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Gorerotted - A New Dawn For The Dead - 19-May-07 04:13 AM
Honestly not that impressive. Picked this up on a whim and was expecting something a good deal more brutal. Lyrics are great and the imagery is decent, but overall a bit of a letdown. Going to check out their previous releases in hopes of finding better material. Then again, just my opinion.

Various - Lighted Apartment - 14-Sep-06 09:28 AM
Compilations can be a tricky business. More often then not these releases will have a portion of good tracks and a remainder that is, at best, boring or, at worst, simply unlistenable.

These CDs also sometimes end up with no flow or sense of direction due to the mishmash of styles the compiler has chosen. In other cases, all the tracks simply melt into one another, which can be quite boring.

Luckily, Lighted Apartment avoids all these pitfalls.

Described by the label as a collection of artists who specialize in "severely atmospheric ambients", this compilation contains ten diverse, but not unrelated, tracks. The choice of song order is excellent, as it maintains a constant yet intriguing flow.

All of the tunes are heavily electronic, with an abundance of pad work and sweeping drones. Several tracks, however, include more organic aspects, found sounds, and experimental percussion.

A prime example is Sabis "Plastic Stains". Build upon a base of swirling synths, it is driven by a glitch rhythm that grows in complexity as the track progresses. More layers of melody are slowly added until the song comes to a beautiful, glittering end.

"Fascination Pour Les Oeuvres Mineures", the albums closing track by Jules, likewise incorporates glitchy elements, though in this case the rhythmic structure is a great deal more loose. Given this and the songs dark feel, its no wonder it is my favorite track here.

There are also several straightforward ambient pieces, like Helioces "Orange", a beautiful track drenched in reverb and aching, distant synth lines. Helioces other contribution, "Liendale", is a bit more harsh, its sirening keyboards slicing through a thick haze of drone.

Perhaps the only misstep here is Xhales "Distress Amount", a tune composed of jittery sounds (clanking bottles, bouncing springs, clattering pipes). It contains too many distractions and quick changeovers for my tastes, effective breaking (however briefly) the overall feel of the album.

Several of the other tracks contain rhythms that are almost danceable, but these beats are placed so well within the mix that they are as easy to relax to as they would be to move to.

As an added bonus, the compilation is distributed through the Miasmah net label, so its free! Its worth the download time, so go do just that at archive.org. There is full color artwork included as well as a complete track listing.

Blackmouth - Blackmouth - 14-Sep-06 09:28 AM
"The whole is more than the sum of its parts". This expression has been applied to many a musical collaboration, more often than not to denote the relative lack of talent of the individual members. It is only through the collaboration that this lack of talent is overcome, the strengths of one member complimenting the weaknesses of the other and vice versa. There are, however, rare instances when the whole is a reflection of the brilliance of all those involved. Blackmouth is one such instance.

This self-titled album was recorded between 1999 and 2000 and is the collaborative effort of producer John Bergin and guitarist Brett Smith (members of the dark sound explorers, Trust Obey) and Jarboe (famous for her work with Swans as well as her own challenging solo releases). The 14 tracks within are soaked in emotion, each a finely crafted gem that freezes a feeling in time and presents it to the listener to examine. And yet a constant flow and mood is maintained, all the while exploring different, sometimes seemingly discordant, musical genres; from black ambient ("The Conversion – Silent") to down tempo (the title track), through spoken word vocals ("Surrender To His Heart") to near-metal guitar pieces ("Seduce And Story"). Each track strikes a delicate balance between Jarboe’s stunning vocal talents and Bergin/Smith’s haunting instrumentals.

The album opens with the first of three versions of "The Conversion". This "Silent" mix floats into being on a wave of horn-like synths that swirl in the distance until Jarboe’s echoing voice bubbles up from the depths. There is a palpable confusion and longing in her words, as she questions a lost lover, "I’ve been trying to find a reason & you know what? I don’t think there is a reason – or an answer to it… It’s just all of this, well… weren’t we meant to be it? I can’t deny it… Can you deny it? What you want, what I need… & then just… you know the rest…" Then she disappears again into darkness, leaving that sense of ache hanging above a black sea of regret.

