Mid Leopard Violet Prism - Carbohydrate Somnambulism

Artist Mid Leopard Violet Prism
Label Total Vermin
Year 2011
Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise, Drone

Another tape from the two headed noise monster that is MLVP. Featuring Nackt Insecten and Smear Campaign joining up again to make more long form, psychedelic twinged drones and sharp static bubbles. Whilst both artists are well known in their own right for their other projects they manage to bring their A-game to this tape.

Opening with Battery Acid Pumped Through Veins a tense drone rolls around like a snowdrift. Soothing at one minute, unnerving the next. The juxtaposition twixt the two moods offers the meat of this tape. The noise contained within serves a narrative purpose. From the very opening the listener is transported to a different realm. One full of broken machinery and parched deserts. Soundtracked by the sound of a million blow circuits and mechanical death throes. The A side contains calmer, drawn out music whereas the B side serves up slightly harsher and more disconcerting sounds.

There's always going to be comparisons drawn between MLVP and Smear Campaign/Nackt Insecten, but for me the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Dementia and Hope Trails & Pregnant Spore - Split

Artist Pregnant Spore & Dementia And Hope Trails
Year 2011
Label Side-A-Records
Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise, Drone

It's nearly the end of January. We've all lost our afterglow from the festive season and no doubt most of our resolutions have been shattered. It's not exactly the most pleasant time of the year, couple that with the hideous weather and dark nights n' you've got a recipe for despondency. Luckily Side-A-Records are stepping up to the plate to provide some much needed entertainment in this gloomy time. There's nothing like a bit of psychedelia to chase the blues away.

Served up in an over sized PVC cassette case (Think old style VHS box) with beautiful Psychedelic covers. These two tapes offer up about an hour and a half of finely sculpted psychedelic noise. Pregnant Spore is the new operative name for one Dim Dusk Moving Gloom, an artist I have reviewed and enjoyed previously. After doing a tad of detective work (Read: Spending mere seconds on Google) I learned that Dementia and Hope Trails is also an alias of Justin Mark Lloyd.

The Dementia & Hope Trail tape opens with a drone, calming and cool. Evoking images of floating in an endless crystal blue stream. The music carries itself slowly, almost as the current, reaching new heights of shimmering beauty. In no way is the music oppressive, allowing the listener breathing space and to be caught up and carried away. The slowly morphing guitar begins to take on a slight soulful edge which carries on until the end of the track. It slowly builds and gains more distortion until becoming a wailing siren, the sound of the guitar imploding. The next track opens with a far more disconcerting air. Slow pulses that sound reminiscent of the transfer into Nightmare Silent Hill (See: Silent Hill series of games). Much heaver than the prior track, crushing despite the minimalism. Soon shudders and thumps begin to merge into a dense electronic hum, the sound of a million angry machines. The overall atmosphere in this track is very close to the works of Akira Yamaoka, something that I wish more drone based works could aspire to. Dementia & Hope Trails creates genuinely affecting drones. The first, more ambient track serving as the perfect foil for the grimy, dirty, creepy second track. Both will carry you off to far away places, the only issue being that you might not want to open your eyes wherever the second song takes you.
Pregnant Spore offers up two cuts of more noise based material. Twitching Minions coils bursts of explosive noise around low rumbles and scrapes. Starting slowly, punctuating an uneasy silence before building into an all out assault. Some fast paced cut-up styled noise sections occasionally break through the blast furnace of sound. Vocals swathed in effects bubble just below the surface, threatening to surge up and burn the face from the listener. Virus Sex bursts forth from the speakers with, if possible, a harsher high end buzz and crumbling low end. Slower than the preceding track but just as tense and unnerving. Screeches and electronic whines flutter around a dying tone, gutted by the side of the road. Letting out it's death throes.

This release offers up amazing presentation alongside two fantastic artists (Well, one, you know.) offering their best. What's not to love? Lift yourself out of the winter blues, you deserve it don't you?

Dim Dusk Moving Gloom - Articles of Faith

Artist Dim Dusk Moving Gloom
Year 2010
Label Datahex
Genre Psychedelic Noise, Drone

I'm not overly fond of netlabels. I feel I should get that out of the way. For every great netlabel, and there are a few, there's about one hundred others that put out releases by the likes of RedSK and Breakdancing Ronald Reagan. Netlabels more so than anything else seem to lack quality control, even the major noise net label Smell the Stench has "put out" stuff by some less than favourable "artists". I know explaining a bias doesn't excuse it but hopefully airing that won't allow it to tain this review.

