Hair Police – Mercurial Rights

In 2001, noise trio, Hair Police, made quite a racket within the experimental music scene and continued to do so for a number of years before going on an unannounced hiatus in which members pursued endeavors in their respective separate projects. It wasn’t until earlier this year that the group returned to the noise scene with their most complete effort in years and arguably their most intimidating release out of their entire catalogue. Featuring members of noise legends Wolf Eyes and Burning Star Core, Hair Police brings together aspects from these backgrounds, the frothing primal aggression of the former and mesh it with the sonically attentive subtleties of the latter. With ‘Mercurial Rites’ the group looks to strip the semi-polished sheen of noise music’s marriage with digitally processed sounds and the recent influence of dub music, instead, taking the genre back to the electronic medieval that seems to have been absent in recent years.

While in recent times the musicians most notable for their contributions to the early modern developments of the now thriving noise scene, the likes of Dominick Fernow of Prurient and  Vatican Shadow, Pete Swanson (ex-Yellow Swans), and Black Dice have been moving more toward exclusively structural variants of electronic music, implementing their once completely atonal noise compositions into the structural format of modern electronic music, namely the likes of dub and minimal techno, Hair Police have something entirely different in mind, devoid of any of the aforementioned electronic themes, thus harkening back to the primitive roots of electronic music. Hair Police revisits the confrontational aspects of noise that the genre was known for during its early developments recalling the hellish vocals evocative of the ear-aching noise pioneered by controversial power-electronics group, Whitehouse in the 80s and early 90s.

Hair Police’s sound actually reminds me a lot of the more abrasive works from Wolf Eyes, albeit, this form of corrosiveness is not of an immediate kind but  rather, long form, slow-burning, and reminiscent of the Wolf Eyes collaborative series of works with psychedelic noise collective, Black Dice. ‘Mercurial Rites’ is a record that knows when to be punishingly noisy and when to bring in a moodier atmosphere. It is this live aspect that adds layers of depth and uniqueness to an otherwise colorless, bleak vision. The vocals add yet another nightmarish quality to these dissonant tormented soundscapes. With this release the band has proven itself worthy of crafting a nicely balanced record, intermittently transitioning from the tortured analogue hell of ‘We Prepare’ to the  nightmarish dungeon-esque ambience of ‘Scythed Wide’. While Hair Police’s style has always included a strong atmospheric presence the band still manages to touch on a dark aspect of music that feels natural rather than intentional, even in the midst of a less noisy approach. In a genre of extremes  the group has created a sound that isn’t completely over-cooked, finding a middle ground between the unlistenable and the accessible, making this release a good jumping on point for those who are unfamiliar with the band to listen.

Although I’ve had a fondness for noise, drone, experimental, avant-garde; vanguard music as a whole, for some reason I never got around to listening to Hair Police up until this point but even with that said I can say without question that ‘Mercurial Rites’ is easily the bands most complete effort since 2008’s ‘Certainty of Swarms’ and one of the better harsh noise records I’ve heard this year thus far. It is a record that shows that the band hasn’t at all let up on the caustic sound in which they made a name for themselves with, even in the midst of noise music’s current transition toward something conclusively musical; a sound this record seems to be inherently opposed to. It is here that disturbing soundscapes fill the void between blasts of distortion-ridden noise and if that doesn’t sound unsettling enough the shrill disembodied vocals that haunt this record will likely give you nightmares, although these are nightmares that I wouldn’t mind revisiting often.

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Overall Rating: 8.0

Favorite Tracks: ‘We Prepare’

Recommended: Wolf Eyes, Burning Star Core, Black Dice

Released: January 2013

Links:

Stream the LP on Type Records

Buy the record on Boomkat

-Tyler Thompson

Kolumbus – Of Every Tragedy Before Our Eyes

Kolumbus is an ambient/drone musician from Sydney, Australia. In the fall of last year I reviewed his album Fleeting Hope For False Optimists. ‘Of Every Tragedy Before Our Eyes’ is the project’s latest EP consisting of five short tracks.

‘As We Enter the Nihil’ kind of acts like an intro with these soft ambient swells  that weave in and out of each other. I’m not very fond of the tone of the synthesizers, they seemed stale and unrefined as though they were composed on a cheap Casio keyboard. ‘The Silence That Cleanses Your Throat’ contains some minimalistic drumming which could have been a nice touch but I don’t feel like it actually enables the track to progress, it is just this loop of light drumming. Although I was generally unimpressed there were a few moments that were enjoyable such as the  fourth track, ‘In Thoughts’ that contains some really nice drones and featured this low sub-bass rumbling texture throughout that really helped the brighter overlapping tones stand out. The title track continues this low end bass with a little bit of grit and distortion which came off as being inauthentic and after a while just became distracting, burying the subtler drones beneath it.

