noise & power electronics

I decided to spice up my life and go for a bit of variety and therefore selected a Vomir live album instead of a studio album. Now, I don’t want to take the piss out of Vomir. It is the project that introduced me to the strange world of “HNW” after all. Vomir has had some real world application for me (it is perfect for meditation, for example), but I fear that despite all of this, with Application A Aphistemi being my third Vomir review, I can only sum this record up using the following sentence: Heh heh noise wall goes brrrrrrrrrrrr

Morbid Beauty has some interesting noise going on. The general vibe is more of a moody one than of total aural destruction. Ecclesiarch is much more low key. Unsure if there is a volume issue on the cassette that I have, but this side is much quieter. Nevertheless, some of the passages do built into impressive introspective noise drones.

Enjoyable but somewhat predictable noise from this prolific project. I dig the aesthetic (this stuff just really works with noise music for some reason), but there’s not much in the way of variation here. And I don’t mean that in like, it’s just a slab of HNW – I mean that the record in general is a bit uninspiring for noise, unfortunately. There are loud bits, there are quiet bits, and there are some rumbly bits. Cool vibe, though.

A pretty piss poor effort to be honest (no pun intended), especially considering the weight of the names involved. This goes absolutely nowhere and is over before you can really settle in and get involved with the noise (as ridiculous as that sounds).

I gotta be honest, this is a massively irritating recording from the otherwise legendary Masonna. If you’re looking for irritating noise loops through delay pedals with distorted vocals over the top, then look no further. Otherwise, put this in the bin.

I’ll be completely honest with you: I was totally drawn into this by the art alone. That kind of chosen artistic representation for your sound almost guarantees you a select number of sounds, and power electronics is high on that list. That is, of course, what we have here. The trouble is, is that this is one of the cringiest things I have ever heard. Let’s get it out of the way: there is nothing wrong with the music / noise here. It is atmospheric and eery, and uses the full soundstage to come at you from all angles. There is all sorts of artefacts and creepy additions coming in left and right field, which just makes you even more anxious as the main course of each piece just loops over and over in intensity. No, my problem is with the vocal contributions. There’s a variety of contributors here, and as I understand Delirium Tremens is a compilation of sorts, so some headway is given here for it to be a bit disjointed. But daaaamnnn, this shit is bad. We’re talking nervous teenagers reading their own erotic fan-fiction kinda bad, with unnecessary big words and over-emphasised narration that just cringes me out in the worst possible way. It’s like getting to the seventh circle of hell and finding that it consists entirely of bad slam poetry. Not even Boyd Rice (whatever you think of him) can really bring anything of value to this collection, instead offering cringe-inducing diatribes about BDSM and power play. It’s a no from me. Speaking of Delirium Tremens, I’m gonna need a glass of the beer of the same name to get over this shit.

Very interesting harsh noise with plenty of atmospheric passages. Harrowing walls of distortion are permeated with – and often built up from – loops of peculiar noises; scrapes and clanking, metallic abrasions and explained emissions. This is the kind of thing I would like to see more of in noise. Ligature are not afraid to set a scene or built an atmosphere before getting to the heavy shit.

Dense, scouring (what appears to be) analog noise from Werewolf Jerusalem, to whose credit, their 15 minutes sails by as if I am being carried along on a haze of audible wire. Culver is more restrained, offering a similar length piece but of the atmospheric, ambient variety. Dark, menacing ambience of course, but not the kind that will knock you out of your seat. More the kind of menancing ambience that would be the soundtrack to be walking around a dodgy part of town in the middle of the night looking for the address of someone who apparently can hook you up with some snuff porn.

Pulse Demon takes the crown – or should I say the spotlight – when it comes to Merzbow’s most famous release. As the man transitions from the worlds of analogue into digital noise, we saw a bit of a shift in the sounds in general. This mid-90s period was specifically harsh. Venereology, which quickly followed that very famous Pulse Demon album, seems to step up the harshness, if you’ll forgive me for my lack of inventive language. Everything seems so goddamn loud and unforgiving and I realise that may read as ridiculous considering who we are talking about here, but damn! “Ananga-Ranga” – that first track alone is 29 minutes of absolute aural hell, rendering what comes afterward almost pointless. Definitely a record for those who feel like they would like to clean out the inside of their skull with a brillo pad.

