Genre: Dark Ambient, Power Electronics, Rhythmic Noise
Country: Russia Year: 2004
Track List:
Opening The Womb Of Enola Gay (Lullaby For The Empire Of Rising Sun)
Eternity Of An Instance
New Sun Is Setting Over The World
Wargasm 911
Flights Grounded
168:1
I already have posted a short overview of this project (which is one of the most professional and best known dark ambient / industrial / noise projects from Russia) a couple of years ago, but I think it'd be timely to post this particular release on this day. Its name is an obvious pun on "Hobbit: There And Back Again", and the track names suggest such sources of inspiration as the Hiroshima bombing (#1-3), the 9/11 attack (#4-5), and the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 (#6). Musically, it's quite diverse, ranging from pure dark ambient (#2) to rhythmic noise and power electronics, and generally fits the whole "anti-human electronic music" line of the whole Velehentor's discography - although the project is best known for releases like "Stonewells of Aeternity" and "Dyatlov's Pass", which are more or less pure dark ambient.
Title: The First Annual Report Of Throbbing Gristle
Genre: Industrial, Noise
Country: UK
Release date: 1975
Track List:
Very Friendly
Dead Bait
10 Pence
Whorle Of Sound
Final Muzak
Scars Of E
Those who aren't deeply familiar with the history of Throbbing Gristle often ask: "Why did they name their debut album "The Second Annual Report", and where's the first one?" Well, here it is, and I personally like it much more than "The Second Annual Report". All the tracks on this album were recorded in 1975, but not released to the public until 1987 (unofficially, as "Very Friendly" bootleg) and 2001 (offically, under the current name).
"AllMusic called the album "a milestone in subversive music matched only by Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music". Pitchfork praised the album's originality, but gave it a low grade in terms of listenability.
AllMusic called the album "undeniably the most important advent in the roots of industrial music. [...] Practically every act within industrial music and its offshoots – be it Merzbow, Whitehouse, Ministry, Big Black or Godflesh – owes an incredible debt to the groundbreaking music of Throbbing Gristle."
Pitchfork, too, opined, "This record is essentially the birth of industrial music, packed with samples, abrasive, irregular beats, manipulated loops and Cosey Fanni Tutti's often unrecognizable guitar. Nurse with Wound, Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding and Acid Bath are just a few of the outfits that owe a huge debt to Throbbing Gristle's unrelenting assault" (Wikipedia)
While all the quotes above are much more applicable to TG's two later albums simply because this one was shown to the public too late, and therefore wasn't as influental, I still find it more interesting and listenable than most other TG recordings from the same period. One more thing about early TG that needs to be mentioned is their influence on the whole power electronics genre (and Whitehouse in particular).
If I understand correctly, this release by Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat is some sort of a follow-up to their "Valkoinen Terrori", recorded in 2001 and released 8 years later. While "Valkoinen Terrori" was inspired by Finnish Civil War, "Koskemattomuus" seems to be inspired by the later events of Winter War and the Continuation War, and it definitely doesn't glorify such sort of events (which makes KM's attitudes resembling those of Brandkommando). This release also includes attempts of "deconstructing" some old Finnish military-related songs, in the same manner as Toroidh dealt with "Ack Värmeland Du Sköna" by Jussi Björling:
Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat are (were?) a very obscure harsh noise collective from Karelia (no idea if they're from the Russian or the Finnish part of that region). Almost everything is known about them (not too much, admittedly) is gathered on this page. If it's to be believed, they have 3 anonymous members and define their style as follows:
"Raw old-school industrial on the bones of SPK and THROBBING GRISTLE
through the prism of Japanese harsh-noise and Finnish hardcore-punk.
Nihilistic nightmare. Diffused synth hiss, pretentious harsh-noise
arcades, crispy scurfy hateful power-electronics. Another spit into the
face of rotten society and shitty system. There were a few closed gigs.
Also, loads of recordings were made. Most of them have been destroyed.
Some parts of tapes full of piss and vinegar have just been lost or
erased during terrible hangovers. All that have been saved - works from
1997 and later. Those are sounds recorded on our 4-track. The sounds of
sick buzz in our heads. Torn apart sheets of iron and stone walls of
slaughterhouses spattered with blood. This is the shit rubbed in the
silk white sheets of modern industrial. This is the true old-school
noise! No modern bullshit and nazi crap!"
According to the same Discogs page, this particular cassette was recorded in 1999 but released only 10 years after (40 physical copies). Side B is said to be completely silent (hence the name "Moment Of Silence", but the only rip of "Valkoinen Terrori" I could find has it as a lengthy noise track. As a whole, it's easily one of the best underground noise releases I've heard so far, and the samples of old Finnish songs (the title track, for example) are nice too. Judging from the track names, the album is dedicated to the events of Finnish civil war of 1918. The band name means something like "Criminal Keepers of the Forest" (a reference to some partisans, maybe, but I don't know for sure). Expect much more obcure Finno-Urgic music to be reviewed on here in the near future, although it'll be nowhere near as noisy as KM.
Power electronics project from Russia which made their first recordings in 1991-92? Yes, you're reading everything right! Currents of Death, coming from Novokuznetsk (in southwestern Siberia), were the second Russian project of such kind (the first was Linija Mass, started by Alexander Lebedev-Frontov in mid-1980s), and their music was on par with the best Western PE projects of that time. They never released anything officially until late 2012 ("Cretodoh" was recorded during summer of 1993 at the Novokuznetsk-based "Level A" studio, but wasn't released back then; in 2003 it was released as a bootleg by St.Petersburg-based label Fight Muzik under a different name; and finally, a Moscow-based label Provoloka released it officially in 2012).
Debut album of the Polish noise project which I mentioned in my previous entry. The track names suggest that it deals mainly with the early history of Polish People's Republic, namely the period of Boleslav Bierut's Stalinist government in late 40's - early 50's. This period is relatively poorly researched by historians, at least non-Polish ones - even the articles on B.Bierut in Engish and Russian wikipedias aren't very informative and hardly even mention his mysterious death in 1956. Brandkommando himself doesn't support any political ideology, and also doesn't try to glorify any of the regimes he write music about (unlike many other martial industrial and PE artists).
CC
describes Brandkommando's manner of speech as "very laconic" (at least
he left such an impression when they talked online about making a split).
It's also worth noting that Brandkommando has nothing to do with
far-right scene, even though one of his tracks has appeared on some
stupid "white power electronics" compilation. Actually, it was included
in there without his consent, and Brandkommando's own opinion on this
like this is best reflected with his track "NS Idiots". Musically, this album is pure noise, even though the cover art would be more suitable for a martial industrial release.
Artist: Cracked Core + Brandkommando Title: The Root Causes of Social Dysfunction Label: Mental Excitement Genre: Industrial / Noise / Power Electronics Country: Russia / Poland Release date: 2011
Track List:
Bioconverter
Ma$$ Media
Under Pressure
Social Phobia
TV Noise
This product of collaboration between two experimental/industrial musicians - Cracked Core (Russia) and Brandkommando (Poland) - is one of the most interesting noise/PE albums of the last year, and the first release I'll post here in this year. AFAIK Brandkommando is known for his laconic manner of speech, so I'll follow his example and be brief: it's very noisy release. Much more noisy than any of the solo works by Cracked Core.