There is often a fine line between minimalistic and boring and Kolumbus crosses that line. It should of course remain basic enough to where it doesn’t clutter or overwhelm the listener with sound while remaining fulfilling for those listening to where they will feel inclined to return to the music. The problem I had with ‘Fleeting Hope For False Optimists’ was the album did not run cohesively enough for me, a lot of the songs lacked enough content for me to remain interested. Whereas, it still retained some semblance of structure and created a mood by utilizing samples; ‘Of Every Tragedy Before Our Eyes’ lacks in doing that and as many problems as there are with this, the major one is the progression or lack of. One of my favorite things about ambient and drone is the idea of listening further, giving repeated listens just to here something different each time, to gain a new experience; drones within drones, small micro sounds that are at first not apparent, overtones and undertones, etc. It is all a part of the fun that should come with the experience of listening to drone but with Kolumbus I have lost touch with those small traits that makes the genre interesting because those aspects are either non-exsistant or far too sparse to pick up on. The tracks don’t really go anywhere and when you finally feel like they do or that something is going to happen it doesn’t.

Where Kolumbus failed with ‘Fleeting Hope For False Optimists’ is to create something interesting or captivating in a minimal way by using the absence of content and the use of samples alongside to create a sense of emotion. The samples that were present in that last release helped the music become more of an emotive experience and although the album didn’t thrill me it filled in a lot of the cracks that made me dislike it but with this release these small factors have been removed making ‘Every Tragedy Before Our Eyes’ feel like a rushed effort and an overall unenjoyable one. There is little that is salvageable; even some of the more patient fans of drone and experimental music are going to have a tough time getting through this one and not feeling bored.  This was large step backwards and an overall disappointing release.

Overall rating: 3.8

Favorite Track: –

Recommended: –

Released: 04 February 2012

Links: Visit the Bandcamp Page

-Redntoothnclaw

Mont Saint Michel – Sediment

Mont Saint Michel is the solo experimental music project of Tyler Stupalsky. ‘Sediment’ is the first release under the project name which according to the last.fm page is a collection of songs featuring a variety of guest production. Sediment is a series of five songs that pays tribute to the wall-of-sound characteristics found in shoegaze combining it with ambient music in even tasteful applications all in a compact and friendly span of 3 to 5 minutes.

The Ep begins with ‘Tributary’, a track brimming with guitar melodies and glowing ambient textures, one that starts off safe enough with but soon transforms into monolithically large pulsating slabs of psychedelic noise. The textures are so vibrant, melodic even, a concept that is carried on throughout the EP, specifically on ‘Midnight Special’. One of the most enjoyable aspects of ”Tributary’ is the unorthodox beat that randomly comes into the song, a risky and unexpected move that feels perfectly in place, one that shows that Mont Saint Michel is not afraid to take chances with a few unusual ideas. Seeing as this is the only track that includes beats, it is an idea that works so well in its application that I wouldn’t mind hearing more of it on future releases. Although experimental, ‘Sediment’ does not stray so far away from familiarity that it becomes completely alien. This familiarity is demonstrated on ‘Streets/Tears’, a slow moving ballad that begins with a considerably larger amount of traditional guitar playing further brings in a sense of musicality.

‘Sediment’ comes off very much like a mixtape, a collection of interesting ideas and experiments that gives the listener an idea of what to expect in the future which makes this experimental enough for the weirdos while staying formulaic and familiar enough for your average listener who has a bit of a sweet tooth for experimentation. Mont Saint Michel brings a stimulating pallet of familiar sounds and blends them with an adventurous amount of experimentation. The tone is bright, featuring a thin but present underlying layer of dreamy pop melodies; it is all very warm and welcoming while being mysterious enough to make you feel like you have discovered something new. It is like a summer day at the beach, just before it is about to rain; a strong and refreshing introduction to what is hopefully to come in the near future.

Overall rating: 8.8

Favorite Tracks: ‘Tributary’, ‘Midnight Special’, ‘Streets/Tears’

Recommended: Like attempting to remain conscious while being submerged in a pool filled with cough syrup as you are serenaded by local rock musicians.

