By Norse Wadruna are something pretty unique in the world of extreme music. Formed in 2003 by Gorgoroth‘s Einar Selvik, they are possibly the truest expression of all things Norse currently available in popular music form. A million miles from the awesomely campy Viking histrionics of Turisas, Wardruna offer a far more measured, esoteric and respectful take on Nordic history and culture.
album review
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Lower Floors Music This newbie from Wolf Eyes is taking the dark broodiness that defined 2006’s Human Animal to new claustrophobic highs. Gone are the headache-inducing colours of the past in favour of something more nefarious.
Telegraph Harp Sanguinaria canadensis, or bloodroot, is a perennial flowering plant native to the north-eastern United States. The root and the juice of the root are characteristically red and has been used medicinally, but is highly toxic.
Riot Season Sublime monsters, idle, learned, sick of ancient gold, their ships akin to ancient caravans, taking their treasures to Kazhann. Their museums are their temples. Their parks, the entire planet. Philippe Druillet – Chaos Superior Venus consists of two monumental planet building tracks that take you into the beyond
Westworld …as I always say, anyone who looks at the Fall track-by-track, rather than the correct way, which is as one discrete body of work – is, no pun intended, a fool. Tobi Blackman, Dictionary Pudding When I was doing my masters, there was a seminar several times a week where the phrase “what is at stake with [x]…”
Kscope OK, I’m going to have to admit this from the very start that Richard Barbieri is one of my musical heroes. I first saw Japan live when I was sixteen, they were the soundtrack to my teenage years, and Richard’s wonderful synthesizer work was a massive part of that soundtrack.
4AD The Serpent’s Egg (1988) The Serpent’s Egg was a solemn secular experience for the most part, seeking sanctuary in the monastically sparse, a warm cathedral backing to some prized vocal action, Lisa Gerrard‘s phonic phoenix of a voice glinting Byzantine.
Zoharum The second instalment in Zoharum’s Circuit Intégré series brings together a trio of electronic artists from the Polish musical underground, each providing three pieces in turn for the compilation.
Consouling Sounds The very definition of slow-burning, Dead Neanderthals‘ début release for Consouling Sounds draws out what at first listen seems like an introduction over half the length of the CD’s single track and across the whole of one side of the vinyl edition.
Mottomotto Masselys are a Norwegian supergroup of sorts with members coming from Salvatore, 120 Days and whalesharkattacks. This supreme meeting of minds has resulted in the most affecting romp through the last forty years of leftfield western music, its eclecticism only matched by the wealth of ideas.
Zoharum Nowa Ziemia 2 is the name used for the collaborative music-making of Artur Krychowiak for this album of two duets, one played with Michał Banasik (Tranquilizer), the other alongside Dawid Adrjanczyk of Akpatok. Using guitars as the main instruments, here the trio create two distinct and highly immersive tracks.
Zoharum Continuing their series of re-released (and new) Expo 70 albums, Zoharum present a double CD set gathering together two radio sessions recorded in 2008 and 2010 on KFJC 89.7 radio in Los Altos Hills, California.
Northern Spy The first track literally hammers through with blinding insistence, a powder keg of percussive energy and squally sax. This staggered vocal from Alyse Lamb magnetically drawn over it, pulling you deeper into the fray
Room40 Described by Lawrence English as a record of “protest against the immediate threat of abhorrent possible futures”, Cruel Optimism finds him focussing on power relations in the new era of extreme fragmentation which draws ever-nearer.
SOFA Music Kim Myhr and Lasse Marhaug have never worked together before, but they are both well established in the Norwegian experimental music scene: Marhaug as the uncrowned voice of noise, with hundreds of releases and projects under his belt, and Myhr is acclaimed in Norway as a composer and jazz guitarist of the explorative kind.
Raging Planet Sweet Nico are an ethereal and dreamlike duo from Portugal who have been together for a couple of years and concoct a sad, intimate and at times delerious style of aching dreampop.
12K In pursuit of an “acoustic” truth, Taylor Deupree has ditched his usual hi-tech shenanigans for a more hands-on, cut’n’splice approach, a back to basics attitude that has created a rewarding series of skeletals. A pearlescent cascade, the accompanying photographic book attempts to pin down and complement the stripped-backed intimacy on offer here.
Riot Season With no less a space cadet than Makoto Kawabata at the production controls, it’s no surprise that Hibushibire engender fabulous furry freak riffs of a sort that Acid Mothers Temple can be heard blasting into space at any given psychedelic happening.