This Indiana solo project (‘Ryan’), by no means making his KFJC debut here, describes his music as black (and doom) metal-influenced. To me, though, it seems this influence is slight, like Sujo are to black metal what Nadja are to doom, using a few of metal’s structural elements to beef up what’s basically shoegaze, or post-rock, or whatever we’re calling it now here in the looney bin. I like this 2013 album (actually an expanded EP) so much because of how it diverges from the ‘metalgaze’ of the year’s other release, ‘Repent,’ in favor of a dreamy, atmospheric indifference. Some of its occasional drumming provides its only reminders of metal (on t.1, 4+5), and even then it was Xasthur I thought of. The rhythms of t.3 sound more industrial than anything else, and the rest (t.2,6) leans more toward dark ambient. Even the tracks containing conventional structures (metallic or otherwise) spend at least half their time overwhelmed by massive hums and buzzes. I’m not 100% sure if all this noise started at a guitar, just as I don’t know if the distortion and delay used to create it is digital, analog or some combination. I do know, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed spacing out to it. As with previous releases, there are no vocals, except a sort of low-volume panting buried in t.6. This is sedate enough that I don’t get to make a ‘Down, Sujo!’ joke, but Sujo does the narcotic abyss well enough that I don’t care, perhaps about anything.

I’ve been enjoying listening to this but it did take me a few plays to get a handle on it. I decided that the general thrust of this material is something that combines recognizable music with pure sound– a cool space to work in. The protagonists Thollem McDonas (pianos/sounds) and John Dieterich (guitars/sounds) need little introduction, as their various projects and bands and collaborations have been making waves for a number of years. But what’s going on here is probably different from what we may have heard them do before. The instruments sound to me as though they might be mic’d in unusual ways, emphasizing the percussive, hands-on, non-musical aspects of playing music, if that makes sense. The music is fragmented, extended techniques (I think) are sometimes used in playing it, and there are some sounds in the mix that come from who knows where… all of which encourage the question of whether this is about music or sound or both. Being about both is not a bad thing.

Solo project by Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Mindflayer). This would go straight into KFJC’s Fucked Up Shit library if we had such a thing (joining Salmigondis, Blue Sabbath Black Fiji, etc…) Chippendale’s loud, busy drumming is the foundation, and he somehow manages –don’t ask me how– to drown that out a lot of the time with crusty oscillator-type moaning and groaning, random whooshes of raw noise, diseased loops, and vocals pretty much serving as yet another a noise element. No idea what’s going on here, and not only that I hate the name of the project. I’d play this on the air, though, just to mess with people. Which leads me to believe that plenty of other KFJC DJ’s would probably do the same.

Inner Space was a 1973 soundtrack for a nature documentary about underwater life. The orchestra has a dreamy, watery, jazzy sound with very cool solos on flute, guitar, vibes, percussion, trumpet, organ, and piano played by Libaek. John Sangster on vibes is prominently featured and his interest in avant garde jazz artists such as Sun Ra and Albert Ayler occasionally peeks through, especially on Side 2.

Tracks from this soundtrack were used in the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Very accessible, would fit a Jazz Collective or the Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show equally well.

Four android-ladies from the planet MU who crash land on earth, West London to be exact, in the year 1975. They immediately took up their earthly duties of rockin’ out and put out this record in 1980, the only one they ever released. Originally on Fuck Off Records, this album is now re-issued by Water Wing records.. sounds very much like London to me, Lo-Fi easy skankin’ sort of punk with the scent of ska, definitely in the same vein as The Slits. Vocals are delivered or hollered with a charming accent and no shame. Lyrics to make you grin, pertaining to the boredom of earth life, earth politics and other earthly issues. Tinny fuzz guitar riffs along to the groove, keeping things angular. Don’t forget the cheap synthesizer, bringing squiggly space sounds to the mix..naturally fitting since these ladies are androids from another planet after all.. this adds a nice flavor and a type of noisiness that you don’t always get with late 70s punk. These droid-ettes certainly know how to keep it weird and classy too. -Surfer Rosa

Milo Fine’s first piece Moosbrugger is noisy and at times shrill and sounds like percussion and prepared piano mixed with clarinet. The second track Ulrich is all percussion.

All tracks are rather whimsical and endearing with some very quiet spots throughout.

2013 split between two Black Metal bands from North America. Akitsa are from Montreal and Ash Pool, fronted by the prolific Dominick Fernow (see Prurient, Vatican Shadow, Taylor Bow, Cold Cave, others), are from New York. Both sides of the split have the same (grammatically awkward) title, but Akitsa’s renders it in French and Ash Pool’s in English. Akitsa’s side is fuzzy, punky, dipsomaniacal forest mysticism with veins of Burzum and Ulver and a suggested kindship with newer bands like Urfaust or Bone Awl. Burzumic loyalties are especially apparent in the instrumentals (A2,A4), which are classic low-fi war-march death-jangle walls of gain. It keeps a nice mid-tempo and all three of its main tracks (A1, A3, A5) end in psych-rock solos that are so out of place they fit perfectly, while also feeding a comparison to Enslaved that gets reinforced again by A3′s folky clean singing. A4 is sort of like a six-minute Motorhead song where Lemmy is possessed by a demon– which is awesome. All tracks on Akitsa’s side run together. I read just enough French to tell you that the lyrics make aesthetically appealing use of the lexicon of militarism, but not enough to really say what they’re ‘about.’ Ash Pool, meanwhile, were a band I had dismissed (without hearing!) as a vanity-project of Fernow’s, but no– these guys can really fucking play! Unlike Akitsa’s, their side picks up the more aggro (but no less icy) Northern-Euro threads of a Darkthrone, a Mutiilation or a Katharsis, conjuring a surprisingly apt facsimile of the Nordic school’s melodic gloom, upon which they throw a slightly progressive spin (and a higher production value) before dashing out to meet Pale Chalice for drinks. Their side has very intellectual, kind of tasteless lyrics that seem to explore theology and the notion of sexual violence as a religious and philosophic abstraction, emerging incomprehensibly as ever from Fernow in shrieks befitting the best of Bergen’s bedroom-suicides. Big-ups to Kris Lapke, too, for knowing how to play blast-beats real good. Despite a certain ‘studied’ quality, things were looking up for Ash Pool until B4′s second half, when melodic vocals drop into the mix that can only be described as ‘nu-metal-indebted.’ Congratulations, Akitsa!

Eery interdimensional post modern-classical dreamscapes. This is Part 3 of a trilogy of albums that chart the nonsensical journeys of a fantastical lemon girl through oneiric lands. Inspired by Homer, Lewis Carroll and James Joyce, Philippe Petit provides a wide ranging sonic palette through a variety of acoustic and processed instruments that all complement the narrative and thematic framework. Our heroine is slowly drifting back to reality through post-industrial piano preparations tinkering with phantom dances on dulcimer string serenades. Hidden outer-universe film score orchestras and interstellar folk ballads lurk amidst the pulsating cosmic drone clouds of stardust pollution. Delicate textures washed with corrosive layerings, this is equally accessible and alienating.