Posset / Trancers II / Hapsburg Braganza ‎– A Clutch Of Eggs cdr

Posset's high-frequency tape hiss is juxtaposed against Trancers II's nice old-school-industrial-meets-hypnagogic (think of a mix between Throbbing Gristle and old James Ferraro and early Dirty Beaches) and Hapsburg Braganza's two very different tracks; first one is a dreamy floating ambient orchestral piece a-la William Basinski and Stars Of The Lid, while is a dictaphonic piece mixing various old talk shows and old jazz music. Nice shit. 2011 self-released cdr

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Posset - Mump Grumpy cdr

Posset doing his thang, playing up chewed tapes of field recordings from classical concerts, forests, your grandma's TV set et al. 2009 cdr on Infinite Exchange.

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Sindre Bjerga & Posset ‎– Jazz Hands, Bloody Jazz Hands tape (2016, Sound Holes)

Here comes Sindre Bjerga and Joe Posset Murray again, wielding dictaphones in one hand and Betadine oral gargle antiseptic on the other, roaming the streets of Gateshead to leave their salive on some random kid's neck. By now, you should have known what to expect; tape cannibalism of loops of TV shows and AOR and free mouth jazz played by people with over 70% disability. How these two weirdos found their way into this blog I don't know, but hey, if you are into that thing, well, I don't judge people. Damned Freaks. 2016 tape on Sound Holes.

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TQ #14/ No-Audience Underground Tapes/ Posset - Another Forever Tomorrow cdr

New TQ issue continues in a more retrospective note as in the previous John Peel issue, with the main part of the zine focusing on accounts of kraut rock giants such as Can, Holger Czukay, first Faust, and Kraftwerk.

The most important part, though, is an interview with David Howcroft, the person behind No-Audience Underground Tapes, which I have talked about here; in the interview David talks about his connection to Blyth and Fuckin' Amateurs, the formation of N-AuT, consideration on its future, and the story behind the Another Headache For the NHS compilation, which was released in order to gather financial aid for a shockingly serious accident David had had. I already knew that that comp was released in aid of David, but I wasn't aware of how dangerous his condition was, and I wholeheartedly wish him the best.

I grasp the opportunity to remind readers of the blog that No-Audience Underground Tapes is an important effort to document the life of the North-East England drone/noise/experimental scene, recording and releasing gigs by such amazing musicians and groups like Vampyres, Posset, Smut, Fells, Witchblood, Möbius, Death In Scarsdale, Wrest, Noize Choir, and so many others. More than 50 tapes have been released so far, and I really hope that David will keep at it for as long as it takes. I would offer the full list here, but I highly recommend that all of you drop David an email, ask for the list, get some stuff and give him your support; after all he is doing it for free, without charging for the tapes, which is an important aspect of the underground.

Finally, this most recent issue of TQ comes with a free cdr of Posset's Another Forever Tomorrow. Posset is obviously one of my favorite artists ever, and on this release he proves again his expansive vision of electronic music, from his patent dictaphone manipulation of vocals and voices to an amazing gamelan-like tune called "Rubber Whiskey Decisions," and from a dictaphone blues anthem called "Dub Touch (Two)" to more ambient/drone incursions with the cd's intro and outro. Great stuff as usual, you can listen to it here.

John R. Olson - Solo Horn tape

No need to mention how talented and versatile as a musician John Olson is; this tape is just additional proof to that. Here he improvises on his wind instruments, doing raw recordings, sometimes in the outdoors (you can here children, birds etc.) and covering a range of moods from free jazz to solitary Middle-Eastern styles. Great stuff as always by Sound Holes, this time on tape in 2017.

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Sun Of Nothing ‎– Rehearsal Tape

Sun Of Nothing is a band from Athens, Greece mixing sludge, post-punk, post-metal and black metal into a cauldron of noise and urban toxic pox. They've released three full-length albums, all of which can be downloaded for free on their bandcamp. This is their first rehearsal tape from 2002, which I was lucky to grab during a gig of them I saw in Thessaloniki when I was doing my university visit there more than a decade ago. What is more striking about them is their vocalist Ilias; his delivery is a shriek that is not exhaled but inhaled; what damage he must have done to his lungs is unknown to me but it sounds great. Think of their music as a mix between Eyehategod and Godflesh; third track also includes the final riff from Electric Wizard's anthem "Funeralopolis" so you know these dudes have good taste. 2002 self-released tape.

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Tarantula Hawk

Band from Oakland, California featuring ex-members of The Locust and a guy who played in the latest Faust album. They released two albums and played some sort of instrumental psychedelic progressive post-punk heavily based on synth/organ. Their first album featured also some The Locust influences, with blastbeats and aggression. Their second album was more psychedelic/hazy with a touch of slow-building doom metal riffs. I think of them as kind of Word As Law/Souls At Zero-era Neurosis with the keyboards of Genesis. Aside from their two albums, they maintained a site that offered three live recordings that are way more psychedelic and lysergic, and I upload all of them here. Enjoy.



