Divorce Party - Astrocongertion Oporium

Artist Divorce Party
Label None
Year 2011
Genre(s) Noise Rock

Yet more balls to the wall Noise Rock from the lads in Divorce Party. Showing definite progression from their last EP whilst still maintaining every element that managed to make that so great. Weighing in at a scant 5 tracks and just over five minutes of all out pleasure. It would take away from the release to review each track as the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Almost everything is covered in these short tracks though. As with the last review Divorce Party are clearly influenced by many bands but I'm finding it almost impossible to identify any of them as the band moves around so much within each track, where there was once a trace of Melt Banana there will suddenly by a Jesus Lizard-esq riff. When listening to Divorce Party all I want to do is dance (Seriously). Why are these guys still self releasing? Are labels so blind to good music these days?

Long story short: You owe it to yourself to listen to this, and to their earlier EP. So why not bop over to their Bandcamp page (Linked above) and support some good music? If you're too lazy to scroll up I must demand you FUCKING CLICK HERE NOW!

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.

Aikichi Kuboyama - Conflict

Artist Aikichi Kuboyama
Label Self Release
Year 2011
Genre(s) Harsh Noise

A two track, just shy of fifteen minute sonic assault is offered up here by Aikichi Kuboyama. Static rumble and crumbling sonic textures swarm across the tracks. The occasional deliberate bass drop out keeps things interesting and provides a sharp shock. This music is certainly on the harsher end of the spectrum. Never letting up, like having bees make a hive in your mouth whilst you suffer from a coma. Crisp walls of static sound build and build. With the exception of some phaser use towards the end of the first track there's not really much that can be complained about here.

The second track offers deeper textures without sacrificing the dynamic, like the sound of a bombing raid. The second track does suffer from being slightly overlong, but it's balanced out nicely by the first.

There's not much I can say about this release seeing as it is so short. I get the feeling there may have been a slight over reliance on Audacity (Or a similar tool) for the post-production side of things but that's easy to overlook given the relative quality of the release. For a first effort (or early effort, I ain't 100%) it shows a lot of promise and I can only expect good things in the future.

Sir Edgar Carpenter - Broflovski's Killers: A Noise Tribute to South Park

Artist Sir Edgar Carpenter
Year 2010
Label Script Sound Recordings
Genre Harsh Noise

I love novelty releases. I have a crate full of black and white minstrels LPs. I own the metal tribute to Abba. I love having these items in my collection regardless of the music, they're a great talking point but that's about it. You can forgive me for approaching this web only release with equal parts glee and trepidation. Whilst I don't dislike South Park it doesn't really carry the same clout that I look for in my noise. I'm not saying all noise music should be totally serious but I'm certainly apprehensive about how well this can work.

The opening salvo Sweet, Sweet Marsh takes me by surprise. A white noise stab with tortured sounding synth in the background. It certainly promises great things as it leads in to more of exactly the same. For thirty minutes the same basic pattern repeats. Even as a listener that likes repetition I can't help but feel cheated. Slight variations may arise but it is the same basic slog for the best part of half an hour. I can't help but feel let down when change finally does arrive near the twenty-five minute mark, a random drum pattern and reversed samples, presumable to create atmosphere. It might have worked had it come around twenty minutes prior, as it is it's simply even more aggravating.

Up next we have Hello Kyle. A 25 minute track built upon a basic rumbe that loops on and on and occasional stabs of digital squeal. Whilst there is variation on this track it just feels hollow and self-indulgent with it's 25minute run time. Each section seems to stay past its welcome, lasting that long simply because they could rather than there being a specific purpose.

Ass-face features my mortal enemy, the phaser. Throughout the whole ten minute track there is a pasher effect in the background, causing nothing but a headache for me. The track quickly falls into the boring category as, yet again, not much happens.

I think the thing that annoys me the most about this release is the fact that it isn't terrible. There are some good ideas here but the seem to get lost in the self indulgent 10 minute phaser solo. Whilst, on the whole, the noise is a too digital for myself I do recognise that there are fans of this style. I found myself asking "what is this aiming for" when sitting through the nth minute of overblown hiss and I couldn't find an answer. I guess it's noise for noise sake. I also wonder what the real relevance to South Park is, besides the cover art and song titles there's hardly any real link.

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?

Fuji Mum - An Eye For an Eye Will Turn the Whole World Blind

Artist Fuji Mum
Year 2010
Label None
Genre(s) Power Electronics...

One of the positive points about Noise and Power Electronics would be that almost anyone can have a go. You don’t necessarily need to know how to play an instrument or have a massive bank roll behind you to afford gear all you need is passion. One of the negative points about Noise and Power Electronics is that almost anyone can have a go. Despite popular belief there can be such a thing as bad noise. As a fan of noise I find it offensive when someone throws any bit of shit out there and expects it to be accepted just because it’s "experimental". Fuji Mum adopts this approach by serving up four tracks of nothing but feedback and vocals.

Whitehouse made power electronics using distorted synth and hateful vocals, even later on when they began to wander into the realms of self-parody they still had a good solid sound and were amusing. Most Power Electronics is built around synth and specifically high end. Fuji Mum is made up of one dude waving a microphone in front of an amp and shouting every so often. Everything has been bounced directly without any mixing or even consideration for composition. The four tracks here are exactly the same thing, microphone and amp feedback and some forced vocals. The overall sound is totally flat and reeks of doing one take and deciding that’s enough. The thirteen minutes here seem to stretch ever onward. This release is punishing in all the wrong ways.

This review isn't very well formed, I appreciate, but there's not much to work with. As I mentioned the compositional elements of the release ammount to recording feedback and shouting (Read: mumbling) vocals at the same time. Feedback is an important element of noise, no doubt, but it's usually much more than simple feedback recorded through a microphone. Some of the best Harsh Noise works are primarily feedback based, however the feedback is treated and run through effects to make it a part of an overall whole. There's nothing quite as interesting here.

The four tracks presented by Fuji Mum here just give off the impression that minimal effort was expelled in the planning (if there was any) and recording stages. It's an insult to ever other recording artist that actually puts effort in to their works. It comes across as someone who wants to feel like they are part of something, that they have created something, and chosing the easiest route to do that. In this case a musical genre that's based around DIY and often lack of structure. I'm wracking my brains trying to think of a piece of constructive criticism or even a positive point that I can include. I'm falling short on both fronts. These four tracks don't deserve your time or attention, and until this project shows that it actually has some artistic merit I advise you to avoid.

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.