lay into me
[2006, troniks]

justin meyers, from minneapolis, minnesota, is devillock. he's also panther skull, and runs the tone filth label. i also don't think he's old enough to legally drink beer. makes me regret wasting my late teens. bastard.

hey, who got ambient in my noise? earlier this year impregnable ditched the noise and went for the ambience on his beauty stone cassette, and now the young man responsible for such titles as melt your face and swallow your skull throws us another curve. what's next, a concrète album by sickness? okay, so i'm exaggerating a bit, not all of devillock's releases are that harsh, he's actually done a pretty good job of changing his sound up a bit from release to release. what we have on this cd-r from phil blankenship's (the cherry point) no frills troniks label are two tracks, thirty minutes, of droned out tunes. beauty stone achieved a pretty ambient sound, and this release also has, surprisingly, a warmer feel to it, the first track anyway. it's a nice, subdued, piece of music that, outside of a few louder tones near the end, is devoid of noisier tendencies. the first track is good and all, but the second one elevates the album. it's a live track, and unfortunately, since it is a troniks release and all, it doesn't have any information about it whatsoever so i have no idea where or when this is from. it's another drone-laden affair, it definitely loses the warmth that it's predecessor had, but it does have some repeating pieces that make it a more rewarding listen. there's also what sounds like some live instrumentation, breaking up any monotony that's brought about by the drone. don't quote me on the instrument part though, i can't really discern what it is, but it's a welcomed addition to the piece nonetheless.

all in all lay into me was a great listen, if not quite what i was expecting going into it, given his previous output. while it's really hard to pinpoint what exactly makes a good drone album (how does one screw up drone music for that matter?), i know what i like, and i liked this a lot.

Untitled Track Two Excerpt (from 4:54 to 9:15)

kitty play is fucking dead (split) c30
[2006, hand panther]

2673 (pronounced twenty-six seventy-three), is the alias of new brunswick, new jersey's noise artist kevin winter. for a guy who has released splits with kevin drumm, jessica rylan and unicorn (aka bill nelson of bastard noise), you'd think that 2673 would be a bit more well known. he's definitely good at what he does, maybe he just needs more exposure, i know he doesn't do large scale tours often, matter of fact his '06 spring tour with sixes, jason zeh and gerritt was his first u.s. tour.

as for nowhitelimos, i really have no idea who they are. i do know that they're from tacoma washington and that their myspace profile doesn't shed any light on them.

jeez, could this tape possibly be more drama involving mark blumenthal's jersey-based imprint? kpr's myspace headline proudly boasts that kitty play is 'the most hated record label in 2005 and 2006'. apparently that isn't a bad thing, go figure. the tape's title definitely piqued my interest, especially when you take into account all the other issues that have involved mark. my interest lead me to research/internet investigation. some of his issues this year being: his banishment from the iheartnoise forums and being told off (and dropped) by twodeadsluts onegoodfuck for shady business practices and artist mismanagement, amongst other accusations. one thing that struck me as odd though was the fact kitty play's actual website, er, live journal, makes mention of an article on the onion's av club that talks about tdsogf and mark doesn't seem at all hostile towards them. the second interesting thing of note is that he didn't seem aware of this tape's existence until some random person sent him an email asking 'what the beef with 2673 was about', since 2673 had put out several releases on kitty play. odd. hand panther's description of the tape, along with such gems as face-fucking and child exploiting, says that it's pretend hate noise, so who knows. maybe it's all in jest, but this conspiracy theory nonsense is making my head hurt. update: it turns out the album's title was just a joke. no bad feelings between kevin and mark after all.

oh yeah, the music. let's talk about the album now. one track by each artist. kevin's got the first side. his piece is built around a not so harsh static sounding backdrop with high-pitched wails on top of it. after a few minutes the wails die down as the music slows it's pace down, drastically, then return as the track picks up it's pace again. as the track progresses it continues morphing in sound. great a side.

nowhitelimos (pictured, kind of, to the right) bring us to the tape's conclusion, and do so in fine fashion. the side starts off very minimally, until about a minute in when a heavily echoed vocal sample pops up. the track runs it's course, for the most part, alternating between a slow moving, spacey noise, and echoing vocals, sometimes combining the two. the noise part itself isn't harsh or all encompassing, giving the other elements of the track room to breathe, if you will. the side gets a bit noisier near the mid-section, adding some muted feedback to the fold. the last few minutes of the tape vary in sound pretty distinctly and it ends with a minute of two people screaming and shouting. rad.

i don't know about face-fucking, but this is a very nice cassette by both parties. it's less harsh than some of kevin's work, but it's still noise, and still a good listen. for nowhitelimos this was an impressive introduction, for me anyways. oh, and i'm liking the bondage album cover, very classy.


