With a quick, cursory listen to this disc, it is not hard to see why these tracks didn't make it onto any other Jesu release. Not due to a lack of quality or anything like that, they just would not have clearly stuck out as too "different" among the others that have been released. With that in mind, we are presented eight tracks that are among the most experimental Justin Broadrick has released, but like almost everything else he has a hand in, are pure gold.
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12911 Hits
Though only active for a relatively short period, this band became one of the genre definers of what is now the burgeoning noise scene. This deluxe four CD boxed set represents some of the earliest live recordings from the (mostly) four piece band and shows that, regardless of what is perceived as "noise" as it relates to music, they have a compelling body of work.
13470 Hits
This CD is the third installment in Rapoon's Alien Glyph Morphology series. The material here appeared previously in a 2X10'' LP, but it plays more like an compilation than a album. The songs use similar samples and snyth patches, but their quality varies widely and makes for a frustrating listen.
8210 Hits
Comparisons to Shellac and the pudgy but sludgy Melvins are legitimate, though this insolently self-proclaimed "two-piece punk band" has produced a compelling and anarchistic debut LP. While their riotous sounds suggest roots deep within the Touch and Go back catalog, The Austerity Program extracts every drop of blood from heavy metal's engorged gallstone.
9888 Hits
This ferocious triptych from the esteemed duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff lacks that gauzy, narcotic quality of Jesu's increasingly popular heady metal shoegaze, though it more than compensates by being imperiously steeped in consummately sepulchral aesthetics.
8566 Hits
Formication are the Nottingham based duo of Alec Bowman and Kingsley Ravenscroft who have recorded for Lumberton Trading Company (Thighpaulsandra, Experimental Audio Research). My previous experience of their music tells me the ideal way to submerge myself in their latest mini-album is through headphones, by candle light with an ice cold Guinness in hand.
5482 Hits
Sightings sound like they come from another galaxy: their trashed metallic gutter rock has been giving earthlings tinnitus for a few years now. I expect it's how Chrome would sound to my Grandma. Their latest on Providence's Load is a little different. Something's changed.
6641 Hits
As members of Zoviet France, Mark Spybey and Robin Storey helped expand ambient music from new-age window dressing to something more dark and compelling. Starting almost 29 years ago, they were among the first artists to fuse the caustic sounds and spartan imagery of Industrial Music with dreamy atmospherics and indigenous insturmentation. This album, their second as Reformed Faction, encompasses the varied sounds and techniques in its members' formidable back catalogue.
9733 Hits
Sharp-edged yet danceable, Pylon's 1980 debut was among the first to bring attention to the diverse musical hotbed of Athens, Georgia, and yet somehow it slipped through the cracks when the world went digital. Thankfully this egregious oversight has been corrected and released back upon the unwary world sounding better than ever.
6572 Hits
Between playing in Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, and Swan Lake, Spencer Krug has managed to come up with another full-length from the band he originally started as a bedroom project, Sunset Rubdown. Somehow it manages to be both catchy and immediate even though its songs are longer and more complex than the usual pop fare.
7921 Hits
Texture is as important as ever to Yellow Swans on their new album, but this time their typical noisy elements are put to a different task. Still using gritty walls of distortion generated through guitar, voice, and electronics, Yellow Swans also add a melodic touch to these shape-shifting songs. The result is an unexpectedly gorgeous album unlike anything I've heard from them before.
10623 Hits
One of two Pollard solo albums released on the same day, this one contains jagged rock fragments, choppy rhythms, and snippets of alien transmissions. It's the more immediate and visceral of the two, with a huge sound and great performances, and it's easily one of the best rock albums I've heard from Pollard-or anyone, for that matter-in a long time.
6416 Hits
One of two Pollard solo albums released on the same day, this one contains slower tempos, expansive vocals, and an overall lighter touch. Lush and less experimental than its companion, it highlights Pollard's growing maturity as a pop songwriter and soft rock connoisseur.
6608 Hits
A collaborative project between these two underground heroes of electronic dance music had the potential to take the best elements of both producers' skill sets and make one of the most powerful, essential albums of 2007. Instead of saving the world as the goofy title boasts, the abortive album represents exactly what happens when egocentric hype overtakes substance.
7179 Hits
Those recordings that can successfully create visual atmosphere as well as an audio one are rare, but here is one that conveys, through field recordings, vintage electronics, and digital processing, a sense of cold and isolation, yet familiarity at the same time.
8094 Hits
Leave it to Editions Mego to release something that is so unclearly either random electronic improvisations or a highly structured piece of experimentation. But whatever it is, Altars of Science is a captivating piece of computer wizardry that is surely even more fascinating in the included 5.1 surround sound mix.
7044 Hits
An entirely logical and almost mythical collaboration, this joining of the two greatest studio bands in the history of audio recording has arrived with surprisingly little hype or fanfare. Undeservedly so as it is a thoroughly enjoyable album, albeit with less reinventing the wheel (or inventing some new shape to replace the wheel) than is expected from a pair of groups that are both known for their adventures in the studio.
10197 Hits
Only a year and a half after their debut release, mwvm (aka Michael Walton) has already entered and settled into a much colder territory. Taking a step forward, Rotations moves its ten tracks on a single flowing journey through shivering layers of guitar and fx coatings. While it may share elements with post rock, isolationism and ambient musics, this is definitely of itself. Heightening this cold atmosphere, the bleached out Saturn's rings-style artwork is the perfect visual accompaniment to the excursion.
6732 Hits
Most people when asked about the distinctly Japanese dialect of what the world knows as noise can easily mention Merzbow. Some of the more well versed can even come up with Masonna. Pain Jerk and the Incapacitants, however, are often reserved for those a bit more "in the know." Both have had long, prolific careers and this disc captures both of their first, and only performances thus far in the US. The sound is every bit as brutal and engrossing on here as it is on either of their multitude of studio works.
7676 Hits
Richie Hawtin has made some excellent though unexpected choices in 2007 with his still-thriving imprint. After implausibly giving newcomer JPLS a magnetic though understated full-length album showcase, the superstar DJ/producer shifts away from that informed unorthodoxy with a relatively risk-free and agreeable extended EP from one of his apparently deserving second-tier acts.
7651 Hits
