Kalteldur top 10 of 2018

2018 have seen the most productive year on Kalteldur, it has also seen the most un-productive months on Kalteldur aswell; New daily jobs, new-born babys, computers that run down etc etc. Nevertheless, it has been decided (for me only) to produce a kind of... top-of-the-pops top-10 for greatest smash hits on Kalteldur, a kind of heads-up for those who missed out some of the really greats which I gave my ears to. So here it goes!

Number 10:

Kraaiengebroed - S/t

 

Ominoud Recordings 

The murky world of Kraaiengebroed, how could I forget it? Black Witch Twin Peaks Project drowned and submerged in blackened thick tar of despair. Black apopcalyptic and angelic ambient-moods meets death-industrial sound-drones, about 85 minutes long!. This release came to my ears around Halloween, and yes ... It made it all worthwhile and a hell-of-a-lot scarier! A must for any tape-collector with a taste of raw-ambient music!

Number 9:

Zoloft Evra - Wounds of No Return

Liquid Death Records 

Another release which deserves anyone attention was the latest dose of suicidal bitterness from Zoloft Evra. Not only did they manage to create their most beautiful release in their discography, but they also made the perfect fusion between post-rock, drone and industrial-ritual music. Even sound-aesthetic ear-candy-drops of suicidal black metal hides in the murky... but seductive shadows! I loved it from the start to the end, and so should you!

 Number 8:

Mind of God / Di-Noise - Mindnoise

 

Renacer Records 

 

 

One act from the United States and one act from Peru meets up and creates the ultimate split release of 2018. One act having its feet firmly on exquisite rhythmic-downtempo industrial doom´ish soundscapes of despair. The other act being on a high-tech technoid ambient-glitch spaceship, exploring vast quantities of intelligent dance music and cyberpunk inspired retro-wave and 8-bit tunes. What do you get?. Something quite unique and extremley refreshing, listening from the start to the very end is recommended!. 

Number 7:

Ivonne Can Cleef - 1-5 EPs

 

Luxury Bucket

 

One of the best psychedelic (and guitar-based) albums I have heard in a very very long time. Rural psychedelia through soundtracks like Paris Texas via Twin Peaks?. The sound is amazing, and the aesthetic depths of it being almost breathtaking. The first 5 EPs have been released by Luxuty Bucket as a double cassette box, worth every second (and penny).

Number 6:

Rymdborg / s/t  

 

Not everyday we stumple upon something as unique and new as the self-titled debut cassette (and RARE!) as the self-titled Rymdborg vol.1. Taking elements from dark and raw drone-ambiance and primal cosmic incredients located on early kraut-rock (Clutster, Tangerine Dream etc). Fans of dungon synth will ALSO find their love in this, that also goes for fans for that old (and classic!) Cold-Meat-Industry sound. If you have that need to seek out INCREDIBLE rarities, then jump onto the space-rocket and seek this indie release!.

Number 5:

Lyke Wake - Crawling Through the Abyss of Pain / Symphonic Noise

 

Aseptic Noise

 

One of those classic acts within esoteric industrialism that just wont quit! And the latest from Lyke Wake is NO exception!. 2 tracks over 75 minutes long, simplified as being one of thee BEST synth-driven albums of 2018. Fans of anything synth-wise, seek this one out!. The soundtrack of early Italian horror-flicks merges with cosmic Berlin school. Incredible epic, religious, spiritual and just ...  beyond... 

Number 4:

Suture - Target

 

Black Ring Rituals

 

Is industrial music a dead horse?... Actually it is BUT, some artists/acts are still getting inspired by that pure and old sound. And some artists/acts takes that and puts it into a modern sound. Suture actually sounds like... if industrial music started in 2018?. For fans of Anenzephalia, Maurizio Bianchi, Esplendor Geomtrico and early Coil. My absolute favorite industrial release of 2018!  

