Toxic Toys Zone - Atropine

Artist Toxic Toys Zone
Label 17 Sons
Year 2011
Genre Wall Noise, Harsh Noise

With this release Toxic Toys Zone serve up four slabs of Harsh Noise decay. Slow as molasses and just as thick, each passage washes over the listener in an almost calming fashion. Minor variations flow throughout the release, only noticeable with a good set of speakers or some headphones. This is the stylistic mixture of Velvet Cacoon's ambient work and Vomir's Harsh Noise Wall.

Narcosis offers up a wall built from stuttering synth and decaying static. Swirling and shifting until it is gradually overtaken by a bassier tone that begins, itself, to degrade. Eventually everything dies away bar the beautiful shimmering synth to close out the track. Juxtaposed perfectly with the screaming feedback walls that open Syncope. The end to Narcosis offers slight space to catch a breath before being submerged again in the harsher landscapes crafted by Toxic Toy Zones.

Metallic drones shape the subsequent track. Opening with a high pitched wail and slowly morphing into an almost soothing passage, like lying back and letting steel waves wash over the listener. The sounds of steel drums being broken down and echoing throughout wordless chambers. Dense, and despite the calm ever so slightly unsettling.

The final track, Sedation, offers yet more feedback. Ever so subtly shifting drones of feedback lull the listener into a state of sedation. The equivalent of a chill-out track at the end of a Psy-trance album, only for harsh noise heads. Not building to anything, simply existing in a calm middle ground. Closing the release in the most beautiful fashion.

This was my first experience of Toxic Toy Zones and the label 17sons, I can only say that if all the material is of this quality that I will be keeping an eye on both the project and the label. Also worthy of note is the fact that I will be reviewing another 17sons release over the coming days.

Where is This - Elegant Domesticity

Artist Where is This
Label Side-A-Records
Year 2010
Genre(s) Harsh Noise, Power Electronics

Elegant Domesticity is just one of a slew of recordings recently unleashed on the public by Mark Ward, Dublin based head of Bored Bear Recordings. I've not had a chance to hear any of his other output, but on the strength of this CD-r I'm defiantly going to be tracking more down.

The first thing that struck me about Elegant Domesticity was how calm it was, this isn't the average all out assault delivery seen in the noise "scene". Rather Ward favours a slower form of guerrilla warfare. The first track slowly pulses and throbs, an innate creepiness laced throughout. An almost Power Electronics (Whitehouse : Total Sex(ish) era) without cheesy vocals. A sustained creep through bushes to the prey. On headphones in the dark this track will have you checking over your shoulder and I wouldn't plan on sleep afterwords.

The second track opens with slightly more movement, higher pitches echoing within a swirling vortex. Sounding like a dimensional tear between Songs of Praise and an angry machine. This track is much closer to the Wall Noise genre, a strong unflinching top layer of noise and more subtle changes and areas of interest lurking within the mire. About half way into the track it begins to decay and shudder under the sheer wait of feedback, the noise is reshaped without any drop out or pause before descending into a violent harsh outburst towards the end.

The key word to sum up the experience of Where is This would be subtlety, Ward has conjured up two powerhouse tracks borrowing heavily for the culture and style of noise music en yet gnawing out his own niche. The tracks are deeply affecting without being notably so. This is music that you'll find yourself thinking about a few hours down the line.

Vomir - Proanomie

Artist Vomir
Label At War With False Noise
Year 2009
Genre(s) Harsh Noise Wall

There's been a lot said about the genre Harsh Noise Wall, some good, some bad. Even within a genre like noise it seems to be polarising. One of the frontmen (or rather entities) within this "scene" is Romain Perrot, the French embodiment of nihilism. With a most stoic performing presence and the use of plastic bags Vomir seeks to submit to the audience true nihilism conveyed within his music. Sitting in a dank basement in Glasgow, a bin bag stopping any light accessing my eyes and all human chatter and ambient sound replaced by punishing walls of feedback and static got me thinking. There seems to be a backlash towards HNW recently and I've seen it described as talentless in many places before (See : Any thread on the iheartnoise board) but I really can't say I know enough about the sub-genre to write everything off. One thing I am willing to say, though, is that Vomir is fantastic.

Proanomie on At War With False Noise has an impressive run time of just over 76minutes of tumultus, twisted, torture. One sole track dominating the entire release. Coming packaged in the barest of terms (This being done as an aesthetic). So fair enough, Vomir's aims are clear, his aesthetic in both performance and releases stick staunchly to that. What about the music?

A dark room, large headphones and a high volume mark my listening experience for Proanomie and where the technical merits of construction may not be as important as your usual knob twisting noisenician, Vomir is all about emotions and atmospheres to me.

There is no subtle fade in, no opening drone to lead into a different passage, this music starts aggressively and remains so til the end of its run time. I had no music on prior to this and the harsh rumble sounds like a building slowly collapsing, juxtaposed perfectly with earlier silence. This is bleakness, pure and simple.This serves as electrohypnol, I have absolutely no memory of where the 76 minutes of my life has gone, in fact I'm only snapped back to reality by the sudden glaring silence where audial nihilism once stood.

The overall release is simply fantastic, a big note to AWWFN on this fact too, seeing as he apparently did the layout (Which suits the release perfectly). Vomir is Harsh Noise pushed all the way to OTT conclusions but it is neither pastiche, nor parody. If I wasn't such a cynic I might call it evolution, either way just grab the CD and be prepared for one of the most chilling, depressing, euphoric listening experiences of your life.

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 - 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.