fredag den 31. januar 2020

Stone Wired - Shadow Conscious



One of the latest Stone Wired releases has hit the street, released via No Labels Interested in a limited edition of 50 copies. A lovely blackened cardboard slipcase being wrapped around the very graphical design inside. Looking closely it reveals to bodies with the top of their heads is open, brains are visible... (I think). A cool looking tape for sure, with it´s A-side and B-side being filled up with 14 tracks! I will describe the 3 first tracks on each side, and will, in the end, give an overall review of this album. 

Side A starts with Black Light, dark-ambient mood piece with paranormal post-Cold Meat Industry touches. The aesthetic is right in the eye, and the sound quality is superb (while maintaining the edge!). Sounds of underwater movement, whispering ritualistic vocals, menacing synth-work and painfull and a distorted and painful sound wrapping it all up. Very nicely done for those who enjoy that classic early 90s Cold-Meat-Industry sound. 

The next track called Frozen Meat...is a very cold monotonic industrial-drone piece. Ice cold to be exact, sub-zero temperatures while time stands completely still. Cool death-industrial rhythms here, and cool icy-moods. The third piece of meat on the plate Worms Under Skin moves into mysterious Megaptera´ ish territories, a very sacrilegious church-like feel to this. Almost a religious experience if you ask me, ritualistic ambient inside a huge church. Interesting bone-shattering electronic percussion later on here.


 The first track on the B-side Mortified moves into heavy-ambient moods. The kind post-apocalyptic feels you´ll notice in a bleak movie like the Road. The sort of feeling when trees are dead, and the sound of birds is just... gone. The only company being yourself, and you're conscious of course. Ruined factory feel with a touch of melancholy, industrial Raison D´être sort of. Second track Stench offers creepy heavy fog among the tombstones of the dead, while John Carpenter´ ish horror synth lurks atmospherically in the background. Third track Morque gives the listener just feeling... being trapped (or locked) inside one of those drawers in a morgue. Feeling slightly claustrophobic and horrific while trying to keep your calm... WHICH YOU CANT!. Suffocating black-moods and tar-like darkness-of-sound suck you in like quick-sand, just the way how dark-ambient should work.

A perfect death-industrial masterpiece with a superb sound-quality without losing the minimal-edge (Atmospheric rawness would be one way to describe it). A perfect fusion between pure dark ambient and menacing death-industrial. Dark ambient with a more... horror orientated direction?. You shouldn't miss it, seek it out! Contact the artist or the label regarding this release, it doesn't show on Bandcamp or Discogs.   


Discogs (label):

Bandcamp (band):
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torsdag den 30. januar 2020

Gargara - Desjabetze Itogarriak



Means drowning/suffocating expropriations. Expropriations being the ownership that happens when the government overtakes a private property. When that private property is drowning/suffocating, it might mean that the property is a ruin. Something old with a lot of history gets torn down and is then being replaced by something shiny and tall for people 2 either live in or work in (without the history and character of course!). Something which actually happens all-over my Danish town (as we speak!). The project is called Gargara, if it is from the Turkish language then it means... Mouthwash. This new project is another interesting side-project of Miguel A. Garcia, whom I have had the utmost pleasure in reviewing several times! This one is a 1 track (59 minutes and 7 seconds long!), and it comes in a BEAUTIFULLY kind of rough and thin cardboard paper with cool artwork inside. 4 cards with incredible illustrations on! Another footnote would be that the vocals here are done by an Ibon RG (Link below) and the amazing artwork is done by Jon Martin. 


I was gobsmacked, the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time! Almost limestone caverns look with the illustrations, how the shadows can trick your mind into seeing other things (and people!). And of course, I said to myself, the recording HAS to be VERY interesting! Lucky for me... It bloody is!. The music/recording is a vibrant and living piece of haunting Avant-garde´ness. A pure sound-adventure from the beginning to the end. Torturous (but ambient´ ish) netherworld-vocal-sounds rush up to meet the listener, swirling and otherworldly sounds submerge the listener further down, insect-like chirpings keep your senses alert, eerie violin scratching in the misty background. Not that far away from some of the best moments with legendary Nurse With Wound, or the Journey Through A Body by Throbbing Gristle.  


