Ritual Chair Overview.

Ritual Chair – Brock Turner (Download, 2018) – Ashamed – (Download, Cassette, 2019).

https://ritualchair.bandcamp.com/

https://houseofruthinc.org/

A noise project based out of Pomona, CA. An ex-sorority girl who didn’t fit in, a girl who is trying to piece together how to move on through PTSD and depression.  Taken from Ritual Chair Facebook page.

I discovered Ritual Chair through a recommendation of her tape Ashamed on Facebook. This led me to the Bandcamp of the project that has a mass of Ritual Chair recordings to play and download, which lead me to the Brock Turner recording amongst others that she’s done.

Brock Turner – 2018. What’s effective in this recording is samples from the news coverage of the Brock Turner’s rape case are layered over noise. 20 minutes of action is the term Turner’s Father used in his reference for his son to the judge, that got him a reduced sentence of 6 months of which he only three months. The entire recording focusses on how Turner’s 20 Minutes of Action virtually ruined someone’s life, yet the defence turned this round claiming the incident ruined the rest of Turner’s life and his dreams rather than that of the victim? The use of noise throughout, creates tension and anxiety over the samples which emphasise the horror and effects of rape culture, white male privilege, Frat culture and flaws in the justice system.

The use of noise mocks and emphasises the words on the recording, the noise is the presence of the creator of Ritual Chair throughout. This highlights the hypocrisy and real-life horror of what happened. It demonstrates impressive use of Death Industrial noise; the drones are powerful. The infected hiss says plenty, it is a blade that rips open the law or society’s hypocrisy where rape is concerned and it is as hard hitting and effective as noise can get, this is a brilliant recording.

 The two titles of this years Ashamed cassette release are Rape and Assault. They are recordings of the artist (I assume) detailing two said events that happened in her life. Prior to this the narrative/vocals were tied in heavily with the noise to the point where it couldn’t easily be made out. On this the recording the narrative is dominant. The details of the Assault are steady and slightly distorted through crackling hiss. The horror of the events builds up gradually and details the grim sexism and sexual assault that happens in some people’s lives. It highlights the culture of guilt reversal.

Rape again uses narrative and no noise, it is entirely reliant on Ritual Chair’s spoken word. It highlights Rape through intoxication, blurred persuasion and the taking a condom off during sex without permission. The recording creates horror through description of real life events, it isn’t a character created, but a real person’s trauma and pain. The narrator questions herself, his actions, explains the aftermath, hopes for his death and so do I.

The direct nature of these and many recordings on the Ritual Chair Bandcamp are powerful and very personal. They highlight the results of the horror of some people and their actions. The use of noise on these two recordings is fairly minimal, it can be a lot busier on other recordings and vocals can be layered into the noise too. Here everything is precise and often well considered. Looking at the project’s Facebook, the live shows are well presented, punishing, intense rituals and they differ greatly each time. On one show a massive crescendo of noise is overtaken by dialogue, Ritual Chair comes from behind the equipment desk and gets right up to the audience. My main criticism is that leaving this project to the realms of Band Camp is like leaving something to the mercy of MySpace, I hope there will be more physical releases over time. The more I investigate this project, the more I’m blown away, is all I can say.

Choppy Noodles 2019.

Tetsuo - The sound of Neo-Paris.

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

Bandcamp

Facebook

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

Spermula Tribute - VOMIR, PUTA MALARIA, I, ETERNAL, 45.7872313, 9.4287895

Spermula Tribute -  VOMIR, PUTA MALARIA, I, ETERNAL,  45.7872313, 9.4287895 – 2018 – Skitnaste, Sept, 2018 – mp3 release 

1.       VOMIR – Spermula Split.

2.       Puta Malaria – Seed of the 70s.

3.       Puta Malaria – Retarded Jism Attack.

4.       Puta Malaria – Spunk Crush Blues.

5.       Puta Malaria – Get Down With the Semen.

6.       I,Eternal - Ce Sentiment Est Nouveau Pour Toi?

7.       45.7872313, 9.4287895 -Machinery 1.

8.       45.7872313, 9.4287895 – Machinery 2.

9.       45.7872313, 9.4287895 – Machinery 3.

As I was doing the pre-listening for this review, I felt slightly guilty; I listened to it without a black plastic bag on my head whilst VOMIR was playing. I hope this doesn’t make for an inaccurate review. I remember seeing VOMIR years ago in the UK and the audience were handed black plastic bags to wear on their heads during his set, whilst he stood in a corner, bag on head facing the wall. Whether he had some secret way of making noise or it was pre-recorded, I don’t know. On here the VOMIR wall is double functioning, one deep wall of distortion whilst a sharper mass of distortion bobs up and around it throughout. Dense and hypnotising.

