Experimental

Some really good shit – Converge, J.A. Mäki, Haraamo, Hebosagil, Liturqy, Mount Eerie, Oneothrix Point Never, Negură Bunget, Linkopii, Martolea

Good music that’s been on the block lately. Last weeks have had an influx of really memorable tracks from a diverse landscape of genres and sounds.

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Coil (Bloodmoon I, 2021)

Chaotic hardcore group turned doom. Converge has flirted with doom on all their latest albums but now they did what some doom lovers dared to dream of, go all in. Coil is probably the most easily approachable track with astounding tension and soundworld.

On first listens of the beginning trinity of Bloodmoon I was almost on a fanatical religious zeal. Unfortunately the latter side of the album never reaches the aggressiveness of old Converge and lacks quite a lot of diversity. When Converge albums used to be fast paced with occasional slowness, now the album is about 90 % slowness and even the faster bits are mostly mid tempo. Good stuff nevertheless and hopefully a sign of things to come with more versatility abound on Bloodmoon II.

J.A. Mäki – Hauta meren äärellä (AAVAA, 2019)

J.A. Mäki is better known as the singer of the best Finnish live band and one of my all time favourites Radiopuhelimet. I can’t believe it took me over 2 years to check out his solo project. Hauta meren äärellä includes naturefeels and calm death atmospherics. Exquisitely gleaming humming background scenery and gripping lyrics. It is rare for a song to create such a nature experience.

Haraamo – Menettämisestä (Aikamatkustaja, 2021)

Sci-fi Finnish indiepoprock retrowave melancholics, with a bit of hardcore shouting. Didn’t realize someone could make stuff like this. This is no gimmick either, the album is a very strong debut.

Hebosagil – Tämä on nähty (2021)

Hang on with me for one more Finnish track. Hebosagil from the Finnish capital of noisy obscurerock, Oulu. What a killer track, Hebosagil is a master of all major trades, weirdness, heaviness and pop hooks. Can’t wait for them to release the new album Yössä (25.2.2022). I hope it will also have longer tracks and not just pop hook brilliance that Tämä on Nähty kindly provides.

Two copied recommendations from Hebosagil’s playlist

Liturqy – GOD OF LOVE (H.A.Q.Q., 2019)

Almost definitely one of the weirdest black metal bands you’ve heard. Chaotic, wall of sound, abrubt pauses, yet perky and melodic. Big kicks on first listen.

Mount Eerie – Waves (Ocean Roar, 2012)

Ever thought that rushing and roaring sound walls could sound incredibly beautiful? Well they can.

Oneothrix Point Never – Long Road Home (Magic Oneothrix Point Never, 2021)

Ever thought that glitching experimental electronic music can actually be quite pop and still good? Well it can. There is some magic in Oneothrix Point Never. No one else really crafts sounds like this and the cover art is at par with the music.

Negură Bunget – Toacă Din Cer (Zău, 2021)

Toacă (the Romanian version of a semantron, a percussion instrument often made of wood that is knocked on with hammers by Eastern Orthodox monks to summon others to prayer). Din Cer seems to mean “from the heaven” or “from the sky” (Google translated).

This posthumous Negură Bunget release is a fine eulogy. Their main man Negru passed already in 2017 but had recorded drum tracks and percussions for the third part of their “Transylvanian trilogy”. The tracks were otherwise completely unfinished but luckily rest of the band members finished this work some years later. Posthumous releases are often met with too much praise but in this case i feel Zău was met with too LITTLE praise. For me it’s their best release since Vîrstele pămîntului (2010), topping also the new Dordeduh release (Dordeduh consists of ex-Negură Bunget members).

Toacă Din Cer might be the best Negură Bunget track ever. It is grippingly emotive with chanting vocals, soul penetrating melodic riffs and angelic haunting backgrounds. I only wish the lyrics were available somewhere. The last piece from the heavens indeed.

Martolea – Răsăritul Lunii (Noaptea dihăniilor, 2010)

Martolea is a pretty unknown side project of a Negură Bunget. Much more stripped of instrumental layers. It has a lot of the same aesthetics present but executed almost solely with band instruments. Flute is one of the unexpected prime instruments. Pretty good.

Linkopii – 2005 (Lanteet, 2020)

Bare with me for one more Finnish rock track. Linkopii who I don’t know where they are from but considering I found them through Hebosagil their heart must be from the capital of Finnish obscurely gripping rock, Oulu. In all honesty, apparently Linkopii was formed in Helsinki and previously some of the members have lived in Jyväskylä.

At surface they may come off as one of your typical indie rock bands, but on further peek there’s much more. A lot of strong elements and a pretty original setup. Good songwriting, strong guitar lines with a bit of 70s aesthetics a la Jukka Nousiainen, suomirock, punk and some bursts of psychedelic rock and weirdness. Sure, sometimes they are annoyingly bright and positive, but when a band has multiple sides, not each of them has to be of your liking. 2005, which is my prime cut has strong lyrics too.

I didn’t even mention the touches that remind of Risto. The second track of the album Anniina could be the counterpart of Risto classic: Rakkaani, mennään Aasiaan.

The judging metalhead in me really tried to like them less but I can’t.

