Label: Threshold House Format: CD The last Coil album proper, The Ape Of Naples marks a tragic end point, a conclusion to one of the more remarkable groups to grace the annals of electronic and deviant music. Completed under the direction of his longtime collaborator Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and bringing together tracks recorded in many locations over the last decade or more, this album marks the last such […]
Label: FatCat Format: 2LP,CD Sometimes there are groups who are so off the wall that it’s a bit of a trip just hearing them for the first time. With Animal Collective, it’s fair to say that their oddness continues for the second, third and pretty much every listen, and Feels is one of their strangest and most compelling releases to date. Fortunately, it’s also one which is so […]
Label: Mayan Format: CD So Bush got in again. Fuck. Well, look on the bright side, at least it means Al Jourgensen still has something to be angry about. Small comfort I know, but you take this shit where you can find it, I guess. I mean, a better world would obviously be great to live in, but I’m not sure my mind could cope with the ontological dissonance that would come with […]
Label: Probe Plus Format: CD And they’re back. Nigel Blackwell‘s lads are here to give anyone, and anything, they think worthy a damn good kicking. And they’ll do it catchily too, and with some great jokes. Quite some expectation, and opener “Restless Legs”, while funny, seems remarkable targetless. After this breezy opening, though, we get one of the two most acerbic tracks on the album, “CORGI Registered Friends”, […]
Label: Skull Disco Format: 12″ The debut release from the Skull Disco label, this double A side 12″ shows there’s lots of promise lurking between the drumming and dancing skeletons which are sure to become a sought after signature design characteristic of the label. Neither track references dub as a chilled out dope-nodding groove, instead distancing the bass and drum sounds, such as they are, from the body […]
The Spitz, London 18th July 2005 A balmy, dirty London night finds me climbing the spiral at The Spitz to see Morning Bride solely for this review, or souly for my own pleasure. There is no way that humans can survive long in this heat, or so I imagine. It’s raining outside, a slow tease rain that isn’t going to refresh so much as make sure my fellow […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: 2CD,2LP London duo Vex’d are to be found operating at the murky point where dubstep meets bleep, where grimey shivers fuss and bass drops rumble. The sounds collected on Degenerate take the momentum of dark drum’n’bass into yet edgier territory; the kind of places Witchman was hinting at years back, but with a particular atmosphere which is yet more gloomy — if that’s possible […]
Label: C.I.P Format: CD First there was Sand, whose 1974 album Golem was a lost masterpiece of Kosmische psychedelia. The album was re-released and annotated by David Tibet and Steven Stapleton along with other unreleased material from various related projects in 1996 as the Ultrasonic Seraphim double CD set on their combined United Durtro imprint, and with the dissolution of World Serpent Distribution is now sadly unavailable once […]
ULU, London 26 May 2005 Okay, here’s the usual disclaimer. I’m not going to be objective. In the slightest. Michael Gira‘s been a hero of mine for many years now, and this was the first time I got to see him live. So forgive me if I don’t give it the whole fair and balanced thing in the following review. You’ve got to hand it to Akron/Family. Considering they […]
Label: Ad Noiseam Format: 12″ Forsaking his love of distended gabba-ragga-breakcore noise for something not entirely unrelated, Jason Kohnen has applied his carefully-crafted breaks and furious percussive cut-up skills to grindcore metal – and what a rushing mashup the result is too. Big riffs meet monster bass and hyperspeed rhythms, twisting an already evil-sounding form into new shapes of enthusiastically demented chaos. Track titles like “Bloody Cenotaph” hint […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: 12″ The Lesser Spotted Burberry EP could as easily be a paean as a pisstake, but there’s no doubting the fervour of Henry Collins‘ approach to beat-mangling. “Ellesse Warrior” swoons from driving mashup to celebratory breakcore with a dizzying sense of humour in the application of a hint of ragga and a good dose of manic intensity. Peppered with progressively more and more dissolute […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: CD Bringing together a selection of 12″ tracks and a scattering of remixes by DJ Hellfish, One Man Sonic Attack Force showcases his penchant for mashing together Hardcore Techno and Gabba with HipHop and making the results bleed. “U Don’t Quit”, with its rumbunctious MC extolling the vitues of party-busting breaks demonstrates just how much better the uptempo beats of chart-friendly acts like … […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: CD,2LP If anything is going to show the diversity and breadth of Aaron Funk‘s talent, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született should. Taking a breather between bouts of full-tilt Breakcore insanity for a little lighter – but not lightweight – electrical string-led conceptualising, this album is nothing less than a meditation on what it would be like to be a pigeon living atop the Királyi Palota […]
Label: Planet Mu Format: 2×10″ (Vol. IV only), CD Updating the sound of Drum’n’Bass as he’s been rinsing it out since the early days, Bizzy B‘s Science EP Vols. III and IV CD doesn’t so much re-invent Junglist mania as restate it with extra oomph. There are no obvious surges into Grimey territory or cheap nods to Garage, but plenty of fun to be had from Bizzy B’s […]
– Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs? Label: Space Age Format: CD – The Penultimate Glactic Bordello Also The World You Made Label: Dirter Promotions Format: 4CD With a band as prolific and expansive as the Acid Mothers Temple, it’s somewhat difficult to select a “typical” release to settle on, and perhaps (perhaps not) Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs? is as good as […]
The Forum, London 9 October 2004 Having reincarnated with a new touring band as PTV3, Genesis P-Orridge returned to the London stage five years after his triumphant – if ultimately unsatisfying – Royal Festival Hall cocking of snooks and other no doubt pierced appendages (how does one pierce a cocked snook, exactly?) at the ravenous tabloids which had hounded him into Californian exile. Where that show had failed […]
Label: Mute Format: 2CD Only a few weeks ago I was bemoaning my shortage of Laibach material – just a couple of albums’ worth out of a repertoire that spans well over two decades – so I was more than a little chuffed when this new retrospective landed on my lap. This is not really an album for Laibach fans of long standing, given its near-lack of new […]
Label: Mute Format: 2CD No question has ever divided the civilised world more than this one: “What did you think of Nocturama?” For every devotee willing to bask in the righteous glory that was “Bring It On”, there’s a hater who’s all too keen to remind you of the less-than-spectacular “Rock Of Gibraltar”. Me? Well, I liked it. Except for “Rock of Gibraltar”, obviously. That was shit. That […]