending to the point where we imagine it ending, as the compostion stretches on towards its vista, slowly vanishing." [press-release]
Ke/Hil -- "Hellstation" -- CD -- €10
2010 Tesco Organisation, TESCO 075
After 1 year of recording and production, one improvised gig at the Genocide Organ concert in Leipzig 2010 and finally the 1st offical live display at Mannheim 16.10.2010, Tesco can offer the 1st fullenght release of this new group with known individuals. B.Moloch and W.Herich, both active in Genocide Organ and Anenzephalia, joined new forces and started working on a more personal concept. The result is a dark oppressive sound stretching their personal limits - working with what surrounds them. A display of a worldview that only seems to see hope in escapism or cynism. Musically old school industrial music in its full range from power electronics to dark ambient tracks. [label info]
[youtube]
Kleistwahr -- "This World Is Not My Home" -- CD -- €12
2014 Fourth Dimension Records, FDCD91, (ltd. 300)
The latest album from Gary Mundy (Ramleh), who has been using this moniker since the early ‘80s to further furrow the worlds of intense electronics, harrowing psychedelia and violent or claustrophobic atmospherics he is already known for. Less prolific than Ramleh, Kleistwahr began with several cassette releases on Gary’s own much revered Broken Flag imprint and has subsequently been afforded more releases by labels such as Noise War, Noiseville and Harbinger Sound. This World Is Not My Home collects seven pieces recorded between 2013 and 2014 of mostly instrumental sprawling guitar & electronic works. Released in an edition of 300 in a Broken Flag-type sleeve. [press-release]
[youtube]
Kolyada, Olegh feat. Albireon -- "Prosa Profana" -- CD -- €10
2011 Nitkie, patch eight, (ltd. 500)
"Prosa Profana" is a follow-up to "Guernica Macrocosmica" and the 2nd post mortem dedication by Olegh Kolyada (FIRST HUMAN FERRO) - a tribute to his father Vasyl Kolyada, collaborating with Albireon neo-folkers this time. A low-key unison of dissonant ex-Soviet schlager melodies and forefront Italian vocals in a tender naive manner offer a unique nostalghic experience. The release comes in a beautiful digipak with a 12-page booklet. [label info]
[youtube]
Land:Fire -- "Shortwave Transmission" -- CD -- €10
2009 Power & Steel, PAS 25
Coming back with an all new album after more than 5 years the Alter Ego of HERBST9 delivers another outstanding soundtrack about radiological warfare and it's debris during the last century. SWT is like a massive energy spike with a surrounding maelstrom of machine noises, rhythms, interferrences and electromagnetic waves. The complex arrangement of technical sounds creates a deadly atmosphere of fallout and devastated landscapes with an apocalyptic aura reflected by dissonant harmonies and deep shimmering ambient scapes.
Presented in a 6 panel digipack. Mastered by Andreas Wahnmann. [press-release]
[youtube]
Laporte, Jean-Francois -- "Soundmatters" -- CD -- €10
2007 23five, 23five 009
The compositions of French-Canadian sound artist Jean-Franзois Laporte have rarely emerged beyond of the context of international electro-acoustic competitions and festivals. His only widely distributed piece has been Mantra, which Metamkine published in 1997 through their Cinйma pour l’oreille series. This exceptional work of acoustic minimalism drew considerable notoriety thanks in part to a public misidentification that Laporte sourced the composition on the resonant frequencies of a Zamboni, the ice-resurfacing vehicle used exclusively in ice rinks. With its luminous sounds gracefully shifting between the gentle mechanized purr and excited metal vibration, we can easily forgive those who wanted to assign authorship to an eccentric machine. Yet, Laporte reports that the source to Mantra is an air compressor, albeit one that resides in an ice rink. With the original publication of Mantra long out of print, 23five Incorporated is delighted to present Soundmatters, an anthology of Jean-Franзois Laporte compositions including the aforementioned 25-minute masterpiece Mantra... The four accompanying compositions on Soundmatters all share the unique sensibility found on Mantra which balances formal precision and intuitive expressionism, resulting in a series of visceral compositions that build upon the traditions of minimalism, graphical composition, and phonography. Here on Soundmatters, Laporte reveals his colossal talents for experiential composition through deftly processed recordings of tumultuous windstorms that would make Chris Watson proud, spiralling drones that he’s polished to a Haflerian sheen, the majestic bellowing of sustained horns in the empty cargo hull of a decommissioned ship, and of course the metallic growl of his immaculate Mantra. Given the numerous parallels to Xenakis' smoldering electroacoustics and Tony Conrad's delirious harmonics, Laporte’s work demands the attention as an under recognized genius in the realm of avant-garde composition. [press-release]
[youtube]
Maaaa -- "Kello On Soinut" -- MC -- €20
2008 B-Rush, [B-33], (ltd. 20)