I got into a bit of a shit-slinging incident with a bunch of randos on the internet when Mortiis of all people, posted a picture of himself on his Instagram with who I could only assume from comments was the dude from Blood Axis. The guy had a shaved head, a t-shirt sporting the crutch cross, boots and a belt sporting the reichsadler eagle. Now, wearing boots doesn’t make you a Neo Nazi, but they certainly complimented all that other shit. I got slammed into oblivion for calling out this guy’s dodgy state of dress, so I decided, let’s see what Blood Axis are all about then, seeing as I have clearly got it all wrong. To say that Blood Axis is not a fascist or white supremacist project would be a fucking lie. This proves, if anything, you can’t trust people in internet comments sections, even if they get more likes on their replies than you (lol). Not only are Blood Axis’ themes clumsily on the nose, but these guys are Americans, with no real weight or knowledge at the horrors of fascism and what it did to Europe. Therefore, The Gospel Of Humanity smacks of silly fucking idiots playing about with ancient symbolism and ideals that they know absolutely nothing about. Not that I’m an expert, but come on. To top that off, and to really sink the boot in, The Gospel Of Inhumanity has to be one of the goofiest, tone-deaf attempts at noise / industrial / martial / neo-folk / whatever that I have ever heard. Mixing classical music with Charlie Manson and bad black metal guitars does not make a song, I’m afraid. At least, not a listenable one. Leave that to Dragged Into Sunlight. Anyways, I’ve wasted enough time on this bullshit. Avoid.

Quite possibly the stupidest thing in my record collection, which is definitely the whole point of this thing. I remember, in the early 2010s, a race amongst the noisecore / experimental projects and labels to release the smallest record possible. Technically, RxTx’s Bleached Anus takes the win, being fully playable (if only for a few seconds) at 1.5″ in size. Esion’s 1.5″ however, is actually not playable at all, and is in fact, designed to destroy your needle. Gorgonized Dorks did something similar earlier on in their career, with a full sized 7″. I got this not long before Mike passed away, and that’s probably the only reason I’ve kept it (that and the fact that it probably have zero intrinsic value to anybody else). RIP Mike. Don’t do heroin, kids.

I love Bastard Noise (or anything Eric Wood) but my experiences with his discography are few and far between. This is a fairly haunting session, where each band on the split sound fairly similar, but there’s a bit more dreadful atmosphere to the Bastard Noise stuff. L’Idiot Du Village (lol) is a bit more abrupt with the “song” lengths, but offers as equally pleasing a contribution of horrible noise. Tidy split!

Abruptum’s initial legacy ended in the mid 2000s, but after a few years hiatus, the member known as “Evil” returned without founding member “IT” (Information Tech? – these fuckin’ names, man) and released new material under the Abruptum name, even though, realistically, this should have been called something else entirely. However. This is fucking great. Potestates Apocalypsis (you know its grim and evil if the name is in fuckin’ Latin) is actually really, really good. Dark, dense, terrifying, atmospheric, blackened noise. Samples of warfare penetrate through the mud, but for the most part, this thick bog of echoic lava drowns you and consumes your soul. Comprising of four huge tracks, totally around 45 mins or so, this is a stunning work of atmospheric darkness. I highly recommend!

How is this 9 years old? The time, she flies! I used to trade a lot with the Fuck The Industry label from Japan, who at the time were putting out some of the highest quality home made releases I’d seen. It goes to show how much difference can be made by investing in a decent printer (lol) – all of FTI’s stuff looked the part, both on CDr and cassette. Video Nasty (not to be confused with UK death metal band Video Nasties) is as far as I can tell a solo noise project (2022 edit: its a two piece according to Discogs). Things here are a bit hectic and all over the place and the CDr doesn’t last very long but it was cool to dig this out to fill in a review I should have written nearly a decade ago. Better late that never, eh?

Strong, dense industrial combining the more harrowing elements of the genre with something altogether more classic (that being the pummelling heave-ho motion and delivery of early Swans). It uses such as a backbone to create seemingly lawless noise, which is often allowed to run rampant and unstructured with abandon, but here it is pinned down like a worm on a dissection plate and we are able to peer into it. You’ll surely remember what Nietzsche said about the abyss…

The record title is something that should be lifted right out of bestial black metal, but we are firmly in the camp of The Rita’s intense, steady noise torture here. This record conjures all sorts of unpleasant moods and vibes, and I would expect no less. Definitely for power electronics fans only, however.

