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Tesco

Post Scriptvm – Eisstoß (2024)

Both the discography and the time that I know this Russian/American outfit go back 25+ years. But, the first release that I got of him was from 2002. Post Scriptvm is back on Tesco for the fifth (if I am correct) collaboration.

“Eisstroß” comes as a luxury vinyl and -of course- as a digital release. It opens with a somewhat noisy ambient piece with highly distorted ‘power electronics’ vocals. What follows are mostly the weird industrial ambient soundscapes that we know Post Scriptvm for, but often quite noisy again (fortunately!). The third track is a superb death industrial track, some of the best noise I heard in a while.

Overall the album contains perhaps a bit too much soundscapish material with too many high frequencies for my liking. The often used vocals give a bit of a ‘Gnawed feeling’ which is a plus.

Weird as I know him, dark as I like him and one sublime outburst. Overall a descent album.

Links: Post Scriptvm, Tesco

Abscheu – Creed (2023)

Contrary to some other noise projects, Abscheu has only released a handfull of albums since 2016. After some releases on Unrest, the project found its way to Tesco.

As on previous releases, “Creed” contains dark industrial noise with very extreme vocals. Some tracks are harsher than others. I again prefer the death industrial type tracks over the more ‘ambient’ and chaotic noise ones and especially the tracks that contain vocals.

Abscheu sound somewhat ‘typical’ for an Unrest project, but when it is good, that does not really matter. “Creed” is another good noise album.

Links: Tesco

Am Not – Cold + Disloyal (2022)

  • noise

It has been five years since the last cd of Am Not. The meantime has seen some tapes and vinyl. Now suddenly there is a double cd. It is not entirely clear to me what the history of this release is. The album can be listened to on the Bandcamp of a label called “Kampf Unrest” which has the logo of the (defunct?) Unrest Productions label that also released “Unpunished : Appendix” (2018). Bandcamp does not offer buying a physical copy. These physical copies appear to have to come from Tesco, but are not yet available.

Bandcamp says that there are: “10 new songs about dispossession”. According to the Tesco website, there are: “11 new songs about dispossession”. Perhaps the Bandcamp release is one of the cds and there is one long track on the other?

For now, based on the Bandcamp release, I can say that “Cold + Disloyal” has the ‘harsh noise’ style of Am Not. Walls of noise, industrial blasts, metal clanging, extreme vocals. There are not the more dark and structured tracks of the brilliant “Unpunished” (2015). Towards the end there is an ambient track and the Bandcamp album closes with an ‘organ track’.

Update 16/12. The digipack is a nice threefold double cd. The extra cd has an alright 23 minute noisy soundscape.

Am Not remains one of the more interesting ‘new’ noise acts. I am curious what the 11th track will bring.

Links: Am Not, Tesco

Bøltorn – Dødsverk (2022)

The over-active Hendrik Nordvargr Björkk has got a new project together with two other people. Even though two of their releases have been made available by Cloister Recordings (and two other by Old Europa Café), I have missed the project until this new release on Tesco.

By the way, there is one self-released EP in 2021 and all other six releases are from 2022!

What I have heard of the project so far is mostly somewhat typical, but excellent Scandinavian death industrial. On “Dødsverk” the sound is much more noisy. The industrial rumbling rhythms of other releases have made way for high frequency mayhem. I must say, that of all releases that I have listened to so far, I prefer all over this new one…

Concluding that the trio wants to explore different sounds and that most of their outputs are pretty good, we have another project to keep an eye on (and try to keep up with!).

Links: Bøltorn, Tesco

Brighter Death Now – Everything Is Gonna Be Alright (2022)

More BDN and he is touring too. Roger Karmanik appears to have an artistic upliving. “Everything…” comes as a 10″, listed as “CMI-03”, but available from Tesco. It does not appear to be a rerelease.

The first track is a throbbing piece of industrial. Not as harsh as BDN can get. A good track. The next track is more noisy, but again relatively tranquil. The same can be said about number three, but this is more industrial than the previous track and reminds a bit of Karmaniks older (Lille Roger) material.

Then comes the absolute highlight of this release. “Love Hard” has a bit of a Thorofon approach. A somewhat ‘rhythmic noise’ rhythm with vocals of an artist I was not familiar with: Åsa Tedebro. She looks pretty classically goth on her Discogs page and appears to be a guest singer every now and then, but not an artist (or band) of her own. Her dramatic vocals go perfectly well with the background noise that intensifies and calms down again. It appears that the Swedish electropunk band Isotope Soap (that I also think I was not familiar with) have something to do with this track. It is a great track.

Links: Brighter Death Now, Tesco

Operation Cleansweep – Release Now! The Call To Die (2021)

So “Release Now!” became a trilogy with old Cleansweep material and “The Call To Die” closes the series. Like the previous, it was released by Tesco.

