NON - Easy Listening for Iron Youth

NON is Boyd Rice: pioneer, instigator, prankster, misanthrope, esoterica authority, and all around jolly fellow. He wrote for The Modern Drunkard for chrissakes.

"Boyd Rice's tongue is firmly within cheek (then again, when isn't it?) with this compilation of his work from the 1980s -- among other personages, the album is dedicated to Vlad the Impaler (pictured on the front cover feasting among his victims), Charles Manson, and "the Hero of Green River." Easy Listening for Iron Youth has one big disadvantage for the newcomer -- namely, no information at all as to where the compositions came from originally. Credits for his various collaborators (including Coil, Tony Wakeford, and Rose McDowall) are mentioned, happily, but otherwise the interested newcomer will have to start scrounging websites to find out more. That problem aside, the compilation is a well-sequenced peek into Rice's mind, covering both his musical and thematic extremes, from swirling, ear-piercing classical loops to murky crypto-religious invocations and subtle variations on seemingly straightforward rhythms. An emphasis on sound qua sound predominates for all the details of the presentation; such songs as the minimal beat and repeating notes of "Rise," the distorted howling of "Carnis Vale," and the fascinating mechanical drone/squall Coil-co-write "Predator/Prey" revel in the possibilities. Moments like what sounds like a Nazi rally audience on "Conflagration" and the distorted horns and recitations on "Scorched Earth" aren't going to please anyone who looks first and foremost at Non as the spirit of Hitler come to life (ignoring the fact that, for instance, Rice notably leaves that name off his dedication list). It's the wryest and blackest of humor at points, the more so because the music itself is straightforwardly serious and unsettling. Perhaps the creepiest moment: "Eternal Ice," which reworks the melody of the Christmas carol standard "Silent Night" into a distinctly less Christian setting, yet all while retaining a chilling, central calm." - Ned Raggett

Carnis

Aethenor - Deep in the Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light

"Aethenor is the trio of Stephen O’Malley (or SOMA) on guitar, contact mic and electronics, Daniel O’Sullivan on piano and percussion and Vincent De Roguin processing, mixing and playing organ. All three are credited with “room,” whatever that means, and I have an idea. On “Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light” the trio mines a brooding amalgam of cycling, industrial clatter and improvised/composed pieces, all seamlessly edited together to invoke a dark, meditative deep listening experience. Squealing hinges, droning guitars, rustling chains and bells banging up against concrete and wood add up to a room-saturating nightmare at high volumes that takes cues from sources as disparate as ancient Greek fantasy and modern minimal drone masters like Mirror and irr.app.(ext).

Across four untitled tracks the trio explores a subliminal sound sculpture reminiscent of the grim crawl of Nurse With Wound’s pulsing masterpiece, “Salt Marie Celeste,” (as evinced on the incredible opener “Untitled”—all tracks here are untitled), AMM and Organum’s organic-metallic free-falls, among others. What gets me though is the way the trio combines beautiful minimal drones taken from the early Krautrock drone handbook with striking found sounds (a cawing crow is employed brilliantly on the phenomenal second track) and unorthodox live percussion. And it’s all coated in a surreal glitchy haze to help throw even the most mesmerizing passages at least a little off-balance.

As for the album title, it’s a line from Homer’s “The Iliad,” which is hardly off the beaten path for O’Malley and his typically ancient concerns. The reading of many an epic sea-faring push into the oceanic abyss would likely benefit from an aural injection of this dark mood soup. “Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light” is one of the finest experimental albums of 2006." - Lee Jackson

Sink

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Darklands (1987)

MMMmmmmmMmmmmm bitch!

"Back in the 80's, the Jesus & Mary Chain blasted onto the scene with Psychocandy, an aural assault of fever-drenched guitars, spare lyrics, and a knack for crafting catchy, hook-ladened anti-pop. 1987, the JMC released Darklands, to the cowsternation of some and the warm embrace of many udders. Some original JMC fans decried the "cleaned up sound" of Darklands, but in truth the pared down accoustics in this masterpiece merely pushed the Chain's drenching wall of feedback into the background, allowing the Brothers Reid to focus on moore traditional melodies."

nicolas cage's face eaten by a bunch of bees

Merzbow - Live in Prague 3-24-09

Courtesy of our friend Felix, a live set from the undisputed Emperor of Noise, as prolific and ear-obliterating as ever.

Get It

Einstürzende Neubauten - Silence is Sexy

As requested by Jorge, i'll be uploading some EN works from the the late 90's-early 00's. We start with this magnum opus.

Disc 1

Disc 2

Skullflower - Form Destroyer

They make your bones shiver and HUM.

