Lettera 22 - Lack Of Attention (CD, Ljud & Bild Produktion 2011)

Lettera 22 is a noise/electronics and field recording project from the Italian duo Riccardo Mazza and Matteo Castro. Both active in other projects like Drug Age, A Flower Collapsed, .. They are also owners of the Second Sleep label. “Lack Of Attention”, the album I will be reviewing,  seems to be their first release with Lettera 22.

The first and second track (all tracks are untitled) seem to be connected (in fact they all seem to be connected somehow) with each other and the first one opens with a dark drone, sounding like a humming generator or some kind, joined by all kinds of electronics and field recordings, bathing in a soft, spacious reverb, that also returns in most of the other tracks. It gets more chaotic after a while and the sounds that were mentioned are joined by harsh electronics and sharp feedback, descending into a violent display of nature. Track three is a twenty one second, short burst of brutal feedback salvo’s and harsh texture noise. The fourth track starts with field recordings of street sounds, ricocheting against the walls inside a building from were it seems to be recorded. Perhaps in the room that is shown on the cover of the artwork. It also sounds a bit like Arv & Miljö, but than more clearer in sound. Not for long, high ranged and corrosive noise joins in again. But the track ends were it began. Track five is a more psyche noise, orientated one, with delayed and reverbed sounds. But after a while it also succumbs under the heavy, decaying harsh noise.

Track six is the longest one, with a twenty two minutes in length. It’s an extension of the fifth track but actually also of all other ones. Underneath the defecating and claustrophobic noise you can hear people talking and other environment sounds are also to be heard, being swallowed in a sea of depraving nihilism. Around minute seven the sound gets more quiet again with a ringing scape/drone, more field recs (birds, church bells, ..) and rain like sounds. For some reason the drone has something ritual-like, but also meditative. Like a dark ode to our world and the nature outside of us. Here, the resemblances with Francisco Lopez's sound are not far away.

The sound of “Lack Of Attention is rough and fresh. Very Rough, like the artwork. But also sparse and hypnotic at some times, like the very last part of the last song. All six tracks should or could be seen as one track with different parts, instead of six individual ones. It also can be seen as a collision of the urban, human world with (other) nature. Anyway, it’s one heavy and dim ride I won’t forget.

Buy:
Ljud & Bild Produktion

Lock / White Resin / Interference / Marble Verse – Malediction (Cassette, C50, VAALD 2014)

Some new releases are out on the excellent VAALD label, so it’s time for a review from one of the more older releases; Malediction. Malediction is a compilation from four different projects. All of them residing in the mayhem department.

The first two tracks are from Lock. “Lavaliere” is the first one and starts with slow burning, dark feedback-like drones, musique concrete, oscillating synth misery and low ranged death vibes. Most of it is drenched in a cold and nice sounding reverb. The feeling you get listening to this track, is that from a chilly and icy winter evening. The next one in line is called “Scordatura”. More oscillating synths are to be heard here, but also chime-like sounds and more eerie drones, again drenched in that nice sounding and spacious reverb.

The third track, “Improved S Barb”, is by White Resin and kicks of with a determent sounding and hypnotic electronic loop, shifting gradually in shape and rhythm. This is repeated throughout the whole track, and worked well as sort of rough, meditative piece.

The fourth is by Interference and is called “Canine”. Dark, esoteric noise is a well suited description for the beginning of this track. Grainy, saturated death electronics come in, driven to cause infliction on the nerve system and shredding the man made illusions of life. Chaotic harsh noise follows up, fragmenting every last hope of structure. A very nice and basic sounding track.

“Divergent” is the last track, made by Marble Verse. With it’s brooding and melancholic drones/scapes, this track is somehow most suited for the exotic looking cover of the artwork. It has a dark eastern sound you can sometimes also hear in the Muslim Gauze records, but than without the beats. This is the most depressing and calm one of the five.

The physical copy’s seem to be sold out, but it’s still listenable and for sale on Bandcamp.
Highly recommended stuff!

Bandcamp

Arv & Miljö - Antropocen (Cassette, C52, Lust Vessel 2014)

“Antropocen” is the latest release from Matthias Andersson’s No-fi project Arv & Miljö, and it is one of his most remarkable releases so far. The title refers to the *Swedish term of Anthropoc emphasized for the current geological epoch by a Dutch-born German atmospheric chemist Paul Jozef Crutzen (* taken from Lust Vessel).

