I Own Some Records

The Rita - “Womankind 2: Cleopatra, Sacred Servents” (Survivalist Deathcamp 2012)

So I’m listening to this new Rita jam and one of my peeps walks in and is like “Yo, what’s this shit? Your stereo broken bro?”

And I’m all like “Nah dawg, it’s a new joint from The Rita!”  

He’s like, “what the fuck IS it?”

“Harsh noise wall! Sam Mckinley takes a sound source and manipulates and distorts it to the point that it’s an unrecognizable wall of noise! It’s very meditative and deep! I love it!”

Then he shot me a look like I’M the crazy one. Whatever! One can only roll their eyes at such stupidity.

-Log.

PS: this probably didn’t actually happen.  

BT.HN. - “Vitiated” (Dogma Chase 2009)

For those of you who are thinking about putting out noise records (all .001% of you) I would take a page from Dogma Chase.  The packaging for this fucking record is gorgeous.   It’s also very simplistic; the front cover is a silk screened plaque attached to the middle and the inside has the insert pasted and has the hand numbering.  Everything is attached to super heavy black board.  That’s it.  Beautiful.

As for the record itself, It is also beautiful.  Not really.  That was my attempt at pretentiously describing noise as beautiful, which I promptly abandoned as soon as I wrote the sentence.  BT.HN. is a hip combo of two dudes, one of which is Sam McKinley, better known to noise heads as The Rita.  This is my first BT.HN. record, and boy howdy, is it a doozy.  You get two tracks on here, both of which I will describe to you now, as is the thing to do when you review things.  The first side starts with a super overblown sample of some kind of French opera or something then degenerates into lots of heavily delayed feedback with a peppering of distortion blasts until the blasts become the entire track.  Rewarding and satisfying.  The second side is more of a straightforward noise track, almost a take on Sam’s work with The Rita, like a HNW with straight harsh noise over the wall.  As if two noise records were played at the same time.  That sounds stupid and is a dumb description, but to me thats what I hear and it sounds great.  

The record is awesome and I will be tracking down more BT.HN. stuff in the future, as well as more Dogma Chase releases if they are all this high quality.

-Log. 

Sex Bruises - “Black Eye” (Instincto Records 2011)

So the good folks down at Instincto Records and myself had a little record trade off recently, and they were awesome enough to send me a sampler if you will, of some of their recent CDr releases!  I’m totally stoked on it and expect to see a handful of reviews of stuff from the label in the near future, but first we’ll start with this disc right hurr. 

Sex Bruises is a duo of Alexandra Pharmakidis and Matt LaComette, and boy, do they ever know how to bring the noise. Over five tracks and over forty minutes, these maniacs hit all the beats of a good noise record.  Loud, abrasive distortion sounds, discordant manic guitar playing, screamed and/or screeched vocals, feedback manipulation, and of course, fuzzed out waves of skree (I love how the onomonopia skree exists and all noiseheads get it and use it).  My favorite has to be the last track, “Static Mantra”, there is a loop of pretty female vocals that slowly devolves into a tornado of sonic violence with what sounds like bit crushed oscillators and percussion.  Also at one point I heard what sounds like (but probably isn’t) a sample of the sound from when Little Mac punches King Hippo in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!! repeated over and over.  

This is a fucking awesome record from start to finish.  I’d check out Instincto Records Sound Cloud page and message them there about getting some of their releases.  Excellent stuff. 

-Log. 

Masonna - “Astro Harshtronism EP” (Anti-Music Records 1996)

Fucking Masonna. FUCKING MASONNA! Despite having a large collection of Merzbow albums (I bought most of them mostly so I would have enough material to listen to him for 24 hours straight, which is a day I don’t feel like reliving[this was also before I bought the Merzbox]), Masonna is probably my favorite Japanese noise artist.  His noise is energetic and violent and psychedelic all at the same time.  It’s mostly based on manipulated vocals and you can just feel when listening to him that this is all he fucking cares about in the world. 

This 8” (yes 8 inches) is no different. It starts with a misleading intro of some folk band that just cuts straight to the noise.  The whole first side is Masonna signature vocals (screams) and blasts of ripping distortion.  The second side is a little less harsh, with much more colorful loops of sound that bubbles into a quick break featuring what sounds like a tamborine until the vocal destruction kicks in.  Fucking amazing record.

-Log. 

Government Alpha - “Chronic Deja Vu” (Gender-Less Kibbutz 2006)

If Hatebreed was noise, it would sound like this. 

