Erdig - Habakuk

Yup... The cassette is ALREADY sold out! (ltd to 16 units). It was released the fourth of February 2018, sorry!. Yup, the second cassette release from Mr. Redig´s highly strange, ritualistic, religious, mysterious, and esoteric dungeon-synth inspired project. A weird and interesting being made out of pure moody sounds and slow melodies, authentic escapism into isolated aural aesthetics.

It´s something unique and entirely new, it is also something of a time-machine (for me). With Erdig, we are still getting these weird and eerie melodies... which take one back to early RPG soundtracks on vintage computers. I am talking about the AD&D and Bards tales games on the C64, or Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga500 (remember). Or maybe even the moody soundtracks for early Lucasfilm adventure point-and-click games on the PC, Secret on Monkey Island (that kind of stuff). The thing is with Erdig, is that other weird influences are being mixed/injected into this. Folksy and almost .. Jazzy elements are there! I wonder if he is into the Swedish folk and jazz musician Johan Johansson?. And then, of course, it still maintains the religious and spiritual esoteric feel. Hidden-and-secret-dungeon-under-the-free-masons-building kind of feel (if you please). Everything is marvelous on this album, from the start to the end. No bullshit! If you want to get further into the religious and esoteric mysteries of Habakuk, I suggest you read the info on the Bandcamp site. 

Three tracks, 30 minutes of pure esoteric pleasure! And talk about the cover artwork for the tape, each one being a unique thing for itself. For all you unlucky few who didn´t get the cassette, the music is still available through Bandcamp.   

   

Bandcamp:

https://erdig.bandcamp.com/

Videodrome

Cronenberg is the king of "what the fuck" and he established that title with The Fly, Naked Lunch and Videodrome, at least in my opinion. I have to admit I overlooked it a little bit but after rewatching, after so many years, I must admit it´s one of his finest works (being my favorite Naked Lunch, I´m sorry...)

Max Renn is the CEO of a soft porn tv channel who´s looking for something more... hmm... incisive to broadcast. He ends up discovering a scrambled satellite transmission of some very violent and sordid imagery and decides that´s the stuff he wants.
In the meanwhile he meets a very masochistic and annoying Debbie Harry (Blondie) who gets very turned on after watching said tape on his house and decides to audition to the show, never to return from it. Which I applaud since she´s my pet peeve. After further investigating, Max discovers the images are part of a snuff show with a mind control agenda and that´s when things get freaky. If they weren´t freaky enough!

Max starts having hallucinations (or are they really?) where a vagina hole thing opens up on his chest where videotapes can be inserted by the people who are behind Videodrome (in order to control him and make him do errands for them)... like kill people.
He manages to break their control with the aid of one of the project´s creators, kills two executives from his tv network and ends on an abandoned place shooting his brains after saying "long live the new flesh", and after watching himself do just that on a tv.
You get the idea...

Technically, the movie it´s awesome. Honestly, I can´t think of anything bad to say about it. It´s not that hard to follow as one might think. The soundtrack is pretty cool, I´m downloading it as we speak and the FX are great. Gory as hell but without seeming tacky or over the top as some other movies. I do like it. A lot.
When I first saw it. It didn´t strike me as being so awesome, maybe because I was so young and didn´t really understood it but now it seems so relevant.

We became so desensitized to violence and torture and sex, which became so mechanic and void, by watching it on a daily basis on tv that we became mindless machines, ready to be used. It was made clear in this movie and this is from 1983 so imagine it now with all the crap we have access to the internet. We can actually get access to snuff, very weird porn, people are being murdered right in front of our eyes and we get kicks out of it. Very fucked up kicks.

Weird that our world has kind of become Videodrome, isn´t it?

Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videodrome

IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086541/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Neo Tokyo

I´ve decided to do an anime review a day during this week starting today and I´m starting with Neo Tokyo.It´s been years since I first saw it and it´s still breathtaking. One of the most beautiful ever.

