Hateful Abandon - Famine (Or Into the Bellies of Worms)

Artist Hateful Abandon
Label Todestrieb
Year 2008
Genre(s) Black Metal, Post-Punk

A lot of bands are fleeing Black Metal like rats from a sinking ship. Indeed the old ideas of "kvlt" and "grim" have been hoisted. Bands like Alcest began to incorporate Shoegaze elements into their compositions (Though I think Ulver had most folk beat with the vocals on Bergtatt). There was an influx of bands mixing styles and dabbling with different combinations of genres. Amesoeurs gave a sampling of Post-Rock meets Black Metal on their debut EP, whilst Swedish band Lifelover put out an average debut that tried to meld Black Metal with Post-Punk (In the worst, cut n' paste fashion). As a long time fan of Post-Punk it was quite depressing to be presented with a thoughtless waste of composition that sounded more like a Joy Division pastiche than any serious artistic statement.


Hateful Abandon is a U.K. based band featuring Vintyr (Of Basilisk) and Swine (Of Swine et al). Whilst both aforementioned bands are amazing in their own right they don't really reflect what is offered up on Famine. Hateful Abandon, to use a cliche, is more than the sum of it's parts.


The most important point to raise in any review is that the music of Hateful Abandon is pretty far removed from the black metal that both members are known (Or are they?) for. Famine carries a strong dub influence ala early Public Image Ltd. Spacious production with heavy focus on the rhythm section. In both composition and delivery Famine harkens back to the time period between '78 and '84 when Post-Punk was still a rich, rewarding musical movement. This is not to say that the record is stagnant, it injects a far darker atmosphere as cold and grim as any "pure" Black Metal album. The tracks are peppered with harsher vocals which gel perfectly with the claustrophobic atmosphere created and lend the Black Metal edge to the album.


Vintyr's vocals are at times harsh and commanding and at others damaged and pleading. Running an emotional gambit but never sounding forced. Always gelling with the music. It's really hard to pin-point a similar sound, Famine races between Disintegration era Cure atmosphere, Joy Division bass lines (No, literally a Joy Division bass line), Joyless esq "Depressive Rock". It's a refreshing listen coming out of two (practically) dead genres. The most frequent similarities appear to be to the United States band Grinning Plowmen (Specifically their track Inquisition). Famine is, as a whole, a fantastic album. With a concrete vision and style that never falters.

Zebra Mu - Feeble

Artist Zebra Mu

Label Side-A Records

Year 2010
Genre(s) Harsh Noise

Zebra Mu is a one man project, utilizing various instruments and non-instrumental methods in order to create his noise. On Feeble he serves up 6 tracks and just over 15 minutes of awesome noise. Also worthy of note is that this is the first release by Side-A Records.


The first track, Drill Part, mixes some flat out harsh noise with denser layers, sounding like ruptured beats. Not really falling into the rhythmic noise area but keeping it varied and interesting. Whilst being harsh it showcases a fantastic control over the elements used in construction.


Stamping Down is a harsher affair. Though it has an unfortunately muddy final mix, like a Masonna cassette that you accidentaly put through the wash. It may be the intentional but I don't really think it works that well.


Challenged is a little ditty of rumble and hiss, there's not much variation but the short run time means that it doesn't outstay it's welcome. This is followed instantly by Never Know, imagine a low rent Grindhouse movie about chain fighting (Stick with me here) that you find on VHS. The VHS is mangled but still has certain sections that you can watch. In a nutshell that's Never Know, sleazy, murky and rough around the edges. Just the way it should be. The fractured speech samples add a great oppressive atmosphere to the track.


Lax sets out like the current "in" wave of drone from the US. Murky rumbles and weirdo samples building in intensity. Like watching the chain fighting VHS on slow rewind. A much darker and more introspective track that any that have come before. Juddering along and decaying. A fantastic use of samples once again. Finally we have Into Then, opening with slow drumming echoing around the confines of your head. The darker atmosphere is maintained until sudden blasts of noise rupture the tension. The drumming begins to build, becoming more aggressive. A feeling not unlike some more Industrial based works. Ending upon fading vocals, whispering words twist around each other.


