Exploring the audible outer realms of outsider electronics, strange computer games and exquisite and thrilling movies from the past and beyond.
søndag den 31. juli 2016
Dosis Letalis - In These Troubled Times
Harsh noise wall is a fairly new subgenre within the realm of noise music. Some have proclaimed that it was pioneered by Sam McKinlay (The Rita) in the late 90s. I felt for this style, mainly of its reason not to be "extreme" like power-electronics, or to overdo your finger skills in harsh-noise. Harsh noise wall is a non-dynamic treatment of static noise with minimal glimpses of hidden textures of images and sound, hidden within a thick distorted wall of noise. Similar ideas have been explored by the likes of Boyd Rice, Haters and the New Blockaders. Now a new genre of wall has been showing it´s ugly face, ambient noise wall. So what the heck is ambient noise wall?. Well, I don't know. All that I can say, is it´s like harsh noise wall with an atmospheric mood. And one of these is Serbian based Dosis Letalis, although I wouldn't actually call it ambient but it sure got lots of atmosphere and mood compared to others. Heard this act through the tape label Grey Matter Production´s Bandcamp site, and fell in love with this release. It grew on me and keeps on growing. In the same way like Earth debut from 1993 (with their sludgy drone/noise rock). Like Earth, the sound almost has a physical presence and it lifts you few cm of the ground (or the couch). It´s an evocative beast of hypnotic relentlessness, keeping your mind and ears at a constant curious state of mind.
With this tape (with cover art and album title), we´re working with a kind of a post-apocalyptic theme of despair and desperate human survival. And Dosis Letalis is the shelter we´re having, against whatever that want´s to hurt us. Makes sense to me. If you are curious about this underground noise genre, then this IS a good start. Dosis Letalis has had several releases under its arm, so be sure to check them out!
I´m a member of the music Facebook forum called Dungeon Synth, and on this very moment, I've become an addict to ancient melodies from forgotten times played out on a synth. From time to time I check up on this forum and find good releases, releases which are good enough to be released on cassette tapes. One of these is Foglord´s 2016 release Winter Dreams out on the label Out of Season. Know this that the Youtube introduction track above this. is not from the Winter Dreams album. But catches the feel 100%! Strange thing that I ordered it on Discogs; neither the band/project name hit me or the album cover art. On Bandcamp Foglord is described as this : "This project is an outlet for my spirit and dreams. It is also a dedication to the spirit of nature and the lands around me; my greatest influences". Which tells me, that this thing could be the worst thing ...... or something really really good. Anyways, I tried my chance and bought it for a decent price on Discogs. And now I am sitting here listening to it, for the third time now and think it´s one heck of a tape!. I fucked up converting my tape and ended up with the B-side to begin with, and I was struck by the first track on the B-side ´Glacial (Secrets Within the Ice)´ that this shit was promising, sounds like Tangerine Dream if they did the theme for David Lynch´s epic gothic sci-fi flick Dune ( and OFFCOURSE it sounds better than bloody Toto!). The cassette moves further into endless, beautiful and cold landscapes well worth the attention for any vintage synth lovers. Almost has this late 80s - start 90s synth and dark ambient retro feel, think early ritualistic Raison D´être or the Italian cosmic icy landscapes of Runes Order. And off course from time to time, there is that minor dark dungeon synth feel from time to time. Not a 100% dungeon synth release but more of a wonderfully atmospheric soundtrack tribute to classic synth vintage acts like Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno or even John Carpenter! This is the fifth cassette release from Foglord, and I will be looking forward to more. A good idea would be 2 get my hands on the early 4 cassette releases!
I hate planning, and I hate thinking of how I should use my time. From time to time, I do find the time 2 use my time on something that is worth my time (good thing). And one of these are the debut of a new and moody techno act from Copenhagen, Denmark called Sortlegeme (Black limb in English). The release does not have a title, and does not need one in my opinion. Neither does the tracks and titles (like that awesome untitled track by Blutharsh, der). Released on one of my favorite labels, Moral Defeat.
