Dicksson, G. / Blodvite [coll] – [Jartecknet]

abacus   3/29/2016   12-inch, A Library

split LP from the very excellent Jartecknet label out of Sweden, more minimalist grainy grit of different textures: Gustaf Dicksson (aka Blod) layers tape scrambled Swedish archive recordings into various shapes-competing informational confusion concluded by a children’s nursery rhyme, the second piece a layered folk song for solo voice cut-collaged into an entrancing jumble. Blodvite (aka Viktor Ottosson) executes a delicate/desolate drone dirge, a ghostly buzz and ring in the back of your ear that subsides into nautical hypnosis that shifts, sways, and falters to the end of the sea. limited to 120 copies this label doesn’t get out much with their distribution, but is well worth the search.

Actuary / Gnaw Their Tongues [coll] – [Black Horizons]

abacus   3/22/2016   12-inch, A Library

transatlantic split of black ambient monstrosities: out of the LA sub-underground, Actuary unleashes a pairing of bellowing rumble and buzz, cosmic cataclysms swollen beyond capacity pulsating pustules of throbbing dark matter. and from the Dutch countryside, Mories presents an orchestra of tortured memories and paranoid dementia, distant fears and persistent delusions; the shit horror movies have nightmares of. despite the seeming contrast of harsh noise to some sort of mutated classical music, the two are indeed complementary in the most terrifying of fashions.

Fukuoka, Rinji / Michel Henritzi / Luca Massolin – “Weather Report” – [Backwards]

abacus   3/21/2016   12-inch, A Library

gratitude rituals from an international gathering of spirits; shimmering free folk dronescapes of morning dew glistening, string echoes in the mist. from Japan Rinji Fukuoka (Majutsu no Niwa) rings psychedelic on a variety of mediums, jumping rapidly from one to the next from the outset to cover as much depth as conceivable while French avant-gardist Michel Henritzi (Dustbreeders) drifts away freely on the lapsteel. Italian Luca Massolin (Golden Jooklo Age) covers various grounds, floating between his brethren with carefree focus and deliverance. recorded in Portugal as a political contemplation of the Fukushima disaster, these cosmic improvisations capture haunted and heavenly tones alike, as one in the same.

Cook – Greene – “a 39 Year Reunion Celebration” – [Studio 234]

abacus   3/21/2016   CD, Jazz

an intimate gathering of long lost comrades in free improvisation, veterans of the creative jazz scenes around New York / Boston / and beyond. even the tightest compositions unravel into beautifully quilted conversations: minimal yet lush, interwoven in psychic interdependency, drums and piano as one Improvising Being, old friends unloading an unspoken bond. introspective yet outgoing, both humorous and somber, the purest of personalities sonically palpable.

United Slaves, The – “United Slaves #2-3” – [Improvising Beings]

abacus   3/21/2016   CD, Jazz

haphazard collective of jazz journeymen (Owl Xounds, Arthur Doyle, Temple of Bon Matin, Other Matter) fall together into free drone jazz freakout meditations of varying portions; from 5-53 minutes, biting off more than they can muster in hodgepodge sound conundrums. broken swing swaying crooked in the windscapes, rhythm section chain rattling against the noisy tumult of rock unhinged in synth bewilderment. hippy burnout jam sessions for long come-downs at sunset meanderings: lost forever.

Prants – “Hot Shaker Meet Lead Donut” – [Notice Recordings]

abacus   3/9/2016   A Library, Cassette

duo of Chris Cooper and Bhob Rainey musique concrete / electroacoustic / noise michief / sound art: sawblade harmonics layers of glistening tone breaks morning bells toll singing serenity, a low hum pervades and fades to a deep rumble creeping in o windbeaten scrap and tranquility. derailed dementia dominates the B side, audio errors and salacious circuitry salivate the terrifying hilarity of instability, somber orchestral tuning punctuate the night horror dissipation.

Magnetic Lake – “Magnetic Lake” – [Post-Materialization Music]

abacus   3/8/2016   A Library, Cassette

hailing not from the Minnesota body of water, (though sounds may deceive?) but from the faraway land of Odessa, fitting in nicely with the Post-Materialist aesthetic; lopsided dream pop tweaked to just the right angle– confusion abounds (besides the track title) with each listen yielding a different decision: acid wash country or gothic psych-gaze? but there’s so much cohesion… sedated singing from Ilya picks up around the aforementioned track then drops off, lost in the instrumental Shazoo haze. B side starts off more purposeful perhaps the blunders back to its cross-eyed amble. so far outside it’s too normal, catchy tunes for sure, but cringing in delivery. pop in its natural habitat, not all glistened up for the cameras.

Unsustainable Social Condition W/ Ted Byrnes – “Unsustainable Social Condition W/ Ted Byrnes” – [Oxen]

abacus   3/7/2016   A Library, Cassette

harsh, jagged noisecore from Matt Purse aka USC and LAFMS veteran Ted Byrnes. tweaked and fractured violence into scatterbrained collapse, 10 long minutes of jarring massacre. unrestricted self-harm

Collagen – “Demo 2015” – [Slow Death Records]

abacus   3/7/2016   A Library, Cassette

sludgy, scrappy hardcore out of Victoria, B.C. junkyard anthems and punk house parables; tunes to throw tall cans to

Kosugi, Takehisa / Takashi Kazamaki – “Live At The Strange Fruit” – [Fool]

abacus   2/15/2016   12-inch, A Library

fluxus drifter from Group Ongaku / Taj Mahal Travellers teams with percussion clattermaster in this 1983 live recording; primitive improvisations of free-hillbilly ritual channeling ancient disarray and classical unraveling alike. audio oddities lost in their own expressive purge, simplistic meditations of avant-weirdness. strange fruits indeed

