ENFER DORÉAL

 

On 2009's Devotion, French savant Maxime Primault (aka ENFER DORÉAL) both reinvents and confirms the brilliance of drone. Musique Concrete imagined as atmosphere. Simplicity. Patience. The casual tumult of "Amlothi" coming out of the excruciating 13+ minute "Reborn On Assi Ghat." The ability to make the "Rainbow Warrior" sound so incredibly hopeless and beautiful at the same time....this is a special artist. I'm late to the game (this is typically the case) but I am so glad that I have arrived. And now - listen to "Une Respiration D'ombre" in darkness and silence. You'll thank me. 

DEVOTION

WEAVING STONES

 

Gloriously haunting lo-fi drones captured in the PNW. Two movements of mesmerizing pulses recorded in 2023 backed by a live conjuring from 2024 that focuses on mangled low end guitar feedback. There might not be much to say, but there are layers upon layers of sound waiting for your ears. 

WEAVING STONES

S L E E P D E A T H

 

A stunning journey through thought and sound, S L E E P D E A T H created something truly special with 2013's Reality. Sounds found and manipulated, ancient synths resurrected. Emotions manifested as sound. It would be a disservice to describe Reality as a soundtrack to an imaginary film, though it would be easy to do (and perhaps that film should exist). These sounds deserve to be experienced solitarily, in the world that they have constructed. This release will consume a solid hour, and if you're listening properly then you will be enriched by that hour even though you will never get it back. It won't be time lost, but it will be time spent. And enrichment takes time. It's worth it. 

REALITY

HEDIA

 

The answer to yesterday's post is New Mexico's HEDIA. They are so simple and honest, so sonically straightforward, so....so real. There's no description necessary, this tape is little more than a collection of sounds presented as deliberate individual thoughts. This tape is patience and understanding. This tape is telling you it's okay to do the wrong thing, even if you already did the thing. HEDIA is...patience. I don't think I have ever described a recording as patient before today....HEDIA is patient. Patience. It's okay. You'll be okay, I think.

TO QUIET, CAUSE SLEEP OR REST

•••

GOOD NIGHT

MSHR

 

Dark and expansive noise-scapes from Oregon's MSHR...the embodiment of a "sound as journey" approach to creating the sonic reality from other realms. Two complimentary pieces on 2011's Nesting Face; two pieces that will take you away...if you let them. 

NESTING FACE

KJELD

 

One hour of mind melting immersion noise from KJELD. These sounds are more than fifteen years old now, and it feels like a mechanical creature emerging from the past as a reminder of the doom that awaits in the future. Ten minutes into the first movement I start to get anxious as the rumbling just....continues. The aftermath of an explosion. Sonic debris rolling towards you in waves. Two faint respites follow, and then the ominousity returns in the form of a deadly drone track that will fill eight minutes of your day with unabashed dread. These are the reasons we wake up in the morning, kids. 

ACTION #5 MONO

UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH

 

So I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico a few weeks ago, digging for tapes in this record store. I grab a few I'm stoked about, a couple I'm curious about, and a $2 cassette that looked like it might have some weird religious chants or some shit. As the store owner is adding everything up, he picks up a copy of Results Oriented and says "Some guy brings these tapes in occasionally - plastic bags with little slips of paper inside. You interested?" And I replied, "Interested? Of course I am. Thank you." I settled up and thought as I was leaving "I feel at home here. They know me."

RESULTED ORIENTED

SOZNA & YOUNGTRIBE

 

Two Russian artists collaborate to create six ambient drones. I wish it were as simple as that, so I'll refrain from further comment and let the sound conjure my wishes. 

EPHEMERAL

SUPER STREET 11: DEATH ELECTIONS

 

I'm not sure what you think you should expect from a 60minute Fag Tapes live compilation, but Death Elections is what you should prepare yourself for. Because that's what's waiting for you, and that's what you get. Bleak monotony from KVLTS, a harsh wall collaboration that joins PRURIENT, AIR CONDITIONING, and FFH for the sole purpose of torture - SICK LLAMA sound practically tame by comparison even though their offering is arguably more disjointed and disconcerting. GRAVESIGHTS are almost music (don't worry, they aren't quite), and the hypnotic rumblings of RAVEN STRAIN do not end the sound collection on any kind of note that could be described as "relief." If anything, the Super Street series is an exercise....

SUPER ST. 11: "DEATH ELECTIONS"

UGGLESEDD

 

I ask the same question/s each time I think about this tape....what is it? where did it come from? More succinctly: What did it come from? UGGLESEDD land like a deconstructed project that was never constructed in the first place. Space synths, minimalist black metal monotony, drones upon drones upon drones, cavernous horror, and then "Saivo" on the flip - a thirty minute underwater experiment/al journey through and/or to (a)nother realm/s. I don't know what UGGLESEDD came from, or what became of UGGLESEDD, but I appreciate the mystery (almost) as much as I appreciate the sounds. 

UGGLESEDD

STEPHEN McDONNELL

 

Created specifically to be used in conjunction with a book titled THE WAY OF THE SHAMAN: A Guide To Power And Healing, 1986's Didjeridu For The Shamanic Journey is every bit as much of a trip as you hope it might be. The sounds themselves aren't decidedly psychedelic but the effect they have will turn your brain inside your head, and any tape with a printed advisory to not operate heavy machinery while listening.....well that's a tape that I'm going to want to fuck with. 

