Noise

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/

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

Alex Spalding – I’m Going to Die // NMMREM XX

Listening Alex Spalding’s newest effort I’m Going to Die based on his previous solo album Amos in Flames, may come as shock. The gentle electronics of Amos in Flames are gone and as a replacement, we have vast, heavy industrial. The sound doesn’t have a pinch of humanism in it. It is more reminiscent of deteriorated buildings rising from a deserted Soviet town. Harsh electro assault with some noise elements, dark beats, lots of dynamics and occasional melodies. I dig!

The beginning of the album is such a middle finger, Driver is a suitable intro with its harsh electronics but second track I’m Going To Die seems to be the real driver there, as it for sure will drive a lot of listeners away. The third track Re-program is what really starts the album. Judging by the trackname even the artist seems to be aware of that. In the half-way of the song the harsh beat and beeping suddenly halt to an ingenious noise-assault break which leads to an evil groove straight from the top. If you turn death metal riffs into electronic beats, this is what it could sound like.

Another notable track follows soon. Ugly with its more multidimensional evil groove. My favourite of the album. Very Alex Spalding-like a few very short, ok fillups Ender and Samäel balance the way to Bizzy In The Mix. An almost 6 minute track. It holds its ground remarkably well, shifting enough to stay interesting. Surprisingly enticing, or like my girlfriend blurted while wandering in the room: “sounds like robots having sex”. The strong middle album is completed with Gridlock, its most notable feature; a brilliant groovebassline!

I needed some pictures to spice up the review

so here’s a diagram about the best times

to listen Alex Spalding’s I’m going to die

After Gridlock the quality doesn’t go down notably, perhaps it is surroundings which become familiar as most of the rest float through without boring and without boring itself in memory. Except, goodness on the 10th track, Robotics, and the centerpiece of the album (more like fuck-you-piece) I’m Going To Die (Full Version). Not bad for a 23 MINUTE NOISE TRACK, but I cannot see how a 23 MINUTE NOISE TRACK wouldn’t be skipped when I’m enjoying my industrial.

The sound, and the beats are enjoyable, but the problem is, it continues all album long. The album would love a bit more variation, like the organic bass line of Gridlock, or eardrum busting à la Re-Program. Not surprisingly the best tracks come from the beginning.

If you are into dancing in factory halls with your gasmask on, while stabbing cybergoths in the face; this is your stuff. Or if you’d like to hear how close to Metal electronic music can be, try it out. The industrial metallish tinge brings in mind the degradiation of Eastern block at its worst. Decline is beautiful. I heard in Ukraine there is a festival in an old Nuclear power plant. Maybe someone should book Alex Spalding?

7½/10

A Free download album as always: http://archive.org/details/SPNet076-AlexSpalding-ImGoingToDie (only 56 downloads are you kidding me?)

Track-by-track

1. Driver

Beatwork seems to be just emerging, a fitting sound for an intro. Thematically brings in mind Kanellos’ In A Breath (http://archive.org/details/Siro584Kanellos-DestroyMusic; to be reviewed soon). Like the beat is behind something taking the top out of it.

2. I’m Going To Die (LP Version)

Short enough to listen, still skipping it half of the time but it also provides a giggle now and then.

3. Re-program:

First it is catchy, then it busts your eardrums with noise, you may feel angriness rising up, but it is very shortly turned into aggressive euphoria as the next beat is even catchier. The beat switch with a noise-assault break in between is ingenious.

4. Ender

A good progress to a beat and a melody, but simply worse than Re-Program and Ugly.

5. Ugly:

Multidimensional evil groove explodes near one minute marker to a 3D headphone experience.

6. Samäel

A Random idea thrown in the midst.

7. Bizzy In The Mix

Robots having sex.

8. Gridlock

Bores in the beginning but then a groove bass bores itself in. Through all industrial layers it sounds absolutely wonderful to hear some organic-like instruments.

9. Stabbing Death

Very odd, Alex Spalding’s fetish for noise is apparent on this one. Lots of heavy steelwork.

10. Robotics

A robotic noisevoice seems to repeat my first name!?! Possibly for this, Robotics takes its place on the top of the album.

11. Gauge

Very beat oriented. Beat as a main drive and melody. I feel the beat is a bit alone, it might fancy a helping hand. Still works and surprises await.

12. Rotting

Great flow from Gauge, its aborted little brother.

13. Alex Spalding – I’m Going To Die (Full Version)

The centerpiece of the album. 23 minutes of noise, more like fuck-you-piece. I sat through it once, was entertained, annoyed and laughed. Good times. Never again. Funnily in this noise track there is a catch! A repeating “chorus” sort of! Voice repeating “I’m going tooo diiiiieee” at probably 50 times during the length of the track. I find myself trying to sing along with it but the voice cuts of abruptly half the time. Works well listened a few minutes at a time randomly.

14. Colder Than You

Ambience, steel girder tamping while grand factorylines mechanically move on… Over 5 minutes but I never have any hurry in skipping it. On the other hand I can never recall what happened in it either.

Playing with Nuns – 1805 // NMMREM X

God knows how manyth split of Playing with Nuns, 1805 is named after Mary Nuns, an infamous woman born in 1805 and also by one of the base books of nunnerism “The nuns of the desert, or, The woodland witches”, released in 1805. No really im just shitting you. The nuns of the desert is a rather hilarious title of a book anyway.

Playing With Nuns is a noise/experimental artist hailing from Argentina and like previously mentioned, he has made over a hundred splits, cd-r’s and webreleases in just a few years. Of these releases my favourites include 4-way split “Origami Chupacabras”, Cd-r “North Korea in 5 minutes” and another Cd-r “Horse surgery”. I’m actually shitting you again, I’ve never listened to any of these but you must agree that the names of the splits are entertaining.
Time for your own thoughts

Time for your own thoughts by maxon / HBC

by maxon / HBC
From this baseline I placed 1805 to my record player, alas an mp3 in foobar2000 audio player v.1.1.8, a basic drag and drop manouver in between the artists Plain Ride and PMMP. Head-on collision with a soundwave is the easiest description of the beginnings of the first track, “The consequences of a chain reaction”. Huge soundwave some harsh noise but overall a more pleasant sort; I find myself not getting petrified by it, no matter where I am. My most enjoyable moment with this release is 3 am at lan party, where it worked well as seclusing myself out of this world.

The consequences of a chain reaction has an almost metal interlude at 10:05 with lovely bass-soundwave bursting in. But then continues mostly the same except for some entertaining oddities, for example mechanics at 13.00 which; if made by the British Death Metal band Carcass; could be titled “Chainsaw & Circular Saw Macabration of Mutes”.

1805, the title track, is considerably more soft, mostly half-way gentle glitching harsh noise. The end of it advances to Rainbosws (name dropping an obscure artist you haven’t heard about) like glitching pleasant sound. Almost like water pouring outside and dribbling against the glasses. After two different tracks the fittingly named “One more to annoy you” closes the album like it started.

For a harsh noise release based on mostly just white noise 1805 has some interesting variation, but lacks originality. With some track notes and linear specifications of the tracks and or themes, harsh noise tracks such as these would be far more interesting. If there is any? Is there ever, really?

I Like noise, most of it is entertaining to listen for one or two times when you don’t know what is behind the next hill of the voyage. After that many noise albums tend to lose much of their initial interest, if they aren’t filled with nuances. Playing with Nuns – 1805 is one of those albums though I can imagine listening two thirds of it from time to time when in need of seclusion and concentration; and ordinary music isn’t doing it.

Download Playing with Nuns – 1805 for free here: http://archive.org/details/siro274PlayingWithNuns-1805