Poverty Records – PVTY-003
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Grim - (2019) Factory Ritual
Steinklang Industries – SK133
The post-industrial music pioneer from Japan surprises once again with simplistic purity in noise and sound. field recordings, junk noise and rhythms, organs and distinctive vocals – a mixture towards another great GRIM experience.
Grim - (2019) Lunatic House
Steinklang Industries – SK120
Jun Konagaya’s music—both the material released under his own name as well as his long-running output as Grim—has been an important part of my life for a long time, from my initial discovery of his debut Folk Music to falling in love with 2015’s Maha to the release of Memento Mori a few years ago. Throughout his eclectic, multitude work, there are recurring motifs that appear again and again, and Konagaya cements his singular style with a distinctive way of integrating melody into crushing abrasiveness; these elements are so recognizable that it’s always immediately clear it’s him (there’s even a consistent organ melody that repeatedly crops up and links different releases together). The opening moments of Lunatic House are so distinctly Konagaya that it brought a smile to my face. I haven’t been able to get ahold of the tape that preceded this release, Body, but Lunatic House is a fascinatingly diverse and unique progression from the artist’s recent output, melding Grim’s dual faith to beauty and aggression into a more cohesive style than ever before. Sublime, soothing guitar strumming is overcome by cycling waves of distortion assaults on “Luna,” music-box like reversed notes evolve into a seething rumble on “Tarantula,” and on “Voodoo Drive” a meditative field recording of a humanity-filled public place gives way to one of the most consuming and terrifying amalgams of sound I’ve ever heard, a restless mass of tortured, throat-tearing yells and crushing noise. Lunatic House is a new favorite from Jun Konagaya’s excellent discography, and with a classic, tear-jerking closing track that makes me recall every bittersweet lonely night I’ve spent with Travel or Love Song, definitely made my day.
Grim - (2020) Hermit Amen
Steinklang Industries – SK128
< Hermit Amen > is based on unreleased melodies made by GRIM with TASCAM porta one between 1980's and 2010's.
For all fans of early GRIM and JUN KONAGAYA material!
Cremation Lily - (2020) More Songs About Drowning CS
Self-released – none
washed out songs about drowning, sinking, leaving. no genre. no press.
long-awaited collaged waves of ambience and noise whirl with layers of
swirling vocals + melancholy beats.
guest voices from wicca phase springs eternal, døves and geoffrey rickly
(of the band thursday) + sound contributors such as moss harvest, false
moniker, plague mother, billy gomberg and daniel mothers feel like they
could only come together for a project this expansive + expressive.
xerox artwork by moss harvest completes the release, bringing a face + a
body to the cremation lily project.
washed away, understanding forever.
Damaged Bug / Black Pus - (2017) Less Artists More Condos Series #17 7''
Famous Class – FC043, LAMC – 17
The seventeenth release in the LAMC 7” Series. The tracks are available
for 'Pay What You Want' with 100% of the digital proceeds going to the
ACLU
“Rubber Lips” written and performed by John Dwyer © ASCAP "ONEEYEDFATGIRL"
Recorded at stu stu studio
“High Tide” written and performed by Brian Chippendale © Hit Points Publishing (BMI)
Recorded at The Hilarious Attic. Mixed at Machines with Magnets with Seth Manchester
Canadian Rifles - (2020) Eastern Nurseries 2xCS
VAKNAR – VAK30
Since its inception in 2019, the Porto based Eastern Nurseries label has
released a string of noteworthy titles, yet the first two outings by
Canadian Rifles, the solo moniker of label founder Rui P. Andrade,
remain defining pillars in the label's discography.
These first two releases, Canadian Rifles ‘Eastern Nurseries’ album and
the follow up single ‘Of Course I Still Love You / Geranium’ sprawl with
acute emotive clangour and venerable opulence, their soundscapes
conjuring visions of windswept cities, blemished technology and inherent
tenderness.
Now these works have been carefully reassembled on one expanded reissue,
remastered by Daniele Antezza of Dadub mastering and featuring two new
remixes by Dino Spiluttini and Burning Pyre.