2000 - Burrow (January 2000 live recording)
 

2000 - Tarantula Hawk (on Life Is Abuse)



2000 - Desert Solitaire (live August 2000)



2001 - Live At KFJC 07.15.01



2002 - Tarantula Hawk (on Neurot)

Can ‎– WDR Funkhaus, Größer Sendesaal, Köln, 1972

A bootlegged recording of a 1972 gig Can did in Köln straight from a radio broadcast, as can be understood at the end of "Mushroom," where there's a speaker talking in German. The sound quality is acceptable, albeit a little distant and with focus on drums. You get Michael Karoli doing some nice long jams on "Mushroom," and an aggressive, drum-frantic 13-minute rendition of "Spoon," combined with an unknown (for me) track called "Love Me Tonight," while "Bring Me Coffee or Tea," and "Halleluhwah" get an additional heavy jazz funk vibe. Bootleg tape released by Anökumena.

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Maurizio Bianchi - Technology 1 & 2

A compilation of two early (1981) tapes by Maurizio Bianchi, featuring primitive soulless and toxic synth attack. The first two tracks ("Technology 1) were also featured in the vinyl box released by Vinyl On Demand, which was a few weeks ago posted by the fine Rehashed Blog, but the second "Technology" was omitted. Fortunately for us, At War With False Noise salvaged it and released it in 2009 in cd form.

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Jazzfinger - The Ducal Palace

First rehearsal in 1996 of the initial duo form of Jazzfinger (Hasan Gaylani and Ben Jones) abusing guitars and basses. Very heavy, noisy, fuzzy and with a sense of green-ish muck pervading. 2009 cd on Turgid Animal.

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Arvo Pärt ‎– The Symphonies (Tõnu Kaljuste, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra) (ECM)

End-of-summer laziness and boredom and the exhaustion of a very difficult winter are too overwhelming for me to write anything of substance and to scan/upload covers, etc. so there you go. A new recording of all 4 Arvo Pärt symphonies conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste and performed by the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, this is the first studio recording of the fourth "Los Angeles" symphony of 2010. People who have mostly come to Pärt through his beautiful choral work or his masterful solo pieces "Fur Alina," "Spiegel Im Spiegel" or Tabula Rasa might surprised by the sometimes aggression and darkness hovering over these symphonies, especially the first two, which have that ominous Shostakovich/"Soviet" style, while Symphony 4 is perhaps closer to the majestic choral work, and Symphony 3 has a more majestic and cinematic feel to it, more particularly in the third movement. 2018 cd on ECM.

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Necrophagia / Sigh ‎– Kindred Of The Dying Kind / Young Burial split 7"

As a naive teen I was really intrigued by Necrophagia's affinity with old-school horror movies and their own attempts at small stupid "gore" films they did on their DVDs, as well as by their Celtic-Frost-booty-shaking death metal of their reformed period. Later when they briefly recruited Mirai of Sigh on keyboards they became even nicer, somewhat psychedelic and with a nice Goblin-esque touch. So this was the climax of that period with a split 7"; Necrophagia continued playing that cool Celtic Frosty-styled death/doom with Killjoy's shrieking vocals, while Sigh contributed a nice hazy punky Slayerish cover of Necrophagia's "Young Burial." For some reason, the sound is kinda shit, probably some problem at the pressing plant, but hey, it's slimy gore death metal, yeah? 2003 7" on Red Stream.

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Repugnant & Kaamos Live In Kafe 44, Stockholm, 21.3.2003 tape

 

The two best bands of the old-school Swedish death metal early-2000s revival on a split live tape. Repugnant never took off as they only released a few tapes and a posthumous full-length; their singer however became world famous as the guy behind this overrated heavy rock band called Ghost, meh. They played death metal very close to the roots of Dismember and Entombed and the singer had a very cool thrash metal voice. Now Kaamos was one of the truly best metal bands of all time, albeit an unsung one that ended too soon, after two full lengths, a 10" and a CDEP. They weren't at all copycats of the old legendary sound, but they played an extremely technically proficient epic style of death metal that took a lot of influences of Unleashed that really surpassed Unleashed's quality and mixed them with other influences from Sadistic Intent and doomier parts akin to Candlemass and produced some of the best death metal ever recorded, especially in their first self-titled album. I was lucky enough to catch them in action around 2005-2006 and they were the absolute business, as can be also be understood from this live recording. 2003 tape on Escorbuto.

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Necrovation / Corrupt ‎– Curse Of The Subconscious split 7"

Insanely tight and violent old-school Swedish death metal by the ever-awesome Necrovation, beginning with some really nice atmospheric arpeggios before morphing into thick devastating riffs; their second track is a cover of the classic Morbid track "My Dark Subconscious." Corrupt is another Swedish band, and they play less interesting trebly black/thrash metal with very fast drumming; their most noteworthy part is the vocals which remind me a lot of Altars of Madness-era David Vincent, the guy from the Peruvian band Mortem and Jeff Bechera of Possessed. The second track is a faithful cover with nice solos of Mercyful Fate's "Curse of the Pharaohs." 2005 7" on Blood Harvest.

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Das Über Evils ‎– Bratwurst Terror tape

Old-school death metal from the early incarnation of what later became known as Necrovation, one of the revivalists of the old-school Swedish death metal sound of Dismember and Entombed. Expect heavy, downtuned stuff with a touch of moshy groove and nice gruff vocals. 2002 self-released tape.

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Atrax Morgue - I Vizi Morbosi Di Una Giovane Infermiera

Doesn't require much imagination to judge from the title that there's a 70' exploitation theme going on around here, does it? Heavy on samples from the film with the same name by gay socialist director from Spain Eloy De La Iglesia (haven't seen it), this wee little cdr by Marco Corbelli features minimal synth with hypnotic effects, devoid of any feelings with very few forays into more noisier territory, very reminiscent of early Maurizio Bianchi. 2001 cdr on Corbelli's own Slaughter Productions.

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Lotus Eaters - Wurmwulv

The second and last full-length (fourth release overall) of Lotus finds continuing their electro-acoustic drone improv experiments with a slightly noisier touch I'd say and a darker, more desolate feeling that is also similar to the Aethenor project O'Malley had started during that period. 2007 cd on Troubleman Unlimited.

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PS. There's another Lotus Eater release entitled Alienist On A Pale Horse. Opium Hum blog has uploaded it, so you can't find it there.

Lotus Eaters - Mind Control For Infants

First full-length for Lotus Eaters, and one of the very first drone/experimental albums I've ever heard. First two tracks focus on beautiful electro-acoustic guitar-based ambient sounds, while the following four tracks go further into more abstract/ musique concrete territory with found sounds, e-bows and some threatening bass sounds. The final track's drone static is just a liberating, glorious piece and I think that there's an underlying narrative approach through phases of sleeping here, or at least that's how I always perceived this album. A true masterpiece-if anyone could share the purported expanded lp version on Taiga Records I'd be more than grateful. 2002 cd on Neurot Recordings.

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Lotus Eaters - Lotus Eaters 7"

Lotus Eaters is a sadly now defunct project consisting of three of my high-school musical heroes, James Plotkin, Aaron Turner, and Stephen O' Malley. However, much to the consternation of most people who expected a mind-blowing sludge/doom monster, in this project they played immensely beautiful and dreamy drone/electro-acoustic improv music. There is excellent musicianship and production here, featuring both acoustic instruments like guitar and accordion and made sounds akin to a quiet form of musique concrete, and the whole thing revolves around a gorgeous acoustic guitar melody. More than highly recommended. 2002 7" on Drone Records.

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Unkerd Wood - Demo II tape

 

Second release for this creepy doom/black metal North-East England project, playing subterranean crawling invocations with slow funeral-like drums and guitar/bass creating a thick foggy noise that cannot be escaped from. It's great that these guys can invoke such enveloping darkness just by playing live with three instruments and making good use of reverb, without any keyboards or studio tricks. Track three has this extremely spooky and depressive e-bow melody morphing into black metal arpeggio combined with heavy gruff caveman vocals-definitely a must hear. 2012 tape on Legion Blotan.

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Unkerd Wood / Pact Of Ash / Gammal Sed ‎– Northern Retaliation split tape

3-way split tape by three projects with overlapping memberships: Lee Stokoe's Pact Of Ash begins the program with a 9-minute instrumental slow barrage of black metal riffing and dead-slow drums that somewhat reminds me of that awesome Murmuüre album in 2010. Unkerd Wood consists of Mike Simpson (Xazzaz, Oppenheimer, Dark Bargain, and Satanhartalt - all of which have been covered here) on bass & vocals, Jamie Stewart (Wrest, Fuckin' Amateurs Records, Oppenheimer, Dark Bargain, and Satanhartalt) on drums, and George Proctor (Legion Blotan/Turgid Animal Records, Mutant Ape, Inseminoid, ex-Skullflower) on guitar & vocals. I already liked their ultra-lo-fi, dungeon-sounding, black-hole black/doom metal, but this track is just UNBELIEVABLE,. It's a 16-minute epic of slowly grinding drums and bass, wailing and dissonant guitars, and some of the most seriously scary vocals I've heard invoking terrible swampy creatures and seems to me like a more structured version of the ritual darkness of Satanhartalt. At the 9-minute mark, everything stops and an ominous ritual dark ambient drone takes over, only to give its place after 2 minutes to one of the best riffs black metal has ever experienced, a reverbed cacophonous arpeggiated anthemic thing sustained by crushing drums and noise and a blurry psychedelic doom/blues vibe behind it that simply crushes everything. I think that this tape must be bought/listened to even just for this track. Finally, there's Gammal Sed, a solo (I think) project of George Proctor, where he plays catatonic, depressive but loud and noisy black metal revolving around a great arpeggiated riff eventually morphing into a noisy industrial/ambient chaos. All three of these groups are great, and they have released other stuff on Legion Blotan and Matching Head that deserve listening/buying. 2017 tape on Legion Blotan.

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Pact Of Ash - Demo tape (2012, Legion Blotan)

Yet another solo project of the ever-active Lee Stokoe of Culver/Matching Head, this time playing instrumentral, guitar-only black metal noise. This is a both sinister and mournful mix of cacophonous, oft-kilter fierce tremolo riffing with layers of fuzzy noise/drone in the background, not too dissimilar of early Burzum, but without the metally attitude. Late 2000s Skullflower is an obvious reference, as Lee played in that incarnation of SF, along with George Proctor who has released this tape. Highly recommended, as is the case with most of Stokoe's oeuvre. 2012 tape on Legion Blotan.

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Mutant Ape & Mlehst split 7"

A surprisingly beautiful and calming ambient piece by George Proctor's defunct noise filth project Mutant Ape (he now continues playing and releasing mainly "heathen" black metal with suspicious content through various monikers on Legion Blotan - I really wish to be wrong) and a industrial droning noisy piece by Mlehst. 2008 7" on Turgid Animal.

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Violence Beyond The Snowline - Hollow Shit For Dull Suburban Witches 3"cdr

Glitchy ambient electronics with a weird medieval witch concept going around. 2005 3" cdr on First Person.

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Büfo ‎– Moderni Ja Maailman Tuho 2x7"

 

I remember being blown away by this Finnish hardcore punk when I saw them live in 2006 in the Obscene Extreme festival of that year, where they played (if my memory serves well) a crusty/grind hybrid. In this double 7" they are slightly different as they mix anthemic crusty hardcore with Japanese-styled grindpunk, some Integrity-influenced guitar solos and even some jazz fusion moments! I like it a lot, it's great fun and they growl in that trademark Finnish accent that makes Suomi punk bands so special. Oh and there's a Terveet Kadet cover, so there you go. 2008 2X7" on Addiction To War.

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Joe Maneri & Mat Maneri - Blessed

I find this to be one of the most inventive albums in free/improvisational jazz. Rather than a full-scale attack of horns, drums, etc., this is a rather pensive, meticulous form of improvisation based on droning microtonal dialogues between tenor sax dad Joe and violin son Mat Maneri. The level of attentiveness and cooperation is just amazing. Highly recommended. 1998 cd on ECM.

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HeatdeatH - Un LP (Conspiracy Records)

Dark, abrasive and experimental eclectic noise with ambient undertones, a taste for structure and an underlying feeling of dungeon black metal creating feeling of abandonment, despair and resignation. Very very very good. 2008 LP on the legendary Conspiracy Records.

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Sakis Papadimitriou, Georgia Sylleou, George Bandoek Apostolakis - Nosferatu

 

Free improvisation drawing on jazz, atonal and ambient by these three Greek musicians, consisting of piano/organ, soprano vocals and guitars, mixing dark menacing sounds and more playful ones. The whole recording was made live while watching the original Nosferatu film by F.W. Murnau, trying to capture its essence.

2002 cd on LeoRecords.

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RIP Tomasz Stańko

It was only yesterday that I saw that Tomasz Stańko passed away of lung cancer. He was one of the most important contemporary jazz musicians and trumpeters, with an amazing sound whose romanticism and tenderness was up there with the giant Chet Baker and his compositions had this amazing nightly feeling that is hard to rival.

As the tiniest tribute I share the commemorative video ECM prepared which includes some of his most touching moments.

plus his amazing version of Krysztof Komeda's "Litania" (aka Rosemary's Baby)

Andrew Kirschner ‎– The Arm And The Eye tape

One of the most rich and varied releases of 2017 is this one by Andrew Kirschner, affiliate of Wolf Eyes. Side one is a mix of murky green water drone underneath industrial junk digital clang, ideal for miserable sleep. Side two is something wholly different; ritual percussion intermingles with droning guitar and violin plucking creating a heaven of droning improvisational musique concrete. Highly recommended shit. 2017 tape on Soundholes.

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