The title track is a loose, growling instrumental mix of slow percussion and bass rumbles. Here Bergin and Smith display their considerable talents, crafting a lurching, yet somehow funky soundpiece. At an even 2:00 minutes, this is the shortest track on the album, although Bergin and Smith’s other instrumental, "In A World Of Her Own", is a mere 16 seconds longer.

Other CD highlights include "Black Pulse Grain", wherein Jarboe displays her considerable vocal range, from a tiny child’s voice down to a guttural growl. The song itself is a chilling piece, populated with heavy bass thuds, thick percussion, and squelched woodwinds that curl around the vocal track like a strangling vine.

"And I Call Myself Hag" is composed completely of various overdubs of Jarboe, creating a vaporous, disturbing sound canvas replete with visions of MacBeth’s sinister Three Weird Sisters.

Perhaps the most unsubtle, powerful piece is "Seduce And Destroy", which begins with an upright bass providing the background as Jarboe croons, "You say contentment is… boring. And life is just so dull. A girl needs strife to have a good life. Well, you know what I say… F*CK OFF, BABY!" Then an explosion of a cavernous bass drops and crunching guitars from Bergin and Smith, while Jarboe’s vocal is electronically stretched and twisted, becoming a stunningly vicious bellow guaranteed to raise adrenaline levels. This on-again off-again pace is maintained throughout the piece, entrancing the listener one moment and then pummeling them the next.

This entire album is a testament to the talents of the three artists involved. Each member has a keen sense of how to meld their respective skills into a cohesive vision. The result is ominously dark and thought provoking.

M.J. Harris & Martyn Bates - Murder Ballads (The Complete Collection) - 14-Sep-06 09:28 AM
M.J. Harris is just one of the monikers of the prolific Mick Harris. As the original drummer for grindcore godfathers Napalm Death, the musical direction he has pursued since leaving that seminal band may come to some as a surprise. While Napalm Death pummeled its listeners with lightning speed and aggression, much of Harris’s current output takes a completely opposite approach. ND’s sub-one-minute noise blurs have evolved into floating soundscapes that more often than not stretch past the ten-minute mark.

One of Mick’s first post-Napalm Death project was Scorn. This projects first album, Vae Solis, was released in 1992 and featured fellow ND alumnae, Justin Broadrick, frontman and co-founder of the colossal musical juggernaut, Godflesh. While Vae Solis played very much in the grindcore vein, fleeting glimpses of Harris’ future musical vision appeared in tunes like "On Ice" and "Heavy Blood". Both these songs would be later featured on the excellent Lick Forever Dog EP, the remixes featured on this 4-track disc tipping their hat even more in the beat-ambient-isolationist direction.

1993’s Journey Through Underworlds marked the first release by another of Mick’s projects, Lull. Focusing on darker, more isolationist ambience, Lull abandoned percussion almost completely, preferring rumbling, distant bass and slowly evolving, floating textures. Future releases, such as 1996’s Continue (featuring a single, 62-minute track), would push this idea even further. Mick continued to champion this style of production when he teamed with Martyn Bates, formerly of the 80s pop duo Eyeless in Gaza, to create Murder Ballads.

Originally released between 1994 and 1998 as 3 separate albums (Drift, Passages, and Incest Songs), this three-disc set is an almost definitive example of dark ambience. Each of these chilling, beatless texture pieces centers around Bates’ almost feminine vocals. As the title of the compilation suggests, the songs are inspired by (and seemingly modeled after) traditional English folk murder ballads. There are tales of the soon-to-be-married woman murdered by her fiancé ("The Death Of Polly"), the mother killing her two babies with a penknife ("The Cruel Mother"), the woman accusing her lover of the murder of her brother ("Edward"), and more gory tales in this vein. The subject matter is somewhat of a return to form for Bates, who grew up in England during the folk boom of the 1960s.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this collection is how Bates’ vocals interact with and compliment Harris’ sinister drones and clatters. While it’s easy to concentrate on the lyrics and Bates’ calculated delivery, there are many hypnotic instrumental breaks that allow Harris to display his talents for soundcraft. The placement of the vocals in the overall mix is key. They stand at the front and are, with the exception of occasional reverb, almost completely untreated, immediately grabbing the listener’s attention while moody synths and rumbles swirl about, yet remaining firmly anchored to, the vocal.