Junta Cadre - (2020) Vietnam Forever
No Rent Records – NRR141
Power electronics with the intention of examining the political and
social history of global 20th century conflicts, war, and propaganda.
aka SVN (his DL blog... http://www.svn-okklt.com/), Herukat, Commuter
aka SVN (his DL blog... http://www.svn-okklt.com/), Herukat, Commuter
Psychic Reality - (2015) Chassis LP
Intercoastal Artists – IA008
Chassis is the undercarriage, the skeletal core of a car. Any seasoned
racecar driver knows the chassis gotta be true, intact. Psychic Reality
(est. 2009 by Leyna Noel, formerly of Pocahaunted) grew up in the dirt
of the pits, scrutinizing wrecks in all their Days of Thunder carnage.
Here's the track law: after a smash-up the body can always be replaced,
but not the core. So you care for it. With everything you got. In 2013
Psychic Reality's own pile-up took her to Portmore, Jamaica. Kingston.
Where, with friend and pit crew collaborator M. Geddes Gengras (modular
synth maven/ex-Pocahaunted/ producer on Sun Araw + The Congos' Icon Give
Thank), she re-shaped. Hard... what about the leftover skid marks, the
rubber-coated gravelly smear? They're all aurally here. Revving in the
interval following Vibrant New Age (Not Not Fun, 2011), Psychic
Reality's second full length record CHASSIS (Intercoastal Artists,
spring 2015), makes tracks like when road ice melts under a hot engine,
the path wet and revealing. The contrast between soft and hard dragging
out the leftover grit. Chassis is also the ribs of an electronic device,
a bare circuit board. This particular board (with audile contributions
by Damon Eliza Palermo (Magic Touch), Cameron Stallones (Sun Araw) and
M. Geddes Gengras) makes ambient vocal tides. Each track as it appears
on the record is ecosystemic, body electric in scope. But beneath the
surface is another song, a tensile core for lung-power only that can be
sung in a room. These are songs of distention, elongation. Bodies held
at an intimate distance. Sonic spaces that stretch so far you fall into
them. The structural two-ness gives the tracks their grind. But does
drift have chassis? Does halyconic L. A. (where the album was recorded)
light? Can chassis be supple, spectral? No coincidence Psychic Reality's
been running her own Pilates studio in Brooklyn since 2011. Her core
practice holds all contradiction as gift. To meet at the source: Liz
Phair's gutty Exile in Guyville, Sade's Soldier of Love, dancehall
do-overs plus spatterings of daily junk: emails texts iphone recordings
detritus tissue feelings. CHASSIS is something like church, something
like swimming, like spirit straining towards. These are health jams.
That the beats are muffled by a body makes them beats in the body.
There's genuine ganja here but the real heady clouds are palo santo.
Voice is resinous. Smoke what you want, Psychic Reality's pitch is
sticky, growing from the center-out like trees.
Vatican Shadow - (2020) Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era LP
20 Buck Spin – SPIN134
‘Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era’ sees Dominick Fernow back to strong form with six tracks inspired by recent Middle Eastern geopolitics and very much built in the image of latter period Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze productions, but more than sufficiently distinguished by his transfixing arrangements.
The brooding VS synth glare is in deep and hypnotic effect and the drums programming is some of his deadliest, adapting the mood of the times and media rhetoric in a way that’s never glib or ironic and always with an emotional levity. ‘Rehearsing for the Attack’ is an instant VS classic, trading in rudely syncopated steppers drums and his finest sort of synth subterfuge, and likewise ‘uncontrollable oasis (Real life spy mystery ends with scientist hanged in Iran)’ leaves a heavy impression, while the plot only becomes more expansive, urgent with the closing section’s 10mins of intricate arps in ‘moving secret money’, and his trampling 12 min mission sequence ‘ayatollah ferocity’.
The Zits - (2020) Back In Blackhead
Feel It Records – FEEL IT 45
The Zits were a short-lived phenomenon, forming in February 1981 and
disbanding upon graduation from Oakton High School in late May.