First side of this cassette was recorded in 2007 and sent to Belgian musique concrete label Kourlyk which was closed soon after releasing because of serious desease of it's owner. A year later the project decided to put out this release on a small Karelian label with some new material for the B-side. The release has been delayed for several times because of strange events happening with project members and the publisher during the work on this release. Musically this differs a lot from what Maaaa has been doing before - the A-sise contains one long YAOP-like track composed from concrete samples of squeaking doors, ticking clocks, sirens, etc. Second part is more multi-layered: field recordings, occasional sounds, voice mantras, screams - all this merges into whole obscurely bewitching picture in vein of early works of :Zoviet France:. Artwork - orange cover, all information is typewritten, similar insert - everything is packed in a sewn mitten with attached hand bell. [press-release]
Macronympha -- "Studio 95" -- CD -- €10
2010/2013 Triangle Records, TR-51 / Cerosene / Outcry
Personally, I don't quite favor the bands with long discography lists, although MACRONYMPHA is an exception because you can never get too much of it. The CD contains studio material recorded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1995. Those 30 cassette copies that were originally released are now re-released in the CDs with a new mastering. Embarking on this multi-layered, heavy vintage noise be prepared for a lot of dirt, electronic signals, hissings and falling to pieces cassette tapes. Classics. [press-release]
[soundcloud]
Maculatum -- "The Nameless City" -- CD -- €10
2012 Malignant Records, TUMORCD59, (ltd. 500)
The Nameless City is the debut of Maculatum, the much anticipated collaborative project of Malignant dark ambient stalwarts Collapsar and Rasalhague. 6 tracks of visionary and cinematic black ambience based on Lovecraftian mythology, populated by unseen cosmic horrors and shapeless forms. The sound here is vast and luminous, and yet simultaneously menacing and oppressive…swirls of sprawling drones infused with ethereal murk and a steady stream of richly textured percussion, cavernous creaks, terrifying rituals, and heavily reverbed, ghostly vocalizations that arise from deep within the jungle and ruins of an ancient civilization. This is exactly what you want in a collaboration such as this…the best aspects of both Collapsar and Rasalhague brought together, without sounding derivative of either project. Limited to just 500 copies, in slim, fold out eco-wallet, this is of course a must for all those that appreciate dark ambience that goes beyond the realms of the ordinary. [press-release]
[soundcloud] [youtube]
Murderous Vision -- "Black Hellebore - A Quiver Of Arrows" -- CD -- €10
2012 Phage Tapes, PT:202, (ltd. 500)
Murderous Vision has been creating dark ambient and power electronics tracks since the late 90's with most releases on his label Live Bait Recordings Foundation. Black Hellebore contains 6 new tracks plus "Horned Beast of Golgotha" which was previously released on the split cassette with Nyodene D titled Kirkebrennan. The bulk of the material on this album is well composed atmospheric dark ambient tracks with obvious industrial influence. Almost half of the tracks have vocals, which range from a spoken word style to heavily distorted power electronics influenced screaming. The album was mastered by John Stillings and contains contributions by Amanda Howland, Wyatt Howland, Richard Pflueger, Cunting Daughters, Michael James, Tym Flemming, N Brewer and Aaron Vilk. [label info]
Nilsen, BJ & Stilluppsteypa -- "Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna" -- CD -- €10
2006 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 008, (ltd. 1000)
In Scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the Swedish drone artist BJ Nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. In recent years, Nilsen has turned to his Icelandic neighbors Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (collectively known as Stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna marks the second collaborative document of abject minimalism that these three have composed; and like its predecessor Vikinga Brennivin, this album is spiked with drunken thought. Any alcohol induced euphoria has been tempered by perturbing blackouts, moments of cruelty, and an all-consuming nihilism. Beyond their shared Scandinavian heritage, their expressionist urge for the frigid drone, and their penchant for drink, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa intend this recording as an open ended experience, wandering through their sound without the burden of any exegetical text that may get in the way... Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna resolves itself as a grim kaleidoscope, where the bleakness of the wintry Scandinavian landscape and the langour of a drunken escapade constantly mutate through the highly refined sensibility of dronescaping. Sonar pings announce the beginning of this album, with its echoes returning as an amorphous fog and locating little but a gloomy pall upon the event horizon. Clattering electronics scurry across the barren sounds like death-watch beetles upon the tundra; and creaking doors offer something much more foreboding than what Pierre Henry envisioned for musique concrete. Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna adheres to the psychological dis-quiet through sound design that Alan Splet provided for Eraserhead or that Nurse With Wound achieved on Salt Marie Celeste. Yet for all of their tendencies for brooding and desolation, BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa retain a compulsion for a glacial beauty through their intoxicated visions of the sublime. [label info]