"Skullflower was the flagship band of the Broken Flag collective, a group of experimental noise rock bands from the U.K. (most notably Ramleh, Total, and Sunroof!) that often swapped ideas and personnel. Led by guitarist Matthew Bower, the highly prolific Skullflower boasted the largest cult following of the bunch, with a sound based on sludgy, Black Sabbath-style riffs overlaid with feedback, fuzzed-out guitar noise, and throttling rhythms, all played at an ungodly volume. Always an improvisational outfit, their textured noise freak-outs grew increasingly free-form over the course of their career, moving farther and farther away from even loose definitions of "rock." Skullflower claimed a broad range of influences in addition to the aforementioned Sabbath: heavy psychedelia (Blue Cheer, et al.), Krautrock, classical avant-gardists (John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley), early industrial music (Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, Whitehouse), and noise rockers from the American indie world (Sonic Youth, Big Black, the Butthole Surfers). Despite a clear association with industrial music, Skullflower never employed much tape manipulation or electronic instrumentation, preferring a standard guitar/bass/drums lineup. The results often drew comparisons to bands like Savage Republic, Nurse With Wound, and New Zealand's Dead C, and were an avowed influence on bands as diverse as Bardo Pond and Godflesh.Skullflower was formed in London in 1987, growing out of guitarist Matthew Bower's previous band, Total (which subsequently turned into a solo side project). Skullflower's early core members were Bower, drummer Stuart Dennison (the only other constant besides Bower), and bassist/guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn. The lineup was fairly fluid, however, especially early on; other contributors included guitarist Gary Mundy (also the leader of Ramleh), bassist Alex Binnie, bassist/drummer Stephen Thrower (also of Coil), and auxiliary bassist/guitarist/drummer Anthony DiFranco (also known as JFK). Initially recording for the Broken Flag label, a community enterprise that also handled Ramleh and Total, Skullflower made their recorded debut with the 1988 EP Birthdeath, and followed it with the full-length Form Destroyer in 1989. Like much of their subsequent output, both releases were pressed in extremely limited quantities. Material from both was included on 1990's Ruins, the group's first release on Jaworzyn's Shock label; several tracks appeared in remixed form.The contentious mixing process for Skullflower's next release, 1990's Xaman, spelled the end of Jaworzyn's involvement in the group. Bower subsequently recruited Anthony DiFranco to take over the full-time bass duties, and this trio recorded 1992's IIIrd Gatekeeper for Godflesh guitarist Justin Broadrick's HeadDirt label; they also toured as Godflesh's opening act that fall. Two more albums followed in 1993: Last Shot to Heaven, on Noiseville, and Obsidian Shaking Codex, on RRR. By this time, DiFranco was decreasing his involvement in the group, and eventually left altogether to record as Ax; his place was filled by official second guitarist Russell Smith, formerly of Terminal Cheesecake.Hereafter, Skullflower concentrated on free-form noise improv to a greater degree than ever before. 1994's Carved Into Roses, on VHF, featured guest vocals from Philip Best (also of Ramleh and Whitehouse), plus Casio squiggles from Simon Wickham-Smith. 1995 was a prolific year even for Skullflower: Argon (issued on Freek) added horn players John Godbert and Tim Hodgkinson to the overall din, while Infinityland (a second effort for HeadDirt) again welcomed Best and Wickham-Smith, and the live Adieu, All You Judges (back on Broken Flag) captured a joint performance with Ramleh. 1996's Transformer was released on the prominent, garage-oriented indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry, and marked a quieter, more ambient direction for the band, complete with strings. It was followed later that year by the similar This Is Skullflower, which appeared on VHF and featured Godbert on piano, as well as third guitarist Richard Youngs. Following that release, Matthew Bower opted to concentrate on his other bands, the even more improvisational Sunroof! and Total, and retired the Skullflower name.Bower and Dennison resurrected the group in 2003, recording Exquisite Fucking Boredom for the tUMULt label along with guitarist Mark Burns and bassist Steve Martin; it was co-produced by Neil Campbell (Vibracathedral Orchestra, ex-Total) and Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound)." - S Huey

FD

Sunn O))) - Black One

I'm not even going to try to explain this one since this does it perfectly:

"For the last decade, the duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson have been taking the doom side of heavy metal so far from those three legendary chords from Black Sabbath's immortal "Black Sabbath", it feels like a completely separate dimension, as if you expect to slip into a black hole for eternity. The blackest of the black, the bleakest of the bleak, Sunn O))) combine high art with brutal power like no other, composing music that dares listeners to sit through it all, locking them into sludgy grooves so slow, so hypnotic, it will either have them repulsed, enthralled, or better yet, both. It's easy to shrug off Sunn O))) as nothing but pure, arbitrary noise, but the more you delve into their work, the more you begin to sense a structure to the music that's as lethargic as it is dreary. It's mood music for the worst of moods.

Like the voice of the undead, it's pure cinema, a blend of shock rock, black metal, and ambient music, and the overall effect is devastating."

Báthory Erzsébet

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog- Party Intellectuals (2008)

Ribot's "first rock band since high school". Jeez Louise.

"Ceramic Dog
1. chien du faience: expression: frozen with emotion, as in the perfectly still moment before a fight breaks out.
2. Ultimate kitsch object.
3. A free/punk/funk/experimental/psychedelic/post electronica collective, featuring Marc (Cubanos Postizos, John Zorn, Tom Waits, etc etc), plus two of the best young players on the New York/California underground improv/experimental rock scene, Shazad Ismailly (bass) and Chess Smith (drums)
4. Not a 'project': a real band.