Initially dubbed Nic Beery and The Zits, the group quickly shortened
things to The Zits while rehearsing and playing a mix of basement
parties, high school events, and community centers. Within a few months,
The Zits had a solid repertoire of punk originals and covers, which
included The Ramones and The Undertones (see track 5 for a great version
of "Can't Get Over You"). Inspired by a classmate who had pressed a
solo 45, The Zits pre-sold copies of their very own single, and booked
time at Eastern Recording in Glen Burnie, Maryland to record their two
strongest tracks. Produced by Scott Watson of regional new wave act The
Intentions, the two tracks - "Sick on You" and "Beat Your Face" were
quickly mixed and sent off to be released as a 45 on singer Nic Beery's
own Olympic Records. Both tracks are total teen punk hits with great
snotty vocals, crunchy guitar, keyboard, and some of the best dry heaves
ever committed to tape! Nearly 40 years later, the single - and it's
appropriately low-brow picture sleeve - has gained a reputation as a
bonafide Killed By Death/Bloodstains-comp level hitter, and appears here
remastered from the original 8 track tape.
But that's not all! The Zitmusic archives yielded an incredible cache of
unreleased cassette material taken from rehearsals and live shows.
"Back in Blackhead" also features 7 previously unheard cuts, including
what could have been the second Zits single - the killer "Bertha Was a
Slut", the warped twelve bar "No Dough Blues", and several other
exuberant teenpunk anthems. The Zits may have not had the sex or the
drugs, but they certainly tackled the rock'n'roll better than most other
class of 1981 bands can claim. After receiving a promo copy of The Zits
45, Greg Hawkes of The Cars replied via postcard, "I played your record
and thought it was pretty ridiculous." Thankfully that ridiculousness
has been preserved on "Back in Blackhead"
Black To Comm - (2020) Oocyte Oil & Stolen Androgens
Thrill Jockey – THRILL534
The music of Black To Comm is as powerfully intoxicating as it is subtly unnerving. Shapeshifting producer and sound artist Marc Richter has established himself as one of the most inventive and ambitious voices in contemporary music. Richter’s mastery of sonic manipulation is matched only by his astounding clarity of vision. Working heavily with sampling and electronic processing, each of his phantasmagoric works is meticulously constructed from a truly omnivorous array of smudged samples, found sounds, and other sonic detritus, collected by Richter from across the history of recorded music and altered into beguiling new shapes. Sound sources seem tantalizingly familiar and yet forever just out of reach, flickering at the edges of memory and perception or submerged in a bristling sea of static. A single piece might strafe elements of Eastern European folk, medieval plainsong, sky-clawing metal and shimmering ambient music, all ingested by Richter into his singular sound-world. Oocyte Oil & Stolen Androgens sees Richter’s turn his wild imagination to an exploration of the human voice, compiling some of his most immediate and affecting music to date.
Houkago Grind Time - (2020) Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore) 12''
Grindfather Productions – GF476
One of the only metal records I heard this year and its dry production
and speed feel older than it is, but the drumming and composition
reminds me of the great The Kill.
HOUKAGO GRIND TIME is the brainchild of one man grindmaster Andrew Lee
(RIPPED TO SHREDS, SKULLSMASHER). The debut full length is a collection
of anime and manga inspired goregrind tunes that will appeal to fans of
REGURGITATE, DEAD INFECTION, old CARCASS, PIG DESTROYER and the likes.
Lasse Marhaug - (2020) April 1st 2020
Documenting Sound – 18
Original isolationist Lasse Marhaug assumes his natural disposition in
an incredible, dread-filled snapshot of life recorded April 1st and
dialled in from Oslo for our Documenting Sound series.
A behemoth in the Norwegian Metal, noise, jazz, electronic and
experimental scenes for nearly 30 years, Marhaug is something of a
polymath - appearing and collaborating with countless artists (Sunn
O))), Carlos Giffoni, Merzbow, Maja Ratkje, John Wiese and many, many
others), he’s a highly sought-after producer with credits on records by
Jenny Hval, Hilary Woods and Okkyung Lee, as well as a photographer,
visual artist, writer, magazine publisher - basically he’s done - and is
doing - it all.