Jpegmafia — Veteran – Music quickies

ap,550x550,12x12,1,transparent,t.u7Experimental noise hip-hop

Beats are more more noisy and artsy and a lot less accessible than on Black Ben Carson (2016) or The 2nd Amendment (2016). Melodic elements are more buried but there’s a constant barrage of sounds, noises and snippets popping up. A conscious decision seems to have been made to pursue an unpleasant atmosphere, the album only rewards with multiple listens. Earlier albums were playful while still having build-up, instead of being short snippets. Especially middle part of album seems incoherent. Personally I prefer the longer arrangements more.

The beginning trinity plus beautiful Panic Emoji, trap Rainbow Six are some good Jpegmafia. Baby I’m Bleeding deserves the laziest sampling of the year award, it is repeating a ~0.5 second randomly cut section for almost all its length. It’s been listened over 3 million times in Spotify? WTF!? Are unpleasant beats a thing now? Quite nice if that is so. It is also a single track, I guess that commercial suicide failed pretty badly.

https://genius.com/albums/Jpegmafia/Veteran is a treasure trove, when I dag into it, the album spiraled upwards immediately. It really is required to read the lyrics and dig into the background material at least for a non-native English speaker. That being said, a lot of the references are still really hard to get for a foreigner. This is not the kind of album one would expect from an army veteran!

8-/10

Sea of Poppies – Sea of Poppies

a3018950448_10Sea of Poppies is best described as experimental harsh noise. The submission notes of the first album of Sea of Poppies explained that the artist had a hard time with health that led to experiments with some analogue stuff to let out some steam. A form of catharsis. The analogue experiments also make the release sounds oldschoolish, pleasantly non-digital.

Usually when a first-timer makes an experimental album, painting or a poem to help with the healing process it’s value is merely for the healing itself. It can be very effective as a sort of therapy but when a 50 year old truck driver picks up the brush first time since being in primary school and makes a cubist painting to battle his depression, the results are often a bit funny. But since it’s therapy you aren’t even allowed to laugh at it! Sad but true. I’ve found so many “I did this to recover from a problem x”-releases that are very unlikely to interest anyone in multiple art forms it’s not even funny. But hey, whatever works for ones recovery right. Luckily Sea of Poppies seems to have ambition beyond the healing process!

Even though the artist explained himself to be a new noise artist, his bandcamp lists Sea of Poppies as a sister project to Deprivation Chamber that released an ep in 2010. Maybe that explains the well-formed sound.

About the tracks

When the first track kicks in, I start to quickly yearn for tempo switches though. The constant jarring tempo may be cathartic to most harsh noise lovers, but I tend to find it tiresome. Luckily second track has a pleasant watery background that breaks the tempo artificially. A high whistling sound does get a tad annoying but it has a bit of build up during the process of the track.

0013635072_10Third track is the highlight of the release, clearly the most varied piece. The standard tempo has altercations that break it and at 1.30 the main theme is also changed completely. All this flows together and sounds natural, very nice! The next theme builds up and has more changes, but it takes till 8 minute before shit all the sudden gets really loose with analogue jerks. Few times one can even nod your head to rhythmic changes. Does 9.20 have a modulation hook? A modulation hook in noise? Hah!

All three tracks are named “untitled” so I took the liberty of renaming them stupidly to differentiate them for each other (and for the lols):

  1. Just another cathartic harsh noise track
  2. Watery electronics
  3. Nearly rhythmic modulations

End notes

In the submission text the artist also explained that he used different methods to make each track to have an own personality but also to learn something new. Gladly it is apparent; all three different tracks have a different identity and sound. I find the last track alone interesting enough to be eager to listen this release from time to time after this review is done. Good stuff!

Free download in bandcamp: https://seaofpoppies.bandcamp.com/album/sea-of-poppies (you can also buy the release as a cassette for a very affordable price).

Bloque del Sur, BVBEL, Kaschade, Samuel Bone, Fross – Small free download artists – Quick reviews

Bloque del Sur – Periferia

a0021724405_10Groovy easily accessible electro with samples and obscure voice clips. What would industrial be without voice clips! Periferia has both lighter and darker beats and melodies.

The artist describes Periferia as a fresh approach to EBM/industrial, taking elements from 1982-88 golden era and adding tropical bass influences. I’ll be the first to admit that the “golden era of industrial” and “tropical bass” are completely foreign to me. The band hails from Argentina which may explain the tropical but also why my girlfriend without knowing anything of the artist commented about the “weird latino music”! I honestly didn’t even hear the latino influence on Periferia!

Megaperiferia first appeared as a monotonous track but upon checking the video it started to actually benefit from the monotone atmosphere that welcomes new elements sparingly but interestingly. The starting Diagrama is refreshingly more polymorphous with all kinds of textures appearing in the first few minutes.

The subtle background melodies help a lot and affect spontaneous headnodding. Intercommunicador is refreshingly more exotic. I liked Bloque del Sur’s down-to-earth approach upon submitting the release and thus decided to share these few words.

In total an enjoyable small release which I’ve been listening the most of the 5 releases in this post.

Bandcamp:
https://pakapirecords.bandcamp.com/album/bloque-del-sur-periferia
Video of Megaperiferia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kZEyxEfsKI

BVBEL – PRDX2

Cover (1)Beats, the eternal problem. There’s great rap lyricists with lacking backgrounds, then there’s great backgrounds with lacking lyrics. Where does BVBEL come in then? He produces pretty damn stellar backgrounds, but unfortunately without any lyrics at all. Even though it sounds good there’s definitely the vocals missing.

