Hellbastard - Feral

One thing I will say about Hellbastard is that Hellbastard live is a different beast to Hellbastard on a record. Whilst the band have always stood apart from their peers (even when they wallowed in the crust scene), there is an undeniably experimental, forward-thinking edge to the band's bizarre mix of metal, punk and other things in-between. Granted, this experimentation doesn't always pay off, but on the Feral record, it pays off in spades.

My only initial complaint is that the snare sound is pretty synthetic, but you can adjust to this fairly quickly. That aside, the production is solid and dense, and nothing is left fighting for breathing space. I remember checking out the video for "We Are Coven" when the single first dropped and was taken aback by the ambitiousness of it all. "Shame On Us" is super catchy in a chuggy way, and "And The Point Of Your Being Is...?" has a cracking guitar solo towards the end.

All in all, the world is a better place with Hellbastard in it, and Feral is a solid addition to their repertoire.

Mayhem - Grand Declaration Of War

My recent Sehnsucht review reminded me that I have to touch upon Grand Declaration Of War by Mayhem. Contrary to a lot of Mayhem fans, Grand Declaration is my favourite album from the group. The clinical execution, insane song structures and bizarre techno passages are a hundred thousand million miles away from Deathcrush and the like; the fact that this is even the same band (to a degree) is startling. 

Maniac is not my favourite Mayhem vocalist. In fact, it is quite hard to pick a favourite, as all of them have brought their own dark magic to the proceedings in various different ways. On Grand Declaration Of War, Maniac acts as the perverted ring leader; his surreal, jarring commentary leading the dexterous and intense onslaught with a psychopathic confidence. Meanwhile, Hellhammer Featuring 9000 Triggers lays total and absolute waste to the drum kit. Love him or loathe him, the drumming performance here is nothing short of mind boggling. The guitar work too, is a lot sharper than the barbed wire on the cover art, no doubt, with pure wandering, barbed, terrifying black metal riffage! 

Stand out tracks for me include the erratic "A Time To Die", the bizarre "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" (parts one and two!) and "Crystalized Pain in Deconstruction". Whatever your opinion on this experimental album, there can be no doubt that it has pushed the definitions of what can be considered black metal.

JK Flesh - Nothing Is Free EP

Dense, thick, industrial beat loops is the order of the day, from the excellent JK Flesh project. Nothing Is Free seems to have dropped completely the guitar elements that so heavily caressed the beatwork on recordings such as Posthuman, in favour of bringing the beat entirely to the centre-stage. Nothing Is Free is not dissimilar to the work produced by Mick Harris in some of the more transitional and experimental eras of his excellent project Scorn.

This record is, ultimately, an experiment in distortion; which not only cloaks the proceedings in a sinister air of mystery, but allows the songs to breathe and expand; allowing much more interesting patterns to emerge from the aural fog. Expect throbbing, rhythmical progressions, sometimes accompanied by sparse synths, although most of the time the beats stand alone, demanding all of your attention. Brilliant stuff. 

Favourite track: "They Own You"

Sehnsucht - Wuste

Well, now I know what Grand Declaration of War would have sounded like if Maniac was given full creative control! I'm kidding of course; the Richter-like artistic meandering here would be far too much to take for an intolerant little man like Hellhammer. But, as per always, I digress. Sehnsucht is the experimental / power electronics project between Maniac and his wife Vivian Slaughter, who also plays in Gallhammer. There are a few other musicians also involved in this project, but aurally it seems to center around Maniac and his disturbing prose.

Imagine feral electronics meets beret-tipping poetry and dark, dense atmospherics, backed with cutting electronic riffage and doused in stale rose water, or something. "Cunt Queen" makes for some interesting listening, but the best track, hands down, is the epic "Hanging In English Garden"; a ten minute romp through all of the shit listed above. Drastic!

Nicole Dollenganger - Natural Born Losers

I'm not sure if "angelic" is the correct word to use in regards to Nicole Dollenganger, but it is indeed the first thing that comes to mind whilst listening to this possibly troubled teen. I say that because there is something a lot more than just the voice of an angel here; there are many other faces, perhaps those of demons, bubbling beneath the surface. Her voice is fragile and delicate, yet powerful and mesmerising. 

On Natural Born Losers, Nicole combines ethereal, dreamy, almost non-structured synth work with an alternative pop vibe that for me evokes the work of Daisy Chainsaw / Queenadreena's KatieJane Garside, Grimes, to an extent Lana Del Rey, or even Kate Bush. The music that accompanies her voice is akin to various shades of post rock, the experimental side of indie or even shoegaze. 