The Puta Malaria tracks are violent, immediate and harsh. They come in four, short, sharp bursts; it is as if you are violent attacked in succession. They seem part industrial in background and violent Power Electronics upfront – a combo team of noise. There appears to be some sort of more savage up front noise which I am unsure if it is vocal based. All 4 tracks are insanely violent, different and very well delivered.

The I’Eternal track samples the film and is almost like a nightmare ambient passage made by failing noise that won’t stop trying. The track is brooding and nasty, it allows ambient qualities to pulsate for periods of time between attacks of sharp, nagging, abusive noise. The emergence of funky background soundtrack is amusing and admirable. I believe this may have been recorded as the film played, this is menacing and violent yet fun and quirky at the same time. 45.7872313, 9.4287895’s tracks are of a similar Industrial backed theme to Puta Malaria but do seem to have a more junk noise aesthetic showing through with a far less digital assault. They achieve similar levels of violence across 3 tracks intensified by some aggressive repetition.

The four mystery artists differ greatly, the work is tied together by coming from various factions of noise all themed to the Spermula film. Essentially Spermula tribute is all strong, making it a consistently good sex themed listen paying tribute to a forgotten masterpiece.

Choppy Noodles. 2018

https://skitnaste.bandcamp.com/

Empty Chalice overview.

Empty Chalice – Emerging is Submerging – The Evil. Industrial Ölocaust Recordings. 2017.

Track listing.

A1. Look Into My Eyes.

A2. Muffled Scream.

A3. Sidereal.

B1. Emerging is Submerging.

B2. Stolen Breaths and Destroyed Hope.

I was contacted on the blog recently by the project Empty Chalice off the strength of my Atrax Morgue review. This is an Italian project of Antoine A. He has done 5 releases as Empty Chalice and Gopota. This most recent album is Emerging is Submerging and this was recorded between 2015-17. 

It’s good to be approached by projects like this instead of buying and picking what I review, sets a challenge. So it stands as my first real review request. On first listen, Emerging has an immediate ethereal beauty with lots going off in the background. Massive, spacious atmospheres build up on ‘Muffled Scream’, ‘Sidereal’ juxtaposes grunting vocal noises and ethereal ambient sound. At first this track stands out as it feels slightly sullied compared to the others. This contrast appears in other parts of the album, particularly the more industrial Emerging is Submerging, which varies things with clear electronics. 

Throughout the album, I found myself focused on the background details and then suddenly pulling to the forefront of the sound - I was constantly emerged in its depths, It was as if I constantly descended and submerged through the album. Along with a subtle track variety and moments of beauty; these depths are the album’s main strengths. 

Empty Chalice – The Way is Called Black. Cvlminis Records - self one copy only release– 2015

Track Listing.

1.     This Way is called black (Evil Seeker).

2.     You knock on the cross.

3.     Nebel XX II MMXV.

4.     Distant Sun.

5.     Ibex.

6.     Blue Instill.

7.     Wieviel Bist du Bereit zum Sterben?

Emerging is Submerging stands in massive contrast to the sonic violence of the previous Chalice recording from 2015 – The Way is called Black. The Way begins quite dreamily but soon grows into some very raw assaults of noise, particularly ‘You Knock the Cross’ which is violent electronic insanity, effective through its' minimal palette of sound. The walls static of noise and looped repetition made me think that Bandcamp had hit a glitch. 

Combative walls of noise are toyed with to form Nebel, continuing the album’s primitive assault. Radiating drones are rudely interrupted by sharp frequencies in Distant Sun before Ibex goes insane. Rather than the traditional radiating keyboards of Distant Sun, Ibex contains piercing, progressive scales of noise within which the volume is fucked with to create a spewing radiation of noise. Blue Instill goes off the scale. This demonstrates tracks feeding off and progressing on from each other. The final track Wieviel Bist is like a slow death, unkindly winding things downto an end.

The two albums stand in contrast to each other; Submerging’s ambient beauty, and Black's radiating violence; I truly and equally loved both approaches. Sonically both albums work brilliantly. This is an intelligent, impressive project that has set my Sunday off to a good start. Thanks.

Choppy Noodles 2017

Links:

Bandcamp 

Industrial Ölocaust Recordings

Facebook

Soundcloud