For the most part the beats are pretty memorable. I see no reason why they wouldn’t be good enough for a rap release. The production values aren’t huge but there’s a nice glitchy atmosphere that makes up for the lack of booming. Some clever hooks like the 2nd track 不要 (English translation: Do Not). Most beats that I hear I end up liking a lot less than BVBEL’s. I could love this release with the right lyrical substance.

Free download: https://archive.org/details/siro792Bvbel-Prdx
BVBEL seems to be very productive as his bandcamp is filled with releases:
https://bvbeltrill.bandcamp.com/
On quick listen tracks like DV-useless show a lot of melodic potential: https://bvbeltrill.bandcamp.com/track/dv-useless

Kaschade – Performance

kaschade-entity-beHei, I heard you came looking for semi-improvised avant-garde saxophone electronic ambient noise, right? Grab Performance immediately! The rest of us, we might just want to take a peek now and then behind a safe distance. Listening 53 minutes in one go without finding other means of entertainment at the same time proved to be quite a task. Even with skipping the 8+ minute harsh noise closer, Golden Balls. But man, is the cover art beautiful!

I’ve had my chaotic noise phase but usually I dig structure. In semi improvised music there tends to be less of structure. But there’s plenty of sound to keep interest up in Kaschade’s Performance: cascades of whizzes, booms, knocks, scratches and most of all ambients. Usually there’s quite a steady beat or a coming and going melodic pattern or certain sound, so it’s not like there’s no structure. There’s definitely an underlying structural sense, but it’s in there deep. Also the organic saxophone adds plenty of value. It’s an interesting ride from psychological spacehorror to psychedelic intergalactic procession.

The spacey feel is ever so present; it feels there’s a vast blackness but it’s not overbearing. The tension is psychological, no sudden senseless loud sounds.

The description at the weblabel Entity’s site is very fitting: “Indeed Performance might well be the soundtrack to an imaginary film, perhaps in the style of film noir or a collection of surreal scenes, as experimental soundeffects produce a constant string of plottwists while spiraling through a wide range of lasting impressions.” If Alejandro Jodorowsky had ever finished his Dune film adaptation, the music could have been something similar to Kaschade’s Performance!

Bandcamp: https://kaschade.bandcamp.com/album/performance-2016
Direct zip download link: https://archive.org/compress/ntt084/formats=VBR%20MP3,JPEG,ARCHIVE%20BITTORRENT,METADATA
Entity Weblabel: http://www.entity.be/entity/

Samuel Bone – Fluctuous

A-SmallCoverFluctuous
marked as obsolete except in archaic usage.
a. Watery (obs.).
b. Full of, or resembling waves, lit. and fig.

Urban dictionary:
Fluctuous
used to describe a nice ass.

Experimental electronic with solid rhythmic background. Beeps and twerks (not the butt-kind) keep appearing. Quite enjoyable really, some tracks are surprisingly quiet in the mix. Especially Hrathlemore really needs some volume finetuning by the listener to be enjoyable. Like water Fluctuous keeps spilling out of my hands listen after listen.

The release does bring watery substances in mind, first track Drool Cam starts with water burbling sounds.  The next track Chonie has the best melody with a keyboard sound that sounds to be coming from just below the water surface. Uhl is nicely relaxing when Kringle Kan Surplus is really a distorted affair nearing noise. Hrathlemore is quiet, so is the title track, Fluctuous but it is also less noisy, more rhythmic and nicely minimal electro. Quite pleasant really.

Free download: https://archive.org/details/siro793SamuelBone-Fluctous

Fross – Sombrio

a0453013625_10Fross, from Costa Rica brought some melodic dark ambient with misty woods and mountains to my e-mail box. In the start of his 2016 record Sombrio, there’s something that reminds me of Agalloch. Ilusión Distante also has a hint of low bitrate and minimal ambient in it’s gentle chords. Desolacion is still melancholy but as the album progresses further the last few tracks are quite oppressive.

In total Sombrio lacks depth though. There are some great somber passages like (Desvanecerse) En la Oscuridad. I can hear twinkling and gentle noises in the back that aren’t there but in my head they’d fit there so perfectly.

The use of organic instruments like violin and guitar is most welcome but it does not have much dramatic impact.

The first listen was surprisingly tense as I was waiting for the organic instruments to take the lead and on Petricor I was finally rewarded. The echoing guitar and background blooming sounds great but keeps minimal.

The tension keeps the listen interesting and mood surprisingly fluid. Dark ambient in its oppressive forms is not really my thing but luckily Sombrio is split into airy elements that work well as a gentle background.

Girlfriend’s comment on El Abismo: Submarines and death.

I picked Fross to review by random but also because I liked his approach, not demanding a review but asking if I happened to have the time!

Bandcamp (free download): https://fross.bandcamp.com/album/sombr-o-lp
Facebook: facebook.com/frosscr/

Monumental metal 4 – Epixperimental playlist

Bring out the weird again, epic experimental tracks! This playlist features bands from experimental terrain that have a solid basis on metal.