So?.. What kind of technoid being is Sortlegeme all about?. Well, I have read somewhere on the web (or being told by someone) that it is defined as world-techno. So yes, it fits the category nonetheless. We´re dealing with some kind of techno, old-school detroit´ish sound combined with a world´ish tribal and ritualistic undercurrent. And yes, I like it a lot. It does have a rare quality, it takes me back to that time when I fell in love with electronic music back in the early 90s. Catching up on Aphex Twin, Psychic Warriors of Gaia or FSOL on the radio, or on some late night show on MTV. And you can sense throughout the tape, that repeated listening is required.
Definable something which just, grows on you for every time. Best thing is how well balanced it is, it´s not a pitch black one nor a warm optimistic one either .. something undefinable between. Great to hear, that techno (in some way or the other) is still mutating it´s ever-shifting-body-of-sound. And the greatest news of this, is that there is a upcoming Sortlegeme tape also on Moral Defeat!.
The early Lovecraftian universe of Ramsey Campbell
As mentioned earlier, I have always been a die-hard Lovecraft fan. I´m also a great admire of those who carried his legacy after his death. One of those was a teenager named Ramsey Campbell, who did his first Lovecraft inspired tales in the 60s. He submitted his stories to August Derleth (Who ran Arkham House), who in return told Ramsey to change his settings to the English countryside (Instead of Lovecraft´s Massachusetts setting). He then went around and invented the place named Severn Valley, a setting of several fictional towns and other locations. Some of the hot spots described here.
"Brichester is the main town of Campbell's Severn Valley, the setting of several tales and often a background element of stories that take place elsewhere. (It plays the same role in Campbell's stories that Arkham does in Lovecraft's.)"
"Goatswood, first described in the short story "The Moon-Lens," is an isolated town surrounded by woods to the east of Brichester. The narrator of that story is struck by the town's atmosphere: "The close-set dull-red roofs, the narrow streets, the encircling forests—all seemed somehow furtive." As in Lovecraft's Innsmouth, the residents of Goatswood have a distinctive, offputting appearance; a typical resident is described as "revoltingly goatlike," resembling "a medieval woodcut of a satyr," and clad in "grotesquely voluminous" garments. Instead of worshiping a race of monsters from the sea (the Deep Ones), however, they worship Shub-Niggurath."
"Clotton, the scene of Campbell's "Dunwich Horror" pastiche, "The Horror From the Bridge", is a small town set where the river Ton flows into the Severn. Only a "few leaning red-brick houses... remain of the uptown section of the once-prosperous town;" the rest of the town was deliberately destroyed in 1931, for reasons explained in the story. In "The Horror Under Warrendown," Clotton is mentioned as "a small settlement which appeared to be largely abandoned, its few occupied houses huddling together on each side of a river." The story notes the town's "stagnant almost reptilian smell and chilly haze."
There are other interesting spots like Temphill, Camside, Mercy Hill. And let it be told, the area is crawling and haunted by several Great Old Ones (Glaaki, Byatis, Y´golonac, Eihort), evil aliens like the Fungi From Yuggoth and the Insects of Shaggai and off course various mentally twisted personalities, who deals in evil magical arts and archaic tombs.
Glaaki
In Cthulhu Mythos fiction, Glaaki is a Great Old One and dwells within a lake in the Severn Valley near Brichester, in England (though he has been reported in other lakes around the world). Glaaki has the appearance of an enormous slug covered with metallic spines which, despite their appearance, are actually organic growths. Glaaki can also extrude tentacles with eyes at the tips, allowing him to peer from underneath the water. It is believed that he came to the Earth imprisoned inside a meteor. When the meteor landed, Glaaki was freed, and the impact created the lake where he now resides.
