Black Metal, Documentary, Pagan, Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Norway; Limited Edition 2 x DVD set (2010) - New
There has been more written in books/magazines and visually documented on film about the rise of black metal in the late '80s/early '90s than most would care to shake a stick at, much less a scythe. And almost all of it revolves around the infamous series of events that coincided with the rise of blasphemous form in Norway during the early '90s, including the anti-Christian/pro-Pagan rash of church burnings and MAYHEM's macabre carnival of murder and suicide. The difference with "Until the Light Takes Us" is that it serves at once as a history lesson, cultural treatise, and artistic statement during its 93 minutes, doing so without losing the viewer in a haze of minutiae or purposeless sensationalism. It also pays off by allowing people like Fenriz (DARKTHRONE) to offer an insightful view into the historical/musical side and the ever-controversial Varg Vikernes (BURZUM) to offer a lucid, downright logical explanation of the cultural, heritage-based appeal of the subgenre without spiraling into rants of an overtly National Socialist nature. A range of other scene stalwarts, such as IMMORTAL's Demonaz and Abbath and the ubiquitous Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg (ex-MAYHEM, et al), discuss their views of the personalities involved and the gruesome fates that befell people like Euronymous and Dead, as well as the artistically significant strides made in a Scandinavian region that gave birth to seminal acts like BATHORY, MAYHEM, IMMORTAL, SATYRICON, DARKTHRONE, ULVER, and BURZUM.
The limited two-disc DVD edition of "Until the Light Takes Us" offers the best bang for the BM junkie's buck. Included across both discs are outtakes, deleted scenes, and visits with several black metal musicians not featured in the film, including Ted "Nocturno Culto" Skjellum (DARKTHRONE) and Jon Necrobutcher (MAYHEM) and additional conversations with the movie's "stars." The 45-minute class on the history of black metal taught by Professor Fenriz on Disc 2 is the cake taker. It is difficult to make a DVD that reinvents the story of the Norwegian metal movement and "Until the Light Takes Us" doesn't do it either, but it sure as hell tells the tale from some different angles in a way that makes it a sweepingly gratifying film experience and a mandatory purchase for the curious and the devoted.
Tasmania, Noise Rock, Shoegaze, Classic, Indie, Unstable Ape; CD (1998) - Ex Used condition
Beacon of Hope is noise rock for sure – something like a cross between crazy shoegaze with mad industrial rock. And the entire album sounds as heavy storm weather arranged for angry vocals and furious guitars. If you want to know what kind of music may come out of the musical hell of 90's Tasmania, then Sea Scouts are your band. Their sound is never too little and almost always too much.
Scientists, Various Artists, Monomen, Philisteins, Mudhoney, Sunset Strip, Cheater Slicks, Rock n Roll, Punk, Australian; CD Compilation, Dog Meat Records (1993) CD
TRACKLIST
-Cheater Slicks Set It On Fire 3:13
–Honeymoon Killers* Murderess In A Purple Dress 2:15
–Monomen* Swampland 4:39
–Stump Wizards* Bet Ya Lyin' 2:12
–Star Spangled Banana Frantic Romantic 3:12
–Walkingseeds* Nitro 3:38
–Mudhoney We Had Love 4:40
–Sugar Shack (2) Hell Beach 1:38
–Vertigo (12) Pissed On Another Planet 3:16
–Philisteins* Teenage Dreamer 2:39
–Laughing Hyenas Solid Gold Hell 3:36
–The Sunset Strip It Must Be Nice 4:19
EBM, Techno, Experimental, Electronic, Industrial, Noise; Limited Numbered Edition EP - Ex Used condition
After an acclaimed tour opening for Nitzer Ebb in North America and a prolific production for Desire Records, //TENSE// is back in their creepy studio and the result is a constellation of brooding synth bass lines, pounding electronic drum pad sounds, movie samples and distorted vocals that sound pitch perfect underneath all of the madness. To have an accurate idea of what we are talking about, imagine that Snake Plissken never escaped New York and he started an electro body music band with The Duke. Then, youare almost close to. //TENSE// are definitely bringing back to life the earlier days of EBM, in a funky-industrial mixture that is so close to the shiny mid 80s period of Cabaret Voltaire or earlier Ministry, think early Wax Trax-era US industrial (Ministry, Skinny Puppy) crossed with the more minimal european wave sound (Absolute Body Control, A Split - Second). Limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies with 2 inserts.
Techno, Industrial, Electronic, Experimental; Clear Vinyl 12" Single - Ex Used condition (Cover has fingerprint marks - Vinyl Ex)
Kerridge was subsequently further welcomed into the fold of fresh and forward thinking, techno-not-techno producers with the Waiting For Love 1-4 EP, released through Karl O’Connor’s Downwards imprint earlier this year. The Englishman will continue his dalliance with Downwards with this EP entitled From The Shadows That Melt The Flesh.