Nilsen, BJ & Stilluppsteypa -- "Vikinga Brennivin" -- CD -- €10
2005 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 004, (ltd. 700)
In their poetically abject celebration of brennivin (a special Icelandic liquor), Stilluppsteypa (comprised of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson) accepted the invitation from Swedish composer BJ Nilsen to collaborate upon an album related to alcohol and its mind-numbing effects. Nilsen has been working in various constellations of experimental music, best known for his recordings as Hazard published through Touch and Ash International. Focusing the perception of natural sounds through a reconstruction of time and space, Nilsen has rendered the commonplace sounds of wind, rain, and snow as stealthfully seductive and quietly menacing drifts of frozen sound. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen, Sigmarsson, and Thorsson brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended soundfields breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece. [label info]
Nyodene D -- "Every Knee Shall Bow" -- CD -- €10
2011 Assembly Of Hatred, AOH 05, (ltd. 300)
The latest album from U.S. death industrial / power electronics act Nyodene D. The release features four 10+ minute tracks of dark synth atmospheres, upfront vocals, scrap abuse, churning percussion and analog synth torture. [label info]
[youtube]
Omit -- "Interceptor" -- 2 CD -- €14
2008 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 012, (ltd. 600)
Omit is the nom de plume for Clinton Williams, an electronic musician who has been quietly toiling in New Zealand for a good portion of the past two decades. His work has appeared alongside such luminaries of the NZ free noise community as Birchville Cat Motel, The Dead C, Flies Inside The Sun, Dean Roberts, Surface Of The Earth, etc.; however, Omit's home-spun constructs widely detour from the sculpted grit and mottled distortion found in the work of his countrymen and -women. In listening to his masterful Quad (a 3CD opus released in 1998 through Corpus Hermeticum), one gets the very palpable sense of an artist in a contentious argument with his own unwieldy mousetrap of tape-loops, modular electronics, effects pedals, drum machines, and the creaking sounds of his house. That internal debate with himself through his machine exudes an existential melancholy, which could be applied to any number of grander metaphors of the dependency of electronics, cybernetics, and technology upon mankind... Interceptor is the result of an experiment whereby Williams worked with a portable studio away from his longtime home of Blenheim. He possessed two suitcases of drum machines, effects, and analog synths; and, Williams recalls being "pissed off with myself wasting time recording this stuff when I was trying to find a job." His frustrations stripped away much of the grandiose sweeps of ambience and shadow, leaving behind a life-support system grid of overlapping, phase-shifted blip and click. An undertow of hypnotic tonalities pulls those rhythms towards a crepuscular gloom. Williams has always been at odds with his own work, yet his self-doubt continues to deliver magnificent albums which thrive in a symbiotic struggle with mechanical disintegration. Interceptor conjures the best offered by Mika Vainio, Klaus Schulze, and the Throbbing Gristle tracks authored by Chris Carter. Always the pessimist, Williams grumbles, "In many ways, it's a document of my failure to do the most simplest things in life." If only all of our failures could be this brilliant. [press-release]
Omit -- "Tracer" -- 2 CD -- €10
2005 Helen Scarsdale Agency, HMS 005, (ltd. 750)
As with all of his previous work, Tracer is an antiquated behemoth, constructed from analogue synthesizers, primitive drum machines, homespun electronics, and numerous effects pedals. Simple wooden rhythms trot, trudge, and even glide along taut metric grids hotwired with bursts of mechanical splutter and the occasional creak from Pierre Henry's wooden door. An occasionally menacing, but more often melancholic orchestration of synthetic tones ripple, flex, and dissolve across the uniform structuralism, creating an ecstatic paranoia rarely heard with such splendor, rigor, and sublime blackness. If sonic references are required, then the Klaus Schulze masterpiece Cyborg remains the closest analogy to what may be found in Tracer. [label info]
[youtube]
OWL -- "Tapes 97-99" -- CD -- €10
2012 Freak Animal Records, cd-068 / Arkisto, ARK-04
These collected works of Finlands OWL could be simply squashed into the categories of "radio noise" and "electronic interference collages" but that wouldn't really be right. We're rather talking about an isolated vision of sound exploration with primitive equipment. No awareness of the existence of any kind of "noise scene" (this came later), no rules, and pure enthusiasm for sonic ugliness. A glimpse into the dark vaults of atonal pleasures, executed with crude boomboxes, one cheap multi-fx unit, no distortion (!!) and rudimentary recording techniques. Almost all overdrive here is purely from tape saturation and the results are creepy, fuzzy, intense and very active. A powerful trip unharmed by outside influences. Here is an album of essential tape overload mania from a young mr JH who later got busy making several zines, Anal Barbara, XXXX, Schmuck noise, and more. Packaged in cardboard sleeve. [press-release]