I reviewed parts 1 and 4 of this series back what must be, shit, 8 years ago now, and I figured I had lost parts 2 and 3 to time, but I recently managed to unearth them from a long-forgotten drawer somewhere. The crap you accumulate around you, eh? There’s far too many entries in this series to mention, but at least I can round off the ones that I physically own. Stirner is pretty straight forward as far as noise goes, at least on the track submitted here. It’s quite the brain massage though, so they get bonus points for the harsh noise meditation stupor they manage to invoke in me. As I was listening, I drove past a restaurant on the way to work that had apparently been ram-raided, and I took a moment to soak in the scene along with this noise and reflect on the carnage and the absurdity of life. Kaelteeinbruch’s offering however is naught but pure irritation, with flaccid distortion passages married with pointless pornography samples, all of which goes absolutely nowhere.

I believe British Piss Culture is a project of Derek Crozier, the fella behind the Vile Noise label. Deluge then, is vile noise in more ways than one. Expect nought but a single pummelling noise wall that is here to frazzle your brain and force you into submission, or something. Hey, if you’re going to be pissed on, this is a pretty good soundtrack to go with it.

Another record that I have unceremoniously sat on for about 7 years. The Coming Age is a full length from one man noise maker Seige Electronics released on the excellent (and now possibly defunct) Vile Noise label from Scotland. Anyway, there’s some really cool textures here, and the whole thing sounds alive and analogue. There’s some horrible subject matter to confront and some intense vibes, but confrontation in this way is part of what power electronics is about, right?

I’m unsure why Stalaggh changed their name to Gulaggh. I should do a search and find out why, but I’m not really that interested. The main real difference is that the Gulaggh project, or Vorkuta at least, is far less focused on the noise aspect of the group’s sound, and more so on the screaming and wailing supposedly delivered by patients at a facility for mental health. Or whatever. We’ve all heard the story of Stalaggh, but it’s up to you whether you believe it or not. Anyway, this is harrowing stuff.

Sixth House Is Risen is a little experiment I made out of noise loops, synthesizer apps and a little box of fun called a Korg Monotron. Honestly, there’s hours of fun to be had with one of these, and Varken was a project born to release some of the noise I’ve made. It certainly helped whilst working from home in the original pandemic, where internet issues were rampant and I had a lot of downtime (and no baby boy!). Maybe I’ll do more Varken stuff some day. Hopefully I’ll put this on a limited run of cassettes sometime soon. It was nice to make noise again, at least.

I have no idea where I got this CD from, but the contact address is from South America. I can’t ever remember recieving any parcels from South America, so truly, fuck knows how I go this. The beauty of trading, eh. So, after fuck knows how many years in my possession, I finally span this CDr. Unfortunately, at 2:48, the thing obliterated itself inside my car stereo. How my car’s CD player is still working is anyone’s guess, but the foil has come off the CD surface lol. RIP.

What I’ve dug out here is the two disc version of Hole In The Heart, a haunting masterpiece of early Ramleh. Whilst not as aurally punishing as some of their works, Hole In The Heart instead focuses on how power electronics can create intense atmospheric soundscapes. There is a mournful aspect to the record that I can’t really do justice with words.

Picked one of these up on cassette recently as I couldn’t remember the last time I bought anything noise-related on tape. Plus, y’know, its always good to support new labels. This is wall noise at its finest, you really don’t need to look past Vomir when it comes to this subgenre (not to undersell everyone else involved – myself included) – but White Widow is worth a goose too. For the most abstract noise fans only. Bleak and depressing. Enjoy!

The fuck did I just listen to? It’s over in about 30 seconds, so it really is a bizarre assault on the senses. I think, at that length, I’ll just leave this here for you to click on, if you dare. https://archive.org/details/AAR00035

I had to check this out simply because of the name attached to it. Grainy pictures of prostitutes (mangled or otherwise) is a solid trope of the noise or power electronics worlds, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for everything exploitation. Aurally, The Dawn Of Sleaze is rather disappointing in a bash-your-pretty-skull-in way, instead opting for the intestinal massaging of what are almost walls (but not quite). There is some variation, but for the most part the tracks sail by without too much offence. Not blown away, but I respect the effort and would check out more.

