Earhate- Planet Killer

Earhate- Planet Killer
Smell the Stench

Earhate is the project of Ryan O’Neill hailing from Alberta, Canada. Planet Killer is Earhate’s first CD-r release by Smell the Stench Records, but appears to be a small part of an extensive discography. Planet Killer is, as the CD insert so delicately puts it, a forty-four minute wall of noise.

“Wall” might not be the best way to describe this sound, but it is close. I believe a better description would include a layer of brittle sandpaper. The sounds here are relentless, low-end/bass-filled, analogue static. The main layer of the song dominates and remains constant throughout the entire forty-four minutes. There are more subtle, higher frequency changes happening constantly throughout this track, but the listener would need to be masochistic to hear these in detail; even in low volume my cochlea is crying out for help.

Earhate’s Planet Killer goes all out on the noise side of things. Planet Killer is formless, chaotic, spiteful, and intense. This is the sound that originally attracted me to noise, and still holds a strong place in my heart. This is definitely a release for the more devout of noise lovers.

Ceremony of Innocence- Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee

Ceremony of Innocence- Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee
Beverina Records

Ceremony of Innocence (C.O.I.) is the Neo-Classical project of Austrian Native, Alexander Weiser, who is also known for his Dark Ambient works with Bone Machine and B-Machina. Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee is the first release by Weiser under this project, following in the footsteps of a web-released single, Ich Tauche Tiefer. There are eleven tracks on this album ranging between one and fourteen minutes in length. There is also a video of the fourth track, Zeit und Raum, included on the CD.

C.O.I.’s Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee is constructed predominantly from synthesized choral sounds and percussion. These sounds evoke a very peaceful and enchanting feeling, but also impart an underlying feeling of imminence and necessity. This album reminds me of walking in a cold, lightly snowing winter’s evening, obviously alone, yet surrounded by moving shadows.

There is a mystery hidden within these tracks, one that will take me many listens to fully explore. The first half of C.O.I.’s Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee is a very thought provoking and beautifully sculpted orchestral work that reminds me somehow of the Myst soundtrack. The second half of Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee is lighter in nature and integrates more of an early 90’s ambient/IDM sound. The transition is surprisingly well-played, and the levity keeps C.O.I.’s Der Rote Glanz Der Flammenfee fresh and listenable throughout.

Audiocum/Occulto Digital- Corrosion Thrown Out

Audiocum/Occulto Digital- Corrosion Thrown Out
Symbolic Prod

Corrosion Thrown Out is a dual effort between Audiocum and Occulto Digital on the label Symbolic Prod. Both artists, from what I can gather, hail from France. There are seven tracks on this release, 5 of them feature both Occulto Digital and Audiocum, and two tracks are exclusively Audiocum. Two of these tracks are live recordings.

To begin, Corrosion thrown out is as pure a noise release as you can find. This is a wall of pain from beginning to end: There is rarely a moment for calm or collection. The sound here is massive and violent, the bassy analogue crunches are in a constant struggle against shrill and shrieking feedback. Occasionally a rhythm pretends to find it’s way to the front, but is quickly overpowered and thrown away, a mere fraction of itself.

Audiocum and Occulto Digital are a good match. I don’t know enough about Occulto Digital to make any statements on their part, but the sounds here push what I am used to with Audiocum into very intense and damaging new territory. Anyone that is not a pure noise lover would probably compare this album to having a migraine surgically implanted behind one eye with rusty nails. To anyone that is a pure noise lover, well, they would probably enjoy that feeling.

Ewe- Fractured and Remixed

Ewe- Fractured and Remixed
Smell the Stench

This curious release by Ewe is the first of two Fractured and Remixed albums by Zarach Baah Tharagh (ZBT). This is Ewe’s fifth release through Smell the Stench Records. Most of the thirteen tracks on this album are within one and three minutes of length. Each track is typically composed of eccentric keyboards and ghostly ambience.

Ewe’s Fractured and Remixed album maintains a consistent sound of droning, dreary ambience complimented by keyboard sounds, sometimes introverted and pretty, sometimes random and unconventional. The image I get from this album is of a haunted piano room captured at different hours of night: never a room someone would feel comfortable alone in, but some hours are more welcoming than others.