Pacific 231 -- "Ethnicities" -- CD -- €10
2006 Rotorelief, ROTORCD0002
"Ethnicities" is an electro-acoustical scope of unreleased recordings of PACIFIC 231’s post-industrial period. Successive and consecutive cuts were made until he put together the concept of the album as: pluri-cultural diversity of the sounds, tropical steams, exotic journeys & electronic man-made build-up manipulations, urban dins and industrial mazes. "Ethnicities" is a psychedelic and unexpected patchwork from PACIFIC 231. [label info]
[youtube]
Pedestrian Deposit -- "Fatale" -- CD -- €10
2006 Hospital Productions, HOS-132 / Hanson Records, HN 116
Well it's about FUCKING TIME!! Finally this stellar work from Jon Borges' PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT is released! Meticulously edited Harsh Electronic Noise. Ultra spastic and cut up sound w/ passages of truly DISMAL piano, tape manipulations and drones. [label info]
Phillips, Tomas & Turra, Luigi -- "Vignettes Amplifie" -- CD -- €10
2011 Nitkie, patch five, (ltd. 500)
The first ever collaboration between prolific american composer Tomas Phillips and prominent italian newcomer Luigi Turra, "Vignettes Amplifie" presents a sequence of subtle sound constructions characterized by minimalistic and contemplative approach. Quiet field recordings, soft acoustic sounds and organic electronic arrangements builds panoramic view on two levels. The acoustic gestures like bells, manipulated objects and drone fragments are coming from silence and disappearing after some time. On the other hand, there is a kind of reflection of these sonic events in the background, muted and abstracted, hiding from your ears. But these microscopic sounds, short and forgetful, seems to be the main part of the whole thing - when you are trying to trace them down, to catch your attention, and to understand the aesthetical value of this music. Shy and confused, these sounds represents the soul of this music, but in fact they are just grow and fade away like the autumn rain. This album will teach you how to turn your mind into ears, hunting for every little susurration in total silence. [press-release]
Predominance -- "Dark Stars Unfolding" -- 2 CD -- €14
2005 LOKI Foundation, LOKI40
Arisen from the fields of white ashes and bathed in tears of the world's genocidal slavery Predominance started 1995 to drown in the ruins of an unconcious mind. The evolution of Gerd Zaunig's project was mystified by the leaming beauty of a silver ship and ended illuminated at the threshold to astral gates on nocturnal skies. This "Dark Stars Unfolding" is an essential journey through the mind of the south saturn delta into the polar stargate. The circle of the four symbols is closed and the work of Predominance will remain in the ungained gorge of a swelling universe... After nearly 10 years of activity and with just three regular albums in this decade Gerd Zaunig placed with Predominance one of the main pillars in the wide area of dark ambient music. The unique sound of Predominance combines dense and atmospherical soundscultures with symphonic structures, pulsating rhythms and visionary-majestic vocals. This double album now marks the final release of Predominance as the project already ended in 2003. Devided into 2 parts the Disc One: ARCHIVUM contains selected tracks from the first tape (White Ashes), the first LP (Obliteration), various compilation tracks and unreleased material. Disc Two: LIVE collects high quality live recordings from the whole period of activity and includes all the outstanding vocal tracks for what Predominance was especially known for. [press-release]
[youtube]
Predominance -- "Hindenburg" -- CD -- €12
1998/2012 Loki Foundation, LOKI 34
Because of the sold out status of all Predominance releases and the highly acclaimed original Hindenburg MLP back in 1998 the re-release of this instant classic on Compact Disc will be available now. Actually this is more than a simple re-issue as the new CD version is an expanded edition different to the previous 6 tracks of the vinyl album. It contains four unreleased / re-recorded tracks and remixes, as well as the original Hindenburg material taken from the source archives in high standard remastered sound. This album is a masterpiece of symphonical songs with majestic vocals and brooding, dark ambient sonic-scapes, perfectly round off by an exclusive remix track of Inade. Comes in 6 panel digipak. [press-release]
[youtube]
Predominance -- "Nocturnal Gates Of Incidence" -- CD -- €12
2000 Loki Foundation, LOKI 26, (ltd. 1000)
Originally released in 2000 the second album of Predominance marked another step further into new dimensions. Pulsating heavy background textures are contrasted by symphonic-monumental and rhythmic proportions, brooding walls of sweeping soundwaves and vocals as well. A deep ambient soundtrack that rises from the very center of a convoluted labyrinth and creates a unique image of ancient myths and extraterrestrial traces. [label info] Original edition of 2000 in 6-panel digipak.