1. Rudra‘s Illusory Enlightment is “Vedic” metal from Singapore. Vedic comes from their incorporation of Sanskrit Vedic literature, philosophy and ancient mantras (shlokas) to blackened death metal basis. They also encompass traditional Carnatic music to their compositions. Illusory Enlightment’s top moment is the compelling chanting chorus. See also the review of their album Brahmavidya: Immortal I here.

2. Jumalhämärä is one of the many bands in Finnish experimental black metal terrain that has gotten more attention in the past 10 years. Along with bands like Oranssi Pazuzu, Abyssion, Mörkö, Jumalhämärä is probably the weirdest of the bunch. The title track of their most accessible album Resignaatio is a rare catchy, almost punky, track and in their catalogue that makes it an abnormality. Its deep bass rumbling intro turns into naturally flowing structure, captivating Finnish lyrics with supremely hooking riffing and stylish use of upstrokes. You know what they released after Resignaatio? A drone pipe organ album. Really.

3. December Wolves is one of the many bands I found from Earache presents: Metal – A headbanger’s companion (2007). It is from the CD 2 – Grindcore, but especially CD 6 – Leftfield is a great listen (Cult of Luna, Callisto, Scorn, Godflesh, Akercocke, Crotchduster etc.). Desperately Seeking Satan could be called leftfield, though its roots are firmly in black metal. The heavy use of voice clips, nihilistic lyrics and programmed drums combining industrial with violent black metal guitars make their 2002 release Blasterpiece Theatre have a sound appearance unlike any other.

4. The Meads of Asphodel – Children of the Sunwheel Banner (part 2). You could say that Metatron, the vocalist of Meads of Asphodel takes making lyrics a bit seriously. Their webpage has about 100 pages of text per album about the lyrical themes. So you can imagine it surges pretty deep. It seems the web page is unfortunately down at the moment though.

Sunwheel banner obviously references to nazis. I am not even going into the stuff of them being “nazis” because they are a metal band that has an interest of the atrocities of the past + uses the word “jew”. Oh and one of the 10 labels that has released their music has apparently released an NSBM release, jeez.

Like in one of my previous playlists Monumental metal oddities, I placed “cousin” bands The Meads of Asphodel and Sigh after each other. They have enough eccentric material to use for a few playlists. Also, the keyboard solo in Children of the Sunwheel Banner is played by none else than the main man behind Sigh, Mirai Kawashima.

5. Sigh – A Messenger From Tomorrow (I. The Message – II. Foreboding – III. Doomsday). The most epic track in Sigh’s catalogue. Surprisingly also one of the lightest ones, based on strong orchestral melodies. The lesser amount of heavy distortion guitars does not mean the composition wouldn’t be huge though. A Messenger From Tomorrow only further proves the multifacetedness of Sigh as a monstrously diverse band.

6. Negură Bunget – Cunoașterea tăcută. Negura Bunget’s 2006 release Om is one of the highlights of 2000s black metal in both song-writing and originality. The introduction of Romanian traditional instruments, epic soundscapes, shamanistic repetitive passages, raw production and very oldschool black metal elements blew many a mind. Cunoașterea tăcută includes one of those clean melodies (at 3.00) that makes you wonder on what plane of being it was conceived. Oldschool black metal riffing accompanied with traditional instruments and high-flying folk singing with the catchiness of bubonic plague.

7. Ufomammut – Daemons. What a Monster riff to close up their 2015 release, Ecate. That is all that needs to be said really.

SilViolence – Readymade Intonarumori – Machinery Sounds Puzzle Game! // NMMREM XXVIII

Ever fancied hearing a noise release that portrays bunch of different machines in action? I know I haven’t, but that didn’t stop Readymade Intonarumori becoming a delightful release. What we have on it is 25 tracks, named in Italian and seemingly all are sounds made by different machines.

It might not sound like an exciting idea musically, but it is a very fun release if you approach it the right way. Readymade Intonarumori can be used as a braingame of trying to guess what devices were used in every track! That is in fact what I did. I called a friend for a visit and had a fun 30 minutes of guessing the origins of the sounds.

The album is inspired by Luigi Russolo who is considered one of the first noise composers. Luigi Russolo’s one of the most famous works is a work called Intonarumori where he constructed multiple noise creating devices and assembled them as a noise orchestra to perform with them.

I asked Silviolence to comment me the right track titles. Well, the ones that I could not decipher with google translate.

The correct results are published on the very bottom of the review. Feel free to post your own guesses in the comments! If you fancy to give the braingame a go DO NOT read the following lists down there, first there are the guesses of me and my friend and on the bottom the correct results :).

Download the album for free here:

ZIP: http://archive.org/details/SilViolenceReadymadeIntonarumori

Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/SilViolence/Readymade+Intonarumori

My guesses:

  • 1. vacuum cleaner
  • 2. electric blender
  • 3. refridgerator
  • 4. electric shaver
  • 5. extractor hood (kitchen)
  • 6. circular saw
  • 7. table fan
  • 8. vacuum cleaner
  • 9. ship engine
  • 10. blender
  • 11. drill
  • 12. helicopter
  • 13. epilator
  • 14. epilator
  • 15. car
  • 16. radio static
  • 17. metro
  • 18. roof ventilator
  • 19. photocopier
  • 20. printer
  • 21. electric blender
  • 22-
  • 23. tumble dryer
  • 24. tumble dryer
  • 25. dish washing machine
  • 26. rechargeable battery vacuum cleaner

3/26 😀

Friend’s guesses:

  • 1. Vacuum cleaner
  • 2. electric motor
  • 3. static
  • 4. electric shaver
  • 5. rechargeable battery vacuum cleaner
  • 6. electronic saw
  • 7. processor
  • 8. vacuum cleaner
  • 9. lawnmower
  • 10. electric drill
  • 11. electric drill
  • 12. fan
  • 13. electric dildo on a bed
  • 14. electric toothbrush
  • 15. TV
  • 16. Static in TV
  • 17. aquarium air pump
  • 18. Ekg
  • 19. something going in and out, dvd-drive?
  • 20. Printer
  • 21. Printer
  • 22. –
  • 23. Printer
  • 24. lathe
  • 25. infrared lamp
  • 26. electric toothbrush in mouth

2/26

Correct Answers

  • 1. vacuum cleaner
  • 2. Electric Toothbrush
  • 3. Blender
  • 4. Screed
  • 5. Hair Dryer
  • 6. Driller
  • 7. Tuner
  • 8. Aspirator
  • 9. Fan
  • 10. Electric screwdriver
  • 11. Shredder
  • 12. sprinklers
  • 13. Respirator
  • 14. Epilator
  • 15. Winder
  • 16. Humidifier
  • 17. Air conditioning unit
  • 18. Printer
  • 19. Photocopy
  • 20. Scanner
  • 21. Beater vatkain vispilä
  • 22. Labeler
  • 23. VHS rewinder
  • 24. VHS rewinder
  • 25. Solar powered car cooling
  • 26. Electric Toothbrush

Paavoharju – Tuote akatemia / Unien Savonlinna EP // NMMREM XXIV

Paavoharju is a Finnish folk / ambient band / collective which has a truly unique musical style (something along the lines of freak folk). Their both full-lengths Yhä Hämärää (2005) and Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008) are enchanting pieces. They combine mysterious folk, lo-fi, ambience and surprisingly catchy elements, somehow usually avoiding to be artsy or annoyingly indie and getting to huge depths of natural feel.

Between the full-length albums Paavoharju released a largely unknown Free Download EP Tuote akatemia / Unien Savonlinna in 2006. It is a varied effort, mainly in good sense. The EP starts with a bang; two tracks that are among the best Paavoharju tracks of all time, forebodingly beautiful Nuo Maisemat and a live version of Kuljin Kauas. Usually live versions are to be passed with a shrug but Kuljin Kauas (Lepovaunu-05 Live) captures the live feeling extremely well. It adds so much raw-power to the composition, it competes side-by-side with the original album version. I didn’t know Paavoharju could be so heavy live!

Listening the album well over 10 times it is quite descriptive that a few months after the last listen, from the last 5 tracks I can only remember one, Pepe. Pepe is a left-over sounding Joose Keskitalo track, alike “Italialaisella laivalla” in Laulu Laakson Kukista LP (Joose Keskitalo is a Finnish singer-songwriter known of his Eponymous project). I do like Pepe and even had a short crush to it, but in my books, its quality is lower than nearly any track in first three Joose Keskitalo records (which are all near-masterpieces).

By no means is the end-album bad, it is just a lot less catchy and more of freaky ambient origin. Tavataan 12-7-2004 has some beautiful piano work. Mitä Sinä Et Ole nears worthlessness and is only saved by haunting female vocals. Tartu Tähän Hetkeen encompasses the Paavoharju ambient sound, but feels bit more raw and unpolished than most of the ambient pieces in their full-lengths. The last track Salatut Käyvät Julki is a melancholic pretty guitar and pump organ outro, very Rural-Finnish.

A good release with two extremely strong tracks and only one filler. Kudos to them for not trying to make money with a collection of oddities, but it really could have been a “real” release. It is almost as captivating and magic as their full-lengths, but not quite. If it wasn’t a free download I would not recommend it for Paavoharju beginners. But as it is, if you enjoy the pieces here you will for sure love the full-lengths.

8+/10

Free Download: http://archive.org/details/mia061

Joose: “Nimenomaan tonin laulua!”

Hyvämakuinen yleisönjäsen: “Hieno.”

Tarkasti analysoiva yleisönjäsen: “Tää on musiikkia.”

Avs_Silvester – Mansipal’s Heaven // NMMREM XII

Avs_silvester is a Russian artist with lots of interesting concepts for albums, for example the “Periodic Table of Sounds”. His new album or actually a compilation of old tracks is stated as Fusion, Progressive, ethno-rock with a very interesting concept.

“Mansipal – the historical name of the east Ural Mountains in the language of the native Finno-Ugric people of Mansi (Voguls).  Mansi World is divided into three parts – lower, middle and upper world. The heaven is also divided into three tiers, one of which goes after the death one of the five souls of man.

The album – a compilation of tracks from different years – sending you on a journey through the three parts of this world.”

Sounds just like my cup of tea, but surely a very tough concept to pull out as well. Not every Average Joe is the next Omar Rodriguez or John Lennon, but it certainly doesn’t stop some people from trying. And it certainly shouldn’t stop people from trying. In essence that is a good thing, but when they try to form up creations like professional composers; sometimes physically challenged babies like Mansipal’s Heaven come up. It is supposed to be Progressive ethno-rock. But it is not really progressive, it is random. It is pretty ethnic, but it is mostly not rock at all. It should be classified as experimental or improvisational guitar jam.