The 50 minute-long film has three segments, each with a different screenwriter and film director: Rintaro's "Labyrinth Labyrinthos," an exploration into the maze of a little girl's mind, Yoshiaki Kawajiri's "Running Man," focusing on a deadly auto race, and Katsuhiro Ōtomo's "Construction Cancellation Order," a cautionary tale about man's dependency on technology.

Labyrinth Labyrinthos is the first, following a girl and her cat into a labyrinthic surreal world, filled with weird characters and some Dali influences.

Running Man is the most overwhelming story about a racer that literally races to his excruciating death. It´s possibly the most impressive of the three shorts and the ending gives me chills.

Construction Cancellation Order sort of reminds me of a Phillip K. Dick story. A guy goes to this construction place where only robots are at work. Being the only human there, and also the supervisor, he begins to go against the main robot worker, a twitching, mad character who´s forcing the other robots to work on the construction until they literally explode and who was programmed to eliminate anything that poses a threat to the project. Being against it, the guy almost gets killed by the robot and while trying to escape the facility, the government re-activates the contract and the ending scene is the guy going to what it seems a giant robot of epic proportions.

You have to see this, it´s completely mandatory. One of the finest animes ever made, everything it´s so detailed, so well done. One of the most visually beautiful and overwhelming animated movies ever.

Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Tokyo_(film)

Heulen - Rèquiem per una Autòpsia

The Heulen project started around 2016 by members from Gyakusatsu, Persona, and Alozeau (just to name a new). 2 Gents firmly rooted deep into the Spanish underground industrial/noise/dark-ambient scene. This cassette is the third release of this act which also includes a nice little badge, released on the Spanish label Marbre Negre. Worth mentioning is that last year, a single-sided cassette + a 10" split with Noir Noir have also been released (for the curious). 

A more industrial orientated release from Heulen (as they do mention). The album firmly kickstarts with a rhythmic and pulsating sound called Herbst Blut, "traditional" in the sense of Spanish Industrial legends Esplendor Geometrico. Heulen manages to fuse this pulsating (and relentless!) technoid demon with elements of metallic harsh-noise. A worthy treat an intro to the album, sounds great! The next track Lo Real Y To Avenso mixes slow and machinelike distorted drums with a spooky piano and evocative spoken words (in Spanish), kind if Spanish horror movie soundtrack here. Third track keeps you awake while your rhythmic adrenaline is pumping through your body, while harsh noise seeps in the small cracks!. ´His Gods´ being the fourth track on the album works in a hypnotic being-sucked-into-a-dimension kind of feel. Ritualistic and organic machine-drums, acid-drenched sound-aesthetics, moody distorted slaps of noise and female vocals going from spoken words to screaming. And the last track tunes it down as a perfect way to end the album. 

All in all, very decent and good ideas being fused together. Industrial rhythms, punishing harsh noise, ritualistic moods and additional spoken vocals and haunting piano parts. A nice addition to any collector of obscure cassettes!

Bandcamp (band):

https://heulen.bandcamp.com/

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/r-quiem-per-una-aut-psia

Facebook (band):

https://www.facebook.com/heulenbcn/

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/marbre.negre         

They Live

What can I say about this movie... One of my all-time favorites. I absolutely love John Carpenter, I can say it´s my favorite director.

They Live is a 1988 science fiction horror film written and directed by John Carpenter. The film stars Roddy Piper in his most famous role, who discovers that the ruling class is aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media. It is based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson.

The only way you can break through all the noise and see through the aliens´disguise is by using a pair of special glasses, which reveals their real hidden face and all the hidden messages surrounding people everywhere. I almost wish there was a sequel.

So many years have passed and if you see this now, it still impacts. I guess more than ever. We are surrounded by technological development that, instead of making us better people, it makes us vile, stupid and behave like sheep. The media have trapped us and there´s no Roddy Piper to save our asses.

The soundtrack is brilliant and so is the ending of the movie.

It´s funny and awesome, one of the greatest from the Master and one of the greatest and most iconic 80s movies. 

Almost.

IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096256/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Veiled Monk - The Arbiter & The Demiurge

The second release from this mysterious U.S dark-ambient project, being released on the U.K/U.S label Cephalopagus Records. This is also the first physical album which the label has released, a fantastic looking digipack with hand-drawn artwork (As I have been told!). The album was released back on 29th of January 2018, so it´s still pretty new and fresh!. So, let us try to... unveil this monk!

What does the title of the album suggest, what theme do we have here? Well, it practically means the/a Judge and the/a master of Gnosticism. That master of Gnosticism may well be someone who calls himself Yaldabaoth. According to the legends, the world was created by seven Archons who were in-turn servants of the Demiurge (Yaldabaoth). This demiurge was the creator-god, something which stood between humans and God (more or less). The cover artwork also shows the Demiurge, as i found out via Internet sources: 

"A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures may be a depiction of the Demiurge."

The big question remains, who is the Arbiter then?. Guess it may be us... humans?. Do we dare to call our selfs "judges" in front of a creator god? I don't know... but in any case, if you (or anyone else for that matter) really want/wanted to be closer to God then the goal may be obtained via Gnosticism. And what Gnosticism is, well... I am no expert. I can only reveal this to you: 

 Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός gnostikos, "having knowledge", from γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge) is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian mileus in the first and second century AD. Based on their readings of the Torah and other Biblical writings, these systems believed that the material world is created by an emanation of the highest God, trapping the Divine spark within the human body. This Divine spark could be liberated by gnosis.

Woawww... Let us take a break from the heavy academic theme here and let us ask ourselves this; Does the recorded music work with the artwork and the highly mysterious esoteric theme?. Well yes, let me explain! 

Synth based and beautiful multi-layered dark-ambient with string-drones plus occasional ceremonious voices. As I have mentioned before, I am not much into modern and spacy dark-ambient BUT... This album really works for me. It seems VERY sincere and honest, not just another dark-ambient artist doing the paul-stretch effect as a mean to catch that ´Lustmord-or-Raison-D´être´ wipe (Whatever that is). You can really sense and feel that the artist has worked hard on this, something of his own creation 100%. And the achievement is marvelous! I don´t feel like describing each track for the reader here... since I feel that the listener should try to explore the experience him/herself. An incredible album is all that I can tell you. Numerous/repetitive listening is recommended, a lot of sound layers and a lot of ways of mentally digesting this ambient album. Worth your time, sure worth mine!.

Bandcamp (label):

http://music.cephalopagus.com/album/the-arbiter-the-demiurge

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/cephalopagusrecords/

Facebook (artist):

https://www.facebook.com/veiledmonk/

Rymdborg - s/t

A strange and new cassette has shown its appearance, debut cassette for the act as well. It was "promoted" via the social networks as: 

Medieval Space Travel Ambient. No sales. No orders. No booking.

And that is all u get; No Bandcamp, Discogs ... Or Myspace (whatever that is). You just pop in the cassette are you are ready to go, a strange voyage into an even-stranger cosmic territory. Don't worry, we are not talking about space-ambient with a nice glossy cover-artwork. Highly esoteric, mysterious, convincing, unique, primitive and murky soundscapes. I truly hate (always) mentioning the Cold Meat Industry tag, but for those who love the early and harsh death-ambient sound of Megaptera or Memorandum would definitely 100% love this. It has that almost mythical aesthetic experimental charm, and it really does sound like an early recording from back in the day. The moody flesh-scraping harshness is joined up by folksy, droneish and rather-merry organ-synths, a nice (and working!) mixture of two opposite elements.Almost works as a religious experience. Here the A-side ends and the B-side starts, continuing the religious thing which evolves into something rather...mind-bending. There is no doubt about it that the great cosmos is something truly awe-inspiring. Almost like something which can snap your mind, maybe this medieval rocket have entered the chamber of the outer god Azathoth? Which is something which will blow most minds into utter madness?That something that makes us human feel utterly insignificant compared to the great cosmos. It all ends in a moody and slightly melancholic down-tuned dungeon synth-tune, giving the passengers a nice descent back/down to earth. True stoner-synth? 