Feeble is a good release. It showcases multiple sides to Zebra Mu, there's the mild falter with Stamping Down, but besides that there's no real faults. The mixture of dark ambient, industrial and noise is well utilized and even in such an oversaturated genre still manages to sound fresh. I'd advise picking this up, as far as I know it's a pretty limited release.

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.

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.

Timothy C Holehouse - Littlecreatures

Artist Timothy C Holehouse
Label Unknown (If any)
Year 2009
Genre(s) Space Noise (?), Drone

Littlecreatures came to me packaged in a large plastic baggie, included were all sorts of police procedural forms (!?), handwritten instructions for various elements of driving lessons and a small insert, listing what appears to be a poem. I was pretty excited by this, to see how the aesthetic presentation sat with the music on tape. That said the music is most important so we'll get to that first.

This release sounds a lot more spacey than other work by Holehouse, sounding like echos from a battle lost lightyears away, now reaching our simple fleshy brains. The last days of the first sentient computer, traversing the universe and caught on tape one starry evening. My attitude towards this is partly covered in the Felony report document where the first track Leucotony is listed as being made via broken wires, therimin frequencies and a charity shop drum machine. Sounds bounce around, aided by the panning decision. Out of nowhere the music suddenly gets darker, the earlier frequencies hinting at screams from a dying planet. Any form of music that seems spacey always makes me think of Kraut Rock, Littlecreaturs is no exception and as per it's a fine piece of music, evolving past the simple beginnings into a true miasma of sound, drones push and pull like currents. There is simply so much going on that it deserves, nay demands, multiple listens (and upon hearing it once you'll want to give it multiple spins). The sound dies away, leaving a slight moment of reflective silence before a harsh, crumbly drone begins to drive the track forward. The interplay between the harsher elements and more dreamy spaced out sounds really managed to separate me from the music, I wasn't just sitting jamming to a tape and writing preliminary notes, I was in the middle of something. All action on my part stopped so as to better experience the music on offer. Littlecreatures manages to transcend the "background listening" experience of some more drone based noise and become a true behemoth, this demands your attention and you'd be right to give it some. As ever Holehouse doesn't stay with one style too long, everything is wrapped into a package, some harsher almost PE elements invade the sonic tapestry but never at the expensive of other parts. This isn't cut-up, it flows freely and simply for an epic journey.

The second track (side) titled Elephantis burns forth on a more harsh note, sounding like early Masonna live recordings, harsh rumble, static and children's nursery rhymes cut-up into an unrelenting assault. Almost acting as a pastiche of the found sound aesthetic. This review is hard to write because I'm dealing with some amazing nostalgia right now. The harsh elements seem harsher due to the juxtaposition between them and TV sound samples and even kids singing. Never sitting in one place and refusing to be categorised. Elephantis really displays the use of good cut n paste styles of found sound within the genre. I'm gonna make a lot of enemies here and say that if James Ferraro is seen as being amazing because he can play old 80s themes through a pedal board then Holehouse shows how actual found sound can be incorporated into noise for the benefit as opposed to some gimmick. The track covers so many moods that it's hard to list, jumping seamlessly from a harsh cut-up nostalgia trip to an unnerving drone. Like the Talkboy I owned at age 8 being swapped into a Merzbow performance. Magical, creeping, screaming.

Timothy C Holehouse/LAN Formatique

Artist Timothy C Holehouse / LAN Formatique
Label None
Year 2009 (?)
Genre(s) Dark Ambient

Yet another split tape featuring Mr. Holehouse and yet another blinder. packaged with a small insert (part of which is reproduced above) on purple coloured tapes there's really no preparing for this release.

