Tetsuo - The sound of Neo-Paris.

Tetsuo – Eternal Respect. – cdr – self released. – 2019.

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01 Access [13’07’’]

02 Levels [10’54’’]

03 Eternal Respect [13’14’’]

Tetsuo is a new project by French artist Julien Skrobek, who is responsible for Abysse amongst many other projects. These are Hardware live-sets that he tends to favour, often in front of a small audience.

Years ago, before I moved area, I used to catch the tram home at night. I would always pass by this terraced house as I walked home from my stop. It looked perfectly normal; nice nets, clean front wall space, painted window frames, curtains and ceramic ornaments in the window. Upstairs there would always be a dim blue light in the front bedroom and a slow techno beat could always be heard at night, not much else ever accompanied it. It was never at an offensive volume; the sound could be heard slightly, travelling out of the window into the warm night air. It was beautiful, I always wanted to knock on the door and ask what was playing. Were they playing minimal Techno or making it? This went on for a few years until the beat never came back; did they move on, stop, pass away, I’ll never know? It wasn’t uncommon to have people making or playing electronic sounds in their houses in this area, there was just something alluring about this one.

I mentioned Abysse earlier, because Tetsuo treads the same noise/warped techno no man’s land. I often wonder if there are any direct contemporaries to the project. It reminds me slightly of Abysse, with a bit of subtle aggression added to the mix. It also takes me back to the noises that came out of the small house’s window. But this has slight noise and delicate wall properties that make it very interesting to me. This is a subtle juxtaposition of slow beat, distorted crackle and high-pitched feedback - it’s gentle but simmers away. The middle track uses odd repetitive laser like sounds, high pitched feedback and simmering distortion to about the maximum (or perhaps beyond) acceptable levels of repetition. The last set is just a repeated single beat that resonate over a distorted under base, the beat echoes on it and becomes the central focus whilst stuff goes off in the background. By this point the boundaries of repetition were crossed ages ago, I had to stay in the zone with the work.

What I like about this work is it is typical Skrobek work of the present day in that it’s released in tiny runs, content to be solely in his own odd thing that doesn’t really sound like anyone else. The cover photo of flats looks great and appeals to me greatly. I like what I’m hearing and truly love the wilful obscurity.

Choppy Noodles 2019. 

Putrescent Tapes.

Putrescent Tapes Overview.

Putrescent Tapes BandCamp - https://putrescenttapes.bandcamp.com/

Putrescent Bigcartel - https://putrescenttapes.bigcartel.com/

Putrescent tapes have been active for around a year with their cassette releases mostly dating from 2018. They’re based in Erie Pennsylvania and exist to release the work by a guy known as JB through his Dagger and Retroactive Jealousy projects. Other projects released on the label include Burial Weavings, Sergeant Cortez, Systems, Twin Aperture, Reaper, Grain Death and splits with Marion and Conditioned. This overview will cover four JB works, which are three Dagger recordings and one is a Retroactive Jealousy tape.

Retroactive Jealousy – Long Soft Next for Temporary Exclusivity. – Cassette - (2018)

This is a powerfully themed recording; its subject matter is the 2014 suicide of 19-year-old Alyssa Funke: a college girl who appeared on a Porn Website to raise money for her college funds. She’d done this under a different name yet was subsequently trolled online by ex-high school classmates who’d managed to find out. She’d struggled with bullying throughout school and killed herself in 2014 as a result of what happened when she’d done the video. It comes with images of Funke on the cover and in the insert; the insert quotes her Twitter account.

It delivers very Harsh Power electronics, that partially use HNWall distortion to mask the vocals, which appear to be part commentary and what I believe is sound recording of the Funke online video? There is aggressive use of sharp noise to push the PE methods through the wall, it makes for an intense, violent recoding that seems to combine the sex video and references towards the suicide.

The theme raises immediate questions, were the people who trolled her users of porn themselves or bigots? Does the recording see her in a critical light or as a person? Research told me a lot more about her as a person, the recording kind of forced that. This is an impressive, ambiguous, powerful and intense recording. One to watch.

Dagger - A Blade in the Dark. – Cassette - (2018)

Dagger is the main HNW project that the label is centred around. It is the work of JB again, the releases often come in Clear sealed bags with sleeves, insert and tape. The classic black and white design is simple and effective.

