MB - T.P.T.M.B.T.D. 

Written by Kristian Robert Carter

" Dedicated to all those who are searching for the truth " Whose truth? Truth is in short supply these days. Perhaps it's always been this way but in the fast paced hyper technological world we inhabit, truth has actually become a commodity. Truth is invented, truth is traded, truth is manufactured. In the era of fake news and misinformation; one must ask both what truth and whose. Maurizio Bianchi has been seeking the elusive and spiritual in the temporal for over four decades now. In his formative years he sought some kind of humanity in the increasingly cold mechanistic industrial environment of his native Italy. Vainly attempting to unearth the logic that lay behind the crushing facade of a society that perpetuates dehumanization and isolation within its socio economic sphere. In essence what Bianchi tried to capture with his early sound experiments was the complete atomisation of the individual within the technological world. He could see that rather than liberating us from our shackles, that very technology was instead entrapping us inside a bleak and sterile cell. Alone and isolated. Nothing more than an isolated atomic particle colliding in vain against the walls of our own technological hell. Through his bleak and cacophonous audio works he created an audible portrait of the static screams of the human race; as it was consumed by the very equipment they had created to liberate themselves. He stared headlong into the abyss and what he saw repulsed him He walked away. He sought a truth far from the technologic hell he had surveyed. Maurizio found some of the truth he had sought and returned after a lengthy absence. In order to continue his search for meaning through sound and art. To use music as a tool to explore his new spiritual truth. This album released on Japanese label Music Atlach is a remastered work that first appeared on cassette in 2015. Lavishly packaged and lovingly restored from the original master recordings. T.P.T.M.B.T.D is a lengthy disk. Comprising of two thirty minute sections. The first track entitled Tele Pro Thermo unfolds slowly, as if the track is a photograph that is obscured by smoke. As the smoke begins to dissipate the blurred image begins to slowly become discernible. I say photograph because the track is static, there is very little movement at all and in fact the movement is perhaps only distinguishable as the movement of the dissaptating smoke that clouds the frozen image. If your hoping for a clearer glimpse of what's actually upon the exposed photograph you'll be dismayed to find that the actual Polaroid is a blurred mess of distorted scenery. To actually ascertain what is captured in that exposed image is virtually impossible. One can only catch a fleeting glimpse of what may or may not be there. There are faint edges, contours and protusions but that is all. Everything is out of focus and ill defined. Whatever truth is lurking imperceptibly within the image is out of grasp. Trying to clutch at this truth will leave you frantically clawing at mist. There is nothing to hold onto and that truth will slip effortlessly through your outstretched fingertips.

The second track engimatically titled Mikro Bio Tetra Dys is a haunting floating hymn to an unrealised dystopia. Through the bleak murky fugue that surrounds this piece a choral chord sequence threatens to pierce the gloom and bring into this shade world a searing flash of luminence. However despite how hard the light pushes it is unable to break through the gloom and instead it is buried within the greyness that seeps at a funerary pace across the track. There is hope but it is only by piercing the darkness will you find any kind of salvation. Maurizio Bianchi has looked into that darkness and he has found his truth, his salvation. The question is; are you willing to do the same?

Official website:

http://www.menstrualrecordings.org/maurizio_bianchi.htm

Wikipedia:

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

Hedvig Brandt on Radio Arkive

Fellow Kalteldur journalist Hedvig Brandt from Jutland, Denmark has the pleasure of presenting a new radio program on the internet "Radio Arkive"

As a DJ, she is known to play obscure tracks on her sets.
She goes way back to the 80s, where she started as a "Waver" more commonly known now as a Goth. She kept the tradition as identifying as a Goth for more than 30 years and has many tracks up her sleeve.

Her program is every Saturday on Radio Arkive, Danish time 19.00

Brasil time 14.00, where she will
play obscure 70's, 80's and 90s music, also allowed to play (up to 2002) newer cover tracks of these decades. Interested? Click on the link below!

Arkive Radio:

http://arkiveradio.com/?fbclid=IwAR36koHEY9zkgO-ZkYE2wBZXzmYY3PqEQuACMRBd2jUPJ6mPbQfF-c57M7Q

Javier Pinango & David Area - Drôle de Guerre

One of the latest releases from Spanish industrial-drone experimentalist Javier Pinango, you may have noticed another excellent release with him which we reviewed back in 2017 (Two Unfocused Cardinal Points). The album has been made in the company of a David Area, which has been thoroughly active in the Spanish experimental scene. This one also came out on Marbre Negre by digital means and physical as a 50 copies ltd. CD in an awesome looking slim-line digipack (Notice the fantastic cover artwork here folks!). A 7 tracks album, almost 80 minutes long!. This one is actually a live-recording... really interesting stuff here!.

First tracks open the ears to rusty glitch-sounds dripping into your brain, distant screaming, and hypnotic metallic drones, monotonic death-industrial bass-rumblings joined up with acid-drenched psychedelic moods. Really interesting and very digestible soundscape for any hungry ears/minds. So far it seems/sounds like a great live performance!. Second track takes me back to some of the early recordings by the BBC-radiophonic workshop or even the kraut-rock/ambient pioneers Cluster. Heavy industrial space-ambient anyone?. Beautiful mindbending sounds you can travel your mind with (Free trip into another dimension anyone??). 

