cinder 5/12/2021 A Library, CD
Collab noise release from Risa Reaper (Japan) & Takeshita (Pronounced TA-KESH-TA, Seattle). Electronics crunch and churn, while whimsical demented toys are pulverized in the giant industrial steel grinder. Unbellies of childlike rhythms & demonic possessed vox try to escape through the harsh, scorching fire of hell.
cinder 5/12/2021 A Library, CD
An intensely meditative duo of Mike Tamburo and Galina Haralambova. This release is a musical journey through 11 gongs and over 60 bells, sound plates, singing bowls and tuned metallic instruments that transfuse into your inner lamb and soothe your soul. The reverb you hear from each tap of the gongs/bowls/bells is like a deep relaxing breath. Could definitely lay in a giant flower field, staring up at the sun peeking through the clouds listening to this. It’s like a giant, mythical wind chime. Would mix excellently next to Tom Heasley’s droned out tuba.
cinder 5/12/2021 A Library, CD
An expanded version of Catherine Christer Hennix’s mind-altering ensemble. CCH is Swedish musician, poet, philosopher, mathematician and visual artist who is known for being associated with the early minimalist movement. Active since the 1960s, her drone interest intertwines with her love of jazz, Arabic music, Sufi Islamic art, and the blues. This one, hour+ long piece includes vocalists Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, Amir Elsaffan and Amirtha Kidambi, brass sounds of Paul Schwingesnschlögl and Elena Kakaliagou, & Marcus Pal and Stefan Tiedje on electronics. It’s a hypnotic, mesmerizing psychedelic trip through the high desert. Indian style drones morph with wafting chants that cocoon around your core and tendril out your solar plexus like glowing comets. It’s a meditative journey, drop in anywhere!
Number 6 5/7/2021 A Library
self described queer power electronics, the Providence Rhode Island artist continues to provoke conventional assumptions and lethargic conclusions of perceptions from within and without the worldwide community of gender and sex elasticity all of which defies a single, common, authoritative view. with that in mind, the artist exposes a sublevel of driven sex hunters that proudly refer to themselves as giftgivers and bugchasers i.e. intentional HIV infection/ transmission/ reception. is this a myth? are these pleasure seekers suicidal? are they liberated? you’ll have to decide for yourself because according to the artist and his guest collaborators it “strives to neither glorify nor shame, but rather humanize those who were vilified by leaders of Faith and Government, left to fend for themselves during the height of the epidemic.” most tracks open with a docu-style sample of a male explaining an aspect of the chasing/giving/receiving setting like a segment of an interview, and at least one preacher sample, and a porno claim that “i’ve converted about 15 guys. oh fuck” then the sound abruptly shifts to a jarring interplay of densely layered textures, frequencies and “disembodied voices of the departed” aka as spoken/yelling/screaming and rubbery, slithery, wet roars of anger/resentment/rage likely directe at religion and government (or people dumbfuck enough to fall dfor this shit). this is Straight Panic’s most accomplished, well-conceived and executed release. the concept and presentation work best in its entirety. the idea that one can live without fear and enjoy fucking for the sake of pleasure with no care or interest in the future. to embrace your own demise, is paramount
–Teachers AIDSchaser
FCC – #3 mostly submerged or distorted fuck sounds and noises, #8 opening 45 seconds porn gift/chase fuck
#3 guest Délinquance Juvénile
#4 guest Grutesk
#7 guest Contraktor
abacus 5/7/2021 12-inch, A Library
fragile hypnagogic meanderings from Turkey’s Ekin Fil. her presence here is distant yet deeply ominous, the nebulous wafts of voice, piano and guitar are reminiscent of other somber drone pop artists of the past 10 years like Grouper, Inca Ore, or Ensemble Economique. nocturnal premonitions, foggy introspection, cinematic noir and melancholy.
abacus 5/7/2021 12-inch, A Library
drifting between ambient industrial and classical renaissance drone, alternating tracks between warmth and frigidity. Alex Ives from the UK presents this scrapbook of dreamy vignettes, intentionally crafted in contrasts to challenge the listener. pieces are partly achieved through utilising samples of Sudanese wrestling & Tuvan Throat Singing, a variety of sound sources and processing are utilized.
abacus 5/7/2021 12-inch, A Library
outsider pop noise decay from Brooklyn’s Austin Sley Julian. grooves that grind and bubble simultaneously, intermingling with spacey soundscapes and often dreamy vocals. some collab work from a certain Ras Yoyo on one track and Kassie Carlson (G-Toss) on another. this release alternates between dystopic nightmare and bedroom pop daydream. drift, but not too deep.