Dim Dusk Moving Gloom is one of many projects of Justin Mark Lloyd, playing a fucked up mix of Psychedelic Noise, Droning sound scapes and the odd harsh element thrown in. He also heads up the Rainbow Bridge label when he's not record with his plethora of projects. This release, Articles of Faith, finds it's home on Datahex records, a relatively recent netlabel. Looking over their releases is a bit of a mixed bag, though not terrible, with the exception of my excessive recoil upon noticing BRR appearing on one of their compilations. I must say in favour of both Dim Dusk Moving Gloom and Datahex that Articles of Faith is doing a lot to redefine how I look at netlabels.

The release opens with an almost R&B flavoured beat, sounding like a distortion of the opening beat to Amazing (Kanye West). Hints of static creeping around the side. Slight stuttering on some of the beats lends a Chopped and Screwed feel to the piece. The beat is soon overtaken by wailing high end and a crunchy, bassy layer of static. Vocals charge headlong into the mix, drenched in reverb and delivered in an almost Power Electronics style.

The next track is a 17 minute droning dirge. Crumbly walls of bass move at a glacial pace with a well integrated use of religious samples. The matter of fact, mildly upbeat samples is juxtaposed with the static and shrieks low in the mix. Both the music and the sample taken on new meaning when put together, meaning that isn't inherent (Not that I want to discuss the potential of Eisenstein's montage theory in relation to music). Soon high end skree pushes into the piece, the sample still going on in the background, fighting for position and breaking through so only a few seconds here and there are audible. The track does begin to overstay it's welcome at around the 14 minute mark, created as it is around the one sample. Also worthy of note is a high end whine noteable at the beginning of the track which is often found when using a computer programme to artificially slow a piece, whether this is the cause or not it is still distracting.

Next up is a short 2 minute number, bassy noise fliterring between channels, panned perfectly. Slowly starting to get lost in oncoming waves of psychedelic static.

Sundowning is a thirty minute piece that begins slowly and creeps it's way up to a static onslaught. Slowly gathering elements as it progresses, the rumble and crumble of bass is especially prevalent in this track (and the release as a whole) but unfortunately seems to ebb away when the white noise begins. This leaves the track feeling hollow, as it's left with nothing but high end for a while. Like thunder the bass suddenly returns to make a blistering cocktail not far removed from some of the less vocal heavy Masonna 7''s. As the assault collapses into itself the sounds of dying electronics rise to the front, the entire tracks sounding like a spaceship entering a meteor storm and just as it manages to get free all electronics die, slowly.

The final track on Articles of Faith is Prosthetic Relief which mixes the bassier noise with a slowly ebbing drone. This track almost functions the same way as the final song on a psy-trance album. More chilled out and relaxing, bringing you back to earth after the trip you've just been dragged on.

Articles of Faith isn't without fault, certain tracks can feel slightly overlong. Besides this the quality is brilliant however, you can tell that every element is well crafted and put together with utmost care. As I mentioned earlier Dim Dusk Moving Gloom and Datahex have managed to make me rethink (certain) netlabels. That's got to be worth something.

Heatsick - Reverse Gardens

Artist Heatsick

Label Turgid Animal

Year 2007

Genre(s) Drone

I came to know Birds of Delay before having even heard of Heatsick. The Berlin side of this UK/Germany duo, Steven Warwick, also produces acid mangled jams under the moniker of Heatsick. Taking a sledgehammer to conventions in favour of free-form psychedelic scuzz. I first heard Perpendicular Rain on Not Not Fun and had an insane desire to track down more from the demented warped electronics maestro.

Enter Reverse Gardens on the UK based Turgid Animal label. On this release Warwick offers two tripped out jams, each around the thirty minute mark and each offering up a veritable smorgasbord of spacey, warped and shuddering psychedelic noise. All the usual characteristics of noise are present, pulsating high end and rumbling low end. Hiss, fuzz and skree. At the same time these elements are twisted and redefined. Like pushing the circular block into the square hole but managing to make it fit. The tracks are repetitive but never to their detriment, lulling and tripped out. Imagine being plucked out of your bed by a UFO suffering engine troubles, pluming smoke into your bedroom and obscuring everything. The warbling noise shudders along, dragging the listener with it. Sections repeat, loop and merge seamlessly into one another all the while wrapped in a blanket of hiss. Lay back, relax and let the journey commence.

Side B sounds like an electrical fault in a dub studio, with King Tubby looking on in horror as screechy wah takes over his bubbling bass. Not too dissimilar from some earlier Sun Araw work. The mangled electronics start to take over the track, pulsing to the top. There's a lot of projects that claim in their little blurbs to be the result of "broken electronics" but I don't think any really hammer that fact home in their music, Heatsick on the other hand sounds like the expert handling of broken electronics to make a cohesive complete product. Reverse Gardens makes strong use of repetition, sounding like early Psychedelic Rock (Blue Cheer, maybe even Christine 23 Onna) in the process of being pushed through a blender. Repetition slowly warping as it becomes more and more damaged.

