Week 9
THE DEAD MAURIACS – L’ENIGME DU PARC (CD by I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free)
ALESSANDRO BARBANERA – IN DARKNESS LET ME DWELL (CD by Owl Totem Recordings/Fonodroom)
MEKETA – PRAY BEFORE YOU BECOME PREY (CD by Alpha Morzel)
DEAD BODY LOVE – ANNIHILATION DEVICES (CD by Input Error)
DEAD BODY LOVE – ANNIHILATION DEVICES PART 2 (CD by Input Error)
DRIFT – DIAZEPAM (CD by Eighth Tower Records)
FLESH NARC – YOU’RE DONE (CD/cassette by No Sides Records)
MARCIA BASSETT – PHOSPHORESCENT REALITY FLICKERS (3″CD by No Sides Records)
CRAZYGOJI – GOTHWARD (3″CD by No Sides Records)
DEATH PYRE – BETWEEN SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE (cassette by No Sides Records)
ERLÖST/TWILIGHT FURNITURE (split cassette by No Sides Records)
DEATH FACTORY/K2 (split cassette by No Sides Records)
NEVER SAY WHEN (CD compilation by Fourth Dimension Records)
META MEAT – PATHS (10″ by Substantia Innominata/Drone Records)
TAC – SOUNDOFNOISE (lathe cut 7″/CDR by Ballast)
LEITMOTIV LIMBO – INFERIOR STATE (cassette, Servataguse Muusika)
500 GOATS – GETTING ALONG (cassette by Neus 318)
GREY TISSUE – BOARDWALK (cassette by Neus 318)
PSYWARFARE – LIVE @ F.L.A.W. FEST (cassette by Alpha Morzel)
UNTITLED ZINE 09 (magazine)
THE DEAD MAURIACS – L’ENIGME DU PARC (CD by I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free)
Almost to the day, Ukraine goes into the fourth year of its resistance against Russian oppression; when talk about ending the war started without them present (and feel free to unsubscribe if you think king orangutan is the best deal maker), there is the 32nd release by the I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free, a label dedicated to the freedom of the Ukraine. I believe I missed a few releases. There are some well-known names in the catalogue (Muslimgauze, Merzbow, and various projects by label boss Dmytro Fedorenko), so it’s a bit of a surprise to find a release by the French project The Dead Mauriacs. This is the brainchild of Olivier Prieur, sometimes alone and sometimes with the help of others. There have been several releases, but I only heard a few. The ones I heard, I liked. His work is an excellent combination of various musical interests; there are a few real instruments (violin, piano, wind instruments), and, sure, they might come from a sample pack, but they arrive relatively unprocessed. There are field recordings and acoustic objects. The computer is the central place where all meet and Prieur is the mayor, the editor who decides the story. Over the years, he became an excellent master at this. Maybe you could call this surrealism, even without a narrative; there are some voices in one instance, but they appear chaotic and hard to follow. That’s not to say chaos rules; far from it. The music has a somewhat meditative character, with slow piano and organ tones, but in proper narrative form, there are disruptions; a gunshot (even when ‘war’ doesn’t seem to be the thematic approach, for instance, which might also be the sound of timpani, some swiftly moving around of sounds can happen at any instance. The album is best enjoyed when played uninterrupted as one long radio drama. A highly abstract drama at that, open for any kind of interpretation. The French titles might give a clue, but perhaps not at all. The Dead Mauriacs deliver another excellent release! (FdW)
––– Address: https://ishallsinguntilmylandisfree.bandcamp.com/
ALESSANDRO BARBANERA – IN DARKNESS LET ME DWELL (CD by Owl Totem Recordings/Fonodroom)
An album that is described as an “epic imaginary soundtrack for an imaginary film noir. Something happened, titles can suggest a story that the listener can make up… An old unsolved case. A tormented detective on the trail of a missing girl. Someone is in danger. A showdown with inner demons. Maybe it was all a dream”, always sounds good, almost unheard. Many film directors are mentioned, including David Lynch, Lars von Trier and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and cinema noir of the 1940s and 1950s. I am playing this CD and being a mild enthusiast about movies, I can certainly see the soundtrack-like quality of the music, even when there isn’t any of the muted trumpet sound that I associate with film noir. I can also see the quality of the music independently of any visual component, maybe because there isn’t any at the moment. By saying it is soundtrack-like, one is drawn towards a direction, movies, but I am also someone who thinks of music as a stand-alone event, and the eerie and haunting