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ambient noise

Analfabetism ‎* Av Hjord Är Du Kommen (cd 2015)

I have missed this Malignant until I accidentally ran into it on Spotify. The album is good enough to buy, so I got myself a ‘physical copy’ as well.

Analfabetism makes deep, rumbling noise. Or perhaps it is noisey dark ambient. The ‘tag’ “ambient noise” that I use for projects such as Land:Fire, Gnawed or Isomer. These are the less extreme projects, I also use the ‘tag’ for harscher projects such as Theologian or IRM, but Analfabetism is more to the ambient side of “ambient noise”.

The album is has noisier and more ambient parts, but overall it is pretty filthy and dark, just the way I like it.

Link: Malignant

Ke/Hil * Syndrome/Antidrome (mc 2017)

Ke/Hil is Brigant Moloch of Anenzephalia and Wilhelm Herich of Genocide Organ (and Tesco Organisation) and their latest release is not the first that I review.

Contrary to what you may expect, Ke/Hil is not an extreme industrial project like GO or Anenzephalia, but neither as odd and light as Dogpop, another GO/Anenzephalia collaboration. As a matter of fact, where previous Ke/Hil releases contain some harsher industrial and noisy tracks (but nothing like the main projects), “Syn/Anti Drome” is more a ‘noisescapes’ type of album with relatively soft noisy textures and distorted vocals, but not very extreme. Listening to the back catalogue of this project, “Zone 0”, the more industrial album, is with some distance the most interesting to my ears.

The album comes as a cassette with differing artwork and as an lp.

Link: Tesco

Gnawed * Pestilence Beholden (cd 2016)

Thank you Noise Receptor for letting me know about the new Gnawed. I like the previous “Feign And Cloak” album quite a bit and I now see that I also thanked Noise Receptor for bringing that release to my attention.

“Pestilence Beholden” opens with a few pieces of dark ambient, but within the third track we go over to the death industrial style from the previous album. Well, maybe not exactly, the new album seems a little less as extreme as its predecessor, which also has more higher frequencies and overall a more noise-feeling.
The music is still very slow, somewhat rhythmic, with soundscapish tones and here and there highly distorted vocals. Maybe more like a ‘doom’ kind of industrial.

I like the new album. I think I prefer the rougher edge of “Feign and Cloak”, but the latest release may be more fitting to play when reading or something.

Links: Gnawed, Malignant Records

Steel Hook Prostheses ‎* Calm Morbidity (cd 2016)

Apparently the first Steel Hook that I review. This is weird, because I have known this American project for quite some time. I guess I never came to buy any of their releases or I just never came to really listen to them before I started to enjoy noise better.

“Calm Morbidity” is not the first release on Malignant, a label that seems to be shifting more and more towards noise.

The album contains the wall-of-sound type of noise, dark, slow, dense, with extremely distorted vocals, but also more dark ambient tracks. I like this dark type of noise that is not as chaotic as some other styles. The album is not terribly good or varied, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Links: Steel Hook Proestheses, Malignant Records

Isomer ‎* Three Kestrels (2016)

Well well, a new Isomer, would it be more ambient or more industrial or even noisy?

It looks like Isomer continues the darker and more noisy track. “Three Kestrels” is a fairly noisy album with an industrial approach. Not that it is very extreme, but “ambient noise” is perhaps a bit too ‘ambient a tag’. There are 7 tracks raging from very nice to very good. Indeed, “Three Kestrels” is a very nice album.

Available on vinyl (if you are quick I guess) or Bandcamp download.

Links: Isomer, Tesco

Iron Fist Of The Sun ‎* Family Survival Strategy (mc 2016)

If ever there was an album for which the term “ambient noise” was fitting, it would be this one. (Probably) too noisy for people who like ‘dark ambient’, but not as extreme as (some) noise releases.

IFOTS apparently likes to play with styles. As my opening of this review suggests “Family Survival Strategy” is relatively tranquil. There are still nauseous frequencies and unpleasant sounds, but this tape certainly is not as extreme as this project can be.

