Active Denial

Active Denial – S/T – Cheap Food Records – Cassette – Limited Edition of 50 - 2018.

Website http://researchlaboratories.tumblr.com/

Psalm.

Smoke.

Champagne.

Active Denial are a Brighton based noise duo of vocalist Adam Apple and soundman Bucorvus Leadbeater; this is their debut three track tape recorded live in the Summer of Hate 2017. 

The cassette looks like an early Con-Dom or Grey Wolves tape, it’s black text on white card, the sound is raw, it lacks the overly sharp production of a lot of modern Power Electronics which endears me to it immediately. To be honest when the project contacted me out of the blue via my FB page, I had a gut feeling this was going to be something special.

Psalm begins with a lot of chuffing repetition whilst sharp noise is pitched over this, Adam Apple rants with increasing anger, this never seems to end or loose momentum. Holy chants wave calm over everything until electronic noise interferes to make way for vocal samples telling everyone that they’re shit. It is then everything explodes, this time the use of noise is far more manic and assaultive. The vocal explodes in temper cursing at the sample, hating it repeatedly. Smoke or Champagne is more of a fight than an abstract passage of sound. The noise seems to antagonise both, making this a three-way assault.

This is a strong debut for the sheer brutality of the given performance, it’s very Street PE, it doesn’t seem to be a gear fest. It bears parallels of stripped back rawness to Scum FC, obviously different in content for sure, it’s way more continually switching between inward self to outward self. But it is a brief burst of raw, unpolished explosive, sonic energy. This is undoubtedly my favourite PE/Industrial recording of 2018. Active Denial you’re it until I find something better.

Choppy Noodles 2018.

In Search of Death - III

In Search of Death - III – Death Continues Records – DCRCD007 – CD – Belgium – 2015.

https://en-gb.facebook.com/deathcontinuesrecords/

10 Untitled Tracks.

I feel lucky to have seen In Search of Death play live at Henoeuma Malediction in 2015, I was impressed with what I’d seen, Xavier H (aka In Search of Death) gave a good performance that set the bar high as the start of a stylistically mixed line-up that night. The performance used huge arching noises and samples to build a large, atmospheric sphere of noise. Some recent reviews that I had done of a former Death Continues-Artist Nekrofellatio led to contact with Death Continues and boss Xavier H who gave me to the chance to obtain files of his project’s album III and hear them. I liked what I’d previously seen all those years ago and was keen to do a review of III. 

III was originally recorded in 2003 and it was finally released 12 years later in 2015. There is a new track called Anapath on the recent Death Continues compilation – Certified Dead. For review purposes, this album will be broken down track by track.

Untitled 1. Slow ambient, desolate, ominous build up.

Untitled 2. Ruthless, looped Industrial repetition forms a rhythm. Sampled dialogue eventually overlays this.

Untitled 3. Familiar ambient soundscapes establish themselves as synth noises begin to  murmur in the background. Metal bashing non-rhythms shatter the flow of things to provide an aggressive lead. Stuttered electronics rise and fall throughout the work until paralleled by distant melody; maybe a memory that is fading.

Untitled 4. Whippy sweeping sounds form a base for rude blasts of distortion. A whistled tune and repeated vocal sample build a four-source passage of sound.

Untitled 5. Noise explosions and gun fire become a rhythmic wall of war. I found myself being drawn into the background sounds of this sonic explosion. It becomes more unified as it progresses until it begins to break down.

Untitled 6. Further repetition cut into by waves of distortion. This builds into an urgent slamming rhythm.

Untitled 7. An impressive, militaristic sense of drama, scope and ceremony. Awesome use of overlaid synthesizers too. Vocal samples force the track to become a ritual.

Untitled 8 – Clattering loops, waves of distortion, samples enter to an build intense, anxious urgent track.

Untitled 9 – Suspenseful keys and drum beats wind things down to slow pace as waves of distortion maintain the edge. Repetition remains.

Untitled 10. Nauseous loops as Armageddon returns.

The album favours aggressive repetition on most tracks and it will often work different sourced sounds around this. It wasn’t as ‘Death Industrial’ as I thought it may be, it was a lot more varied in sound. It is ruthless and angry in its’ constant repetition. There are some clever uses of melody, entwined into the sampled rhythms. The album varies itself by allowing tracks to either function as narratives or sources that play off each other or to gradually blend sources together to form a new whole sound. There is also a strong, mixed palette of sound sources used throughout: method is the key that ties things together. This is a collection of solid ideas and a massive push towards a realisation of the self through punishing sound.

My review echoes that of Kate MacDonald’s Heathen Harvest review of this album in that I do want to hear more and see where this project goes. This portfolio of ideas points towards many possibilities, I question if I have missed any obvious pointers to that direction? Either way, a strong debut album.

Choppy Noodles 2018.