Sonically, it’s very upfront and blasts away continuously. Things do go off in the background frequently but are unidentifiable due to the intensity of the wall noise that’s made. The distortion does pulsate but delivers a consistent wall until it starts to use Harsh Noise scraping starts to parallel the wall and shift the continuity a lot and shift the listeners attention. I feel the wall liquifies slightly after the main passages of scraping go. The scaping returns to further disrupt the wall’s continuity. Cut up vocal samples and piano noise bring it all into random noise; allowing things to crash and die.

Dagger – Cosa avete fatto a Solange? – Cassette - (2018) – Limited to 20 copies.

Cosa avete fatto a Solange? Is themed around the 1972 Massimo Dallamano film of the same name. The titles – Man with a Knife and Last Member of the Sex Club are linked to the. It begins with sampled dialogue from the film which is then flooded by a distorted, crackling wall of static. I like this wall more than the one in A Blade in the Dark, it’s dropping and failing keeps my attention. As vocal roars rise and backing sounds become prominent, this makes for an impressive shift in sound. Both tracks are good walls of noise.

Dagger/Conditioned – Split. - Cassette (2018)

The Dagger contribution ‘Buried Alive’ uses a more chopped up noise, a hum of feedback goes off in the back ground while the wall fails to tune in. The Dagger side of this split continually splutters itself to death with static blasts and hiss. Buried Alive changes speed and doesn’t stays in one place too long. This is a strong display of assaultive, anonymous harsh noise. This is very different to the usual walls the project creates.

The Conditioned tracks use a more traditional HNW approach. Sampled dialogue begins Budd/Intro as a booming wall of distortion rises. It appears to be cut into shorter tracks. Weight is more splattering in contrast to the eruption of the opener. Strangers contrasts more feedback and drone orientated noise with wall splatters trying to make an entrance, shifting the dynamic considerably. Strangers becomes more expansive as it progresses, resonating massively. Systems slowly comes to life with a fractured wall that keeps dying off. - - - - - is way more assaultive with wall and hissing industrial noise leading to an outro that simmers in murky, muddy territory before exploding into a massive wall, creating a dramatic climax. The Conditioned side is wide and varied.

This is a good start in the labels first year. Putrescent boasts some strong recordings. The Dagger wall material is good, the Retroactive Jealousy release is great. The visual aesthetic is good. I’m interested to see if Putrescent will still exist in four years, will it have been a passing phase like a lot of labels can be or will it have expanded on these strong beginnings?

Choppy Noodles 2019

Institution D.O.L.

Institution D.O.L. – Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World – 2019. Torm ENT CD/LP

https://www.facebook.com/institutiondolofficial/

For a long period of time Institution D.O.L. was the solo project of Barbie B, however he is now joined by Meta Dolor. Our Love Can Destroy this Whole Fucking World is the 8^th Institution D.O.L. album. It was recorded in Italy, Germany and Austria, Institution D.O.L. has been actively releasing albums since 1999 and is based in Austria.

The sense of occasion built by the intro gives me the sense this is going to be something special. I’m reminded of the opening ceremony in the film Eyes Wide Shut before things get down and dirty. As the noisier tracks kick in and expansive sense of space is created, the vocals continually shift from the distant background to being more foregrounded. This space and depth are maintained throughout and the work does play on the stage that this creates. It’s very effective as you’re forced to follow the sound wherever it goes, you can’t passively listen.

There are a lot of muddy, hellish tracks on the album that stand as good exploration of more threatening, brooding sounds. This leads to one of the main strengths of the album, which is the instrumentation and harmony that seems to shine through the blistering rage - it appears in the form of keyboard drones and piano melodies. Another strength is the tension between noise and melody that is formed which balances precariously, intensifying the works’ drama as that balance sways. When the melody does come through this, it’s impressive.

The vocals rage away, at times they are very tortured and becomes pleading and desperate, pushing further intensity into the album. Tracks generally flows well, In Dust and Depth disrupts this, as it works too differently to the other tracks and breaks the continuity. In contrast, the longer final title track really plays to all the projects strengths, adding an epic finale to the album.  The album does mix Industrial, Dark ambient, Death Industrial/Power Electronics methods to good effect, breaking down into something else way beyond its descriptions, continually pushing beyond its own limits - thus making for good work.

Choppy Noodles 2019.