In all, this is a stellar example of dark music. The unsettling topics, presented in Bates’ almost crooning style, coupled with Harris bleak, nightmarish sonics, make for a starkly beautiful listen. Fall asleep to this and bad dreams will ensue.

Ocosi - Here And Loathing - 14-Sep-06 09:28 AM
In the early 1990s, several British labels (including Mo’Wax and Ninja Tune) began releasing music that veered sharply away from the disintegrating acidhouse movement. This new, downtempo style had more in common with the breakbeat sounds of American hiphop than the 4-on-the-floor smiley face of house, but was far more experimental that either, pairing the cut up rhythms and breaks with sounds that tipped their hat more to the ambient music experiments of Brian Eno and Klause Schulze than to the funk and soul of James Brown and Sly Stone. Perhaps sighting this atmospheric, trippy approach, the British music press christened the new style “trip hop” and bands like Portishead, Tricky, and Morcheeba where chosen as its standard bearers, along with Massive Attack, who’s 1991 release Blue Lines is often sighted as the first trip hop album.

Further genre splintering ensued as the style progressed. More elements of jazz, funk, and soul began to appear in the music of bands that bore the trip hop label, but the generally relaxed, slightly stoned feeling remained. Some musicians chose to emphasize this light, trippy feeling, while others continued to experiment with the darker edge which lay just beneath the surface of the feel good chill out. It is through this latter experimentation that dark hop was spawned and, as of this writing, Ocosi is one of that genre’s most talented and cutting edge practitioners.

Ocosi is the brainchild of UK-based noise and beats crafter Paul Molyneux. Having left what he calls "a sonicnoise Skullflower meets Godflesh vs Ministry type unit" in 1997, Paul met a likeminded artist in Simon Smerdon. Paul recalls, "We hit it off musically and we both had warped senses of humour, so that helped." The pair released their first full-length album, [In], the following year. This released was based on organic grooves and deep, near subsonics. 1999 saw the release of Horchata/Ocosi, a collaborative effort with New Hampshire’s dark side musicologist Horchata. The duo contributed tracks to various compilations during 2000, but by 2001, "differences in direction" had come to a head and Simon left to pursue solo work as Mothboy. 2001’s Guided featured some material from Simon, but by this point, Ocosi was Paul Molyneux’s alone. 2002’s release Hear and Loathing reinforces this, showing a man with a singular vision.

This ten track CD takes the broad and sweeping tones of classic trip hop and crushes them into claustrophobic and eerie shudders and static, creating a sonic fog through which indistinct shapes fade in and out of view. Stout beats assail you, heavy on the snare, while thick bass rumbles slither in and out of time. Glitchy pops and wiggles careen over dub timed sound pieces. What at first appears repetitive soon becomes hypnotic, yet a careful listen reveals constant, subtle changes in the underlying structures of the songs. There is a pervasive feel of something unsettling, as if the murk would suddenly part, revealing… who knows?

Hear and Loathing is dark hop at its most experimental. Songs like "Insex", a 45 second organized chaos of static based glitch, border on antimusic, sounding as if a swarm of robot cockroaches were caught in your ear canal. "Quat" morphs and distorts a simple beat into something altogether more sinister, all the while encircling the rhythm with distant drones and blurred, slippery cascades of sound. "Own Way" actually incorporates vocals (somewhat of a rarity in dark hop), although they are buried so deeply in static and the beat that they become almost another sound completely, adding color at points before disappearing back into the background, only to resurface again. Perhaps most chilling is the final track, simply entitled "C". Drifting waves of darkness float out of the speakers while a robotic bass line trudges beneath. One is struck by visions of some empty space wreck floating through endless night in the far future. The emptiness is palpable as the bass line disappears, leaving only the haunting synth line, a glimpse of a distant star in all that blackness, a stunning end to a powerful piece of work.

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