SKY JUICE

Wandering solo guitar missives that sometimes border on Americana (in the way Higgs does, but here with more drugs), the first SKY JUICE release in several years makes the return of Fag Tapes to TE even more pleasant than you might expect. There are a couple of short bursts of blown out hardcore to keep you on your toes, but for the most part the thirty minutes that make up The Black Tapes are calming and whimsical. Favorite track: the third one. 

THE BLACK TAPES

J.S. AURELIUS

The title pretty much sums this one up perfectly, and the source pretty much ensures quality. I suppose I could say a lot of things, but I will leave it here: this is mandatory, my friends. Headphones and volume strongly recommended.

FOR LUXURY OR THERAPY? MEDITATIONS ON DRUG USAGE

MUDO AUXILIO

There are things that I understand, and there things that I just enjoy. And then there are the things that are outside of my field of knowledge, but that I like enough that I want to understand....things like MUDO AUXILIO. Five bleak, quasi-industrial synth dirges that sound more terrified than terrifying and hold my interest completely. The murky pulse of "Avarice" that closes this release is worth the price of admission on its own, but the totality here demands to be consumed as a unit. Repeat listens recommended. 

REVENANT

OPHIBRE

The tension that this tape creates is difficult to describe...you spend the first few minutes wanting it to go somewhere, the next few wondering if it will, and the few after that realizing that it won't - and then you really get tense, because you still WANT it to. And then the second side of the tape brings pure and blissful salvation in the form of a soaring 12 minute exorcism...and the first side suddenly has more meaning and context than you could have imagined.  Trance inducing psychedelic drone that sounds like it's from another time as much as from another planet...OPHIBRE is insanely prolific, and this 2010 release is just the tip of the iceberg. 

UNTITLED DRONES FOR IRON OXIDE

GRANITE MASK

Casually foreboding, GRANIT MASK spend a full quarter of 2012's Missing Footage in introductory preparation before a meandering onslaught of minimal synth and primitive analog electronics. I picture this as a replacement of missing raw demos from early electronic/industrial acts or first wave PIAS artists...and I hold this outfit up as further evidence that the difference between good and mediocre has less to do with making something new, and more to do with making something right.

MISSING FOOTAGE

NIGHTWITCHES

Montreal's NIGHTWITCHES spend more than a quarter hour massaging two tracks into a peaceful submission. Numbing, if only in their sheer monotony, these sounds are as crushing as they are beautiful, with ominous vocals soaring over only occasionally. I mean, really it's just two people bludgeoning you with tonnage, but they sound so fukkn perfect when they do it. Fans of IDES OF GEMINI, KARP, RAGANA and the like will want to take note here...it sneaks up on you pretty quickly, but this shit is deadly.

NACHTHEXEN

MEN OF BISSAU

A truly bleak aural exercise, MEN OF BISSAU demand patience and command attention over the course of two painstakingly crafted pieces. Deliberate drones serve as a base for sounds that practically morph into emotions on the first track, while the second side presents a happier time trying to break through...and failing. Listening to this at high volume in the dark, while the rain comes down outside, will change you.

CLUB BARAKA

For those interested, 2013's Club Baraka is the first of three (thus far) releases from MEN OF BISSAU, all available from the ever-compelling Nostilevo label. All are recommended...

SCANT

Ominous drones slowly give way to peaceful sounds of collapse and loss.

CONTRARY TO REASON

EMACIATOR

Twenty two minutes of bliss presented as Neglect. Those not familiar with EMACIATOR are welcome to start here....and know that from this point, all directions lead to places more pleasant than your own.

NEGLECT

SOW DISCORD

When Dave (IVENS [yes, my link is dead, but the links to the respective bands are still hot, and that's more important], WHITEHORSE [is this not the most foreboding bunch of humans you've seen all day], CONCRETE ISLAND, and more) asks for your address, then you give it to him....because you might get something like this in the mail. He describes it as "bleak techno" and I can't really argue. It's like the thing that the people would want to dance to if the people were wrong. Which is to say, if they were our people. One half hour of the best pulsations. 

MUTATION

Hard copies available from the fascinating Sabbatical label in Melbourne. I don't know why you work, but if you do, then your money belongs here. Rent can wait, there are attorneys to help with that. Take care of yourself first. 

AIR SIGN

This presentation by AIR SIGN listens like an extended raga that morphs into layers of ambient drone and then closes with a high energy/low fidelity monotony backed by primitive drum machines, digital waves and blasting SUICIDE-esque organs. Split into two movements, both fronted by trance like vocals, this tape might take a while to get into, but after the first side crescendos about eleven minutes in with countless tracks of sound and caterwaul and electronics inviting you into another realm so you can truly live the rest of the tape....well, after you've let go, then the rest is pure gold.

