La Mancha Del Pecado / Xazzaz ‎– La Fetichista split tape

Yet another split between La Mancha Del Pecado and Xazzaz. Miguel Pérez offers two dense subterranean and Lovecraftian harsh drone/noise invocations, while Mike Simpson tortures his guitar and amp once more with layers of swarming feedback and disharmonics close to Skullflower's best. 2013 tape on Agorafobia Tapes and Molotov.

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Unkerd Wood - Demo II tape

 

Second release for this creepy doom/black metal North-East England project, playing subterranean crawling invocations with slow funeral-like drums and guitar/bass creating a thick foggy noise that cannot be escaped from. It's great that these guys can invoke such enveloping darkness just by playing live with three instruments and making good use of reverb, without any keyboards or studio tricks. Track three has this extremely spooky and depressive e-bow melody morphing into black metal arpeggio combined with heavy gruff caveman vocals-definitely a must hear. 2012 tape on Legion Blotan.

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Xazzaz - The Candle Is Lit tape

Xazzaz playing "happy droneday to you" on the occasion of Lee Stokoe's birthday (as can be seen on the tape inlay). Having read reviews of his live appearances, I gotta say that they were pretty accurate in their raving: deadening/deafening drone with a more industrial-Throbbing Gristle vibe here, and as always with the greyness of NE England ever-present. Essential listening released in 2014 on the sadly missed Fuckin' Amateurs.

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Xazzaz - Smoke Jaguar/Ghost Wolf cdr

Over-the-top distorto-guitar noise on the first track, but all the money's on the second track, which is a wild psychedelic ritual drone with hazy electronics, guitar feedbacks and ecstatic percussion, quite reminiscent of Matthew Bower's Total. Superb. 2012 cdr on Molotov.

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Xazzaz / La Mancha Del Pecado ‎– La Esquina Roja Split cdr

On this superb split between two of the most notable guitar-based drone/noisers of the present, Xazzaz/Mike Simpson is at his most black-metal moment, combining sinister tremolo riffing with terrorist feedback in a buried-in-the-coffin sound, while La Mancha Del Pecado/Miguel Perez plays a heavy Culver-ian/Sunn-O)))-esque heavy static drone hymn that sounds like it also has a little bit of an organ. 2013 cdr on Oracle Netlabel

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Xazzaz - Untitled cdr

Damn me if Matthew Bower isn't proud of his disciples. This one could have been one of the greatest post-reunion Skullflower releases, with its combination of a menacing serpentine riff with psychedelic electronics and a buried sound. Listened to the riff and don't tell that this could have also been the drone version of Carl Orff's "Veris Leta Facies" from Carmina Burana. The sinister drone black metal evilness gives way to ten minutes of industrial drone stasis, a mix between a factory and a Sunn O))). The second track is an interplay between low-frequency electronics and bass drone throb, like Culver working on a spaceship. An essential release of the North-East English underground. 2012 cdr on Molotov.

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https://mega.nz/#!9b5WTIrK!MvH-6vg-J0L94lqyUpIj4sP52sCVXI4GwJp_hNtN-lI

Xazzaz - Black Hearts and Brittle Bones cdr

This one sounds deceptively quiet, beginning with a beautiful droning sound of what I think is accordion, sounding very similar to fellow spirit Culver, and around the three-minute mark a siren-like guitar feedback comes in, after which things become suffocating. For the remaining 9 minutes we are treated with harsh and miserable guitar improvisation, somewhere between Earth 2, Skullflower and oozing black metal, thereby sounding similar to Mike's dungeon black drone project Satanhartalt. Just great. 2012 cdr on Molotov.

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Xazzaz - Obit cdr

We've talked about Mike Simpson, Xazzaz, his label Molotov Productions with the great visuals and the bands he plays in (Gigantmæcg, Satanhartalt, Dark Bargain and Oppenheimer) before. Xazzaz is his solo project, in which he plays guitar-based deafening noisedrone with over-the-top bass distortion and swarms of feedback, under which sometimes you can hear a hint of riffing. 2012 cdr on Molotov Productions.

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Gigantmæcg ‎- Bone And Steel cdr

Swarming hellish, bad-trip noise and motorik drum rhythms buried real deep under the noise by Mike Simpson of Xazzaz and George Proctor of Mutant Ape, etc. 2013 cdr on Molotov Records.

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Witchblood - Ecsed tape

The return of Johnson/Stokoe finds them in a much deeper and heavier mood. No longer does LJ plays multi-note melodies on the piano, just some very sinister and majestic chords, and the droning background is considerably murkier than the thin sound of the first tape. On the flipside, there is a superb 11-minute track dominated by a shimmering organ chord which, in contrast to the crawling descend that usually characterizes LS's music, has a very ascending and floating quality. As for the title, Ecsed is the Hungarian town where Elizabeth Bathory grew up. Essential. 2016 tape on Matching Head.

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Popular Radiation & Witchblood - Live At The Mining Institute split tape

This is an amazing split live tape recorded in Newcastle and shared between Popular Radiation and Witchblood. PR is a solo project of Jazfinger's Hasan Gaylani, so you know you should expect something good. This isn't Jazzfinger-like improvisations but a grinding, climactic drone accompanied by some deep bass noises. It's very good, but the highlight is Witchblood, a project of the omniscient droner Lee Stokoe of Culver and one of the most talented women in noise, Lucy Johnson, whose Smut releases I've just posted. What we have here is one of the most beautiful and enveloping drone recordings ever made, consisting of a maniacal piano melody (played by Lucy?) and a deafening, screaming siren drone (Lee-made?) that sounds like it's played on strings, but I'm not sure. I really can't get enough of this, it has an amazing cathartic quality and must be placed among the classics of modern experimental music. 2014 tape on Boiled Brains Bootlegs.

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Witchblood - Eponine tape

Witchblood is one of the best projects of the omniscient Lee Stokoe of Culver and Lucy Johnson, one of the most talented women in noise, whose work as Smut I've just posted. As noted in Smut's Piano One tape, Lucy is a superb piano player, and Witchblood's music is very much reliant on resonant piano melodies, while Lee probably accompanies here on guitar ambiences and sound manipulations. The result here is less noisy than what both artists usually present and possesses a psychedelic and spectral quality, which sometimes sound very much like 1970s horror movie soundtracks, or nightmarish nursery songs. Indeed, the fifth track has a very musicbox-hazy child dream melody that is just hair-raising. This ghostly, fleeting mood is also highlighted by the sound which is drowned, and a little bit like recorded on chewed-up tape. Amazing music by some of the most creative noise minds at work at the moment. 2013 tape on Matching Head.

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