Lover's Leap - As Purity Dissolves Through Fingertips.

Lover’s Leap – As Purity Dissolves Through Fingertips – Digital Release – 2024

https://loversleap33.bandcamp.com/album/as-purity-dissolves-through-fingertips

        1.    As Purity Dissolves Through Fingertips.

Lover’s Leap is a new project based in London and they have done four releases since 2022.

As Purity Dissolves begins with echoing creaking, muffled banging and scraping, all 3 interact for a time. This is then taken over by hissing static and further scraping made through contact mic abuse. Static is slowly complimented by a wall of distortion that is compressed so it isn’t allowed to dominate the proceedings, the vocal enters complimented by warped electronics. It all feels restrained, caged. The electronics throb within the murk of the static noise bulging and resonating until things die off to quiet electronics, this isn’t for long, things slowly begin to build up again and change into a passage of mournful synthesiser melody – this has more clarity and is allowed to roam free.

Interesting release worthy of your time and money.

Nothing and Nobody. 2024.

Cementimental - Episodes of Simultaneous Door Opening.

 

Cementimental – Episodes of Simultaneous Door Opening – CDR/Download – Self Released – 2023.

https://cementimental.bandcamp.com/

http://www.cementimental.com/

https://isntses.bandcamp.com/

https://disgustingcathedral.bandcamp.com/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/isntses

1. Lumpishes of Honorariums, Arks, Toms, Duped, Bang.

2. The Scats of Firers Joke a Slat out of Lung Slate.

3. Shops-Doged.

4. The Petrifier Dole.

5. Inarticulately Pterodactyled.

6. The History of Grey Book.

7. The Ocelot Soothed Jolly by His Woven Hair.

8. Arrogant Dice.

                                                    Image from artist's Bandcamp, link above.

Dr Age’s Harsh Noise, Circuit Bendery project Cementimental has been active in the UK since 2000AD. Cementimental is also linked to Isn’tses and Disgusting Cathedral and has played around the England, Wales, Scotland, France, Denmark and Holland. The project is now a mainstay of the London \Noise scene playing at many events and festivals around the UK over the last two decades.

I am immediately hit by an assault of trebly, sharp harsh noise on Lumpishes of Honorariums, Arks, Toms, Duped, Bang. This has a fresh crackling sound to it, it isn’t bass heavy at first, this seems to come later in the track. The project seems to use recognisable Harsh Noise elements, whereas others come from somewhere else. Probably the home-made synths that Drage makes and sells. The Scats of Firers Joke a Slat out of Lung Slate rips out sonically, the warped sounds and circuit bending truly flex muscle on this track as it is the longest on the album. I feel as if I am being pulled through a dense collage of technology at hyper speed. The trebly heavy assault breaks down into faltering distortion for a time until the crispy, sharpness returns with a vengeance.

The Chernobylizer Synth off artist's Etsy store, link above.. 

A Thicker, choppier assault is used in Shops-Doged short lifespan, guttural noises bounce off this. A larger, full sound is captured during The Petrifier Dole, this sounds like a painful, electrical malfunction. The sound goes through a whole spectrum of warped, psychotic, barking, rage. Thick texture, accelerated choppiness and roaring distortion build Inarticulately Pterodactyled. Due to the longer length of this track, the work goes through a lot of shifts, it chops and changes dramatically. Again, this demonstrates a muscular sound, it flexes, bulges and throbs across 11 and a half minutes.

The sound of The History of Grey book is fast and gasping. It sounds like it is being choked and shaken to make the core noise, this progresses to a scraping, drag that is cut into by waves of distortion. The Ocelot Soothed Jolly by His Woven Hair is a short track that rapidly shifts through different passages of sound like the longer tracks, the hyperactive nature of the project is most apparent here. The palette shrinks dramatically on the final track, glitches and squealing, tiny noises play off each other like an abstract cartoon of noise.

This hyperactive album is fun and powerful at the same time. Projects like this demonstrate Harsh Noise at its’ best. The CDR is available from Cementimental’s Bandcamp in the links above.

Choppy Noodles, 2023.

Animal Machine – Technological Murder

 

Animal Machine – Technological Murder – Aaarrrgh – 2019 – Download/3”CDr/10” Lathe Cut Vinyl

https://www.discogs.com/Animal-Machine-Technological-Murder/release/13660223

https://aaarrrg.bandcamp.com/album/animal-machine-technological-murder

          1.    0603

          2.    0252

Animal Machine is the oldest project from the Aaarrrgh label’s stable of acts, it stretches back to 2007. There have been many releases since then, this is the most prolific project of Aaarrgh.

The 3” CDr is for promotional use as it came with a Kshayaath album I received from the label.

