YAZZ AHMED - Finding My Way Home

First Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, then Gordon Beck's Gyroscope... and today another one! Am I developing a preference for British Jazz reissues lately? Maybe a little, maybe it's just sheer coincidence. And of course Yazz Ahmed covers a whole different generation than those other two from the 1970' and 80's.

However, it just seemed fitting to write this review today, as Yazz Ahmed has just announced the release of her next album "A Paradise In the Hold" for February 2025.

YAZZ AHMED - Finding My Way Home (blue vinyl LP) (2011/2024)

Even though the main inspiration for picking up her instrument has been her grandfather, who was a professional trumpeteer and record producer, it's of course impossible for any Jazz musician to choose this instrument and deny the towering influence of Miles Davis.
And it's the shortest track - just one and a half minutes - on this first-time vinyl pressing of Yazz Ahmed's debut album, which gives us an unmistakable clue, where she started - and where she is going. "The Birth Of The Fool" is of course a play on Miles' Cool Jazz phase, way before he went Electric, and when the main attribute which set him apart from other contemporary players was his focus on long notes and emotion instead of boasting with technique and speed.

Musically however this track features one of the the clearest uses of Arabic rhythms and scales, indicating the beginning of Ahmed's impressive journey of self-discovery between the British (obviously American-influenced) and Bahraini side of her identity. And you already can feel it here: The more she leans away from the Western tones, the more elevated and magical her performance gets.

Besides her brass playing she also already introduces her fondness for little electronic tidbits and creative production tricks, but that only appears in rather subtle form here, waiting to be explored much further in the future. 

All in all the whole album feels as if she embraced the smooth early bandleader days of Davis, yet stirred the ship towards the musical legacy of the Near East. Half of the tracks are her own compositions with a full band in different constellations, in which of course not only her own trumpet and flugelhorn parts shine, but it's useless to name everything which impresseses here. The whole rhythmic approach is so satisfying, and there are wonderful contribuitions by Shabaka Hutchings on clarinets, John Bailey on piano or the inclusion of Corrina Silvester's hand drumming or the flavour of Chris Fish's cello and so on...

However if I had to choose one most important player besides Yazz it surely would be bass guitarist Janek Gwizdala, who doesn't appear on the band tracks, but on various stunning duet improvisations, including the ten minute title track of the album - plus their version of "Birthdays, Birthdays", a composition by saxophonist Stan Sulzmann (who by the way also performed on the Gyroscope compilation I reviewed the other day).

On the original CD release they also interpreted Miles Davis' "So What" from "Kind of Blue", but just like the original Ahmed song "Flip Flop" that track didn't fit on this vinyl re-release, which also changed the running order of the remaining tracks a little. I actually prefer the overall flow of this shorter version, yet still recommend buying it from a source (like Bandcamp), which also provides you with a digital copy of all ten tracks.

If you're familiar with her later albums it's a pretty large elephant in the room that the original cover of "Finding My Way Home" may be a nice photograph, but not really up to the standards of the amazing artworks which followed.

Her new label Night Time Stories - who also reissued the later masterpieces "La Saboteuse" and "Polyhymnia" - has done a nice job of jazzing it up, with a couple of neat often tried and tested tricks from the school of Jazz iconography: Fill half the frame with typography - huge name, even bigger album title, add some liner note stuff, so the corner doesn't look too dark, and most importantly screw those tourist snapshot colours, keep it monochrome and drench the whole image in the jazziest of all colours: Blue. Which besides classic black is of course also the vinyl colour for this limited edition.

 Good job! It's a beauty inside and outside. Great treatment of a wonderful album.

Weltuntergang revisited: Reissues von KONSTRUKT & PETER BRÖTZMANN und ELECTRIC MOON

Ich dachte mir, ich müsste doch mal wieder ein langes Sammelreview zu aktuellen Wiederveröffentlichungen in meiner Sammlung schreiben. Aber da Kassetten hier ja ihre eigene Rubrik haben, habe ich jetzt tatsächlich nur zwei davon zusammengezählt. Macht aber nichts, denn diese beiden Doppelalben schaffen zusammen ja schon so einiges.