The greatest thing with this recording is that it sounds like a one-take studio experiment. One of those rare recordings where EVERYTHING clicks magickally into place and it just sounds bloody brilliant! Highly recommendable for those who have a dire need for more mysticism in their grey and boring lives!. Limited to 50 copies, and out on Spanish Marbre. Get it while it is hot!


Bandcamp (label):

Miguel A. Garcia (official):

Ibon RG (official):



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tirsdag den 28. januar 2020

Mademoiselle Bistouri - Daily Routine/Solipsism



Released by German-based label Obsessive Fundamental Realism last summer (2019). Limited to 50 copies, and here is the exact description of the actual physical release (From the label):



Cassette and one single-sided insert come in a white plastic bag closed by 2 metal fasteners with a photographic print attached to the front with four metal fasteners and a label sticker attached to the back.

A lovely and cool design concept which the label has chosen to follow on their cassette releases, I like that a lot. So what do we have from Italy this time? Depraved and brutal industrial-harsh noise with tons of feedback, layers, and reverb!

I must be honest, never been a fan when someone is using pornographic-themes in context with extreme music. BUT! When it´s well done, I do tend to forget the pornographic ideas and start focusing on whatever is recorded. 

The first thing that you´ll understand more clearly than the provocative cover-artwork, would be on what is on the tape (like I said earlier). The cover-artwork shows someone's bottom with something stuffed inside, some kind of robe maybe? It could look like the work of some sort of sexual-disturbed serial killer, as the Italian serial Killer Monster of Florence? Genital mutilation, being a ritualistic fetish act for the perpetrator (or something else, nothing is certain). 


When you do press play and hearing the noise inside, somehow... it makes "sense". Whatever is on the tape is brutal and human... in a very... inhuman way. It´s recorded attitude is recognizable (in a way), and somehow it opens something inside the listener? Whatever is going on inside the "disturbed" mind of a serial killer, is clearly being described here purely in sound.

So there you go. Brutal atmospheric industrial harsh noise, not for the faint of heart!. For fans of Taint, Macronympha and Brighter Death Now (Innerwar). You can get it via the labels blogsite (No Bandcamp, see link below). Otherwise, check out Mademoiselle Bistouri´s Bandcamp site!


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mandag den 27. januar 2020

Damien De Coene - Sans Titre


Damien was reviewed back in 2018 and even got on the best-years of 2018. Now he is back again on Anoxia Records with Sans Titre. A limited 1-cassette release which comes in a box intended for... 3 cassettes I think? This boxset (and tape) has been bound by a golden string, in a very intriguing and mysterious way. Inside you´ll find a nice looking golden-looking tape.  Sans titre means untitled in French, and the album is one hour long containing 4 tracks (3 in 10 minutes and the last in 30 minutes). 

First track defines the style chill-noise-wall. Sounds (sort of) like hearing microscopic rain inside a tent, while a small portable TV producing relaxing pink noise. Get´s your ear's attention, very pleasant to hear if you ask me... pure ear candy!  

Second track pumps more noise into the grinder. When your record player has caught too much hairy dust while playing. Or the recorded sound of a storm outside... close to the sea. Or the gentle sound of an MP3-player recording while being inside a rotating drying-machine. A very multiple picturesque sound-vision here.


The third track might just be the most... microscopic glitch track here. An incredible mind-stimulating experience going on here. Traces of something hidden between the distorted clicks. For some reason, my mind (and time) stops!... and enters a static sense of pure delight. The smallest moments matter in the big scheme, as this track proves it. 

Last and fourth track on the album ends it in a way more brutal fashion, also, of course, being the longest track. The motors of drag-racers, jet-engines, blow-torches? Or the "everlasting" sound of a burning sun? It challenges the listener with its 30 minutes!.