There is a good balance between music and non-music here, and the more eccentric keys throughout this album add a sense of levity. Because of the rhythmic nature of Ewe’s Fractured and Remixed album, I find my mind at ease while listening to unearthly and haunted music. I think ZBT has committed more to the tracks on this Fractured and Remixed release, but I suspect that is because these piano pieces need to be heard in full form. All in all, ZBT’s Fracture and Remix of Ewe’s Demo V is a pleasantly unexpected change of pace.

Novasak - Alpha

Artist: Novasak Title: Alpha Label: Triple Bath Records Genre: Experimental 1- Part 1 2- Part 2 3- Part 3 Novasak is another new name to me. From the info provided with the record, I can find out that this is the project of Todd Novosad, the guy running the Swamp of Pus label. This record is out on a Greek label this time, Triple Bath, a suitable one for the kind of approach found here. His experiments focus on a sound sculpture level, one that´s "influenced by space exploration and new horizons." What I found more interesting in his work is how I feel these cosmic possibilities tend to verify on a celular, microscopic level, as if compulsively away from outside infiltrations, breeding new alien senses during the process. Its frozen oceanic movement and deeply fried psychedelic taints resemble some of Astro approaches, but the way he deals with the journey carries the weight of an excessively detailed register, as in a trauma. This is the meticulous remembrance of an experience gone horribly wrong. Unidentified object spreading predatory skills, cosmic collapses, the infinite disorder. We are in no-land maps, the core of stars has already grown cold. Then the painful disruption of veins, non-circulation, brief explosions and severed heads clashing. Incursion into harshness is a consequence of intensification, but all virgin territories are condemned to oblivion. Insect colonization, that same suspension and inevitability. Life itself as a parasitic delay, imploding again, returning back to its larvar state, developing away from all external interferences. The overall feeling is that of a sculpture, raw and savage, meticulously separating meat from bone, the bone from the rocks, an obsessive, prolonged operation which reveals new shapes, or brings old ones to an obscure, diffuse light. Suspension of dust, infiltration into fissures, the cracked texture of nervous breakdown. Sound as a conquest, witchcraft as an equation. Contributed by: Barulho At Heathen Harvest

Goghal - Acrotomophilia

Artist: Goghal

Title: Acrotomophilia

Label: Smell The Stench

Genre: Harsh noise, Power electronics

1.Akron I
2.Akron II
3.Akron III

Acrotomophilia. A sexual attraction to a person with an amputation. I am looking at the album cover, cannot help but think about several OVO albums, staring at the almost faceless figure, which is missing a leg. Ever wondered how your life would be had one event that changed your life never happened? Nico Goethals has one horrible event that is suitable for this fruitless question, having lost his left lower leg by a hit and run car accident. Before that night,Nico would play the guitar and sing in several rock bands, But things change when you get a different perspecitve on life. After that unfortunate night, it is Goghal. And believe me, This is no rock band.

Goghal is about deformation and manipulation. The human body can be deformed as easily as sound can, all you need is a powerful external force, which is what Acrotomophilia is about. Going through over thirty minutes of heavily manipulated, scorching and hostile assault on the ears and on the mind, One can imagine sound as a sheet of metal that is twisting and bending endlessly without rest under the tremendous pressure provided by Goghal.

The album starts with several distorted loops to get you warmed up. There is no introduction, only a quick drop to the center of the storm. The loops gradually shift and change while the pressure just grows. Everything gets tighter and tighter until the track ends with a sudden two seconds silence. Just barely enough to shake your head a little from the first blow and get ready for the next. The second track starts a little less threatening, with mechanical sounds that create together a droning carpet, above which many high pitched tones float. This slowly grows into formation, with few breaks and fixations on one constant soundwave.

Third and last track is different. Like a chainsaw hitting metal for a brief second . Silence comes next and then another hit, a little longer this time, and another and another. The silent parts become shorter and shorter until it's completely gone and in it's place there is a piercing and tormenting farewell.

Do you like Kadaver? The Cherry Point? Then go get this album and withness your leg being sown off in 36 minutes. If you don't get the idea behind such music then forget about it and move to the next review. Goghal is intense and painful and his reason is what gives this album an extra force to work on his sounds.

Contributed by: ~Oren ben Yosef
At Heathen Harvest

Flutwacht- Breath

Flutwacht- Breath
Mask of the Slave Records/The Tourette Tapes

Flutwacht’s Breath is the 25th full-length release of this German-based project. Breath is released by Mask of the Slave Records and The Tourette Tapes. Breath is built of 8 tracks that approximate between 5 and 15 minutes each.