Number 6 5/6/2021 A Library
aarbor 5/5/2021 12-inch, A Library
Karuan is Karwan Marouf born in Vienna to Kurdish parents. At the age of six he started to record his singing on tape. In 1995 he started to work on his own solo projects which were largely inspired by folk music.These projects were band-oriented. When Karuan started to arrange his songs on a computer his music became more electronic.This recording is from 2001. His Kurdish heritage isn’t as audible here as it is in some of his other tracks. Do you hear more Vienna? or more Kurd? AArbor
whngr 4/30/2021 A Library, Cassette
Irreverent genre bent sickening thrust of diabolic aural psychosis.
Depraved goth/punk that sinks its feral teeth into your skull nut and gives it a good thrashing. The canid saliva stains but fades… leaving you feeling worse.
Echoes, guitar violence, horns, heresy, poetic and perturbed with allusions to homicide and failing mental health growl shouted through a decaying atmoshere draped in thick, velvety reverb.
An aggregate of members affiliated with Toxic State Records that don’t want you to know who they are and I, for one, will do my part to help preserve their anonymity. No matter, fucking rocks like a blind-drunk sailor on deck in a raging typhoon. I’d like to imagine strobe lights and a bit of eye-liner but they’ll never visit here… maybe it’s time for a little trip.
NYC 2021
whngr 4/30/2021 12-inch, A Library
Long-form Modular Synth Commutation
Strange, dreary, and dreamy journeys through an analog landscape of decrepit, abandoned industrial districts.
Grabbed this ultra-chiller LP from the Slim Bin ’cause I liked the cover art but found myself struggling to review it. It was too innocuous, too tame, too repetitive, and too uplifting… but my feelings started to change after reading an interview with the creator who maintains a highly secretive identity known only as Craven Faults (not secretive about their process however, as an exhaustive litany can be found online behind the thoughts and creation of their compositions), an entity whose obsession with modular synth wavers on religious fanaticism. An absolute boffin with an incredible devotion to their massive instrument that blinks soullessly(?) in the Yorkshire textile mill where they build, and seek to perfect their apparently massive electronic apparatus (sans keyboards) in order to materialize an idea built with sound. Mote by mote, brick by brick, layer by layer… and then to deconstruct it until we arrive once again at its source.
Yorkshire, 2020
whngr 4/30/2021 12-inch, A Library
Insane barrage of War Metal/Thrash from this knuckle bleeding two-piece.
Trem bar abuseGuttural assault is relentless
Chaos, Bombast, Crushing
Guitar smolders
Threshold for pain is high
Great song titles that appear, to this miserable volunteer, to be chapters in a heretical Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Grab your purple D20’s you fucking nerds and make your saving throw against Paralyzation, Poison, and Death Magic.
New Jersey, 2020
aarbor 4/28/2021 12-inch, A Library
Remixes of 2 tracks on Nicola Conte’s first album JET SOUNDS : La Coda Del Diavolo (the Devil’s Tail) by the Karminsky Esperience, and Missione a Bombay (Mission to Bombay) by Ursula 1000. The Karminsky Experience is James Munns and Martin Dingle (from England). Ursula 1000 is New York’s Alex Gimeno. Missione a Bombay fits beautifully into an Asian Underground set. AArbor
aarbor 4/28/2021 12-inch, A Library
Balanco at the time of this recording in 2001 was the duo of Davide Penta and Mariella Carbonara. They produced 2 full length recordings: Bossa & Balanco and More. These two songs originally appeared on the More album and are reworks by Nicola Conte and Le Hammond Inferno. Discogs describes them as Soul Jazz/Latin Jazz. Nicola Conte is an Italian producer, DJ, Jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Marcus Liesenfeld and Holger Beier (of Berlin) are Le Hammond Inferno their work was at first described as “futurist kitsch” by 2001 was taken much more seriously following some very successful releases. AArbor
aarbor 4/28/2021 12-inch, A Library
Alsarah and the Nubatones are based in Brooklyn. They are an East-African, retro-pop group was born out of conversations about Nubian “songs of return,“ modern migration patterns, and the cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt. The ensemble features singer, songwriter and bandleader Alsarah, tabla player Rami El Aasser, oud player Haig Manouki, and bass player Mawuena Kodjovi. Alsarah & The Nubatones have proven that soul crosses all cultures, languages, and people. The remixes here are by Boddi Satva (Armani Kombot-Naguemon from the Central African Republic now based in Brussels), Zeb a/k/a the Spy from Cairo, and Wonderwheel label boss Nicodemus. AArbor
whngr 4/27/2021 7-inch, A Library
Two charged female-fronted hardcore punk rock PXV(?) tracks on side a while side b is more of a electronically augmented instrumental breakdown/loop noise/rockploration groove. One should note, however, that each song on this 7″ is progressively chill with the caveat that the first track is the antithesis of restraint and decorum.
