Stuart Chalmers/Robert Ridley-Shackleton split cs

Stuart Chalmers/Robert Ridley-Shackleton

Blunders

Hissing Frames

(3)

I am not sure if it is because my two year old got to this cassette before I did or just because of the sounds on it but Stuart Chalmer's side of this cassette is disorienting. It's like listening to a clown repair a steam ships engine while there is a storm outside, backwards. It's pretty fucked up. The loops are almost melting on this one. It's pretty awesome. Robert Ridley-Shackleton, who is becoming one of my favorite artists lately, does some awesome minimal synth manipulations and squelches. I recommend turning this up loud because it disappears from time to time. The tape is a little on the long side. It's a c52. I love listening to cassettes but I am starting to think a c30 might be my limit… That's not really true, it's really just because of how much I have to review lately. This is actually a fine length. As far as the artwork goes Robert usually gets real out there but this one feels a little thrown together. It's nice but I feel like he could have gone a little farther with it. Either way this is a good release. First release on Hissing Frames. 

Dao De Noize "NMII" cdr

Dao De Noize

NMII

Dokuro

(3)

First of all, if the audio on this cdr was not so damn good I would have to give this a 2. The layout is so lackluster that I am kinda bummed just looking at it. It's not the worst thing I have ever seen but it's another slim cd case with a cdr (thankfully it's at least stamped with the label's logo) but the color photocopy that sits inside goes only halfway across the back and it looks kinda cruddy. If this was in resealable bag where you could see part of the cdr this might look okay but it's either the wrong packaging or the wrong cover. The cover itself, with it's toy frog, kinda looks like Boris' Amplifier Worship cover before Steve O'Malley got to fix it. It looks kinda 90's and not in the best way. The audio however is gorgeous. Really excellent droning noise with lots of strange instrumentations or field recordings of instruments that totally work. This artist, Dao De Noize, despite having a rough name and a rougher typeface for that name, is doing some really amazing work. 

Dao De Noize/Daruin split cdr

Dao De Noize/Daruin

Split cdr

Neus-318

(3)

Excellent noise from both Dao De Noize and Daruin. Dao De Noize plays piercing noise that sits on top of heavy, thick static. There seems to be loops below the fray of bells, drums, scraping metal, voices and various other sounds but they are all so buried that picking them out can give you a bit of anxiety. It's really good work from an artist I have not heard of until now. Daruin's two tracks seems to be more in the world of drone. It has a Birchville Cat Motel playing a Buddha Box type of sound. This is to say it's awesome. The trance that you will find yourself in after the first 20 minute track will be slightly jarred by the noisier, shorter track to follow. Really excellent audio on here. It looses a little points for the overly simplistic packaging and layout. It's not bad but a totally blank white cdr in a slim case with a photocopied cover is not that inspiring. Like I said, its not bad, it's just sorta forgettable. Musically though you will not be disappointed. 

RJ Myato "Fukushima" cs

RJ Myato

Fukushima

Love Torture Records

(3)

Excellent little noise cassette here. It is a reference to the massive disaster in Japan last year that has and will effect all of us for many, many years to come. The audio sounds like danger. Alarms, garbled radio transmissions, broken static all make for a tense but short listen. The tape is about a c10, which is my new favorite length these days (probably due to how many reviews I have to do). The artwork is little underwhelming. Pictures of the smoldering power plant with some kinda rough type but it's still a pretty killer release. 

Venowl "untitled" cs

Venowl

Untitled

Ivory Antlers

(3)

This is a beautiful mess. The music is basically two tracks of what sounds mostly improvised using two different vocabularies of music. Side a, which is also my favorite side, is a super manic destructive maelstrom of guitar, vocals, drums in the style of Sissy Spacek or Menstruation Sisters but within a black metal sensibility. It's total screaming destruction. Side B is more like a doom track. Imagine Grief having to play first thing in the morning with no practice in months. It's a disaster but it works pretty well. Totally unique and bizarre. The layout and artwork are great and inspiring. I thank them for that. I would have liked to see some sort of imprinting on the cassette or at least a stamp. My only real problem I think is unique to my cassette. The first five minutes or so of side one sounded very warped and made listening a little weird.

