I have to take something back from my previous review. Ozigiri is not “constantly great”. I just got two emails from Bandcamp with two new Ozigiri releases, both released today.
First we have “Color Me Blood Pastel“. It does not come under the name “Ozigiri”, but under the name “わんぱくスレイヤー” (‘naughty slayer’). It could be another artist, but released on Ozigiri’s label. In any case, “Color Me Blood Pastel” is one of those annoying Japanese baby music breakcore albums. Not my cup of tea.
“Floor Killer Death Machine” on the other hand, is Ozigiri with almost no breaks. The album opens with a blast with the title track and the next 18 minutes is for a large part full speed Ozigiri. Great! Digital grindcore as it should sound.
It is utterly incredible. APTBS is constantly on tour and yet they manage to not only change line-up, release a series of singles, but also work on a new album. What is more, the steady part of the band, Oliver Ackerman, also proves to be behind Death By Audio which used to be a concert hall, studio, guitar effects pedal factory and more. Death By Audio still exists in some form and Ackerman decided that the new release of his band would come as a synthesizer that you have to assemble yourself. Where does he find the time to come up with such ideas and to execute them? “Synthesizer” also seems to come available as 12″ in the near future.
The album opens with the great track “Disgust” which has been released as a single before. It sounds like the band sounds live: energetic and noisy. While concerts are always extremely noisy events, recorded, the band shows its softer side. Sometimes. “Synthesizer” contains the noise rock side that we love APTBS for, but also softer (‘shoegaze’?) side and more electropunk type experiments.
Not all tracks are brilliant, but a couple of them are. “Synthesizer” is yet another very nice album. And if you have not seen the band live yet, be sure to get out your earplugs and go and hear and see them when they are in your vicinity. With their touring schedule, that should not take too long.
Another luxury vinyl release on Ant-Zen. A nine track 33 RPM 7″ with a 52 page booklet. As always there are only a 100 copies.
“Apokryphos” has the rawer side of Idehall. Industrial, noisy, growling vocals; but still the recognisable ritualistic approach. It does seem that Idehall tried some new things. The sound is recognisably Idehall, but still somewhat different. Also it is not like all tracks are ‘harsh’. The esoteric avant-garde of the Ant-Zen blurp is a good description.
Idehall created another very enjoyable album of about 40 minutes.
The album is now available through Bandcamp. The physical releases will be shipped soon. I cannot wait for my copy.
Finally there will be a new Khost album, and an album it is! Unlike many releases nowadays, the band (and label) did not settle for a ‘vinyl length’ of 37 minutes. Or did they? There actually will be two different vinyl versions with 11 tracks (40 minutes), but also a cd version with 18 tracks (70 minutes)! The cd not only has more tracks, but the tracks are also in a different order.
The sound is largely what we know and love Khost for. Very slow and dark doom metal with deep grunting vocals. There appears to be less use of electronics, except on the somewhat technoish/poppy “Face”. Some of the tracks do sound very industrial.
Among the extra tracks there is a somewhat more ‘normal doom’ track called “Define the Edge of Someone” which is more moody and with normal vocals. Also among the extra tracks is one of the dark ambient tracks with film samples that the band makes more often and two remixes.
I particularly like the slow, dark tracks. Perhaps “Many Things…” is not really surprising, but I still do not know much music in this style, while I like it a lot. You will have to wait until 20 September though, or go over to the label’s website or Soundcloud to have a listen in advance.
In 2016 I reviewed “Unclean“, the first Sophia release in 13 years at the time. After another 8 year gap, Cyclic Law announced another new Sophia album. Discogs also has two releases in 2017 and 2022 that I had not heard about, though, but these are not full lengths.
The blurb for the new album promises innovative rhythms, new kinds of vocals and experimentation with the Sophia sound, “a deliberate evolution in sound”.
The album is very recognisably Sophia. Pomp walls of orchestrations in the background, poundings rhythms and Peter’s vocals. The sound is not as bombastic as Sophia can be.
“The Age Of The Narcissist” is perhaps not the best Sophia material in my opinion, but a descent album. Out on 25 July. It comes as a cd and in two vinyl versions. The length is (thus) about 40 minutes.
The first time I seriously listened to TxRxP was late 2013 when two cds were released on two different labels, with the same title, but with different material. The title was “The Totality Of Death“. The two cds contained existing material.
TxRxP had used the title before, for a 2011 tape release, but also after, as in 2013 another tape with this title appeared. In 2015 a 3lp release bared the same title and now two cds are made available by Cold Spring. The red cd is the “Alpha” and the green one the “Omega” part of this “Totality Of Death”, so is this really the “totality” this time?
Again the cds contain old material, mostly from compilations. Some tracks had not yet been released before or only in digital form. After two lively tracks follows the dark ambient sound of the project. Towards the end there are again some more industrial sounds. Also the second cd goes from dark ambient to industrial, but mostly ambient. There is not really the ‘typical’ TxRxP sound it seems. There are earlier versions of a few tracks that later appeared on “Kainskult“.
There are some great tracks on the cds and some of the dark ambient tracks are descent as well.
You can get the cds from Cold Spring and when you are quick, red and green shirts.