Favourite track: "Angels of Porn II"

Necro Deathmort - Martian Cartography

Martian Cartography is an excellent album release by the criminally under-rated experimental duo Necro Deathmort. Mixing catastrophically heavy atmosphere with intelligent, progressive electronic work has always been ND's forte, but on Martian Cartography, I find that this approach to sound design has finally had chance to spread its wings and fly. In some respects that means that this record isn't as hard-hitting or droning as something off Music Of Bleak Origin or earlier, but the duo more than make up for it on the journey that they help take us on.

The opening track "Repeat-O" - and also, I'm sure not coincidentally, my favourite track, "The Ultimate Testament (Remix)" - both have pulsating beats carrying them; a clinical industrial backbone to a sparse electronic worldview. Other stand outs for me include "Cold Sleeps" and the muted closer, "Terra Cimmeria", which has a relaxed, almost deep house feel. 

Originally released as a download by the band themselves, this was eventually pressed onto CD by Extreme Ultimate.

King Midas Sound - Waiting For You

King Midas Sound is a beautiful collaboration between Roger Robinson, Kiki Hitomi and Kevin Martin, which (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) began life as a track for Kevin's much more wider known project, The Bug. I find it hard to describe and categorize KMS simply because my exploration into this kind of music is incredibly limited (I got here through Godflesh, Techno Animal, etc.), although I can say that this is a incredibly strong and moving record. Revisiting it years later for the purpose of this post has acted as a written reminder to myself to explore these kinds of things more often.

Robinson's soft, bizarrely ethereal vocals are the perfect human accompaniment to Kevin Martin's spaced out dubs, shuffling beats and sparse yet hard-hitting arrangements. Waiting For You walks that perilous tightrope between being chilled out and having a profound message; equal parts dark and light, with finishing flourishes from Hitomi, who would take more of a central vocal role as the project progressed in later years. Waiting For You was released by the excellent Hyperdub.

AUN - Black Pyramid

AUN are one of those bands that I constantly end up back at. For what is essentially noisy ambiance with synths and the odd guitar, this is quite impressive. Fantastic, shoe-gazy drones meet unfurling electronics in transcendent "songs" that average around the 7 minute mark; deep, involving worlds swirl into life, conjured from the chasms of nothingness by this bleak yet somewhat inspiring show of digital noise. Enter the Black Pyramid!

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Ah man, this is just, like, so lush. That was probably the Welshest sentence I've ever written to describe music, but I feel like it is somewhat entirely justified in this instance; you tend to hear the term "nice" black metal bandied about to describe acts such as Alcest, but I don't usually rate those types of acts. However, Deafheaven for some reason seem to be an exception for me. This band have managed to follow up the ethereal Sunbather with something even more profound, expansive and all-encompassing than before; heaps of washing atmospheres and glittering passages of light mash head on with elements of blasting brutality, throat shredding vocals and soaring leads. Or, you could just write it off as hipster black metal, if you like.

Can't wait to catch these guys live in a few weeks; if this material is anything to go by then the live show is bound to be intense as fuck. Favourite track: "Baby Blue".

Oblivionized - Life Is A Struggle, Give Up

Oblivionized are a grindcore / tech death answer to the distillation of sounds purveyed by those such as early Dillenger Escape Plan, Fuck The Facts, and even to a degree, Antigama. The shredding guitar / intense drum work is reminiscent of fellow British grinders Evisorax, but Oblivionized have a much more - how should I put it - "progressive" edge that sees a lot of interesting elements brought into the firing line (like the singing bowl on "I Pity You").

The only downside here is that the band is missing a bass player. This doesn't usually matter in circles such as these, but unfortunately, in some of the more adventurous or experimental parts of Life Is A Struggle... (i.e. - when it isn't just blasting or shredding to fuck) the missing dimension of the low end can really be felt.

Pigsty - Planet Of The Pigs

Planet Of The Pigs is the final (?) album from long-running Czech grindcore band, Pigsty. I think to still call Pigsty a grindcore band by this point is pushing it a bit; Planet Of The Pigs has a whole world of other influences building on the grinding template, from thrash to death metal, to the kooky ongoing concept ("Inspection Report" kicks this thing off with GWAR-grade sci-fi storytelling) and even the insane djent moments that randomly crop up through the chaos. 

The band have had an almost exclusive relationship with Bizarre Leprous productions, and I sincerely hope that one day they shall return from the Planet Of The Pigs to blast us with more perplexing space grind.

Burial - Young Death / Nightmarket

Another thing that slipped unrecognised under my nose in 2016 was the new Burial EP. It appears that the urbanism-as-sound mastermind continues to favour the EP format over releasing another full length for us, although there is something beautiful about one of these EPs dropping every so often, offering us a glimpse into the modern, concrete existence of Burial's world through a drizzly, fractured lens.

