Music Reviews

Yuasa-Exide – “Information and Culture + Naturally Reoccurring” – [Round Bale Recordings]

Preston Peace   12/11/2024   A Library, Cassette

Double album on one cassette (remember those?) from this solo project (with some assistance) from the Twin Cities. Guitar riffs that ring out like a less-indulgent Sonic Youth pair with distorted, understated vocals that split the difference between dour and resigned — lo-fi DIY across the board, recorded while Douglas Busson lay in bed with a debilitating spinal injury. That said, Busson really knows how to write a song, and especially a melody, the guitar work at times wandering off in a Television-esque fashion, elsewhere digging in its hooks, some a striking contrast to the often-fatalistic lyrics and hypnotic delivery.

Favs: “Deep End”, “Heaven’s Porch”, “I Never Turn Off the TV”

Programming note: tracks 1-10 are Information and Culture; 11-21 are Naturally Reoccurring.

Gylt – “Shoved / Spiral” – [Chaotic No Good]

whngr   12/7/2024   A Library, Cassette

HEAVY DEPRESSIVE CROSSOVER

Two quick eruptions of hopeless introspection in the key of rage. Female fronted larynx shredding hardcore propelled by dual guitars aligned for tympanic membrane molestation and down-stroke focused riff laden woe. Fiercely expressed and sorely depressed, though the drummer and one of the guitarists were pleasant enough to chat with at the merch table this last Saturday at Thee Parkside.

This five-piece from Los Angeles is powerful, intense, and pleases us greatly but our intuition expects them to unravel due to deteriorating mental health concerns that may arise from performing such corrosive and misery-fueled material. 

Chaotic No Good – 2024

Ritual Inscription – “Ritual Inscription” – [Forbidden Sonority]

whngr   12/7/2024   A Library, Cassette

PERNICIOUS BLACK STEW

Filthy black metal with hardcore punk leanings. Low fidelity guitar more overdriven than distorted, the distortion comes from the lack of production which appeals to us. Ugly and succinct there is no fat to trim, just raw power, riffs and velocity with aggressive blown out guttural vocals in a soup of basement recorded, analog mixed fury done during the global forced sequestration experiment.

Ritual Inscription is the possibly abandoned project of one, Joe from Western Massachusetts.

Forbidden Sonority – 2021 (originally self released in 2020)

Olive, Tim – “Sintered” – [Spleencoffin]

Preston Peace   11/27/2024   A Library, Cassette

Sintering is “to cause to become a coherent mass by heating without melting” and that’s pretty much what you get here: Four droning noise pieces, generated with magnetic pickups (think electric guitar, minus the guitar), metal objects, radios, and spring reverb.

Each piece has its own character: 1 is the most ‘guitar-like’, with crackle, hum, buzz, feedback, a generally abrasive aura, violence erupting at times. 2 brings the radio to the forefront, whooshing and wobbling (d)evolving into prickly bleeps and tones. 3 clangs and reverberates with more overt feedback. Final track 4 is a wonder, shedding the loud, shrill, hard-edged noise of the previous pieces for low drones, foghorn, bass sweeps and rumbles.

Noriegas, The – “Noise Disclosure Agreement” – [Self Released]

Preston Peace   11/6/2024   A Library, Cassette

This tape from the mysterious Noriegas starts off back-to-front with a remix contributed by Diego Manuel. Waves of ambient chopped breaks in a Hrvatski-Oiseaux vein tussle with synth warp, wash n wiggle, cresting and receding, break(beat)ing again before an abrupt ending.

‘Multiamory’ presents a long-form modular-(soft)synth-noise-haze improv jam, with cymbal-forward reverb-heavy drumming maintaining forward movement beneath the 60s-sci-fi-bloop-n-warble, the rhythm heading towards a galloping stomp and back while drunken robots bleep along energetically in the mix. Guitar, violin and mandolin are somehow also involved in the miasma of sound, emerging more towards the end as the thump subsides.

The epic B-side presents a swirl of arpeggiated synth among restrained howls, rumbling breaths and washes, hypnotic swells, pockets of agitated wiggling synth springing into life momentarily. Across nearly 30 minutes it develops, first towards a more ethereal character, the Mother God’s murmur surfacing, processed hum and shimmer-chirp-buzz-rumble floating, later collapsing into more spartan, alarmist synth fidgetry and tonal explorations, electronic waves lapping at a distant shore. Did you sign the waiver?