You get material created between 1995 and 2004. Of the eight tracks I only knew one, “The Call To Die” which was on the live in Munich album from 2003. All other tracks are not even listed on Discogs, so they have probably never been available before and represent the “unreleased material of lost tapes and material” of Tesco’s ‘blurb’.

Style wise there are no surprises. Noise with slow rhythms, low frequency walls of noise and here and there death industrial. The material is good to amazing (how comes that a tracks such as “Algomania II” has never been released before?).

Most Cleansweep releases were from before I liked them, so it would be nice if other material will be made available again too. New material would be a good idea too!

Links: Operation Cleansweep, Tesco

Brighter Death Now – All Too Bad – Bad To All (2021)

The latest BDN comes through Tesco. It looks like this is the first cooperation between both industrial dinosaurs.

“All Too Bad” starts with a noisy piece of music, not the “death industrial” style of Karmaniks project. This already returns in the second track, which has a throbbing rhythm and far away distorted vocals.

Karmanik seems to have wanted to lay more stress on the noisy side of the project this time, as the following tracks are much more in a noise direction than death industrial. Usually there is some sort of industrial rhythm in the background though.

“All Too Bad” actually is not all that bad. Perhaps a bit short, but apparently I can stand the noise side of BDN better today than I used to. Perhaps I should start listening to older material.

Links: Brighter Death Now, Tesco

Lille Roger – Undead 1984-1987 (2021)

In 1995 I was in contact with Mortiis and so I also came in contact with Cold Meat Industry. I bought quite some of their back catalogue, but it was mostly the more tranquil material that I was interested in in the beginning. It took a while before I learned to appreciate things like Mental Destruction and MZ.412 and even longer before I started to like Brighter Death Now.

Lille Roger I of course knew by name. It was the pre-BDN project of the main man behind CMI, Roger Karmanik. The original “Undead” 7″ has been released in 1987 so it was long sold out. Also it was the final release of Lille Roger (and the start of CMI). The old project nevermore appeared on compilations, so I never really got to know Lille Roger.

Apparently there has been more releases before “Undead”. It is not entirely clear to me what the story is about his box set. Discogs has it listed as a 2018 CMI release, but only recently it seems to have been made available by Tesco. Is that a rerelease or did the CMI version never come about? Or is this a cooperation?

In any case, you can get this 64 track compilation as a Bandcamp release, a 7 lp box or a 5 cd box. It is quite pricey, but it seems to look good. I got myself the cd set, but waiting for the physical version, I can already listen to all the tracks on Bandcamp.

“Lille Roger” made what we would call death industrial nowadays I guess, but for some tracks ther term angstpop may fit the bill as well. Industrial noise with slow rhythms, samples and vocals. The vocals are somewhat ‘atypical’ as they are usually not heavily distorted and often even sung. The tracks are not as dark as BDN can get, but the sound does often already remind of BDN. Here and there the sound becomes a bit lighter.

Some tracks are somewhat simple, but many tracks are actually quite enjoyable. It is not overly extreme industrial music, so it is relatively easy to listen to. Not bad at all!

Link: Tesco

Dødsmaskin – Verdenssmerte (2020)

I have known Dødsmaskin for a while, but apparently I have never reviewed an album of theirs. I remember liking the first album that I heard in a style that I call “ambient noise” with here and there some dark ambient.

Later albums that I heard seemed to focus more on the dark ambient, with only here and there a noisy tone. Also more and more atmospheric elements seemed to find its way to the music. Thus came that I only liked some of the tracks.

After releases on Malignant and Cyclic Law, the project has been picked up by Tesco. “Verdenssmerte” opens with a soft piano and slowly but surely the track goes over into a noisy texture.

The second track sounds a lot more interesting to me. A somewhat industrial dark ambient soundscape gets some noisy tones after a while. This track is nicely dark and in the style of Dødsmaskin that I like best, especially when things get even more noisy.

After a more experimental ambient track comes another nice noisy industrial track, an alright industrial track and an ambient closing track.

Indeed, some tracks I like, most do little to me.

Links: Dødsmaskin, Tesco

Operation Cleansweep ‎– Release Now! Hungry For Power (2019)

Discogs.com

Tesco rereleased the 1996 debut album “Powerhungry” with an extra track.

“Powerhungry” is a classic in death industrial, a great album with brutal, industrial rhythms, violent vocals, but on ‘the noise scale’ closer to industrial than to noise.

The tracks have been reworked, some even stretched up and a 12 minute track has been added. It is called “Blood Is Tripping From Our Hands” (seriously) and it is a great Cleansweep track.

I have never been able to lay my hands on “Powerhungry”, so now I can get the nice looking digipack. Playing it was no problem, since it is the only Cleansweep album available on Spotify. Perhaps the other albums should be rereleased too!

Links: Operation Cleansweep, Tesco