I do not entirely like the ‘soundscapish’ approach of IFOTS, but the odd closing track is very amusing.

Links: IFOTS, Unrest Productions

Alfarmania * At Ulleråker (cd 2005/2015)

I thought this much spoken of Swedish project was a recent project of the active artist Kristian Olsson. On the contrary, Alfarmania has put out material since 2004.

I also thought I bought something more recent, but “At Ulleråker” has been released on a cassette 10 years before this rerelease on cd. It is a live recording spread over two half-hour tracks.
I guess now I have to see if Alfarmania has developped in style, because like with many projects that like to use the ‘old style’ of noise music, Alfarmania is largely too chaotic for me. The sound is not as brutal as some power electronics projects, it sounds more like ‘noisescapes’ with here and there a sound that is more ‘death industrial’. Most of the time you will just hear an evolving wall of sound, though, with no vocals or rhythm.

Links: Alfarmania, Old Captain

In Search Of Death * III (cd 2015)

There is not a whole lot of information on this disc. No track titles for one. There is this though:
> Recorded in 2003 by – Xavier H
> Mastered in 2015 by Peter Andersson
According to Discogs that would be Peter ‘Raison d’Être’ Andersson and not Peter ‘Lina Baby Doll’ Andersson, but who is Xavier H.? Judging the cover of the cd which is the same as the logo of the label Death Continues Records, my guess is that H. is the man behind the label. So what about the “III”? If Discogs is correct, this is In Search Of Death’s (and Xavier H.’s for that matter) first and only release. Perhaps the third attempt?

I bought this cd as being “death industrial”, but that is not a very good description in my opinion. The cd is not harsch enough to be “death industrial”, but it is too hard to be “dark ambient”. Most tracks hold somewhere in between. “Dark and noisy ambient” that would be a description. There are also passages where the sound gets pretty noisy though, so when you like dark ambient, but not noise, think twice before buying this album.

The music on this cd is alright. It is moody and dirty, but not terribly interesting. It is not boring either, so it will work out just fine as background music.

It appears that there are only 200 copies of this cd by the way.

Links: In Search Of Death, Death Continues Records

Iron Fist Of The Sun ‎* We Can Yield Our Own Footsteps (cd 2015)

Recently I bought the “Embers” 7″, but it proved to be from 2011, so I did not review it. I have known Iron Fist Of The Sun (or IFOTS on the latest releases) by name for quite a while, but I never really got to listen to this project from the UK until recently.

Deezer has the 2009 album “Behavioural Decline”. It is comparable to the “Embers” 7″, the “We Can Yield…” album currently under review and the “Live At The Garage” live mcd that I got with the album, but perhaps the last one is more intense. The music is roughly comparable to IRM or Skin Area. Pretty extreme noise, but not as extreme as Whitehouse or Merzbow. Here and there the sound leans toward ‘ambient noise’ and one track can even be described as a ‘soundscape’ (or a ‘noisescape’).

Some tracks are certainly dark and moody, but I do not like every track as much as the next. I do like the very extreme vocals, which is also one of the reasons I have to think of IRM.

Overall “We Can Yield Our Own Footsteps” is a fair album with a couple of very good tracks.

Links: Iron Fist Of The Sun, Cold Spring

Resgestae ‎* État D’Urgence (cd 2015)

A release on a sublabel of the not too active Nuit et Brouillard label of Jérôme “Propergol” Nougaillon. The Cold Spring newsletter compares this release to the sound of the label owner and indeed the album contains dark, “filmographic” ambient noise. Sometimes the atmosphere comes close to Hermétique projects with many film samples and well placed drones. Other tracks are less strong and more ‘general dark ambient’. Overall the album is very enjoyable and since there have not been too many releases in this ‘style’, “État d’Urgence” is a welcome release.

Should you want to know, Resgestae is the continuation of the Greek project [distopia], but to me, this name does not ring a bell. There have been several releases under this name though.

Links: Resgestae, Force Majeure