Flutwacht’s Breath is dark, droning ambience at it’s best: subdued sounds with limited progression to the inattentive ear; but the album ever-advances, and an inattentive listener would quickly find him/herself in a heightened sense of anxiety. The worlds created here are ripe, vast, and somehow predatory.

Each track represented on Flutwacht’s Breath is ominous and dissonant. The songs are composed of ongoing drones, with sometimes faint metallic scrapings, feint whispers, or mechanized pulsings. I find my pulse steadily rising with each passing moment, and any amount of attention I have tried to divert elsewhere falls right back into this unsettling work of music.

B-Machina- DNA

B-Machina- DNA
Smell the Stench Records/Skull Fucking Metal Records

B-Machina and Kenji Siratori’s DNA is the first collaboration by these two well-known underground ambient noise musicians. B-Machina also operates as Bone Machine and hails from Austria. Kenji Siratori is also a popular cyber punk fiction writer and hails from Japan. This 74 minute cassette release is not only a collaboration of artists, but a collaboration of labels: Smell the Stench Records of Australia and Skull Fucking Metal of Canada. This release is composed of six tracks, three on each side of the cassette. Each track is approximately 15 minutes in length.

The image DNA places in my mind’s eye is of warped transmissions from a dying planet. Indiscernible voices apathetically preach of the end of times as the world around them slowly fails and fades into another chapter of infinite history. The first track, Anti Vital, while in the same theme as the rest of the album, stands very much alone. It’s theme is very militant and oppressive, but is comprised of off-kilter rhythmic samples. This track is a strange offset to the rest of this release, but is very likable and I will return to it often.

As a whole, this release rides the line between a passive sense of loss and hopelessness, a collection of uncaring eulogies for the dead and dying. Every track is filled with ongoing drones and voice samples. I am somewhat familiar with the works of both B-Machina and Kenji Siratori. I could not honestly say I can tell which artist performed which role on this release. This is a very strong example of the abilities of each artist, and speaks well for the collaborative effort between the artists and labels.

Buddhist on Fire- When You Smell the Stench...

Buddhist on Fire- When You Smell the Stench of Dead Disciples You too will Realize that all Things are Impermanent
Smell the Stench

Buddhist on Fire is the unceremonious noise project of Robert LaBarge, hailing from Mesa, Arizona. This release, titled, “When You Smell the Stench of Dead Disciples You too will Realize that All Things are Impermanent”—which will be shortened to Dead Disciples for the purposes of this review—is a collection of three tracks, approximately 20 minutes in length each. Because of the uniqueness of each track I will describe them separately.

“Zombies of Dharmsala” conjures images of an aged black and white video documentary of machinery grinding relentlessly away; All of the gears and hinges are rusted and poorly maintained. “Open Sores” is reminiscent of a storm cloud forming slowly in a dark sky, lightening rolling through the clouds and thunder resonating through the dried and barren lands below. “Heaps of Bodies” is what I would imagine having one’s head stuck in a blender full of rocks—in a wind tunnel—would sound like.

Buddhist on Fire’s Dead Disciples is very much an atmospheric noise release, with the final track touching on the harsher side of noise. The basic atmosphere of each track carries from start to finish; extra layers are introduced to build, and then carelessly fall away. This release is very raw in form, but the sound is solid and interesting, and well worth the listen.

Herz Tod- Fractured and Remixed

Herz Tod- Fractured and Remixed
Smell the Stench Records

This is a review of Herz Tod’s Demo III, which was Fractured and Remixed by Zarach Baal Tharagh (ZBT). ZBT is also known for his project, Stigma Diabolicum. This is Herz Tod’s third release under Smell the Stench Records, and ZBT’s eleventh--this is also ZBT’s second Fractured and Remixed release. Both of these artists hail from Lorraine, France. There are seventeen tracks on this release, most of which are a minute long.

The sounds of Fractured and Remixed are both warped and crisp—a difficult polarity to establish. There is just enough ambience, and just enough activity, to cause the listener queasiness--much like floating down a calm river and having a nightmare of drowning at the same time. I originally chose this release for review because it was listed as “ambient.” This is ambient, but it is ambient that demands attention.

ZBT’s Fractured and Remixed version of Herz Tod’s Demo III is ambient music for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). As often seen in people with ADHD, the content is always interesting and keeps the listeners on their toes, but the tracks also end abruptly—with the listener still on their toes. These tracks are definitely fractured, but not enough to detract from the quality or dynamic of the sound.

