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![cover image](/brain/images/imminent-cask_strength.jpg)
I always considered Moreau’s work for the label as the definitive "Ant-Zen" sound: rapid fire overdriven analog drum machines, raw synths, mutilated samples and a general sense of post industrial malaise. Cask Strength doesn’t step too far away from this formula, because it’s still a grinding cacophony of noise and beats, and I don’t think any of his fans would have wanted to see drastic change. There does seem to be an increased sense of experimentation and concessions to the pathetically named IDM sound here though, proving it’s not all just 909s and fuzzboxes.
The influence is apparent from the opening "Seracs" with its polyrhythmic plastic beats that are completely chaotic, but obviously well sequenced, with deep raw synth line that’s a bad trip version of acid techno. The odd juxtaposition of a stuttering voice, which is reminiscent of how Autechre has treated vocals the few times snippets were present, and a rather unabashed synth pop melody is a unique one covering both the harsh aggressive sound, yet concedes a bit of beauty amidst the ugly.
"Teskede" is cut from a similar cloth, with hardcore rattling beats and synth leads that sound more like radio static than anything else, but with some more warm, gentle synth work buried under the grime. "Rubbs" also does this combination, but keeps the jagged rhythms more in check, and allowing the synths to be the track’s focus. Here it’s pretty clear that if one were to remove the rhythms, there would be a rather pretty ambient track hiding under them.
Songs like "Lorsc" keep the rapid rhythms, but lose a bit of the violence, with the rhythms dialed back to recall old school electro rather than power noise, and synth leads that resemble guitars more than waveforms, creating a more diverse sound. Moreau never lets the sound get too soft though, and for every delicate-ish moment there’s about three more over the top aggressive ones, like the low bit rate synths and drums on "Bock" that sound like being punched in the stomach more than anything else. The simplistic, but effective "Ila" is the longest track here, but is unabashed monotone thumping techno throughout, with only a bit of tweaked samples and loops for variety. If there’s ever a track for high speed aggressive city driving, this is it.
The long break between releases hasn’t slowed Imminent down at all, and his sound is still, at least to me, the Ant-Zen one. However, he’s not just rehashing his old material at all, but using that as a basis to create new variations on. While personally I’d have loved to hear some even more extreme divergences in sound, the music on Cask Strength is presented so well that it makes it unnecessary.
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![cover image](/brain/images/francisco_lopez-machines.jpg)
Machines consists of four commissioned pieces recorded in various European cities over a span of three years. Each piece is devoted to a specific type of machinery, though López often utilizes recordings taken from more than one site. For example, “Fabrikas” is composed entirely of factory sounds recorded in Latvia, but the source material covers a chocolate factory, a beer factory, a vintage bicycle workshop, and a speaker workshop. Notably, López does not conspicuously treat the raw recordings in any way, so everything sounds like exactly what it is and there is no effort to add any “musical” elements at all. As such, the song titles are very literal and accurate: “Clocks” is essentially 32 minutes of ticking clocks and nothing else. That is not an inherently attractive premise for a piece of music, but Francisco’s deft layering of field recordings transforms it into something quite hypnotic.
Aside from López’s singular adherence to thematic and acousmatic purity, the most striking aspect of these recordings is their length. Machines clocks in at 2 ½ hours, which presents quite an endurance test for listeners. I attempted to make it through the entire thing a couple of times on my headphones, but never made it further than 20 minutes—it is simply too subtle and slowly evolving to hold my direct, undivided attention for the enormous amount of time required. However, when I have had this album on while doing something else, I have frequently found myself utterly engrossed and struck by the numerous moments in which the rumbling and humming coheres into something strangely beautiful. Of course, this is music as art, not music as entertainment, so listenability was presumably not a motivating factor in the assembling and sequencing of this release. Instead, Machines is a document that captures one of the world’s premier sound artists at the top of his game. The intricate webs of waxing and waning loops and subtle convergences of tempo are nothing short of ingenious.
Essentially, Machines is a fascinating high-wire act and a significant music event. There are very few musicians that I am aware of that could turn 45 minutes of field recordings of German elevators into something compelling and worthwhile (and probably none that would actually exert the effort to do so). While many of the environments sampled lend themselves to harsh sounds and heavy, crunching rhythms, there is ultimately very little dissonance in Francisco’s finished sound collages. The bulk of the material collected here is quite surprisingly warm and enveloping, particularly the hissing and humming laboratory and factory pieces that make up the second disc. Machines is certainly a stunning creative and technical achievement, but it also works quite effectively as an epic mechanized lullaby.
