Posts tagged industrial
I Own Some Records
Just a few.
Today’s haul from the mail and my buddies “garage sale”
Actuary/Bacteria Cult - split (Vomitcore Music 2011)
Man, Actuary is putting out some of the most exciting noise lately. I haven’t heard that much by them, but what I have so far has been ace. On this little record they bring one track of desperate haunted electronics, with some movie sample I can’t identify, but damn it works well. The result is a dark brooding trip suitable for play at your next dinner party with your relatives.
Bacteria Cult is the noise project of the illustrious Chris Dodge, you might know the guy, he’s been in a million influential bands, owned one of the most important hardcore labels of the last 20 years; you know, some jobber. The piece offered up here is a mixture of industrial machine sounds, samples, and percussion (both live and electronic). The result is a trip to unsettling city, where all the residents are creepy loners in baggy pants. That are probably bald. Or balding.
A fun little record. The artwork is awesome on here too. To bad there is only 160 copies (I got copy #10 somehow!).
-Log.
JK Flesh/Prurient - “Worship The Cleansing Of Imagination” (Hydra Head Records 2013)
So this is the final release from the illustrious and amazing Hydra Head Records. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t think of a better combination of artists or a better release to send off the label.
JK Flesh is one of Justin K Broadrick’s 8 billion projects. If you don’t know who he is, kindly educate yourself, because while I don’t think I’ve reviewed any of his projects, every single one of them is excellent, and three of them are some of the most influential bands of the last 25 or so years. JK Flesh is sort an amalgamation of his later work with Godflesh and Final, the result is truly satisfying. The three tracks on here are ambient electronic tracks, with heavy distorted guitars playing doom riffs. I’ve honestly never really heard anything quite like this before, everything that tries to sound like this falls short and sounds cheesy. Mr. Broadrick pulls this off masterfully; this is definitely something that requires multiple listens to dissect every nuance and truly appreciate the musical genius presented.
Let’s flip this over.
Prurient has quite the task to live up to the previous side, but I don’t think it’s possible for Dominick Fernow to disappoint (well me at least). Prurient takes a different approach then his previous Hydra Head releases, which mostly revolved around synths and beats. These three tracks rely more heavily on ambient electronics and atmosphere rather than keyboards. The final track does have a synth lead, but brutal electronics slowly come in and take center stage while the synth becomes an afterthought.
All in all an excellent record. Do yourself a favor and buy this.
-Log.
Thought Broadcast - “Thought Broadcast” (Old English Spelling Bee 2012)
I didn’t know what to expect from this here platter, which I find is always a fun way to encounter stuff. Like I knew nothing of this band, but Seedstock got a few of their albums in their distro, and usually everything I ever get from them is gold, so I of course gave this a try.
As per usual Seedstock does not disappoint. I still know nothing about this group, but I must say this is an interesting record. First off, everything is buried in tape saturation, like this was recorded on an ancient tape recorder which gives it a nice basement quality. The music itself is a delicious gumbo of repetitive rudimentary synth loops, distorted talking vocals, and super minimal melodies. While the music doesn’t sound evil, the basement sound described earlier makes for a super disturbing listening experience. Like this is the kind of thing that greasy nerds would listen to while browsing the internet in search of crime scene photography for the purposes of criticizing them for artistic merit. This is definitely not for weak ears. It’s so fucking good though.
-Log.
Hey everyone. You might remember a few months back I was talking about my band, Grampa. Well we finally finished mixing and all the other fun stuff for our first album. We have a bandcamp page where it’s available for download. Also I have it on micro SD cards which is limited to 14 copies; if you want one email me. I haven’t decided if I want to do a tape release yet or not.
Grampa play a mix of dark ambient/drone/noise/other weird stuff. Every track has different instrumentation ranging from banjo to throat singing to homemade oscillators. Check it out!
It’s pay what you want, but don’t feel bad if you pay nothing! I just want people to hear it, we worked hard on the record. If you download it, give me feedback!
thanks!
-Log.
Christian Cosmos - “The Sharp Lines That Delineate His Robes” (Bed Of Nails 2012)
GUYS THIS RECORD IS LIKE REALLY AWESOME. ITS LIKE DARK AMBIENT AND INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC. SHITS LIKE IF BOYD RICE WAS IN APHEX TWIN, YEAH ITS THAT AWESOME. LMFAO I LISTENED TO IT AT 33RPM FIRST AND THEN I LOOKED AT THE LABELS AND IT SAID 45RPM AND I LISTENED TO IT AGAIN AND ITS REALLY GOOD EITHER WAY. AND LOOK AT THE COLOR OF THE RECORD ITS LIKE A NEON GRIMACE FROM MCDONALDS AND SHIT.
-Log.
PS: This is the last review I write like this. Maybe.
Genesis P-Orridge & Stan Bingo - “What’s History” (Dais Records 2012)
So this record is awesome. It’s one of those records that I wasn’t going to even post about, but then in the middle of listening to it I was like, “Fuck. This is good.”