music of Barbanera works very well. Sure, he gives the pieces very telling titles, but I choose to ignore these and come with my narrative to the music. Of course, it helps that it’s late February, quite dark and rainy all day, so there is that visual aspect of the music just by looking out the window. I don’t know how Barbanera works or his equipment, but there are many field recordings and glacier-like drones. I don’t even know if I heard his music before. Barbanera “(ROHS! Lontano Series) is a musician, composer, sound artist, and guitar maker from Assisi, Italy”, so maybe these drones are made with the guitar? The sound is like a synthesiser, but what do I know? Sometimes, he slips in some sounds, adding a creepy element to the music, but it also breaks with the more traditional drone approach. It’s a lovely album, best played at the end of the day; the lights are still out when the day turns into evening, and darkness slowly falls. (FdW)
––– Address: https://owltotem.bandcamp.com/
MEKETA – PRAY BEFORE YOU BECOME PREY (CD by Alpha Morzel)
Steven Meketa is labelled on this CD to perform the sermons and electronics. And those of you who haven’t seen this name before, how deep have you been sleeping? Because his noise could have woken you up by now. As Meketa Power Electronics, Blue Collar Calling (with Jim Szudy, a.k.a Jim Fellahean) or the almighty Lockweld has been active since about 1996. So I hope you slept well, but now it’s time to wake up.
The musical concept behind MEKETA seems easy enough, heavy electronic layers with vocals on top. Many other projects in the noise and power electronics scene use the same basics, but the differences between the acts always make someone stand out. Or create a solid imprint. And in a way, MEKETA is one of those acts that does things differently than others. But what it exactly is, that’s all in the eye/ear of the beholder.
Yes, this is all a personal opinion, but I’m just a reviewer who tries to describe things the way I see it. And on this album, as loud and intense as it is, the artist doesn’t fall into the ‘easy’ approach of adding distortion and heavy drone layers to the final result’s massiveness. Back then, it was all about massiveness and heaviness and bass rumble to make power electronics. Loops from horror movies, add bass with an EQ, throw it through distortion and scream over it. Steve does NOT do that. Musically he is working very structured and as close to the original sound devices as possible. Whatever these devices may be. And because of this approach, these layers remain interesting for people like me who are interested in ‘sound as a form of art’.
In addition to these layers – that, because of lack of massiveness, may sound ‘thin’ to people looking for bass and thickness – Steve does his sermons. The high-priest of power electronics spews, no wait, projectile vomits his thoughts and visions over you. Sometimes screaming in anger and despair, yelling, whispering and sometimes in everyday words, like he is just a normal man. But listen to the words and you know he’s not. With titles like “Are You a Good Person?”, “Do Not Hold Onto Hate”, “The Mouth is a Weapon”, “This Hate Will Kill You and Everyone Around You”, and the massive 11-minute closing track “Why?”. Power electronics/noise done out of love. It shows. And even I, a non-religious person, can admire this and the sincerity with which this is created. (BW)
––– Address: https://alphamorzel.bandcamp.com/
DEAD BODY LOVE – ANNIHILATION DEVICES (CD by Input Error)
DEAD BODY LOVE – ANNIHILATION DEVICES PART 2 (CD by Input Error)
DRIFT – DIAZEPAM (CD by Eighth Tower Records)
About two years ago, there was a short period in which I could review not one but three releases of Dead Body Love. And now there is again a brief stint in which I get to review two Dead Body Love albums and one album of a side project named Drift. So, first things first.
Behind Dead Body Love and Drift is Gabriele Giuliani. A third quite active side-project that should be mentioned, by the way, is Discordance. Dead Body Love was active in three periods: 1995-’98, 2008-’11, and right now, we see several rereleases of his older stuff. And there is a reason for that. It’s a) great stuff, and many releases were in so low numbers that it’s now impossible to get your hands on it. Thankfully, people now recognise the quality of some older releases and decide it’s quintessential that they are available for the new generation of people interested in noise—labels like Trunks, Phage Tapes, Input Error and Eighth Tower.