Balcony View cdr

Balcony View

s/t

Slays for days Records

(3)

This is so close to perfect for me. Beautiful ambient guitar drone on par with Brian Eno's Music for Airports meets Oren Ambarchi's Grapes from the Estate. Minimal gorgeous waves of swelling guitar that absolutely hits the mark. There is a rough change here and there but it almost adds to the spontaneous feel of this recording, which is something that neither of the afore mentioned comparisons had. After a couple tracks of this beautiful instrumental drone you get a slightly more straightforward guitar and vocal song that is more of a repetitive, morose pop/folk track. This song, although strong in some ways, ultimately doesn't work as well.  Strained, soft and slightly out of key vocals accompany guitar and bell loops while controlled feedback adds a lot of texture. This track feels a little long and there are some screams that are pretty silly and out of place. You will find some really excellent guitar playing throughout this track though and it certainly is a break amidst the walls of melancholy drone. Although this record certainly didn't need to the break. This is another cdr that unfortunately I just can't get into how DIY the packaging is. The sleeve the blank cdr comes in is even worse than the one that came with the Alaskan Night Bears cdr but with the same computer print out insert. This is not something someone would want to trade money for even though the audio encoded on the disc is great. 

ZFK "Mahina Yest 1/Medizinisch" cs

ZFK

Mahina Yest 1/Medizinisch

ROKOT

(3)

This is cool. I feel like I don't really know much about Russian noise and experimental music at all. My education basically starts and ends at Fear Konstructor, basically. I am quite glad I have a chance to learn a bit about this stuff though. I received a box, a huge box, packed with cdrs and cassettes from Russia recently and it's taking awhile to get through them all. This was recorded in 2004 before ZFK had broken up. It's subtle, mostly harsh noise with a slight industrial feel to it. It sounds like broken transmissions from the other side of the sun. The first side is my favorite track, it's very noisy and harsh and buried beneath a blanket of static. The second side is a bit more heavy on the industrial side of things. Loops and some almost riffs fade in and out throughout the track while still buried beneath the same noisy blanket. Super simple, yet nice, design and layout in a poly case. Limited to 50 copies.

.NYCTALOPS. "Electric Retard" cs

.NYCTALOPS.

Electric Retard

ROKOT

(3)

Pretty cool noise from this Russian artist. It's dark and twisted static destruction with some awesome synth manipulations. It is not really HNW but the torn up sounds never really relent either. If HNW seems fast to you, this will seem slow. It's deliberate and controlled and pretty impressive. The layout is very simple and clean. Nicely done, but the poly cases with a totally blank tape feel a little too simple to me. Still, it's good. Limited to 50 copies with the craziest name for a cassette. 

Citizen Clane cs

Citizen Clane

s/t

Schooner

(3)

I wasn't quite expecting Citizen Clane to sound like this. It's dark, psychedelic, abstract rock with lots of layers of strange instruments, vocals and noise. It's apparently a few songs from a forthcoming record that features Mike Watt (The Minutemen, Firehose, Al Qaeda) and Steve MacKay (Stooges, Estel). The music has the feel of spending time driving long distances at night while on some wonderful drugs. I quite enjoy the music on this one and will definitely look for the LP when it comes out. This cassette has the cover art, with an obvious Residents vibe, which looks nice but the way it fits in the cassette case feels awkward. There is no information of any kind inside (I had to search the internet for what information I could find) and all the tape has on it has a sticker of the number 3. So there's not too much to go on there. It overall has the feel of a cassette that was put out as an afterthought. Limited to 50 copies. 

Alaskan Night Bears "Champion Sound" cdr

Alaskan Night Bears

Champion Sound

Slays for Days Records

(3)

Alaskan Night Bears is very intimate bedroom folk by Charles Fishowitz. Very much in the vein of Jenn Ghetto's mostly solo project "S" and you could say there was a bit of Elliot Smith, Bon Iver or Tiny Vipers in there as well. It's very sweet, sad and quiet and each song has the feeling of something found and precious. The audio is a bit quiet but I think that is a side effect of it being recorded in small bedrooms around the united states. My only real issue with this release is the packaging. It's very DIY but in a very unattractive way. A totally blank cdr with a insert that is just a computer print out slid into a reclaimed cd sleeve. The imagery and typography is actually really nice but the execution has the feeling that the label doesn't really care and therefore someone may pass this up that would have really loved it. I know the DIY nature is something the label want to convey and I get that but I think just a little more effort would go a long way. Regardless, I would suggest you look into this release. 