Basically the record is a free improvisation from 1981 when Genesis was trying out some new equipment (sounds like a new synth or something), and Mr. Bingo was there with a vibraphone. At first the track sounds like the two were just doing whatever, but eventually they just click, and the results are awesome. Over the two sides (basically it’s all one track, but you have to flip the record at one point) the listener is taken on a journey that is both dreamy and terrifying, but all the while relaxing. It’s really hard to describe, but I love it. The best part of the record, to me at least, is when GP’s dog starts barking, and rather than turning the tape off they just keep going. What would normally ruin a recording, the dog seems to be joining in on the session, barking in time with what the performers are doing. It’s the sort of thing that could never be recreated, and to me really sold me on this record. Love it.
-Log.
Silent Servant - “Negative Fascination” (Hospital Productions 2012)
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I’ve been really enjoying the latest rash of releases coming out on Hospital Productions and their sister label Bed Of Nails that are primarily ambient electronic music. As a big fan of IDM and ambient music, all these releases lately have been a breath of fresh air for me, because as much as I love Aphex Twin (and the hordes of acts he’s inspired), his (their) records are a bit overwhelming to listen to sometimes.
Silent Servant is just the right mix of complexity and simplicity that makes for techno that pines for multiple spins; not just for picking apart of tracks, but also because it’s so fucking excellent! Silent Servant employees what seems to be a generous arsenal of analog synths to create hypnotic dark beats, mostly revolving around thumping electronic bass tones, with repetitive drum loops, heavily distorted samples, and cold synth harmonies and waves which tie everything together masterfully.
Right now the northern East Coast of the USA (which is where I call home) is currently being overtaken by a Nor’easter, and this record is the perfect soundtrack to it. Even better than Immortal would be; listening to this record feels like I should be stuck in an ice cavern being haunted by some unseen force. Or something. Great shit.
-Log.
Enema Syringe - “Bogens Massage Institut” (Ultra Eczema 2006)
It’s hard to believe that this was recorded in the 80’s. Enema Syringe was a noise/industrial/dance band from Sweden that did a handful of recordings in the mid 80’s then in the mid aughts (2000’s) for some reason hand a few releases come out. This record is a compilation of unreleased and previously released tracks from their initial run.
As I said, it’s hard to believe this was from the 80’s. It sounds like something that a hipster in Brooklyn would be doing nowadays, in his closet sized apartment while wearing a Christmas sweater in March. The sounds on here are made with drum machines, a Casio keyboard, and vocals, but it sounds like these there was tons of expensive synths and racks and racks of gear used to make this. Seriously, it’s at once juvenile in sound as well as totally complicated and abrasive. Musically, the tracks are usually comprised of a rudimentary loop or beat and then light bits of synth create a texture of fucking weird distorted vocals to do whatever the hell they are doing. Sometimes they are talking, sometimes they are shouting or wailing, and sometimes they are “singing.” I’ll let you decide what that means.
Honestly I had no expectations for this record when I bought it, but seriously, this shit could only come out of Sweden and be so enjoyable. For me at least, most people would hate the fuck out of this.
-Log.
Full Of Hell/The Guilt Of… - split (A389 Recordings 2012)
Full Of Hell is a band introduced to me recently, but GOT DAMN are they doing good things. Good things that I am into. Normally a dark hardcore/crust band with bits of noise peppered throughout their tracks, on this split they explore the complete potential of noise. Based around a low end loop, with sheets of light manipulated distortion and yelled vocals, Full Of Hell have produced a fun little bit of power electronics not unlike Bastard Noise. But don’t be scared, this is high quality noise, not just some turds decided they want to give it a go. A sort of portal to noise kind of record. Fucking great.
The Guilt Of… is an entirely different beast of sonic experimentation. Featuring vocalist of the unreal Eyehategod, Mike Williams, The Guilt Of… normally play a kind of power electronics as offered up by Full Of Hell on this record. But for their side of this little record The Guilt Of… decided to work in a bit of EBM/industrial dance music to their already abrasive sound. The tracks beat is a hypnotic and ancient sounding techno track, with Mike Williams signature vocals are somewhere within, buried in reverb and delay. This shit is so fucking great, and totally unexpected here on my end.
I can’t recommend this record enough. A389 continues to deliver quality to us, the unwashed record purchasing public. Bravo.
-Log.
aTelecine - “Sounds That Gods Fear” (Pendu Sound Recordings 2012)
The second installment of aTelecine’ss omnibus series for Pendu Sound has arrived. Well I got my copy months ago, and I’m finally getting around to listening to it. So sue me! I’ve got lots of records to get through and a full time job to deal with on top of this blog! Excuuuuuse me for having a a busy life. Trust me, if I could, I would do nothing all day every day, just laying on my floor, spinning vinyl, slowly decaying from lack of exercise; and I’d be plenty happy about it. As long as I got the mental stimulation from listening to music, that would be all I would need. Kind of like those Buddhist monks in India that claim they don’t eat or drink ever, pure spiritual energy nurtures them. It would kind of be like that. It would be a lot like that actually. Ok I think I want to do that. Go team.
This record is cool. whatever. Not as good as the last one, the second side is a bit wanky actually. The first side is an enjoyable enough psyched out synth trip, but nothing mind blowing. I’m tired and its my birthday. I’m gonna go buy more records.