An HNW/ANW album which offers all that which noise-wall can (or will) delivers. Brutal effects with tons of sound and gentle rain-drop clicks offer the delight of silence. A "gentle" introductory release for anyone who wanna get into HNW. Recommendable! Do go and explore on Damien´s Bandcamp site (link below), tons of releases there!


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onsdag den 22. januar 2020

Interview with Die Sonne Satans



Not much has been said, written, heard, seen or felt about this old and obscure Italian industrial-ambient project. Still, it´s one of those band names you remember from when you went through the endless pages of a mail-order catalog from Cold Meat Industry. Or maybe you ended up buying one of your favorite post-industrial/ambient compilations and Die Sonne Satans was on it. Or you are just a die-hard fan of that classic era in Italian industrial music history who knows that this act can be linked to the great projects of Atrax Morgue and Runes Order (both on Slaughter Productions of course). Ultimately we can only talk about 3 cassette releases and 2 CD compilations as their discography so why the hell is people still talking about this act?!.

Yes, I'm going to dissect this mystery once and for all. To reveal information about this one-man band, and interrogate the poor fellow out of his Italian socks!.


For the first question in this investigation, tell me how, why and when did Die Sonne Satans start?

Die Sonne Satans, who borrows the name of a 1926 Georges Bernanos novel from which Maurice Pialat took the eponymous film in 1987, was born in 1991. At that time I was often in Milan, for study reasons, where a few years earlier I met Stefano Musso (Alio Die) and with whom I began to explore the possibility of producing music. Following a first tape called Opus Vix Inchoatum titled "Nullae Procreationis Germines" I refined my technique and my musical aesthetics by giving life to the project as you know it. For me, DSS has always been synonymous with self-determination, an antidote to the tangle of conventions that I am bound to, and this is the reason why an iconoclastic and nihilistic approach pervades my entire production.

When you started this act, what bands inspired you back then?

When I was young I enjoyed, like most of us in our field, darkwave music, especially 4AD aesthetics. Then I passed to more experimental listening through Death In June, Coil, Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. I loved so much dark ambient so I can not deny that among my most admired listening were then Lustmord, Cranioclast, Nocturnal Emissions and for other reasons Hafler Trio. I still have great admiration for Asmus Tietchens, but the record that most changed my listening perspective was Teimo by Thomas Koner. In this sense, "Orbis", taken from Metaphora, is a clear tribute to his work. All the music I loved listening to from my childhood inevitably permeated my sensitivity and poured into DSS.

How was the scene in Italy at that time you started?

At the end of the '80s in Italy, it was an interesting and mature underground scene that was linked to industrial styles, just to mention Tac, Tasaday, Sigillum S. Personally, for geographical reasons, I wound up meeting Mauro Guazzotti from F:a.r., a volcanic person for ideas and energies. However, I have always been quite defined, my own has always been a very DIY and solipsistic approach and this has not led me to share ideas with other projects of the Italian scene, except with Claudio of Runes Order.



You did some collaborations with Claudio Dondo of Runes Order including Atom Infant Incubator, how did you guys meet and how did it work with you two working together?

I met Claudio through Deca (Federico Decaroli) who was a common friend. We immediately got in touch and decided to produce something together. The first Atom Infant Incubator originated from old tape recordings of Claudio's first project, "Order 68", which I added heavy treatments and new tracks, Copula is still a good job, too underestimated, I would like to remaster it and reproduce it in a more consonant design. The second work we made as AII was born from common sessions where everyone has contributed to their own parts and tools. It is perhaps more improvised and paradoxically more composed and contains many of the ideas that I wanted to pour into the DSS's fourth release.

How fondly do you remember Marco and Slaughter Productions?

Marco, for me, was a very important figure. He supported me and always believed in my productions. I'm in debt to Slaughter Productions. I have a good memory of him and as far as I knew he was a kindly person, always very helpful, almost as opposed to what the Atrax Morgue productions might make you think. His sudden death struck me a lot even though we were not in touch for a while.

Have you ever played live, and if so what is the greatest experience of this?