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![cover image](/brain/images/skare-solstice_city.jpg)
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![cover image](/brain/images/scout_niblett-the_calcination_of.jpg)
When "Just Do It!" begins I'm immediately reminded of Neil Young, but not because Scout is gravitating towards her folk influences these days. Her attitude and sound is too introspective for punk rock, too heavy for folk, and too atmospheric for grunge, but she undeniably draws from all of these influences and has a fondness, like Young, for fluctuating between all of them, sometimes in the same song. The album begins with a gnarly and fuzzed-out melodic hook, but it quickly goes quiet as Niblett sings "And the voices said just do it / And I think I will" in a cocky, almost angry snarl. What exactly she intends to do is left a little ambiguous, but I get the sense it is meant as a threat, perhaps to herself. With her trademarked big drum sound and loud-quiet dynamic in hand, Scout embarks on a quest to set herself on fire in a ritual act of purification. But, in accomplishing this end she does almost nothing to her sound that we haven't already heard. In fact, portions of The Calcination are a little too familiar. So, let me get this out of the way right away: Scout's walking over a lot of the same ground she covered on 2007's This Fool Can Die Now. She's toying with her approach a little bit and bringing back elements from Kidnapped by Neptune and I Am, but all three of those records have so much in common that there's little point in debating the minituae that distinguishes them stylistically. Scout's stubborn determination to stay basically the same is a little frustrating, but as other writers have pointed out she sounds so good that changing anything might be equally frustrating, maybe even detrimental.
That said, The Calcination is much darker than This Fool Can Die Now and a little more satisfying for it. It is easily her most foreboding record. If Scout hasn't changed her sound much, she's made up for it a little by letting her teeth show more than usual. There's no semi-sweet or awkward duets and no video of Scout singing into a hair brush or prancing about on the beach with a skeleton-clad Will Oldham. Instead, Scout delivers a cover lit by the welding torch she is holding, a booklet filled photographs of stones, and lyrics like "Welcome to my self-made sweat box / this is where I take it all off / Sweat / I've got to sweat it out / Cook / I'll cook those monsters out / Because I ain't getting out of here / until my, until my soul appears." There are no playful or cute interludes anywhere on the record, so there's none of the relief that songs like "Dinosaur Egg" or "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death" provided. Distilled or calcinated or completely stripped down, Scout is more aggressive and serious and probably a little more troubled, too. Her guitars loom and stab where they once danced and rocked out and her drums snap and pound where they were sometimes played like a toy. Whatever has happened to Scout since we last heard from her, it has added a substantial amount of menace to her words and playing. She's become more concise and that's made her more aggressive and fearsome.
The album ends with "Meet and Greet," which sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a showdown in some anachronistic western. A dissonant, casually played melody and some light, atmospheric percussion make up most of the song, together sounding like a thunderstorm on the horizon. Scout sings in a challenging voice throughout it, intimating that some kind of resolution might be on the horizon, too. But, whatever she means when she sings "Jupiter, father of gods, I summon you to me / When are you gonna learn to play that thing?" it sounds more like a provocation than an invitation or a prayer. Scout doesn't ultimatey provide a resolution for all the tension she generates on The Calcination. All we get at the end of "Meet and Greet" is a volcanic splash of distorted guitar and a rumbling, sustained tone. While she has always written heavy, honest, and intimidating music, Scout has never sounded as bleak and frightful as she does here.
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![Merzbow - 'Graft' Merzbow - 'Graft'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr129lp.jpg)
Artist: Merzbow
Title: Graft
Catalogue No: CSR129LP
Barcode: 8 2356649002 9
Format: LP on lime green vinyl in 'bootleg' style sleeve / with bonus 7"
Genre: Japanese Noise
Shipping: 22nd February
Pre-Order LP & 7"
MERZBOW returns to COLD SPRING in blistering form - a sizzling new album length VINYL only limited edition (lime green, ltd x 400 copies) presented in an old-school 'bootleg' style cover and sealed with a sticker. LP regular edition is available only through Cargo Distribution
The special extra limited edition version of the LP comes with bonus 7" (ltd x 150 copies) of exclusive tracks and is only available from COLD SPRING MAIL ORDER. This title will be deleted upon selling out, and the tracks are never to be issued on CD! A one time opportunity to own a true MERZBOW collectors piece! ACT FAST! LP with LTD 7" is available ONLY through Cold Spring Mailorder
Tracks: A1. graft#1 | B1. graft#2
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![Skitliv - 'Bloodletting' Skitliv - 'Bloodletting'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr115p.jpg)
Artist: Skitliv
Title: Bloodletting
Catalogue No: CSR115P
Barcode: 8 2356649862 9
Format: 10" Picture Disc in stickered PVC sleeve
Genre: Doom / Experimental
Shipping: 22nd February
Pre-Order 10"
Limited edition Picture disc from SKITLIV, the project of former MAYHEM front man MANIAC.