Plurals/Timothy C Holehouse - Live split

Artist Plurals/Timothy C Holehouse
Label None
Year 2009
Genre(s) Drone, Noise, Power Electronics

Both artists deliver a live cut recorded in Brighton, November 2008. The tape comes with a train ticket (I'm not sure if this is every copy or not) and a fold out insert listing the artists, their tracks and containing pictures relating to the performances captured within (Above).

Plurals open their track, Midnight Cock Pie, with a warm drone, slowly growing in scope and intensity. Overtaking the listener like a wave. More and more high end is interjected into the mix, possible percussion lurking in the background. What sound like vocals enter the fray, becoming part of the sonic textures. Almost shamanic and used as part of the music, reminiscent of shoegaze styles. Voices offering up lullabies to soothe weary travelers. Subtle chimes augment the calming drones as they begin to morph into a slightly harsher variant, the vocals becoming more profound. At this point the music begins to take a darker edge, spacey sounds merge seamlessly into the miasma whilst the overall piece still maintains a very organic feeling. A million different atmospheres are gelled together perfectly in this live set and it's a pleasure to listen to. This is wonderful stuff, psychedelic and soothing.

The Timothy C Holehouse side, titled A New Dichotomy of Hate... That Tastes Great opens with chanting, which the audience become part of. The chanting is looped and delayed before fading into a dark drone with whispered vocals, at times quite close to Power Electronics, make no mistake about it where the vocals on Plurals side offered a psychedelic element the vocals on TCM's side are unnerving. Buzzing, dirty electronics rise up from the depths. Crashes and damaged beats hover over the buzz, starting out spacious but slowly coming together allowing less and less breathing space, ever teasing at a full out sonic assault. A fantastic mixture of high and low end and a lot harsher than that which came before.To simply call this noise would be a massive disservice to the artist, we're treated to a fucked up (in the best possible sense) mixture of psychedelia, power electronics, drone and harsh noise. Angry shouts in the background in a call and response style. Some almost Masonna esq sound manipulation leaping into your face. There are so many styles at play on this release that it's impossible to cover them all but each supports the others. This is what noise should be, ever changing and refusing to be confined to one specific sound.

This release really shows the best of both artists, all the stronger for their conflict of styles whilst both working within the over-arching genre of "noise". Plurals and Timothy C Holehouse offer two completely different kinds of psychedelic noise, catering to fans of both drone and the more harsh outputs.

Kylie Minoise - Micro-budget Perversion

Artist Kylie Minoise
Label Turgid Animal
Year 2007
Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise

One half hour track of psychedelic feedback abuse and vocal attack by Lea Cummings. Buzzing static layers built upon one another to a hellish cacophony of sound with treated vocals screams and yelps. The rumbling drive of the track sounding so decayed that it may crumble into nothing at any moment, crumbling under it's own sonic weight. It's the buzzing of a thousand hornets descending upon a play park.

Turgid Animal are (or were) known for a fair amount of Wall Noise release, a category which I guess this release could be filed into. This is only in regards to how dense the sound is, this is dynamic noise far removed for the unchanging walls of Vomir and his ilk. The release pounds onwards until suddenly there is nothing. No fade out just a sudden stop, making the release all the more powerful for it.

Kylie Minoise - Telepathic Surge

Artist Kylie Minoise
Label Triangle
Year 2007
Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise

Two discs, one composing of one thirty minute slab of harsh, psychedelic noise and the other composed of, um, classical choir and chants? I'm really not sure about this one.

Let me start with disc 2, which is the disc composed of chants and what sounds like a full choir. I'm really not sure what to make of this, sure it's soothing and took me unawares but I can't work out the purpose. I have just thought (and checked by adding up track times this seems possible) that both discs may be designed to be played simultaneously (If anyone involved with this release is reading could you comment and let me know if I'm correct or not please?). Until I know for sure I can't really make a judgement about the second disc, hopefully someone can clear it up.

Now onto the meat of this release with disc 1. A dense fog appears from nowhere, hiding the source of an intense rumbling that can only mean bad things. Every single radio in earshot begins to malfunction at a terrifying level. Lights can be seen in the distance, breaking through the thick gloom, best to avoid them as they could be the source of this rumble that shakes the cobbles. The buildings begin to stretch to the heavens, leaning in and enclosing the alley, casting night over the clammy heat. Just as soon as this nightmare beings it's over, lying upon your back in an all too familiar ally, pedestrians doing their best to ignore the fallen inconvenience in their way

Kylie Minoise - Live in Japan

Artist Kylie Minoise

Label Kovorox Sound

Year 2009

Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise

Let me preface this review by saying I'm not a massive fan of live albums. They can be amazing, convey the same amount of worth as any 'proper' release but they tend to leave me feeling down. It's aggravating to listen to this music and realise you're missing some of the more viseral components of the entire aesthetic experience.

