Female Borstal (Culver/Mutant Ape/Haikai No Ku project)

As mentioned in the previous post on the Wasp Bomb/Female Borstal split tape, the latter is a project consisting of Lee Stokoe of Culver on bass, George Proctor of Mutant Ape on drums and Jerome Smith of Haikai No Ku on guitar. Their music is sort of a mix between Lee's Marzuraan super-heavy sludge and Jerome's Haikai No Ku psychedelic vastness, something like a more energetic and less sleep-inducing Bong or Let Us Prey-era Electric Wizard (my fave Wizard album btw). The riffs are real nice and there is an epic and agonizing feeling that usually culminates in noisy feedback and echo-drowned jams. Here are some of their releases:

2011 - Female Borstal cdr (Turgid Animal) - Download



2012 - Women In Prison...In Manchester 12.04.12 cdr (Turgid Animal) - Download



Live Split with Drunk In Hell - Free Download

NIHL/Female Borstal split tape on Matching Head - Get it from the label itself - get active!

Vampyres (Lee Stokoe & Martyn Reid)

Vampyres is a hot new project by Lee Stokoe of Culver/Witchblood/Matching Head tapes/millions of other projects and Martyn Reid of Depletion (2017's  Lost Signals tape on Matching Head was a masterpiece of grey industrial synth bleakness) and in their releases they play intense and dense droning industrialized noise quite close to Depletion. If Culver is the all-devouring primeval drone of the Great Old Ones lurking out of space to engulf us, Vampyres is the dark daily presence of Nyarlathotep, the carrier that brings the message that our technology-infested world will be engulfed in evil.

Since Lee prefers Culver and  MH material not to be uploaded online, I will provide links to anything that has been posted online by labels, and links for potential purchases.

Astral Sacrifice (2017, At War With False Noise) - Free streaming 

So hypnotic and miserable is the sound that I fell asleep listening to it while waiting at a public service.

Century Scars (2017, Invisible City Records) - Free download

Damaged screaming poisoned-wind-swept noise drone.

Bloodstream (2017, Matching Head) - Buy it

Like a pool of green toxic fluids dripping from big evil factory machines.

Voyeurs At The Gates Of Hell (2018, Matching Head) - Buy it
Caustic like acid on throbbing flesh wounds with deceptive moments of lull.

At The Altar (2018, Cruel Nature Recordings) - 1 tape remaining

Impenetrable sprawling ringing drone on a real bad trip.

Despondent Kingdom (2018, Narcolepsia) - Samples and ordering

The most recent one and possibly the best one yet along with Bloodstream. Three tracks of evil modular synth industrial drone of the order of Maurizio Bianchi and early Wolf Eyes.

Vampyres & Rust Ruus - Live At Club Ponderosa, Gateshead, 30 September 2017 (No-Audience Underground Tapes)

Ali Robertson & Joyce Whitfield, Vampyres, brb>voicecoil, Spoils & Relics - Live At Soundroom Gateshead 23 June 2017 (No-Audience Underground Tapes) - Contact the label for free tape copies

Two live documents of gigs of Vampyres, where they are even more deafening, abrasive and threatening. On the other side of the first tape, Rust Ruus plays high-pitched sounds which sound to me like they have been created with wind instruments - but I'm not sure. On the other tape, Ali Robertson of Usurper and Joyce Whitfield play a live set of dictaphone sounds and Posset-like autistic mouth sounds. brb>voicecoil offers a set of pulsating and slightly rhythmic/a-rhythmic electronic weirdness. Spoils & Relics sound like they are constantly connecting live wires to each other along with samples of some robotic talking are heard in the background.

Also, Vampyres have set up a soundcloud account, where they have posted two more tracks that I haven't seen anywhere.

(and of course, these tapes can be got via email contact)

Witchblood - Ecsed tape

The return of Johnson/Stokoe finds them in a much deeper and heavier mood. No longer does LJ plays multi-note melodies on the piano, just some very sinister and majestic chords, and the droning background is considerably murkier than the thin sound of the first tape. On the flipside, there is a superb 11-minute track dominated by a shimmering organ chord which, in contrast to the crawling descend that usually characterizes LS's music, has a very ascending and floating quality. As for the title, Ecsed is the Hungarian town where Elizabeth Bathory grew up. Essential. 2016 tape on Matching Head.

Download (removed after artist's request)

Witchblood - Eponine tape

Witchblood is one of the best projects of the omniscient Lee Stokoe of Culver and Lucy Johnson, one of the most talented women in noise, whose work as Smut I've just posted. As noted in Smut's Piano One tape, Lucy is a superb piano player, and Witchblood's music is very much reliant on resonant piano melodies, while Lee probably accompanies here on guitar ambiences and sound manipulations. The result here is less noisy than what both artists usually present and possesses a psychedelic and spectral quality, which sometimes sound very much like 1970s horror movie soundtracks, or nightmarish nursery songs. Indeed, the fifth track has a very musicbox-hazy child dream melody that is just hair-raising. This ghostly, fleeting mood is also highlighted by the sound which is drowned, and a little bit like recorded on chewed-up tape. Amazing music by some of the most creative noise minds at work at the moment. 2013 tape on Matching Head.

Download (removed after artist's request)

Sindre Bjerga ‎– Foreign Tongues tape

Superb improvisational and menacing drone live recordings made by Sindre Bjerga on his 2012 England tour. Great shit. 2012 tape on Matching Head.

Download (removed after artist's request)

Harm / Culver ‎– Split tape

This is sadly the last Harm release, as Samantha Davies would eventually join other more well-known groups/projects, in one of which she played together for some time with Lee Stokoe, with whose main moniker Culver she shares this split demo. The Harm track is once again a blindfolded treading through dense clouds of feedback, while the Culver side (with loops by Harm) resembles the sound of the engine of an ice breaker ship, which characterizes many of his releases. 2006 tape on Matching Head.

Download (removed after artist's request)

Harm ‎– Everything Turns Out To Be A Triangle Of Death tape

Harm was a (solo?) project of Samantha Davies, now a member of many well-known BM-noise band. I have already posted a compilation featuring a Harm track, possibly from her/their first demo The Dye From The Dresses of the Drowned Women (which I hope someone will eventually share). As with that track, this tape is absolutely some of the best drone to have ever been recorded, immensely dark, dense and deafening, easily rivaling early Sunn O))) or the Earth 2 for the throne of guitar drone, but without the decidedly metal approach. This is definitely a must listen. 2006 tape on Matching Head.

Download (removed after artist's request)

Oppenheimer (Culver/Wrest/Charles Dexter Ward/Xazzaz project)

Oppenheimer is one of the many groups in which Lee Stokoe of the almighty beacon of deep drone Culver and Matching Head Tapes plays. Also playing are Jamie Stewart of Wrest and Satanhartalt (whose works will one day be covered here), Jerome Smith of Charles Dexter Ward, Female Borstal (also including Lee!) and Haikai No Ku, and Mike Simpson of the amazing Xazzaz, also of Satanhartalt and Molotov Productions. All these guys are contributors to the small but powerful North England underground noise/drone scene. Here, though, they play something slightly different, showcasing a deafening but highly rhythmic type of skronk/noise rock, which is heavily influenced by the motorik style as well as containing some surprisingly rock 'n' roll parts, especially in the 2015 release. As obvious in the liner notes, instrument duties are exchanged among the band members. Worth checking out.

2012 CD-R (Molotov Productions)

 

Download

2014 CD-R (Molotov Productions)

 

Download 


 2014 tape (Matching Head)



Download (removed after artist's request)

2015 CD-R (Molotov Productions)



Here they are aided by Dean Glaister of drone monks RYN.

Download

Culver & Waz Hoola - Maps of War tape

I haven't posted any Culver for quite some time, so what better opportunity than to couple it with the Waz Hoola post? True to his long-standing tradition of making collaboration releases with other drone artists, here Lee Stokoe has worked with Waz Hoola on creating a tape that is not dominated by one's or the other's style. Not exactly typical of Culver's predominantly drone wall catalogue, this is among Culver's more subtle releases (which are not a few, though!) but also contains the throbbing bass drone found in the Waz Hoola cdr-s prior to Multiply Reality By Infinity, whereas they explore new ground especially in the second track with the inclusion of a SUPERB hypnotic and sparse drone tone in the background of the throbbing bass that sounds like the humming of a machine forgotten in an Antarctic research station. Top-notch! 2009 tape on the majestic Matching Head tape label.

Download (removed after artist's request)

Skullflower ‎– Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch To Die

An agonizing trudge through blizzards of hissing feedback. With the line-up consisting of Matthew Bower and Lee Stokoe of Culver, this is Skullflower at its most mystical. One side is live, the other is studio. 2008 tape on Lee Stokoe's amazing label Matching Head.

Download

Culver/Karst - Peach Volcano

Another tape in the "Volcano" Culver/Karst collab series. This one sounds quite subtler and quieter somewhat.  2009, Matching Head.

Download (removed after artist's request)

For the rest of the "Volcano" releases:

Blood Volcano: Here

Quarter Mile Volcano: Bleak Bliss

Mile High Volcano: Bleak Bliss

Karst

As already said, Karst is the drone project of George Proctor of Turgid Animal recs, Murder Book and Mutant Ape. No Prose cdr was released in 2008 on Phage Tapes.

Download



Sinking Sand tape, released in 2007 on Matching Head. This is much noisier than usual Karst stuff.

Download

For more Karst look elsewhere here, as well in Bleak Bliss.