[youtube]
Sanctum -- "New York City Bluster" -- CD -- €10
2000 Cold Meat Industry, CMI.76
Summer of 1999 Sanctum scurried through the US northeast for 11 shows, one of which brought them to this legendary NYC joint. This recording shows off more of industrial horsepower rather than ethereal fragility. [label info] Contains only material from the male's part of Sanctum. Track 4 is an excerpt from the project Parca Pace. Track 6 is a track from the project Mago.
Skull:Axis -- "The Transparent Society" -- CD -- €10
2013 Peripheral Records, PR006 / Death Continues Records, DCRCD002, (ltd. 150)
Peripheral Records and Death Continues Records proudly present: SKULL:AXIS The Transparent Society CD. Bleak, cold and paranoid Industrial from Peripheral Records label boss Jason B Bernard. 13 years have passed since the last release... 'Seen through a lens, observed, captured and processed. Surveillance as contemporary instrument of control or society under vigilance?' Surveillance - is the monitoring of the behaviour, activities, or other changing information, usually of people for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting. Surveillance is therefore an ambiguous practice, sometimes creating positive effects, at other times negative. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner. It most usually involves observation of individuals or groups by government organizations (though there are some exceptions, such as disease surveillance, which monitors the progress of a disease in a community without for that matter directly observing or monitoring individuals)... Limited to 150 copies in a jewelcase + 8 page booklet. Artwork by Nullvoid. Mastered by Phil Julian @ Cheapmachines. [press-release]
[youtube]
Theodor Bastard -- "Sueta" -- CD -- €6
2006 Manchester Files, CDMAN 291-06
The new album "Sueta" contains some of the best performances recorded from St-Petersburg to Brussels. There are some real marvels there like a collaboration with the American sax genius Ethan Jordan, performed in Belgium, or the slow-paced opium-driven "AlBor" with an autopsied sitar, recorded in a damp squat in Dortmund. [Fulldozer]
Williams, David E. -- "Pseudo Erotica and Beyond, 1986-1998" -- CD -- €10
1987/2003 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 063
Nearly 2 decades after its original release, Williams’ debut EP comes to CD in all its degenerate glory, along with 19 previously unreleased and amazing tracks from the same period of perverse creativity. Hear Williams’ original deadpan lamentations of vomiting dogs, stolen glass eyes, and the rape of the retarded; set against an increasingly sophisticated musical backdrop of classic pop, dreary dirge, industrial, neoclassical and an early form of what would later be known as “dark ambient”! Some of these songs were eliminated from earlier releases because of their political and sexual offensiveness. But now their time has come. Simply a not to loose masterpiece of best apocalyptic neo-folk'n'pop! [press-release]
Williams, David E. -- "Trust No Scaffold Built Of This Bone" -- CD -- €12
2013 Old Europa Cafe, OECD 177
Williams is back! An undisputed yet controversial cult icon for over 2 decades, David E. Williams continues to expand the boundaries of dark cabaret and neofolk in ways that perpetually leave him as the ultimate outsider of both genres. As always, his 6th full length release documents the violent dread of every moment for a troubadour narrator on the nexus of existential angst and cultural despair. The new music ranges from finger-snapping ditties to chamber synthpop to his ever popular piano-driven art songs, with lead vocals by himself and other luminaries such as Andrew King, Lloyd James (Naevus) and Jane Elizabeth (Tesco USA). Other participants include Jerome Deppe, David Talento, Adrina Hansen, Ken Brune and Wendy Mittelstadt. An essential release from this former and current collaborator of Deathpile, Blood Axis and Rozz Williams of Christian Death! [press-release]
[youtube]
Xiphoid Dementia -- "Might Is Blight" -- CD -- €10