The first untitled track (all tracks are untitled) is a mixture of outside sounds (birds, ..), natural environment drones, construction works, scratchy noise and a high ranged loop, all well put together. At the end the track gets more noisier and it’s like everything is getting swallowed by the ravashing noise. The second one, “Untitled 02”, starts with scorching, high ranged electronics and crunchy, low, broken noise. This ‘broken’ concrete noise is also the typical sound of Arv & Miljö, that you won’t hear somewhere else. They are joined by what it seems to be moving metal objects of all kinds, going all over the place, but remaining on the background. “Untitled 03” opens with repetitive, high ranged electronics, drenched in hiss, sounding a bit like crickets. More sounds join in, but they are keeping a more low profile than in the previous tracks. The fourth track has a eight minute run of brutal harsh noise, metal and shrieking electronics. Field recordings of unplaceable sounds also come in. This track has a bit of a junk noise feeling, but than again it’s totally different than the mentioned latter.

Track five, on the other side, opens with a nice industrial drone, shifting in shape constantly (if you listen carefully). The drone is joined by violent noise jabs/slashes and other environment sounds that add up to a deep and utterly bleak atmosphere. Glass-like shattering noise is the frantic opener for the sixth track. You can clearly hear the sharp edges of the sound as they pierce the ear. The ending is cool to, as it seems to disappear into a more atmospheric field scape. Track seven has crunched and totally broken electronics, sounding like industrial entropy in full glory. The low rumbling on the background creates a nice and solid underlayer, which carries the other harsh sounds. The last track is maybe the least abstract one. It starts with heavy, brutal banging on metal objects and other aggressively, moving steel objects. A last venture into unremorseful chaos, you would think. But it ends with a field recording of the sea (with seagulls).

The most important thing about Arv & Miljö is that it all feels very natural, as if even the noise is taken right out of the environment and nature. Also, there are allot of sounds to be discovered in Antropocen, if you listen with full attention. This is truly recommendable stuff if you are into uncompromisingly noise.

Antropocen is sold out on Lust Vessel, but still scattered around on several distro’s.

Suizidality - Kristen (File/download, Selfreleased 2014)

This new project from Russia brings one track called “Kristen” and artwork of true ghastly and brutal nature: A dead and murdered child is portrayed on the cover art. Shocking and breathtaking.

A long sample of two children that have to sing songs from their mom or teacher opens the track. Shuffling noise than replaces the sample. The noise has a weird depth of faint, high ranged drones, as if they are singing morbidly on the background. They are followed by crunched but also muffled harsh noise and very faint vocal grunts that leap out from time to time. Than an abrupt stop and dark, etheric  soundscapes come in, joined again by a sample of singing children. The soundscapes turns into a more noise drone-like atmosphere, getting harsher after a while. Occasional sounds of feedback bursts, more samples and other unplaced noises are spread carefully along the rest of the track, which gives it a minimalistic but well dosed approach. At the last part we get to hear nice repetitive electronics, bathing in human filth and regret, ringing against the background of bleak atmospheric layers.

This is a release of utter hopelessness and doom. The dreadful sounds in combination with the child samples create a suffocating atmosphere and bring in the loss of innocence. Also worth mentioning: “Kristen” seems to be existing out of multiple tracks instead of one, as it are all different parts with sometimes sudden stops. It doesn't seem to be having a physical release, which is certainly a pity.

Listen/buy:
Bandcamp

Alleypisser – Tvang (Cassette, C30, Second Sleep 2011)

Today I will be reviewing ‘Tvang’ from the now defunct Alleypisser project, by Mikkel Rørbo. The release has two untitled tracks on each side and came out on the excellent Second Sleep label.

The first side begins with a continued metallic, almost drone like sound, occasional lurking feedback and washy noise. After a while the metal objects get treated more physical, with a repetitive industrial feel to it. At this part of the track the other sounds start to disappear and eventually you can only hear a car engine like drone, that is joined later by delayed, metal objects and feedback intervals. This continues for a while, till a new drone layer appears. Dark stuff.

On the other side the second track picks up where it ended on the first: dark, ringing drones that made me think of stretched out and desolate, industrial landscapes. Metal hits/banging and short feedback salvo’s come in to make the picture complete. It also made think allot of the recent movie ‘The Rover’, I have seen yesterday. It has much similarities to the threatening, hopelessness and bleak atmosphere of that movie. At the end of the track the sound gets harsher and noisier again, to than end abruptly.

The overall sound could be described as minimal, to say on the sources that is. The sound itself is very rich and full in sound. On both tracks you can also hear the presence of the room it is recorded in, so it has a bit of a live-performance feeling. The physical release is long sold out, but you can download it now on the artists Bandcamp, together with all other Alleypisser releases.

