Saturday, May 29, 2010

Phelios - Astral Unity (Malignant Records)


The title is deinfitely accurate, as this is real astral music. You can feel yourself floating through the cosmos, the flourescent nebulae on the horizon already billions of years old as you perceive to view them at the moment they have ocurred as the tribal drum rhythm beats in the distance. This album opens up with "Cold Unity", a track that immediately reminds me of some of the "Dark Side of the Moog" series albums with it's surreal tribal beats and spectral synth. I begin to expect more of the Fax label sounds when "Cloud Sector Beta" comes in and suddenly I'm star traveling and floating against the ceiling of the room looking down at what is actually my body. My skin turns cold and then every pore opens up to breathe as the microhairs on the dermal surface stand electrified by the shock of pulses raging throught the circulatory system underneath in response to this sound. That is only the beginning....

As you go deeper into space, you are surrounded and hugged by warm cosmic dust and then chilled by various radiation and distant solar winds. Everything is black one moment an then instantaneously becomes an astral sunset with glittering and flickering particles of light and psychedelic acid spirals of galaxies. The bright fractal patterns spin and rotate as you move through them into another freezing cold and black empty plane in the vacuum that is space.

Symphonic space music is what this stuff is. So magnetic that it actually pulls you out of your consciousness and reality and transports you into an experience that only math and some psychedelic guru can describe to you. This music will convincingly hypnotize you into levitating and leaving your known world behind. With so much of the throwing around and abuse of terms like ethereal and esoteric, it's still almost painful to fight using them to describe Phelios becuase they actually belong here. Imagine Carl Sagan's writings brought into sounds as you are pulled across the astral plane and witness the dawn of the universe approach you as you feel the almost massaging tug of black holes as you pass in and out of their gravitational reach. Finally Einsteins relativity is one of the only things that makes sense and nothing that ever did before does now.

Definitely a magnum opus in the realm of ambient and fits in nicely with Tangerine Dream, Robert Rich, Peter Namlook, Alio Die, Steve Roach, and Mathias Grassow to name a few.

Essential and monumental!!!!

http://www.phelios.de/

Phragements - Earth Shall not Cover Their Blood (Malignant Records)


Unlike the darker industrial and apocalyptic ambient releases from this label this one shows the other side of Malignant and dares to tread more along the neo-classical route with fellow artists: Coph Nia, In Slaughter Natives, Raison D'Etre, Desiderii Marginis, The War Office Propaganda Label and many more.

Pure ethereal and symphonic ghostly atmospheres are brought about through this music. There's something mystifying and glorious, like an ancient battle victory that is felt here, but also haunting and disasterous like the sight of the fields of impaled victims and mutilated bodies of the enemy as you realize your victory over the enemy is a reality and the price it cost. There is a genuine pagan feel, as well as animalistic desire in this music, to conquer and destroy as much as protect and secure. A hybrid of post world-ending nuclear holocaust and roman atrocities over barbarian tribes in tiring battles millenia ago, this has as much futuristic and industrial nihilism and robotics as it does a hail back to the alledged "primal" human conflicts and early civilizations development through violent struggle and bloodshed.

Definitely intense and beautiful, dynamic and sedative, this has it all and will definitely rival some of the above mentioned forebears of the sound and style. One of my new essential listens and an envigorating aural view into what is being created out there. Another top-notch release for a label that can't seem to go wrong. You haven't felt real ambient atmospheres until you've added this to your experience list.

Check them out at the following links: http://www.constructdestroy.com/
http://www.myspace.com/phragmentsindustrial

Ad Noiseam label Compilation summer 2009


I've been a long time fan of dubstep, darkstep, breakcore, and harsh and groovy tunes and this is one of those labels that's been consistently superior and worthy of my audio needs and high expectations. I've been out of it for about a year and left off with this comp that I keep spinning and feel the need to pay some homage to. Many electronic and drum'n bass labels went the MC/hip hop route and lost my ass 10 years ago, but some labels still manage to keep the groove without redundancy and crap, Ad Noiseam and Planet Mu, along with Ant-Zen can still make you bust a move without puking and running away from the post-rave hip-hop invasion. Maybe that shits novelty has value elsewhere, but here in the US where it originated, it fucking blows and is nauseating, and this is coming from a funk/jazz head like myself.