The third track being the longest on the album (17:10 minutes) being also one of the most surreal and mesmerizing treats here. A kind of a modern update to some of the early ambient/atmospheric recordings by Throbbing Gristle, and yes... it will lift you some inches from the ground!. You can almost sense a touch of urban decay here, a touch of something (Abandoned factories) which hasn´t changed for years and years and then it just stands there... rotting and falling apart. Probably waiting for something to tear it down and building something new, which sadly will not happen (For some reason). A very beautiful dark piece which I can highly recommend for walkies with your headphones on in the decayed industrial and forgotten areas of your hometown. 

Fourth track sutle settles the mood further down, Tangerine Dream and Biosphere fans anyone?. Feels like the spaceship has finally landed somewhere, maybe it is soil? (Maybe not). It feels like drifting on an icy cloud while looking down?... What kind of cloud it is which u can land your spaceship on, I do not know! Incredible track this is. Love the mind-cutting high-tones here!. The fifth track puts you into a heavy sort of static hypnotic state, throbbing monotonic piece which bombs you further down to the surface from the icy-clouds. A pulsating beam shoots the space traveler through the atmosphere and the clouds, when will you reach the surface (if there is one?!).

From here, I will keep my mouth shut! I will then ask you (as the reader) to join this journey and explore it. As mentioned before, we are talking about other planets, dimensions, other states of minds, levitation... YOU NAME IT!. Heavy industrial space ambient, are we talking about a new genre?. FANTASTIC live-album, I would wish that I was there to experience it!. Sadly no :(.  

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/dr-le-de-guerre

       

Kalteldur will be on pause and will hopefully be back again after the Summer. All the demos and albums I will receive this month will be the last reviewed until the resurrection!

Disen Gage - Nature

All the way from Mother Russia, Disen Gage has been existence since 1999. Taking elements from prog-rock, free-jazz, space-ambient, noise, and industrial music... so far they have come up with 7 albums and this one is their newest which came out last year via (No Name) label (Seriously!... that is the label name). A 3 track album, where each track is about 15 minutes each. A concept album working around the planets, trains, and animals. Otherwise, read this official and interesting concept statement:

This story started a long time ago when the participants of Disen Gage scoured in the night in the dangerous vicinity of the Moscow railroad station “Sortirovochnaya” trying to capture fascinating sonic roulades emitted by the wagons. At the same time, on the other side of the globe, in the State of Iowa, astronomers succeed in converting strange signals coming from the orbit of Jupiter into audible sound palettes. Later, in an Australian swamp, Mrs. Toad said to Mr. Crocodile: "Dude, why not concoct a Tops-of-the-Pops album of all those ingredients, one on which we would sing all together?” "I'll call Mr. Bear, my Siberian friend. He knows how to mix all stuff with a beat", answered Mr. Crocodile. Finally, the Nature, crafted from sounds of planets, trains, and animals including higher primates, is now in your hands. Still, we wonder how the human ear will take this… 

…and songs of the mushroom kingdom and bacteria are coming next.

The very first track (I know I have mentioned Dr.Who before) sucks you and the Tardis into some deep and weird dimension (We are talking about black and white Dr.Who-era). One of those kinds of dimensions where normality, as we know, ceases to exist! I can Recommend seeing The Mind Robber episode or The Edge of Destruction. Psychedelic trippy space-ambient with looped industrial machine rhythms... think the surreal and heavy industrial sounds of Deutsche Nepal and the cosmic space exploration ideas from Biosphere. Really like the first track, a lovely kind of organic feel to it. Interesting elements of free-jazz and deep space drones end it. 

Second track Trains, it gets a bit more... desolate and eerie. Sort of like being completely alone on a huge (and old) train station. Looped wind-sweeping rhythmic sounds, in the distance you have screaming trains slowing down the speed, hidden sound-drones lurk, repetitive and breathtaking and haunting ambient-tunes. The whole track just feels like something you want to dive into, and have you completely absorbed. Excellent soundtrack material here, really good!.

Last track Animals has according to the CD-cover a wide range of different animals as guest musicians. Anything from a bear, hyenas, crocodile, toad... you name it!. Looped, repetitive and exquisite strangeness streams through your speakers. Who could have thought that animal sounds could be so interesting?. Almost a kind of technoid rhythmic-electronica feel to this piece. Love it when you can hear the wolves howling here. Interesting psychedelic sludge-metal kind of ending.

I have nothing bad to say about this. An incredible unique release with a HUGE world of the sound-aesthetic inside (and ready to be explored!). The sound quality is worth to mention since it is incredible great!. When I am reviewing this release, I am sitting in a room where I have perfect stereo-sound. And the stereo sound is just mindbending here, it feels real and you can almost touch the sounds. You can feel and hear how the recorded elements float around you! This album is an absolute must! Again, it is available on digital format and on CD as well. You can get the physical CD format via the label-link below!.