2009 Existence Establishment, EE10, (ltd. 500)
Xiphoid Dementia is Egan Budd's noise project based in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Budd has been active in the noise underground since about 2002 and creates a powerful sort of ambient-noise music. His latest release is a numbered, limited edition CD titled "Might Is Blight" and therein begins a bleak journey through the possible end times of life as we know it, the ruination of Earth, and the death of illusion. This noise artist has in his artistic grasp the means of creating sound structures that are metaphors for such ideas even though to find those places requires certain lengths to be gone to... What Budd has accomplished here is impressive, not too many noise artists are attempting something so ambitious, a hybrid style of composing that incorporates modern classical avant garde, droning electronic noise and atmospheric ambience to create a strong, cinematic music... From the orchestral title track opener to the lilting, tossing, aptly titled 'Your City Crumbles' to the profoundly disturbing final composition, 'None Shall Inherit The Earth', every one of these soundscapes moves in fascinating ways, morphing from powerful Penderecki-style string sections that teeter on the brink of collapse, then break down giving way to noisier electronics, heavy (metallic) droning, or screeching, anguished vocals, each sound texture seemingly always moving in a constant state of flux... [Phillip Klingler, Heathen Harvest]
Xiphoid Dementia -- "Secular Hymns" -- CD -- €10
2012 Malignant Records, TumorCD61
Actively recording since 1999, Egan Budd’s Xiphoid Dementia has become known in the underground and in numerous live situations for creating meticulously crafted yet hard to define, post industrial soundscapes, navigating between textured ambience, scourging noise, junk metal, field recordings, and surreal atmospheres, sometimes all in one track. Still, there’s a hyper-focus here that ties it altogether, and makes for something that is dynamic, unpredictable, and clearly ambitious. For those that question if there’s originality left in industrial music, Xiphoid Dementia answers with a resounding yes, though not so much in the sounds themselves, but rather how they are layered and placed... Hard to find comparisons here, but those that appreciate the dynamics of Navicon Torture Technologies, Prurient, and Propergol will certainly find something to like. In 6 panel digipak. [label info]
[soundcloud]
Zoat-Aon -- "The Triplex Bestial" -- CD -- €10
2006 Aural Hypnox, [AH07], (ltd. 1000)
By the careful adjustment and manipulation of both modern and archaic mediums is created a highly dynamic work of aural alchemy depicting the trance and dream of a carnal totem standing between Heaven and Earth, where the unearthly sound of starlight's serpentine arteries winding together with the blackened branches above mingles with the oneiric hisses and crackles of necromantic phantoms and slithering roots below. A barbarous, sonic paradox suggesting the subtle arousal of the ancestry in flesh, a work both soothing and threatening to the intuitive mind. [press-release]
[youtube]
V/A -- "...It Just Is (In Memoriam: Jhonn Balance)" -- 2 CD -- €9
2005 Fulldozer Records / Nocharizma Records, fdcd20 / nhcd02
Double CD compilation dedicated in memory of Jhonn Balance. 30 projects from ex-USSR territories and other countries involved: The Threshold Houseboy's Choir (Peter Christopherson), Thighpaulsandra, Theodor Bastard, Kotra, Spies Boys, Alec Empire, 2/5 BZ, Chris Connelly, Biblioteka Prospero, Phillip Klinger (PBK), KK.Null, EU, Darling Kandie, Pomassl, Alexei Borisov, COH, Alva Noto, Schlammpeitzigner, Goodiny & PCP, Scanner, Brompton's Cocktail, Mystified, hhtp, Noises Of Russia & Olga Komok, Kryptogen Rundfunk, A. Vorodeyev, Serge Tereshkine, Volga, I.L.I., M.R.F./Elena Voynarovskaya.
Our full mailorder catalogue is available here: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/distro.html
Subscribe to the newsletter | Unsubscribe from the newsletter
© 2017 ZHELEZOBETON