Most of the artists on this compilation are amazing artists and display true electronic rhythmic and funk values as well as explode upon the listener with some sick and twisted basslines and post bullshit rave hard banging stuff, and are worthy of mention here like: Detritus, Larvae, Somatic Responses, Cdatakill, The Teknoist, Math head, Cardopusher, Mothboy (on occasion), Broken Note, Raoul Sinier, and DJ Hidden. I miss the days of Aphex Twin, Peter Namlook, Bill Laswell and the Mick Harris DnB stuff at times, but you have to admit that some of this stuff is killer and stomping and so worth the time and effort. Here's more proof that electronic grooves aren't dead. Anyone who claims they don't dig a great bassline and bit o' funk and discredits some of the best talent and underground scenes is just full of shit. So show support, enjoy the sounds and absolutely expand your listening experience, if ya dig Parliament and CAN, King Tubby and the original dub scene, Mille Plateau and the microhouse dub tech invasion, you can't pass this stuff up.

Strom.ec - Divine Legions Beyond Psyche (Malignant Records)


As a confirmed mind fuck addict and audio thrill seeker, I was initiated very early on to the likes of Cold Meat Industry and even Wax Trax way back when, but could never get my overactive imagination it's fully satisfying fix until this label and No Visible Scars crossed my path this year. NOTHING on this label is anything that you HAVE heard before, it encompasses the enitre lengthy and diverse sound history of the best damn musical genre ever, Electronic, and manages to keep it unique and progressive. With that rather long winded intro and ass kissing to my friends and collaborators I will now commence with the review.

I don't know much about this artist except that they are from Finland, have toured with the likes of Nurse With Wound, and make some of the best harsh electronic/post-industrial that I've ever heard. At times this album is the soundtrack of a mad scientist's lab, the roaring and chuckling of a mutant animal as electrodes buzz and resonate like those in Dr. Frankensteins lair. The sound of electric chirps and weird space alien sounds are heard in the background, as some biological oddity hides beneath the surface.

The sounds of torture and sadistic acts sculk within this rumble, but are never masked. It's almost as if you were hearing a recording of a torture session in fast forward, there's no mistaking the distinct suffering of the victim and the criminal acts going on here, they are just warped into a mixture with the sounds of a thousand mega-watts of electricity resonating through concrete and steel cells. This stuff is pulsating, gyrating, demented, and brilliant, as much as it is even soothing and captivating. You definitely need to be in the dark with this one on, it's the total mind warping, subconscious terror striker that is almost uncomparable to anything else. Take the ultimate challenge and try sleeping to this one on sleep inducing meds listening through headphones and I guarantee the most bizarre thoughts and dreams will come to the forefront of your mind. No wonder I'm so fucked up.

Essential for fans of: Deutsch Nepal, Brighter Death Now, NTT, Subklinik, Indigo Larvae, Rasthof Dachau, Steel Hook Prosthesis, Yen Pox, Namanax...

"Hate-Male" - Live in Studio, 20th of May 2010


I just got done reviewing his "Decade of noise" when this one shows up as a complete surprise in my mailbox today. The back of the album sleeve reads, "This album was recorded completely live in one take, with no overdubs, editing, mixing or other post-production of any kind". My curiosity led me to immediately give it a spin and write about it as I was still recovering from the last listen to Lawrence Conquest, the man known as Hate-Male.

This is a 36 minute long sonic, mind bending, consciousness melting, wormhole ride of warps and wobbles through this digital travel log through parallel universes and subatomic particles. Warm fuzz like fresh urine on electrical wires, zapping and fizzing and frothing, as your head spins at lightspeeds around and around with this soundscape of noise. Everything that comes to mind when you think of electronic, industrial, power, experimental music is here and in abundance. Nothing says electronic like this stuff, it's cyborg and rivetting. This is some intense and awe inspiring stuff, brilliant and worthy of mention with the greats of the style.

Another one for fans of: This artist, Merzbow, Aube, Bastard Noise, Megaptera, NTT, Yen Pox, In Slaughter Natives, Sutcliffe Jugend, Skitliv, Subklinik, and everything noise and industrial....