I have never played live, I don't think my music could be suitable for a live performance. And then I'm a very retired person to expose myself in a context like that. Uwe of Dark Vinyl as me to tour in Germany but I refused.



Are you surprised, that people are still talking about Die Sonne Satans?

In fact, I am very surprised. My production was very small compared to other similar projects. In retrospect, the mystery around my person and of course the music I've produced have helped make DSS a little worship.

How do you feel about the new post-industrial/experimental scene nowadays?

I'm no longer particularly involved in the industrial scene. Over the years my eyes have been laid on other horizons.
What are the plans for the future? I've heard rumors of re-issues?

DSS: I just signed an agreement with a new Italian label that has already released some MZ 412 old and live material. The idea is to release the three tapes and some compilations tracks in new formats (vinyl, cd...) The first work, Metaphora, is finished and the master and new cover art are ready as well. I hope it will be published in the Fall, followed by Factotum and Omega. Maurizio Pustianaz (Gerstein) helmed the remastered versions and maybe in the future, we could work together again. I want to also retrieve some materials published with another moniker a lot of time ago and maybe reworking it for a new album.

Stay tuned...


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Madame Swann - S/T 

written by Balderus



A Dutch friend wondered yesterday whether I know that guy from the French neofolk act Pale Roses who has just released with his side-project Madame Swann that surreal eerie music piece eponymously called. I told her how ignorant about this I was and checked the Bandcamp link attached. First bars, first hit in the brain. The deeper the listening was, the greater the enthusiasm was growing. Eerie sound textures, inspired tunes from bygone times, Chopin-Satie-and-Debussy-oriented structures and this very special feeling of non-such when an undefined vaporous memory is invading your inner cloud, were randomly at work altogether.

Betimes, after the first musical sensations, you look through the information on the BC page and realize that all your impressions in the rough are not mere coincidence. Yes! You travel back to the 19th century and the birth years of the 20th. More specifically, you enter the era of Marcel Proust’s genius footprint. Madame Swann! This piece, every track of it, sounds like one of these delicious madeleines. Once you dig further to overtake this gallery of emotions, you read that the fellow distilled all this based on what his grand-mother composed back then in the 1910-20s… 


And the idea of Zeitgeist pops immediately up.

Do you feel you are flying back to those times when the modern world was emerging? When Art Nouveau was everywhere when you were on the brink of marching between established tradition and nascent utopias of modernity? This is normal!

Old times because all that I mentioned sooner and utopias of modernity (or dystopias?) because of the tones played. Clockwork The orange-textured soundtrack which brings this eeriness, this feeling of uncertainty you got when you are entering an era of faltering steps, in search of lost time and in hesitation before a change that cannot be overlooked, all at once. By listening to this piece, both timeless and suffusing it's tick-tock, you may stand right on the frontier of your defining self.

I was told by the musician that there could be more tunes, of course only if more madeleines are discovered. The idea of a physical format has emerged, maybe to set a landmark on Swann’s way and allow the satisfaction of time regained.

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lørdag den 28. december 2019

Megaptera - Interview with Peter Nyström



Megaptera is a survivor. A project which has been with us through good times and bad. One of the most important post-industrial acts of the 90s, alongside the likes of Brighter Death Now, Inade, Schloss Tegal and Anenzephalia. They started on the proto CMI-cassette label Sound Source (like Consono) and then released material on several cult labels like Slaughter Productions, Art Konkret, SSSM, Release Entertainment, Malignant Records and of course Cold Meat Industry. From their very first release, Near Death, they were noted as one of the early pioneers of death industrial. The band's sound combined a dense, hypnotic and heavy soundtrack-based industrial atmosphere, with occasional bass-driven metallic machine rhythms. At most times it felt like being trapped inside some HUGE cathedral-like warehouse filled with grinding machines, and in company with a crowd of people humming and worshipping something unpleasant. Megaptera wasn't as minimal in the sound atmosphere like most, they could fill up your surround-system in no time and drown you with their heavy darkness. Various members have come and gone but Peter Nyström is the sole inheritor of Megaptera and has been for some time. I've been a fan for ages and asked Peter for an interview about the legacy of Megaptera. He graciously agreed and you can find our discussion below.

