1208 North Fuller Ave Apt 1: Edge of Decay

Showing posts with label Edge of Decay. Show all posts

Saturday, 1 August 2026

Scum/Edge of Decay - Repugnant Rattle.

Scum/Edge of Decay – Repugnant Rattle – CD – Aussaat – Aussaat 39- 2026

https://edgeofdecay.bandcamp.com

https://scumcumcum.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte

E-Mail: ernten@aol.com

1. Premature Ejection (Edge of Decay)

2. No Attempt (Edge of Decay)

3. Laser Liturgy (Edge of Decay).

4. Like A Rats (Scum).

5. Fatigue, Chills (Scum).

6. Brain Activator (Scum).

7. Repugnant Rattle (Edge of Decay and Scum)

On this split cd, Aussaat brings together Japan's Scum and Finland's Edge of Decay, both have released on the label before. Edge of Decay started releasing in 2014 and Scum in 2010. Coming together for Repugnant Rattle, there are Three Edge of Decay tracks, three Scum tracks and one combined track. The amazing cover art is by Aaron Aspinwall of The Repos and Death Dedication.

Edge of Decay - Premature Ejection, I was taken straight away by the farting distortion and how it juxtaposes with sharp, harsh, feedback noise. That heavy bass fart noise is so good, it resonates well and the shifts in a tone and speed that can be felt through the body immediately. The feedback kicks in as the deep sound pulls back, like a push pull reaction made from the two sounds as the entire sound morphs into glitch and a hum. It is simple and impressive. No Attempt is a distortion heavy and harsh, the feedback and the deep hum seem stuck in joint position in a race with both taking turns to take the lead for short, sharp, bursts of time. Both elements accelerate and decelerate rapidly, it is fast moving work. In contrast to the first two tracks, things sharpen to shrill noise on Laser Liturgy. Sharp digital glitch sound pulsates as pulsating tweets jar against this and then bind with it, before repeating the cycle again. Laser Liturgy is an angrier track than the previous ones and as the track progresses, the noise warps and intensifies constantly. Edge of Decay pulls the noise rapidly into a deeper, heavy bass roar, clashing it with sharp feedback. These three tracks are top tier, present day harsh noise at it’s very best.

Scum – Angry, sharp wailing tones are cut into by thick, crunchy distortion and an insane shifting, warbling noise shifts from left to right and explode together as Like A Rats. This track gets sharper, choppier and falls into sonic insanity as the seconds progress. It is a bold opening statement by Scum in answer to the damage Edge of Decay just did. The sound seems to get suffocated towards the end, but high pitched digital wailing cuts right through it. Ominous drones and crackling form the opening to Fatigue, Chills. This uses an ambient background and allows crackles, hisses and slurping sounds to interact over the top of it. I feel swamped in murky darkness here. The lack of backing distortion or bass roar gives the noise a lot of space within which to interact. Things get harsher for Brain Activator, This again allows space into the sound with no backing bass, the distortion and wailing feedback dance together as metal is hit in the background. The quick-fire bursts of deep distortion in the background shift things up for brief periods of time. Throughout their tracks, Scum use a minimal palette that can become busy or separate into sparseness, but it is always effective. Intelligent is a word that I would use to describe this work.

Both acts come together for the album's title track Repugnant Rattle, this is also the album’s longest track. This is at once full and minimal, full through the bass drone, minimal as a few distortions and crackle play out on top of it. Each element is allowed to resonate perfectly through the space that is left in the work, interactions are clear and highlighted because of this. The strengths of both artists are in full force here, which makes for a high standard, well planned and perfectly executed piece of work.

This album uses minimalism to full strength on this album. It is very good work, it might even be excellent. Had it been 7 tracks of full on assault, it may not have been as good as this. It demonstrates the high quality of output you expect to be released on Aussaat. I have played this album a lot over the last month and would really recommend that you buy it.

ZG 2026.

Sunday, 17 July 2022

Edge of Decay - Vein of Metal.