"Hate-Male" - Greatest Hits 1999-2009 A Decade of Noise



For over a decade now this man has chosen to invoke chaos in the form of discordant and rasping electronic sounds, but not all of it is pure obnoxious noise, there are moments of hypnotic sound spheres like highspeed tapeloops amidst an ocean of fuzz as heard on "Comatose Vegetable Dreamstate Incurred By Repeated Blows to the Cranium".

Some of the experience here is equally psychedelic and dreamlike as much as it is rigorous and sharp in spots. This artist takes the masterful skills of Nurse With Wound in many areas of this collection and explores it to a few different extremes. Nothing here is pure noise, it's all sculpted into this experience of feedback, loops, high voltage current, industrial whirs and hums, buzzes, some synth work, and almost humanlike voices that becomes a resonating trip into something as horrid as it is enjoyable.

There is nothing left out as far as power electronics goes, this has pulsing rhythms, low-end booms and hums of basstone, lots of sound manipulation, screeching and shrill effects, and comes off like a soundtrack of being submerged in a deep pool of electronic synth sounds both liquid and flowing as they are dense and surround you.

A Definite for fans of: Megaptera, Merzbow, Bastard Noise, Dissecting Table, Aube, In Slaughter Natives,Koerperwelten, NTT, Steel Hook Prosthesis, Painslut, Rasthof Dachau, and so many more...


http://www.myspace.com/hatemalenoise

Pathology – Legacy of the Ancients (Victory Records 2010)


Fellow San Diegans unleash a virus of infectious and hideous Death Metal this June by way of their latest vulgar spewing of brutal filth “Legacy of the Ancients”. If you haven’t heard this band yet, you must be deaf, they’re one of the loudest gore grunting horror fucks to rise from the dead. I’m not a fan of barf/monster effected vocals most times, but these creeps are the real deal. You can feel through the sounds the rotting bowels, septic flesh wounds, Ebola breathing, cannibalistic head banging monsters these guys are. You can hear: Immolation, Incantation, Malignancy, and massive grind elements within but this band still manages to pull it off as something of their own. I can’t get enough of this grime and grind/horror noise.

Obliteration and blood splatter coming your way low and HEAVY!!!!! I hope to catch these guys on tour with Immolation this year, they’ll be in the area in October, as they tour and spread the filth. Just when it seems that things are stale and even boring… and yes, even metal can be boring when it’s uninspired…this band does something that has been done before but somehow it still has something fresh about it. Maybe this bands rhythmic slaughter has caved my head in and my senses are malfunctioning, but I’m pretty sure that aside from my head being ripped off by vocal master zombie Matti Way I’m still sure that what I hear is pure slaughter in the brutal and bloodbath manner that makes this band so great.

This Fucker comes out July 6th, so sink your teeth into this one and catch them on tour, if they are this vicious on recording, you’ll never make it out alive form the live venture, but what a way to go.


info and audio: http://www.myspace.com/pathologydm

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

More awesome Doom releases





The second album of project of the talented musician Ryan reveals new masterpiece of symphonic funeral doom metal!
"Shadows Over The Cosmos" has a potential to become a master form of the genre along with best pieces of such bands as Colosseum and Ea: five endless tracks of majestic funeral doom filled with cold enigma and infinity of Cosmos. This sincere music will capture the listener until the very last second opening the beauty of Creation before him. Additional sense is brought by a picture called “Thaw” by a Russian painter of 19th century Feodor Vasilyev used in the artwork:. The CD is printed with pit-art and gold plated.
http://www.myspace.com/thehowlingvoid

The second full-length album of German band. New material, even more harsh and gloomy is professionally produced and ready both to bring joy to old fans of traditional doom-death metal and to attract interest of those who just has started to get familiar with the genre. "Withered Shades" accumulated heavy riffs and acoustic passages, combined dynamic parts and atmospheric interludes.
The new album of Ophis is a new precious book in the world library of doom.
http://www.myspace.com/ophisdoom

The debut album of young Russian band from Volgograd continues traditions of death/doom metal and represents the band as talented professional musicians. String material created without keyboards and other trend features will suit the tastes of fans of uncompromising death/doom in the vein of Mourning Beloveth, Process Of Guilt and Ataraxie.
http://www.myspace.com/thesullenroute