Crown of Cerebus "Salome" cs

Crown of Cerebus

Salome

Hail the Crown

(3)

This is pretty good. It's dark, brooding, noisy and has a very cool Oakeater sort of feel to it. It feels a little safe to me at time though. It kinda hits all the right marks in all the right places and doesn't really resonate with me. I think there may be just a bit more delay than is necessary and I ended up having that issue where I can start hearing the pedals more than the performance. God knows I have been guilty of that very thing myself more that a few times but that is probably why it stuck out to me. That aside, like I said before, it's still pretty good. It's the perfect length and captures a mood and holds onto it throughout the release. I would love to hear more from this project but I want to hear them push the limits of the minimum and the maximum. Nice woodcut artwork and simple design with an interesting blacklister typeface but that kind of also felt "safe". It's already sold out at the label but I would recommend checking out the label's site. They have some very interesting things on there that you should really take a look at. 

Patrick McBratney "Lovebird" cs

Patrick McBratney

Lovebird

Lava Church Records

(3)

Excellent bedroom pop from Patrick McBratney graces both sides of this cassette. With the lo-fi feel I get the vibe of an early Ariel Pink if he used an 8 bit synth for his drum machine instead of his voice for the percussion. Maybe if Ariel Pink had released hi first record on Factory Records or maybe World Serpent. The songs have a haunting naivete that I find very appealing. The vocals are almost completely impossible to understand but I really enjoy the mumbled/distorted sound of what would have sounded like pretty straight forward singing. The artwork and layout are not something that appeals to me really. It's fine. The painting on the cover is pretty nice but it looks like a jumble of ideas with little or no focus. The layout is not really there to speak of. The type treatment is pretty 90's and not in a god way but other than that the audio is great. I recommend checking this out if you come across it for that alone. 

Soft Targets "The Rise and Fall of..." cs

Soft Targets

The Rise and Fall of…

Cassette Pet Records

(3)

I am always surprised when I get a tape to review that is not some crazy harsh noise drone thing, so Soft Targets was a huge surprise. As the first song started I immediately thought Mission of Burma, Lync, Crackerbash, Naked Raygun and early SST records all at once. It's fast, jangling pop with a noisy, punk sensibility. Not pop punk though.  There is no NOFX crud here. This is closer to garage rock with a lot of volume. If you look these guys up online you will be floored by how rad they look. I know that doesn't matter but I was picturing a bunch of kids who discovered everything that ruled about Chicago in the 80s through the early 90's but these are the guys who were making that scene. I don't love every song. Not that they are bad but some just don't really do it for me. Still it's a pretty damn good cassette. If you are my age or older and ever got a chance to see any of this stuff when it was happening I think Soft Targets will totally make your day. The design on this cassette is excellent. Strong typography and simple imagery that totally works. Good job guys. 

Plutonium "devilmentertainment" cd

Plutonium

Devilmentertainment

Self Released

(3)

To be totally honest I was ready to hate this when I pulled it out of it's case. I hated the text on the cover so much that I assumed this was going to, at best, sound like a sad Skinny Puppy. What I actually heard when the music started was some very intense industrial black metal. You almost have to hear this to know what that means but it's not bad. Intense and well played with incredibly mechanical drums and decent vocals. There are times that make you think of early Immortal mixed with Ministry. I actually know a few friends that would totally worship this thing. It's not totally my thing but I recognize that this is pretty well done. There are a few kinda questionable moments here and there. A few parts that sounds a little stadium metal and a couple things that are a little heavy on the samples and mechanics of the whole thing. I like my black metal to be more naive and lofi where this is very polished and almost perfectly recorded. There are some riffs on this that are amazing though and I wish I had written. The first riff on Unintelligent Design is some sort of blackened voivod inspired awesomeness. There is a quick break of samples that kind of bum me out but then it goes right back to killing everyone. It definitely has it moments. I think if industrial black metal sounds like something you might dig I would recommend it. 

Deadmoths "Disinclined Beings" cs

Deadmoths

Disinclined Beings

Worthless Recordings

(3)

Totally solid vocal heavy noise on this short cassette. The first track is totally brutal and destroyed noise along with some sinister screams. This dudes vocals are nuts.  The second side starts with this long guitar jam with some spoken/sung vocals that don't totally do it for me but before the track ends it gets totally fucked up again and I am back on board. It's solid and I bet you would dig it throughout. The layout is beautiful aside from the SxE HxC font that kinda bugs me a little. Those little peccadilloes certainly do not ruin what in general is a solid and brutal cassette. 