Lasse was born and raised above the Arctic Circle and made his name up
there via the international mail-order scene before moving to Oslo, so
he clearly knows a thing or two about life communicating from under
virtual lockdown or isolation. His tape here documents an hour of music
recorded on April 1st 2020 (and later deftly edited) that provides a
glimpse of just how deep his talent runs, using a stripped down set-up
of guitar, turntable and synths in much the same grizzled and intuitive
way that’s practically unchanged from his formative, teen-aged days in
the cold, cold north.
Lasse’s free-ranging taste for raw, crumbling noise textures and
scowling drone scuzz is in strong effect on four skull scraping and
apocalypse-baiting works. Whether describing huge glacial events and a
lack of Vitamin D in the noisy transition of ‘Exiles’, or more
sensitively evoking a sense of ambient sehsucht recalling Kevin Drumm’s
classic ‘Imperial Distortion’ on ‘Family', or plainly baiting the
apocalypse with the magisterial string drones of ‘Perfect Places’,
Lasse’s music conjures scowling moods that enact a solidarity for
outsiders as much as a frank admission that life’s always been a bit
crushing, and we just have to get on with it.
GG King - (2011) Esoteric Lore
Scavenger Of Death – SOD-04
While I rarely felt like the Carbonas lived up to the echelon at which
so many of their fans tended to regard them, one thing that always
impressed me was that they never stopped getting stronger as a band.
That forward momentum has happily continued in the output of lead singer
Greg King. Now operating under the somewhat ridiculous GG King handle,
he’s allied himself with key former Carbonas and others for a bracing
minimalist punk attack that shreds the approach of that prior band down
to its stone-cold gut.
A relentless, anxious frenzy pumps these rapid-fire outbursts, inciting
rocket-feet and beer spillage. I’m not enough of a punk rock authority
to try and namecheck whatever obscure bands GG King draws from, but it’s
safe to say there’s a lot of ’70s UK touchstones in Greg’s record
collection – and if not, there should be! There are group backing vocals
that sound like a howlin’ wind about to sweep you skyward. The guitars
slash ‘n’ stab in a self-contained street rumble. The bass thuds and
chugs like a belligerent drunk that won’t step down. The drums rattle
and pound until they don’t, stopping on a dime. King’s vocals often
remind me of Pete Shelley in the early Buzzcocks, or Colin Newman in
early Wire, where you’re dizzy by not only the breathless thrust of the
delivery but also the giddy pop undercurrent of it all. And early
British punk band Johnny Moped gets a nod with a fine cover of
“Incendiary Device.”
Driving the point home, Esoteric Lore‘s artwork uses that classic cheap
black & white, cut ‘n’ paste, scribble ‘n’ scramble aesthetic so
common to punk and hardcore since before Never Mind the Bollocks. It’s a
clichéd look now, but it’s still effective, I have to admit. And since
the lyrics are scrawled and typed into the inner sleeve layout, it lets
you catch up with some of the words that may’ve zoomed by in the flurry
of impact. My favorite is probably “Bored of Breathing”: “You’re always
acting like you’re bored of breathing/ But no one is telling you to keep
on living.”
GG King - (2012) Last Of The Night Wiggers - Ruff Demo
Scavenger Of Death – SOD-07
When the Carbonas died, Atlanta wept. Mothers and children, left
orphaned by the deceased, wandered the streets with tears streaming
mottled faces. Strong and silent men struggled to maintain composure,
and they retreated to basement workbenches, biting lips, cracking
knuckles, running hands through thinning hair, sullenly wondering:
"Why?" Skies darkened. A palpable feeling of devastating loss plagued
the city. Nay, the world.
Thankfully, ex-frontman Greg "GG" King wasted little time in yanking up
his knickers and pursuing new noise. He wrote a series of tunes not
unlike those he contributed to the Carbonas “ that winning mix of
hyperstrummed '70s Europunk and brawny stateside r'n'r pummel intact“
and amassed a crew of friends and former bandmates to help him flesh out
the din. He released a handful of solid teaser singles, played a number
of good shows. He reasserted himself as one of Atlanta's greatest
exports.
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