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Byatis
Byatis, the serpent-bearded, the god of forgetfulness, came with the Great Old Ones from the stars, called by obeisances made to his image, which was brought by the Deep Ones to Earth. He may be called by the touching of his image by a living being. His gaze brings darkness on the mind; and it is said that those who look upon his eye will be forced to walk into his clutches. He feasts upon those who stray to him, and from those upon whom he feasts he draws a part of their vitality.
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Y´Gonolac
Beyond a gulf in the subterranean night a passage leads to a wall of massive bricks, and beyond the wall rises Y'golonac to be served by the tattered eyeless figures of the dark. Long has he slept beyond the wall, and those which crawl over the bricks scuttle across his body never knowing it to be Y'golonac; but when his name is spoken or read he comes forth to be worshipped or to feed and take on the shape and soul of those he feeds upon. For those who read of evil and search for its form within their minds call forth evil, and so may Y'golonac return to walk among men . . .
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Eihort
Eihort lives within a network of tunnels deep beneath the Severn Valley, in England. It appears as a "bloated blanched oval, supported on a myriad of fleshless legs" with eyes continuously forming in its gelatinous body. When it captures a human, it offers the captive a "bargain". If the captive refuses, Eihort rams the victim violently to death. If the captive accepts the offer, the horror implants its immature "brood" inside the victim's body. The brood will eventually mature, and kill their host. According to the Revelations of Glaaki, after the fall of humanity, Eihort's brood will be born into light.[1
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I would at anytime, recommend any Lovecraft fan to get into the early works of Ramsey Campbell. Best place for you to start, would be The Inhabitant of the Lake & Other Unwelcome Tenants. This contains the whole of his first published book, but also the previously unpublished first drafts of several stories, and it also restores the book's original title, which was changed by mistake. I would also recommend having The Cthulhy Mythos Encyclopdia by your side (Everything in Severn Valley can be looked up in this great book!). If you wanna go all the way you should check up on Visions from Brichester, it collects ALL his mythos tales in a beautiful hardcover edition. You can even get a signed copy in a slipcase, right here : http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/visions-from-brichester-hardcover-by-ramsey-campbell-3452-p.asp IF that´s not enough then there is off course the tribute book Made In Goatswood, with new and old writers doing their part to further expand the horrific tales of Severn Valley.
As with Lovecraft, there have been TONS of musicians who have given their tribute to the great master (Fields of the Nephlim, Metallica, Endvra exc). No one has done a track about Campbell´s mythos yet. All that I can find, is that in the Campbell´s tribute book Made In Goatswood there is a interesting sort of tribute (in the sense of music that is). Scott David Aniolowski (Who is a well known writer and leading editor of Lovecraftian literature) does a strange story called I Dream Of Wires. Which is interesting, unique and .. Weird? .. Well, he more or less takes the nightmarish cyberpunk universe of Tubeway Arny and puts it in a futuristic Brichester. I love the lyrics of the Tubeway Army, sadly Numan is writing poor lyrics for small angst ridden goth teenagers these days. Those Tubeway Army lyrics, has a Lovecraftian-Burroughs and Kafka taste to it!.. Well to wrap it up, i´ll end this with a lovely extended early version of Tubeway Army´s haunting piece Down In The Park .. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
What does a Norwegian maestro of subzero electronic ambient technoid soundscapes has in common with one of the greatest horror writers in our time? .. To be honest, not really that much.
All that I can say, is that Lovecraft did a horror novel called Mountains of Madness. The location of this story, is on the Antarctic continent. We´re following a group of explorers, which are being led by Dr. William Dyer. These men, discovers some ancient monolithic alien ruins, beyond a range of mountains higher than the Himalayas. There they soon discover hidden remains of an alien civilization, and much much more. So much, that most of the crew dies and goes completely insane!