Cheap Food Records and Research Laboratories.

Brighton based Cheap Food Records and their parent label Research Laboratories have been releasing experimental noise cassettes and records since 2011. Thomas Laroche is the main man behind both labels: he has worked with Vagina Dentata Organ and Kommissar Hjuler und Frau and actively recording and releasing his own work since 2012. Other artists released on the label include Sexton Ming, The New Blockaders, Evil Moisture and Active Denial. This review includes a batch of recent cassette tapes from 2018-19.

Rotting Shrine – Do You Believe in God? – Cheap Food Records – Cassette - http://researchlaboratories.tumblr.com/

Rotting Shrine is a Thomas Laroche Project, there have been two Rotting Shrine releases on Cheap Food, a self titled tape and this one ‘Do You Believe in God?’ Themed on the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre. It seems to focus on one of the two killers - Dylan Bennet Klebold, the cover image is also of Klebold. This is a short release with a recording of a woman talking about her relationship with religion and joining a Nun convent. As the dialogue unfolds, static noise that is made to sound like possibly gun fire combats the dialogue. Both compete for dominance over the recording. Background reading about the subject matter intensifies this massively. Do You Believe in God is short, sharp and not very sweet?  An effective, impressive tape.

Thomas Laroche – Bacteria Community – Research Laboratories – Cassette limited edition of 25 - http://researchlaboratories.tumblr.com/

The album tunes itself into blasts of noise and seems to use the noise tuning method, as if shifting rapidly from frequency to frequency. The noise is sharp and harsh, music occurs in the background, music of an older age. I am unsure of the conceptual intention, is it tackling rest homes; old age or building a time warp of sorts through the noise? Either way it makes for a haunted noise recording. Like the Rotting Shrine release the noise seems to interrupt and disrupt. A strong recording.

Concrete Emptiness – Le Temps Detruit Tout – Cheap Food Records – Cassette - http://researchlaboratories.tumblr.com/

Concrete Emptiness is a Harsh Noise Wall project on Cheap Food; this is their first release. This displays a warm crackle with deep backing resonance.  It gives a good tunnel blast of noise, that falters out towards the end. Le Temps Detruit Tout (time destroys everything) is based on the works of Gaspar Noé pointing towards his 2002 film Irréversible and the cover depicts the rape scene in the said film that caused a lot of controversy. This is the bleakest recording of the three.

Many of the recordings are enhanced by background reading while listening to them. In contrast Bacteria Community stands alone as an impressive recording. Both labels have delivered raw, conceptually engaging and consistently strong works. Go forth and knock yourselves out.

Choppy Noodles 2019.

Bagman and Stark.

Having reviewed most of Steve Bagman’s previous STARK releases, except the elusive first very limited release, this naturally led me towards his main body of work as Bagman, this work is more complex than it at first appears. In order to look at the different sides of the project, this overview covers all the work I recently received off Steve. Based in the UK, Bagman has been prolifically releasing material since 2008.

Bagman – For Kenneth Mckenna. Crucial Blast – reissued 2014 – cassette – originally released in 2008 – Infernal 021. www.crucialblast.net

Kenneth Mckenna continues the tradition of British Serial Killer themed Power Electronics releases, the brief info that can be found on him online, makes for some vile, disturbing reading to a point where I questioned if he was a fictional character. His record lists some hideous crimes, the knowledge of that weighs heavily on the recording. As an album, this revels in low end, bass heavy sounds, this allows for sharper pitched noises to perform effectively. The walls of deep crackle are frequently abused by the sharper sounds. The muffled vocals sound tortured and agonised. As the lower end noise begins to dominate it creates distance in parts of the album, so that it isn’t all direct assault. These methods seem to pave the way for STARK to happen in later years. As the album progresses, the vocals get cut up by choppier passages of sound turning it into an abstract, agonised noise. Further on, the noise seems to be deliberately dying in parts making it reek of death and despair. This was the second Bagman recording, an extreme start.

Bagman – Project for Tool – 412Recordings – CDR – 2010 – 412R038 – Amitriptyline edition 20/50. 