Links:

Visit the Bandcamp page

Mont Saint Michel on Soundcloud

-Redntoothnclaw

mhva – Warmer / Colder

Warmer

Colder

Mhva is a musician from Oslo, Norway who’s glitchy drone / noise soundscapes have garnered some positive response within the soundcloud community and within soundcloud threads on /mu/ which isn’t hard to understand where this following comes from once you listen to his work. Warmer / Colder is a double album consisting of two separate EP’s. Since these two EP’s are made to be played as a whole I decided to review them as an entire album instead of reviewing them both separately which does not necessarily mean that they cannot be enjoy apart from each other.

Warmer / Colder is full of dark mysterious soundscapes and collages of noise in the repetitive fashion of drone. Like most drone recordings the tracks on this album are quite lengthy and change very little sonically, fortunately there are elements of noise, glitch, and even some traditional piano playing that are present throughout these two EPs which do well to prevent the content from getting boring for listeners who may be new to or impatient with the genre while allowing the songs to remain at a glacial pace for familiar listeners. There are many moments of subtle change throughout these two releases; tiny shifts in sound, quiet background noises, drones within drones, and silent tectonic movements that all come together to create a collage of sorts which is one of the fascinating aspects of drone. It is this ability to create the illusion of doing more with less and when you begin to pick up on these acute changes it is at that point that what you are hearing becomes more than just repetitious raw noise and transforms into an actual experience.

I found myself immediately in a state of calmness with the first track which features some simple drones with a bit of foreground noise that becomes progressively more apparent throughout the music, a formula that is explored throughout the album. ‘Pretty Late’ is made up of lumbering melancholic piano chords that are fittingly pieced together with unintelligible spliced samples that act as a musical and textural background element throughout the track. The samples, although minor, give the track a feeling of sadness, not in such a way that it is depressing but in a weird beautiful kind of way making this track to be amongst mhva’s more musical and accessible. This isn’t the only song to feature remnants of traditional sounding instrumentation; “The Punctum” a track on Warmer features some similar piano chords that play amongst a sea of colorful sounds that come into and out of the track.

Mhva creates some interesting experimental compositions that are familiar enough for fans of this style of music to remain interested while being different enough in it’s own right to achieve his own niche within the genre but the music does lack structure and content in which there are moments where I found myself growing bored or impatient with the progression on some of the songs, particularly on a few of the longer tracks such as ‘Beetle’ and ‘Enginery’. I am well aware that this type of music rides on a lack of content but in the context of what mhva has created, what is here is not sparse enough to be interesting in an ultra-minimal way nor is it dense enough to be something I would come back to often, especially when taking into account that the album spans two lengthy EPs. The combination of all these sounds creates some great textures but there is a point where these good ideas fail to become something musical and simply remain ideas, in this case a collection of interesting sounds.

Warmer / Colder is an example of what could have been a truly unique and powerful piece of music that barely falls short of its own expectations. Regardless, I cannot stress enough that with all forms of experimental music the listener themselves are often required to do some of the work as well in order to appreciate what one is being exposed to so with that said, I think this can be something great if the listener is willing to dig deep enough and remain patient in doing so.

Overall rating: 6.8

Favorite Tracks: ‘Five Nights’, ‘Pretty Late’, ‘The Punctum’

Recommended:  Like being in a room full of printers that are simultaneously dying as they all attempt to finish a final job.

Links:

mhva on Soundcloud

-Redntoothnclaw

Dementia & Hope Trails – Parts of the Sea I & II

Dementia & Hope Trails is the solo project of prolific experimental musician Justin Marc Lloyd. Justin has performed in a multitude of bands and projects and has been releasing a constant stream of visual and musical content for some time.

Some people will argue that the idea of consistently releasing material comes at the expense of said material lacking in quality. At times this theory does prove to be true, especially when taking into account the tradition of productivity that is so abundant in musical circles such as drone, ambient, and noise which have been made all so susceptible to these accusations. Fortunately, Dementia & Hope Trails proves these accusations wrong; given the amount of content and even more so the quality of it ‘Parts of the Sea’ holds it’s own rather well. The first part of this double album features six tracks while the second half are three much lengthier racks, two of which reach past the 20 minute mark with the entire album coming to a nearly whopping two hours. Because of this I think it is important to keep in mind that like many other drone and ambient projects this is an album that is best experienced in one full uninterrupted listen (mood lighting optional).

Like any good piece of epic work, whether it be literature, film, or in this case music it is careful to begin things slowly which is apparent in the first track. Track two starts to pick the music up; ‘We Sent Hearts Soaring’ is a massive, beautiful soundscape brimming with the normal lush ambient swells, spacey echoes, and a catalogue of many other strange, uncommon, and ethereal sounds that make for a lush but calm track.