Edge of Decay – Vein of Metal – Aussaat- Aussaat 22 – 2022 – CD.

https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte/

https://www.facebook.com/edgeofdecay

https://edgeofdecay.bandcamp.com/

ernten@aol.com

1. Rising of Contingency.

2. Sterile Stimulation.

3. Love Violence.

4. Cult of Iscariot.

5. Teenage Dreams.

6. Vein of Metal.

7. Anemia Seducer.

8. Infertile.

I haven’t reviewed a lot this year, life gets busy and a family member died. Being a lone project makes for a longer, steeper road in which to engage in and discuss modern day Power Electronics and all related genres. I have written for a few zines of late, I don’t know if that will continue. That has been an epic achievement writing for someone else, but the intense focus needed to do that well takes up a lot of time. I feel the need sometimes to do something alone, could a book on acts of now be the answer? This blog is my engagement within the scene. Back to the now -

Finland artists Edge of Decay have gradually produced a solid body of work since they first appeared in 2012. Having released on labels like Aussaat, Antipatik Records, Freak Animal Records, Obsessive Fundamental Realism and Phage Tapes, as well as playing the final United Forces of Industrial Festival in London, their CV is impressive. The new album Veil of Metal comes in a nicely presented panelled digipack with black artwork on red card.

Vein of Metal drags into action with its’ intro track Rising of Contingency. A sense of urgency is radiated on Sterile Stimulation, as helicopter noise cuts away to anxious synthesisers. Samples of someone discussing violence serve as an intro to Love Violence at this point the electronics become violent as if the album has warmed up and ready to accelerate the sound. This couples wall distortion and screeching shards of crunching distortion that increase to become more explosive as the track develops.

Cult of Iscariot models cold Power Electronics, this leans into Tesco Industrial nastiness, it’s not nice to listen to and that is effective work. The electronics become increasingly frenzied across the track, the rhythm is broken up and moved into a different pattern. Infected hiss and rhythmic distortion shift the sound whilst echoing the previous track’s methods on Teenage Dreams. The vocal is undecipherable across the pulsating rhythm of the track, I find myself wanting more from the vocal, I want it to be clearer. The way the rhythm of the noise keeps faltering is effective, it keeps you locked in.

The title track, Vein of Metal, continues the infected electronics of the previous track, it is an ambient landscape that gives off bleakness. However, it is an impressive display of electronics that displays impressive subtle shifts of noise. Anemia Seducer feels as if it is dragging across a floor, struggling to survive. The album has gone from infected to dying in two tracks. As the aggression builds, Anemia Seducer becomes a pained, screamer of a track. Infertile demonstrates an impressive die off, it follows off from Anemia Seducer brilliantly providing a dramatic end to the album.

Since its’ first release in 2016 Aussaat has really established itself as a strong, consistent label with Edge of Decay being a highlight amongst the label’s releases with the two albums that they have delivered on Aussaat. This is a good album, well executed and delivered.

Coventry Soul 2022.

Thursday, 10 September 2020

Edge of Decay – RIISTETTYJEN ANTOLOGIA

Edge of Decay – RIISTETTYJEN ANTOLOGIA – 2020 – CD – Aussaat – Aussaat 16.

https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte

ernten@aol.com

https://edgeofdecay.bandcamp.com/

Edge of Decay are a (or another) heavyweight noise project from Finland, they have been actively releasing since 2012. They have released on Freak Animal Records, Obsessive Fundamental Realism and Bastard Culture. RIISTETTYJEN ANTOLOGIA is their latest album on German label Aussaat. The artwork and style of rounded jewel case are impressive and give a strong visual presentation to the work and as I am new to Edge of Decay, this sets a good standard.

Things start with an intense, crushing, infected, sound with quite a lot of chaos thrown into aspects of the sound. The sound seems to scream at times, it is difficult to tell if this is noise or vocals. When vocals do appear, they are woven into this texture and force the listener to focus in on what’s being shouted or if again, the sounds are playing tricks on you. The full sound is created from lots of individual gritty components which for the first part of the album, is presented as a thick collage of abrasive sonic texture.

At times later on in the album the sound either intensely throbs or drags, it is as if everything seems to work together to do this. When things are pulled down to the point of strangulation, various individual components can rise and this has a massive impact, it shows impressive sonic control and discipline. The break downs in themselves are impressive as the simmering produces some good passages of low-level noise that rise into broken displays of Power Electronics. The broken becomes more cohesive towards the end of the album as noise is formed into broken rhythms to make for impressive finale to the work. I also like how at times sounds push themselves into overdrive as if to accelerate tracks.

