Reviews From Issue #4

filthy turd / white mountain 'split' tape. death letter.

anguished vokills trapped in a blast furnace. you are reduced to a smoldering pile of coke. filthy turd blows your head clean off with harsh unrelenting disdain. wall based noise but not as strictly ordered. lots of activity just beneath the surface. total porno burial with shit and piss all up in your mouth. filthy strikes again fuckers. then you flip the tape over and i was stunned at what i heard. total melting frequencies. bubbling bottom morass with some screeching highs and tweeting mids. the later half gets really crumbly and schizophrenic but still maintains some really angry lows that are thick as mucous. im going to give a slight edge to filthy turd simply because his track has just a bit more focus. however this tape is a total winner if you like harsh blastings and scattered noise. sick stuff that will entertain you and your friends while you huff spraypaint.

vestigial limb 'divine wind' c-40. grimeology records.

an epic pulverizing of gloom ridden proportions. reaching out from a long neglected tomb to fondle the world of the living. there is nothing positive here. dredging the bottom of hell to deliver the true kult crumble and rattle. side b is yet another nefarious entity all its own with metallic flagellations and looped out  corpse thrashings. 'divine wind' will breathe plague fumes all over you and you will worship the withering tones. this is top shelf frequency mangling right here. get this tape or just go fucking kill yourself. 

emaciator 'prayer' c-10. callow god.

this is a densely layered offering from the uber talented john borges. a low rumble floats around your head and changing in and out with other waves in a deliberate yet delicate manner. thick and decayed. a startling yet bleak monolith of ruin.

emaciator 'triumph' c-20. monorail trespassing. 

unlike the bull in a china shop attack of pedestrian deposit emaciator is all about maintaining a palpable thickness that is narrowly focused but all consuming. slow steamroller of grief hungering for nothingness. get chewed up and shit back out. the ever advancing rumble tortures you thoroughly. you want positive look elsewhere you worthless piece of shit.  

earn 'down the well' c-28. monorail trespassing.

sometimes there aren't words enough to describe something that is beyond your comprehension. all i can say is that this is where music is going. the days of mindless pedal bashing and neanderthal stupidity are over. earn is beautiful with just a hint of hissy rattle and static. music with character depth and space. all i know is that this is a beautifully crafted sound sculpturing that is equal parts smooth and gritty. epic and sublime soundtracks for the heart and soul. im totally speechless.

treetops 'eternal sky' c-30. monorail trespassing.

slow moving ambience. here again is an artist who understands patience and spatial quality with regards to sound. there is nothing but deliberate carefully calculated and laid out drone. like the sound of a plane off in the distance on a summers evening. beauty has never sounded so bleak so slow yet so rewarding. incredible.

evenings 'descending coma' c-34. monorail trespassing.

the title says it all. there is nothing here. only emptiness and loss. desolation on an epic scale. you are fucked. towering ancient rumblings loom over a decaying world while a glassy static rains down from black glowering clouds. you are alone and no one knows what you go through. this is as it should be. the world burns and nothing exists.

marble sky 'sway' c-20. monorail trespassing.

yet another masterpiece from monorail trespassing. total sugar coated ambience that just flows along at a slow yet gentle pace. this is the kind of stuff that i just wish would go on and on. even though it's just a tape there is alot of grandeur and emotional impact. credits rolled the entire time. her face was frozen into an endless smile. the relationship was over. 

emaciator 'possessive' c-30. hanson.

so why is there so much emaciator this issue? i ended up swooping down on a sale of tapes and made off with a stack of material from this prolific droner and doomer. more heinous bulldozing drones that are dry and brittle. a tinderbox of unhealthy disgust just waiting for a spark of sorrow to ignite the whole goddamned thing. if you like a controlled approach to your noise then look no further. another grim chapter from jon borges.

hammer of hathor 'self titled' c-92. cherried out merch.

dear band. get your shit together and come on back. thx. anyhow at first i was thinking that there is no fucking way im going to sit through 92 minutes of tuneless guitar and drum combo type stuff. thankfully it didn't last that long in fact it only took up half of a side. this was a real disappointment. a band that doesn't really sound very ready trying to make me think they are. while there were hints of brilliance here and there but not enough to keep me hanging on. to me this is what bands do when they record their first practice and want to sort out ideas for actual songs. some things don't warrant release. this is one of those things.

indignant senility 'plays wagner' c-92. cherried out merch.

gloomy and towering tones. but is this an interpretation of wagner's work? sometimes it seems that way. there is a deep undercurrent of symphonic based sound. the tones are so foggy that it obscures any definitive identity although my guess is that wagner is in fact playing but it is being processed and treated largely beyond recognition. whatever the case may be this is a beautifully crafted slice of ancient winds and atmospheric dread. truly immense and beyond description.