DIDJERIDU FOR THE SHAMANIC JOURNEY

SWAMP HORSE

 

Erratic and oppressive drones from SWAMP HORSE on 2007's Crippled Witch. A supremely damaged sonic excursion that listens like a doom recording deconstructed and reassembled by a sound engineer on LSD. Doom, synth, noisecore, horror soundtrack and drugs in a blender and poured slowly into your ears, filling the canal with muffled mania. 

CRIPPLED WITCH

AJILVSGA

Black Sky Monster smothers you like...well, perhaps like a monster swallowing a blackened sky. Two pieces - slow, deliberate, ominous and beautiful - though it's beauty that is thoroughly and intentionally masked by layer upon layer of sonic despair. As compelling as the sounds on this 2011 release from AJILVSGA are, the feelings that result from deep listening are what really makes it worth your time. 

BLACK SKY MONSTER

 

(unknown)

 

A gorgeous piece of experimentation from an unknown source, this cassette will appeal to fans of the Ripping Stars From The Sky tape from a few weeks back. The first side starts with a resigned melancholy, quiet low end distortion riding waves beneath floating ethereal guitars - the sounds of distant yearning. There are moments that sound just a few degrees removed from early new age experimentation but the recording moves steadily towards an ominous end as it progresses, each track seemingly darker than the next. The low end takes a stronger roll on the fourth movement, with hesitant open notes from the guitar starting to overpower the sublime while the guitar fades to a whimper. And by the sixth movement, darkness has won...a distant, rumbling bass dominates, and then takes over completely for the 13+ minute final piece. This unnamed presentation is as much reflective as it is enjoyable - reflection, even when beneficial, is not necessarily comfortable - and leaves me feeling open. Or maybe just empty. 

CASSETTE WITH DOTS ON THE COVER

Should go without saying, but any additional information regarding the source of this cassette or the artist/s who created it is very (very) welcome. 

RIPPING STARS FROM THE SKY

Sometimes it just hits you. And it can be brutally simple but you're floored. Slack-jawed. You have to put everything down and really listen to RIPPING STARS FROM THE SKY for it to have that effect, and I don't just mean that you have to empty your arms....you have to unburden yourself. The tape will do the rest. It's raw, distant, desperate, willing. Mostly instrumental lo-fi doom driven by keyboards. Picture BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE, Italy's MISANTHROPUS and CASIO TONES FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE....transcribed onto the same page and then crumpled up into a ball. 

RIPPING STARS FROM THE SKY

 

EFFEXOR

 

A soaring, pained, twenty minute opus constructed in 2003, in the forgotten rural lands far south of San Francisco. Described by the creator as a "response to the war on terror, the impending war with Iraq & America's lust for Middle Eastern resources," Barren is excruciatingly deliberate - "Oceans Of Jihad" spends its existence coaxing the listener into hoping for a release while "From Father To Son" provides something of the sort, albeit in the form of volume induced angst extended out over the final six minutes of the piece. More of a realization than an actual release of any sort. This one was passed from a stranger's hand to mine in the midst of what feels now like another lifetime (perhaps because it was, in fact, another lifetime entirely). It's hard to tell if the piece itself has matured over those 17 years, or if I was just (finally) ready for EFFEXOR when I went back to revisit this tape a few weeks ago. Either way, I am glad to have it with me in this lifetime. 

BARREN

GARETH HARDWICK

 

Twenty minutes of drone. 

Twenty minutes of peace. 

Twenty minutes of immersion. 

Twenty minutes of reflection. 

If we are doing our job, then we have earned far more than twenty minutes...

...but twenty minutes is what's on the table. 

Take it. 

The offer expires. 

CARNATIONS

Live: Nothing at the moment. 

CROQUE MADAME

An interesting and alluring 2010 release from Peasant Majik. Swarming guitars replace fidelity with feeling and simplicity on four deliberate pieces totally a little over twenty minutes. Hear the hesitation when shifting chords in "Junkyard Dog," the extraneous distortion on "Espresso Maker" that becomes a natural component of the song, and feel your brain searching for soft vocals during "This Is Not My Keyboard." I put this in somewhat casually when it came to me a few years back, but absent listening of  I Love To Laugh proved impossible then....and still does. 

I LOVE TO LAUGH

BEE MASK

Yet another from the Chondritic Sound vaults. The aptly named BEE MASK create forty minutes of gorgeously disorienting sonic swarms that calm - or lull - the listener. When I dip my toes into pools of noise and electronic manipulations, I often feel like a kid who is just discovering CRUDITY. Like, everyone has heard ANTI-CIMEX and you know it's killer, but then it sinks in that there is so much more, so much deeper you can go, and you aren't sure whether you should dive or quickly pull your foot back because you know you'll drown if you go any deeper. My journey has, for the most part, been one of quick dips, but that will change. Eventually. And you may never see me again. 

VERSAILLES IS NOT TOO LARGE...OR INFINITY TOO LONG

 

AH FUCK

Like a(nother) dose of time travel, it makes sense that "these" bands would exist in every era of creativity. As were ARTHUR STONE and 50 MILLION to me, so is AH FUCK to a spun out 25 year old Southern California freak in the Modern Era. One half hour of drones and breathy vocals and sounds and manipulations and dreamy guitars probably recorded in a closet in the wee hours of a(nother) morning. 

ALONE IN A CUSP