KONSTRUKT & PETER BRÖTZMANN - Dolunay (2LP) (2008/2022)

Es ist schon wieder eine gute Weile her, dass ich mir eine kollaborative Scheibe der türkischen Freejazzer Konstrukt gegönnt habe. Da kommt mir dieser Zeitsprung von Karlrecords ins Jahr 2008 gerade recht. Im Vergleich zu den späteren mir bekannten Alben mit Keiji Haino, Ken Vandermark und Otomo Yoshihide ist das Instrumentarium auf den sechs Improvisationsexplosionen von "Dolunay" noch etwas sparsamer, was zusammen mit Saxophonriesen Peter Brötzmann zu einer Konstellation führt, in welcher der Bassfrequenzbereich nicht gezielt einer Verantwortung überlassen wird, sondern von allen fünf Spielern an Drums, Percussion, Gitarre und zwei mal Chaotengebläse irgendwie gemeinsam nebenbei erledigt werden muss.
Die meiste Zeit über finden hier parallel gleich zwei wilde Tänze oder Schlachten statt: zum einen wirbeln Özün Ueta und Korhan Argüden um- und durcheinander als ob es kein Morgen gibt, und natürlich ist das Zusammenspeil der Bläser von Korhan Futaci und Brötzmann alles andere als eine sanfte Bootsfahrt in den Sonnenuntergang, sondern ein herrlich manisches Inferno.
Dass dabei mitunter tatsächlich auch mal tiefe, dichte Atmosphäre entstehen kann, ist rational kaum zu erklären und muss wohl einfach hingenommen werden. Besonders im minimalistischen Abgang der D-Seite "Nokta" entstehen hier interessante Spannungsfelder. Im Schnitt regiert in diesem Treffen allerdings die hirnschüttelnde Achterbahn. So macht Jazz Spaß! - Natürlich nicht nur so, aber so halt besonders.

ELECTRIC MOON - Doomsday Machine (remastered 11 years anniversary edition 2LP) (2011/2022)

Songtitel sind Schall und Rauch. Das gilt zumindest für einige Genres, zu denen jamorientierte Rauschmusik sicherlich zu zählen ist, relativ häufig. Von daher würde mich nicht wundern, wenn die Tracknamen auf der elfjährigen Jubiläumsausgabe von Electric Moons "The Doomsday Machine" absichtlich weggelassen wurden. Und falls ihre Abstinenz doch der Tagträumerei beim Layouten geschuldet sein sollte - egal. Vor allem wenn dadurch noch mehr Raum für das tolle Artwork des Gatefolds entstanden sein sollte. Dass die hierfür verwendeten Kohle-Gemälde in den 1970er Jahren von Bassistin/Effektspielerin/Gelegenheitssängerin Komet Lulus Vater Ulrich Mahn geschaffen wurden, ist natürlich auch eine schöne Geschichte.

Und was ist mit der Musik? Ja, die ist auch da.
Bis auf den Opener und Titelsong (Drums: Alex) alle in der klassischen SulaPabloLulu-Besetzung entstanden, taugt dieses Album zweifellos als Blaupause für vieles, was die Band ausmacht und gehört nicht umsonst zum gefragtesten Rillengold in ihrer Diskographie. Vor allem gehört es aber auch zum heaviesten und düstersten Material der Band. Nix verträumtes Weltraumyoga! Nein, einen derart dreckigen Basston packt Madame Neudeck nicht alle Tage aus. Selbst im streckenweise etwas runtergeschalteten längsten Stück "Stardust Service", welches auch auf der Compilation "Phase" vertreten war, ranzt es noch gehörig. Zusammen mit der effektbesessenen Gitarre entsteht hier mitunter eine durchdringend dröhnende Melange, welche das Remaster aus dem Institut für angewandten Krach hervorragend zur Geltung bringt.