It may sound a bit frightful if I tell you that I find this 12" to be more of the same, but I promise you that this is just as excellent as anything the elusive producer has ever dropped. This is London put to wax. 10/10. 

Bulldozer - Unexpected Fate

Bulldozer are a ridiculous thrash band from Italy. They have been broken up for quite a while, but they played Obscene Extreme a few years ago and this turned me on to them. They keep parading that some dickhead Kerrang! journalist labelled them as the worst band in the world (like anyone ever gave a fuck what Kerrang! thinks anyway) and with a history of songs about pornstars and terrible experimental techno records, I can see why people would think this.

But despite the gimmicks, including the zany onstage presence, this is a solid record. It has a proper pacy old school thrash feel to it, kinda like classic Slayer if I could be so bold with my comparisons. I've checked out quite a lot of their old stuff too, and whilst some of the of the charm is lost through the fairly meaty studio production sound, this is still a thoroughly entertaining listen, despite what the cover art would have you think. Tune in!

Björk - Biophilia

I love Björk, I really do, but a lot of her later output leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. Case in point: this entire album. Despite the lead single "Crystalline" being one of my favourite Björk tracks, and "Mutual Core" being a fantastic, brooding ballad-meets-speedcore headfuck, the remainder of Biophilia is unfortunately a lazy wasteland of ploinky ploinky quirkiness that goes absolutely nowhere, which in a bizarre twist of fate is simultaneously Björk's appeal as well as her undoing.

It is hard to analyse a record that literally does the same thing over and over on every track (please give me the sweet release of harsh noise wall!), so I'll just wind this up quickly. It doesn't matter how weird or perplexing Björk's lyrics are, when you've heard *x* number of icy synths or obscure percussion instruments being strummed/plonked/hit/keyed out of time for ten tracks in a row, the peculiarity loses its charm. For die-hard Björk fans only.  

This is the best song here by far, and the video is awesome too.

Gorillaz - Gorillaz

The Gorillaz self-titled record was the first album that I ever owned. Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory (unfortunately) holds the title for first record ever bought, but Gorillaz was the first thing that I seriously jammed, and it was instrumental in developing my interest in music as a serious hobby. Back in the day I had this terrible transparent blue Aiwa tape walkman / radio combo, and I played the livin' fuckin' guts out of my crappy tape copy of this.

Most people are surprised I love Gorillaz so much simply because I can't fucking abide Blur. But, what drew me to Gorillaz first album was the thick dubby aspect underneath the pop sensibilities of the band's songs; the thick spine of bass and chunky, dusty drum programming. The dirty, mechanical rumbling holding together the melancholic "Tomorrow Comes Today" is a perfect example of the grimey, almost-VHS-like vibe of the rhythm section on this album.

Then there's, obviously, "Clint Eastwood", with all that bagged up sunshine, and the bizarre first appearance of Del Tha Funky Homosapien, the rabid "Punk", the epic "Sound Check (Gravity)" and the downright fucking awful "Latin Simone". From the raucious rock of "M1 A1" to the introspective, arcade machine tomfoolery of "Double Bass", the whole thing is dripping in dirty dub vibes, a trend which unfortunately did not continue on later Gorillaz recordings (despite the fucking glorious Spacemonkeys spin-off dub remix album, Laika Come Home).

Don't forget, kids - it's the music that we choose.

Xiu Xiu - Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks

One of my biggest gig regrets of the last few years has been missing Xiu Xiu's tour in anticipation of this record, as this is one of the best covers albums I've ever heard. Covering a song is one thing, covering an entire soundtrack is something else. I've been meaning to review this since it came out but I've been back and forth to it for quite some time not really sure on how to put the music here into words. As soon as you press play on the thing and the harsh stomp of "Laura Palmer's Theme" creeps in, you know that Xiu Xiu mean business. The track is stripped to it's menacing core, and whilst it isn't as overblown as the original, it gets it's point across in a subtler, more menacing method.

"Into The Night" is heavy as shit, if I could be so crude. I've always been a bit hit and miss with Xiu Xiu's vocal offerings (and with the band in general, if I'm honest), but the group's kooky approach is literally perfect for interpretating this soundtrack. I won't go into a track by track analysis but all the favourites are here; "Audrey's Dance" manages to retain its original slink whilst incorporating a robust sampled beat and bizarre noise fuckery, but "Dance Of The Dream Man" is a bit of a lurcher, as if witnessing David Lynch's visual feast again through the cracked lens of a tremendously bad acid trip...

