His Electro Blue Voice, "Dead Sons"

cover imageProbably the Italian trio’s longest release, while still clocking in at under a half hour, this 12" EP brings some excellently grimy punky rock music, with a good helping of bizarre tape loop noises and electric outbursts. With a familiar, but fresh sound, the worst thing is it simply is too short.

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6791 Hits

Relations

cover imageOn their debut EP, Relations deliver four tracks that could come across as hipster synth-pop nostalgia, but the earnestness and catchiness of the songs make that a non-issue, resulting in a set of tracks that sound familiar, yet new to anyone who grew up with the music of the early 1980s.

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6906 Hits

Father You See Queen, "47"

cover imageMark McGee, formerly of To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie, has partnered up with a new female vocalist, Nicole Tollefson, to follow the path he pioneered in his previous band, combining harsh, noisy electronics and guitar with pure, delicate female vocals to excellent effect, although it seems that the harsher end of the spectrum has been reigned in somewhat.

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8468 Hits

Ithi, "Within"

cover imageFollowing up their acclaimed debut LP The Persistence of Meaning, this Brooklyn duo of Joshua Convey and Luke Krnkr serve up another release of dark, mysterious murk that channels krautrock as much as harsh noise. With an A side that goes for more musical elements, and a harsher, disjointed B side, the combination works wonderfully.

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7943 Hits

Horseback, "On The Eclipse"

cover imageFunctioning nicely as a teaser for the upcoming Half Blood full length on Relapse, this two track 7" sees Jenks Miller further indulging in the traditional minimalist sound that has underscored much of his previous work, but also a more overt embracing of his southern rock roots.

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7544 Hits

Sylvan Chauveau, "S."

There is a great deal of experimentation in these short tracks—though only an EP in length, and also available on 10" vinyl—that, unlike a lot of experimental electronic recordings, make it more of a relaxing listen rather than a protracted endurance test or an exercise requiring the full attention and focus of the listener.

 

Type

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9072 Hits

Sudden Infant, "Noise In My Head"

cover imageJoke Lanz has been a constant in the worldwide noise scene for over two decades and has always stood alone as a unique and inventive artist, impossible to pin down but always innovative.  This book presents the history of the project, as well as a massive documentation of Lanz's life and prolific performance art career, of which I was less familiar, but found captivated nonetheless.

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13473 Hits

Ferran Fages, "Pèl Nord"

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Using only the sound of manipulated AM radios, Fages creates washes of slow, seemingly unchanging studies of frigid sound. Not unlike the asceticism of Eleh, these deliberately static pieces require intensive listening to fully unravel.

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10591 Hits

Soccer Mom, "You Are Not Going To Heaven"

cover imageMixing an unabashed appreciation for the alternative scene of the early to mid 1990s, Boston's Soccer Mom have a familiar, but not derivative sound that arouses nostalgia without being stuck in the past.

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10075 Hits

Locrian, "Dort Ist Der Weg/Frozen in Ash"

cover imageWhile 2010 was an insanely productive year for Chicago's Locrian, 2011 has been relatively quiet: other than the two releases with Horseback, this single is the only thing that’s been released. Mixing a Popol Vuh cover on one side with an original piece on the other, the result is an all too brief example of the band excelling at what they do best.

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9301 Hits

Sean Baxter, "Metal/Flesh"

cover imageHaving a few collaborations out there with Anthony Pateras and David Brown, Australian percussionist Sean Baxter uses only drums on this single, with two distinctly different approaches to playing them. While the results are rather consistent with the world of free jazz, the microscopic elements of sound that shine through add an entirely new layer of depth to the recording.

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7782 Hits

Conrad Schnitzler, 1937-2011

Conrad SchnitzlerIt is with great sadness that Brainwashed recognizes the passing of Conrad Schnitzler, 74, on August 4th of complications from stomach cancer.  Schnitzler was an early member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster, as well as a pioneer in the realm of electronic composition.

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13242 Hits

Glass Rifle, "Foebic/Cutters"

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With its heavy letter pressed sleeve and short duration, this does feel like the digital equivalent of an old punk 7". Consisting of Dan Colby and Ryan Francini (formally of The Cignal) handling the rhythm section and Fates’ PJ Norman on guitar, these two songs gave me an instant feeling of nostalgia for the early to mid '90s "alternative" scene, before it became known as "indie" and consequently a maligned, pejorative label.

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7907 Hits

Pleasure Leftists

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From its opening gated reverb drums and spacious guitars, it's clear that this Ohio band’s debut is wearing its early '80s post-punk roots on its sleeve. While it's hard to totally gauge the band on this short record, anyone who likes the era would probably welcome giving this a spin.

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9846 Hits

Horseback/Locrian

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As my reviews of both of these projects over the past few years surely indicates, these are two of my favorite artists working in the post-post metal field, approaching the genre from a conceptual, almost academic mindset rather than a traditionalist one. It was perfectly logical for them to work together, and this 7" makes for a tantalizing teaser for their upcoming collaborative EP.

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9037 Hits

Tomasz Krakowiak, "A/P"

cover imageConsidering that both sides of this brief single are sourced from recordings of cymbals, I couldn't help but feel a bit of parallel with early Organum, at least in concept. The actual music though is something entirely unique, and is two different takes on the same source.

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8686 Hits

Kevin Drumm/Jér√¥me Noetinger/Robert Piotrowicz , "Wrestling"

cover imageRecorded six years ago, but just released this year, this is a three way collaboration with some of the biggest names who inhabit that gray space between musique concret and harsh noise. The result is an all-too-brief work that covers the strengths of both scenes quite nicely.

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8885 Hits

Bridesmaid/Sun Splitter

cover imageAfter recently loving the Sun Splitter cassette on Land of Decay, I had high hopes going into this split and they most certainly came through. Their half here stands up proudly with that tape, which is no easy feat, and the Bridesmaid side is no slouch either.

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8885 Hits

Prurient, "Many Jewels Surround the Crown"

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While many (including myself) associate the Prurient moniker with Dominick Fernow's abuse of distortion and feedback, the project has been shifting more and more into some hard to define realm that has slowly engulfed more "traditional" musical elements. Here that has taken hold even more, putting less of a focus on the harshness and bringing out a different beast of equal darkness.

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21568 Hits

FM3, “Buddha Machine 3 (Chan Fang)”

cover imageIn its fourth iteration (including the Gristleism special edition), the duo of Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian have once again created a small box of rudimentary loops that, in its increased technological capacity, has somewhat diminishing returns.

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16059 Hits