60 years later, a certain Geir Jenssen of Biospere would team with H.I.A (Higher Intelligence Agency) and create one of the best electronic ambient albums in the 90s. It was simply called Polar Sequences. The cover art, shows distant and mystical pyramid shaped buildings in some kind of Antarctic landscape. The music itself is breathtaking!. Ice cold space ambient, recorded live on top of a mountain in Tromsø! (Norwegian). They even had microphones recording the sound of ice moving and melting, winds howling, echoes of distant people talking. And on top of that, icecold and gloomy sci-fi´ish landscapes of ritualistic synths completely drowns your senses. If your feeling too warm in the summertime, this will keep your body cooled. It does for mine!
So, what does that leaves us? .. Well.. if I ever could (And if I had the money), to do a movie based on Lovecraft´s Mountains Of Madness I would definite choose Polar Sequences. In fact I have read the story while listening to Polar Sequences, many times. Works like a charm! Do yourself a favor and try it out.
When I got a tape-converter (From tape to mp3), I already had established a fetish for the cassette format. In my childhood, all the great games of the C64 were on tape. And it took a lot of time and effort to load these small but great games. When the games loaded, you would sometimes get these flashy colors on your TV-set with wild and random electronic noises. There was something fascinating, about this archaic kind of entertainment technology. The same kind of feel I get, when I receive some tapes with some primal vintage electronics on. One of these is the cassette album Fever Holidays by Sweden based Studio SS. Started in 2009 by Jan Bertil Svensson, the guy who runs Börft Records and also member of other experimental vintage-synth acts Alvars Orkester and Frak. So far, one LP and 7 cassette releases on various Swedish labels for experimental music.
What I REALLY like about this act, is how OLD SCHOOL it is. Minimal, monochrome, vintage, raw and chunky electronic sounds that bites, scratches and soothes your ear. Would love to see the ancient equipment being used making this stuff! You can almost think of the electronic noises from the old Dr. Who Episodes, strange Dalek like voices talking in over the weird noise, the Tardis emitting even stranger sounds.
Fans of Lille Roger (pre Brighter Death Now), Maurizio Bianchi and even early TG would love this act!.. Sorry, since being underground (as it is) there was not any sounds on Soundcloud or Youtube. But do check up, on whatever there is on Börft records Soundcloud!.
Back in the day we had a band called Frontline Assembly, today we have a band called Front Line Assembly (notice the difference?). One of the major differences is the music ofcourse. Bill Leep started his career in Skinny Puppy, and later on started Frontline Assembly. Moody and simple futuristic proto electro-techno, with minor elements of electronic body music. There´s also the evidence, of the earlier ideas behind their dream-ambient/pop project Delirium hidden in these recordings. It´s old-school retro shit, think of old 80s sci-fi movies on VHS. A track like A Decade, sounds like Simple Mind´s Themes For Great Cities. Developing Suicide, has that Cabaret Voltaire sound. And some of it, is in the territory of Swiss band Yello. I guess you have 2 be a minor techno-nerd 2 enjoy this, any big fan of the newer recordings by Front Line Assembly would throw this in the trashcan. I enjoy them, and I love them. Lovely simple and low-fi demo-cassette quality, lots of charms!.
