September 25, 2018

Boosting plate subduction

Releasing friction energy in the asthenosphere.

(P.H.O.B.O.S. is a french doom/drone/experimental/industrial band from Paris, France, formed by Frederic Sacri (distortion/keys/pulse/vox), Mani Ann-Sitar (distortion/keys/vox) and Magnus Larssen (subs/infras/lines/pulse). This album is a plate-shifting industrial doom built to move mountains as nine emanations of infinite telluric power that weld the mysticism of black metal with the material devastation of Godflesh and their kin. Each percussive strike carries the weight of the world behind it, sundering and reshaping the earth with no regard for human life).

Invoking the powers of the ancient Anglo-Saxons

Following the sweet melody through the enchanted forest.

(Gazelle Twin is the stage name of Elizabeth Bernholz,a British composer, producer and musician from Brighton, England. Walling conceived the project when she watched Fever Ray perform at the 2009 Loop Festival. She noted how "her show reminded me how powerful and liberating costume is, and I became interested in the power of disguise".

Her debut album, The Entire City, was released in July 2011 to critical acclaim. The album includes her two previously recorded singles, "Changelings" (2010) and "I Am Shell I Am Bone" (2011). In 2014 Gazelle Twin released her second album, Unflesh, to further critical praise. In an interview with Guy Mankowski for PopMatters, Bernholz mentioned that in the live shows for Unflesh she would be performing in a version of her PE kit from school, saying she wanted to 'go back to my teenage years to literally live out the idea of being a freak, like I thought I was (and was often made to feel) at the time.' She has also remixed music by John Foxx. She married the local musician Jez Bernholz who also performs with her on-stage).

A great implosion of the second state of matter

Crystalline hexahedrons changing shape to the beat of deep blue.

(35007 ("Loose" in beghilos) is a band from the Netherlands. The sound of 35007 has been described as stoner, psychedelic, space and progressive rock).

September 22, 2018

Autosomal recessive inheritance expressed in all generations

Ossification of the vagus pair nerve.

(Nadja is Aidan Baker (guitars/vocals/drum programming) & Leah Buckareff (bass/vocals). Originally formed in 2003 as a Baker solo project, the now-duo creates ambient-drone-metal, combining ambient electronics & fragmentary vocals with snail-crawl, epic riffs & dirge-like percussion). 

Ufo's on parade

Dubbing lights on afternoon.

(Experimental space rock band that formed in Bristol, England in 1992. David Pearce was the core member of the group, and Rachel Brook (of Movietone, another Bristol band) was a member for most of the band's lifetime.

The band were marked by quiet vocals and sheets of feedback with similarities to contemporary shoegazing bands, or The Jesus and Mary Chain. FSA were able to create a small but enthusiastic fanbase as one of the more remarkable experimental bands of the day. The band were notable for recording most of their output at home into a normal home stereo system, avoiding recording studios as much as they could. This gave their music a DIY feel and gave them the freedom to experiment as much as they wanted). 

Prečkati pod mostom izgubljenih duš

Epic marches to face opponents.

(Laibach is an slovenian Post-Industrial band formed 1980 in Trbovlje, at the time Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Laibach is the German name for Slovenia's capital city Ljubljana; initially one of the founders of Martial Industrial music, they changed their musical direction to a more Rock-, Pop- and Techno-/Dance-inspired crossover style in later years).

Dying in viral dementia

Blood transfusion with cross contamination.

(Laudanum is a drone/doom/noise band from Oakland, CA, USA formed in 2004).

There will be no rest for the heroes fallen in battle

Echoes from a land of despised gods.

(From the depths of the black charcoal mountains rises the Belgian band Bathsheba. Fronted by She-devil Michelle Nocon (ex-Serpentcult, Leviathan Speaks & Death Penalty), carried by the punishing drums of Jelle Stevens (ex- SardoniS), massive vibrations from Raf Meukens (Death Penalty, Torturerama) and relentless riffs from Dwight Goossens (ex- Disinterred). Bathsheba throws you into deep sadness and inner rage, straight into the cave grim, no meander in the enchanted forest on the way to the deep. The band plays heavy doom mixed with sludge and black metal. The heavy lowtuned monster can persue in fast pace while the haunting vocals go from monotonous chants towards complete schizophrenia).