Fucking great cover art. 10/10
No Statik were extremely active, feverishly chucking out 13 releases during their 8 year stab at severity until their apparent conclusion in Los Angeles, 2018.
Hemroid The Leader 4/27/2021 A Library, CD
Churning, shattering, rupturing, stuttering string improvisation as fast as possible with no repetition from Alan Sondheim on Public Eyesore. “I am riding the contour of what I am hearing And my fingers flailing about As if I wear(sic) under control.” He plays a diverse assortment of guitars, Arabic and Central Asian lutes and a viola. This is Sondheim’s 4th full-length in our library. Feat. vocal chants from Azure Carter on 4, 8, 12: “This is a prelude to a song/ Or is it an accompaniment to a song/ Or a prelude to …”
mickeyslim 4/27/2021 A Library, CD
It may also be good to know that destratification is the process by which air or water is methodically mixed in order to normalize temperature.
This project, as if descended from the occult hand of The Human Quena Orchestra (Nathan Berlinguette and Ryan Unks), is a 44-minute long excursion that buzzes and hums its way across a barren night sky. A lush wind’s murmur and metallic sandpaper scratching, haunted nightmare drones and inner-ear itches. Everything, all at once, coalescing into a final, subtle sound that you’ll find already has you hypnotized.
Seminal Berzerkly Hardcore
Palm mutes, velocity, anger, squealing guitars, sneering optimism cloaked in nihilism, counting, D-beat, Oooogh
West coast icons of heaviness spray out fourteen tracks of thrash/proto-war metal in the vein of Crass Records, Profane Existence, and Discharge.
Sonic dissidence, disorder, and destruction that calls for an end to empiric violence, war, and classism on this, their only full-length. Crucifix was heard by thousands of aspiring crust lords on the 1982 compilations, “Not So Quiet On The Western Front” and “Rat Music for Rat People” inspiring thousands of disenfranchised middle-class youth to leave suburbia and hit the gutters of Amerikkka to beg. Beer, drugs, leftovers, food for their dogs, and anything that might help them to focus their one true passion, the collection and sewing of patches on their filthy stinking clothing. However, many other fans would form bands and engage in humanitarian efforts like feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and fighting oppression and inequity for a little while anyway before being consumed by their addictions or quietly martyring themselves on the altar of capitalisms before Our Blessed Mother of Patriotic Perversion, drunk with power, greed, and mad beyond reason.
Dehumanization was an integral album that included, Sothira Proudflesh né Pheng (vocs) a refugee of Cambodia, Jake Smith (guitar), Matt Borusso (bass), Christopher Douglas (drums), and is finally being added to our library in 2021 38 years after being released and just prior to America’s prophesied adoption of Thoughtcrime as part of our JurisPrudence.
Pairs well with 1984 (the year and the novel), skateboards, and empty swimming pools.
whngr 4/23/2021 12-inch, A Library
Walls of harsh ambience from Paola Bandera of Milan, Italy. Released originally in 1994 on cassette by G.R.O.S.S.
Peels of feedback beneath swells of white noise spacy and uncomfortable pedal tweaking
knob fingering
modules modulating
Abstract and unsettling but not quite face melting. An early release for Bandera that represents an interesting meeting of East and West Noise circles. G.R.O.S.S. was run by Nakajima Akifumi (Aube) until his passing in 2013 and is memorialized on the reverse of this rather galling LP.
KFJC 89.7FM