Nonsense of the purest, highest degree. I’m not really sure what is going on here, but this is pretty terrible all round. I love black metal, noise, grind, the lot – but this is MySpace bedroom-era trash. https://archive.org/details/AAR0073

Ah, Pulse Demon. There aren’t many stand out individual noise records. Bands, sure, but individual records? There aren’t that many. Pulse Demon is probably one of the most instantly recognisable, but is it one of the better offerings from Merzbow? And why is it so popular? Well, for starters, its got everything from the Merzbow project. It captures – from the prime era – all of the project’s great attributes. It’s not as intensely incinerating as some of his works, but its a great starting point if nothing else.

Pharmakon is a lass that knows how to invoke a creepy atmosphere or six. Long before Lingua Ignota brought screaming into the mic under the mainstream light, Pharmakon was churning out gorgeously disgusting power electronics like it was nobody’s business. What I love the most about Pharmakon is that there is no need to wallow in the depths of endless distortion in order to create chaotic or unsettling soundscapes. Yes, these are often clear and all-encompassing tracks that hold back on the distortion front (compared to most noise) and still manage to pummel you in the face with all sorts of unsettling feelings. The “bonus track” here, a near-30-minute bad dream, is the icing on the cake.

I heard you like foot fetish oriented slabs of crushing noise, bro? No? Oh. Well, The Rita brought some anyway. I have a rip of this on my computer and I have absolutely zero idea where it came from haha – either way its a lovely harsh massage of the senses. Its impossible to keep abreast of The Rita but when our paths do cross I always enjoy the experience.

Don’t you just love it when something sounds exactly like how the name makes you think it will sound? As far as I’m aware, Lair Of The Black Blowfly is another Bobby Maggard gorenoise based project, of which I’m of the opinion that the world simply cannot have enough of. This is a clever and almost artistic approach to the sheer sheets of noise that we are used to, where themes (and sounds, in the form of swarming flies) of putrefaction are woven intrinsically into the music itself. Like, it’s total fucking noise, but it’s genius. Slithis Revenge is another Maggard project (again, to my knowledge. Actually are all these “bands” Maggard projects?), and is not a million miles away from the last. Undocumented Dweller offer some interesting noises. All in all, this is an ear-drum excoriating release and should appease most fans of the gore and noise genres.

I stumbled upon the second part of this collaboration at the beginning of the year so it was high time to go back and hear the genesis of it. Atsusaku is stacked, 2 huge back to back slabs of droning and sparkling industrial noise to cleanse not only your aural palette but also portions of your brain. Its impossible to tell who is doing what here, but this is a solid noise release if I’ve ever heard one, with a nice smash of power behind it. Heavy yet pensive.

It’s nice to see something that bridges the gap between industrial, power electronics and harsh noise so perfectly. Often these terms are bandied about wantonly, with several terms being used to describe the same thing in a pedantic circle jerk of an already restrictive genre. Whilst I still don’t quite know what the fuck Witch House is supposed to be, I can literally feel the industrial vibe pouring out of this record, like steel girders shooting out of my computer screen and impaling my face, but in a good way. Yes, this is a noise record, but it earns the industrial or power electronics tags due to the sheer palpable feel of the tracks, like genuine mechanical beasts have come alive to create these horrendous cacophonies. Some of these “songs” even seem to hold their own sense of beauty, despite being mind-numbingly repetitive and gargantuan in scope. “My Body Is Made Of Ash…I Live As Ash” for example, is so anxious that it’s almost relaxing. There’s guitar in there somewhere I’m sure, as well as a clusterfuck of distorted voices. Some moments are repetitive to the point of an almost tribalistic percussion, which when made out of mashed up sound, is actually extremely impressive. Because The Chasms Of My Heart manages to be a enthralling noise masterpiece without having to resort to continuous maxed-out harshness, I’d wager this is a good a place as any to start with the noise genre, if you fancy giving it a go. To summarise: a very impressive and hypnotising record in a seriously over-saturated and often lazy genre of music.

Unsettling and disturbing as always, SJ embark on yet another plunge into the depths of humanity’s darkness. For all the storytelling that makes you feel like you want to take a shower, Offal is actually quite a pleasant listen. The noise on offer is clearly harrowing in its origin; it feels like there is a prolonged screaming suffering mangled through the tracks, but in such a way that it is delivered almost like a purifying fire, rather than a depthless mire of filth and depression. There’s a lot of disturbing noise and power electronics out there, but you can always count on Sutcliffe to bring the aural thwack that so heavily matters in circles such as these.