Comfort Link – “Metaphysical Swatting” – [Spleencoffin]

Preston Peace   10/30/2024   A Library, Cassette

Strange transmissions from another dimension by way of Baltimore. Squelches, voices–not so much cut-up as never intact to begin with–echo and reverberate amidst buzzes, clicks, rumbles, clanks, whirrs, fuzzing crunching stopping starting spinning-down and back up again, tape-delayed; ominous organ(ic) chords, crackle and hum. Perpetual disquiet. What does it all mean? An intercepted orator from another galaxy, or the other side of a cataclysm? Hypnotic rhythmic qualities as the voice(s) wobble, stutter, bend around the unidentifiable manipulated sounds threatening to erupt, fragments of words spoken, never sung. Off-putting organ chords fill out the spectrum on the B-side, departing from the sparser dynamic squelchitude heard earlier. Hypnagogic slurred ramble on the final track, ironically with the most intact vocal, reminds us: home is a place.

VAllEY – “VAllEY” – [I Had an Accident Records]

aarbor   10/29/2024   A Library, Cassette

VAllEY was recorded in the English countryside by James P Honey and FRKSE ( Rajen Bhatt). The album is a simple portrayal of minimal instrumentation and vocalization. James P Honey’s voice and emoting poetry is unworldly. Something ethereal about the fragments and loops that are whispered across the valley as the instrumentation is constructed with gentle strokes by FRKSE. The delicate and dark layers to this album are very refined. VAllEY’s simplicity is beautiful. A limited edition (150) cassette release given to us by Rajen Bhatt. There are only 2 tracks (11 and almost 13 minutes long). AArbor

FRKSE – “DEMO 2024” – [Divergent Series]

Rock Dove   10/9/2024   A Library, Cassette

A demo tape from FRKSE (pronounced FORKS), this is a relic of the tour that recently passed through the Pit and the Summer Listener Appreciation Party. FRKSE was started by Rajen Bhatt of Boston in 2005 and has released most of its material through Bhatt’s label, Divergent Series. He is joined now by Mike Reisinger (of label SGG) and together, they weave a low-fi ambient industrial collage of disaffection. Instruments include keyboards, tapes, pedals. Sounds to foreshadow the apocalypse (coming in 2040!), heavy with references to microplastics, debuggers, chemo– words which, rendered in Bhatt’s haunting lo-fi vocal, fit precisely between the industrial layers and spiritual rhythms that comprise the experience. The combined effect is that of foreboding movement, easy to meditate into then uncomfortable as it sinks into my guts. I can’t get enough.

Bigcat – “Lower Side Band” – [Warm Gospel Tapes]

Rock Dove   9/18/2024   A Library, Cassette

2024 release out of Oakland, a cassette of chilled out experimental ambient with a beat, downtempo and sparse, mixing up drones, synths, field recordings. Tracks 2-5 minutes. Dreamy, amnesiac sounds throughout. The A side taps along nicely, amped up by track Lemonheads’ ominously inscrutable spoken words. The B side starts out more tribal with track Bats and has a few twists. Broken beats and lost threads, tempered by bleeps and bloops. Mysterious, pleasurable, Biospherical? One breakbeat on the title track rises out of the blurry dreamscape but is gone before you’re ready. This volunteer found it compelling. Like a crossfaded high of CBD and MSG, a non-narcotic trip down familiar corridors.

shook, wilson – “peregrinations” – [Other Ghosts]

abacus   7/18/2024   A Library, Cassette

a poet of tone and texture, Wilson Shook is a self-taught saxophonist and body healer currently located in Oakland but with a long history associated with the Seattle Improvised Music Festival and Gallery 1412. Wilson’s practice cultivates an awareness of human vulnerability and technological fallibility; embraces excess, fragmentation, and incompleteness; and pursues the chaotic, queer, and interdependent imperatives of aleatory existence amidst a crumbling, toxic culture. this particular release, a collection of solos for soprano saxophone, presents site-specific improvisation, a merging of his interests in urban exploration and the sonic geography of forgotten places. recordings from a semi-abandoned warehouse in Oakland in 2023 and 2024. Shook manages to manifest a complex web of conflicted emotion and reaches far beyond the instrument to unearth thoughts only sound can convey. “intimate, expansive, vulnerable flights of wounded virtuosity. Halting attempts at a new language for soprano saxophone.” truly a gift to the Bay Area improvised music scene and very excited to see what collaborations and explorations unfold with his new(ish) relocation.

Vetala – “Demo III” – [Black Circle Propaganda]

whngr   6/7/2024   A Library, Cassette

SOUSED SUBTERRANEAN REHEARSAL

Two-piece deranged goblin choir executes raw depressive black metal within their foul cave-nest accompanied by ill-advised bass guitar technique and decrepit violin abuse. Said goblins appear intoxicated and/or are suffering from terminal disease (common among the more debauched members of the species). Roll d20 saving throw against Paralyzation, Poison, and Death Magic or take damage from trachea rupture and aspiration of vomitus sequelae. 

Little is known of Vetala except their current affiliation with the Signal Rex label and that both unnamed members perform bass, guitar and vocals with only one of them on percussion (these may in fact be rumors). A vague locus within Portugal and the involvement within the now defunct Black Circle (RIP circa 2022 that included Irae, Mons Veneris, and Decrepitude) are the only alleged truths we were able to uncover.