Another standout track, “Hazy Love Drifting Down A River” airy washes of slow moving chords flood over the listener. Eventually it all builds into a loud monolithic construction, intensely so, although not in such a way that it is unlistenable or intrusively noisy but in a self-liberating way that is not so structurally different from a Godspeed! crescendo. While listening, getting lost in the dense clutter of sound it is hard to forget that all of this is being created on the spot and when it comes to improvisation, proper attention to detail is crucial in not ruining the delicate pace and tonal atmospheric qualities of what one is attempting to accomplish. There are plenty of laid back repetitious moments as to be expected but Justin does well in making sure not to bore the listener making sure to implement a good deal of recognizable sounds and by that I mean sounds that actually sound like they are being made with an instrument.

Justin’s colorful visual aesthetic transfers over in his music, sometimes to the point of being saturated in a colorful palette of sound. Seas of shimmering reverb, crushing slabs of psychedelic noise, organ-esque synth tones, and cascading volume swells that seem to go on forever all add to the complexly layered construction of these songs. Some of the textures on ‘Still Replaying’ are so vibrant and colorful that it makes it hard to believe that ‘Parts of the Sea’ was completely improvised all in a single take on guitar with no overdubs when it was recorded. Some of the songs actually sound like they were composed, written out prior to being recorder. The sounds on these albums are like tearing into a pack of gummy worms, they’re colorful and delicious except in this case the gummy worms last nearly two hours and are the size of a mountain. Maybe that was a bad analogy…

‘Sunflower’, which is probably the most progressive track on the album in that it is constantly evolving and building to a climax. Although it ranks in as the second longest track at 24 minutes it is possibly the most accessible piece of music on the album. Although I feel that ‘Sunflowers’ is probably the best track (my personal favorite at least) I do feel that the guitars may be a little too trebly, especially for a track that lasts 24 minutes. Sometimes it can be grating for those who are not as familiar with noisier elements in ambient music, especially taking into account the recording style which sometimes contains peaks in volume. There are so many sounds on this sprawling epic of a release that it calls for multiple listens in order to fully digest the product of something so expansive. The final and longest track, “I Miss You, Don’t Fall Asleep Yet” is a cathartic journey of transcendental ambience and psychedelic noise. It eventually mellows out into a looping state of modulated drones. As the track continues more guitar tones get thrown into the mix of the composition building off of each other, reverberating and echoing up to the end of the album where distant vocals can be heard singing the title of the song.

As much as I just want to praise this album and not say anything negative about it, ‘Parts of the Sea’ is not free of it’s shortcomings. Although I cannot respect the spirit of this style of music and the improvised nature of it enough, the fact that it was improvised is somewhat of a flaw. For being completely made up on the spot the music is great, more than great actually but I feel as though it is not fully realized. It makes me wonder what Justin could have done if he had recorded other tracks overtop of what he had or manipulated the end result in post-production. Choosing a recording style, especially one like this is a crucial decision that sometimes opens up possibilities and other times restrains the musician causing them to work around whatever negative aspects that come with it This is of course a very small flaw seeing that end result sounds like a realized piece of music and as I mentioned previously, some parts of the album actually sound like they were written prior to recording as though they wren’t improvised at all.

The album starts off simple enough, some pretty ambient soundscapes, nothing out of the ordinary for ambient music but then everything takes a left turn and about halfway through the second track you realize that you are on a very different kind of ride, something so different and futuristic that it will surely take more than one listen to digest. It is all constantly changing, always moving, seamlessly shifting, deconstructing and reconstructing itself in so many ways. At times is is soothing and at other times it is apocalyptic and frightening, a formula for an instant classic. ‘Parts of the Sea’ is always something different with each listen and is almost never uninteresting or boring. There is very little I can say about this negatively. This is surely the result of trial and error, passed time, hours of messing around, doing things wrong and not giving a fuck if it is correct in the normal sense of what is considered “right” in music; this is indeed the work of a musician who has nearly perfected his craft.

Overall rating: 9.8

Favorite Tracks: “I Miss You, Don’t Fall Asleep Yet”, “Hazy Love Drifting Down A River”, “We Sent Hearts Soaring And Sailing At The Same Time” “Sunflower”

Recommended: Similar to attempting to stay awake in a house full of carbon monoxide while consuming an overwhelming amount of candy and ultimately failing. Progressive and futuristic. A monolithic audible depiction of spacial and apocalyptic visions. In the “about” section of the Facebook page it describes the music as being like “if This Will Destroy You actually destroyed itself”.