The original “Annihilation Devices” was released on tape on the Less Than Zero label. In a plastic A5 bag with a paper cover. Like so many tapes in those years. Less Then Zero was/is Gabriele’s own label but did not restrict itself to his releases. Deison, Lasse Marhaug, Government Alpha, Sshe Retina Stimulants, MSBR, Incapacitants, Skin Crime, Slogun, K2, Marc Solotroff, Aube, Deathpile, Macronympha, Atrax Morgue, Pain Jerk, Contagious Orgasm … And there are still more names. I mean, Come on! That is gold! American, Japanese and Italian noise in all its aspects and when I tell you it’s reading about and listening to Japanese noise that inspired Gabriele to make noise, well, then “Annihilation Devices” will not surprise you.
Two tracks of over 20 minutes, both “Untitled”, and musically, it’s about as harsh as it gets without becoming HNW. There is so much happening in there. There are even a few breakdowns and moments of rearranging the mix, which are almost strong enough to wonder if a new track started. But no. It’s two celebrations of dynamics and harsh distorted noises. And one of the adorable things in here is that throbbing slow pulse you hear in the track as sort of a Lorenz attractor in chaos, like what makes your head bob in power electronics or deep drones. It’s just really, really good noise!
The second release by Input Error is another rerelease from the Less Than Zero label – a tape released in an edition of more than 30 copies. Available now in larger quantities. “Annihilation Devices Part 2” had three tracks and still has them. The original recording has been passed onto a different medium, but it’s all still intact. The result is again some 40 minutes of wonderful sounds, although I have to mention there are a lot of differences with the first “Annihilation Devices”.
Where the first part opened up harshly and in your face, Part 2 has an almost ambient start. “Knee Deep In Eternal Fire” is the original first side of the tape, and because I am writing this while listening, the composition is blossoming for me as well. The first half of the track is a slowly developing drone with a recurrent strong theme and layers are added to the point where more and more noises are added on top and in the background. And at some point, you’re realising the track is almost as noisy as it gets. Yet still, the pulsating theme from the beginning simmers through … A noise and drone amalgam pur sang.
The second track of the album is a short one named “Armageddon Sector”, which is harsh. There are great low rumbling and feedback motifs all over. It swooshes and swirls all over the place. And then “Elemental Fury” which is closing the CD. It has a potent analogue feel with many oscillators or sound devices Gabriele uses to create chaos. And when – what sounds like heavily adapted vocals – enter the composition, the chaos is only extended to a level where, as a listener, you don’t know what to follow anymore. The high pitch layers in the back get mixed into the front. Just gorgeous.
The third album by Gabriele Giuliani isn’t one of Dead Body Love, but it’s by his second project, Drift. It was released in 1996 by the Japanese label SSSM, which Hiroshi Hashimoto of Contagious Orgasm still runs. Back then, packed in a weird rubbery string packaging with nails, it carried two tracks titled “Phase One” and “Phase Two” of around 27 minutes. Eighth Tower Records released this iteration and has an additional third track, “Crystalline Yellow, ” recorded only last year. So yes, some new material, too!!!
The promo sheet states that Drift ‘has become a significant name in the realm of isolationist ambient music’, giving me a direction in what to expect. While listening, it got to me that through reverb and delay, there is a strong feeling of isolation and desolation here. If this would be a new artist releasing something created in this day and age it might have sounded a bit dated. But knowing these tracks were released 30 years ago before the term cinematic isolationism was even used, I must say there is much to discover here.
Slow sounds (long attack and release times) and proper use of delays to generate patterns of sounds create a solemn journey through the wasteland of what once was a healthy mind. I think that is how I would describe the atmosphere. The difference between “Phase One” and “Phase Two” lies in using the sounds. Whereas the first track at moments might trigger the thoughts of too much reverb to glue the sounds, in “Phase Two”, the minimalism makes the track. There is no ‘glue’, just the perspective of the individual sounds and the beauty of nothing in between.