Wenn Weltuntergang sich so anhört, dann Hachgottchen, was warten wir überhaupt noch groß? Doomsday olé!

cassette craze chronicles XIX (feat. AIRLINES OF TERROR, BRÍI and WORMROT)

Tapes, tapes tapes, I'm looking for a grind time...

But first some ambient!

BRÍI - Corpos Transparentes (2022)

Ambient? Seriously? No, with the Brazilian one-man project Bríi it's of course ambient black metal. And I'm decidedly not calling this music blackgaze. The term could be applicable, but also a bit misleading, because no matter how dreamy that subgenre gets, you still expect metal guitars, right?
And on this mammoth track of 36 minutes and 36 seconds mastermind Serafim decided to forgo those completely. Given how far he went into completely non-metal terrain for sometimes quite long passages on his previous releases, this isn't exactly off-brand for the experimentalist, but still works as a surprise.

On "Entre Tudo que é Visto e Oculto" Bríi tapped into ambient synth sounds and trance music, while "Sem Propósito" paired black metal, techno and synthwave with psychedelic rock.
Some of all that is also present on "Corpos Transparantes", but of the black metal part only the harsh vocals and the blasting drums remains. Most of the rest are ambient, piano and dulcimer-like synth sounds plus clean solo and choir vocals, which drift between fantasy epic score and zeuhl. Especially the piano work goes far beyond what you would usually expect from a metal something crossover. For a couple of minutes you're adjusting to this contradictionary soundscape, wondering if this will really work until the end. And it works perfectly, as the album flies by, alternating between various modes of hallucinatory mood. If you dig Botanist, Blut Aus Nord's "Hallucinogen", hypnotic electronics and fairies flying over deadly moors during full moon nights, this should be for you. Original and eerie beautiful!

WORMROT - Hiss (Cassette Collector's Set) (2022)
including:

WORMROT - Abuse (2009/2022)

WORMROT - Dirge (2011/2022)

WORMROT - Voices (2016/2022)

WORMOT - Hiss (2022)

Obviously this is the main dish of this chronicles edition. And even more obviously I cannot review this four MC box from Earache Records even close to the extent it deserves. Wormrot from Singapur are grindcore giants.  As the genre demands it most of their songs are short and sweet and oh boy, there's a lot of them!

The new album "Hiss" alone consists of twenty-one tracks. Those are mostly under two minutes short, but they cover such a wide array of everything you can do in and sometimes beyond the genre, that it would justify a track for track review just to get is full diversity across.

Similar to Napalm Death this band can incorporate almost any kind of tempo, vocal style and texture far beyond pure high speed brutality without you ever questioning that this still is in-your-face fucking grindcore. If there are instances where you're wondering for seconds if it isn't too catchy, too death metal, too post rock ("Sea Of Disease", "Voiceless Choir"), too thrash metal (also "Voiceless Choir"), too tribal ("Pale Moonlight"), too punk ("When Talking Fails, It's Time For Violence"), too Voivod ("Noxious Cloud"), too blackgaze ("Desolate Landscapes"), too melodic, too symphonic or whatever to count as grindcore anymore, you're instantly corrected, because no matter what Wormrot are throwing at you, it always only intensifies the grind. And to make it absolutely clear: This is one of the very best grindcore shit I have ever heard!

When the last notes of the final epic longtrack (hey, four and a half minutes is four times the average song lenghth here!) "Glass Shards" are gone, you might just sit still for a minute to process what just happened, but the ultimate conclusion can only be that "Hiss" is just masterful madness and ferocity of the greatest kind and surely one of the most compelling extreme noise stuff releases of the year.



Alongside death metal grindcore is probably one of the most comfort-zonal genres for me to just have fun with, but I never was the biggest collector of it. So even though it is quite a pricey item, getting the whole album discography of Wormrot with this box presented itself as a perfect opportunity to catch up on this awesome band. And if you're buying this from the label source, you're not only getting the value for money of "Hiss" and its three predecessor albums, which sums up to ninety-three tracks, but you can also download the content of the 2007 demo, the 2008 EP "Dead" and Wormrot's half of the split with Diseptic. All in all thirty more bonus tracks of furious grind glory.

