Those present at November's Brainwaves who witnessed Troum's mindblowing set who have been seeking more music from them that resembled their set that night can stop here. Reviewing the videos from Brainwaves it's all clear now that Shutûn is undoubtedly the piece performed that night. For those unfortunate enough to miss out, a large portion of this performance is actually available now on the video podcast. |
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Those present at November's Brainwaves who witnessed Troum's mindblowing set who have been seeking more music from them that resembled their set that night can stop here. Reviewing the videos from Brainwaves it's all clear now that Shutûn is undoubtedly the piece performed that night. For those unfortunate enough to miss out, a large portion of this performance is actually available now on the video podcast.
12437 Hits
Ripped from February 2007 live sets in Den Haag and Antwerp, this is Skullflower in violent duo mode. Joined by Culver's Lee Stokoe, Matthew Bower continues to use this project as an instrument of assault. Anyone looking for the nearly formed structures of recent Skullflower non CD-R releases will be disappointed. This twin guitar din is a storm of falling patterns, shredded by feedback and broken temple wails. As with most of Bower's work beneath the onslaught there is a strata of high end sparkles, though attention needs to be paid to Abyssic Lowland Hiss to reveal it.
9523 Hits
The second release from this Kawabata Makoto-less Acid Mothers splinter group consists of three fairly similar instrumental blues tracks. While not a huge departure from their last album, here the band comes across as more focused and succinct in their songwriting.
11197 Hits
If you're a Western Mass townie, its likely that you've experienced more of Thurston Moore's side projects than you've ever thought possible. Of all his recent non-Sonic Youth outings this little piece of analog realy exciting.
17601 Hits
Bernard Parmegiani’s fascinating, long out-of-print album finally gets its much-deserved release on CD. Originally released in 1974, this recording is as dark, unsettling, and alluring as anything being released today.
12338 Hits
For his umpteenth album, Bill Callahan drops his Smog/(Smog) band designation and now goes by his given name, if only to distance himself from the gloom, misogyny, and misery of his previous incarnation and start fresh. Although his subject matter is indeed sunnier and his songs more polished, he thankfully retains his sense of humor and knack for wordplay.
7859 Hits
I remember hearing a supposed "recording from hell" on Art Bell's Coast to Coast radio program years ago and upon hearing the latest project from Honey Owens (Jackie-O Motherfucker, Nudge), I was immediately reminded of those apparently satanic vibrations. Blood is Clean isn't particularly vicious, tormented, or evil in character, but Owens' ghostly voice and hazy songs on this record are uniquely haunting.
8069 Hits
Here is sound art created from recordings made in Marfa, Texas, on and around the Donald Judd installations in 2002. It is solidly in the camp of those who consider elements of weather and the environment to be musical, and silence to be something much rarer than gold.
9142 Hits
This fag tapes release features a bunch of unidentified nut jobs exploring out-of-the-ordinary vocal sounds in what is probably an abandoned cellar in Ohio. Depending on which way they are interpreted this collection of tracks can either be a set of anthems for despairing mental patients or the sound of really depressingly sour group sex.
9581 Hits
Split over a C10 cassette, this wheezy grind and its dark cousin lie in the middle ground between their big label releases and the scratched nothingness of some of their CD-R jams. Nate young's unintelligible vocals on the untitled A Side say more about his possible profligate ways than any lyric sheet could.
10087 Hits
The title of Wrong Meeting should be taken as a fair warning, and a very apt title, for those expecting business as usual for Keith Tenniswood and Andrew Weatherall. On first listen it certainly feels like someone's replaced this TLS album with the wrong record. Despite these initial doubts this record quickly becomes one of the duo's finest efforts to date, without sounding like any of their previous records. Anyone expecting the bumpy electro of their Emissions era or the low end basement sleazy jams of From the Double Gone Chapel, will be sorely disappointed and needs to start keeping up with Weatherall's total lack of continuity.
6841 Hits
The fifth LP from the Swedish producer is a significant expansion on its early vinyl only incarnation, with a massive bonus track added. It's a dark, yet comfortably fascinating journey through the wilds of Sweden.
8164 Hits
A note for note cover of any Atari Teenage Riot song is a silly idea but that is what D-Trash Records have offered up with The Virus has been Spread. Nearly every track here is a straight-up cover lacking in any imagination, vision, or sense of danger. As such, The Virus has been Spread is a limp and impotent attempt at a tribute. It is most likely a way for this label to get its acts some spotlight; it has bitten them in the tail because after listening to this CD I do not want to hear any of these artists again.
7155 Hits
This project takes a unique approach to music: rather than instrumentation, it is based around the sound of writing and drawing. It makes for some original textures but it lacks a coherent feeling and compositional structure that would have made it more compelling.
6229 Hits
The thick oily pulse on the opening "Beerbath Two" is the only thing here that resembles that morning after feeling of an actual hungover breakast. This unseemliness is short-lived as this three-track cassette spreads itself between the gaps of noise and rhythm without the need for comforting but extraneous fatty musical factors.
9142 Hits
The latest entry in Southern Records' Latitudes series is from Finland's mighty Circle. Even though the combination of the band's name and the title of the album seems like a nod to one of Celtic Frost's classic songs, this release focuses on the band's more spacey sounds than on their classic metal-worshipping moments. Like most of their previous albums, there are some amazing moments on Tyrant but also a few stumbles along the way.
8166 Hits
This extremely long-in-the-making (five years!) collaboration between these two titans of the avant garde finally arrives with high expectations that are summarily met. Rather than something academic and difficult, it is instead a captivating and visceral work.
8976 Hits
Throbbing Gristle activates a certain part of my brain that immediately responds with the idea of noise. Then, after more careful reflection, harsh noise, death, industry, sex, pain, exploitation, and a host of other generally negative and exciting responses come to the fore and resolve the picture I have of the band, however incomplete and misinformed it is. Part Two - The Endless Not surprises me because it doesn't evoke that picture of Throbbing Gristle and in fact calls the presence of that name on this recording into question.
9846 Hits
Anla Courtis and Ralf Wehowsky combine their talents to create an album of distorted, erratic textures that scrape the eardrums to inspired, ecstatic effect. The spirits they conjure don’t seem very happy to be awakened, unleashing their exquisite vengeance with a wrath like the Furies.
7817 Hits
Rjyan Kidwell is going on ten years of musical output and his music is growing accordingly. Of his most recent endeavors, Sketchi is his most immediately mature work, abandoning what might be called his more adolescent tendencies in all places except the artwork that accompanies the record. Don't be fooled by the "Twin Towers" cover, Cex's newest is one of his most sober releases to date.
8178 Hits