Ames Sanglantes – “Le Cri Du Pendu” – [Cipher Productions]

abacus   2/10/2016   A Library, CD

tortured manic death drones; shrieking tones and lurching industrial collapse; ominous guttural loops and feral monasticism; looming dread and wretched release; spiritual genocide

Black Spirituals – “Black Interiors” – [Ratskin Records]

abacus   2/10/2016   A Library, Cassette

Oakland duo collective rooted in the intersection of diversity and experimentalism: Zachary James Watkins cradles his guitar with an intense focus and yearning for tonality, no patience for weak timbre; Marshall Trammell embracing the drumset with comprehensive inclusion and a fluidity that thrives on constant derailment. an engagement with space, an ontology of sound, defining the effects of location / depth / placement / orientation on audio perception. recorded each solo, as opposed to previous works where interaction is key, the artists are allowed to examine their individual energies in isolation. don’t adjust your levels, the distant volumes are intentional in the exploration: meditations in resonance

Dragged Into Sunlight / Gnaw Their Tongues – “N.V.” – [Prosthetic Records]

abacus   2/1/2016   A Library, CD

cataclysmic collaboration between English extremists Dragged into Sunlight and Dutch defiler Mories de Jong. murderous sampling of serial killers and rapists set the mood throughout this unrelenting torment of black/grind clouded by De Jong’s visceral poison. the album tracks, allowing you to suffer thru the entire 32 minutes if you can stomach it. Negative Volume, as the album initials represent, is an homage to the unrivalled volume of 90s extreme music predecessors’ live performances: the wall-smashing, soul-crushing volume that we can only strive for. so turn it to 11 and blast your listeners to the hell they belong in.

Consumer Electronics – “Dollhouse Songs” – [Harbinger Sound]

abacus   2/1/2016   12-inch, A Library

political harsh punk/technoise from British warmongers Philip Best (former Whitehouse and it shows), wife Sarah Froehlich and electronics artisan Russell Haswell. as abrasive as previous works but with careful calculation in the attacks; paranoid pulsations host abusive tirades delivered with startling ferocity, scathing commentaries on the crumbling state of the nation in Tory England: austerity in the face of consumerism, bigotry in the face of diversity. an increasingly relevant figure with a long legacy in the noise industry, CE delivers classic industrial power electronics but with a crisp production focus that makes it all the more unsettling. we’re all guilty by complicity.

Sutcliffe Jugend – “Pigdaddy” – [Cold Spring Records]

abacus   1/30/2016   A Library, CD

disgusting fucked-up filth-bile from British aberrations Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor aka Sutcliffe Jugend. tone shredding feedback congestion with low end buzz and drill; warped electronics and twisted vocalizations, shrill pelting and purging of inner torment and revulsion. full of grimace and gag, this is one of the most disturbing power electronics has to offer. beyond perverse, this gives me a tummy ache

Placazoa Dicatorship – “Photograph of Prisoner” – [Subruckus Collective]

abacus   1/28/2016   A Library, Cassette

chaotic noise/jazz layering from local boy Kevin Murray; short attention span overload extreme with tape manipulation/sampling, found percussion skittering and vibraphone improv all stacked together for both sides of this cassingle on his homegrown label Subruckus. Work Life shows no balance with some metal track (ID anyone?) thrown over the top for extra confusion. sounds like someone listens to too much KFJC…

Nocturnal Blood – “Abnormalities Prevail” – [Hell’s Headbangers]

abacus   1/26/2016   A Library, CD

bestial spewing of black bile and blood from The Ghastly Apparition unleashed from his usual Nuclear Desecration to wallow in a most feral fervor of ritualistic depravity. death enticing ravaging defilement with doom damaged billowing of ashen smoke and debris, raging with equal ferocity across all instrumentation, this one man demon will cultivate a most gratifying of evil inspirations. gnash and fume till you bleed.

ilitch – “periodikmindtrouble” – [Superior Viaduct]

abacus   1/25/2016   12-inch, A Library

4-track collage kosmische from Parisian tripper Thierry Muller, originally released in 1978 on Oxygene Records and included on the legendary NWW list. shimmering guitar loops, cosmic synthscapes, these kraut journeys explore both ambient and abrasive sonorities. the title track a sidelong of organ freekout minimalism, while the A-side’s Sequences are more angsty guitar driven tension building; the Derriere track stands out, delving deeper into acoustic expressiveness. first time reissue of the influential debut LP that set the stage for a gorgeous yet unsettling body of work.

Hafler Trio, The – “Fuck” – [Touch]

abacus   1/25/2016   A Library, CD

part two of trilogy precluded by Masturbatorium and followed by the never released I Love You, live recorded sexual energies in tantric resuscitation and paranormal pulsations; strict concentration of inherent self-contradiction emanating resonant frequencies of fatigue in delectation. ecstatic haze of swaying dissolution into dissociated dreams of faded trajectories, lost and broken. a ritual of eroded desire and self-absolution. a sonic mapping of the male orgasmic process.

G*Park – “Gour” – [Tochnit Aleph]

abacus   1/25/2016   12-inch, A Library

newest work by Swiss musique-concrete composer and plankton fisherman Marc Zeier. an elusive founding member of the Schimpfluch-gruppe, he employs a similar found-sound-psychosis technique of composition but with his own distinctive, more minimal approach, blurring lines between natural/synthetic, real/imagined, internal/external sounds. hyperconscious dissociations lost in the cryptic micro-acoustics of day to day, these pieces can be layered for unsettling additions or played alone for the most mundane of paranoias; recorded at 45rpm, or play at 33 for ultimate audio erosion. impositions to violate your consensual reality