Number 3:

Damien De Coene - Springtime Depravity

 

Marbre Negre

 

 

Soothing brutality in a time where everything grows and gets green. The air gets warmer and the very fragent in the air can trigger ... those certain needs inside. Springtime Depravity is all about that. A multilayered HNW/ANW-treat with natural/real-recordings. The sound is amazing, almost physical. I can almost hear angelic voices in-a-loop in the background! A natural sounding noise-wall with tons of atmospheric dynamics, a lovely treat!.

 

Number 2:

Melómana Distorsión+Eye Floater - Amusia

 

Oido Iritado Records

 

Had to be one of the best walkies with my Discman. Summertime means vacation, vacation means to travel somewhere where you haven´t been before. In my case I was on the island of Langeland (In Denmark), following the beautiful and natural local beach then trough a mysterious looking forest. Very tall and straight thick trunks going way up, and up there you couldnt see the sky through the leaves. Yup... guilty as charged, I was thinking of wood-elves in the Lord of the Rings. But anyways, this strange ambient album was running on my discman and the whole experience just melted together. Felt like I was meant to be in this forrest, with this album on my discman. Right now I am sitting in my cellar room while listening to it, and it still... feel like that. You are almost meant to hear it, it is soo damn good! Evocative mysterious ambient at its best, fans of Controlled Bleeding - Eno or Nocturnal Emissions HEADS UP!. 

Number 1:

Megaptera - Disease

 

Ur Muzik 

Kind unfair ain´t it?. The stuff hasn´t even been made in 2018.. IT Is A BLOODY RE-ISSUE!. And yes it is, it is a bloody re-issue (and a REALLY decent one if you ask me). One of the ancient and classic acts have had one of their sought out (and too expensive on Discogs) releases re-issued. One of the most importent industrial acts from the 90s? Ground-breaking pioneers of their unique death-industrial style? Ever thought that everything that was good about that early CMI sound, can be found on nearly every album by Megaptera?. Almost like a concentrated formula, everything works! (and it still does). BEAUTIFUL re-issue with the sound just re-mastered juust right!. And the artwork offcourse in a beautiful digipack. Still not convinved, then go around their Bandcamp site and give this classic a listen! It is that fxxxxxx brilliant!.    

Merzbow pt. II. 

Written by Kristian Robert Carter

In my last post, I outlined my three choices of the most important albums in the early Musique Concrete period of Merzbow. In this post, I will deal with arguably his most productive period the 1990's and what is known as the Japanoise years.

This is the Merzbow that most people are familiar with. The harsh sonic overload. All channels maxing out in the red. A brutal slab of feedback and pulverising sound. Propulsive, fluctuating brutality. Unflinching and inhuman in its unforgiving aggression.

Much of this work especially in the early part of the '90s was a homage to grind and death metal. Drawing on the idea of the full-on assault to the senses and taking it way beyond anything seen in those genres.

Merzbow began to get international recognition around this point and there was a clamour of labels in Europe and the USA baying to release his work.

This was when I first discovered Merzbow mainly from a number of reviews and articles I had seen and read in the industrial music journal Music From The Empty Quarter.

Choosing three albums from my favourite era of Merzbow was a real headache as he was on a creative role at this point in time and to be honest, ninety percent of the material produced during this time, is of a very high standard.

1) " Tauromachine "

Possibly my favourite Merzbow release. Issued in 1998 by American label Release Records. A monstrous metallic blow to the skull. Mastered at a level far above most other music releases. This relatively short album is a cacophonous shower of overloading circuits, feedback, strange analogue squelched pulsing and what sounds like shards of steel crashing into glass ad infinitum. An almost dub-like sense of rhythmic momentum drives the tracks forward whilst a kaleidoscopic prism of myriad Soundwaves explode across the airwaves. If you could see sounds like a painting or a photo this would be a Jackson Pollock or a photo from the Hubble space telescope. An explosive 40 minutes of cosmic implosion.