OUR GALACTIC COVERED WAGONS TO THE STARS

MARSHSTEPPER

I first saw MARSHSTEPPER at a place called The Lab in San Francisco a few years ago. I don't remember why I wanted to go to the show, because I didn't really know anything about the band, but I had convinced myself that it was gonna be a thing...so I went. I didn't know anyone there, and it was a big weird open art gallery, so I sat in the corner and drank....and I waited. A long time. And nothing happened. I texted Karoline something to the effect of "I am an idiot. Why am I waiting for something to happen? There's no way that whatever is going to happen is going to be good enough to justify all this waiting once it actually happens, which might be quite a while from now." And still I waited. Alone. I mean, there was one dude that I kinda knew, and we said "hi" but that was it because he had actual friends there....and by "there" I mean The Lab in San Francisco, where exactly nothing was happening. Apparently there was a fellow from AVON LADIES in the band, because I saw him walk in with some equipment, but we had only met that one time in that really hot warehouse (I mean, most things in Phoenix are hot) so after we said "hello" I just kept waiting. I went to the store and bought two beers, drank one of them on the way back from the store and then went inside with the other one....and I waited. Seriously, either I was really early, or the show was really late, because I waited for a long ass time. No way a show could be good enough to justify the waiting, but I kept waiting because of a thing called FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). What if it was really good? What if it was worth the wait? So I waited....and then a band played. By "band" I really mean "dude with a laptop computer and he was called JOCK CLUB and it was pretty cool (actually very cool) so I kept waiting, encouraged by optimism and FOMO. And then it got dark. And there were candles. And there were robes. And there were naked men. And it was transcendent. Perfect. Awesome. Everything I hoped plus so many things that I never dreamed. It was the thing you wait for. It was the thing you are afraid of missing. It was the reason that FOMO exists - because you do not want to miss what I saw. I've tried to see MARSHSTEPPER several times since, and every time something has gotten in the way. I like to think that this is the universe telling me that I saw the perfect show, and that I do not need to see another. Maybe, for once, the universe is right.

MARSHSTEPPER

MEMORY SMOKER

One more hour of trance inducing synth drone from Boise, Idaho's MEMORY SMOKER. At some moments terrifying, and at others indescribably peaceful. I enjoy this outfit, and recommend them.

SYNTH ETERNAL

TORTURE CORPSE

Genuinely one of the most compelling and indescribable releases I've come across, Invocation Of Nirrti is also one of the best. The seldom used guitar will bring black metal hordes to the altar, but they will be lost and empty upon their arrival...the tracks breathe and grow, and grow more menacing as they do, and then the sound finishes without closure. The first time through, I found myself lying down next to the speakers, mouth agape, in total silence for several minutes after it was complete...I hope the same for you.

INVOCATION OF NIRRTI

EARTH JERKS

Technology. Think about how many geniuses of the past were limited by the availability of a means to create. You might have thought of some killer synth oddities in your brain in 1951, but what the fukk were you supposed to do with them, you know? Thankfully it's The New Millennium, and enter: EARTH JERKS. The product of one San Francisco dude and a few devices, EARTH JERKS create a palpable vibe with these two tapes - hypnotic synth/organ drones meet cryptic industrial weirdness, all presented with a subtle confidence that is rare. The subdued sixth track is my personal favorite, perhaps because it stands so far out from the full on presentation of everything else included in this post...but any single number here is, without question, a part of an overall vision. And when I close my eyes to really see with EARTH JERKS is doing, all I want is more.

EARTH JERKS

HARSH NAYYAR

A hypnotic project probably made in someone's closet under the influence of a lot of things, Argo Nunya combines industrial noise, limitless tracks of guitar leads and sounds, repetitive sampled beats and manipulated vocal chants to create something that falls in a crevasse while trying to leap from stoned-teeneager-with-a-sampler-and-a-laptop status to a peak of aural greatness. The weirder HARSH NAYYAR is, the better HARSH NAYYAR is, as some of the more indulgent multi-track experiments fall short while subdued dubs like the third untitled missive issued here are stellar exercises in patience and the mid tempo monotony of the track that follows creates dance floor hysteria in my brain. This is a formula that must have been followed thousands of times: Dark Nights + Substances + Unchecked Ideas = (Something). And in this case: (Something) = Good.

ARGO NUNYA

BOYS OV PARADISE

Waves of early PTV influenced trance inducing ambiance from BOYS OV PARADISE, one of the many indentured artists on the Ascetic House label. Like the soundtrack for an as-yet-produced futuristic horror short, Death Is An Imposition On The Human Race is a compelling listen that will take you on a journey...if you will let it.

DEATH IS AN IMPOSITION ON THE HUMAN RACE

CHICKLETTE

It's like industrial dance music chopped and screwed and completely deconstructed. It'll hurt your brain if you let it, but these ultra minimal, breathy and manipulated sounds are the perfect soundtrack to a cold dark evening. Which begs the question: Why did I post this in the morning? Good question, and I don't have a good answer. Repeated listens and maximum volume will be rewarded.

THE LONELIEST BITCH

EARTH MESMERISM

Electronics and general audio manipulations backed by drugged out repetitive drumbeats, Virginia's EARTH MESMERISM took a minute for me to really sink into but the moment I crossed the threshold I just wanted to submerge myself completely. Intense and captivating raw drones, this hits the same nerve as BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE...and that's a powerful nerve.

BLEED INTO AIR // END OF AUTUMN

BRANDON TERZAKIS

Peaceful ambient drones carefully constructed by guitar and electronics. Like a hum from a church bell frozen in mid-ring for what seems like an eternity, Terzakis' patience is astounding. Further description is really not necessary - either you have a place for these sounds or you don't. 

LORE