S.T.A.B. Electronics - Instrument For Operating On Mutant Women (LP, Urashima 2014)

For the ones that don't know, S.T.A.B. Electronics is a project from Keith G Finnan and dedicated to Marco Corbelli, who committed suicide on the age of 37, in 2007. He was also known from Atrax Morgue, a power electronics and dark ambient project.

Pitch black, very aggressive and right in your face is a good way to describe the tracks from this record. The vocals are violent, desperate and expressive. On most of them there is a nice reverb, which make them dark as the night itself. They also claim most of the attention, so you must really be into the genre to like this album. The intensity of them even comes close to death metal. Very impressive. They are accompanied by samples, low ranged darkened drone noise, bursting attacking harsh noise and sharp metallic feedback. The usage of synthesizer sounds are scarce, but well dosed. Or maybe they are just serving humble on the background. Variation is good description for the differences in each track. And hypnotic does sometimes come to mind also, like the militant drone electronics in “Ex Fat (For SGO)”. And the primitive sounds in “The First 45” on the other hand, are having a more exotic nature. The subjects of the tracks are nihilistic, bleak and come straight out of the underbelly of our society and the cruel nature of ourselves; humans. For example in “Defaced (Burnt With Acid)”, with the story of the woman that got her face burned by her boyfriend with acid.

The conclusion of this album is that there is enough variation in the tracks to keep it interesting, but there is also unity within all of these tracks, which is alltogheter an important combination. These are power electronics with true heart and for all the die hard fans within this genre.

The record is sold out on the label, but probably still out there after a good search.

Арсений Литвин и Лёгкий Крах – сплит (Cassette, Torga Amun Rec. 2014)

Арсений Литвин и Лёгкий Крах seems to be a new noise project, as I never heard from it or found another release by this artist. The label on which it has been released is not so new and in fact a recommendation for professional CDr releases.

The titles of the tracks on this album are long, very long, so I won’t be mentioning them. There are 3 tracks; two on the A side and one on the B side. The first track is pure junk esthetics, drenched in harsh noise. Nasty, sharp feedback salvo’s, occasional moaning, washy noise textures and strange keyboard sounds create a nice mess and chaotic bleakness. The second track contains more junk noise, with scraping, clanging metal and bristling, low ranged noise, it sounds like a rusted factory where you don’t want to work. Very nice.. The track on the other half is different from the other two. It’s more brooding with it’s dark power electronics and esoteric, repetitive synth noises. But than again, it also has that industrial feel with the metal and steel objects. Very impressive, as it comes very close to releases from the much respected Lust Vessel label, like Lebensfaden for example.

This is a highly rated discovery and find, that you can’t put aside in the list of greatest noise releases of the year. It has similarity to the early releases from Sewer Election and like I mentioned before, some releases from Lust Vessel. Also the artwork is outstanding in it’s design. True old school noise you must check out!

Buy/listen:
Bandcamp
Label

Bleak Existence ‎– One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (Cassette, C40, Waterpower 2013)

Bleak Existence’s records shift between harsh noise and HNW, but I guess mostly HNW. This one is released by Waterpower in 2013. But you had to be quick to grab this one, because it was limited to only 25 copy’s.

The album has two tracks. The first one is called “One Step Forward”, and exists out of one long wall, 20 minutes to be exact, which is the half of this record. The sound is most of all mid ranged, with nice sharp edges and low ranged curves. It sounds a bit interrupted throughout the whole track, something I never heard before in a HNW track, which gives it a kind hesitated feeling. You could say that it is a vulnerable wall of noise.

The other half completes the title of this album with “Two Steps Back”. Here the sound is totally different. It has low ranged static with background mid and highs. And like in the first half it’s one long continues wall of sound, with almost no change. It could resemble many things. But it reminds me mostly of a tropical rainforest or a waterfall. Anyway, it's for the listener to figure that one out.

“One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” is a nice and solid release with equally nice artwork. I recommend to Listen this on a rainy and grey evening.

No longer available on label

F.E. Denning – Rites Of Passage (2x Cassette, C22 & C16, Posh Isolation 2012)

This must be the first release of the mysterious project F.E. Denning, that found its haven on the label Posh Isolation. The release comes in an envelope/insert, with two white cassettes and four untitled tracks.