Then there is “Crystalline Yellow”, written last year to add to the original two tracks. And yes, it fits the release very well. It has the same ambient feel as the original tracks, although I can’t help that it also feels like a bit of the chaotic structure of Gabriele’s other project entered the composition here. In other words, yes, the track’s structure is a beautiful ambient piece, but there are some noisy moments in there. Do we care? Hell no! It’s amazing! Three excellent albums in a row, great score! (BW)
––– Address: https://input-error.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com/
FLESH NARC – YOU’RE DONE (CD/cassette by No Sides Records)
MARCIA BASSETT – PHOSPHORESCENT REALITY FLICKERS (3″CD by No Sides Records)
CRAZYGOJI – GOTHWARD (3″CD by No Sides Records)
DEATH PYRE – BETWEEN SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE (cassette by No Sides Records)
ERLÖST/TWILIGHT FURNITURE (split cassette by No Sides Records)
DEATH FACTORY/K2 (split cassette by No Sides Records)
Here, we have several new releases by No Sides Records and, like in the first round (various issues of Vital Weekly late last year), many names I had not heard of before and different musical interests. I started with Flesh Narc, a group from Denton, Texas. A new name, indeed, and because of that, the first track throws dust around – some silly drumming, random stabs on a keyboard, and a monotron. Maybe an attempt at improvisation (perhaps a serious one, even), but it doesn’t bode very well for the other 11 pieces. I was wrong. They call this “a “studio in the live” creation” and see them using recordings from Los Angeles, Austin and their home town. There are drums, guitar, bass and vocals, and maybe some Korg Monotron fiddler or electronics abuser. The voice is very much on top of things and the label mentions Half Japanese, and it’s easy to see that connection, especially with Jad Fair’s singing. The music is a chaotic mess of distorted guitars and frantic drumming and has that mid-1980s raw post-punk energy of total freedom, expression and guts. I am told they have a floating membership, and this release is a document of that, but to the uninitiated, and I am among them, this is not something I heard, as though it sounded all exceptionally consistent. Perhaps this is not the kind of music we write a lot about; maybe too much rock music for our liking, but in their most experimental moments, very much something I like.
Marcia Bassett is no stranger to these pages, even when there are more releases with her name than I heard. She was/is involved with such groups as Zaimph, Hototogisu and Double Leopards; I recently reviewed a work she did with Ignatz (see Vital Weekly 1461), and the last I heard a solo work was the ‘Undulating Akrasboning’ cassette by Artsy Records, see Vital Weekly 1351. On this 3″CD, she offers a single piece of modular electronics and a voice, with many sound effects to create a haunting experience. On ‘Phosphorescent Reality Flickers’, Bassett uses long-form sounds, drones if you will, and her voice is spooky in the first few minutes. When that disappears, this dark soundscape is left, slow and steadily evolving, ranging in shades of black and grey. It is not your standard drone experience, as Bassett likes her piece to be moving and shaking. Maybe there’s an element of improvisation in this piece, with some editing, and that contributes to the liveliness of the piece. Especially in the piece’s second half, industrial music darkness and desolation is going on. This might sound like a mighty cliche, but it works very well.
Also, on a 3″CD, we find the music of Crazygoji, who came his way through “Game Boy banger and No Sides alum Defense Mechanism from Indianapolis, IN” (maybe that means something to someone), and last year Crazygoji had his first release on No Sides Records, ‘Times New Romantic’, and now there is the second, ‘Gothward’. The words to look for in the information are chiptune, electro, IDM and PS4, which lead me to believe this is Game Boy music. It’s a musical genre I know very little about. I remember seeing a few chiptune concerts a long time ago, which I enjoyed for the energy and speed, but I always wondered how that works at home when, perhaps, not the same volume can be used. Maybe this release could be the answer, but it doesn’t provide one. I simply can’t play music at concert volume at home for various reasons, but ear protection is undoubtedly on them. But I get the energy here; it works very well. Lots of high-tempo beats, chaotic synths rolling about, and dancing is out of the question, at least at my age, but I am sure it can be done. It is a short and powerful statement, and, as such, long enough for me.