Just as with “Airless Space” (2019), the new Consumer Electronics leaves aside the extreme power electronics of old and instead focuses on minimalist industrial sounds and spoken word. That still does not exactly make this easy listening though. The opening track, for example, first has Philip Best in a very calm voice describe the workings of a serial killer, while in the second half he -in the same tone- instructs “Michael” how to make a snow angel. Indeed, CE remains an extreme project even when the sound became less so.
The following tracks are usually odd noisy or industrial soundscapes with Best sounding like he is reading from a children’s book. Most tracks are quite ‘enjoyable’, ‘ambient noise’ perhaps. Towards the end comes a somewhat more extreme “contaminent” and a more noise title track, but nothing compared to a track such as “Come Clean”.
Ozigiri is one of my favourite discoveries of the last years. He makes an extremely fast, violent and energetic electronic form of grindcore. The weird mix of styles goes from beats up to 1000 BPM (let us just call that “splittercore” for convenience sake), faster beats (“extratone” because you no longer hear a beat, but a tone) with screamed vocals and guitar. Much faster than your average grindcore and way more energetic. Brilliantly neckbreaking.
There are more such violent projects coming from Japan, but none as constantly great as Ozigiri. It appears that Ozigiri was picked up by the already established project M1dy and the two indeed cooperate frequently. M1dy finds it funny to mix in children’s voices and happy melodies (making a truly insane version of hardcore techno) which I often find too cheerful. Ozigiri also does that sometimes, like on the mentioned last album. Fortunately not too often and on this compilation, no such thing.
I seems that I missed that the album “Party People Must Die” of last year was the first release on Ozigiri’s own new label わんぱくレコーズ (“Naughty Recordings”). The compilation “Electronic Violence” is the second. He gathered similar projects to create a 12 track, 32 minute digital release. “Electronic Violence” opens with a great Ozigiri track. After an intro, the tempo sets in with Ozigiri’s brutal violence. His buddy M1dy did a wonderful speedcore track. Then follow projects that I did not know (except for RedOgre and Qureless). There is the grindcore type electronic music of RoughSkreamZ, Qureless and Maruosa; the more hardcore techno sound of Coakira and sHimaU; the breakcore of Sabi, 鬼畜生 (“Bastard” is not as energetic as the other tracks) and Haizai Audio and the splittercore of RedOgre.
All in all this turns out to be a very enjoyable compilation. Ozigiri is certainly the best project here (to my ears), but most of the other tracks are great as well. If you are interested in some extremely energetic electronic music, check out this compilation. It is available through Bandcamp.
On recent releases Idehall often makes a sound that I find alright, but which is not my favorite of his approaches to music. Besides, there have been times with more releases. Recently there was a ritualistic split with Thoabath on Cloister Recordings, but the last release before that was (I believe) in 2022.
On the “Dadaist Gospels” there are five tracks. First there is the “War Magic” type; somewhat industrial soundscapes with spoken word. These are the most interesting tracks to my ears. The more minimalist, slightly ritualistic tracks interest me less.
But Idehall is still around, which is good. This release is not yet up on Discogs, but is available through Bandcamp.
“Kosmoloko” (2004), the first Galakthorrö compilation, opens with the brutal and brilliant “Hymn To Despair” of Haus Arafna. The somewhat calmer, but magnificent “After All These Years” follows. Then there are two superb tracks of Subliminal, dark, noisy industrial. Only with Karl Runau things become a bit more quiet with his analogue soundscapes. Maska Genetik follows with two brilliant angsty industrial tracks and at the end there are two typical tracks for the later sound of November Növelet.
“Kosmoloko 2” (2012) turned things around. The dark dance sounds of November Növelet open this compilation, but they are immediately followed by two raw tracks of Subliminal. Herz Jühing also contributed two magnificent angsty industrial tracks. The odd Hermann Kopp has two tracks and the second “Kosmoloko” ends with two superb Haus Arafna tracks that I can also describe as angsty industrial.
On “Kosmoloko 3” there is but one track per artist. It opens again with Haus Arafna, but this time their new depressive side; well-crafted, but not the style I prefer. More tear jerkers come from Aska, but their sound is a bit more angstpop. November Növelet also have a fairly melancholic track and a not too strong one. Hermann Kopp follows with a slow and minimalist track. The contribution of Sühne Mensch opens in a promising way with analogue humming working a bit towards a Herz Jühning style. This is the most interesting track so far. Interestingly, after a typical Te/DIS track, Jühning himself follows with a good and raw track reminding of older Haus Arafna material. Back to the more contemporary melancholic pop sound with Mode In Gliani and a relatively uptempo Da-Sein. Karl Runau is still around and he closes “Kosmoloko 3” with an alright melodic soundscape.
I miss the brutality of the Galakthorrö releases of old. Where the first “Kosmoloko” contains only great tracks, the second mostly good tracks, “Kosmoloko 3” has but a few good tracks. The three in line -I suppose- show the development of the label over the years. While my musical preferences grow more extreme over the years, Galakthorrö becomes less and less so. Thanks to Herz Jühning for keeping up the energy a bit.