Black Circle Propaganda – 2011 (this reissue 2020)

Playytime – “Collection” – [Rope Bridge]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, Cassette

DETUNED HXC PSYCH

Like a low fidelity, less comedic Beastie Boys (You remember their early stuff.) without the rapping and 100% more black. Low and slow, that is the tempo until it’s low, wicked fast and dripping with vitality, anger, confusion, with huge, billowing sentiments of rebellion. Or maybe they are a more confrontational reincarnation of Bad Brains (sans reggae). Raw chugging guitars with considerable modulation via effects from heavily down-tuned and distorted to slightly overdriven with a wet-flange-phaser and slack-string feedback, one-two drums, riffs ala ’84, guttural vox ala ’94, sometimes slightly slam, and a bloody sprinkling of power-violence. Occasional soaring guitar solos like some bastard of ugly Japanese psyche (trck A3 “No”), unruly bass solo fueled trip-out interludes (trck B6 “Torch”), and a full-on vape waving ballad with post-lysergic dreamy sun-rise jam energy (trck B7 “Windlike”) that includes dude/chick vocal harmonies that evoke positivity and an intriguing note of acquiescence. 

This five-piece from the deep south is pulling inspiration from myriad sections of the record store but still arriving at a unique and, to my ear, compelling angle. I missed these guys and gal when they came through a while back selling out shows with Soul Glo (Phil) and Zulu (L.A.), two other P.O.C. generated ultra-heavy, self-harm inducing (The way the kids “dance” these days, fucking hell!), the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-but-might-get-streamed projects designed to incite fervor and perhaps take a toke with.

This cassette is comprised of their first two (cassette) releases, the Playytime “Demo” (2018) and “The Fun Never Ends” (2020).

Atlanta, GA – 2023

Peasant – “DEMO MMXIX” – [Legion Blotan]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, Cassette

BLEAK BURROWING BLACKNESS 

Stripped-down and crusty coal mining themed black metal with a lower/working-class ethos based on a miserably short life expectancy. A horrific death met out in darkness, respiratory failure, drilling electric guitar, tracheal polyps, one-two/fill/one-two/blast beat trash kit, spooky and sparse keys, hemoptysis, fidelity-neutral despair, government mandated black lung, bassless and debased, wet rat dance solos, lyrically self deprecating, dismal and drenched in life sucking soot. 

Peasant is George Proctor of Yorkshire (drums) and Lord Blackwood (Steve Mills Blackwood) of Durham. This demo cassette is a split release by both members’ respective labels.

Legion Blotan/Blackwood Studios – 2019

Prison Hell – “Sex Penitentiary” – [War Vellum]

whngr   4/25/2024   A Library, Cassette

HAMMER MURK SICKLE  

Low fidelity death with black leanings and bestial expulsions, an emphasis on repetition and hooks that pummel your sentience into the fog of intentionally poor production that reinforces the project’s dismissal of glossy commercial aspirations and underlines an ethos focused on power above packaging. Visceral trashcan blasts, death bellows and sepulchral breath. Sparing guitar solos that are less technical than the song arrangements and recall the early age of devil worship thrashing that sometimes eschew technique in favor of impact; not wanking, shanking… more sickle than scalpel. Though the majority of the cassette is hoof to the roof levels of velocity and violence, one might be able to find some respite, albeit brief, from the relentless attack on “Geotia Overcomming” (B1/track5) which seems to align with the sole member’s habit for exploring genre-bent passages that appear in much of their work including efforts outside of Prison Hell. We are choosing to forgo discussion on theme or intent to both allow the listener to arrive at their own conclusion and our ignorance and inability dissect the evidence with any true insight. We will admit that it makes us mildly uncomfortable and as we have precious little experience with sexual gratification during incarceration we will mention that the track titles seem to be more aligned with arcane magick than with libidinous internment but the crude insert and lyric sheet reveal variation from track to track that appear to come from seven different personalities… perhaps different modus operandi?  

Prison Hell is one feverishly active, T. Mc Clelland (credited as M. on this release) of Edmonton, Alberta. Member of Noxious Nex, Black Abyss, Tsalal, Bullet In Clenched Teeth and five other solo projects including Brulvahnatu. Mc Clelland also contributed to the project, Antediluvian.

War Vellum – 2023

Auditor – “Vernepator Cur” – [Black Horizons]

whngr   4/11/2024   A Library, Cassette

EPILEPTIC AURA EMULATOR

Brooding electronic ambience, intermittent percussive elements, self-harm meditations, intervals of monolithic drones, decaying digital signals, spurned canid therapy, seven horrifying angels with seven electronic trumpets heralding in this final chapter as Moloch feeds. We are drawn to these sounds like moths to flames. Looming and strange, we are a mote among colossi.