Then, we head over to the three cassette releases. The first is a collaboration between St. Louis, MO avant, avant-goth duo Ampyre and the Chicago, IL, post-industrial/noise outfit Death Factory, which makes up Death Pyre. It seems all new names (yet working together since 2017 on an occasional basis), and they had a productive time last year in Chicago when they recorded this collaboration but two more, to be released later in 2025, the next one of the Canadian label Bent Window. They use guitars and synths, with a bit of vocalisation by Mimi Tolva, the singer of Ampyre. According to No Sides Records, there is the “spirit of the late 80s/90s era of gothic/ambient/experimental genre-melders while bringing 21st-century experience and sensibilities to interpret their aesthetics for the modern milieu”, but I might have been out of touch with the mainly gothic in the late 1980s/1990s. This release was the one I had the most difficulty with. While I enjoyed the noise aspect of the music, I also found the recording to be a bit too muddy. Various guitars are duelling together, with many distortions and some eerie singing in the background. Still, there is too much lack of detail to make the music engaging, and there’s not enough noise to make it noisy (and then the lack of detail would have been no problem. It sounded alright but also didn’t grab me that much; I guess it was a bit of a take-it or leave-it.
The last two cassettes are split releases. First, there is Erlöst and Twilight Furniture. Erlöst means redeemed, and Lexi Turner, who is behind this moniker, is inspired by the pessimist philosophy of Philipp Mainländer, author of ‘The Philosophy of Redemption’. She recorded the music during nights of insomnia and “immediately deleted after completion”, so how did we get these five pieces? We’re not told. What she uses, instrument-wise, we’re not told, and my best guess would be guitar and effect pedals, all set in minor keys and low notes, arriving with some mild distortion. One could think of this as a sort of post-rock-inspired darkness, meandering about, with too much form but in small doses; tracks are between two and four minutes and sound alright; not great, no winners, but spooky distortions.
The other side holds a big surprise: behind Twilight Furniture, we find Daniel Burke, who we best know for his 40-year-long work with Illusion Of Safety. I know him well, but I don’t know his reasoning for using a different project name. Illusion Of Safety is already a highly varied musical project, and the spacious ambient-inspired music would not be an oddball in his catalogue. Burke mentions being inspired by Michael Nyman, Scott Walker, Mark Hollis, Harold Budd, Eric Satie, Burt Bacharach and John Cage, which is quite the eclectic choice, and it’s easy to see these in the 20-minute piece he has on this cassette, ‘Hazefilter’. There are drones, guitar strumming (Hollis inspired?), and orchestral sampling, all used in this beautiful orchestral piece of music. Very atmospheric, very filmic and an excellent piece of music. Minimal but not staying too long in the same place and a maximum effect on the listener. I see a new name offers new possibilities, and if there is more, please bring it on.
The other split cassette is something entirely different. Here, we have noise music, and I start with the second side, which contains a single piece of music by the mighty Kimihide Kusafuke, or as he calls it, K2. For many years, he’s been part of the Japanoise scene. In his noisy music, metal plays an important role. Take a sheet of metal, a contact microphone and a bunch of sound effects; bend the metal, and feed the sound through the impact. A bit like Merzbow did on his first European tour in 1990 or thereabouts, but that was also when K2 was active; he started in 1983. K2’s music doesn’t change in his approach to a track, such as ‘Missverstandene Moralische Belästigung’ on this split cassette, but not in the broader scope of his catalogue over these many years. I don’t think his fans expect him to change, and I would think K2 by now sees his catalogue as a gesamtkunstwerk, a monument of noise music.
