Tuesday, August 30, 2011

BT.HN & SISTRENATUS – EXPOSING THE RIBCAGE CDR on Existence Establishment


Killer frequencies transmitted via this trio of esteemed Canadian noise dudes. This CDr is like an HR Giger painting come to life. A behemothic war machine, pensively devouring chaos and expelling highly pressurized pestilence, effectively bringing eternal darkness and planting its seed of brooding decay for eons to come. 1 track, over an hour of deeply darkened bass tones and sparse crackling static sprinkled with just the right amount of delay. A cosmic churning of spaced-out sci-fi synth oscillations intersperse with solemn walls of atmospheric industrial bleakness. The ever flowing transitions, both  ridged and subtle, give this album an engaging yet, horrifically pacifying quality. Go pick yers up at Existence Establishment right now!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Mannequins – False Smiles False Lives c32 on Worthless Recordings

Jacked the photo from discogs cause I lost mine copy in these piles of tapes
Not sure what I expected from this one. The name Mannequins conjures up some pretty varied mental images. Like a band of mannequins, knob-sync'n circuit-bent casio's with projected faces and clothing on their naked torso @least right? Well, as soon as this tape starts playing, you know you've gotten yourself into a whole mess of good harshness. Amped up. This thing is thick and serious. unforgiving. unrelenting. A million different distorted or defiled frequencies in every direction and not a sour note between them. Eventually the action stacked energy level drops you effortlessly into still life HWN territory. Heavy rumble & crunch, less the crackle round out the rest of Side A.Side B picks up where A left off, emulating you deeper and deeper into slowly-slightly-changing Harsh Noise Wall noise trance. creepy f%#kin mannequins. Love it. where can I get more? I have no idea, but you want to get one of these limited to 17 copies from our pals at Worthless. Hit em up and buy a tape or work a trade.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

River's Edge tape on Worthless Recordings


River's Edge


Slap this tape in yer deck and a few moments later you'll be thinking:
hey, WTF, this isn't even a noise tape.
Is it some sort of book on tape or something?
No, Worthless Recordings has begun a new series of cassette's showcasing the audio from classic cult films.
Have you seen River's Edge?
Yeah, me neither, but it sounds disturbingly wonderful in a Gummo-esq style of crass film-making.
Listening to movies on tapes might not be for everyone, hence the low low edition of 17 copies.

Summon Thrull - Spire Hell Heap c47 out on Rainbow Bridge




GOT THIS HERE>>@>> Rainbow Bridge
Summon Thrull's Spire Hell Heap c47 is a solid solo release from Seattle's Dustin Kochel. Dustin is know for being a member of the group, Physical Demon, as well as his Mastering credits from many releases on Debacle. Not overly HARSH NOISE, not exactly subtle ambient either. This tape tours you through a collage of composed and varied sounds; Industrial riveting machines, synth induced cerebral fogging, cosmic struggles on dense astral planes. Leave yourself a trail of breadcrumbs, you could get lost in this one. Also being released in CDr format on Debalce Records.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Baculum “Ink Fetish” c10 out on Phage Tapes

Photobucket

Baculum is Sam, the tatted up guy that runs the harsh-noise label, Phage Tapes.
This c10 is a slightly layer'd recording of unmistakable tattoo-gun noise, unaffected by effects of any kind. No flanger, no distortion, just the humming and buzzing of a tattoo gun on bleeding skin. The liner notes on the j-card say it was recorded while tattooing HN on feet, and yeah, that's pretty much what it sounds like. It's a novelty tape for sure. Its also a testimonial to the fact that Sam is a die-hard harshnoise culturalist for life. Play it for your tattoo artist friends and see what kind of responses you get. Who knows; maybe it inspires them to start a noise project of their own. So head on over to >>> Phage Tapes <<< and buy something, these little babies are free with all orders *while supplies last*.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Cold Comfort - Brief Moments of Clarity [VHS] out on Worthless Recordings



F-yeah. This tape is for your VCR. It is full of HNW or HWN or whatever they're calling it these days. There are a handfull of different static textures that move very smoothly from one to the next. They each last about 5 minutes. Very proffesh looking all around. The audio is top notch. The video quality is prestine. The packaging feels sexy. Comes with 3 pana-rama-photos that give you a good idea of what is on this VHS. I love owning this, and I wish there was a way I could own it even harder (if that makes any sence). If you enjoy the HARSH staic wall asthetic, you need this. Its a hypnotic, meditative zoneout inducing audio/visual masterpiece. This is the first WorthlessRecordings VHS release, and hopefully not the last. Limited to 28 copies, so you better cough up $8 and get one of these babies ASAFP if you know what's good for you. Everything about this is right. Nothing more.

