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Am Not – Extraterritoriality (mc 2020)

Thanks to Noise Receptor I heard about this release before the 102 copies were gone.

“Extraterritoriality” is a six track tape. It opens with the brutal “Cleansing Violence”, a great track. Then follow two more tranquil tracks with lyrics or lengthy samples. Recognisable lyrics and samples? The recognisability is certain with “Homecoming” which seems to be an alternative version to “Come Home”.

The latter mentioned title is the first on side B called “Entry” and is a not too extreme, but a somewhat industrial track. Next up the aggression rises again. Distorted sounds, a pounding rhythm, shouting samples and after a while aggressive vocals. “Red Emperor, White Forces” is a magnificent Am Not track. The closing track is again more ‘noisescapes’ with a lengthy sample.

It looks like it that Noise Receptor has a better eye and ear to find the thematics of Am Not’s music, so I suggest reading that review too.

Links: Am Not, Unrest Productions

High Stress Reaction ‎– Cumulative Hurt (mc 2020)

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Apparently a debut. I cannot find anything about this project.

In the cover there is a quote in Polish meaning ‘dictatorship is not a bad word’. The quote leads me to a Polish Wikipedia article about Chaim Rumkowski, a Jew who thought that working for the Nazis would save him and his people.

That said, HSR offers muffled noise with an industrial angle and sometimes very distorted vocals. The sound is a bit like hearing industrial while the speaker is below a pillow. There are not the high frequencies of many noise releases in most tracks, but neither is this the ‘wall of noise’ kind of music.

I prefer the more death industrial type tracks, especially when there are vocals, over the more minimalist ones and over the more chaotic (typical) ones.

Overall “Cumulative Hurt” sounds alright. It has a few descent tracks (especially the opening and closing tracks) and the rest is not bad either.

Link: Unrest Productions

Folkstorm – Nihil Total (2019)

The productive Henrik Björkk releases material under a variety of names. Folkstorm is one of them. This project has been around for over two decades.

Quite a few Folkstorm releases are made available by Old Europa Cafe, as is “Nihil Total”. A nice digipack, limited to 300 copies.

Folkstorm is one of Björkk’s harsher projects. “Nihil Total” goes from death industrial to noise and back. Aggressive vocals, brutal rhythms. The tracks are more varied than on many death industrial releases, which is not surprising coming from Björkk.

Probably to add to the aggressive sound, the lyrics make that the project could have been name F**kstorm for this release, which is a bit of a down point to me.

Not all tracks are brilliant, but most are great. If you like aggressive industrial, you could give the latest Folkstorm a shot.

Links: Folkstorm, Old Europa Cafe

Detrimental Effect – Your Truth (2019)

Discogs.com

I ran into Detrimental Effect before. In 2017 the debut tape was released on Unsound.

As “To Brandon Bryant”, “Your Truth” contains an excellent piece of aggressive death industrial. Industrial rhythms, noise, fierce vocals, name it. There are harsher and more tranquil tracks.

This album fits well in Tesco’s roster with Deathpanel, Moral Order and the like. If you like a project such as Ex.Order, Operation Cleansweep or Gnawed, you may be interested in this album. Detrimental Effect sounds more aggressive than the names I mentioned though. Perhaps I should have just said Genocide Organ.

Anyway, I guess you get the idea. Old-fashioned industrial noise and good too.

Links: Detrimental Effect, Tesco

Lingua Ignota ‎- Caligula (2019)

Discogs.com

The new Lingua Ignota reminds me even more of Diamanda Galas than the previous album. The music is mostly piano with singing, but frequently Ignota goes over in the tortured screams that we know her for.

Where “All Bitches Die” has more and more pomp electronics, the new album goes back more to what Ignota appears to be trained in: piano and soprano vocals. There is more classical music here too, cello and violin.

It is quite interesting to look at the (guest) musicians by the way. There is a vocalist who Discogs has listed as playing both folk and “harsh noise” and there seem to be links to Uniform and The Body and from there on with hardcore and grind bands. I guess Ignota did not just drop out of some classical music school and started to make extreme vocal music.

“Caligula” is a moody (in an extreme way) album. Not as sonically extreme as the previous album, but certainly vocally.

Links: Lingua Ignota, Profound Lore

Consumer Electronics – Airles Space (2019)

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Discogs.com

I did not see this one coming. A new Consumer Electronics. A cd even, with a very ugly cover too!

“Airless Space” is not as brutal as Consumer Electronics can be. Most tracks are centered around the slow, steady beat that we know from previous albums. The male vocals are of the spoken words type in most tracks and the brutalism is for Sarah who screams her lungs out in many of the tracks.