First of all, I understand the founding and first member of Megaptera was Mikael Svensson (Deaf Machine). You then joined the project later on. How did you become involved in Megaptera?

Peter Nyström: It was Mikael and Magnus Åslund (Pettersson) who started Megaptera together. I was making music with Magnus Sundström as Fiskebåtarna and First Aid at that time Mikael and Magnus recorded the first Megaptera tracks. These later became the first homemade release. You Will Recover. I think I started to listen to CMI related music at that time, like BDN, MZ412 and Raison d'etre. I heard that they had started to experiment with some old gear that Magnus's mother's new boyfriend had, like a 4 channel portastudio and an analog delay. I borrowed a drum machine from my friends in the synthpop band Cell Division, and then I joined them. We were friends already.


What was the idea of Megaptera in the early days? You managed to create something which was quite unique back then.

PN: I'd say no idea at all. We got very influenced by the CMI sound and we were already big fans of The Klinik, Test Department, and Cabaret Voltaire. We didn't know much about instruments so we just took what we had: scenes from various films, TV, radio, whatever we could hear fit in. The reason why we ended up making this kind of music was that it was quite easy. We didn't need expensive gear or a computer to record the atmospheres that we liked. And it was also very funny to just search for crazy sounds and movies and just push record. Very unpretentious.


It seems to me that the cult of Megaptera expanded with your friendship/involvement with Slaughter Productions. You had lots of side projects released there, and you appeared on many of the cult compilations (Death Odors, Beating the Meat, From Sickness to Death and Slaughter Age 95). Do you miss the days of Slaughter Productions?

PN: Of course I miss some of it, and Marco of course. He was such a nice guy. Very polite, gentle and everything went very smoothly with him. The best part was that we wrote REAL letters back then, and it was amazingly fun to both receive and send letters, records, and tapes. The most important releases were those on Slaughter, otherwise, I don't think Megaptera would have reached the status we did. I remember being very proud of having two tracks on Death Odors and also as numbers 1 and 2 on the disc. Shadowland is still one of Megaptera's strongest pieces of music.
You finally had a bigger "commercial" release on Release Entertainment (also like Brighter Death Now). How did Curse Of The Scarecrow come to be? I'll also point that that a lot of people got to know Megaptera through this album.

PN: It really became a hit for us. Magnus Åslund left the band already in 1991 and Mikael and I recorded this album together with Magnus Sundström on his Amiga 500 and EPS sampler if I remember correctly. We felt that we were doing some really good tracks. We did not think, just recorded track after track. It went very easily. I had some contact with VUZ Records and somehow the record came out on Release Entertainment THROUGH VUZ Records and then the guy ripped us on the money. I was very blue-eyed and thought everybody was as polite as Marco Corbelli, but that wasn't the case. I'm still very proud of that album, and it was very important that we got Don't Desecrate the Dead released on Absolute Supper. It really promoted Megaptera well.
 Which Megaptera album are you most proud of doing?

PN: I must say Songs from the Massive Darkness back in 1992. I and Mikael were heavily influenced by Great Death by BDN, so we connected the gear we had in my boy's room and recorded those 6 tracks in 4 hours. I still enjoy listening to that album from start to end. I love the metallic sound of that BOSS RRV-10 reverb, the sounds we pulled out from the SH-101, and the voices in the background from The Thing. A perfect and funny recording session. I remember that I was down eating a quick dinner while we recorded one of the tracks, and Mikael was sitting on my bed playing a Casio VZ-1 with his feet in the meantime, haha! Great memories!
What does the future hold for Megaptera? Is there still unreleased material hidden in the vaults?

PN: All tracks have been released, so no more old surprises. I get some ideas sometimes, but we'll see. Maybe a CD version of Nailed on Vinyl later on. Only Satan knows (*Winking face).