How many people really want to hear improvisational guitar jams of the greatest guitarists in the world? Hand to the heart, how many of you would like to hear an improvisational guitar jam of a mediocre layman guitarist with rather bad sounds? This is ultimately what Mansipal’s Heaven is. The guitar lines have a lot of glitches and mistakes. This could still be acceptable if the songs were good. You can hear there are compositions behind but mostly it seems the tracks are a mashup of certain guitar elements which are repeated in random places in – semi-similar to not similar at all – forms. In theory this could be a pretty ingenious way for making songs if those guitar elements just happened to not be mostly awkward and the placings had more style and pattern.

Many songs do have pleasant background ambience, for example Wind in the gorge, Music of silver and suitably named This strange autumn. Hell the chorus of This strange autumn is even catchy. Guitars are incoherent, but not as much as in most of the album. This marks the main problem and specialty of Avs Silvester. For example the title track seems to consist almost solely on guitar layers seemingly in not much contact with each other, drumming or keyboards. All forming different entities and playing on top of each other. When I release songs like this, I call them experimental or shitcore, not progressive. After an incoherent jamfest like Mansipal’s Heaven, This strange autumn sounds clear as a winter day when in earnest, it is a mess with a melody that when worked on could be very good.

The closest thing to a stable track is Mansipal’s heaven 2008 as it builds up nicely, in real standards mediocrely, the build up gets boring and the melodies never top the beginnings touch, but hey at least this time the track never went berserk! 2009 and 2010 versions of the same track encompass a less minimal approach with more guitar layers which ultimately means worse. Again the main riff really is not too bad (like in Fatal Chainsaw Massacre), if it just didn’t lead to a rather worthless improvisation after each repeat. Often less is more.

Most of the album feels like watching Journey Into Bliss on and on again, the shared sense of shame is always there. Maybe with some doses of mescaline this’d be a good trip with lots of laughing but with a clear mind it just boggling. The luck is, I’m a person having a liking in shitty and random music, so listening was in the end quite enjoyable, after getting through the disappointment of this not being a good album. But for any real music critic I can well believe this release effecting the tearing out of hair.

And hey, calling improvisational guitar jam progressive ethno-rock is just underrating the listener. If I’d known Mansipal’s Heaven to be a guitar jam I most likely wouldn’t have listened it at all – completely missing out the worst progressive rock album that I’ve ever heard! An eye opening release in a different way than expected.

Musicality: 2/10

Randomness: 9/10

Entertainment: 7/10

Free download: http://archive.org/details/siro484Avs_silvester-MansipalsHeaven

Fuck Your Speakers VOL 2 Disc 4 // NMMREM VI

Narrow-minded Metalhead reviews experimental music – VI

[TFR366] Fuck Your Speakers Double Header Part II Disc 4

Confusing = Entertaining Part II

A review with the most different sequels i’ve ever written I

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Fuck Your Speakers 2 – Disc 4 – Delicate Porcini-Flavoured goggles track-by-track first impressions (part 1?)The next part of Fuck your Speakers Double Header is sponsored by http://www.random.org, which im using to decide which disk i will review.  First part can be found here. Inserting numbers between 1 and 6 (the number of discs on Fuck your speakers) and pressing “Generate”.  “3, okay I reviewed that part already”. Pressing “generate” again. “3, meh, what are the odds to this?” “Generate” 4.

nate_judiI actually had a quick glance of the opening track, Nathan Watson’s Auf Deutsch, already. A very quiet 12 minute dark ambient epic I couldn’t really listen last time as i was playing Nhl 2004. It officially got into my “Listen later with headphones” -list, along with Mutant Beatniks’ drift (from CD 3). And yes, this is some really minimalistic shit,  with echoed german speech and other well, echoes, in the background. At about 7 minutes it starts to gain more of an edge and scary sounds, jumping from one place to another. After continuing scary boosts for a few minutes it fades back to similar flow than in the beginning with only vague speaking. Fit with a well adjusted last.fm pic (look  a few inches to the left), bringing up, if possible nothing to relate to in regards of the track.

NB,PD! – Budapest In A Dyke’s Spike

Glitching, is that german again? Breakbeat. This is nearly the kind of stuff i was expecting of this release, but even this has a melodic stellar beat.

NB,PD! – Gentle Nibbling Of Goat Babies And The Jealous Ramming Of Goat Mothers

NB,PD! is quickly becoming the foremost contender of best track titles of the album, with indeed, Gentle Nibbling sounds. The track becomes something that I would expect to happen in a twisted upside down world of Jack Vance’s book, The Dying Earth. Adorable. Knowing that RedSK has multiple tracks in the end of the Disc 4, i am expecting him to take the challenge.

NB,PD! –  Trying To Tie A Ligature Around One Testicle

Definition of Ligature:

  1. A cord, wire, or bandage used for tying or binding.

I imagine the first 1:20 are the actual process of tying a ligature in the testicle and after it we progress to the inner feelings of the other testicle, who seems to have quite a groove on. Horny, perhaps? The second part of the track is pure testicular love. Very different than the first half.