With a line up that includes SHINING’s NIKLAS KVARFORTH, SKITLIV is a disturbed, and disturbing, blackened doom journey through the mind of this legendary Black Metal vocalist who was one of the original exponents of the genre, and is one of its most recognisable figures.
This picture disc is made extra special not only by the inclusion of “Who Will Deliver Us From Gold and Planets” by CURRENT 93 - an introductory collage destruct that was created at the request of Maniac and is dedicated to him, but also because the artwork that is used for the side containing this track is part of one of Tibet’s own paintings.
Ltd x 777 copies. No repress.
Tracks: A1. Current 93 - 'Who Will Deliver us From Gold & Planets?' | A2. Slow Pain Coming (Cold Spring Mix) | B1. A Valley Below (Demo Version)
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![Sehnsucht - 'Wüste' Sehnsucht - 'Wüste'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr124cd.jpg)
Artist: Sehnsucht
Title: Wüste
Catalogue No: CSR124CD
Barcode: 8 2356648992 4
Format: CD in 6-panel digipak
Genre: Experimental / Metal / Acoustic
Shipping: 22nd February
Pre-Order CD
BRAND NEW BAND FROM FORMER MAYHEM FRONTMAN FEATURING MEMBERS OF GALLHAMMER, SKITLIV AND NURSE WITH WOUND
Former MAYHEM front man MANIAC, whose band SKITLIV has proved to be a surprising departure from the Black Metal genre for which he was best known for over 20 years, has formed a side-project with fiancé Vivian Slaughter, bass player/vocalist with the Japanese all-girl band GALLHAMMER, SKITLIV's guitarist Ingvar Magnusson and experimentalist Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND). Unlike SKITLIV, which is a noise/doom amalgam, with Maniacs vocals still firmly rooted in Black Metal, SEHNSUCHT is in the noise / darkwave / ambient genre, with any vestiges of Black Metal pared away.
Tracks: 1. Sult | 2. Cunt Queen | 3. South Of Cincinnati | 4. Wüste | 5. Tarn Of Guilt | 6. Good Morning Great Moloch | 7. Stadt Der Engerl Der Vernichtung | 8. Tokyo Daymare | 9. Hanging In English Garden | 10. Ten
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![Wicked King Wicker - 'God Is Busy... Save Yourself' Wicked King Wicker - 'God Is Busy... Save Yourself'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr125cd.jpg)
Artist: Wicked King Wicker
Title: God Is Busy... Save Yourself
Catalogue No: CSR125CD
Barcode: 8 2356648952 8
Format: CD in jewelcase
Genre: Doom Metal / Harsh Noise
Shipping: Now
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Wicked King Wicker is pure doom. Their brand of guttural expression strips away the rock n roll base and leaves nothing for the listener than the caustic reality of the darkest side of life. It is heavy, barbaric and void of hope. Wicked King Wicker has taken the power of doom metal and added noise to mix to make its point - a point that While their style is not for everyone, the number of people being turned on by their nihilism is growing fast. There are lots of labels that can apply to their music, and other bands with a similar approach to theirs, but the bottom line is Wicked King Wicker is unique, and their extreme doom stands alone as the heaviest, most brutal doom imaginable and it may take you places you don’t want to go.
“God Is Busy… Save Yourself” is WKW's 6th album, and their first released outside of the U.S.
WKW has been celebrated by loyal listeners around the world, as well as in the mainstream music press such as Terrorizer magazine, which gave the band’s first two albums 8.5 ratings.