PNO: Well, thanks for the interview, Peter. I wish you all the best!

PN: Thanks! Same to you, it was a pleasure!



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fredag den 13. december 2019

Kalteldur top 10 of 2019



2019 has been a very hectic year for Kalteldur. We´ve had our Kalteldur basement-headquarter being flooded by HUGE quantities of pouring rain. On top of that several reviews have therefore been delayed, and as we speak... we are still having insurance people working and repairing the damages caused by the cursed flood. We´ve also seen fewer movie and computer game reviews, and a lot more focus on selected record reviews. I am now proudly presenting, the Kalteldur top 10 of 2019!

Number 10:


Barbaric Frost - Heroic Quest


Raven Fortress


Barbarians, Cthulhu mythos and tons of treacherous sorceries drenched in doom and blood. More to be found here, and more of this kind should be given more attention. Barbaric Frost from Polen weaves a magical barbaric-journey that would make Robert E. Howard turn in his very own grave! Medieval ambiance meets up with doses of dungeon synth, martial industrialism, and doom! Not one to ignore!

Number 9:

Lá Ùltima Mirada

Marbre Negre


One of the most brutal attacks on your senses, and also one of great mystery as well. Heavy atmospheric ritual-ambient collides with dynamic noise-wall, all wrapped nicely up in pain and suffering! Why would anyone subject themselves to that (u might ask)... Power electronics has been old news for far too long, and too many would-be-hipsters are doing HNW (as we speak!). This one does something which could annihilate them all! And yes it is, a brutal attack your senses!  

Number 8:

Shelter Ov Shadows - The Serpent And the Circle...

Wulfrune Worxxx


The kind of feeling you´ll notice when you have... interrupted a secret and mostly dark ritual in the deepest cavern you could ever imagine (probably involving a human sacrifice!). Canadian act Shelter Ov Shadows provides that missing link between esoteric dark ambient and primitive winter/dungeon-synth. All would agree, heavy dungeon synth might just be the new dungeon sound! If ever Mick Harris (Scorn, Lull, Napalm Death) would do dungeon synth... you get the picture!

Number 7:

Suero + Yama-Biko - Hansenbyó

Marbre Negre


Most of the time I would go... ´Yeah... Industrial music is dead and no one dares touch it anymore!´ BUT, once in a while something POPS up. Something which is a work made between Spain and Japan, the album even works around an interesting (and terrifying) concept (read the review!). Mesmerizing minimal-industrial electronics+vocals and harsh claustrophobic glitch-atmospheres are all you´ll ever get. Fans of SPK and early Maschinenzimmer 412, take notice!

Number 6:

Machina Coeli - Lure of the Forgotten Lake

Nigra Opera Productions


Classic dungeon synth which takes the listener back to older (Coil, SPK) and meets them up with later dungeon synth acts. Not that it has any connection or similarities to others. One of the most original dungeon synth-related releases I have heard in some time. One act which just gives the fxxx-finger to the present band-in-wagon sound, and chooses an original sound like a true isolationist. An interesting tale to be found on this cassette, and a very interesting sound and mood to be digested as well. 

Number 5:

Human Vault - Primordial

No Labels Interested


Rare that I get around the world of electro-industrial/EBM, but just this time I just had to get around it. Made by an artist which delves himself (mostly) into the morbid murkiness of death-industrial/ambient. Human Vault being one of his various side-acts to his main death-industrial act Stone Wired. Primordial is one of the many industrial-music-related trips into the dark side of the human psyche, it touches nostalgia and it touches a sound aesthetic simplicity which sadly has been forgotten by time. Its strength lies in the mood before action, and no! ... It´s not danceable material! A downbeat dark-ambient version of early FLA/Delirium, with HUGE amounts of space in between. And PERFECT for the tape format (if you ask me)... 