So yeah, this really is a lot. the box allows you to follow almost the whole evolution of Wormrot's recordings. And fuck yeah - they always slayed!

The only flaws of this compilation lie in the box itself, which isn't slim enough. Some more padding inside or maybe even goodies like a booklet to stuff it would also have helped, but as it is, there's way too much empty space inside the box, which in case of my copy resulted in the content moving around freely and two cassette trays being broken at arrival. That's definitely a mistake to learn from for similar future releases!

AIRLINES OF TERROR - Requiem For Wings And Propellers (Tape+CD) (2022)

Anyone else here, who still needs a little more grind? Airlines Of Terror deliver at least a bit of that, albeit the Italians rather sound like a band with grindcore experience which has moved into a slightly different direction. Yes, of course that goes for a good portion of Wormrot's new album too, but this thirteen minutes short EP really could be described better as post hardcore with death and thrash metal (and a little grind) influences. Whatever you call it, it kicks ass, shouts in your face and sports some sick guitar work. It's brutal, yet intelligent and has an interesting aircraft theme to it. I ordered it from Mospharic Recording Limited mainly as a supplement to the Bríi tape, but this shit can actually stand on its own perfectly fine. Sick!
As a bonus this release is accompanied by a CD copy of the EP.

belles rééditions: BLUT AUS NORD - 777 / MAGMA - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh

Given my recent orders from French bands and labels I almost feel like an essential factor in France's economy: Several records from WV Sorcerer Productions albums, a shipment from Seventh Records, which included an Offering CD box and Magma's fantastic live double album "Eskähl 2020" - and also two (or four depending on how you count) precious vinyl reissues:

MAGMA - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (copper vinyl LP) (1973/2022)

It's damn impossible to overstate the importance of this album. Of course there are other worthwhile starting points into the unique world of Magma, and it's for sure ok to have other albums as personal favorites. But ultimately "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh" remains the central artistic statement, the at its time absolutely alien booster detonation of Christian Vander's newly created genre Zeuhl, which combined wild, yet hypnotically repetitive progressive rock with the free jazz spirit of Coltrane and modern classic composers like Orff and Strawinsky, seasoned with choirs chanting in a made-up language and the drummer's own ecstatic vocal scats.

Even though the still active band has improved and refined many skills over the decades, the impact of "M.D.K." hasn't decreased in the least. This piece of music remains monolithic, enigmatic and mind-blowing, no matter if you see the band performing it today or stick to the original studio recording. Or in short: There's no doubt that the music on this album is untouchable.
So since I've had very good experience with previous vinyl reissues from Magma (as well as the label Music On Vinyl) and only owned this one on CD so far, I just couldn't say no to this limited copper edition.

It sounds great, a flawless pressing in my book, and it has a shiny gatefold cover including French liner notes and Kobaïan lyrics. Beautiful item, definitely worth it! 

BLUT AUS NORD - 777 (merged effect with splatter vinyl 3LP box) (2011-2012/2022)

The combination of my longtime lack of general interest in the black metal genre and the weird-sounding german name - at least for a native speaker - have kept me from paying attention to Blut Aus Nord for quite some time, until I finally checked out their latest album "Hallucinogen".
It was not only great in itself, but also stirred my interest for this three LP box, which combines the completey "777" trilogy of the albums "Sect(s)", "The Desactification" and "Cosmosophy".

What's the concept of the trilogy? I honestly don't know - and the song titles, which are just "Epitome" with a Roman Numeral from I to XVIII, don't really help. But honestly, I don't really care either, so why am I even mentioning it? Let's just look at this thing!

The bad:

I'm aware that most buyers of sets like this will probably be hardcore fans, who already own the album in another form. Still it would be a pretty nice gesture for newbies like me to pair a pricy acquisition like this with a download code.
One of the three included posters, which shows the box cover's hourglass, is missing - not only from my copy, as I've heard. Instead the "Desanctification" poster comes twice. Not super important to me, since I don't have free wall space anyway, but still a pity.