رقصات للإمبراطور

Two pieces for the emperor of the barbarians.

(Secret Chiefs 3 is a Trey Spruance project that blends everything from Bollywood Funk and traditional Middle Eastern sounds to Death Metal and Drum n Bass. Trey has worked with other Mr. Bungle members Danny Heifetz and Trevor Dunn as well as William Winant and Eyvind Kang just to name a few. With the release of "Book Of Horizons" Secret Chiefs 3 has revealed that they are the general name for seven different bands, each representing a different aspect of Spruance's musical and philosophical interests. The seven bands are The Electromagnetic Azoth, UR, Ishraqiyun, Traditionalists, Holy Vehm, FORMS, and most likely Noddingturd Fan).

Drilling water from heaven

Count back to shake hips.

(The Dagons is an USA L.A. based band, who mix fuzzy guitars, pounding drums & haunting vocals with dreamy lyrics referencing fairy tales & mythology to create their distinctive sound. They are a two-piece band from Los Angeles, made up of Karie Jacobson (guitar, vocals) and Drew Kowalski (drum set and sitar). The Dagons have “a unique, otherworldly feel which adds a sprawling, surreal quality to the genre of indie rock” and for their distinctive juxtapositions of contrasting elements, such as the short, stripped-down song forms of punk with dark, otherworldly psychedelia, or the contrast of fuzzy guitars and pounding drums with minor key melodies and dreamy vocals. Also unusual is the group’s use of distorted electrified sitar, played by The Dagons drummer and producer Drew Kowalski).

Delokalisoitujen elektronien moninkertainen resonanssi

Endless transition between sleep states.

(Sink was formed in Pori, Finland, in 2002; the sound of the band exists somewhere between drone, black metal and dark ambient with a strong presence of experimentation and occasional classical and choral influences).

Here

September 21, 2018

Min glæde er at se din evige smerte...

Lullabies to be burned in hell.

(Myrkur is a danish black/ambient one-woman project by Amalie Bruun, a singer, composer, piano and guitar player).

Throwing fireballs in every way

Ritual songs to break jaws.

(Astrobrite is the Chicago-based shoegaze noise-pop project from the musician Scott Cortez (STAR, lovesliescrushing). Interestingly enough, Astrobrite solely played live and released no official records until 2001, all the while building a reputation as a band that “transcends shoegaze by destroying the fuzz/noise boundaries setup by previous shoegazing outfits and manages to make the most beautiful and melodic noise you’ll ever hear).

Dispelling the fog of uncontrollable fear

Noises to bring down hatred strongholds.

(Sink was formed in Pori, Finland, in 2002; the sound of the band exists somewhere between drone, black metal and dark ambient with a strong presence of experimentation and occasional classical and choral influences).

A mantra for obey nature laws

Freedom is in your own interior.

(The Myrrors is an experimental/psychedelic folk-rock band from from the Arizona desert).

Here

Ewige ruhe für die ungeliebten

Swiming slowly in a sea of resignation.

(Apoptose is an industrial/dark ambient one man project from Germany. *The apoptosis (Apoptose in German) is the process of highly regulated and controlled programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms).

                             

September 16, 2018

Reviving the radiophonic workshops

Difficulties in satellite signaling.

(Spectrum was the most high-profile and straightforward of the projects undertaken by Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember after the demise of the trance-rock avatars Spacemen 3. As his work as a member of the Experimental Audio Research coterie allowed Kember the opportunity to explore ambient textures and tonal constructs, Spectrum satisfied the singer/guitarist's more conventional pop leanings, while never losing sight of the hypnotic otherworldliness which became his music's trademark and legacy. Jessamine is a space Rock band from Seattle, that recorded three albums for Kranky between 1994 and 1998. They also released a number of singles for other record labels, which were collected in 1997 on the compilation "Another Fictionalized History". Their music is a mesh of krautrock, shoegaze, drone, space-rock, and experimental electronica). 

Dismissing the lost memories

Fading facts will not be back...

(Snowman were a experimental/postrock/artrock band originally from Perth, Western Australia. They relocated to London in 2008, and disbanded in 2011). 

In the doorway to endless shadows

Drink the vital ether of trascendence.

(Black Seas Of Infinity is a band formed in 1993 in Salt Lake City, Utah. BSOI was a black metal band, but as their career progressed they changed to a ritualistic dark ambient sound). 