At Jennie Richie "so far out" tape out on Dead Accents


get it for 5.99 at DA

Where do I even start with this one!? I'd like to point out that this cs has like zero tape-hiss. The opening track starts off with some phono noise and immidiately begins you on a surreal journey through some fck'doff samples and loops complete with strange lo-fi perrifreal chatter. Its oddy compiled and executed with certain skill but there seems to be some sort of paradox here. The whole tape sounds like some weird ass Nurse with Wound remix. There are moments of what sounds like laptop glitches, but those moments are thankfully fleeting. The first side even ends with a techno-esq jam that feels pretty out of place in this experimental collage, but yet, it works here. The 2nd side starts off with a TR-505ish snare @ 1/8th notes teamed w/distant degraded knob twirling, repeated for about 8 minutes. Its insane. I hate it, but I have to admit, I found a couple zen moments in there. It eventually gets better, i guess. But seriously, this album sounds too good to sound so bad. There's got to be some sort of inside joke that I'm missing here. The last track on the tape features Seattle's Jason/Red Squirrels, in addition to the AJR members Happiness and Forever, but little difference in sound asthetic can be discerned by my ear. Maybe some extra lo-fi-junk cheapo walkman speaker turned contact mic foolary. I don't know wtf is attracting me to this tape. I hate it but, it feels like it was recorded custom taylored for me to listen to with my own brand of love/hate disposition. Bottome line: this tape looks and sounds great. It's fun to scrutinize as well. You'll prolly wanna play it more than once. There's only 55 copies, and I think you should get one for yourself.  Right here>>>>  Dead Accents

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Sleep Of Ages & a-m#2 – Split Tape on Strabismustapes


Released in July of 2011
S-T003 / Sleep Of Ages & a-m#2 – Split / Hand Numbered Limited Edition of 50

GET IT HERE


re:view'd:

Word on the street is that, a-m#2 from France, is finally putting out some music after 10 years of honing his subtle craft. Hear some of his super sleeptrance inducing work on SOUNDCLOUD.  I recently picked up this split tape from Strabismustapes (a fairly new tape label) that also features the unfamiliar to me, Brazilian artist, Sleep of Ages.
The first half of the a-m#2 side seems to be dubbed at a really low level; like -40/-20dB, but it gets louder around the 3rd song; licking -10dB or so. It's the first tape that I've gotten in a long time that sounds like it has just as much tape-hiss as it does actual sound. Even flipped on the Dolby NR, which is rare, and defeating. There doesn't seem to be any low-end bass freqs coming through either. It's almost like a washed-out recording of 50/60Hz noise colored by a chain of phaser pedal/deathmetal thats been left to fester. I have to assume it's just a weak dub from the batch cause the soundcloud tracks and the other reviews I've seen sound much more dynamic. I asked the Label, and they said it is supposed to be fairly quiet.
The Sleep of Ages side is a little bit louder, but leaves me wanting more... The sounds are ranging from breaking shit to ever changing harsh-wall-drones. It starts off pretty mellow and progresses into something much more involved. Never quite reaching a state of HWN, Sleep of Ages offers up 15 minutes worth of enjoyable noise tracks on his side of this c60 (not c50 as advertised) which means 15 minutes of (boring-ass) silence at the end. I'm guessing this guy is a well-seasoned amature; who'll be getting some more of my positive attention in the future. Same goes for a-m#2 for that matter, stoked to hear what they sound like on a more hi-fidelity recording. As for this tape, the low volume coupled with the high hiss ensures that it probly won't see much more play.