2673 Side A Excerpt (from 4:56 to 10:53)
Nowhitelimos Side B Excerpt (from :59 to 4:28)

blixter toad 2xcd
[2006, asphodel]

norway's maja ratkje and hild sofie tafjord are the experimental/noise duo fe-mail. they're also in the improv quartet SPUNK, which predates this group. fe-mail's sound has been a mix of noisy electronics, maja's unique vocal instrumentation, and the occasional live instrument (hild plays the french horn). my favorite thing about them, outside of their music, is how their press photos and album covers give them a more pop image, when they're actually making some great noise music.

double album blixter toad is a great demonstration of fe-mail's versatility. disc one opener belonging gets things started off on a quieter note. it's a slow paced, minimal piece which compliments maja's singing (which on this particular track is more in the style of enchantresses like fursaxa and heather leigh) and pairs it with some ambient electronic noises. definitely one of the albums's finer moments. three tracks later and samba furore brings us to more noise-based territory, but it has a repetitious quality that makes it more accessible than other similiarly-minded pieces. the horizontal density of humanity showcases maja doing what maja does best, seriously weird vocal improvisations. her affected vocals are really the feature here as the music in the background is minimal to begin with but also comes and goes for the most part, until the last few minutes when it reaches a noisier crescendo.

the second disc continues varying it's sound, but overall i'd say that it's a bit more restrained. there's more of an emphasis on ambient electronic as well as organic sounds, it becomes her serves as a perfect indicator of this, it's slow, there's mult-layered inoffensive electronic sounds, it has a droney background and, what sounds like, a music-box. pretty song is definitely the album's ambient electronic statement with it's cold spacey sound i could see this having appeal with fans of the genre. nevertheless, there is some noise to be found, most of which is on rockabilly. the album ends with ballad, which is easily the prettiest sounding track on here. it's centered around hild's lightly played french horn (which consists of a few notes repeated for the duration), some background drones and maja's siren-like singing moaning.

if the only fe-mail album you've heard was 2003's syklubb fra helvete, this double album may come as a bit of a surprise. syklubb fra helvete was certainly more of a noise-based affair, but 2005's voluptuous vultures suggested that their music might be adding some new direction to it, as it was considerably more subdued. blixter toad is maja and hild reigning in their different styles, and while (harsher sounding) noise is less of a dominating factor, it's still there. i'd say that this album's strength comes from fe-mail's dynamic sound. they can make some pretty harsh noise right up there with the best of them, but this time around they preferred to keep things varied by occasionally adding live instrumentation or found sounds into the mix, or by branching out into more ambient electronic territory.

The Vertical Pit Of Machines (from disc one)

torn of this
[2002, glass throat recordings]

seattle transplant chet scott is the lone man at work behind ruhr hunter. he's also in the dark folk duo the elemental chrysalis, with james woodhead. last but not least, he keeps himself occupied by running the glass throat recordings label, who've put out a few releases, most notably albums by beneath the lake and gruntsplatter in addition to all of the projects that chet's released.

torn of this is ruhr hunter's second release. where 1998's effort ritual before the hunt was dark and, pardon the obvious statement, ritualistic, what we have here is a bit more rooted in the experimental folk genre. torn of this does still retain quite a few of those darker aspects, but they're a little more subtle this time around, and there's more going on musically to balance out the sound. opening track wounded by my own blade sets things off with some nice acoustic guitar playing over what sounds like the noise you'd hear when someone swings on an old playground swingset, then the guitar stops, the swing noise continues, and a stark background soundscape picks up, continuing like that for a few minutes before some tribal drumming and electric guitar drone take the track to it's conclusion. it's a very nice tone setting piece. the majority of torn of this spends it's time combining sparse multi-instrumentation with darker soundscapes. the album's shining moment comes with the title track. it's a beautiful song that fully realizes a musical theme that was used in a couple of tracks, including the opener. it also marks the first time that we hear chet sing. coincidentally, it's also the first time that we wonder why we hadn't heard chet sing until now. he has a great voice, it's just a shame that the song is so short. closer black loon, white mountains, features vocals as well, but they're not used in the same manner.

looks really can be deceiving, if i would've seen a picture of ruhr hunter before listening to his music i would've expected music resembling something more like sunn o))). instead what we have is a nice experimental folk album that, while it does venture down darker paths at times, it never loses it's focus, which is creating earthy music. part of the charm of ruhr hunter's sound is that you can really feel it's authenticity, he comes across as being genuine. during the whole new weird america craze a few years back, that's what was really lacking, a sense that they actually cared about the type of music they were making and weren't just doing it because it was the it thing at the moment.

Torn Of This

blood pressure
[2006, hot cars warp]

manchester's drummer extraordinaire chris corsano is definitely a man of the people. in the past few years he's more than likely worked with someone you like. hell, maybe he's worked with everyone you like: heather leigh, john olson (dead machines/graveyards), mick flower, vibracathedral orchestra, wally shoup, jessica rylan, six organs of admittance, sun burned hand of the man, carlos giffoni, brian sullivan (mouthus), trevor tremaine (hair police), greg kelley, matt valentine, dredd foole, nels cline, thurston moore, jim o'rourke and possibly a whole slew of others. the man's work ethic is ridiculous. outside of his frequent collaborations (most of which are live), he also has his main gigs, vampire belt or vampire can't which has bill nace and chris teaming up with ms. rylan (still waiting on that release!), and of course flaherty/corsano duo. equally comfortable with playing jazz, rock, and avant-garde or venturing into noisier areas, chris is definitely one of the more talented players in experimental music right now.

hot on the heels of the young cricketer, comes blood pressure, both albums were released on his own hot cars warp label. where his previous album (for the most part) stayed truer to his regular output, i.e. drums, saxophone, more organic sounds, blood pressure does an abrupt about-face. gone are all of the actual instruments, and what we're left with is chris on a keyboard with some effects and a microphone. different? i'd say, but i'd also say that it's fantastic. the sound has a very cheap feel to it, for obvious reasons, and it works in his favor, rather than being detrimental. there's lots of feedback, some rhythmic pounding and, at times, there's some undiscernable processed vocals. this release is definitely more rooted in the experimental/noise field, and it makes an excellent addition. far from harsh, a majority of blood pressure has a slow, crawling affected quality to it that i really like. five out of the eleven tracks on here are less than two minutes long, and the longer ones never make me want to skip ahead. if anything, the album is on the short side..but after listening to sixty minute and plus albums, it's nice to have some enjoyable music that doesn't wear out it's welcome.

smart money says you're probably not going to go wrong with something that chris corsano has his hands in, and after exhausting nearly everyone in the experimental circle, it was only natural that he would come around to releasing solo albums. thankfully, they're both terrific.

Sweats

cowfish plus vermilion (split)
[2005, shasha]

torturing nurse are a performance based-noise group out of shanghai, china. originally started in 2004 by misuzu and junky, who were both members of the no-wave/noise rock outfit junkyard. the group now includes youki and miriam, whom i believe are involved more in the live aspects of the group. tn are at their core a noise group, but i'd say that their current music utilizes elements of their previous band in creating their sound. junky is also in the electro noise group jedung kying, who create their compositions by transferring pieces of music back and forth over the internet.

tim oliveira's stimbox, is definitely one of the more prominent names in the american noise scene. in addition to having his own record label, hebi like a snake, he co-operates the harsh noise label with fellow musician xome. harsh noise not only puts out great releases, but it is also a valuable resource for noise equipment. (side note: did anyone else see the pitiful review for stimbox's 12-01-2005 cd-r on tiny mixtapes? critizing noise for being..too loud? okee doke.)

cowfish plus vermilion is four tracks, two by each artist, and has a running time of an hour and seven minutes. each artist contributes one live track, as well as a studio one. it was put out by torturing nurse's shasha imprint.

torturing nurse are first and their track exclusive starts off with distorted, shouted, vocals that work as a nice intro before going into noise mode about two minutes in. i really wouldn't consider it to be anything that harsh (especially compared to some of their other work), it's actually kinda nice. beneath the noise, there's some atonal guitar playing, and the feedback from that ties in really nicely with the layers of noise and makes me kinda zone out, but in a good way. stimbox's beautifully noisy stimulating her box is next, and it's just an all-around great track. it's twenty minute length is a bit daunting, but tim keeps it dynamic for nearly the whole way before it switches gears during the remaining six minutes. as far as noise goes, there's not very many times when i can single out one piece of noise as being something that i'd want to listen to more than any other (usually they're best taken in as a whole), but this changes that. great track. torturing nurse follow-up with xyz, and it has a different feel to it than the first track. moving out of harsher territory, it's puncuated by moments of feedback, then it starts moving into a sound that's more rock-based with drums and guitar for the last half of it before bowing out in a squall of feedback. my favorite thing about hearing live noise tracks is at the end when you can hear the six people in attendance clapping. stimbox's live track @ +terminal+ 09/04/2005 ends the disc, and it too is quite a bit different than it's predecessor. it's a more subdued piece and while it still has noisy elements, there's a sparseness here that makes it easier to take in.

i'd have to say that this was a great release by both parties. interesting, not very harsh and it's still been a rewarding listen even after repeat plays. what more could you ask for?

i don't know if you've noticed, but there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of experimental music coming from china. noise musicians torturing nurse and ronez (who runs the doufu label) really seem to be at the forefront of their movement. hopefully they'll be able to bring more recognition to their music scene by making bigger names for themselves. a release like this certainly helps the cause. check out chinese new ear for more info what's going on, musically, in china.

Torturing Nurse Exclusive Excerpt (from 8:39 to 13:22)
Stimbox Stimulating Her Box Excerpt (from 10:11 to 14:40)