Music Reviews

Ives/Amort [coll] – [Boue Records]

whngr   5/16/2024   A Library, CD

This split from Ives (Florida) and Amort (Seattle) starts hard and ends soft with essentially two somber ambient outros and is unusual in that the first six songs (Ives) were released on tape as the “Burial of the Modernized Soulless” ep in 2009 and then again on cd in 2011 with a 14 minute song tacked on the end by Amort. Weird. But taken as a whole it is pretty good. However the Ives tracks are a bit more memorable especially the fifth song, “Regression” (*FCC). They tear through their offerings with a ruthless abandon. A Black metal/Thrash hybrid, it is cold, cvlt, brutal, and short. Averaging 4 chords per song, really fast then galloping and slow. Tortured growls and hollow shrieks, some bellowing, even a few classic B/M “Ooogh”s, and some fist pumping call and response chanting. Not plowing any virgin soil but it is as I like it… RAW. Themes: Anger, Rage, Hate, Fury, Death (an informed guess due to track titles and the occasional utterance that is decipherable). Track six is the departure. Melancholic and brooding, breathy back-tracked corpse muttering with shrieks and repetitive single notes from an amplified bass, a few minimal guitar chords, chimes or bells, and tons of reverb. It kinda sounds like it was composed on a really old laptop. Amort however sounds like they were using a brand new laptop. Repetitive, Unintelligible, but clearly grieving female vocals with monotonous piano, some cave wind, erratic furtive violin evolves into doom laden unintelligible male guttural quiet-bellows with some shriek-muttering is what I’m going to call it. Minimalist and more cerebral than Ives it offers an interesting counterpoint but again doesn’t break any new ground, now or in 2011.

Play the first or fifth songs as a soundtrack to punching mirrors.

Play the last track as the theme for slashing your wrists. Though probably not to death. Just deep enough to get some attention.

Wrath of The Weak – “Wrath of The Weak” – [Bastardised Records]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, CD

Cold, grim, bleak one man black metal from New York. No-fi guitar and drum machine with hollow screams buried deep in the mix. Final track is 24 minutes of heavily modulated guitar noise. Distortion, reverb, delay and heaven knows what else. Perfect for inducing anxiety. If you like this kind of trash (as I do) the sole member, J., has another project of particularly noisy drones called Nested.

Tatira – “Fire Everlasting” – [Inam Records]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, CD

Minimalist electronic project “Tatira” melds drone and synth beats from New Bedford, MA. This latest album is mid-tempo to no-tempo. Feels dark but an almost childlike simplicity adds to the already high-contrast genre pairing to make it feel darker. Like the fever dream of a child who doubled up on their NyQuil mixed with a lost John Carpenter soundtrack or when a young telekinetic learns to modulate a speaker’s tone with their mind which results in massive serotonin cascades that last for hours. Laying in the grass near the playground as the sun warms their cheeks, robins chirp and somewhere nearby a child exalts cheerfully… 

But then later, at night when all the doctors have gone home, as her brain tries to heal these raw, newly forged channels, the shadows begin to drift and then dance over the vents in the ceiling and the distant rumble of alien machinery activates and begins to pulse and whir. In her hospital bed our young patient starts to feel overwhelmed. Her brain throbs with the pulse of her heart. Near subaudible clicks mesh with footsteps. The pattern of the carpet becomes an ocean. She can hear the shore. Is she moving the diffused moonlight with her thoughts?

If she concentrates she can see the future: Lights strobe and pan across the dance floor. Beautiful dancers from an unknown megatropolis appear to move like skipping frames to a driving techno beat. 

No. It was just a dream. But she’s still there, at the “Facility”. Locked in her room. Alone.

Spore Spawn – “Dousekurunode” – [16 Shots Per Second]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, CD

Devastating electronic harsh-noise with the single highest contrast in cover art to the sounds contained there-in that this miserable volunteer has witnessed. I found myself reticent to review this release because it so difficult to listen to. It’s like trying to decide whether to give yourself a Chelsea smile with sharped chopsticks (togi hashi) or lick clean 108 km of used razor-wire . It’s like nope, I’m good on that shit right now dude (Ja, muri desu ne). Absolutely terrifying sounds on this compact disc from what looks like harmless and dare I say, adorable Japanese guy (yoi kareshi}. Seriously, only play this if you want to inflict the most torturous of aural miseries upon our hapless and/or masochistic of audiences. Horrible. Like a sonic grand mal seizure or being possessed by a Japanese spirit (Nihon no yurei) that is only sated by clawing out eardrums in a misguided desire save the living from the sounds only she can hear. White-noise, interrupted pulses, waves of squealing electronics, yells, razors on springs, voluminous drones, bleeps, hisses, drips and echos, cyber-cicada (cybasemi), knob twirling, high contrast ear assault and layered relentless aural atrocities. I like it very much (Kore wa sugoisuki desu).