The whole thing falls out with the trio of "Falling", "Love Theme Farewell" and "Josie's Past". The rendition of  "Falling" is easily one of the best cover songs ever; not only nailing the original but improving it tenfold (it really has to be heard to be believed). The closing track, puzzlingly-titled considering the monologue is lifted from Laura Palmer's diary, not Josie's, is a twisted, almost nasty end to what is otherwise an ethereal listening experience.

R10T33R - High Tech Wreck

High Tech Wreck is an electronic explosion of sound conducted in the grimmest and trve-est of ways possible for electronic music - in 8 bit sound blips, of course! All four tracks here have been painfully synthesized using the primitive sound forms, and actually make for some seriously interesting listening. It would possibly be a primitive and ham-fisted reviewing technique to make comparisons to Aphex Twin whilst talking about electronic music, but High Tech Wreck literally sounds like someone scooped out Richard D James' brain - like in Robocop 2 - and smashed it into a random 80s games console for a laugh. The resulting carnage would not be dissimilar to this, one would imagine; a detailed series of compositions of intense electronic programmery (is that even a word?).

The intelligence and attention to detail here is impeccable. The production, despite being entirely constructed from the music equivalent of caveman building blocks - if you give or take a few added samples - is strong and clear, presenting a consistent and professional mix that does nothing to weaken the vibe created by the 8 bit noise. I guarantee this will be one of the most interesting things you've heard in a while, so give it a go?

Fire Walk With Me - Flesh World

Every year or so I come back to this project and record something new. I'm currently working on the 4th release for this project, and that got me thinking - I need to do another post about this shit. I can't review it, as it's mine, but I can tell you a bit about it. Flesh World is the second Fire Walk With Me record, and is by far my favourite; even out of the new one that's almost finished. How's that for a bleak noise outlook; I already think the best stuff is in the past, why are we even alive? Haha

This whole thing started in Cornwall when I had some time on my hands. Copious amounts of Stella Artois, weirdos on Plenty Of Fish and a binge watch of two seasons of Twin Peaks brought me to the usual frustration of wanting to record something noisy. Only, when I came to put it down, it just wouldn't come. I guess maybe it was the sleepy, laid back nature of my southern surroundings at the time. Instead I took a gentler route (there's still some noise), playing the longer, more ambient game. I did a lot of research on unsettling noises, and actually ended up sampling a lot of stuff from devices that had converted space probe signals into actual sounds. 

I keep meaning to put a few of these on CDr so I can shift 'em at Judas Cradle shows, but I'm just a lazy fuck. As always though, it's completely free to stream and download, so if this concoction sounds like your thing, do me a favour and try it out. Nice one!

The Haxan Cloak - Excavation

Presenting you with haunting digital soundscapes from one of the masters of the genre, the Excavation record is a true trip in ethereal ambiance and beatwork. I first spun this at about 4am on a nightshift; it was that eerie time of night when everything literally stops dead, even though I was in a room full of people. There is something about "the witching hour" - that unique stillness - that is just so palpable. The Haxan Cloak was the perfect choice. Perhaps it was fate.

I gave Excavation a listen as a whole, rather than study the layout and the track listing, which is what I usually tend to do when obsessing over something awesome, but everything just seemed to fit together so well as a whole it didn't seem worth breaking down. I just went with the ride, and I enjoyed every second. I almost fell asleep, but it was almost as if my mind was asleep, and not my body.

A fantastic record all round, which seems like it could easily be a film soundtrack of some sorts, if the opportunity was right. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Haxan Cloak had done a bit of work on the latest Bjork album, which had a slightly darker overtone than a lot of her stuff. Anyways, I digress. Check the links below if you're in the mood.

Abruptum - Casus Luciferi

A while ago I was on some mad quest for black metal mixed with harsh noise. I was given a whole bunch of recommendations, one of which included Abruptum, who are apparently the most evil band in the world ever. Like, ever ever. I'm serious (well, they are, or were, at least). They even had a member called Evil, and if that doesn't prove anything then I don't know what will. Earlier material was even released by Deathlike Silence before Euronymous got carved to bits by Varg Vikernes. Those records sounded like Anal Cunt or 7MON having a stab at black metal, and to me seem to lay some sort of blueprint for projects such as Stalaggh to follow on with.

This however is a much more ambient affair. The first track is an irritatingly-lengthy piece of martial drums repeating over and over. The rest of the record is thankfully much better. I guess there is a black metal vibe, but for the most part the whole thing is just lo-fi soundscapes of sinister noise, which is absolutely perfect for 4am RPG sessions, I'll say that much. I ended up chaining the Abruptum discography after hearing this, and I much prefer their ambient "noise" stuff to the earlier "noisecore" style to black metal, which even for someone who absolutely loves noisecore, just sounds a bit crap, if I'm honest.

I promise you after 15 minutes you'll be hearing these drums in your sleep.