.Prodvkt.- Obsession

.Prodvkt.- Obsession
Smell the Stench Records

Obsession is a CD-r release from Smell the Stench Records, packaged in a DVD case with a black and white insert. The insert discloses nothing about the band or this album, except for a web address and a picture of Death. The album, Obsession, includes six tracks ranging from four to fifteen minutes.

.Prodvkt.’s Obsession is an incredibly visual album. It is built of extreme minimalism; deep, droning sounds float through a comforting chasm searching for some outlet or home. Electricity flows and whirrs throughout the thick astral layers of this release, echoing into the void that consumes every moment. Obsession is a very good release for meditation; even the most abrupt sounds are quickly and fluidly assimilated into the droning depths of emptiness.

I honestly know nothing at all about this band, .Prodvkt., and I did not realize how much that lack of knowledge upset me until I listened to Obsession. Obsession is the epitome of good dark ambient: Powerful, yet subdued. This release is just as unsettling as it is soothing; if Obsession could manifest itself as a physical location, I would like to go there to die. Alone.

Stirner- Incubator of Hate

Stirner- Incubator of Hate
Smell the Stench Records

Stirner is the harsh noise project of Tony Mulder of the Netherlands. Incubator of Hate is one of many releases currently available from this artist. Incubator of Hate is a four track release, two tracks are only approximately two minutes of length, and two are approximately 20 minutes long.

Incubator of Hate is brutal and painful from the very first second. High-pitched drones tear through the foreground, digging into the listener’s brain and causing what feels like a temporary form of brain damage. Warring distorted factions of aggravated noise argue and toil menacingly in the background. Throughout the album the high-pitched drones and distorted factions battle for attention, both either jumping forth or dropping out randomly, only to be replaced by other, more aggressive twists with each movement.

To say the least, this album is made for fans of noise. On that note, this is a great taste of what underground noise should be. Incubator of Hate lives up to its name. There were times that I was convinced that the noise really did not like me as a person, and was looking for a way to cause me harm. Good stuff.

Mixturizer- Exploratio -- Saturatio

Mixturizer- Exploratio -- Saturatio
Smell the Stench Records

Mixturizer is the experimental noise project of the co-owner of Spanish label, RONF Records. Exploratio – Saturatio is the first Mixturizer album to be released by Australian label, Smell the Stench. Exploratio – Saturatio is a collection of five songs, ranging between 5 and 20 minutes in length.

With Exploratio – Saturatio, Mixturizer manages to find an equilibrium between structure and chaos. The chaos, often what sounds like guitar-generated noise, becomes a dynamic voice of its own; a polar-opposite of the stability provided by the ever-churning rhythm. It is easy to fall into an uneasy trance listening to this album, only to have all peace ripped away at the slightest change in structure.

Exploratio – Saturatio takes a different angle than I have previously been exposed to in Mixturizer’s work. The sound of Exploratio – Saturatio is a mix of dominating, rhythmic layers of stability accompanied by dynamic, harsh screeching tones of chaos. Each track is writhe with sounds, densely compacted, and neatly exploding at the seams. Mixturizer’s Exploratio – Saturatio is definitely a worthwhile addition to an already worthy discography of sounds.

Black Mold Phallanx/Lacerated Tissue- Pustules of the Putrifact

Black Mold Phallanx/Lacerated Tissue- Pustules of the Putrifact
Mental Abuse Records

Black Mold Phallanx is a project from Steve Pekari, proprietor of Mental Abuse Records and Splatterfuck Tapes, two DIY labels accessible through Myspace. Pakari also heads numerous other underground Death-Crust-Grind-Metal-Noise projects. Regretfully, I don’t know anything about Lacerated Tissue, except that they are from Italy.

I think the best way to adequately describe the sound of both of these projects is by an over-generalized analogy, so here it goes: Imagine an engine that was created by sewing multiple collapsed, tar-blackened, puss-filled, rotting lungs together. The fuel: Adrenaline and old milk. The difference between Black Mold Phallanx and Lacerated Tissue, to my ears, is that someone poured too much milk into the Lacerated half. This split release is a collection of heavy guitar, rapid drums, and organic sputtering noises, peppered with smatterings of synthesizer.

The songs are all very short and are just as different as they are the same. What this release lacks in dynamics it makes up for in novelty and originality. I’ll admit, metal has never been my forte. I’m not well-advised on the current accepted modes of sound, but this is the most unique perspective I’ve ever heard.