Number 4:

Horologium - Atavistic Americana

Six Burial Productions
    

Laibach has sucked for many years, and Borghesia hasn't actually been up to something new. On the other hand, Horologium has! Keeping and cherishing the rhythmic and sample-drenched experimental vibe. A bloody electronic-mesh melts together with electronic post-punk rhythms and perfect executed political-themed cut-up samples! Woaww!. Early Ministry, Laibach and Killing Jokes goes hand in hand on this highly underrated electronic gem! 

Number 3:

Miguel Souto - Lillith

Anoxia Records


Someone came up with something... really dark and unique, and that someone was Miguel Souto. I was expecting a kind of ambient thing, I wasn´t expecting haunting and ancient classical piano tunes with eerie glitchiness behind it! Take Erik Satie and something like... Hafler Trio?. You get the picture. Perfectly executed, perfectly created. Coolest tape release of 2019!

Number 2:

Testing Vault - Amnesia Milk

Looney Tick Productions


Amnesia Milk was also... something else. An album that gave you the goosebumps and the emotional pleasure that usually follows it. It left a distinctive human trace on my mind while I was wandering (In the late hours) through the eerie sand-dunes of western Jutland, Denmark. The thing just stuck, just in the same way when something IMPORTANT sticks to your mind. Surreal electronic avantgarde' ness, the kind of haunting glitchiness that makes your heart stop in the middle of the lonely night. Or the soundtrack to one of those dreams, which seems too real and frightening at the same time. It´s an audible over-the-top experience, which you will never forget! 

Number 1:

Miracle of Love - You Will Be Free

Overture Militia


And no!. We are not talking about a tribute to Swans! We are talking about one of the greatest releases of 2019. In my opinion, the greatest ambient-related release in years. A pleasant and punishing sensation being heavy on your ears and sensible in your body as well. Razor-blade distortions, distant angelic ambient-tunes, religiously and sacrificial vibes... all wrapped up in a lovely and subtle apocalyptic set of ideas. Incredible beautiful and incredible believable in a terrifying fashion. Listen and learn!      




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tirsdag den 26. november 2019

Neon Lies - S/T



Think I am getting into these outsider electronic-acts hailing from Croatian. The latest discovery is the debut cassette release from Neon Lies (self-titled). A rough and raw 25 minutes journey into harsh metropolitan synth punk, not that far from the likes of Suicide and Neon Judgement. 

This debut cassette is limited to 150 copies, comes in silver mirror sleeves! And yes, it does look extremely sexy, shiny and sleek! (photo below). 

I am not much into newer acts reviving the angst of classic post-punk acts, but I do think that this act delivers something to it that maintains its honest intentions. Why? It´s pretty rough and raw, the sound is not perfect (who cares right?!), It´s not meant to be an ear-catcher and it´s definitely not a shoe-gazing hipster act trying to be darkly synth-pop 80s cool. It´s challenging and intense if you ask me, as desperation takes hold (to quote Ian Curtis). The strength in this kind of release would (again) be it´s honest intentions. And it´s none-perfection aesthetic in sound and mood, love the way the sound is. Clearly, an act who creates what the person-behind-it wants to create, not creating what the listeners want to hear. And there you have it, that is the pure intentions of punk. Fuck the listeners and hail the artist.

First tracks start with a chaotic keyboards mess, un-tight computer drums, Alan Vega´ish vocals (and those reverb effects!) and a cool and cold primitive synth melody. Next track Safe In Room starts off with a similar sound to the beat of OMD´s Enola Gay, head-crashes into early Human League´ish synths and flesh-crawling vocals. The third offering offers no salvation, a hint or two to Neon Judgement´ish Factory Walk (Could work as a continuation of that track if you ask me). Love the detail that you can only hear the drums on the left side of your speakers, and then you have the harsh synth on your right (and the vocals are on both sides!). To Nothing is the albums fourth track, tunes deeper into the throbbing electro-punk sound. A very action-driven piece... likes driving at high-speed through a derelict industrial area of the city. 