2) " Venerology "7

Another album released by Release Records, this time in 1994. Wherein Tauromachine is a prismatic burst of psychedelic light this album is a leviathan of burnished steel and cobalt black darkness. A tidal wave of grindcore aesthetics magnified and amplified thousands of times till the initial image is lost sight of and all remaining semblance to any kind of musical endeavour is erased. Replaced with what sounds like a chrome whale convulsing in its death throes in an electrical storm. One of the most brutal albums I have ever heard. Literally an endurance test from start to finish. The artwork of corpses and body parts is unusual for Merzbow standards but works as the whole album is a nod of approval from Merz to the Extreme metal genre.

3) " Space Metalizer "

1997 ZSF release is the sound of raw energy honed into perfect blades of savage power. A lot more restrained and focused than the two albums mentioned above. This focus does not diminish the intensity but fixes it on targeted points. Rather than a raging ocean of sound, the tracks on Space Metalizer have controlled bursts of psychedelic scree. Colossal shards of fragmented synth are knitted tightly together by almost Kraftwerkian beats. There is a sense of Krautrock here and Motorik rhythms, however, it is twisted and mauled well beyond recognition.

Other recommended releases from this period are - Electric Salad, Hybrid Noisebloom and the utterly insane Rectal Anarchy.

Next. The laptop era.

Merzbow part I. 

Written by Kristian Robert Carter

As a long-term Merzbow fan and avid collector, I'm often asked what are my favourite albums of his, or what I'd recommend as an entry point to his vast catalogue of work. To understand Merzbow and to begin to analyse his output it is best to divide the material up into 4 sections.

Firstly his initial Musique Concrete experiments from the early '80s, then the Japanese noise period of the nineties, the laptop era in the first decade of the new century and his more recent return to analogue since around 2010. With 40 years of music and close to 500 releases it is a gargantuan task to leap into his discography.

I was asked to name my ten favourite albums by Merzbow but I found that too daunting so what I've done is choose my top three from each of the four separate distinct phases in his artistic Career.
Firstly I will deal with his early experimental works, or his Musique Concrete years from the 1980s.

These were Masami's first forays into recording and much of it is very lo-fi and sparse compared to his later slabs of obliterating sound. Owing a debt to Nurse With Wound & The New Blockaders as well as free jazz practitioners much of this early work was on limited cassettes and is extremely hard to track down.

Luckily a lot of it has been released in a restored form on the Merzbox ( heavily edited ) and more recently as full releases by Italian label Menstrual Recordings.

So here I chose my three personal favourites from the early years.

1) " I'm Proud By The Rank Of The Workers- Live In The USSR "

Limited vinyl album released by ZSF in 1988, documenting two live shows in the Soviet Union. Side one is a beautiful chunk of concrete abrasion whilst side two is more ' melodic ' and has Masami on drums. An almost jazz-like freeform jam. Sheffield Jazz core abusers Aufghoben obviously drew heavily on this release for inspiration for their nightmarish jazz pummellings. The tale is that Soviet authorities were not happy with the noisier experimental sounds of the first night and told Merzbow to make it more musical on the following performance the night after. Hence the quite disparate sides of vinyl.

2) " 抜刀隊 With Memorial Gadgets " 

A staple choice with most long-term Merz fans. Originally released in 1986 as a double vinyl album this album has it all. Scrapes, clatter, clutter, junk metal abuse, dada-inspired randomness, tape manipulation, splicing and a general sense of absurdist mayhem. This album manages to be threatening, ridiculous, humorous and queasy all at once. Which makes it at once pretty gruelling and at the same time also rather inviting. Merzbow is often portrayed as Mr Poker Face but this album is maybe his most absurdist humorous adventure. Still sounds fresh and challenging today.

3) " Lowest Music "

One of the earliest Merzbow tapes. Released in 1982. Recently reissued as a vinyl by Italian label Urashima. A stomach-churning grind and scrape of junk electronics, found sounds, tape loops and analogue audio garbage. At times it sounds like a jazz band whose instruments have been replaced with claw hammers and band saws. 

Next post. The Japanese noise period.