The Gerogerigegege - Uguisudani Apocalypse

Juntaro becoming increasingly idiosyncratic and unpredictable with each new Gero release, here playing sperm-dripping funk/lounge jazz/cheesy Japanese pop and an out-of-the-blue crust metal anthem in the middle! 2019 LP on The Trilogy Tapes.

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Controlled Death (Masonna)

Controlled Death is the recent alter-ego of Maso Yamazaki/Masonna. After a few years of seeming silence, he has returned both with his dayjob project, but more frequently under the Controlled Death moniker, playing heavy death industrial, similar in perversion to Atrax Morgue, with dark ambient, harsh noise and HNW undertones. Unsettling stuff. Here's a lazy summary of the releases I have managed to obtain, for all of you to make yourselves filthy with.

2020 - Death Entries 3 (on Dwid's Holy Terror)

2020 - Death Entries 2 (on Dwid's Holy Terror)
2020 - Beautiful Decomposition (on Total Black)
2020 - Death Entries 1 (on Dwid's Holy Terror)

2019 - Evil Discharge flexi 7" (on Oxen)
2019 - Black Lucifer  Rising (on Deathbed Tapes)
2019 - Black Scorpion Rising (on Deathbed Tapes) - one of the most threatening synth noises you will have ever heard
2019 - Journey Through A Dead Body/Deathwish Tapes 1-3 (on Urashima)
2019 - Ritualistic Mutilation In The Bloody Darkness (on Urashima)
2018 - Symphony For The Black Murder (on Urashima)

The Gerogerigegege - >(decrescendo)

New great LP by Juntaro, continuing his wild experimentations. This one has been influenced by a 1930s children's novel called Gauche The Cellist written by - overlooked during his lifetime - author Kenji Miyazawa. It has been adapted into an anime film by the unsurpassable Isao Takahata, and I haven't seen but now I must. The overall concept is that there is a mediocre cellist struggling to be accepted into his town's orchestra and he gets to improve with the aid of animals that speak to him and instruct him how to play. Juntaro recorded it using as his only instrument the hapi drum (a melodic percussive instrument which I was collecting money to buy years ago but I never did) and other outside sounds like cicadas, frogs, birds. The sounds are actually very soothing, with the hapi being barely heard at times, and the nature sounds being calming and entrancing. Certainly nothing we would expect from Juntaro, but highly recommended.

2019 tape release on Cav Empt, this is the 2020 LP rerelease by The Trilogy Tapes.

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Maurizio Bianchi ‎– B.O. Droni / Praisakustik

This recent MB release reminds me a little bit of his late-90s/early-00s return releases; there is a more ambient/synthy side, less dark but more ascending and slightly new-agey, but not in a cheesy way. Cool. 2018 2 X CDr on BeTon.

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Little Skull - Untitled

Electroacoustic drone/folk experimentations with the usual high quality of Dean Brown's Little Skull. 2009 cdr on Students Of Decay.

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Xqui - Microchasm / Recent Wormhole World releases: Robyn G Shiels & Steve Nolan - Sky Drew Near/ Mzungu - With Seasonal Affect/ Outside The Glitsch - Cartography / Jewels Of Shame - Negative Dialects / Quimper - Dejado

Xqui's fourth full-length came amidst a storm of other recordings he posted on his bandcamp during the quarantine. At first I thought that this would be his most structured releases due to some beats here and there, but it reveals itself as the exact opposite. It might not have the utterly Lovecraftian subterranean feel of other releases (apart from "Scale"), but it is one of the most psychedelic ones, at it reminds at times of Coil's mid-90s phase and even other mind-bending Coil-related projects such as The Threshold HouseBoys Choir and UnicaZürn, and it has some weird fuzzy beats that sound similar to old video games!

You can buy it for a very small price on bandcamp, and it's always a good idea to support his music.

Wormhole World is a label with which Xqui is closely related and it has released recently some quite nice music.

First is Sky Drew Near by Robyn G Shiels & Steve Nolan, which is a nice change from the label's usual abrasive electronics output, as it is a dark pop heartbroken music album with a touch of americana. I really liked this one.

With Seasonal Affect by mzungu is an adventurous attempt at wintry ambient with very beautiful frozen synth washes that you really must hear.

Cartography by Outside The Glitch is one of the best albums of 2020 so far. It is superb imposing ambient . It has all the best elements of Basinski and Robert Rich shaped in a very personal approach that I would dare say incorporates also elements of elemental/primordial beatless ambient techno. I see that the artist has also done other releases on Wormhole World which I will definitely give a listen to immediately. 

A slightly older release is Negative Dialects by Jewels Of Shame, some guy wanting to be shrouded in mystery, as most of his tracks are titled by date of recording, and they have all been recorded during the 2000s. There's some primitive horror noise/ dark ambient with a mostly crude sound and an unfinished feel to it, which I like, as it presents a non-linear and anti-closure/anti-perfection approach that I find interesting as in other artists such as J.G. Sparkes.

The last one of the recent lot that stood out is Dejado by Quimper, which is fun dark synth-pop/ hypnagogic electronica, like a more electronic/beat-y Ariel Pink with dark house music lurking somewhere in there...

As always, both Xqui and the Wormhole World label are very-hardworking and cool people that really deserve some support, so don't hesitate to pay some little cash to get these very nice musics.

The Nether Dawn With Little Skull ‎– A Dog's Hair Reverie

Collaboration between Dean Brown's Little Skull and Antony Milton's The Nether Dawn playing a lonely nightly desert guitar lament. 2007 cdr on Students Of Decay.

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