This tape makes you thirsty for more, I want to travel with Rymdborg anytime!. Wanna track down this cassette? What tip can I give you? Track down a little Irish-looking sword-carrying gnome (wink wink). Well... What are you waiting for?!.

   

Josef Nadek - Bluatig Hart

As you all (probably) have noticed; the so-called popularity and fame of our favorite evil Santa-Claus and Austrian-bred Christmas horror-ghoul Krampus have been slowly on the rise for the past 5 years or so. Countless horror movies and appearances in various pop-horror inspired tv-series like Supernatural and Grimm, even being mentioned in a food and cook series with Anthony Bourdain (Christmas special). There is no doubt about it that Krampus will probably be more around with us for some time. 

A year after Krampus: The Christmas Devil (2013) horror-flick was released, an experimental and highly productive noise/ambient artist named Josef Nadek thought of having a go with with the Krampus theme. He has been meddling with weird, outrageous and rather abstract soundscapes since 2009. For a clear overview of his productivity, I suggest you give his Discogs site a visit.

This release was exposed to the public back in Christmas 2014, limited to 50 copies (sold out, I got the last one!). Still of course available by digital means via Fall Into Void´s Bandcamp site. 

We´re dealing with a 20-minute 4-track treat of Christmas eerieness, handling the effects of spooky ambient field-recordings to ritualistic mood glitches and further into abstract and brutal-distorted sound-aesthetics. Nurse With Wound, Sutcliffe Jugend and Coil fans should take notice. Quite convincing feats of created sound material, unique - fascinating and scary at the same time. Not exactly a kind of album decent to listen to when you are sociable with a bunch of people, but absolutely perfect when you are alone on Christmas evening!. You don´t really have to be in a Christmas mood to listen to this, works most of the seasons I think. When I miss the dear Krampus fellow in the summertime, I think I´ll have a listen to this excellent tape.

Bandcamp (label):

https://fallintovoidrecs.bandcamp.com/album/fivr-63-josef-nadek-bluatig-hart

Bandcamp (Josef Nadek):

https://josefnadek.bandcamp.com/

Discogs (Josef Nadek):

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1443625-Josef-Nadek

Balin´s Tomb - Shadow of Mordor

How obscure can dungeon synth get?... anyone?. I am in no doubt that this Russian act called Balin´s Tomb is probably one of the most obscure Tolkien-inspired acts I´ve heard so far. I haven´t located any other releases by Balin´s Tomb, nor have I located any info on either Facebook or Discogs. So this is all you get (so far), release details on Bandcamp do inform us that this album called Shadow of Mordor works, as a compilation of tracks being collected. 15 tracks, 30 minutes. Most of the tracks are about 1 minute 20 seconds long, last two tracks run longer.

It does sound like some early black-metal band in the cellar being drunk and shit, and doing all this kind of scary orc-synth music. BUT, the thing is that it does have a childish and convincing sound. It´s pretty abrasive and primal and just ... eerie and other-worldly sort of. I can´t help but compare it with the eerie Halloween-synth cassette Pumpkin Witch (see former review). It´s one of those where you just ... Well, it is one of a kind!. Outsider dungeon-synth if you like. If anyone would be throwing of a party and playing Mortiis all night, and you end up putting this baby on (after having several strong alcoholic beverages of course) people would PROBABLY give you this look!. (look below)

But who cares, it´s fuckin brutal and primitive orc-synth! ... not a halfbreed goblin/elf like Mortiis, who sometimes reminds me of the goblin-looking Blix (from the movie Legend with Tom Cruise). Give it a go, play an orc in some RPG instead of a boring human fighter. Bee someone who can just do whatever they feel like... Bash someone's skull in and eat their entrails (if you like). And check out the awesome looking cassette, 33 limited sewn into black leather emblazoned with the white hand of Saruman. Nice! A must-have for any orc fetishists. 