I really wanted to end the review there, but that would be misleading and not serious (and as we all know I take everything very seriously all the time), though there is some truth to the statement. Not that this sounds anything like Hatebreed, or that Hatebreed could ever do noise properly, but this shit is awesome and brutal.  Just like Hatebreed; 100% shoot (wrestling joke).  Honestly I just thought “If Hatebreed was noise, it would sound like this” and decided it was funny and I needed to write it down somewhere.  It happened to be in this entry.  Lucky you, diligent reader! 

Government Alpha is one dude from the land that does noise best, Japan.  There is an epic quality to this record.  Lots of dive bombing swooshes and sounds that could be distorted air raid sirens.  This could even be a “babies first noise album” kind of deal, meaning its almost musical and could be used to introduce people to noise.  Almost.  

Okay enough of me trying to be clever.  

-Log. 

Gender Sabotage/Ritual Stance - split (Void Seance 2011)

Uh oh. Call the hipster police; I’m reviewing a CD!!  Well it’s actually a CDr that is limited to 30 copies, so it’s more underground than most shit hipsters listen to anyway. But anyway. 

Gender Sabotage is yet another name/side project of noiseman Richard Ramirez, a guy who’s in so many noise projects it kind of makes me sick. And by kind of it really makes me sick. And by really I mean it doesn’t at all.  Gender Sabotage offers up one track entitled “Third Gender” that really brings the HNW.  Low tones bubble up and pop into erratic static sounds for a good half an hour.  It”s irritating at first but after that amount of time it sounds really nice.  On the other hand it sounds like a a broken coffee machine percolating. 

Ritual Stance’s track “Bare Upon the Altar” is a more bellowing dark track.  Super low sounds waves are distorted and shift while a constant buzz covers the whole thing. Or to make it sound like a real life situation it sounds like a really heavy wind shooting up sand and making it hit a window.  But in a good way.  

Another solid release from Void Seance.  Solid as a wall. A harsh. Noise. Wall.  BA DOOM CHA!

-Log. 

Void Seance

Deathroes - “Final Expense”  (No Fun Productions/Misanthropic Agenda 2007)

Deathroes is a noise band. It is made up of Gerritt and SIXES. Two guys I barely know anything about except that Gerritt did a split with Bastard Noise at some point. I bet most noiseheads are face palming at my complete ignorance of these artists right now, but you know what? Fuck off. 

So I have another Deathroes record (well CD) and frankly, it bored the shit out of me when I listened to it.  It could of been at the time I was buying and listening to any noise album I could get my hands on. I only bought this because it seems people can’t fucking give it away; I got my copy for like 6 bucks still sealed. After listening to this record I really should give that CD another spin, because this record is totally fucking killer.  It sounds like a mix of analog pedal play and digital sound destruction.  I don’t know how composed, if at all, this was, but it sounds thought out, and has many different layers to sift through and enjoy.  There are sparse, less destroying parts, and even quiet parts, which I am very much a fan of in my noise.  

I could keep writing about the sound contained within the wax, but seriously, as I write in most of my noise reviews, there is no point, I always sound ignorant and pretentious. Maybe it’s because I’m to straight forward in my reviewing, as opposed to using big words to make myself sound smart.  Whatever. Great record. 

-Log. 

Mutant Ape - “Erotic Yorkshire” (Ecstatic Peace! 2009)

Sometimes its hard to describe noise and noise music without sounding like a pretentious fuck head.  At least it is for me.  Every time I go back and read one of my noise reviews I get douche chills.  I’m sure this will be more of the same.

Mutant Ape is the noise project of George Proctor (Sump, White Metal, runs Turgid Animal Records UK, probably more projects I’m forgetting), he’s a dude I’d like to call myself a fan of.  Mutant Ape had been around for a while, so it’s actually surprising that this is the first time I’d heard them [EDIT: just kidding, I actually have a split 7” of theirs too; though I couldn’t tell you what it sounds like].  But this record is a noise record that will appeal to all of the noise-minded.  Their is fucked up spoken word tracks, really loud heavy harsh noise tracks, dark ambient Bastard Noise-esque tracks, and even good ole’ slow burning quiet/loud tracks.  

I’m really digging this though.  I haven’t heard a noise record this intriguing in a long time.  Most of the time its like, “oh cool a 79 minute CD with two tracks on it that don’t go anywhere. my favorite.”  This record sounds fully realized and thought out before hand, usually the main thing that sets apart good noise from bad noise.  Not to say totally just winging it equals bad noise either.  I don’t know what I’m trying to say, it’s past my bedtime. This record kills though.  It’s totally satisfying my ears right now.  

Also the cover art is awesome. 

-Log.  

The Rita - “Snorkel/Skate” (RRRecords 2009)

Loud noises.