Re-issue of the legendary album of Ukrainian gothic doom death metal band! The album material is fully remastered and is supplemented with a bonus CD containing demo of 2006 "The Frankness Eve", cover versions of Mournful Gust songs by invited musicians and "With Every Suffering" video from the actual album. Enforced by new power "She's My Grief" album proves to be still state-of-the-art piece of music.
http://www.myspace.com/mournfulgustband

More Solitude Productions upcoming Releases


The first release of post rock/metal label Slow Burn Records is a split of two young bands Fading Waves and Starchitect. This CD demonstrates to a listener two side of post-metal genre: airiness and reverie by Russian band Fading Waves on the one hand and on the other hand, - hardness and severity mixed with refinement by Ukranian band Starchitect. This CD will become a gem in every collection: the booklet is embossed with gold, and the CD has pit-art and is gold-plated.

The activity of Slow Burn Records label is aimed for promotion of the actual post-rock, post-metal and post-hardcore music. Until now there existed no label oriented to such genres in Russia, and now the time has come! Slow Burn Records starts to act with the split-album of two young and perspective bands.

Label's site - http://www.slowburn.ru
http://www.myspace.com/fadingwavesband
http://www.myspace.com/starchitect

Solitude Productions New Release info!!!!!


The second full-length album from Spanish band. The band fuses death metal, dark metal, folk and gothic metal in their music combining growl with clean male and female vocals and adorning it with enchanting violin solos. The result would become a discovery for fans of heavy and beautiful music. Mixed and mastered during the spring of 2009 by Dan Swano in Unisound studios (Edge of Sanity, Novembre, Opeth, Katatonia, Theatre Of Tragedy)!
http://www.myspace.com/aslightdies

Monday, May 24, 2010

Drill Bra - Nancy Spungen Remixes (Datahex)


More weird and awesome stuff from this artist. What can I say aside from that, "I'm hooked and this stuff is one of the best highs out there ?"

More bomb blast beats and electro hell with a kinky twist.

Tracks:
"Satan Had His Coke Nose"
"Aliens Invade Earth"
"What Level is This?"
"I.D.K.F.A"
"Lady Death Skull Volume One"
"What Evil Organization Created Modok"

Drill Bra - Horror Movies Took Up My Time E.P. (Datahex)


Another awesome horror/perve inspired experimetal piece of power industrial work to come my way recently. If the name and album title aren't enough to spark your curiosity, then you're not the right person for this shit anyway so move on. This album JAMS!!!! Straight up hardcore electronics banging and throbbing with satanic chipmunks talking dirty behind the noise. The sounds of a 1000 video games at full volume in an arcade as midget lesbian prostitutes solicit underage boys to indulge in their wildest curiosites and pick up a different joy-stick altogether. Too cool for school, this will make you crank the up volume and laugh your ass off in places. Trippy, evil, groovy, thumping, pulsing, porno filth. If only Richard D. James was slightly more fucked up, Aphex Twin would have gone beyond "I would like some milk from the milkmans wife's tits" (Please tell me someone reading this has heard that track) and put some truly devious and jarbled up lyrics and samples behind the beats. I will be forever an Aphex Twin fan, but stuff here blows it away with a 44 caliber. I have to hear more from this artist, this four tracker is not enough to satisfy me... I need more!!!!

These people who make this stuff are running around loose!!!!!! And why doesn't that scare me ?
get your perve on : http://www.myspace.com/datahexrecords

Gonzar - E.P. (Datahex)


Taking the extreme beat underground and pushing the digital extremes to the apex of "you can't go there", this project dares to and successfully does. For some reason I expected the likes of Mick Harris and James Plotkin to push this boundary, given their grind/crust history, but they actually moved on to more complex and lenghty compositions of noise and experiment whereas Gonzar here pushes the idea of grind from a digital Atari noise perspective. Who the hell can refuse an E.P. consisting of tracks with titles like: "Thumbs up Corpse Down", "Trip out on Dogshit and Downers", "Potsmokearmyforce" ? Clocking in at under 10 minutes too.

Extreme throbbing basslines underneath machine gun fire, samples of electronic effected screaming, death ray guns, lasers...it's a soundtrack to some political war done sci-fi and digital. Interesting and worthy of checking out for sure. Check out the Datahex site at: http://datahexmusic.blogspot.com/ where you can download the comps and various sounds for free and show support. Very cool stuff folks!!!!!