Bandcamp: (label)

https://noname666.bandcamp.com/album/nature

Bandcamp: (band)

https://disengage.bandcamp.com/

    

Stone Wired - G.R.I.M. [2008-2018]

Released last Christmas 2018, a double compilation (and double-sided) cassette release from Stone Wired limited to 66 copies. 2 beautiful cassettes encased in a lovely outer box. Both cassettes contain 2 albums on each side, first one has the albums Grim and Cold Bodies (recorded 2008-2018) and the second tape has the albums Habitual Discomfort and Dead (recorded 2018-2019).

Stone Wired is one of the numerous industrial projects from the same mind which gave us Human Vault, a project which thoroughly explores moody minimal electronic body music (see the former review of Human Vault´s Primordial). Stone Wired works within the perimeter of sinister death-industrial and flesh-scraping industrial-drone ambient. 

The first album called G.R.I.M. moves into death-industrial soundtracks. Really has a lot of "charm" to it, being submerged into every kind of basic human perversions you can think u cannot help but feel that every track has a story to tell. It´s primitive death-industrial with a touch of a high-tech sound, but not high-tech in a glossy and shallow kind of way. A thing between the heavy-ambient horror-soundtrack diversity of Swedish Megaptera to the kind of background stuff one (just might) could notice on albums like The Infidel by Doubting Thomas (Skinny Puppy side-project).

Second album Cold Bodies is something completely else. Murky drone and dark heavy ambiance get mixed up together in a toxic cesspool! Empty (and devoid of life) landscapes stretch on and on without end, almost have a post-nuclear feel to it. Total and pure isolationist ambient music with a focused apocalyptic feel. I would although prefer G.R.I.M. album compared to this one. I am a sucker for sound dynamics and I do think (to a certain degree) that Cold Bodies could use a bit more of that. Could charm the fans of Lustmord or Desiderii Margrnis. 

The third album Habitual Discomfort is... a kind of thing in between the G.R.I.M. and Cold Bodies. More in the ritual-industrial kind of way. Delivering industrial sounds while laying it cool with icy-drones. The coldness of the ambient-orientated tracks on this album actually works better for me than on Cold Bodies. The sound dynamics seem more organic and sincere. One of the tracks on here takes me back to the soundtrack to Clive Carpenter´s excellent sci-fi horror flick The Thing, cold and calculated atmosphere with a sense of... a certain kind of doomed dread which suddenly can appear without a single warning! Interesting focus on true-crime themes on this one, notice the samples/recordings being used here.

Fourth and last offering simply called Dead thrives on industrial noise and bass-driven ambiance. Not that far away from some of the classic and minimalistic recordings with early death-industrial pioneer Brighter Death Now. It has that slightly claustrophobic damp cellar kind of feel, pretty much being engulfed or swallowed up by that specific pitch black kind of darkness. Without a doubt the most sinister of these 4 minialbums on these two cassette-tapes.

And there you have it. Pretty much worth it from the start and to the end. It delivers what it should deliver when it comes to this kind of death industrial music. Balanced between the old school and the new school of death industrial. High tech sound, but still with a minimal and primitive aesthetic. Not a waste of time at all, worth your time!

Bandcamp: (band)

https://humanvault.bandcamp.com/album/g-r-i-m-2008-2018

Bandcamp: (label)

https://exabyssrecords.bandcamp.com/

    

Merzbow -  Kaerutope 

Written By Kristian Robert Carter

The second disk of the Japanese only releases of new Merzbow material recorded in 2016 - 2018. The sleeve is a jet black exotic frog or toad and all four tracks are simply named Frog. There are four tracks V1, V2, V3 and V5. Frog V4 made its appearance on the other Slow Down release Indigo Dada which was released simultaneously to Kaerutope. 

Frog V1 opens the album with the processed calls of amphibians that have been shaped into percussive clusters that act as a muffled slow quiet rhythm. Masami stealthily begins to weave a disparate and bewildering array of audio into the track, hums, pulses and discordant machinery emerge from the murky fugue. This track sounds muffled and there is obviously a deliberate process of obstufcation

Obsfucation. At times this is like a soundtrack to an hospital ward, where the listener is slipping in and out of consciousness, barely able to focus on their surroundings before sinking once again into narcotised tranquility. Frog V2 and V3 segue effortlessly into place and continue in much the same way as the opening track but subtle and beguiling elements are skilfully woven into the mix including a discordant picked string instrument, muffled washes of analogue squall, metallic percussion and a strange saw like sound. Flickers of detuned radio flit across the channels like a bird taking flight in the almost pitch black darkness of night. The closing track Frog V5 has a sense of impending ultimatum as a pulsating drone begins to slowly build in both speed and intensity. As the drone increases in tempo the accompanying scrapes, gurgles and Geiger counter like chattering grow louder and more persistent. Once again the processed amphibians return this time though their calls are almost like the harbingers of the planets collapsing the ecosystem. Over the inexorable advance of the planets gravedigger, this is the howl of nature. Shrieking back at its cold insensitive visage.

Label:

http://studiowarp.jp/slowdown/

Bandcamp: (band)

https://merzbow.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: (band)

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMerzbow