Helena Ford appreciation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helena Ford is a Chicago-based transgender musician whose work expands all over drone, improv, dungeon synth, dark ambient, industrial noise, electroacoustic, and microtonal deep listening ambient. Much of the themes on which she has based her music revolves around gender dysphoria, hormone replacement and psychotherapy. Really, her recordings are so multifaceted you should just devote two or three days listening to the whole shit, which is also free on her bandcamp here, but I'm just going to pick a few which really impressed the shit out of me. Also loving the corpsepaint and the Burzum-like skullcrasher bat thingy, guess Varg would be really pissed at! Links on titles. Goes without saying that this blog upholds difference and the challenge of gender/sex stereotypes along with fighting fascism, racism, capitalism, patriarchy and homophobia and is open to any non-binary/LGBTQI+-themed music that will be appealing to me.

Therapy Goals: revolving around psych/Eastern scale guitar meanderings and full-on Sunn O))) like power drone.

The Human Veil - s/t: holy fucking shit dungeon synth and organ vespers-like goodness

Examinations in Minimalism & Transgender Musicality: weird alternation between sine waves, modular drone, mellotrons and deep listening ambient

Larsen Symphonique + Organ Works: microtonal drone, organ holiness and avant-garde drone.

Elegy for 1992: bro this is soooo good. She's taken figures from John Cage's prepared piano Sonatas and added huge reverb to it.

Pieces for Electric Bass, Baritone, and Guitar: can't say how much I'm loving this, especially the second baritone track. Get it. Now. It's free.

Hemicrania: ambient noise wall discordant bliss.

Music for Bows and Rosin: this sounds quite a bit like post-reformation Skullflower, especially around the period Lee Stokoe was in. Great.

Maurizio Bianchi – Tavola Anatomica X

 

 I think that MB is getting increasingly hit or miss, but this is industrially on spot. Very lo-fi and enveloping guaranteed industrial noise ambient.

2019 cdr on Tavole Anatomiche.

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Clock DVA - Deep Floor

 

This is the vinyl repress of the 1979 cassette Clock DVA did as part of the Horology-DVAtion Vinyl-on-Demand box set. It is easily one of the most unsettling examples of early industrial, perhaps more consistently creepy than anything Throbbing Gristle ever did, and with added Ruth White-like synth/narration influences, coming straight from evil giallo films. As with the best Clock DVA (for example Buried Dreams), it is suffocating, murky and makes you glance behind your back waiting to see a prowler. In fact, it surprises me to hear how much recent Wolf Eyes (after 2012) have carried the torch of this sound, hoping that some people will rediscover this. 1979 tape on DVAtion, 2012 vinyl on Vinyl-on-demand.

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Relay For Death - Natural Incapacity

 

The Spikula sisters are responsible for two of the most gruesome and bleak death industrial recordings of the previous decade, Birth of an Older Much Uglier Christ and They're Heating Up The Ovens, Get the Fuck Out Now. After about six or seven years and out of the blue they made two new recordings, which I only caught wind of in 2020. This is a double cd made of processed field recordings of sound pollution in California, and is definitely worthy of some of Maurizio Bianchi's more industrial wall-ish recordings. More than two hours of industrial deafening nothingness. 2016 2 X cd on Helen Scarsdale Agency.

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Maurizio Bianchi, Land Use, Pharmakustik - Radioked

Yet another collaboration between MB and Land Use and Pharmakustik emitting sinister industrial drone substances. 2018 self-released CDR.

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Maurizio Bianchi ‎– R.C.E. cd

Deafening industrial clanks and hazy synth illusions by the one and only. 2006 cd on Simple Logic Records.

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Anguish - Anguish

Crazy collaboration between MC Dalek and Mike Mare of Dalek, Mats Gustafsson and Fire!'s drummer Andreas Werllin and Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust, giving an expanded sense in the 2000s collaborations between Faust and Dalek. This is dirgy and super-dark and combines the best of Dalek's industrial/ambient hip hop, Faust's motorik psychedelia and the free jazz madness of Fire! and Gustafsson's sax torture. 2018 cd on RareNoise Records.

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Stefan Jaworzyn ‎– Eaten Away By Shadows

Impressive early experiments by master guitar torturer Stefan Jaworzyn dating from 1982-1983. Guitar noise, bleak industrial with the awesome murk of early Throbbing Gristle and the metal banging of early SPK. Must hear insight into the starting world of one of the innovators of noise music. 2013 on Shock.

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Mudguts - Sabrina Fourtyfives tape

Yet another collaborative project of Lee Stokoe (Culver), in which he is joined by Scott McKeating of Black Leather Cop and Bells Hill Records. Aside from the expected dense deep drone that only Stokoe can deliver, there's some melancholy misery, especially in the last track "Pretty Slipping," which evokes a feeling of urban loneliness and of feeling lost in the maze of grey concrete and mobile phone screens. In fact as I now listen to it and feel extremely tired and sleepy it creates a very hopeless feeling that reminds me of the most emotionally unbearable track I've heard, Coil's "Halliwell Hammers." 2016 tape on Invisible City Records.

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Frans de Waard ‎– Klankschap 1999-2005 cd

The mastermind of Kapotte Muziek offering manipulations of field recordings resulting in various styles from industrial to improvised electronics and then to noise. 2005 cd on zang:

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Kapotte Muziek ‎– The Malevolent Ear CD

Incredibly deep and hypnotic industrial noise by the legendary Dutch group Kapotte Muziek, with intermittent varying styles of musique concrète, fried electronics, drone, and even dark ambient. I really really like this album. 1995 cd on Red Stream.

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Xqui - Timepieces/Settlers EPs

After the feverish Capitulate full-length cd earlier this year, Xqui returns with more subterranean manipulated sonicscapes. My description of his music as "Lovecraftian horror for urban landscapes" continues here; subdued dreamy and unsettling passages in undeground tunnels is always what comes to my mind when I hear his stuff, and while I was hearing "Biff" from his latest EP Settlers, I couldn't help but remember when I was playing maniacally Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth, and thought how much these tracks would fit that awesome game, (Which reminds me to ask, has anyone played the new Call of Cthulhu game? Is it worth?), or they could as well have been released by the master label of dark ambient in the late 1990s and early 200s, Roger Karmanik's Cold Meat Industry.

Both Settlers and Timepieces are available for free on Xqui's bandcamp, so enjoy them, and why not, help the artist continue his awesome job. Plus, I notices a new track from an EP due out in May called "Monatomic," which mixes the dark ambient style with a slightly 1980's experimental industrial style such as that of the very early Coil or Current 93 ritualistic feel (or even with SPK's Zamia Lehmanni), with an amazing reverb feel. Really excited for this new EP!

Throbbing Gristle - Heathen Earth remastered & reissued

This is the Throbbing Gristle album that really lives up to their musical reputation of being the bleakest group of their time. I'd be brave enough to say that up till that point every album of theirs, including DOA had some lighter moments that took something away from the industrial ominousness they promised and strove for. But in this live recording in front of their friends, everything is appropriately horrid, with the highlights being a gruesome version of "Six Six Sixties" from 20 Jazz Funk Greats and an amazing instrumental rendition of "Something Came Over Me." The second cd of the reissue features various live recordings of songs that have already appeared in the TG24. This is the 2018 Mute remastered re-release of the original 1980 album.

Disc 1
Disc 2 (Bonus)

Charles Barabé / Howl Of The Lacerated / Andrew Paine / Toucan Lifecycle ‎– 4-way split tape

4-way split tape featuring excellent hypnagogic psychedelic ambient by Charles Barabé (who I'll definitely explore more), horror industrial in the vein of early Throbbing Gristle focused on howling guitar noises and creepy synths by Howl Of The Lacerated (side project of Jamie Azzopardi, boss of the label putting this out), fizzy space psychedelic electronics by Andrew Paine (reminding a little bit of Ashtray Navigations in a live environment, if you've ever seen them in the act), and blissful psychedelic synthetic ambient by Toucan Lifestyle. Nice! 2017 tape on Shack In The Barley Productions.

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Legendary Pink Dots ‎– Any Day Now cd

A legendary album by the Legendary Pink Dots, and a peak of the 1980s experimental synth music, with diverse cuts, from psychedelic electronic epics like "Casting The Runes" to jazz pop-noir masterpiece "A Strychnine Kiss" and baroque-tango ("The Gallery) to almost-progressive rock ("Waiting For the Cloud"). Could this be the bastard child of early Coil-meets-Peter-Gabriel-era-Genesis? It shouldn't be forgotten that Edward Ka-spel makes a stellar vocal performance on this album; he is also a great performer, as evidenced in the 2010 gig which I attended that was mindblowing. This is the original cd issue (minus the 3 bonus tracks) that was released in 1988 by

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Clock DVA - Buried Dreams LP

Definitely the crowning achievement not only of Adi Newton working under the moniker Clock DVA (he's also had other peaks in his career such as the Psychophysicist album that is coming up next), but of whatever could be called rhythmic industrial, EBM or whatever. It is a horrifyingly dark and menacing album: no light emerges here. There is a totally perverted atmosphere, reflected also in the lyrics/liner notes which refer to De Sade (but there's also a political aspect with "The Hacker"). This was one of my earliest forays into experimental/electronic music as a teenager of 15, I was scared shitless when I first listened to it, and man, it still gives me shivers. "The Reign" is so fucking scary, I'm writing this thing listening to it right now in the dark with only a small lamp in order not to wake up my baby son and my hair is standing right up there. I've read that the cd remasters suck sound-wise, but dear readers, this rip is straight from the vinyl, so devour this album with abandon. 1989 LP on Interfisch Records/Wax Trax!

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Merzbow & Kapotte Muziek - Works 1987-1993 3Xcd

A greatly packaged compilation spanning collaborations between Merzbow and Kapotte Muziek in the late 1980s and early 1990s, featuring tracks by both outfits working together, plus standalone tracks by Merzbow working on existing recorded material by both, and the other way round (check out the details here). Given the time when this was recorded, this has a very fresh edge and a forward-thinking outlook, with elements of Merzbow-patented harsh noise, musique concrète, industrial, ambient lulling, and even hints of deadening death industrial! A definite must listen. 2012 3 X CD box set on Korm Plastics.

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Gene Depression - Decom. Tremens tape

British duo creating gritty industrial noise mainly generated by tortured voices, as well as loops and pedals. Old-school TG and Genesis P-Orridge feeling kinda creeping somewhere underneath. 2015 tape on Beartown Records.

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Halo - Body Of Light

Second Relapse album for Australian industrial/noise/sludge duo Halo after the amazing Guattari, and sadly their last release, as they ceased to exist after a series of aborted recordings that they didn't consider satisfactory. The sound is somewhat less chaotic than Guattari and their previous self-released albums, but at the same time sounds more crushing in its more focused approach, making their early Swans and Godflesh influences more prominent (especially in Filling The Empty Spaces With Cash, which could have been a song on Young God). Oppressive music at its best. 2003 cd on Relapse.

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Emaciator - Possessive tape

Emaciator proves that sleep can be a horrible experience. Hypnotic, dark and scuzzy synth imdustrial noise in the vein of early Maurizio Bianchi that is guaranteed to put you to sleep and then terrify you. 2006 tape on Hanson.

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