On the first side, we have two pieces by Michael Krause, who works as Death Factory and has been doing so since 1988. Krause sometimes works as Ghetto Blaster (see Vital Weekly 1456). Despite his long history, I don’t think I heard many of his releases, which have been on imprints such as Crucial Blast, RRRecords, No Part Of It, No Sides, Personal Archives, Smell The Stench, Breaching Static and Prison Tatt. It’s impossible to think of a name like Death Factory and not think of Throbbing Gristle, who used these words for their studio. He has two pieces here, one from 2024 and one from 2015. Heavily inspired by power electronics and industrial music, Krause brings his take on the genre, a sort of free-form stream of unconsciousness electronics, crashing together in a heavy psychedelic manner. But before you grab the acid, this is the soundtrack of nightmares, with many distorted bendings chaotically flickering about. That’s the first and longest piece, whereas ‘5th Abstraction’ is a slightly more modest, mellow affair, maybe also dwelling on the live interaction of sounds. It’s a different kind of loudness. All in all, it is excellent music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://nosidesrecords.bandcamp.com/
NEVER SAY WHEN (CD compilation by Fourth Dimension Records)
The Poland-based Fourth Dimension Records label (originally from the UK) released much music by Kleistwahr, Gary Mundy’s solo project these days. He’s also a (founding) member of Ramleh and the instigator of the Broken Flag label, which he started in 1982. It is among the classic labels of noise music, power electronics, or whatever you prefer for such things. The label released many cassettes and several pieces of vinyl (there’s a book about the label; see Vital Weekly 1467 if you want to know more) and three classic compilations. First, there was ‘Neuengamme’, easily top 3 in the world of noise compilations (and, dare I say this, very much worth a CD release one day), ‘Statement’, a four-way band compilation and the ‘Never Say When’, the final LP compilation, with a cassette version with two bonus pieces. This CD is, effectively, a re-issue of the cassette, not the LP. Great! I love things to be complete. Mundy saw the first and third as showing where the label was at the time, and although a few years apart, there is some interesting shift in musical approaches. ‘Neuengamme’ is the noise record, loud, distorted and dirty, with the odd-ball thrown in (P16.D4 and M.B.), but on ‘Never Say When’, that loud noise side is no longer what drives the label. There’s the looping church bells by Cranioclast and the guitar abuse of Total, Matthew Bower’s project. In contrast, the then-current Ramleh here is a rather moody piece of music with guitar but nothing of any distortion. Uncommunity (which contained Tim Gane, who went on to form Stereolab) is a noise track, albeit of chaotic drumming and not of pure synth distortion. The Grey Wolves do what they always did, whereas Controlled Bleeding did very much also what they did, but by 1987, they had traversed many genres and here present with a Gregorian chant-type of thing. In his early more-noise-based phase, Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Briley with a slow synth piece with spoken word. Giancarlo Toniutti, in 1987, was already heavily interested in the manipulation of acoustic sounds, almost in a sort of free jazz approach and Mauro Teho Teardo, also one of the bonus cassette pieces, with a collage of spoken word, singing and vinyl manipulation. Like many others, the musicians were on a forward trajectory, moving out of the rigid standard noise music, exploring noise differently, perhaps in a crude sort of musique concrète direction. The cover, with photography by Cranioclast, indicates that times were changing – no shock value there. This is an excellent example of a transitional compilation of a label on the move. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/
ANSGAR WILKEN – THE LAST WE CAN DO IS WAVE TO EACH OTHER (LP by Econore)
Ansgar Wilken’s music wasn’t featured much in Vital Weekly, not from his solo work or group Ilse Lau. I saw him perform with this group a long time ago. Besides music, Wilken also is a visual artist and creates instalaltions. This new album is quite a surprise release, as he works here with all sorts of big and small percussion objects. Lots of cymbal work, bells, objects and regular percussion. He adds a bit of feedback-like sounds, maybe from amplification or, perhaps, overtones from some of his objects/metallic percussion. The music is minimal, as is to be expected, but these pieces have great energy. I think some of this seems to be played using motorik devices, hammering away, and up-tempo, especially on the first side of the records, which gives the music an incredible drive. Electronics are used sparsely but to significant effect. The feedback/sine wave-like approach and The second side of the record contain three parts of the title piece, which are slower and more introspective, but here, too, there is a beautiful form of minimal music played. Is it improvisation or composition? That’s the question here for which I have no answer. It could be both, and I gave up thinking about that. I love the interaction between the mechanical and the manual on this record if, of course, that is the case. The physical objects of drum heads and the way they travel through this space, singing and ringing with overtones, at times, and, at other times, spaciously dry and down to earth. Quite a beautiful record, an excellent surprise. (FdW)
––– Address: https://econore.bandcamp.com/
META MEAT – PATHS (10″ by Substantia Innominata/Drone Records)
Drone Records’ sub-division Substantia Innominata keeps surprising with their releases. I had not heard of the French duo Meta Meat before. They are Somekilos (also known as Hugues Villette) and Phil Von, whom we know from the group Von Magnet. That’s all I know, as somehow I never heard their music, or not very well. “Meta Meat associates the source of flesh (meat) with its passage beyond (meta). A very physical live act bound to propel our bodies and souls into another state, a state of release and trance, incarnating a wish to elevate our animalistic simplicity towards a higher conscience of being.” The duo play “ethnic voices, hand-played drums, exotic instruments and advanced electronics”, and they have four pieces on this record. If you think of Substantia Innominata and, perhaps also, Drone Records, purveyors of all things drone, this record might be a slight surprise, if not a shock. The element of atmosphere is present in these four pieces but relies heavily on rhythm. I am (and I admit, limited knowledge) thinking of Muslimgauze, Rapoon, Deasscaord Majeur or Internal Fusion here, in which drums, loops, percussion and so on are used in combination with sound effects and electronics, creating that delicate, darker atmosphere. I know I have been critical of this kind of music before, but maybe I became milder over the years, or perhaps since this is the first time I heard Meta Meat, I am not overwhelmed by the same massive catalogue as some of the other bands mentioned. Maybe it’s the addition of voices, of which I am unsure if this duo sampled from other sources or if this is something they sang. It certainly adds to the exotic nature of the music, the distant drums of Africa feel if that expression can be used these days. A lot of this is electronic yet also very exotic; that’s what I like on a dark and cold day. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.dronerecords.de/
TAC – SOUNDOFNOISE (lathe cut 7″/CDR by Ballast)
Last year (Vital Weekly 1424), I reviewed ‘Vibrations/Artifacts’ by TAC, also known as Tom Cox, whose musical history goes back to the late 1980s. He’s a firmly underground man, never cares about getting his work known, releases too much music, and strictly works on his own accord. As I wrote last year, TAC’s works are similar to Small Cruel Party, Jeph Jerman, Joe Colley, and Chop Shop, yet he also has a unique approach. One is never sure about the sound sources and techniques used. As always, my best guess would be he uses lo-fi equipment, such as Dictaphones and Walkmans and does field recordings of… well, water, perhaps, maybe fire. Ballast writes, “The packaging is part of the puzzle…for this release, fire played a role in sealing the perimeter of the packaging”, so fire might be a clue, and water to extinguish the fire another, but that’s my best guess. There are also sounds of scraping the surface, maybe some contact microphone abuse. It all sounds mysterious and fascinating, and while I don’t think I have heard all TAC releases, there is that quality trademark of his work, that lo-fi approach, which makes it all sound easy, and, for all I know, it is easy, but that’s where TAC’s power lies. It’s a genuine love of sound and working with sound, far away from the world of noise music. Well, this is also noise, not for the sake of shock, but for the love of sounds and how to sculpt them into a mysterious piece of music. Excellent lo-fi-ness. (FdW)
––– Address: http://ballastnvp.blogspot.com/
LEITMOTIV LIMBO – INFERIOR STATE (cassette, Servataguse Muusika)
The cassette seems to be the primary medium to release music by Elijah Värttö, also known as Leitmotiv Limbo, but there was also an LP (Vital Weekly 1401). He’s from a land down under and takes his inspiration from a broad field, starting with industrial music. He also looks for whatever traces industrial music left in techno music, say, Pan Sonic and Wolfgang Voigt at their most minimalism. Also, the name Asmus Tietchens keeps popping up for the “kind of ‘blank minimalism'” he’s known for. Leitmotiv Limbo has fourteen pieces on his latest cassette, some of which are merely two minutes, and the longest is just over four. This is long enough with the kind of minimalist loop approach in his music. Each song contains a few loops and effects; the idea of Steve Reich’s phase shifting is never far away. Värttö uses “four built analogue electronic instruments, with symmetry albeit comprised of different materials”, and I have no idea what that looks like. Changes within the music happen on a microscopic level. While it seems there is a continuous loop/bang/crash, there is a changing of parameters in the background, so not easily discernable. There’s a thin line between the amount of composition and improvisation here. Sometimes, it seems very well organised, while in other pieces, there is a looser approach, such as in ‘Who Is Whispering’. This cassette is a highly varied affair, full of sketches, ideas and fully formed pieces, all of the quality we appreciate Leitmotiv Limbo for. (FdW)
––– Address: https://leitmotivlimbo.bandcamp.com/
500 GOATS – GETTING ALONG (cassette by Neus 318)
GREY TISSUE – BOARDWALK (cassette by Neus 318)
These two new cassettes by the Japanese Neus 318 label introduce two projects, to me, at least. Behind 500 Goats, we find Andalusian-born, Madrid-based sound artists Juan Cepas and Jose M Pérez-Flor. According to the information, they have been active for more than 30 years and started 500 Goats during the COVID pandemic, “improvising and recording each other”, and to that end, they use “electronic sounds, syncopated guitars, noise, field recordings and lo-fi elements”. There are four pieces on this 30-minute cassette, and it’s a mixture of improvisation (a lot of it), doodling, and mixing modular madness with more traditional forms of noise music. It’s sometimes a bit long, but their music has a lot of enthusiasm. When they ramble on their guitars, I admit I wasn’t impressed, but their more noisy outings were well received.