The good:

Three diverse albums of sensationally great, boundless avant-garde black metal with strong industrial influences, melodic and dissonant, beautiful and infernal stuff happening, while simply just going into every possible direction its creator wants to stir it. Which most of the time is not as out there as what obvious Blut Aus Nord fans like Esoctrilihum, Bríi or also Imprial Triumphant are doing today. Yet it's still a pretty wild - and from album to album more daring - ride, which on the final, in the beginning very My Dying Bride doomy chapter even includes a piece which sports French hip hop. Combined with the generally very unapologetic drum computer sound that's of course a "Le Privilege Des Morts" moment for the Laibach listener in me. But all in all these three albums are just overflowing with amazing ideas presented in a sick signature sound. No doubt, the music alsone deserves more than a threefold fuck yeah.

On top of that this musick is pressed on some very splendidly coloured exclusice vinyl versions, packed in gatefold covers, all within a simple yet gorgeous box.
And since I recently got a new turntable, the final kicker for me to purchase this box was of course that it also includes a slipmat.

By the way: My old player, which has moved to another room now, was allowed to keep its slipmat. Its design is none other than the famous logo of... Magma. And that's what I call a closed circle.

still gushing over 2021 (with CHICAGO ODENSE ENSEMBLE, CONVERGE and HIERONYMUS DREAM)

Nah, I'm still not done coming late to the party of several 2021 (re-)releases, so here's another trio of without exception phenomenal albums!

CONVERGE - Bloodmoon•I (CD) (2021)

It seems that collaborative albums are becoming a more and more regular thing in metal and adjacent circles. There are even bands like The Body specialized in forming extended bands. And of course there's a continuation of super-heavy sludge/post metal/hardcore bands teaming up with female singers to create huge masterpieces. Neurosis/Jarboe, Cult Of Luna/Julie Christmas, Emma Ruth Rundle/Thou... And now Converge and Chelsea Wolfe?
Well, not precicely. Firstly "now" has already been a long while, as the whole "Bloodmoon" concept has been around for a while, at least since a show under that moniker at Roadburn Festival 2016. And secondly "Bloodmoon" doesn't stand only for the addition of Chelsea Wolfe's haunting voice (and guitar?), which would already be a win, but also for the atmospheric soundscapes of her writing partner Ben Chisholm and of course Cave In / Mutoid Man / Old Man Gloom super weapon Stephan Brodsky, whose importance for this first "Bloodmoon" (it is heavily implied that this will be continued) cannot be overstated.

So while I'm still not the biggest fan of Converge frontman Jacob Bannon's vocals, I must admit that they work better in the studio than live, and combined with all the diversity and harmony brought into the game with Wolfe, Brodsky and probably also others of the seven musicians at play, they finally at least don't bother me anymore on this album.
With eleven tracks in roughly one hour "Bloodmoon•I" may be relatively long, but the diversity in the vocal department alone ensures that there's no danger of boredom. And since the premise of this record really is that everyone brings everything he/she's got to the table, you're also thrown into a different musical direction with each song. Of course there's Converge's post hardcore mixed with a theatrical gothic flair as a base, but from there on everything these guys want just goes. The only common thread, no matter how heavy or balladic, how straight forward or convoluted a certain track may be, is that there's a hymn of some kind hidden in everything. No filler, all killer. A massive, ambitious hit machine.

This album truly leaves me with only two serious open questions: 1. How long will we have to wait until we get more of this?
2. If the CD is already shrink-wrapped anyway - why do you put the big hype sticker directly on the cover of the digipack? (It doesn't give the impression of being removable without residues or damages. Well, luckily I don't care much about this particular cover artwork anyway, but still... why?) 
  