Auditor is one Brandon Elkins (Iron Forest, Emerge From The Womb Of The Earth, An Evening Redness) of Chicago, IL and has stated that Auditor was conceived as a method of exploring his depression.

Black Horizons / Sol Y Nieve – 2016

Pénombre – “Grande Flamme” – [Forbidden Sonority]

whngr   4/11/2024   A Library, Cassette

CULTE DE L’OMBRE

A grim frontal assault in nine parts from northern three-piece bearing fierce countenances, a genuine underground inscrutability that maintains the proven black metal template (crust punk/d-beat lineage, rocking; not swinging) without feeling derivative. Exhibiting subtle but extremely catchy variation in sound despite moderate lack of production, their crude, emblematic, and medieval French aesthetic further drives home the clou diabolique. Trve, cvlt and wicked, this cassette is in its essence, a perfect North American black metal release from gnarled root to withered fruit.

They have recently found a new thematic direction, casting aside their former Judeo-Christian lyrical content and have further embraced the region of their birth including Québécois poet Émile Nelligan’s “Cœurs Blasés” (track 8/B4), a visceral perspective on the miserable fates of the frontiersman who succumbed to their own fears, we receive and understand the devotion to their home as slightly threatening.

Active in the Montréal area of Quebec, Pénombre have been sighted clad in hooded cloaks and are linked nefariously to local analog dominant label…

Forbidden Sonority – 2021

Vile Command – “Obscene Conjurations” – [Forbidden Sonority]

whngr   4/4/2024   A Library, Cassette

MURKY HAWAIIAN DEATH

Low fidelity metal from the infernal depths of an indigenous culture steeped in war. Chugging, churning, squealing, blasting, growling, piercing, bombing, soloing at velocity. I hear death with black metal elements, direct and to the point lacking pretense or posturing. The sole member behind the project unfurls an aural banner of violence and hate against his enemies.

Vile Command is one Kūwāha’ilo now resides in Seattle but hails from Hawaiʻi where he learned to embrace the martial qualities of his heritage. His alias is one of the embodiments of the Hawaiian god of war and roughly translates to Kū of the maggot filled mouth, providing anonymity to a what appears to be a deeply personal struggle against colonization, the way of the haole (non-native Hawaiian, especially white people who wear penny loafers and socks to the beach), and apparently all things tepid, false and weak. 

Forbidden Sonority – 2020

Brown Snake Kills Dog – “Sorry, I Failed To…” – [Black Horizons]

whngr   4/4/2024   A Library, Cassette

SUBDUED STRANGE SEVERE

Gentle brooding and quietly ominous ambience with sparse whimsy. Diverse electronic elements, acoustic folk guitar, drones, piano, feedback and pensive male vocals that hover just above hypnotic but just below liminal awareness like a blurry, underexposed snapshots of a brutally honest diary that we have not received permission to view. Mostly mid-length tracks barring the last one, giving us time for reflection and space to suffer.

International two-piece Justin Summers and Andrew Lippoldt (Persistence In Mourning, Cadaverist and ex-Winters In Osaka) collaborate remotely between Oklahoma (Lippoldt) and Brisbaine, Australia (Summers). 

Black Horizons – 2018

FCC on track 4 “Anita”

SBTDOH – “Dregs: Bloody Scabs Seeping From Gravel Under the Skin” – [Aberrant Recordings]

Number 6   3/17/2024   A Library, Cassette

imagine being picked up by a giant and shaken to splattered gore while listening to this.  and it would be not unlike being surrounded, embedded within CIA renditioned black site torture chambers, a fully immersed capsule of audio speakers with amplitudes undreamed of, not unlike the equivalent IDF cages built and designed with the same function in Israel and Gaza. not unlike any parallel horror hospital basement in every secret State Security Dept’s clandestine shrine to power and control over its cheap laborious unworthy citizens. imagine that giant’s quick death gesture almost merciful in haste then come back down to earth and bury your burdens under this aural monstrosity for hours and hours. you may wonder how those less fortunate felt when their betters took them in for rehabilitation and special administrative measures 

Cremation Science – “Pure Bone Ash” – [Birth Control Productions]

Number 6   3/10/2024   A Library, Cassette

stress crypt rolls over a large population of useless flesh filler that hints at industrial decay while reducing the homogenous human cattle to its constituent particles that permeate the altar with the rancorous odors of genesis.  in the four parts, each kind of meticulous swirling persistence of near monotonous swoon, stages of resistance yielding to submission and ending in love.

from Birth Control: Sweden’s CREMATION SCIENCE– AKA Pierre B Jonsson, who has previously worked with us under the names VÄRLDSBRAND and DÖDENS VÄDERSTRECK.