This is a more rounded release, it varies things a lot before they can begin to get formulaic. Project for Tool begins with an excerpt of distorted narrative which is then interrupted with insane, jagged, electronic noise that demonstrates higher levels of sharp frequency abuse as melancholic drones resonate in the background. There are some impressive combinations of arching noise, news reports and Bagman’s distorted vocals – this forms a narrative, its soundtrack and a response. Thing do get very murky and atmospheric in parts, others are purely focused on full frontal assault, some tracks again sound like they are physically dying as they simmer down. As earlier Bagman material goes this does set a higher bar for future recordings.

Bagman – One Master – CDR – Self Released – Purge Electronics - 2014. PURGE.ELECTRONICS@GMAIL.COM

This self-released recording reads as recorded sordid sex acts over ultra-violent Power Electronics abuse (both), it goes into the more insane, sicker Bagman territory straight away. One Master is an immediate, confident demonstration of rapid vortexes of noise layered by further aggressive sounds. The vocal narrative isn’t always coherent, but when it is - it’s a man and woman in an act of (male) sexual domination. The massively expansive keyboards also seem to nod towards his STARK project a lot, but the Sex is very Bagman. When I listen, I am equally intrigued and equally repulsed? I can’t help but picture what vocals I can make out; I’m forced to engage with the work in a shifting way between narrative and sound. The noise adds fantasy into the reality, the metal abuse creates and enhances pain. The massive drones caused by synthesizers are wide and impressive. One Master shifts the main intensity between narrative, noise and drone repeatedly and effectively. This is a great piece of DIY nastiness made from Bagman’s extensive UK porn collection creating a massive sounding, horrible, fuck off recording.

Bagman- The Nth Degree – CDR - Self Released – Purge Electronics – 2018. PURGE.ELECTRONICS@GMAIL.COM 

A huge sounding, one track release that is themed around Francis Bacon, with images reflecting that. This shares the same huge general sound as ‘One Master’ but is also a shorter, choppier recording allowing the noise to be the central focus. The sharper noise seems to continually batter and dominate a wall of distortion. Interruptions of shifting noise are frequent, it isn’t allowed to flow. This dies off as the vocal enters, incoherent rage pushes itself to abstraction; as this dies off, it allows for the noise to rebuild. I question did he do this in one session? Is this the best of several sessions? This is the strongest release of the bunch, very harsh and presented nicely in a Jewel case. What we have here is Bagman at his relentless, harsh best; with the noise going off into further extremes of violent abstract territory. This is a fully immersed work where performer and equipment are one; the best, fully realised Bagman recording by far.

STARK – Caveat Emptor – Cassette – 2018 – OFR – 026. http://obsessivefundamentalrealism.blogspot.com/

Caveat emptor is a Latin term that means "let the buyer beware."

https://consumer.findlaw.com

Caveat Emptor hints at a dark past and present forging a tormented, aggressive outburst of sonic violence. The sleeve notes point towards controversial children’s author Judith Vigna, the artwork depicts cancer and domestic violence. Stark doesn’t seem to adopt ‘outside’ themes like Bagman can, I get the impression Stark is purely personal.  Everything dies down to incoherent dialogue that becomes a ranting noise that dances with the throbbing synth sounds. This is the simmering territory in which Stark truly dominates. The latter tracks shift into pulsating, meditations of noise that serve as the basis for a ranted sermon. On a physical level Caveat Emptor part plays with traditional early Power Electronics sounds in order to grab it and drop things down into the murkiness where the project thrives and truly leads. Caveat Emptor is an effective, psychologically disturbing cassette. STARK has produced a triumph of releases have been consistently strong.

STARK is clearly personal, and excels in a murkier, subtle Power Electronics territory. STARK was immediately developed, I believe the project was being developed for ages in the BAGround prior to releasing. The Bagman work took longer to mature and is now very up there in raw noise/PE terms and seems to push new ways to disturb and attack. I do believe that as a project it isn’t as spontaneous as Steve claims, strong conceptual pre-planning is often apparent; it is woven into a lot of the work. It makes the listener think when engaged, it constantly raises questions; impressions of it seem to change and shift, which is the case with all great Power Electronics. The recent releases are far stronger than the earlier material. They are a lot more relentless and more effectively direct in their assault when needs be. Furthermore, STARK seems to be a modern PE project, it is very in the now, of today, in contrast Bagman was tied to the past like the early Sutcliffe Judgend, COME Org and Broken Flag early days in its infancy but then seemed obsessed with continually finding new ways to grow, move forwards, improve and develop.

Choppy Noodles 2019