Here and there the sounds gets a bit harscher, but there are no “Come Clean” wall-of-noise type tracks (unfortunately).

When you know this long running noise outfit, you will know what to expect with the above. Should Consumer Electronics be new to you, this could be an album to try since it is fairly typical and brutal vocal-wise, but a lot less so music-wise.

Links: Consumer Electronics, Harbinger Sound

Ten Thousand Miles Of Arteries – Survival Bloom (2019)

Discogs.com

I ran into this album on the Annihilvs Bandcamp page where it can be obtained digitally and physically. The name did not immediately ring a bell, but this Chicago based project has been around for well over a decade it seems.

Spotify proves to have two releases of this project (a split and a full-length). Both are noise, not too extreme, but not exactly “ambient noise” either. I am not too fond of the vocals on these releases. I like the vocals a lot better on “Survival Bloom”. They are fairly typical for this type of music: brutally screamed vocals, but I often have a soft spot for vocal noise, so…

“Survival Bloom” appears to be a bit more industrial than the other two releases that I heard, slow, pulsating rhythms, mostly low frequencies (my preference) and, mostly accompanying the vocals, high frequency noises. It may not be brilliant, but the album is pretty enjoyable. Not too extreme and not too chaotic, but pretty brutal. I guess it is no accident that this was released on Annihilvs.

Link: Annihilvs

Am Not – Incursions (mc 2018)

Discogs.com

The excellent Am Not released a tape on Zaetraom, lining him with other excellent noise projects such as Anenzephalia and Ke/Hil.

On “Incursions” Tamon Miyakita goes from his magnificent death industrial and dark wall-of-noise style with brutal vocals to more tranquil tunes, somewhat ambient or even soundscape-like perhaps even.

Also there are guest musicians. Hermann Kopp in the second track (vocals, not violin), S.T.A.B. Electronics (whom I discovered because the project share labels) and two ladies, one of whom also cooperated on “The Developing World“.

“Incursions” opens brilliantly and brutally. Also “What Are You Waiting For” is a great track. The cooperation with S.T.A.B. Electronics worked out well and (as can be expected) the track is pretty harsh. I am less convinced by the more tranquil tracks, even though I do like the industrial, but not very noisy, “Cruth Do Bhaile”.

Previously I reviewed the “appendix” which also has a more tranquil track that I like less than the other tracks. What occurs to me playing “Incursions” is that the noise on these last two releases is more of the harsh type and less of the structured kind of the two brilliant full-lengths. Even though I do like the more extreme tracks of Am Not, I like the structured tracks a lot better than the more tranquil tracks that seem to have replaced them.

Let us see in what direction Am Not develops.

Link: Am Not

Offerbeest – Afrika (2018)

Discogs.com

As the name of this project suggests, it is from the Netherlands. It means ‘sacrificial animal’. Offerbeest is actually one of the projects of the man behind Gnaw Their Tongues, an interesting dark doom metal project. I do not know if I knew if that came from my homeland though. He also appears to be active in the nice noise project Aderlating.

“Afrika” is the second of three Offerbeest albums and is released by Malignant, so well available (even though the physical copies are limited to 300).

It is but a half hour album with with noise music. Layers of distorted sounds, drumming or more industrial rhythms and distorted vocals. The album has a few nice tunes here and there. I like the tracks “I Am The One” and “Cut Out Their Hearts” which are fairly typical noise tracks with brutal vocals, but the other tracks are not too much to my liking. The sound is a bit too chaotic for me perhaps. Nothing to do about that.

You can listen to this album on Spotify or Bandcamp. When you want a physical copy, be quick about it.

Link: Malignant Records

Control, Geneviéve Pasquier, Kommando – Cold War, Hot Love (12″ 2018)

Well well, a collaboration album between three industrial giants: Thomas Garrison, Geneviève Pasquier and Dan Courtman. Their respective projects (that is to way, one of each), are named, so would the result be collaborations, or tracks of each project? I am not entirely sure!

Among the eight tracks it is fairly easy to recognise the different styles. There are wall-of-noise type tracks that remind of Control. There is one Pasquier track which is fairly industrial in sound on her scale, but it is still Pasquier. Some industrial tracks obviously have Courtman’s vocals. Over the entire album, it looks like Garrison had quite some influence. Of course we all know that our friendly Thorofon couple also does not shun sonic brutality. Perhaps the tracks are collaborations after all.

When you like Pasquier and later Thorofon, “Cold War, Hot Love” may be more brutal than you are used to. When you do like the rougher side of these projects, especially when you can appreciate a Control sauce, this album just might be just what you are looking for. I like it, that is for sure! Too bad that it is not released on cd though.

Links: Control, Geneviève Pasquier, Ant-Zen