September 15, 2018

In obscura procession invoking

Late ghosts of winter riding away.

(Laudanum is a drone/doom/noise band from Oakland, CA, USA formed in 2004).

Here

Sadness flows as rainstorms

Facing the shore of last reality.

(Experimental space rock band that formed in Bristol, England in 1992. David Pearce was the core member of the group, and Rachel Brook (of Movietone, another Bristol band) was a member for most of the band's lifetime.

The band were marked by quiet vocals and sheets of feedback with similarities to contemporary shoegazing bands, or The Jesus and Mary Chain. FSA were able to create a small but enthusiastic fanbase as one of the more remarkable experimental bands of the day. The band were notable for recording most of their output at home into a normal home stereo system, avoiding recording studios as much as they could. This gave their music a DIY feel and gave them the freedom to experiment as much as they wanted). 

The crime of stepping on fallen leaves

Late winter landscapes to watch the rain falling as feathers.

(Black Mare is a solo project of Sera Timms. She released her debut "Field Of The Host" in spring 2013. Lycia is a pioneer american darkwave band formed in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona).

Golden sky is falling down

Painting green in deserts.

(The Myrrors is an experimental/psychedelic folk-rock band from from the Arizona desert).

Eight chapters of flesh sacrifice

Reading the book about the octet of perdition.

(Blut Aus Nord was originally formed as Vlad in France in 1993 as a solo project lead by Vindsval. After two demos, In The Mist in 1993 and Yggdrasil in 1994, the name was changed to Blut Aus Nord. The band was signed to Impure Creations Records and released the full-length album Ultima Thulée, which introduced long-time member W.D. Feld on drums and keyboards and featured Ogat on bass. This was followed in 1996 by Memoria Vetusta I «Fathers Of The Icy Age», which included Ira Aeterna on bass (as a session musician).

In 2001 The Mystical Beast Of Rebellion was released, with Nahaim playing as session bassist. The Work Which Transforms God came out in 2003; this was the first appearance of GhÖst as the now-permanent bassist, thus completing the line-up that the band still has to this date. The album also featured session member Taysiah on vocals. The 10" split with Reverence (... Decorporation ...) followed in 2004, and the band has been releasing a steady stream of albums, and a few EPs, since.

The band's current line-up is: Vindsval (vocals, guitar), W.d.Feld (drums, keyboards), Thorns (drums) and GhÖst (bass). 

Cold morning in late winter weekened

Before we forget somewhere we went high.

(Air Formation are an English indie/postrock/shoegaze band from Crawley, UK, that debuted with their first 7" in the summer of 1998 under the name B.E.A.B. Approved. In early 2000 they were forced to change their name, they chose Air Formation. They split in April 2011 before reforming in 2014). 

Fourteen bells into the dark wood

Sounds from the land of the lament's Totem.

(David Darling (born March 3, 1941 in Elkhart, Indiana) is a Grammy Award winning American cellist and composer currently based in Connecticut. In the summer of 1970 Darling joined the Grammy Award winning Paul Winter Consort making his home in Nashville, TN. There he served as assistant principal cellist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and worked as a studio session player in the Nashville recording scene with the main focus of his career being the Consort. His first solo release, "Journal October", was released by ECM Records in 1980. He left The Paul Winter Consort in 1987 to pursue his solo career. He has also collaborated with other ECM artists including Terje Rypdal and Ketil Bjørnstad. His album "Cello Blue" (2001) was nominated for a Grammy Award. He won the award for Best New Age Album for his 2009 release "Prayer For Compassion.")

September 9, 2018

Spell to resuscitate dead pets

A humid wet blindwalk into the cave of one thousand glittering eyes.

(The Dagons is an USA L.A. based band, who mix fuzzy guitars, pounding drums & haunting vocals with dreamy lyrics referencing fairy tales & mythology to create their distinctive sound. They are a two-piece band from Los Angeles, made up of Karie Jacobson (guitar, vocals) and Drew Kowalski (drum set and sitar). The Dagons have “a unique, otherworldly feel which adds a sprawling, surreal quality to the genre of indie rock” and for their distinctive juxtapositions of contrasting elements, such as the short, stripped-down song forms of punk with dark, otherworldly psychedelia, or the contrast of fuzzy guitars and pounding drums with minor key melodies and dreamy vocals. Also unusual is the group’s use of distorted electrified sitar, played by The Dagons drummer and producer Drew Kowalski).