Holehouse opens with electronic drone and distant drums, fracturing under subtle bomb samples. Wails echo around the piece as if you're being serenaded by lost souls. There's a very real image of a solider slowly dying in the middle of a battlefield, blood mixing with the moody ground. Being beckoned to and taunted by those that have already passed. The closest artist I could compare this to would be Edinburgh's Wraiths (Edit : I have just noticed they are thanked in the insert), this release is a lot calmer however and very much has an identity of it's own. The insert tells us that these tracks were recorded in a 16th Century cottage in Dorset, coupling this with the images evoked within the sounds and the artwork there's a very strong aesthetic drive to the release which works perfectly. This is proper bleak electronic ambient, feelings of loss and despair creep into your brain, carried effortlessly by the music, itself simply dripping with implied menace. This shits all over most of the so called "medieval dark ambient" (See : Dark Ages) by not only creating the aesthetic needed but also being able to carry the idea within the music itself. I tried to listen to this tape whilst lying in bed the other night but had to turn it off because it was genuinely freaking me out. A simply fantastic effort. One issue that I have noticed is that the second track appears to hard panned to the left channel, this can be overlooked when considering the sheer depth of the music included however. The final track is a more overt noise piece, but it carries forward the atmosphere from the preceding two arrangements. It's really hard to describe each track separately as they flow together so well.

LAN Formatique were new to me with this tape and here they present us with six tracks which were apparently "Recorded between the land of the living and the Emerald city", now I'm not too sure about anyone else but I, for one, am intrigued. The first thing I noticed about their recording was the use of guitar to form a basis of the music, alongside what sounds like real (Being a drummer I'm fucked if I'm wrong) drums. I'm reminded of Opaque mixed with a little bit of early Abruptum, very befitting the style established over on Side A. The constant panning of the drums gives me a bit of a headache but when they build up into an all out assault I quickly forget any issues I had, this is noise rock at it's noisiest and most brutal. The songs blend into one long track (Which is really helped by the format) which leaps around seamlessly from foggy ambient drone to spastic instrument abuse almost at random. Only with great care can something sound so spontaneous and unplanned.

Shuriken/Timothy C Holehouse Split Tape

Artist Timothy C Holehouse/Shuriken

Label None
Year 2009
Genre(s) Drone, PE, Noise Rock

Timothy C Holehouse opens his side of this split with a barely audible machine hum, a crescendo building into sultry drone. Dark and claustrophobic, sounding like a slowed heartbeat pushed through a pedal line. An incredible sense of foreboding, as if waiting for the end that is expected but no less scary. The first track, Swine Flu Boo... Who? is the audio equivalent of the pandemic, slow rumbles at first, growing closer and becoming louder until the whole world is screaming. The track, as with the threat of Swine Flu grows and grows until it suddenly begins to ebb out just as quickly as it arrived.

The next song is a mixture of static feedback, pulsating with a steady rhythm. As if every computer rebelled and marched upon the senate. The track rises up for one final attack and stops in its tracks. Holehouse's side is closer to Batchas style dark ambient to my ears, which is no negative point. Both these songs are fantastic, if a little short for my liking.

Next up we have Shurikens side which is split into four tracks. The first thing I need to say is how shocked I was, the music on this side is straight up rock. I actually checked to see I hadn't accidentally set my hi-fi to CD (Dinosaur Jr. was still sitting in the tray). I'm really pleasantly surprised by the first track offered up, amazing bass lines and angular guitar with fairly emotive vocals. The next cut Unison sounds like Sonic Youth meeting The Jesus Lizard in the Batcave, very noise rock/post punk. The music really is fantastic, it's especially nice to hear more "conventional" bands sharing a tape alongside noise musicians, variety is the spice of life n' aw that.

Amazing presentation on the release too, on tape printing for both sides (I can't tell you the amount of times I've been faced with an almost impossible attempt to work out Side A from Side B with some other tapes) and fold out J-Card with a skeletal theme.