Xazzaz / Space Victim / Inseminoid ‎– Live At Morden Tower 21.04.2013 cdr

Awesome violent guitar dissonance on the Xazzaz set, LOUD psychedelic chaos by Space Victim (Lucy Johnson of Smut/Witchblood, and Mike Vest of Bong), and a return to the icebreaker ship engine room by Inseminoid. 2013 cdr on Turgid Animal.

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Star Turbine, Inseminoid, Fordell Research Unit, Xazzaz ‎– Nundungeon cdr

On this 4-way split that was made for a gig in Edinburgh, we have Star Turbine (Sindre Bjerga and Claus Poulsen) making low-end dictaphone drone that is amazingly effective in its decaying tape sounds, Inseminoid offering hypnotic harsh noise/drone, Fordell Research Unit creating spooky sci-fi UFO drone, and Xazzaz destroying amps with his gruesome harsh guitar noise. 2014 cdr on Gold Soundz.

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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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Unkerd Wood / Pact Of Ash / Gammal Sed ‎– Northern Retaliation split tape

3-way split tape by three projects with overlapping memberships: Lee Stokoe's Pact Of Ash begins the program with a 9-minute instrumental slow barrage of black metal riffing and dead-slow drums that somewhat reminds me of that awesome Murmuüre album in 2010. Unkerd Wood consists of Mike Simpson (Xazzaz, Oppenheimer, Dark Bargain, and Satanhartalt - all of which have been covered here) on bass & vocals, Jamie Stewart (Wrest, Fuckin' Amateurs Records, Oppenheimer, Dark Bargain, and Satanhartalt) on drums, and George Proctor (Legion Blotan/Turgid Animal Records, Mutant Ape, Inseminoid, ex-Skullflower) on guitar & vocals. I already liked their ultra-lo-fi, dungeon-sounding, black-hole black/doom metal, but this track is just UNBELIEVABLE,. It's a 16-minute epic of slowly grinding drums and bass, wailing and dissonant guitars, and some of the most seriously scary vocals I've heard invoking terrible swampy creatures and seems to me like a more structured version of the ritual darkness of Satanhartalt. At the 9-minute mark, everything stops and an ominous ritual dark ambient drone takes over, only to give its place after 2 minutes to one of the best riffs black metal has ever experienced, a reverbed cacophonous arpeggiated anthemic thing sustained by crushing drums and noise and a blurry psychedelic doom/blues vibe behind it that simply crushes everything. I think that this tape must be bought/listened to even just for this track. Finally, there's Gammal Sed, a solo (I think) project of George Proctor, where he plays catatonic, depressive but loud and noisy black metal revolving around a great arpeggiated riff eventually morphing into a noisy industrial/ambient chaos. All three of these groups are great, and they have released other stuff on Legion Blotan and Matching Head that deserve listening/buying. 2017 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 - 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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Satanhartalt

This is another project involving Mike Simpson of Xazzaz and Jamie Stewart, who plays with Mike in Oppenheimer and Dark Bargain. This is an unsettling, dungeon-like, lo-fi mix of psychedelia, drone, black metal, doom metal and ritual music that became less metal-y with the years (fortunately) and which creates an atmosphere of enveloping and oozing, walls-closing-in darkness. All of their tapes have been released by Legion Blotan.

2010 - Hæðenfolc


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2011 - Carcernþéostru


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2011 - Féondscipe

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2012 - Déaþscufærgewinn


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2013 - Sigeléas



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2017 - Ágenslaga




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Xazzaz ‎– Smalltown Zombie Massacre cdr

 

Xazzaz is the solo project of Mike Simpson, whose work with Oppenheimer and Dark Bargain I have already covered; he is also in Satanhartalt and Gigantmæcg, and runs the very good Molotov Productions. In Xazzaz he plays savage, industrial-grey guitar punishments which sound like Skullflower on some really bad-quality drugs. Very hard. 2010 cdr on Molotov Productions.

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Oppenheimer (Culver/Wrest/Charles Dexter Ward/Xazzaz project)

Oppenheimer is one of the many groups in which Lee Stokoe of the almighty beacon of deep drone Culver and Matching Head Tapes plays. Also playing are Jamie Stewart of Wrest and Satanhartalt (whose works will one day be covered here), Jerome Smith of Charles Dexter Ward, Female Borstal (also including Lee!) and Haikai No Ku, and Mike Simpson of the amazing Xazzaz, also of Satanhartalt and Molotov Productions. All these guys are contributors to the small but powerful North England underground noise/drone scene. Here, though, they play something slightly different, showcasing a deafening but highly rhythmic type of skronk/noise rock, which is heavily influenced by the motorik style as well as containing some surprisingly rock 'n' roll parts, especially in the 2015 release. As obvious in the liner notes, instrument duties are exchanged among the band members. Worth checking out.

2012 CD-R (Molotov Productions)

 

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2014 CD-R (Molotov Productions)

 

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 2014 tape (Matching Head)



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2015 CD-R (Molotov Productions)



Here they are aided by Dean Glaister of drone monks RYN.

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Voltigeurs / Dark Bargain split 7"

 

Keeping up the Matthew Bower appreciation, here's a split between Voltigeurs (MB and Samantha Davies) and Dark Bargain (Lucy Johnson of amazing Smut and Witchblood, Mike Simpson of Xazzaz and Jamie Stewart of Wrest). Harsh psychedelia by Voltigeurs and a rhythmic psychedelic post-punk noisefest by DB. 2013 7" on Turgid Animal.

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