Feeling a constant unhappy mood

Washing out the dense blood of hands.

(Swans is a band from New York City, New York, United States, active from 1982 to 1997, reformed in 2010, founded & led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. 

Marginally associated with the no wave scene at first, their original sound was slow and extremely heavy, with live performances that were often so brutal and physical that in a number of instances certain audience members were made ill, police were called and venues were shut down. This early physical sound is possibly best heard on the live album Public Castration Is a Good Idea.

Their initial style shifted a little by the time Swans released seminal twin albums Greed and Holy Money. The music had sped up, at times being even more punishing than their earlier output. Drum machines and samples were slightly more prominent. Michael Gira was joined vocally by Jarboe which gave the band a broader sonic range. Tracks featuring Jarboe were often quieter, even pretty, acting as counterpoint to the more harrowing themes on the albums. Over time, this style would come to dominate the Swans’ output, although they somehow seem to have been able to make a strummed acoustic guitar seem as brutal as their earlier amped-up assaults. The lush instrumentation of their albums from the late 1980s and the 1990’s anticipated the birth of post-rock.

Swans eventually broke up in 1997; Gira went on to release some solo work, later forming the band The Angels of Light, who continue many of the themes and styles found in (later) Swans. Jarboe releases solo work and frequently works with other bands and artists; recently she released an album with Neurosis, a group clearly heavily influenced by Swans.

The influence of Swans upon the music world is profound. Across their 15 years of existence, the various styles they explored gave birth to grindcore (Napalm Death, Nasum) modern "cinematic" post-rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono), and atmospheric sludge metal (Isis, Neurosis).

In January 2010, Michael Gira reactivated Swans and released a new album, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky on September 2010, and the band simultaneously embarked on a world tour scheduled to last eighteen months. The band had been chosen by Portishead to perform at the ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror festivals that they curated in July 2011 at London’s Alexandra Palace and in September 2011 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

It is a live double album released after the bands official dissolution. The recordings featured are gathered from the bands last years - the first half being compiled from their (at the time) final world tour in 1997, the second being a recording from a single show ascribed to Norway in 1995, although precise details appear lost to time).

Crush the magic mirror

A dance for the melted snow queen.

(Oleg Kostrow is a russian composer and musician, former member of Russian dadaist kitsch mongers Messer Fur Frau Muller, this fact one'll probably send the whimsy-averse running for the hills, but for those with a a yen for the proactively ludicrous, the candy coated, cartoonish and occasionally too-cute-by-half sampladelic constructs that Kostrow cobbles together here (think Stock, Hausen & Walkman by way of Dim Dim) are idiotic fun of the first order).

The insecurity of the outside world

Microtonal laments touching the seashore.

(Implodes are an experimental rock band from Chicago, Illinois. They combine elements of psychedelic, shoegaze, drone, ambient, and electronic into their densely atmospheric sound).

Dermal cancer caused by worms

All fears arise in absence of light.

(Australian post-industrial sludge and noisecore band. Beginning as a three piece. HALO are experimental, but there is always the structure of a song hidden beneath their depressive noisescapes). 



A trip into old graveyard

Entering the path of ruin...

(Belgian electronic, death industrial, martial, neo-classical and post-industrial band founded in 1998 by Bart Piette; dark tunes to wait apocalypse).

Here

September 7, 2018

The endless dream of demons

Traveling the limits of the understandable.

(From the depths of the black charcoal mountains rises the Belgian band Bathsheba. Fronted by She-devil Michelle Nocon (ex-Serpentcult, Leviathan Speaks & Death Penalty), carried by the punishing drums of Jelle Stevens (ex- SardoniS), massive vibrations from Raf Meukens (Death Penalty, Torturerama) and relentless riffs from Dwight Goossens (ex- Disinterred). Bathsheba throws you into deep sadness and inner rage, straight into the cave grim, no meander in the enchanted forest on the way to the deep. The band plays heavy doom mixed with sludge and black metal. The heavy lowtuned monster can persue in fast pace while the haunting vocals go from monotonous chants towards complete schizophrenia).

Releasing the power of earth

Fallen angels rolling through a bloody wet surface.