HIERONYMUS DREAM - Nostos (blue and green starbust vinyl LP) (2021)

After immensly enjoying their EP "Clairvoyance" I am pleased that Greek instrumentalists Hieronymus Dream have continued their cosmic journey with this full LP. Adventurous yet relaxing at the same time, the flittering guitars and bubbling electronic sounds on "Nostos" are exuding a comfortable warmth, while the steady drive of the beat keeps your mind moving.
I don't want to diminish the performances themselves one bit, but once again the clarity and quality of the production elevates the recording to another level. All six tracks are masterclasses in uplifting neokraut with an emphasis on that kind of escapism which will probably also speak to a lot of post rock fans. A soundtrack for fantastic odysseys.

CHICAGO ODENSE ENSEMBLE - Chicago Odense Ensemble (blue vinyl LP) (2011/2021)

Last but not least we have the most recent (transparent blue) pressing of yet another transatlantic cooperation from the Causa Sui / El Paraiso Records vault. Originally published by Adluna Records in 2011, the geographically self-explanatory Chicago Odense Ensemble already recorded this gathering of seven players in 2008. Jonas Munk however edited and dubbed the sessions in his studio. The result is neither the first nor the last record with his and Jakob Skøtt's involvement which screams Miles Davis's electric phase. But with Rob Mazurek's cornet at the forefront, backed up by a massive free-fusioning flow of guitars and lots of percussion, the Chicago Odense Ensemble surely is among those efforts which come closest to the original.

Which of course doesn't mean that these eight pieces even try to be a carbon copy at all. While even some of the effect experimentalism in the post-production are very much in the tradition of Miles' producer Teo Macero, you can also taste some very distinct flavours here, like the dreamy psychedelic guitars which are quite typical for Causa Sui, as well as a strong German kraut vibe provided by Munk's analogue synthesizers.
And from the psych to the funk, from the tribal drum energy to the delicate jazz fusion nothing about this American/Danish get-together seems forced. This is freeform music at its finest. The title of the last track sums it up very humbly. Because this a little bit more than just "Pretty Nice". Pure joy! 

elparaisorecords · Chicago Odense Ensemble: "Parallel Motions"

cassette craze chronicles XIV (feat. BHPL, HADEWYCH, KIRRIL and METH DRINKER)

Sentient Ruin Laboratories already received the treatment of an exclusive  label post in my cassette craze chronicles back in October. Now it's time for one of those special editions again, this time with the contents of my latest shipment from Tartarus Records.

Judging from the cover artwork all of these four releases could easily be devastating sludge metal monsters, right? Yet as soon as you know that only of them actually is that, there's little doubt which one... 

METH DRINKER - Meth Drinker (2011/2020)

Yeah, this must be what happens once you drink a little too much meth. Fooooohhhhck! The 2020 reissue of Meth Drinker's debut from eleven years ago sounds exactly as if someone had swallowed a barrel of toxic sludge and vomited it straight into your face. In other words: delicious! Apart from a little breather in the middle, which also shows that these guys don't take themselves too serious, this is all just abhorrent, filthy mayhem. Song titles like "Incurable Illness", "Skull Smashing Concrete" or "Broken Down And Used Up" are perfectly representing the creeping and crushing bleakness and brutality of this reeking mess of a tape. Definitely one to spin when you don't have the time for Primitive Man's "Caustic".

HADEWYCH - Mes (2022)

The enigmatic dark music collective Hadewych celebrates a probably more "sophisticated" kind of post-apocalyptic sound, but that doesn't make them any less impactful.  "Mes" wanders from abyssal ambient to early laibachian industrial and black metal to majestic Sunn O))) meets Ulver drone greatness with cinematic choirs, all accompanied by an ominous Dutch narration.
The tape comes in one of those noble black boxes, which may not be practical for shelving, but damn, I still love them since the luxury editions of Mizmor's studio albums. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT "MES" - I'VE ALREADY WRITTEN A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE ALBUM ON VEILOFSOUND.COM!