The Fifth track mother tunes it down into a melancholic early industrial mood, love the metallic clashing sounds in the background. Sixth track We Lost Confidence In This Town (Kickass title), works up a menacing soundtrack mood that you might have noticed in such films like Carpenter´s Assualt At Precinct 13, might just be the best track on the album. When a soundtrack mood becomes a throbbing and aggressive electro-punk thing, really lovely!. The next track Woods almost moves into early Cure´ ish territory, something from their Pornography-era (Figurehead?), the style of the track although has that Absolute Body Control-feel (Per-Klinik group from the 80s). The eighth track Sex Without Faces follows the sound and feel like the previous track, although with way more melody (Beautiful). Last track Odds, rounds it all up with lovely rhythmic elements and vocals on raw bleeding rock n´synth knees!  

And that is how you deliver your eighties (late 70s) inspired electronic-based angst music! The whole I-don´t-care-what-you-think attitude is refreshing, specifically in a world which delivers hipster DJ goths and electro-jerks with minimal-wave´ish inspired t-shirts bought at your local H&M. Do go out and get this tape! You can get the tape from the label called Cosmic Brood Records (link below!).  


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lørdag den 23. november 2019

Miguel Souto - Lillith



An interesting theme to bring up in our era of Mee-Too campaigns and power females. The "demonic" female Lillith is without a doubt relevant to this. As you all know, Eva was made out of a rip from Adam... Lillith wasn't. She actually left Adam, reason?... She wasn´t interested in having a relationship in the garden of Eden with a dominative husband. She went out and had a relationship with the archangel Samael. A rather... "satanic" themed arch-angel who has been called Poison of God, Blindness of God, seducer, and destroyer, etc. A sort of not-necessarily evil, because he spends his free-time destroying the sinners... Another satanic-themed arch-angel if you please. A powerful archangel doing the dirty work for god, who could say no to that?... ANYWAYS!. 

Miguel Souto has made this mini-album, which have been digitally and physical (cassette) released via Anoxia Records. I have also had the utmost pleasure of reviewing the dark-ambient masterpiece Lacrimi Si Sfinti, which Miguel Souto did together with Alejandro Durán (see the former review!). He is ALSO the same guy behind the ritual-occult act Sudari (also see former review). This one is also a solo-work from him, and a VERY interesting one (if you ask me!). 

First track Ravishing Whispers reveals to the listener that we are dealing with a piano-driven thing, a kind of... gothic piano thing. Not the kind of gothic-like the Sisters of Mercy, but more in the vein of early gothic literature like Mary Shelley, MR James, EF Benson, B. Stoker, etc. Haunting and esoteric and decadence all in one bucket. A kind of horror-themed Erik Satie, with a touch of early avant-garde music. Simple and moody piano moods, with a tiny spark of eerie glitchiness in the background. Absolutely brilliant, and rather... timeless! Could have worked as background music for Polanski´s The Ninth Gate. 


The second track called Turmoil gets more... kind of disturbing and disruptive piano notes. Weird mood swings, from being calm to being rather in a sense of despair. You have that feeling that something dreadful is going to happen! A rather beautiful track I must say. 

Last and third track called Approximation - Seduction - Copulation: First Encounter with Satan and the Birth of a New Race. This must be here where Lillith meets Samael!. An icy and cold beginning, tip-toe fingers on the piano like toes lightly dancing on dangerously thin ice. Again, the sound and aesthetic of the likes of Satie are clear here! Exquisite avant-garde sound-glitchiness creeps in with a lovely X-Files´ish/90s-Thriller´ ish atmospheric retro-synth. VERY gothic and very horrific! A church-like organ meets the mood just right further on, giving the ritualistic and esoteric elements a lovely atmospheric boost. The ending track ends with those beautiful light piano moods, drifting spiritually into melancholic disintegration. 

I mean WOAWW... Fucking Woaww!. This is the REAL deal. Not some mumbo jumbo esoteric-meets Crowley bullshit in a burger joint. This is it, the real fucking deal. It´s like if Erik Satie should create music for the stories of MR fucking James, while he is reading it. An incredible sincere and chilling experience that will haunt my dreams! I will listen to this again... and again... AND AGAIN!


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