In similar approaches works Gabe Konrad, going by the name Grey Tissue. This was originally the name of his industrial group out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2021, he relaunched the project, “exploring experimental music, noise, ad old-school, pre-rhythm, industrial”. He, too, has four minutes in 30 minutes, and he uses “field recordings of a wetlands nature walk with calling birds and rumbling rucks, scurrying deer and soaring aeroplanes”. I think he feeds these recordings into a modular set-up, splitting the material into microscopic parts, tossing these into the air, and they can land just about anywhere. It starts playfully in ‘Boardwalk I’ and ends on a noisy tune in ‘Boardwalk IV’. In between, Grey Tissue explores drones ‘Boardwalk II’, a somewhat menacing beast of a track and chaos in ‘Boardwalk III’, making this quite the varied bundle of pieces. Sometimes, he lets his delay pedals work overtime, which doesn’t add to the general tone of the composition, such as in ‘Boardwalk I’, but in the final piece, why not? (FdW)
––– Address: https://neus318.bandcamp.com/
PSYWARFARE – LIVE @ F.L.A.W. FEST (cassette by Alpha Morzel)
A festival in Cleveland once carried the name Final Live Audio War. October 11th and 12th last year, to be exact. And holy shit, what a party that must have been. Artists performing were (amongst others) Psywarfare, Kakerlak, Skin Graft, Aaron Dilloway, Knifedoutofexistence, The Rita, Parasite Nurse and Black Leather Jesus. Earplugs were to be taken care of I think. In honour of this festival, they released a double cassette which is long sold out, but the download is still available on Bandcamp (https://flawfest.bandcamp.com/).
Psywarfare, existing of Dwid Hellion, Steve Meketa, and it seems one more person, played live. That set, which lasted just over 10 minutes, was so powerful it was put to tape by Alpha Morzel, the new label from Belgium. Instruments mentioned are vocals, WASP, electronics, power tools and more WASP (or the same one). Musically, I know proper noise performances: You have emotions (preferably anger and despair), and you clean your body by letting as much as possible out in as short as possible period. That is how it’s done and what you can expect from this cassette. Emotions that are pure, honest, loud, painful, harsh and unfiltered (except for the WASP). I wish I could have been there. (BW)
––– Address: https://alphamorzel.bandcamp.com/
UNTITLED ZINE 09 (magazine)
It’s been a while since I got this fanzine, but reading material seems to be piling up all the time, and it’s hard to keep up with everything. But I love this Canadian fanzine because it’s about noise, far and wide, and comes via interviews, text in general, self-presentation and a centrefold section by a visual artist. In the latest issue, this comes from Small Cruel Party. Even after all these years of being somewhere in the world of noise, I don’t recognise some names in this fanzine, such as Kayu Nakada. Some names I know from reviews such as New Grasping Machine, Relay For Death and uoerhe. There is a festival report (Initial Shock), and a film (Thunder Warrior I-III), and oddly enough, I recognised some of the author names (Tim Olive, Taylor Geddes and Phil Blankenship. The subtitle of this fanzine, “sounds and aesthetics”, lives up to the name. Noise and aesthetics would also have been perfectly okay. Would you like to know more the old-fashioned way? This is one way to step in. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.instagram.com/untitledzine/