Omajinaakoos – Aegrus

Noise rock? Quite groovy beginning with a riff hinting you to hit the highway, and melodic leads, er, improvised? The sounds are good, musty, thick and dirty. The track seems to just skip from one part to another incoherently. At 2:26 we can hear a vague keyboard melody in the back, along with the oncoming boredom of the listener. 2:55 minute mark suddendly puts in a black metal melodic lead, with slow drumming. Honestly that part could be a good basis for a song, very potential. It ends to a lead which almost manages to be good but avoids it somehow. Then a basic riff offering nothing special. I love the band title i love the song title, i just wish the song had something more compact to offer.

Pheonix FM – Cougar Town

Pheonix is a common typo, i suppose the artist is really Phoenix FM. First sounding like cheap folk, but having an uplifting chorus with harmonica. One thing lacking, whiskey, son drink more whiskey and then try singing again. The harmonica is joyously providing steady melodies throughout the song.

A-2097452-1308437323.jpeg.jpgPigeon Cadaver – Just the ordinary Terror

Speedcore, with a melodic glitchbeat. Memorable! Now we are addressing the best track so far. Turning a beat into a melody works. What helps the case is the nice logo of the project. Unfortunately the beginning beat which was clearly the most memorable part of the track doesn’t repeat. It had a making of a fine chorus. Son, your track just needs a more coherent structure.

Pigeon Cadaver – Rhythmic Hetzjagd Action Terror

I have to admit the first love of Pigeon Cadaver wears off quite quickly…

But it comes back as quickly! Very African-spirited beat and a similar promising glitchy chorus at about 0:50 than in the first track. If we have some repetition this time, we are heading towards very memorable.

Pigeon Cadaver – Danphy Fanpy

I can imagine listening Pigeon Cadaver for an entire album. The atmosphere created by such beat oriented music is extraordinary when you are used to not having the beat as the main instrument.

Danphy consists of a hardhitting heavy metal-like beat with a small vague african voodoo vibe. Some doom interludes to launch a what? Galloping beat!? Again the great beats are a bit wasted of having no repetition of the most juicy parts, but another beat flowing after each other. Fluently, and definitely the track stays surprisingly interesting even without any melody.

Playing with nuns – Links to your parlante´s

Harsh Noise. A vision of an object trying to rise from liquid jelly: scratching on psychedelic colors the jelly reflecting glimmers. falls back inside the water, twists disproportionately to different directions. Ends midst of movement.

praytor – live your life

Ambient noise. Why not. Lots of intersting manouvers. Eclectic.

praytor – kogiga woodlands

For noise this is surprisingly calming. Fitting japanese samples and gentle white noise. Effortless.

praytor – melodii

Continues praytor’s ambient noise aspects, with a real start up melodii reminding of a really fucked up wind instrument. The calming ambient wears off at 1.15 with evil sounds. Entertaining.

praytor – a name in death

The gentle white noise seems to be an ongoing topic of praytor.

praytor – gypsy curse

Yes there is a gypsy reminding melody in the background. Praytor is pleasant background music noise. Hell in a perfect world in the elevators of any regular mall, you would listen Praytor.

Purulent Headache – Brutal EBM

Expecting something VERY brutal, but… Haha, brilliant laughs. Slow europop with cookie monster growling. Another thing i never imagined of existing. Reminds a lot of a band called Nightsatan and one of their main idologies: “Laser metal or horror pop”.

Purulent Headache – Clot of seminal fluid

Purulent Headache is a truly thrilling project! Oh my god, what a deep growl! Getting even lower than Demilich (oldschool death metal band from the 1990s). Another thing i did not know was possible. At least not naturally… I reckon this growl must be edited, Demilich got pretty far down, without any editing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxizB02d0gE) growling starting at 0.30.

Raiding The Crimson Tides – From A Grave (Feat Falcon Pawnch!!!)

Death metal and deathcore mixtured. The sounds are nice and muddy, except for the machinized drums. The deep growling is competent, the higher is clearly a notch down, though maybe it is just the deathcore aspect in that sound which brings it down for me. 1.27-2.00 offers an original breakdown with good guitar and synth melodies entwining. Unfortunately only for a short while as that was clearly the best moment of this track and showed that there is promise. The chorus and the synth melody are not very exceptional, however the synth manages successfully to avoid the worse casio sound.

A good break amidst all the completely electronic music. Will i listen this song another time? Probably once.

RedSK – Acoustics And LSD Part 2 (Feat. TJ Greggs & Lady Cumdumpster)

A guy playing off-tune guitar, laughing. The melody closes off being on tune but manages to avoid it. Idiotic. The 2:19 part is awesome. Clearly lots of fun (for about 5 seconds). I started laughing even before the music burst out of laughs. This is not ominous but Im sure this stuff would terrify any basic person on LSD. Im surprised if they weren’t terrified themselves.

RedSK – Live Segment Beat Up Tape 1

Rising soundwave sliding pitch shift featuring inhuman cookiemonster

RedSK – Pretty Asian Painted Toenail (RedSK Remix)

Wrap the ace toaa toaa wrap the ace tooaatoaaa. This IS ominous.

RedSK – I Wanna Fuck That One Chick That Screams In Iwrestledabearonce

THIS is the very essence of Redsk’s noise-sound. Raping loud soundwaves which are repeating in small sections inside each other. Volume changes are notable, this time the quiet section is in the very end.. Song ends soon enough for you to want a relisten.

The collection is free to download at: http://archive.org/details/TFR366-VA-FuckYourSpeakers2

Fuck your spankers!