(Originating from Montréal, Québec in Canada, Menace Ruine are a duo who play a powerful hybrid of avant-garde black metal, dark ambient, drone and martial neo-folk. Formed in 2007 by Geneviève Beaulieu (Vocals, Instruments) and S. De La Moth (Vocals, Instruments), the band achieve their sound largely through the use of heavily manipulated and distorted effects and feedback, though one of their most distinctive elements is the sonorous vocals of Geneviève, reminiscent of a more melodious and doomy Nico. Their lyrics seem to centre largely on themes of occultism and the workings of fate). 

Mutagenic effects of xenobiotics

Dissemination of incubated endoparasites.

(Nadja is Aidan Baker (guitars/vocals/drum programming) & Leah Buckareff (bass/vocals). Originally formed in 2003 as a Baker solo project, the now-duo creates ambient-drone-metal, combining ambient electronics & fragmentary vocals with snail-crawl, epic riffs & dirge-like percussion). 

September 6, 2018

Eternal eternity of feelings

Life and hopes fading out in a slow decay.

(Aelter is the solo doom/ethereal project of Blake Green of PussyGutt and Wolvserpent).

Here

In search of black light

Unholy screams breaking the eternal unrest of the damned.

(Kristin Hayter is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and performer currently living in Rhode Island. She holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Digital Language Arts from Brown University. She will be pursuing a doctoral degree in the Fall of 2017.
A classically-trained vocalist, Kristin works with a variety of media and technology to create dense works harnessing the tech-mediated or acoustically extended voice, and is inspired by vernacular extreme forms such as black metal, power electronics, and harsh noise as well as sacred and liturgical music. Her solo project Lingua Ignota explores violence and gender in extreme music through a morally ambiguous, emotionally/physically intense performance practice that has been described as “crushing.”).

Ind i ørkenens skov

The dense fog envelops my darkest thoughts where there is no resurrection.

(Myrkur is a danish black/ambient one-woman project by Amalie Bruun, a singer, composer, piano and guitar player).

Last tunnel to unholy trinity

Conquering strange reigns of pain.

(JK Flesh is an industrial/noise project/alias of Justin Broadrick of Godflesh, Final and Jesu).

Falling in totally dead inertia

The affliction restores my being...

(American Black/Drone/Doom metal act from Portland, Oregon. Founded in 2012. The word "מזמור" (transliterated as "Mizmor") is a Hebrew word meaning "a song set to stringed accompaniment" or "psalm").

September 5, 2018

Bloc auriculo-ventriculaire par sténose aortique bilatérale

Night of total metamorphosis.

(Pryapisme is an experimental/grindcore/freejazz/avantgarde/noisewall/grindcore/whatever french band, started in Clermont-Ferrand, France, with Ban Bardiaux and Aymeric Thomas in 2000 during high school. Aymeric played drums on Ban's classical piano songs then they were joined by two friend musicians: Simon Gastaud on bass (who would later play in the band Format) and Jack Bardiaux, Ban’s brother, on guitars).

Here

A bloody violent violet

A quiet walk across forgotten forests.

(Lycia is an American dark wave band formed in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona. The main personnel of the band are Mike VanPortfleet, Tara Vanflower and David Galas. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the ground breaking groups in darkwave and ethereal wave styles. Lycia's music is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of echoed guitars, dark and ethereal keyboards, doomy drum machine beats, VanPortfleet's melancholic, whispered vocals and Vanflower's vivid voice).

Riding a psycho-bee

Tunes to enjoy life.

(The Dagons is an USA L.A. based band, who mix fuzzy guitars, pounding drums & haunting vocals with dreamy lyrics referencing fairy tales & mythology to create their distinctive sound. They are a two-piece band from Los Angeles, made up of Karie Jacobson (guitar, vocals) and Drew Kowalski (drum set and sitar). The Dagons have “a unique, otherworldly feel which adds a sprawling, surreal quality to the genre of indie rock” and for their distinctive juxtapositions of contrasting elements, such as the short, stripped-down song forms of punk with dark, otherworldly psychedelia, or the contrast of fuzzy guitars and pounding drums with minor key melodies and dreamy vocals. Also unusual is the group’s use of distorted electrified sitar, played by The Dagons drummer and producer Drew Kowalski).