Here are some fresh reviews straight from the Gene Symptoms factory of worn out cliches and variations on the theme of crushing your nuts. Cheers. Sympto Bizmol.
Total
Slitting of Throats / CD/ Troniks
This one is billed as “An HNW
Audible Manifesto” and it certainly lives up to that as you would expect. What
you get is The Cherry Point, Mania, The Rita, Sewer Election, and Treriksroset
teaming up and serving you heaping helping of tinderbox dry sizzling
hatred. Most of you already know what
each of these artists delivers on their own and it is ugly to be certain. So, the question then becomes, what kind of
hellish thunder do they deliver as a collective?
Your audio torture comes as a
single track originally recorded in 2005 that has no obvious or blatant shifts,
just a single blast of wall noise just like you like it. As you get sucked in at or around the 10-minute
mark you do notice some very slight subtle changes to the tonal quality and the
complexion, but it is an impenetrable mess overall. Of course, it could all just be a figment of
my imagination; a dash of wishful thinking that something might happen. If the objective was to simply deliver a
faceless shroud of audio violence, then mission accomplished. If you are looking for some new school, emo
noise revelations and tasty audio fuck sessions then you ought to just give
this one a miss.
All in all, you know the pedigree
of the individual artists involved so the violence should not come as a
surprise. They are in lockstep with each
other, the aim and objective is clear.
If you like your noise thick and meaty then score this album and get
ready to dive headfirst into the tree shredder, the afterlife beckons bitch.
Savage
Gospel / CD / White Centipede Noise
This 2-man crew from Finland throws
down 3 tracks on this album and it is a real stunner. Rather than tread familiar HNW territories,
this cadre is keeping it murky, harsh and focused. It has that sweet wall riding action that the
serious hardcore freaks love but it is rife with nuclear meltdown fumes, gas
leaks, train wrecks and explosions. The
ecological and societal damage is well deserved and the anguish of modern life
is real.
Track one “Magnetic Tongue” is a
very dense distant roll between AM radio stations where the coherence is
nowhere to be found, only fog and static teasing you from afar. This is the sound of waking up in the morning
and being equal parts confused and disappointed that you are still alive.
Track two “I Want to Make Everyone
Happy” is a tightly measured romp through the crisis of your choice. Howling squeals and rolling feedback hissing
in an immense space where all the sounds are free to travel. Savage Gospel is steadily upping the
brutality which sets the stage for the final act.
Track three “Clustered” is the
sound of Savage Gospel pulling out all the stops and unloading their arsenal in
epic fashion. I kept thinking about that
feeling you get when you are in having an emotional logjam. You are pissed, sad, confused all at once and
unsure of how to safely release it without shoving a needle in your arm. You come completely unglued and just let it
fly scattershot in every direction. This
track is intense and beautiful.
This album is highly recommended, a
postcard from a friend that does not exist.
The packaging rules, the sounds are lethal, and the urge to hit play
again is like a pickaxe through my skull.
Stop fucking around and get this one right away. A true must have for
the harsh heads out there.
Leather
Bath “Nature’s Crackling Fire” / CD / Chondritic Sound
What happens when Greh Holger and John Wiese team up? You
get a haunting tapestry of organic sonic interplay, and it is awesome. Leather Bath treats the listener to 2 tracks
of mysterious, unsettling, haunters that move about in an unassuming manner
dishing out surprise after surprise.
Metallic clanks and steel wool rub downs lay the foundation for sweaty
winds to swirl about the windchimes of a distant past that is surely never to
return.
Track 2 opens with a singular tone moaning mournfully while
mysterious movements take over. Late
summer breezes carrying crumpled wrapping paper which gently hold court with
stirrings of the morning after a night of hard drug use. The Howling commences
unanswered. Skin on steel provides a
backdrop for these unanswered calls; the end is so far yet ever so close.
Strangers mingle without you. You lay
back in a faux restless sleep, pretending to care.
This album’s success rests on how carefully every event is
laid out. There is nothing forced or
shoehorned in. This is not just another
“beat you over the head” release which are so commonplace these days. This is a special piece of art. Each track is like a river, it moves in its
own way, organically in time with the inner clock of the Earth. This will be a well-regarded classic that is
custom made for these fading summer days.
Your gateway to the time of the harvest lies with this album. This comes
with my highest recommendations.
Kjostad
“Red Iron Knife” / CD / White Centipede Noise
Field recording specialist Stefan
Aune’s Kjostad project unleashes a 2-track feast of devastating crumble and
decay on “Red Iron Knife.” One thing that is noticeable is that this album is pure
wreckage in the rolling and tumbling low end that cascades across each
track. Deadly winds penetrating cave
walls scraped by heat and metal. Kjostad is creating work that relies more on
process than technology and the results are devastating to say the least.
