Full marks to The Helen Scarsdale Agency for its decision to celebrate release #50 with a 10-cassette package housed in this handsome wooden box. We’ve seen a number of labels celebrate landmark releases with compilations, collaborations and so forth. This one outdoes them all. The package features work by Alice Kemp, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, … Continue reading Various Artists – On Corrosion
Category: Noise
Jean D.L. – Early Nights part 2
Belgian guitarist/composer Jean D.L. has produced a follow-up to his well-received 2014 collection Early Nights. Like its predecessor, part two pulls together material produced over multiple years, in this case between 2011 and this year. We get solo pieces and collaborations with Sandrine Verstraete, Margaret Hermant and Rodrigo Fuentealba Palavicino. Often described as an ambient … Continue reading Jean D.L. – Early Nights part 2
Various Artists – Berghain 09
Genesis P-Orridge has suffered a series of health issues recently, as you may have heard. The legendary avant-gardist at the front of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and a host of other projects developed a chronic form of leukemia that requires expensive treatment. Last month, she was admitted to hospital after experiencing difficulty breathing. Genesis is … Continue reading Various Artists – Berghain 09
Original Past Life – Inference/ Interference
Perth’s Original Past Life (OPL) defines itself as an “atmospheric noise trio.” It is a suitable description, albeit open to misinterpretation. Inference/Interference is not noisy, at least not aggressively so. There is a wide range of sounds employed throughout the album’s 44 minutes, all of them more than palatable. This is an exceedingly likeable album. … Continue reading Original Past Life – Inference/ Interference
Monty Adkins – Music For Empire / Merzbow – MONOAkuma
A pair of lengthy recordings land this month that illustrate two extremes of long-form composition. Listening to them side by side (or mixed together if you’re feeling adventurous) reminds us that beauty isn’t just in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is expressed. And everyone gets to decide what theirs looks and sounds like. Monty … Continue reading Monty Adkins – Music For Empire / Merzbow – MONOAkuma
masaya kato – contact
Whether by design or not, Japan’s Masaya Kato has found a way to combine a core feature of house music with ambient noise. His frequent use of Fender Rhodes and piano vignettes is immediately recognizable to club kids young and old. But what he does with those sounds is entirely new. Kato’s latest, contact, goes … Continue reading masaya kato – contact
Nick Sutton, Matthew Faulkner – PRELUDES/RENDERS
Electronic music producer Nick Sutton has partnered with Matthew Faulkner and Scott Darby on an ambitious project that occupies the extremes of both electronic and new classical music. Preludes/Renders offers seven preludes by Sutton and six renders – which is to say compositions featuring samples from Sutton’s preludes – by Faulkner. Darby’s video work accompanies … Continue reading Nick Sutton, Matthew Faulkner – PRELUDES/RENDERS