KIRRIL - Kirril (2021)

Enough with the guitars now! Kirril's self-titled album shows us how it sounds when a Dutch industrial producer, who's aim is "to make bleak, dytopian, dark psychedelic music, inspired by the turbulent nightlife", loses said nightlife for you know what reasons. The beats are broken, the bass sounds are crumbling, and without noticable rudiments of melody this should be super depressing. And while this suite of closely related tracks, numbered in Roman numerals, without a doubt is the most consistently negative work of this bunch of tapes, its crispy and juicy production makes it an oddly satisfying experience. Imagine you're standing alone in the broken ruins of a discotheque, surrounded by smoke and fire, but someone right beside you tingles your brain with weird ASMR noises. For fans of The Bug and YouTubers rumbling yoghurt pot caps next to your ear drum.

BHPL - BHPL (2021)

I think we have already established that humanity's going down, but unlike Kirril the duo BHPL, named after a gas leak disaster in Bhopal, India, isn't letting it happen without a wild exhausting dance. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of the rather boring distorted industrial metal vocals on this one, but the synths and in your face EBM/techno beats are killer!
It's only a twenty-five minute EP with the same content on both cassette sides, but since this slaps you with every beat, that's just the right lengths before your cheeks begin to bleed. "BHPL" gets a big fuckyeah on my imaginary rating scale.

And yeah, before I forget it: this a picture of my Tartarus haul, which also includes the first music label longsleeve shirt I've ever bought - for obvious feline reasons. Meow.

cassette craze chronicles XI (feat. BELL WITCH, TORI AMOS and ULVER)

My shelf isn't full yet. But I'm working on it. So here are three more tapes!

TORI AMOS - Ocean To Ocean (2021)

I know, I know, I am part of the problem. Cassettes are becoming a new big hype and increasing in price just as vinyl... and I am buying tapes from big major label artists. Shame!

But then this series is such a good excuse to write more compact reviews of albums I otherwise would spend way too much time gushing about... And a new Tori Amos release more often than not is a potential candidate for that. Unless I avoid a review by coming years too late to the game of course, like I did with her 2017 masterpiece "Native Invader". The truth is that even in weaker shape Tori isn't capable of delivering anything bad. Maybe one or two fillers per album, but the rest will usually be at least very good.

On "Ocean To Ocean" however she doesn't have time for any notable variations in quality, since it's one of her shorter releases with "only" eleven songs. Fueled by isolation and frustration, from which she played herself free, this album grew into a creative sweeping blow, that both serious in its subjects and very playful in their execution feeds from decades of experience and inspiration.

Only recently I called Emma Ruth Rundle's extremely stripped down "Engine Of Hell" one of the best Tori Amos albums not actually recorded by Tori herself. I still think that's true, yet it seems somehow noteworthy to me that the real Tori steers into a completely different direction of production here. "Ocean To Ocean" goes fully big with extra percussion here, strings there, rock guitars, kate bushian flutes... but if you took it all away and left only Tori on vocals and piano, this album would still work, because the songwriting at its core is so flawless. And all the creative energy sparkling around it is only a welcome luxury which makes it even better. Especially the whole second half following the title track is an exhibition of greatness that doesn't need to hide from anything in her discography.

A pop masterpiece.   

BELL WITCH - Demo 2011 (2011/2019)

But now let's immediately restore my undergound music collector credibility! Ok, it's not the original first demo of the funeral doom gods Bell Witch, but a 2019 re-release by Tartarus Records. It's still quality cult material though.
The four crawling tracks (of which two would later reappear on the debut album "Longing") sound a bit dryer and not as incredibly huge as later recordings, but that's not even a bad thing, as it adds to the intimacy and clarity of it. Maybe some of the clear vocals aren't quite there yet, but honestly this cassette already displays such a perfectly formulated vision, that Bell Witch basically insulted themselves by calling it just a "demo". Mightily sad doom grandeur!

ULVER - Scary Muzak (2021)

Appearantly Ulver were bored, so they did a thing. And then they gave the thing to synthwave guru Carpenter Brut to do the mix-thing.
Casually dropped on Halloween, this collection of mostly electronic horror scores interpreted by the Norwegian chameleons is pretty much all you want it to be. And with the powerful mix by Carpenter Brut even more. So good! So fucking good!