Fuck Your Speakers VOL 2 Disc 3 // NMMREM V

 

Narrow-minded Metalhead reviews experimental music – V

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I keep reading the title “Fuck your spankers”

[TFR366] Fuck Your Speakers Double Header Part I Disc 3

Confusing = Entertaining

Inspired by Kai Nobukos review in archive.org of Sirona Records MONOLITH compilation Sincerity Is The Key (http://www.archive.org/details/siro300VariousArtists-SincerityIsTheKey, free download *wink* *wink* *nudge* nudge*). I decided to do the same thing but cut out the “i love everything” -aspect and take the ground in my own pessimistic way.I am going to disregard my normal reviewing habits this time and make a double header of reviews solely based on first impressions of MAMMOTH compilation FUCK YOUR SPEAKERS VOL. 2, which has been released by multiple weblabels.

In this first part I am reviewing the record a day after listening and the second part will be a track-by-track review.

So if I will offend you by listening your tracks without the needed insight and deep constellation im sorry. (Actually im not but when you are angry you can pretend you didnt see this sentence). However collections like this tend to be listened only once or twice, after which the listener may or may not pick up a few favourite tracks for more constant repetition.

Fuck Your Speakers 2 – Disc 3 – Orange Nippled Hedgehogs

So I decided to pick up CD 3 and expectactions didn’t surely rise when I noted that the tracks are in alphabetical order. After discussing this with an anonymous internet person (anonymous cause im not sure he wants his opinion public) it seems im not the only one who considers that a cheap option. By the way the person was tooth_eye.No, Disc 3 doesn’t actually have a name but the title looks better that way.

With heavy heart I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised of the quality. Expecting more pure noisechaos the instant highlight was the wondrous glitchy vibes of Assassins in the Sky by Kanellos.

The variation, interest and weirdly even quality of FYS Disc 3 seemed notable and along with Kanellos top moments include brilliantly promising Godflesh-esque industrial metal by Marc Broude. To go with that Lucky Oddy’s Wet Fuzz (2011 Mix), which for me is just plain fun with stupid vocal-performances, making it even funnier. Is the guy really singing the extremely high-pitched vocals 1:08 onwards. Or is it a melody?

Lord of Sp33d’s entertaining nintendo-speedcore piece also provides some giggles. A harsh beat with a Nintendo-melody always brings a smile on my face. I will also send cheers to “Umilaj Czas Czy Pedofil To Szum Widelczykowy Kutas”, actually mainly cause I fucking love the sound of Polish letters. I cannot really be the only one who finds Polish extremely fascinating, especially when theres 4-5 consonants in a row. And hey the track itself also sounds clearly above average noise with lots of stuff happening.

Im likewise quite sure that mECHONATHEREG’s Activate Damage’s main riff is stolen from Doom! And I love that riff. Instant kicks! Otherwise the track belongs to the weaker side of the entity mainly because of the annoying vocals. I know, I must be a fucking sovinist as I can rarely stand screaming female punk / indie / vocals sang with attitude. However the male vocalist isn’t making things any better. Talking about vocal performances, Machinoir = nice chaotic arrangement, but weak drum sounds and deathcore vocals, no thanks. Another vocal style I cannot stand.

The second mECHONATHEREG, Snipe hunt has a CRUSHING and so professional main riff it sounds like its stolen from somewhere. Unfortunately, this song either, is instrumental. After mechetaeytaqolgrep comes up Mitä? with two oddities. These tracks stand in the midst of the crushing sextet of Marc Broude, mECHONATHEREG and Mortal Void, making them largely inefficient.

Picking up the other weakest pieces is also surprisingly easy. The lovelily disgustingly named Lady Cumdumpster’s Mothafucka!!! (Feat. Chasing Stupid) feels to have already reached the stupidity. Do I have to mention that her last.fm profile picture looks awfully out of place for such an artist name? Is that two 16 year old chicks singing Elton John? On second though. if that or similar indeed is the case the picture suddendly became fucking amazing.

Out of the blue. Mortal Void The Great Pretending sounds fucking solid on the second go, but on the first I got too overwhelmed by again, Last.fm. Just look at this artist-description (I cut the samples freely this is not the whole text):

“What is a mortal void?
It exists within a soul

It creates and destroys.
It loves and hates.
It lives and dies.”

Seriously. Only the French can come up with artistic shit like that and Mortal Void isn’t even French. Funnily, not seeing the Last.fm, my girlfriend commented that Mortal Void sounds like bodybuilding music imagining a big guy lifting weights and grunting. Not a far fetched image though im not sure if the body building-type can relate to Mortal Void’s poetic imaginary. Probably they can as I cannot and im skinny as fuck.

Mutant Beatniks’ drift also drifted largely past (lamest pun of the day) me as the huge volume difference to Mortal Void ate its power. Again, after second listen sounds like it could grow to be a fine track.

However none of the weaker tracks are without merit and some in their weakness actually provide a giggle to us fine folk who enjoy our bad music with the good. Entertaining entity with lots of variation, could even work as a background music for beer-drinking. For an open minded person wanting to have a mindfuck this CD is a great place to start. Mind expanding drugs may come next but don’t ask me where to get them.

Overall score: 7/10

Free download: https://archive.org/details/TFR366-VA-FuckYourSpeakers2