Download/buy:

Bandcamp

Empiric ‎– Familiar (Cassette, C20, Crown Tapes 2012)

Empiric is the drone/noise/ambient project from Jim Haras, also involved in other projects and groups as Deterge, Urine Cop, Winters In Osaka and many others. ‘Familiar’ is the only release under his Emperic project (released in 2012, but recorded in 2011). To bad, because it definitely makes me yearn for more.

The EP is counting two tracks, each on one side. The first one is “Languid”, which starts with dark, moodfull drones, delayed high ranged percussion (bells?) and dissonant ambient. The overall sound of the beginning is exotic and puts you right into bleak, Vietnam war movies like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Apocalypse Now. Than it gets noisier with crude, washy, concrete sounding noise and hissing sounds. But on the background the eerie jungle is still present. Out of the noise also arises new sounds, and other kind of drones, very hypnotic.

On the other side we have “Percolate”, which is also residing in the exotic area, at least to my experience. Heavily reverbed, metallic percussion and more waves of drones are tangling into each other, as if they are dancing with each other and create a beautiful and playful, yet sinister combination of sounds. Joined a bit later by strange synthesizer noises, the human world is not far away.

A very nice release for the dark drone/ambient lovers, who also like a more experimental style of music.

No longer Available on label

JOULUPUKKI – 1 (Digital/download, Selfreleased 2014)

JOULUPUKKI is a brand new project from Finland with only one release counting. On his Tumblr there is more to discover, like experimental video’s combined with noise. But I mostly liked his release that I will be reviewing today.

The album has four tracks and starts with “Krakh Bol'shoy” which could be described as sick noise. Harsh layers of shattering noise team up with ranting, primitive vocals. And as the track progresses, the structure changes into more rhythmic noise, but still very chaotic and aggressive. Especially the nihilistic vocals are worth mentioning here. The second track, “F60”, has high ranged, static noise and shrieking, distorted feedback and effected vocals, joined by moaning, low bee sounds, pressing hard against the speakers. ‘Vomiting noise’ comes to mind listing to this track. “Linnut, sylilaitteet“, the third track, exists out of a loop of sickening vocals drenched in lo-fi fuzz, crushing noise and other strange effects also join this mental party. At moments this track is very sick and disturbed, like the child-sounds that come in after a while. The last track, “Medved der'mo” (the longest of the album), has very nice layers of harsh noise, occasional sharp feedback and more frantic vocals (much less than in the previous tracks though). Sometimes it sounds a bit like a data processor that went wrong. Very solid and basic noise I must say.

This is a release that returns to the roots of noise. A No-fi nightmare of bleak nihilism. Deranged and sickening to the core. Definitely one of the best and underrated releases this year.

Buy/download:
Bandcamp

Andy Ortmann & The Cherry Point – Split (Cassette, C20, SRR 2004)

This is a split release from the old days. 2004 was a good year for excellent noise releases and this was one of them. It contains three tracks by Andy Ortmann & one by The Cherry Point. For those who don’t know, Andy Ortmann makes experimental music since 1990 & The Cherry Point is the moniker of Phil Blankenship, who is also becoming a pioneer in the scene.

The release starts with the tracks from Ortmann. “This Is What I Am” is the first one and consists out of drilling electronics, slowly shifting in sound and mostly unchanging which make it very meditative. The second track, “The Look Of Love”, is the longest of the three and is a collection of musique concrete, field recordings of outside sounds, messed up clutter, weird clock like sounds, dark scapes and industrial hits. A very interesting combination of sounds. The clock like sound is the most persistent here. “We've Only Just Begun” is the third and last one from Ortmann. It starts with the sound of a bird, and ends with a man talking. No further explanation needed here.

“Guts Bloody Guts” on the other side, is the track from The Cherry Point. This one starts with clattering racket noise and rusty electronics. I also seem to hearing a drone on the background that sounds a bit like stretched out sound from an airplane. Occasional blasts of vile noise and moaning feedback comes in, and towards the middle the sound changes it’s course into a more chaotic atmosphere. Busy factories come to mind in this industrial terror from The Cherry Point.

Although these two artists bring out a total different sound, they both fit very well together. This is experimental and harsh entropy on it’s best. And the artwork speaks for itself.

No longer available on label

Vongut – Demo 2014 (Cassette, Selfreleased 2014)

Vongut is a new HNW project that started somewhere in 2014. The release counts 3 tracks of brutal HNW, shifting between ear shredding mids and agitated, groaning lows. The pase is fast and manic, specially in the last track. Aggressive and sharp static can be heard on the background throughout all tracks, giving the whole a nice and crisp depth.

This release brings true HNW which makes your head spin, as you seem to be pulled in a whirlwind of nothing but relentless and unchanging noise textures. And the physical release comes with a nice cassette template & b&w photograph as artwork.

Buy/download:
Bandcamp