-Log.
Bronze Age - “Antiquated Futurism” (Bed Of Nails 2012)
Okay. I shouldn’t like this. BUT I FUCKING LOVE IT!
Bronze Age is a project of a few noise dudes who decided that the world needs some more dance music in it. There was a point in my life, maybe three or four years ago, that I decided it was okay for me to like darkwave, EBM, and other stuff like that; you know, evil dance music. Had I not reached that point, I would say I fucking hate this and never listen to it again. This EP harkens back to the early 90’s when techno scared moms because they heard it was drug music. I guess this is a kind of electronic music where acid is a prefix to something else, but I wouldn’t really know, I’m not that well schooled in those kind of sub genrefacations. All I know is that this record is blowing my mind. It’s totally well thought out, with industrial beats, toothy synth sounds, and little to no care about sounding current. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought this was on like the soundtrack to Kids or some other gritty 90’s underground film.
Great fucking record. I can’t wait to see what else comes from this band and label as well.
-Log.
Rust Worship - “Optimistic” (Robert & Leopold 2012)
More R&L goodness. I bought this for the hell of it, and man am I impressed. Three long tracks all recorded live, preformed by Rust Worship, whose real name is Paul Haney and I assume he’s from NYC because all of the recordings on here are from Brooklyn and Queens (I think). That’s all I know about the guy, but he knows how to make some enjoyable noise. The fact that this is recorded live is mind blowing, because its crystal fucking clear; mostly likely recorded from a soundboard. Anyway, Mr. Haney mixes loops, old records, pedal violence and whatever else to make some sonically diverse, but not pretentious noise. At one point I thought my record was skipping, then I remembered that I was listening to a tape. So he was playing a skipping classical record and manipulating the sound (I assume). I’m kind of burnt out right now, but I can’t recommend this enough. If you like collage noise that isn’t boring and random bits put together, but instead well thought out compositions, buy this now.
-Log.
Infrabunny - “Fried Man” (TPOS 2010)
“Discipline, precision, and repetition. The more you listen, the more you will hear. Strange rhythms from somewhere in there.” - on the back cover.
I was given this CDr with the understanding that I listen to it all the way through without stopping. I was scared; not because it could contain a harsh blast of noise for 50+ minutes, your faithful reviewer enjoys such torture. I was scared it could just be terrible music. I don’t know why I was worried, Infrabunny is a project of Malcolm Tent, the perpetually bearded, guitar plucking, bass thumping, Connecticut music staple, founding member of noise rock troupe The Bunnybrains (and current member of Ultrabunny, who in my opinion are much better than Bunny Brains), and the man who is primarily responsible for my record collection being as large as it is (his record store in Danbury was probably the best you could ever go to, and I frequented it probably 3 times a week for about 8 years).
Infrabunny is definitely it’s own beast though. This CDr contains almost an hour of repetitive almost unchanging beats delivered via 4 tracks. The first two tracks sound like the same skeleton of a rhythm, most likely a drum machine, and other little bits of sound added and subtracted. Both are 15 minutes and are absolutely hypnotic and fly by in what seems like seconds. The third track is made up of what sounds like white noise cut up into tiny bits and makes an almost danceable beat. I could see this being put on for a bunch of dust heads and they would dance to it. Otherwise I’d suggest doing what I did, slip on a nice pair of headphones and bob your head to it. The fourth track is the most interesting of all; it sounds like the same pattern from the previous track but that pattern is activating a gate or something that plays the first (or second) track. Whether I’m wrong or right, I’m stealing that idea for one of my projects.
Such a great release. Head on over to Malcolm’s website and purchase a copy. While you are there buy some of his other hot releases.
-Log.
aTelecine - “The Falcon And The Pod” (Pendu Sound Recordings 2011)
Ok I’ll admit it. I caved. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t resist it’s charm. I paid for the aTelecine subscription from Pendu Sound. I didn’t want to, as it was ridiculously over priced ($88 for 3 LPs, 7”, and a slipcase for everything? Come on!) but after I saw a copy of this record I had to. Look at how sexy this fucking this is!! The vinyl is grey but has just a twinge of green in it. Love at first sight. I just hope the rest of the records live up to the high standards this one has set.
Musically this record is very weird. It touches upon so many different elements over the course of two sides it’s kind of mind boggling. This record is like a mixture of 60’s experimental synth records, Throbbing Gristle, Bauhaus, late 80’s early 90’s dance records, Cabaret Voltaire, Aphex Twin, The Residents, the first Devo album, and like a million other things. Also the entire thing is fucking evil sounding. Like the kind of thing grandmas would hear their weirdo neighbors listening to and then telling everyone in their sewing circle her neighbors were summoning demons and/or worshipping Satan. Oh yeah Sasha Grey is in this band too.
This one has it all. Psychedelic keyboard freakouts, straight up dance jams, vintage synthesizers and drum machines, creepy vocals drowned in delay, and much much more. I do not regret for a second buying that subscription because I can’t fucking wait to get the rest of the set.
-Log.