"Marc Ribot's new power trio, filled out by the remarkable versatile rhythm team of bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith, is his rawest band in ages." (TimeOut NY)"

todo el mundo es kitsch.

The Flying Luttenbachers - Constructive Destruction

And thus, the Luttenbachers and their improv terror tactics were born. The Weasel Walter-led collective rumages through godforsaken landscapes of pure retina burning noise prog jazz abandonment that'll leave mouths agape and more than a few saying "stop that shit it's fucking obscene!". Xenakis meets Magma in Ayler's rehearsal space. For more about the great Weasel, go here.

I know some coffeehouses I would love to see become ashes

Mu. - Arecibo Psycodelic Classics 17: Abortos Musicales

Compilation of work by Puerto Rican drummer (and friend to the blog) Nomar Díaz. Ranges from free jazz, to concrete, to noise, to overall sonic dementia.

Flipper - Sex Bomb Baby (1988)

Abe already posted these guys' classic album "Generic Flipper", so go check that one out now! Here's another classic from these San Francisco punks. It contains singles, b-sides, and compilation tracks from 1979-1982. THIS is punk rock at it's finest.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Einstürzende Neubauten - Strategies against Architecture '81

Discarded metal being hit, drilled, heated, manipulated. Junkyard scraps submitted to harsh treatments. Circuit bending and primitive electronics. Guitar and bass abused and mangled. This is fucking Industrial. If you can't handle it, go back to VNV Nation. These fuckers used goggles to protect their eyes from the debris, not as a ridiculous dancefloor accessory. They once drilled a hole in the wall in one of their shows and left the venue through it. They destroyed the floor of the ICA trying to find an underground secret tunnel that linked it to Buckingham Palace. They recorded themselves digging huge holes in the Autobahn. As one does. A thing of beauty.

"Einsturzende's first compilation album summed up all that was brilliant and thrilling about the young band, who perhaps more than anyone else encapsulated exactly what "industrial" consisted of -- honest-to-goodness mechanistic pummeling and musique concrete remade for a newer generation. Selections from Schwarz and Kollaps feature, along with single-only cuts and various live performances as well, giving a striking picture of the group's varying approaches. Bargeld's rasped, whispered vocals and sudden screams crawl with threat and dread in a consciously dramatic but never overtly hammy fashion, while the rough rhythms and harsh clattering which serves as a bed for his delivery touches on everything from free jazz to minimal Krautrock rhythms. That the volume often gets amped to its absolute highest is only to be expected, but silence and space between sound matters just as much, especially on a slew of songs toward the end. Guitars and bass appear more often than might be expected, but the way they're played is something else entirely, muddied deep in the mix or roaring as undifferentiated noise stabbing in here and there. It's also interesting to hear the earlier version of the band in contrast with the later, when a slightly more formal rock presentation took the fore. Given that on the recordings here the group consisted mostly of percussionists beating on metal and whatever else was to hand, it's little wonder things sound even more aggressive. Maybe for some this will only sound like the backing music on a Sprockets sketch, but the impact on any number of sound terrorists then and since from this album can't be measured. " - Ned Raggett

KOLLAPS

Last Exit - Cassette Recordings '87

Still live, still pumping big-time improvised noise wail. This one features a take of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man" that sounds like no other version you've ever heard. This is mighty powerful stuff, and those a tad squeamish when it comes to full-bore noisemaking and improvised energy should explore this record only with proper supervision. There's no telling what will happen if you're left alone with these guys for any length of time.- John Dougan

More sonic destruction from perhaps the loudest free jazz group of all.

My Balls, Your Chin

Flipper - Album - Generic Flipper

Who better to tell us how fucked up life is than a bunch of junkies? Flipper were done with the speed and energy of the original punk bands. Like a heroin high they wanted their sound to be slowwww, and The Melvins, My War era Black Flag, Nirvana, ext.... all thank them for it. 

Guitarist Ted Falconi barely plays a normal chord in the entire album. Most of it is just noisy feedback over Bruce Loose/Will Shatter's repetitive, fuzzed-out bass lines, and Steve DePace's slow drum rhythms. The sound is the perfect backdrop for their extremely bleak and hopeless yet honest lyrics.

Sex Bomb is probably the most famous song here and for the most part it's Loose screaming "Sex bomb baby, yeah!" over a fuzzy bassline, a saxophone, and noisy guitars for 7 minutes. It's enjoyable as fuck, but the true highlight here is "Life is Cheap". Musically it's similar to the others but Loose applies a harmonizing effect on his voice so it sounds as if two people were singing the song, a normal voice and screechy high pitched rat. It's such a bleak sound. He compliments it with lyrics like these:

"People cling to things to make to make their lives seem real
Crawling like bugs at some fool leader’s heels
Boasting of freedom when they’re tied down with chains
It’s time to give it up. here comes the death rain."

One of my favorite songs ever.

Flipper Still Rules OK!

Last Exit

Debut album by this free jazz supergroup composed of Peter Brotzmann, Bill Laswell, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and the late great Sonny Sharrock. Insane even by free jazz's standards, it's loud, noisy, and chaotic. Not for the faint of heart.

Download