Compactor "Self Destruct Sequence" cs

Compactor

Self Destruct Sequence

Worthless Recordings

(3)

I want to start by saying that this is a fucking good cassette. The "3" rating (which is a good rating) is mainly because I feel the audio on this cassette is just a little unbalanced. Mainly because the first side is a little heavy on the industrial side of things for me. I know groups like Scorn are pretty fucking awesome, and I do own those records, but the first side just feels a tiny bit too much. Not that it's bad, because it's not. It sounds great. It's like Scorn meets Hair Police or something.  But it's the second side that blew me away. Totally abstract, darkness that is completely unique and inspiring. I don't even know how to compare this but I have rewound and listened to this second side about ten times now. It's amazing. The artwork is good but simple. Limited, but I am not sure to how many. Too few I assume. 

Bad Algorithm s/t 3"cdr

Bad Algorithm 

s/t

Shit Music for Shit People

(3)

This 3" is a constant barrage of squelching and squealing noise insanity. It's so intense and varied that it's actually pretty hard to tell where one track ends and the other begins. I like that. You pretty much just have to watch the numbers change. The layout is simple but I feel like it's maybe a little too simple. The logo for bad Algorithm is totally killer but it looks sort of flat. I don't know… I am really just nitpicking as it's a totally solid release. I have another to check out this week from this artist and I am excited to see how it compares. So far, I am intrigued.

La Mancha Del Pecado "Untitled Somber Demos" cs

La Mancha Del Pecado

Untitled Somber Demos

Self Released

(3)

All three La Mancha Del Pecado cassettes I have reviewed now are all great but if you have to get just one of them I would recommend this one first. It's a little different but it's a good starting place. Some totally blackened static (you will see what I mean) along with other tracks that sound like whales dying in a hailstorm. It's pretty awesome… Other tracks have this Earth vibe but completely destroyed by noise and piercing and I mean piercing feedback. There are some twisted vocals coming through the din that are maybe a little too effected at times but it's an interesting listen on those tracks. All in all this is fascinating and a good lead into the more extreme static dirge on the other La Mancha Del Pecado cassettes. Get in touch with Miguel and get a trade going.

Email link. 

__dReágän||||||/Julia Ladense and Mantichura split cs

__dReágän||||||/Julia Ladense and Mantichora

split

I Had an Accident Records

(3)

__dReágän||||||, a project with a name out of the Fifth World, plays some intense and brittle drone from Belgium. Using what sounds like tape manipulations, effects and guitar __dReágän|||||| makes a huge lolling ocean full dense static. It's loud and broken. __dReágän||||||'s name kinda bugs me but I got to admit that it is pretty fun to type out. __dReágän||||||. __dReágän||||||. __dReágän||||||.  Julia Ladense and
Mantichora tracks are also in the realm of drone. Much more low end heavy and beautiful. Almost sub audible at times. Pretty impressive. If you have listened to Oakeater's LP recently and dug it then I think you may dig this as well. There are some samples buried in this one but it sounds awesome. I think it may be a little long but it's definitely worth picking up. Limited to 50 copies. 

Head in the Oven

Head in the Oven

I Blew Up the Challenger

Self Released

(3)

Another submission in the intentionally-horrible-off-beat-noise-rock-doom-crazy-person genre that I find so charming. I really don't know what these guys have going on as a scene out there because these guys are crazy. Head in the Oven share a drummer with Black Cum who always deliver on the lyrics. These lyrics are just about as charming: Fuck you Han Solo. You Took My Girlfriend. I Wanted to Rail Princess Leia but I'll Just Fuck an Ewok Instead. Those are the lyrics to an entire song. The music is ultra-naive lo fi punk noise stuff recorded on a boombox in the practice room. The vocals are extra high screeches that as actually pretty killer. The packaging is interesting… The j card is nowhere near the correct size for the case, the lyrics sheet is folded crooked and the tape is handpainted. Very home made and DIY. Let's also mention the title and cover photo. The Challenger explosion. I actually wonder if these guys were alive when that happened.  That is becoming old timey to talk about. They might as well have atop called I started the Great Chicago Fire or Take That Hindenburg. Like I said, charming. Limited to six copies so I am not sure how many people get to enjoy this slice of crazy.


UPDATE: Check the comments for a link to purchase this one. The edition is 18 copies in 3 different covers. Awesome.