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Anenzephalia

Anenzephalia * Instrumentalities (Singles Collection 1991-2008) (cd 2014)

I guess the title is a pun to best-of popgroup-compilations. The current cd is not (I think) as much a collection of singles, but rather a rerelease of old and not-too-easy-to-find old material. This concerns the four tracks of the 1991 7″ “Lyse”, all four tracks of the 1998 12″ “New World Disorder”, all four tracks of the 2002 10″ “Die Sender Müssen Schweigen!” and both tracks of the 2008 7″ “Projected Void”.

The older tracks are clearly somewhat primitive and less worked-out than later material, but from the 12″ (which I bought at Staalplaat a long time ago when they still had a shop in Amsterdam) the sound of Anenzephalia becomes recognisable.

So if you are looking for older Anenzephalia material or you simply like to get the music from the vinyls on cd, here is your chance.

Links: Anenzephalia, Tesco

Anenzephalia * Funkspiele (lp 2013)

When I ordered this lp I did not realise that it does not contain new material. That probably means nothing more than that I did not read well enough. Tesco started the Archaic Documents series through which they make classic material again available. “Funkspiele” contains live material from a show on December 1 2001 in St. Petersburgh. The lp is comparable to the 2001 cd on Death Factory (CMI) as this also contains live material from the same period. When you like the old material of Anenzephalia, you might want to add one of the 250 copies of this lp to your collection.
Links: Anenzephalia, Tesco

Anenzephalia * Kaltwelt (cd 2012)

Released as a 12″ and on cd with similar packaging. A hole in the cover shows a part of the foldout poster inside, well done. Anenzephalia made the great opening show for the 25 years of Tesco festival in november 2012. Anenzephalia is a classic German noise outfit that is aggressive in another way than the many projects that just produce an unstructured and brutal heap of noise. Simple, industrial rhythms, sometimes samples, but most notably are the aggressive vocals. “Kaltwelt” is no exception. After having seen Genocide Organ live, “Kaltwelt” is an easy-listening noise album, but I can assure you that this is not the kind of album that you want to play for your mother. If you know and like Anenzephalia, you can order “Kaltwelt” blindly (you may find it less brutal than earlier releases though). If you are trying to find your way through the jungle of musical masochism, you might find in Anenzephalia something quite harsch, but still enjoyable. I certainly like sound of mr. Moloch!
Links: Anenzephalia, Tesco

Anenzephalia / Inade / Operation Cleansweep * s/t (cd 2006)

A while ago I was playing Operation Cleansweep’s great “Powerhungry” album. I do not have either the 1996 original vinyl release, nor the limited cdr rerelease of 2007, so I had to pull it off the web. Curious if there would be any material available, I ran into this 30 minute split release with three great projects. Unfortunately the opening track of Anenzephalia is quite a monotous slightly noisy ambient track that is not too interesting. Also the other four tracks (two of Inade, two of Cleansweep) can be described as ambient noise while Inade is usually the dark ambient kind of project (with some noisy edges sometimes) and Cleansweep the wall of sound kind of noise project. All tracks are alright, but not what I hoped for. The best track is Inade’s “3 Million Minds”, a very dark ambient track.
Links: Anenzephalia, Inade, Teito Sound Company

Anenzephalia * s/t (cd 2001 death factory)

This isn’t the first band that I expected to release a cd on Cold Meat Industry, but obviously the world is not entirely forsaken of wonders. This untitled cd contains live recordings from september 1996 which are mastered by Peter Andersson and like the Blood Axis live cd put on cd without clapping, cheering and shouting of the audience. Those who know Anenzephalia will know what to expect: noise. Anenzephalia isn’t as extreme as many of their colleagues though. Maybe “sophisticated noise” is a good description for this music. You will hear the usual high frequencies, distorted sounds and samples, but not as a massive attack of noise. The most extreme element in the music on this cd are distorted screamed vocals.
Anyway, this untitled live cd is pretty good since the back-catalogue of this band is hard or no longer available, this is an easy way to get some Anenzephalia.