Tracks: 1. Those Who Bear Responsibility (16:21) | 2. Call My Name Sweet Demon, So I Know I Am Not Alone (18:23) | 3. So Easily Lead Astray (18:12)
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![Iron Fist Of The Sun - 'Behavioural Decline' Iron Fist Of The Sun - 'Behavioural Decline'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr116cd.jpg)
Artist: Iron Fist Of The Sun
Title: Behavioural Decline
Catalogue No: CSR114CD
Barcode: 8 2356648962 7
Format: CD in jewelcase
Genre: Power Electronics / Black Noise
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Personal obsessions skewed by drug use, codes of behaviour observed by a misanthropic mind. Bitter and cold. Nihilistic and scornful. Elitist and Pure. Behavioural Decline documents the rise of treachery and the fall of honour. Power electronics that sonically takes inspiration from electro-acoustics and ideology akin to black metal / black noise. 'Concert For Evening Battle' was recorded live at Radio Black Forest's festival of electro-acoustic music 22/8/2009, Birmingham, England. A deeply personal Recording.
Tracks: 1. Introduction To A Joyless New Start | 2. First Movement Of A Shallow Man | 3. Smile Like Sword | 4. Didn't Stop Me Trying | 5. The Power Of New Septembers | 6. Bluetack | 7. God's New Gravity | 8. Concert For Evening Battle
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![NDE - 'Krieg Blut Ehre Asche' NDE - 'Krieg Blut Ehre Asche'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr110cd.jpg)
Artist: NDE
Title: Krieg Blut Ehre Asche
Catalogue No: CSR110CD
Barcode: 8 2356648922 1
Format: CD in jewelcase
Genre: Martial Industrial / Black Metal / Death Industrial
Shipping: Now
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Debut from this Belgian duo. Like the dark solitary figure which adorns the cover, NDE are shrouded in mystery and desolation. The music speaks loudly and across the centuries. A unique smelting of malevolent, noisy Black Metal, pounding, anthemic martial drums and wretched Death Industrial in eight acts.
No website. No myspace. No contact details.
Tracks: 1. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part I | 2. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part II | 3. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part III | 4. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part IV | 5. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part V | 6. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part VI | 7. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part VII | 8. Krieg Blut Ehre Asche Part VIII
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![Cages - 'Folding Space' Cages - 'Folding Space'](http://www.coldspring.co.uk/Covers2/csr121cd.jpg)
Artist: Cages
Title: Folding Space
Catalogue No: CSR121CD
Barcode: 8 2356648942 9
Format: CD in jewelcase
Genre: Post-Rock / Experimental
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There is nothing fun or pedestrian about dreams that are uncompromising to the point of reality. The shaking notes that make up “Folding Space” were recorded by two people holed up in their whole respective imaginations of visions of loops, layers and pleading lyrics. It is stubborn but not ugly, nearly one hour of music set in studios buried by blizzards of the American Great Lakes region.
Cages is Nola Ranallo and David Bailey. They practiced, moved apart, relayed tapes through the mail, revised the entire damned thing, and then rejoined to capture every last seizure on this record. They sought sounds from the same dreams that give fools belief and colorfully punctuate the nights of the sanest. It’s sometimes pretty (“Lost Lipids”) or crushing (“Psalm to Mother”; “If It Flies, It Dies”) or left hanged in the speakers (“Dying”). There are elements of dreamy ether and discomfort rather than the easy choruses and catchphrases of the most collected and consumed art form. And, then, you’ll find a song radiating another thing entirely. (sweetness? The Devil’s hand?)
Live, the duo transfers their forged and found music into a very personal presentation that soars above the casually talking show-goers, the poor man’s jazz bands, and the art house showboats. Patrons and fellow musicians are pulled in; sounds are pushed out but never apart.
“Folding Space” is a foot to the honest and hard road, which can quickly cut away the uncurious and reward the rest like the tapes listened to repeatedly in the fevers of your youth. Please mull and judge, and add to the tops or bottoms of the lists you think necessary. And know the visions backing this elaborate music were recorded and are performed for a primary reason: to exist freely.
Justin Kern (Sept. 24, 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.)
High quality artwork with bronze print. For fans of Swans, Björkk, Portishead, PJ Harvey
Tracks: 1. Dying | 2. If It Flies, It Dies | 3. Cavern | 4. Dream Dip Sailor | 5. Psalm To Mother | 6. Lost Lipids | 7. Prisons Of Light | 8. The New Forever | 8. Approaching White Light
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