Links: 

Violent Threads

Justin Marc Lloyd

Facebook Fan Page

Click the links below to download both parts for free:

Part of the Sea I

Parts of the Sea II

-Redntoothnclaw

DataSphere – Set / Rise

DataSphere is an ambient / noise musician who creates spacey compositions. On the Set / Rise EP DataSphere explores a more claustrophobic approach to the minimalist inspired music that can be heard on previous releases such as ‘Ghost Town’.

When talking about ambient music, I find that albums falling into this category tend to be best listened to altogether, heard as one element as oppose to listening to individual tracks separately. The structure of the music, especially in terms of more abrasive styles such as noise, puts a lot of responsibility on the listener, relying on one to absorb the information, see past a hazy concrete wall of sound and pull out some tangible evidence that music, in the popular sense of the word actually exist beneath all of the chaos. Set / Rise works in this way, best as a juxtaposition that places two extremes beside each other and not in such a way that it is meant to be compared but to be listened to or absorbed together.

‘Drowning’ is a noisy affair albeit it is the softer and more consistent of the two tracks. It starts out with a low rumbling that morphs into fuzzy hollow noise followed by some fantastic textures. For me, the track is the more enjoyable of the two as there as some interesting sounds buried beneath all of what is going on that paints a vivid picture of something cosmic. ‘Abduction’ is a harsher piece that finds DataSphere experimenting with a sort of claustrophobic composition. There are moments where loud shrill sounds can be heard eclectically clashing with each other followed by brief let ups that erupt without warning into more noise.

In terms of harsh noise, DataSphere does a decent job trying to create something enjoyable with something chaotic, making for a structured and somewhat thought out piece. On the downside there just isn’t a lot that stands out with these two tracks to keep me listening and being an EP comprised of two songs alone that doesn’t leave a lot of room for the album to better itself. With that said, the music here isn’t particularly bad in any way, just nothing that separates itself from a sea of similar sounds.

http://datasphere.bandcamp.com/

Overall Rating – 5.2

Recommended: Enjoyers of structured harsh noise, Tim Hecker fans might even find a comfortable place here.

-Redntoothnclaw

Carpeaux – Black Magic

With the godly Carpeaux, I ensured him that I would review his album a while back so here it is:

If anyone were to listen to this album on their first take they would wonder if there was a story book meant for this epic tale.  At the same time the guitars have the feel and the sounds from a lot of early Hendrix recordings of Black Magic with some wild flaying around.  But at the same time it’s got this nice math rock you would hear out of Tool or Muse (which I’m sure he hates both groups).  Overall the album has got a single trance like feel running through the entire album.  Almost would be perfect album to listen to drunk in a dark room so then your imagination could build up and listen in depth to the album.  The Vocals are dark deep and meaningful but too deep for me.

Best track on the album:

Gilgamesh, fifth king of Uruk: Such a powerful creation that needs to be listened to either live or at 100db minimum.  With a power swinging bass line and a flaying guitar, vocals that come from the deep depths of the sea, only a king could deny his rights into a kingdom of soloist’s with this track.

Download the album for free through this link     http://carpeaux.bandcamp.com/album/black-magic

Rekapper Overall Rating: 9.876/10

Zalhietzli – Sainte Rita

I’m amazed by this. It’s drone ambient noise or something like it, with occasional vocal samples. Listening to this EP is really like watching a movie, having a nightmare etc., it’s an insanely immersive and dense, like a soundtrack to your subconscious’ inner workings. The sound experimentation is really interesting and, though deep, never unpleasant and, though constrained by the genre, never boring – not for me at least.

The second track is the most accessible, having vocal samples, rhythm (though irregular) and sound bits with clear emotional meaning – suspense and creepiness, mostly. The other two are more atmospheric, which makes them harder to relate to. I think the interplay of different sound streams in them is actually more interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but nothing beats emotion as a tool for musical attraction – in a broad sense of emotion, including the emotion of “wanting to dance”.

Well, I fail to see how black metal, drone and such are sad, but if you feel sadness in kvlt stuff, then this is probably depressive to you as well.

In general I can say this is really well made and deep, so If you like the genre: 1) you will like this; and 2) this Zalhietzli dude also releases other people’s music of the same general type, check it out here. He releases on tape, with cool homemade album art. If you dig that, you can buy this EP on tape on his bandcamp page.

-Carpeaux