Dark Ambient from the bleak coastlines and windswept moors of the Gower Peninsula. That is the description about this bleak ambient project. Made by one man, Gregg Stockdale. He decided to release the She Weeps By The River 4 track EP on his Bandcamp. I was quick and bought it, cause I´ve already listened to the material on Soundcloud. So what kind of ambient music does Gregg create?. Well, have you ever had once those ... Sleep Paralysis (Hypnagogia)?.. Being very tired, and in your bed and suddenly you get that feeling. Your body is sleeping like a heavy corpse, but your mind or whatever is fully awake. The darkness around you feels more like a physical presence, in a unpleasant fashion your hearing intensifies, your vision fades in and out and your feeling sensation on your skin prickles .. like something is touching you. And in that time with your mind wide open (Around 10 minutes or so) your completely paralyzed to whatever your experiencing. The mood, the strange frozen-like darkness of this act reminds me of these nightmarish experiences. If I took my mind away (from whatever I just described to you), I think that we´re in some kind Lovecraftian countryside. If you ever read how he described the decaying city of Dunwich, then you´ll know what I mean. "Across a covered bridge one sees a small village huddled between the stream and the vertical slope of Round Mountain, and wonders at the cluster of rotting gambrel roofs bespeaking an earlier architectural period than that of the neighbouring region. It is not reassuring to see, on a closer glance, that most of the houses are deserted and falling to ruin, and that the broken-steepled church now harbours the one slovenly mercantile establishment of the hamlet. One dreads to trust the tenebrous tunnel of the bridge, yet there is no way to avoid it. Once across, it is hard to prevent the impression of a faint, malign odour about the village street, as of the massed mould and decay of centuries." There´s a ritual darkness in this, which works incredible good. She Weeps By The River, is the perfect ghost-themed ambient track I have heard in years. I´m thinking Blair Witch Project and ancient british ghost myths here. Inspired by the legend of the hideous Gwrach Y Rhibyn. Gaze Into The Darkness, And The Darkness Gazes Into You. Need I say more?. It Dwell Beyond the Peninsula is a realy creepy masterpiece, could also perfectly fit into the soundtrack of Ramsey Cambell´s The Inhabitant Of The Lake (If it ever was gonna made into a movie). Black Diamond Express To Hell is inspired by Rev.AW Nix. Infernal ambience, right up for the fans of Mz.412! .. So, go get it!. Let it be dark outside, light up a few candles with a good Cthylhu Mythos book, or a book about ancient ghost myths is England and let it work! ..
Dungeon synth is something new to me, or not. I have been aware of the early recordings by Scandinavian trolls like Mortiis and Burzum ( Dauði Baldrs), and other acts like Austrian Pazuzua and Cernunnos Woods. Nevertheless it is a interesting "electronic" escapist retro genre (In the same manner like Synth-Wave/Retro-Wave) which have resurfaced once again, and tons of independent artists are working in that field as we speak. One of these new artists/acts within this new scene which caught my ears, was Netherlands based Old Tower. Sofar this act (in 2015) have released 2 single sided cassettes, and 2 split cassettes with Orodruin and Sacred Dominions out on the labels Crude Form and The Shadow Kingdom. Old Towers have a certain sound in this sub-genre which I realy like. Think of the darkest occult driven episodes of Robin of Sherwood, with the necromantic and satanic evil sorcerer Baron de Belleme. A Dark, medieval esoteric soundtrack if you like. And the best of it all, is the raw and primitive attitude in the recording. Sounds like a tape, which have laid hidden in some creepy cellar for decades. There is no beautiful princesses and handsome knights here, only foul dungeons where only the undead and unspeakable horrors lay hidden. Dance Of The Goatmen, Blood Rituals In The Forest, Hermits Melancholy GOD I love these titles! And talk about the simple and genius cover art, fits PERFECT with the music . If wanna start somewhere with this sub genre, here is a good place to start!.
One of the first excellent acts I discovered on Soundcloud, was Dogs of Yama. I cannot remember how and when actually. I just spotted this interesting black and white picture showing, a sinister looking black skeletal stature holding hands with another feminine looking stature. The music was described as funeral noise, which off course sounded like something new. And I was right, I haven´t heard anything like this before. Well off course, I have been subjected to all kinds of experimental industrial and noise, but there was something different with this act. It´s was as hard and concrete like the early NON, minimal atmospheres like Atrax Morque, ritualistic evocative like early Ain Soph and heavy and heavy like Earth or Sunn (o))). Something between the borders of death-industrial/ambient and funeral doom. Way darker than Trepaneringsritualen!.. If your interested in destroying your mind and ears to this, I´ll recommend you to visit these pages! :