Bandcamp:

https://stenchovdeath.bandcamp.com/album/balins-tomb-shadow-of-mordor

Dryads - Of Arcane Fires

According to Greek mythology, Dryads are tree nymphs. Shy creatures being on good terms with the goddess Artemis. Nymphs (in General terms) are female nature deities associated with a specific location or landform, and in this case, it is trees. If one would look at the album title and the titles for the tracks, then we could guess that we (more or less) are in ancient pagan/druidic territory.

So you probably imagine that this act hails from some isolated village in England or Ireland (for that matter).  But no, it actually hails all the way from Mexico City!. Yes, one of the most polluted big cities on the planet (I Think!). Probably not the nicest place for a Dryad to live, or is it?... In any case, the acts describe themselves like this:   

´Dryads is a multidisciplinary project that mixes neoclassical, dungeon synth and ambient music with visual arts and literature that, as a whole, casts a spell of total immersion.´

So are we dealing with a traditional dungeon synth release, hell no!. VERY interesting and ritualistic, almost traditional chamber music meets up with classic Dungeon & Dragons soundtrack music. We´re not deep in the dungeons with dwarves and goblins, but deep into mysterious and forgotten forests. And if you are not careful, you´ll probably be lured/seduced away deep into the forest by the Dryads... Never too be seen again. 

Still in doubt? Then take a listen to A Veil That Breathes Our Spirit!. There are also tribal/new-age sounding ambient-electro in the mix, which takes me back to Morthound´s classic Spindrift from 1992. Whoever did that album, is a master (with a good imagination) and a decent synth. Neo-classical epic tunes with martial drama-drums and metallic percussion can be heard (and felt!) on the evocative Beneath the Shadow. A Spell of Rebirth is a beautiful and also a truly grim treatment of utter despair, doom and hopelessness. It all ends well with the breathtaking To Nail Swans At Dawn (interesting title eh?). Again a nice fusion mix between neo-classic/martial and dungeon synth. Actually (for some reason) the track almost had that sound of early Cold Meat Industry (label) neo-classical acts, Puissance - Arcana - Morthhond (just to name a few). An extra piece of info regarding this release is that it was produced by none-other than Attrition main-man Martin Bowes (A band/artist worth the chk up if you ask me)

A worthy investment for a broad expanse of listeners. For the dungeon synth fans, neoclassical/martial fans, and ambient fans. A LOT of work has been put down on this one album, so what are you waiting for?! And the cassette is a true beauty as well. Limited to 50 copies via the excellent label Ancient Meadow Records. 

Bandcamp:

https://dryads.bandcamp.com/album/of-arcane-fires

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/dryadsofficial/

Label:

http://bandcamp.ancientmeadow.com/

GrayOcean - ...and Became The Ocean

Eerie music for eerie times. GrayOcean is a new eerie act out with an eerie album-title called ...And Became the Ocean. The artist himself describes it as something between dark-folk and atmospheric dark ambient. I would myself (dare) to use words like glitch, neo-classical and kind of ... apocalyptic avant-garde, electronica, and synth driven mood music. It´s definitely a unique experience. The statement from the artist himself sounds like this:

     "…and Became the Ocean” is a particular personification of a human’s soul regarding the ocean. It looks calm and endless on the surface being full of mysteries deep inside which can be unraveled not by everyone."

The album offers slowly build orchestral and neo-classical epicness, melancholic piano parts, surreal glitch sounds, trippy martial drums, evocative choirs, organ-sounding synths. It sounds very Russian (if you ask me). Kind of in the style of Bardosenecticube, Girnų Giesmės, and Reutoff. I would also recommend it for those who are into the likes of Coil, When (Norway) and also the later more electronic-based albums and EPs by Ulver. 

All in all a pretty decent album which has most ups and few downs. It´s unique, well made with LOTS of good ideas being fused altogether. BUT, there are parts where there are some (I think) unintentional glitch-errors in the recorded piano parts. I love glitches (believe me), but these glitches ruin the piano parts. So yes, it is a good album without a doubt. He just needs to fix those piano glitches.

Bandcamp:

https://grayocean.bandcamp.com/album/and-became-the-ocean

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/atmograyocean