As a whole Edge of Decays latest album all ties in well together. This is a good album, I like the crunching and the broken aspects a lot, in contrast to that the early thick textures are great. My appreciation of RIISTETTYJEN ANTOLOGIA lies in lots of different things mentioned, which like the sound all comes together to make a fuller, more rounded like.

Dorcus Maximus 2020.

Sunday, 5 November 2017

United Forces of Industrial IV London 29.04.2017.

United Forces of Industrial IV London 29.04.2017.

UFoI setlist.

Attending the Saturday of United Forces at Electrowerkz in London was a bittersweet event. The impressive footage of the previous night makes me very aware I only saw one great night of two. EDGE OF DECAY, ARMOUR GROUP, SHIFT/KOUFAR, KEVLAR and KE/HIL were all said to be on impressive form.

Military Position is the project of Australian based artist Kate Harriet Morgan. PVC clad and pissed off Morgan gave an angry set that combined harsh, repetitive electronics and rabid vocals. Knives and chains were rubbed against contact mics until they gave out. Military Position’s set intensified to a climatic end with Morgan swinging way too closely at the audience with her chain. The institution themed background film’s female narrative wasn’t present, it was replaced by Military Position’s fucked off, threatening barrage. Morgan was confident, strong and in-control. Her set was impressive through its’ sheer dominance and aggression.

She Spread Sorrow is Italian based Alice Kundalini, formerly of Deviated Sister TV, has released one album ‘Rumspringa’ on Cold Spring and is soon to release ‘Mine’ on the same label. Her whispered vocals and low level Deathscapes worked in perfect conjunction with her background videos. They featured a young girl moving and posing in a kind of abstract narrative that was contextualised further by Kundalini’s whispers and chimes as electronics rumbled and echoed in the low levels. She Spread Sorrow delivered a fractured nightmare of a performance, clearly a leader and not a follower.

Haare is the project of Ilkka Vekka from Finland. For this live appearance Haare was a duo, with another guy on laptop and electronics while Vekka played guitar. The guitar work was digital and affected, it wasn’t all riffs and solos, more in line with how Sutcliffe Jügend use electric guitar. The set was abstract, psychedelic, occult laden topped with complex visuals. I had a 'whatever' attitude to Vekka's crowd glaring, but the confrontational, menacing factor added another dimension to their layered performance. The sound was slow and expansive with a lot of intricacies gradually woven in as it constantly shifted and developed.

Isomer from Australia was one of the most surprising acts, in contrast to the online tracks I have heard, David Tonkin’s performance had a compressed, hidden emotive, layered quality. Tonkin was an impressive frontman, but that indescribable something woven deep into the sound was there. It wasn’t anger or aggression, but something other; a deep and heavy context which you could close your eyes and absorb as the core of the performance. Sharp, repetitive frequencies and contact mic abuse built things up. Isomer is well worthy of further investigation; another epic performance to the night.

Isomer photo by
Marcin Klimek.

Following such a solid batch of impressive younger acts, headliners Genocide Organ had a lot to live up to. Past glories of the last 30 years wouldn’t be enough after what came earlier in the night, tonight was the acid test. I was immediately thrown as G.O. didn’t wear masks as I thought they would. The four members combined electronic noise that immediately ripped into an impressive set that was a barrage of their trademark abrupt, urgent style of Power Electronics. Both lead singers took turns to whip the audience into an intense frenzy, Wilhelm Herich on the edge of the stage shouting into the audience which stirred things up and slight chaos began to erupt. I don’t know what happened, the audience became further frenzied into a pit as Genocide Organ dug well into their back catalogue right from Leichenlinie up to Obituary of the Amerikas. I was impressed by their direct audience manipulation/confrontation. Genocide Organ’s complex, multi-faceted collective sense of self intensified the night’s proceedings relentlessly through layered visuals that consistently intensified the atmosphere. This brought United Forces of Industrial 2017 to an impressive and frenzied finale.