Both tracks are named after their running times, I like the delivery, it is sharp, energetic with a lot of wild hiss and very cut up in parts. This is very much top tier Harsh Noise that also seems centred around the Harsh Noise London label, this, Wolvestribe and Gen26 are key examples of this kind of work.

The theme of this release is how our future evolvement seems linked to intelligent machines. As I drive around, on a day-to-day basis, I am aware of drivers and pedestrians glued to their phones, this concept seems true as Smartphone zombies seem to gain higher numbers and visibility. As the label and projects are mostly based in London, this reality must be even further realised than here in the Midlands of England.

Another gem from Animal Machine, excellent work.

Army of one 2021.

Oblivion Guest - The Light In the Black Hole.

Album: The Light in the Black Hole

Artist: Oblivion Guest

Label: Self-released via Bandcamp

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist: 

1. The Light in the Black Hole

2. Mind Awake, Body Asleep

3. Digital Duress

4. If We Should Fail… (Black Hole Mix)

5. After the Fire

6. We Need to Go (Black Hole Mix)

7. Faster than Deception

8. Rapture (Black Hole Mix)

9. Bazille Murder (Black Hole Mix)

10. Fallen Men

11. Into Chaos

12. Last Gasp

13. Strangled Beauty

Oblivion Guest is musician, producer, composer, and performer Hunter Barr, the founder member of KnifeLadder along with Andrew Trail and the late John Murphy. He also works and tours with Black Light Ascension, Antivalium, This Is Radio Silence, and Naevus. This present work is the full soundtrack to a performance in Dresden of ‘The Light in the Black Hole’, by Barr and dancer Una Shamaa as part of Tanzwoche 2019.

This totally surprised me, as I was expecting something completely different – but don’t be put off by that because, in spite of being composed of thirteen electronic, even danceable, tracks, it’s every bit as atmospheric and mood inducing as any free-form ambient opus. Yes, there’s percussion, down and dirty bass rhythms, and ‘traditional’ song structures, but these pieces are aimed solely at a radioactive and mutated post-apocalyptic dancefloor of the future. Here you dance while you decompose.

The sound is dense, big, layered and for the most drives along at a behemothic clip, barrelling towards its inexorable date with destruction and dissolution. Dust and rubble trail in its wake, buildings collapse, seas dry up, fires burn, storms roil continuously, the acidic rains are never-ending, and the only living things left alive are misshapen, diseased, and distorted parodies of what were once the fauna and flora of the green earth. The land is barely recognisable, and the very air is smog-engulfed, polluted, and poisoned. However, there are also quiet and more contemplatively reflective moments too, brief respites from the relentless hopelessness of it all – the rays of a putrid sun shine through fleeting breaks in the clouds.

Favourite tracks: ‘Mind Awake, Body Asleep’, rife with swampy beats and harsh percussion; ‘Last Gasp’, a blanket of jet-blast electronics sweeping catastrophically and convulsively over an already-beaten land, and the last track ‘Strangled Beauty’, a haunting, keening lament, or perhaps the hint of a promise to return to what the world had once been. It’s all here – life, death, and the possibility of rebirth

The album will be available from August 2nd 2019 at Oblivion Guest’s Bandcamp page here https://oblivionguest.bandcamp.com/ as a CD and digital download,

Psymon Marshall 2019.

The death is in the details - Awakening the Waves.

The Death Is in The Details – Awakening the Waves.

Bandcamp Release, 2016, 3 Track Album, download.

https://thedeathisinthedetails.bandcamp.com/album/awakening-the-waves

The Death Is in the Details is a one woman Dark Ambient project based in London UK. To my understanding, there have been several full-length releases made - but this is said to be the best representation of The Death Is in The Details so far.

Submerge crashes in with huge arching drones that create a large display of ambient power, the mood settles into a suspenseful and foggy abstract space. Drones cut in and out of the work, building the work to a climax until it dies. This allows for higher pitched drones to serve as the entrance for The Debris You Created; resonating drones and static hiss intertwine with harsher shifts in tone allowing for a darker more aggressive passage of sound. Hums and drones pulsate to intensify the track towards the end. Heard emerges from a distance, rumbling and farting away to lower more infected sounding frequencies than before. This is the most intense track of the three, it doesn’t rise to the levels of Submerge or Debris, but achieves intensity gradually and subtly.

Awaking the Waves is a strongly ritualistic collection of three individual tracks with distinct individual identities. The use of drones and subtle introduction of various sounds affect the shifts in mood of each track well. It demonstrates direct and concise use of sound to affect the mood of each track, there is no waste or error; everything is organised with clear purpose. This is a strong album I’d gladly recommend.

Choppy Noodles 2017.