fred meyer studio all stars 'self titled i guess' c-92. cherried out merch.

here is an interesting slice of truly portland style weirdness. keep portland weird is what the bumper sticker says. i dont think that's going to be a problem. some seriously warped cut and paste that seems strangely fixated on cats meowing, purring and the like. this female duo has a knack for assembling odd bits of found sounds, tape racket, and electronic glitchery sewed all together into a clumpy fuzzy noisy mess. not too far removed from the stylings of the legendary smegma without all the free jazz horn blowing and duck calls. an interesting yet oddly sinister listen. sort of sexy in a really absurd dali sort of way. side b is a remix of side a done by indignant senility that is rendered far more smooth and has alot more ambient vibes. an extended trip from the babe lair. lets take some bong hits and look at porn.

emeralds 'solar bridge' cd. hanson.

power ambient meets heavy new age meditation hymns. emeralds have been making a name for quite some time but this was my first exposure to their brand of sonic artistry. to put it all in simple terms the music is synth and guitar melded together to create atmosphere and high drama. this isn't push buttons and bounce around like an asshole. this is highly disciplined sound sculpting that borders on art in its purest form. to me this isn't noise. this isn't experimental. this is music. gloriously crafted and far reaching. from the packaging and presentation to the sounds within everything about 'solar bridge' is an addicting event that you need to experience for yourself. 

sparkle girl 'tanked' c-90. soccer mom ebonics.

one of the most prolific units in seattle delivers another chapter. i think an interview with this duo is in order to properly try and capture the essence of how they create their work. there are many approaches taken and none of them seem completely out of place in the context of their art. each section seems to shift effortlessly into the next. there are many instruments and devices used and again with the droney jams / field recordings / and guitar fuckery to name just a small few none of it is too heavy handed or overpowering. this tape is littered with screechy bouts of feedback and grumpy schizo waves of drone all done tastefully with side b being a total mangler. support a northwest classic by getting your hands on this tape.

dotabata 'black stallion' cdr. cantankerous records.   

live basement ambient and noise combined and accompanied by field recordings. a very dimly lit and slightly disturbing listen. stuff going on and you can't see it. you can barely visualize it. is it footsteps? a conversation is about to take place do you really want to know what will be said if anything at all? apparently the field recordings were captured at a spring carnival which gives this a somewhat unspoken dimension of weirdness. very low budget diy styled collaging that works in the exact manner as prescribed. if you dig fossils you will dig this. take a few tokes and think it over.

rubbish 'lunatic' cassette. roil noise.

one thing you can count on from rubbish is out of the ordinary packaging. this time the midwest master of fuck you has packed this grenade of ragged poisonous noise in a small padded mailer that looks like it came out of a dumpster. fuck yeah my homie rubbish don't care what you think. so what's on the tape? more of the standard issue in your face am radio noise and destructive frequency bending that has made rubbish a household name in the underground. harsh and loud junk-fi blast with some jet fuel sniffin interludes. kind of like watching a bomb go off at the end of the day. there isn't anything you can do about it except watch and enjoy. a noise mainstay if there ever was one. epic audio terrorism. 

regosphere / invertebrate 'split' c-18. alienated hominid.

two of oregon's most woefully underrated artists on one tape. regosphere improves and innovates with each release and this one is no exception. heavy leaden synth laying a bleak foundation that moves in a dreamy slow motion. his sounds are dark and forboding. his is a beautiful sort of dread that never stops being interesting. invertebrate dishes out the rumble and crumble that eventually fragments into nothingness. no big finish. just oblivion. great split that you should get simply for the great juxtaposition that each artist provides.

suicidal tendons / invertebrate 'split' c-18. alienated hominid.

according to alienated hominind head honcho jared: this is the final release for his label. i however choose to not believe that. whatever. the suicidal tendons side is more of his schizo blasting that puts gaping holes in the nearly inpenetrable wall that he'll build. you know what you are getting with this former kelso native and it isn't pretty. then you flip the tape over and proceed to let your head get blown completely off. a thorough cleansing or firebombing hailstorm of true wall noise. no fucking mercy and no escape. you are going down one way or another. great goddamned split with invertebrate getting the nod simply because his piece is a singleminded devastating statement. pure brutality from two northwest originals.

various artists 'chickenhead church volume 1' cdr. soccer mom ebonics.

live from the barn house 11.9.08 in the seattle area. ive never been there so i dont know the real story. regardless this is a live recording on national chaos never dies day featuring cathartech. sparkle girl. aural antithesis. slates. demian johnston. ebosa. and burrow owl. a true live on the spot recording that is of great audio clarity and wide sonic variety. for me you simply can't go wrong with sparkle girl. one of my top fave seattle cadres. worthy stuff.