Aune asserts that his work is captured at
Kjostad Lake in Minnesota with many sounds being somewhat recognizable and
others that far less identifiable. In
the case of the first track “Open Pit Bodies” the familiar is a lost concept as
you get thrown like trash into broken, scattered clods of bottom end damage.
This piece seems to be split into acts in the same manner as a play in that
there is a brief respite followed up by continued grinding and agonizing, this
time with the frenetic intensity turned up a skosh. Slight submerging dips interspersed with
second long spaces of silence; the flogging remains systematic. This is simply
crushing stuff.
Track 2 “Deerblood Paleface” is just
as crumbly and irritable as “Open Pit Bodies” but with the low end serving as a
grimey framework in which tearing strips of mid fi heavings fill the space up
with unapologetic violence. Again, the
source material that is being used here is not readily identifiable and by the
time it gets run through the Kjostad production process it is mangled beyond
recognition and placed in a new context.
This is where “Red Iron Knife” becomes a seriously engaging listen. This is pure process and movement; the
electronics are simply there to help the process along; flipping the source
material on its head and then severing it.
“Red Iron Knife” is a primitive depth
plumbing excursion that is as bleak and malignant as it gets. However, there is a beauty to be had here
that cannot be ignored. Nature captured,
scattered, reassembled as a new Earthen trophy for your ears. This is a killer listen that will only yield
more rewards with each subsequent revisiting.
A true must have for your collection so do not screw this up.
Sewer
Election “Blizzard Amplification” / 2xCD / White Centipede Noise
A 2-disc collection of new
recordings from Swedish noise merchant Sewer Election. If you are familiar with this artist’s work
then you already know it is going to be a rough ride through a myriad network
of frequencies and crushing improvisations.
This album does not disappoint as the first 4 tracks on the first disc
run the gamut of the harsh spectrum from screaming feedback stabbers, growling
teeth snapping lows, to wrenching barf blasting heaters. The title of the album is “Blizzard
Amplification” and there is no more apt description than this because this is a
blizzard, ceaseless, overwhelming, and makes you question everything.
Track 2 “Fishnet Psych-Out” is so
gritty and crispy, a real goddamned sizzler.
The billowing feedback squalls rise up and down like a well-muscled ass
pumping into nothingness. Straight up
blistered and tortured rage as you and your gear get kicked out of the noise
show and down the stairs. Bear in mind this is but one track out of 9 where the
volume is up and the frequencies run wild.
One key thing that I have noticed
with this, my second listen through, is that these tracks are not one
dimensional by any stretch of the imagination.
Sewer Election takes harsh noise out for a run across town for dope
deals. Everything is moving, shifting,
unexpected and generously littered.
There are no straight lines between point A and B to be had and this is
why this collection is such a riotous listen.
Sewer Election is not here to just hang out and smoke cigs with
you.
Track 4 “Crystallized Disease
Genitalia” is a glitchy bubbly synapse splitter with a dull rumble laying in
wait for you. Do not have too much fun
because you will get got. In short, disc
one is a real jog around the wastelands but the question remains, what of disc
2?
Well, disc 2 gets right down to the
dirty business of burying your ass alive as “Spirals I” is a hideous unloading
of furious static and far distant high-end rhythmic warbling. Another fun question to ask is what would
happen after you get kicked in the balls by your assailant? A blast of aggros static right straight to
the grill. Which is exactly what you get
on “Filterbank Waste Campaign.” Dour, faceless, wall riding action abounds, crispy,
sizzling, head shoved into the deep fryer and then the train stops slowly
across your skull.
“High Voltage Face Removal” is
exactly what you think it is a full on crumbler and screamer. One thing that is apparent here is that these
tracks are all generous in length and each have their own distinct sonic
geography. Sewer Election does not
simply settle in one area for too long, there is a lot of movement which makes for
a great listen all around.
The forlorn static hiss and piss of
“Cosmic Mirror II” is dramatically different to my ears in that its presence is
understated. This does not kick off like
a stadium demolition full of chaotic blistering bombast. This is a creeper, steadily riding the
concourse not giving you many twists and turns which is unsettling it its own
right. This collection concludes with “Razors
Edge” which serves as a brutal bookend and gives you a perfectly well deserved kick
to the head before you get left to ponder your mistakes.
If you love Sewer Election then you
already know what is in store for you.
But bear in mind, this is a hefty collection of harsh noise. Perhaps too much in one sitting? That really depends on you but either way
this is a harsh noise specialist delivering a chaotic yet violent manifesto
that demands your attention. Take it all
or take a few inches at the time, either way you will take a shit out your
mouth.
No comments:
Post a Comment