I listened this record outside, at train stations and other public places and it was like time itself had slowed down and put everything in slow motion. The tracks could be described as dark ambient, but they are actually drones. Bleak meditative sounding drones. Very bleak. The world seemed to be a nothing more than an empty shell, where everything was taken out of it’s usual context. And although all four tracks are really slow, they posses a underlying aggressiveness and violent character, like they could burst open any time. There also seems to be not much change going on, but that's not true. They are constantly shifting in sound, unnoticeable. Like the way cells are turning into an malevolent tumor, very sneaky and underneath the surface. The last track is bit different from the other three. It comes closer to noise than drone. But it fits perfectly with the other ones. What the tracks are made of is unclear to me. I heard industrial sounds in it, but also a manipulated gong. It could be anything. Although this album is not loud, it blew me away. Very recommendable stuff.

The album is no longer available on the Posh Isolation, but maybe there is still lingering a copy somewhere on a mailorder company. If not, there is a new release out from this artist, also on Posh Isolation. The new album is called “Cities Of Light”.

Foxconn - Managing One Million Animals Gives Me A Headache (Download, Coffin Birth 2012)

Only one release counting from this project, released on the HNW label Coffin Birth, although I wouldn't describe most tracks of this album as HNW. They all are monotonous and unchanging of nature, but they are not all harsh noise.

The first two tracks for example, are long meditative lines of static, transceiver noise and hiss. Like “Net Gains [Suicide Solution]”, which has a smooth, yet sharp and aggressive hissing sound. The third track, “Square Pegs, Square Holes”, comes close to HNW, but still has not that rumbling and merciless attacking of low, thundering, solid noise that defines the genre. That doesn’t mean I don’t like this release, offcourse. Otherwise I wouldn’t be reviewing it. But maybe their should be another classification for it (perhaps there already is, that I don’t know of). Anyway, back to this release. The fourth track, “Neoindustrial Dehumanizer”, is more aggressive than the previous one. And till now it looks like the album is building up in intensity throughout the order of the tracks. The fifth track (which has a long digit code as title) is a combination of sharp hissing and mid ranged noise. It has the same intensity as the fourth track but differs much in sound. The sixth track, “The Finger Farm Is Humming”, returns to the sound of the beginning, with a calm and soothing hiss. The last track, “Wyrm”, sounds more organic than all other tracks on this album. It sounds a bit like rain, that is heard from the inside of a building.

This is a nice release, but don’t expect harsh noise with ravishing intensity. With it’s unchanging sound we could call it ‘wall’ though. It lies somewhere inbetween, I guess. But it’s best to find out yourself, since all things all relative and subjective.

Place to be (free download):
Coffin Birth

Perispirit - Abysmal Penetrations (Cassette, C26, Hospital Productions 2010)

Perispirit is a noise duo that seems to be on a hold since 2012 now. They have quite some releases worth checking out (but hard finding them). “Abysmal Penetrations”, an EP released on Hospital Productions, will be on the board today.

“Abysmal Penetrations” has two tracks counting, “Obsolete Weather Procedures” and “Silver Bath”. They both have some scary electro acoustic sounds going on. Reverbed fieldrecordings, musique concrete, dark, distorted and harmonious drones, ill guitars and submarine sounds, you name it, it’s all there. The tracks have much layers and are very rich in depth and sound, which is a delight to be excavating in the content of these tracks. Like the first one, “Obsolete Weather Procedures”, is like you are sucked into a horror movie or B-film and into the shed of some serial killer with all kinds of tools hanging on the wall. But you could be in a dark space ship as well. Anyway, lots of imagination that can be evoked listening to this track. The second track, “Silver Bath”, is more dramatic and monotonous, with its thick drones and repetitive, ringing guitars, sometimes heading from harmonious to more dissonant tunes.

If one is into the exploring kind of noise, than this is definitely something to check out. The cover is also nice with it’s vintage look. Hospital Productions did a series of the same kind of artwork and layout, and this one is also a part of those releases. It’s no longer available on physical format but still as download.

Download/buy:

Boomkat

Clavicula Salomonis – Selftitled (Download, Infinite Undoing Tape Label 2014)

The selftitled album from this artist has two sides with untitled tracks, around fifteen minutes each half. The sounds of the first half are dark and murky electronics and crunched noise joined by chant like ambient and background drones. At the mid part of this track, the sound intensifies to a climax and than eases down, to than build up again with more low ranged noise (which seems to be another track).

The other half brings an post-apocalyptic atmosphere with nice, ill sounding drones and broken device electronics. They are joined by faint vocals (samples?) and other electronic loops. The other part has wind like sounds and fast, typewriter like noise. A storm is coming, surely.

Infinite Undoing Tape Label and the projects it releases seem to be all new. And the overall artwork that is used for these releases, makes me think a bit of the Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer. I’m not sure if the releases are also physical, but I assume they are, according the name of this label and there is a contact option for you to try out.

Download/listen:
Bandcamp