Nivhek - After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house

Nivhek is a new alternate moniker for the work of Liz Harris/Grouper. After last year's awesome Grid Of Points, which accompanied me during my mother's short hospitalization and death, this new four-part recording features also Michael Morley (The Dead C/Gate), has an equally depressive/ghostly mood. Piano is to be found in minimum quantities here, as the main instrument is a lonely vibrating synth, along with some intense deep bass drones, and of course Liz's evasive vocals. There's a somewhat ethereal quality reminding me of Dead Can Dance's Within The Realm of a Dying Sun. As I said it's a very depressive record; two days ago I listened to it on repeat for a few hours while reading Teodor Adorno's Lectures on Negative Dialectics (a very difficult read in itself) and having a cold due to having open windows during a somewhat cold day, and I felt very miserable to the point of feeling my heart beating weakly. I don't want to dissuade you from listening to it; it's another high peak for Grouper, it's just that it can really destroy a good mood. 2019 LP on Yellow Electric; I chose not to separate the tracks, as they continue seamlessly and it would ruin the unity.

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Gate - Saturday Night Fever

This was probably the best record of 2016 for me. Michael Morley of The Dead C makes a dizzying and nightmarish approach to disco, with four 10-minute-plus songs starting as booty-shaking anthems and ending up corroded in washes of psychedelic feedback. Never having been a fan of clubs and parties, this decay pretty much fascimiles  how I felt every time after a couple of hours exposed to the loud music and the lights and the booze.There's this sense of dizziness and isolation as the disco rhythms are gradually but surely overtaken by the noise and Morley's crawling vocal delivery. While this is more musical and rhythm-based, tThe approach is not far away from the hypnagogic postmodern deconstructions of 1980s pop culture as offered by James Ferraro in his early releases. 2016 lp on MIE Music.

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The Dead C / Rangda split LP

Side 1: Four lost Eusa Kills (1989) tracks by The Dead C, ranging from dying dictaphone distortion and decayed drum machine beats on the title track and almost punk rhythms on track 4 "Heaven's Wheel." Note: I have mistakenly numbered both track number 3 "This Much I Know" and aforementioned track number 4 as "04"

Side 2: Two improvised sunset-watching-in-the-desert jams by Rangda (Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance, Sir Richard Bishop of Sun City Girls and Chris Corsano. Last track "Sancticallist" is utterly ear candy.

2013 LP on Ba Da Bing!

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