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

Nortt – “Galgenfrist” – [Avantgarde Music]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, CD

“Pure Depressive Black Funeral Doom Metal” -Nortt

Self-aggrandizing minimalist dungeon synth from Odense, Denmark. Pretty lame on it’s own but perfect for bleak sound beds while digging your lonely grave, dreary superimposition, lunar contemplation, and owl worship.

Host – “There’s Nothing Up There But Heavy Clouds” – [Cricket Cemetery]

whngr   5/15/2024   7-inch, A Library

I’ll wager this band chose their name referencing parasites or demonic position or something and not like, “I want to ‘host’ a butterfly appreciation party with Afternoon Tea  this Sunday.”

This is a real face-melter from Cricket Cemetery out of Arlington Virginia. Hardcore in the red and all out crusher of men and spirits. Really devastating speed and intensity. One of the members of this inscrutable band gave his vocal chords to us, perhaps in penance for his fantasies about ending the human species. Nothing flashy or weird here just straight ahead aggression, earth rending terror, and rampant annihilation of everything.

I’m only guessing, the subject matter is indiscernible, but the message is clear: 

PLAY THIS when you are broken inside so that you may break a little more, so that you may be whole again.

Band, Richard – “From Beyond” – [Waxwork]

whngr   5/15/2024   12-inch, Soundtrack

TENSE SYMPHONIC SHOCK-HORROR

Strings, piano, chimes, a bit of tasteful electronic effects and more strings on the score for a tasteless movie. Based (very loosely) on an H.P. Lovecraft short story about electronically stimulating the pineal in order to reveal a nightmare dimension that coexists with their own schlocky 80’s reality to unveil… lampreys. However, after repeated exposures to the Resonator you will sprout a prehensile pineal gland from your forehead, develop insatiable cravings for light bondage and sucking (the brains from?) peoples eye sockets, have a 66% chance to be lifted in the air by your head by a giant latex lamprey, and a 100% chance of having a run in with an exceedingly horny scientist in various states of transformation into an even hornier, more deranged scientist known as Dr. Pretorious. Composed by Richard Band who has to date, scored over 85 films including Re-animator, all 8 Puppet Masters, and who can forget House On Sorority Hill? Don’t be lead astray though, this is an excellent score performed by The Arkham Philharmonic Orchestra(?), and was the winner of the 1986 Catalonia International Film Festival for Best Original Soundtrack. Great for lamprey themed sets.

Abraded – “Descendants of The Swamp” – [Maggot Stomp]

whngr   5/15/2024   7-inch, A Library

Knuckle dragging methane huffing grindcore/death metal from this three-piece outta Cleveland. Intermittently sludgy then hyper, scum fueled spasms of quagmire inspired metal. Derivative and tame on first blush but may grow on you… like a mold. No discernible FCC’s. 

After – “After” – [After]

whngr   5/15/2024   A Library, CD

Japanese Hardcore-Psych outfit “After” are at first blush a little counterintuitive. They’re like a scissor fight with Tetsuo: The Iron Man while peaking on Lysergic in a Jungle themed Love Hotel. Might be a bad idea but once you’ve done it the Bardo permanently warps creating vortices where massive Kaiju appear with bloody maws, hellbent on depopulating the world on their search for their favorite cocktail: Psilocybin and the human adrenal gland. This ep takes two diametrically opposed genres and mashes them together like gummy-worm mochi, shoehorning a flanged-out guitar solo into a very aggressive 2 minute hardcore song like a salaryman on the JR line to Ueno from Shibuya at peak commute hours. Guttural barks give no hint to any potential subject matter, we must rely on the cover art for this mysterious band with no label and minimal web presence for hints. Mushrooms, flaming guitars, skeletons, (giant?) lizards, and the war flag of Japan. I don’t know about you, but these seem like the kind of people I would enjoy hanging out (doing a tab of clean blotter) with. Procured by Caliente-san on a recent trip to Osaka while on a transpacific onigiri round-up, the details of which are as of yet unknown to me, I am deeply honored to have been offered the opportunity to add this to the library. Arigato gozaimasu. Long deep bow. Every song is under 3 minutes, no discernable FCC’s. Tracks 1 and 4 stand out for me. You’ll like this if you’re not donkusai.