Onto the actual album, starting out with an introduction to one of the performances that helps set the mood, though it also amps up the feeling of despondence of not actually having been there. The first song is abrasive feedback built up over crunchy waves of static. The tracks on this release range from violent all out assaults to slower pieces that crawl into your ear and nestle in your brain, prodding the unease sector with full force.

The release as a whole is a very satisfying experience, managing to show off many different styles that are incorporated into the sonic palette which Cummings uses. My main issue is that due to the tracks having been recorded at different times and places there's no strict coherence in the running order which can be slightly alienating.

Kylie Minoise - You Suffer

Artist Kylie Minoise

Label Kovorox Sound

Year 2007

Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise/Wall Noise

There is absolutely no breathing room from the outset. A droning wall of noise attacks the ear drums from the get go. High end feedback noise swarms over a bedding of low end filth. This release is quite different in style to the other works by Cummings that I have heard, this is by no means a negative point. You Suffer! has a lot more in line with wall noise (Much like the amazing Micro-Budget Perversion). There is one unshifting assault, unchanging and hypnotic. Beneath this we have layers of psychedelic tone abuse.

The release is dense, there's no break in the attack for its entire duration. I find almost all Kylie Minoise records to be psychedelic but You Suffer comes at it from a different approach, less Masonna vocal attack and cut up static. More trance inducing drone. The single track has a duration of just over an hour, it feels like it's over in ten minutes. The best part being that you can replay the release again and find even more hidden beauty in the background. Essential.

Mid Leopard Violet Prism

Artist Mid Leopard Violet Prism

Label Total Vermin

Year 2009

Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise

Distant rumbles and the sound of metal fighting with itself float on a bed of electronics. Like a cluttered street filled with faceless robots, enyet we refuse to notice. Warbled and tortured one of the few remaining humans screams for attention, ranting and heaving. It's hard to focus on the philosophical quandry that he attempts to vomit onto your lap due to the smog that is rising from the ground. It doesn't matter because it's too late anyway. This isn't post-apocalypse, it's mid-apocalypse. Tremors shake the ground as the skies turn inky black, almost rippling with the thunderous destruction.

After it all, one robot still shakes, slowly attempting to stand. Spasming amidst a pile of his brethren, sparks against cracked dirt. "Life" signs yet. Slowly the cold metal rises. To begin his journey for purpose. Crumbled buildings barely stand as a sign that there was once life here. A million screams were muted here before, how long ago was that? Pressing onwards, a harsh sun bakes the landscapes. Dirt and dust stretching to infinity. He will walk forever on these planes.

The constant heat on the metal. How long has he wandered? He has no need for time. The detritus is almost gone now, and with it his purpose. Something is wrong, he thinks.... He was not programed to think. He has no need for thought, he needs purpose. His joints, unoiled and screaming, grind to a halt as a dust storm covers him. Enshrouded in dust, bathed in darkness he is alone with his thoughts for eternity.

Kylie Minoise - Principles of Universal Habit

Artist Kylie Minoise
Label Quagga Curious Sound
Year 2009
Genre(s) Psychedelic Noise

Yet another insanely limited release from one man noise juggernaut Lea Cummings. There have been several Minoise releases this year, both on Cummings own label (Kovorox Sounds) and other labels scattered throughout the globe. Kylie Minoise is an ever changing beast, enyet always retaining the psychedelic leanings that run through his releases.

On to the actual recording at hand, we're presented with an unrelenting 18 minute slab of harsh, dynamic noise. Right from the get go you're grabbed by the jugular and dragged into a miasma of screams and walls of feedback. As with earlier release The Paralysis Sect the noise is intercut with creeping drone, the juxtaposition of the drone and harsher noise elements create a truly claustrophobic atmosphere. I can draw parallels twixt Principles... and some early MZ.412 work, but just as I'm beginning to relax and drift off in the sonic textures I'm stabbed in the ears by an ice pick of refined feedback and screams. The release also meanders (In a good sense) down a route favoured by wall noise, a constant, unshifting wall of feedback hiding further layers beneath, revealing more with each subsequent listen. The transitions between the more overt noise and the tense drones are handled expertly, Cummings knowing perfectly when to fade the tracks across and when a more pressing stop/start mechanic is needed. Cummings is well recognised in the noise scene and it's easy to see why when looking at this release, he never sacrifices the harsher elements for calmer sections or vice versa, rather both styles co-exist to create possibly one of the best short releases of this year.