Techno, Acid, House, Electronic, Experimental, Germany, Dark, Industrial, Electro; Double Vinyl LP - Ex Used Condition
New Cult Fear, on Boysnoize Records, proves it through disciplined, focused craftsmanship. It's the type of no-frills production that deceives the amateur listener with its simplicity, while the seasoned listener knows that the simpler the elements, the harder it is to make a track that moves the dancefloor. Moving dancefloors it does, although there are few smiles to be had. This is music for dark rooms, for Nitzer Ebb's famous pairing of "muscle and hate". This is being electrocuted by a broken TB-303 -- only you find the feeling erotic, your exclamations recorded on a haunted reel-to-reel. And it's never sounded so good. The 11 tracks of the LP sit squarely in "the zone", that time in the club when time itself has stopped, when mind turns off and body takes control. Menacing acid lines, jacking bass, and harsh, reductionist production build the backbone to fragmented Latin percussion and vocals (including a feature by Miami's Cuban/German Otto Von Shirach), which nod to Cardopusher's South American roots and lend a sense of exoticism to its otherwise Detroit rooted aesthetic. This sense of geographic and temporal disconnection/reconnection permeates the LP; this is Detroit techno and Chicago acid, broken, fragmented, sent through antiquated and illegal P2P networks to Venezuela, burnt to CDr and snail-mailed to a Barcelona basement rave, recorded live, then blasted wide open in fractal bits over a global electronic network and reassembled here-and-now in a darkly crystalline execution. As the title New Cult Fear suggests, this is less the stuff of dreams and more-so of a paranoid nightmare. But let your body take control, and nightmares never sounded so good.
Experimental, Electronic, Ambient, Noise, Industrial, Abstract; Vinyl LP (2016) - Ex Used Condition
Love Means Taking Action separates itself from Croatian Amor’s previous work because of its ability to maintain an overall mood among its many smaller shifts. Older works like Genitalia Garden would constantly reset tone between tracks, choosing between a darker or lighter sound. Whereas here a song like “No Sex Club” starts so claustrophobically with single-tone electronics and cut up samples of someone panting, only to give way to bright, piano-like chords that shift the whole tenor of the song, while still keeping the original creeping sensation present in the background. These production changes point toward the greater risks Rahbek is taking here. The vocal slicing and splicing on “Like Angel” are reminiscent of Holly Herndon, and the short piano piece “Nadim Call Emergence II” would never exist on previous releases. Here they not only make sense, but give the more traditional Croatian Amor compositions (“Octopus Web,” “Any Life You Want”) more gravity.
Techno, Dark, Electronic, Experimental, Ambient, Germany, Self-released; Double Vinyl LP - Cover has water damage/creases - Vinyl Ex Used condition
Pearl black techno from the shady edges of a decayed forest, Headless Horseman's music doesn't let the light filter through its dead branches slowly waving to an eternal cold breeze. Unstoppable asymetric rhythms support distant industrial recollections and dark shamanic atmospheres from a faded mechanical era, emerging as a carved up figure, half-machine and half-human. This album is the perfect companion to those who seek sunless territories, roamed by murky stampedes of lifeless horseriders.
Electronic, Experimental, Noise, Harsh, Racoo-oo-oon, Ambient; Vinyl LP - Ex Used condition
Secret Abuse, a project of Jeff Witscher’s, manifests this durable paradox in the most tangible, material way. Violent Narcissus periodically clumps up (earplugs!) but then disperse once more into Witscher’s shimmer-drone backwater.
Experimental, Electronic, Abstract, Tech, Dub, Shapednoise, Mumgo, Logos; Vinyl EP - Ex Used condition
The Sprawl - a scindicate of mutant sound carriers individually known as Logos, Mumdance and Shapednoise. Inspired by Gibson's notions of uploaded consciousness in a post-human society, and the way in which the sensory-scrambling effects of technology have played out across our collective reverie, EP1ventures four cuts of retina-scorching dis-torsion and chrome-burning modular synth work.
Jarboe, Swans, Justin K Broderick, Godflesh, Experimental, Electronic, Industrial; CD (promo copy - no back CD card)
Two of the most prolific, restlessly creative, and influential artists in underground music join forces; the result sounds closest to Jarboe's dark, gothic electronics. Sonically, J2 sounds most like the terrain Jarboe has been exploring as a solo artist: dark electronica, laced, bound, and gagged with goth, psychedelia, and metal. Yet the seeds of this album were planted during the Jarboe-sung "Storm Comin'" from Jesu's recent Lifeline EP-- a dance-y, swirly, poppy track, perhaps even recorded during the same session as these. J2 opener "Decay" begins with eerie, heavily effected Jarboe yodels with a spooky synth-bass churning underneath. Then you get blasted with that thunderous distorted bass-- also an echo of sorts, showing how Broadrick's grit-doom bass from the first few industrial-based Godflesh albums owed a ton (operative word meaning heavy) to the Swans' early nightmare stomps.
Experimental, Ambient, Noise, Nate Young, Wolf Eyes; Limited Edition Translucent Purple Vinyl Re-issue (2019) - Ex Used condition
You could neither classify Regression as a Noise record nor an Ambient one, instead the synth dissections and tape treatments more closely reference early electronic music. 'Trapped' offers little of the claustrophobia suggested by its title, although the continual woody knocking sounds and filthy oscillations do engender a sense of unease, while 'Dread' brings to mind the Desmond Briscoe soundtrack to Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape. 'Under The Skin' returns to the more esoteric, intangible sound designs that characterised the album's opening, writhing around in a spluttering, tactile fashion that's at once sonically rather beautiful and deeply sinister, modulating through grisly synthesiser gestures while more textural, percussive sounds flood through dub-style tape delays.