Ignoring Lost Corridors’ segmentation into tracks, one finds that it works better as one whole piece. Echoic, dense, reverb-heavy atmospheric scores are the order of the day. The name Lost Corridors is very apt; I feel like I’ve wandered into a crack in the earth’s surface and am descending into the pits of Agartha.

What is the perfect soundtrack for painting a skirting board I hear you all ask at once? Why of course, I answer, it is head-scraping harsh noise from Japanese Torture Comedy Hour and Muzumuzu Suru! I can’t claim to own this tape, but some kind soul has uploaded this to YouTube so I am finally able to enjoy this long-lost relic of power electronics. I can’t seem to find much info on Muzumuzu Suru, but the noise ebbs and flows and is interesting enough. JTCH is a shambling, blooping, bleeping mess, and all in all, I can’t really fault this at all. Some interesting textures and moods are presented.

Children, for my lack of any understanding of the noise scene, appears to be a project between Genetic Noose and a fellae named Gaeme Baillie. I had a chuckle to myself thinking the Children material here sounds a bit like Arab Strap recorded an album whilst in the middle of a severe bout of alcohol-fuelled manic depression. Either way, it’s miserable as sin and fucking angry as fuck. What more do you want from your power electronics? Ебануться Пиздец (I have no idea what that means) on the other hand are a bit more typical with the making-noise approach, if I can be so lazy in describing such. Nevertheless its great palette cleanser and some decent variation and interesting moments can be found amongst the hellish fuzz. I’ve had this cassette for fecking yonks (cheers Tom!), only now getting around to listening to it, after it being kept in a box for donkeys years. Split by Children/Ебануться Пиздец

Holy shit, this is nihilism distilled into raw sound! At about 6 minutes in length, Money Hater really doesn’t fuck about on this 2016 EP. I was expecting some sort of powerviolence (by looking at the sleeve) but the harsh noise here melted my face in the best possible way. 6 minutes of sheer armageddon, get in!

Ut Strepitus play slow, evolving soundscapes of noise and dense atmospheric ambience. The shtick is a heavily Latin-based BDSM theme, something of course which has been seen in noise and power electronics worlds before, but not so much maybe in the atmospheric, ambient or synthesiser worlds. The moods and tones shift from paranoia and dread, to small moments of wonder and contemplation, before oppressing drones of collapsing atmosphere suffocate you under its weight. There is a fetishistic element to the sound (and track titles) here, and that definitely comes through in the sound. Pedes Cultui by Ut Strepitus

Like A Lamb To The Slaughter was the short-lived original direction of my Panties project. It had such a simple name that I couldn’t get out of my head, I had to try and make some noise that was oppressive and fetishistic (is that a word?) to accompany and suit the name. I’m sure others who revel in the pits of noise music have these same itches right? Like, the name comes first, and then you’ve gotta start a project to match it!? Ha! There is nothing particularly redeeming about Like A Lamb To The Slaughter; it’s pretty glacial distortion and not much else. It has that oppressive feel, but I quickly changed tack with what I wanted to do with this project and moved on from this sound. For perverted noise freaks only. P.S. – no, I don’t know the girl LOL 

I’ve been on a bit of Prurient kick recently, enjoying a few of his records. Cocaine Death however is one that has been saved in my Spotify list for years now. I’m not sure what it is, but I really love the aching melody that creeps below the surface of harsher noises. Cocaine Death toes the line between sonic destruction and ambient beauty.

Prurient exists in his own class within the noise world. That sounds a bit up his arse, but the project toes a fine line between beauty and chaos, between the fragile and the concrete. This balance of opposites is as clear on Frozen Niagara Falls as it is in any of Prurient’s other work (that I’ve heard), and at an hour and a half in length, it is a mammoth double album journey through ice cold shards of noise, and gorgeous synthesizer passages.

The sounds of industrial landscapes are sourced and re-purposed into collages of weaving, constantly collapsing slabs of freeform noise. This is the second such collab between Merzbow and Davis. Bonus points from me for using the title “Inland Empire” for the final track.