AIDAN BAKER & DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Cast Down and Hunted

Want a good laugh? If you search for "conan tig notaro chair" on YouTube you should find a video of a hilariously stupid, brave and brilliant piece of prop comedy. Spoiler: Tig moves a stool around on the floor for an excruciatingly long time, while it makes noises like a snuffed Chewbacca.

So now that we know what's possible: What kind of sounds await us when the infamous Dead Neanderthals team up with Aidan Baker (Nadja, Hypnodrone Ensemble) to push their respective chairs and release an album on the Dutch label Moving Furniture Records? A bantha? A school of purrgill? Or just an abandoned baby ewok? It's got to be at least a crashing Millenium Falcon, right?

AIDAN BAKER & DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Cast Down and Hunted (LP) (2024)

"Subterfuge", first of the two twenty+ minutes long tracks an "Cast Down and Hunted" would indeed suit a sci-fi score, but one far away from the space opera tone of Star Wars.
The swelling layered drone and the painfully minimal, slow yet heavy drums of this track rather beget an eery, distressing mood, which would work perfectly in scenes of dark suspense and phantasmagoric horror - like that super creepy surreal one - come on, you know which! - in "Under The Skin".

This is pure howling gloom become sound. Its rhythm barely qualifies as such and it doesn't require any perceivable melody. No, Aidan Baker and Otto Kokke just weave this thick wave, which is hard to even ascribe to specific instruments. As so often on recent Dead Neanderthals releases we hear synthesizers on their side, but regarding Baker's part I would have probably taken the easy guess of guitar, if there were no credits. And those credits claim that in truth he plays what Kokke predominantly did back in the day: saxophone. Ok. But don't expect Kenny G. here! This is a beautifully uneasy listening experience.

In theory the B-side "Paranoia" should pretty much be more of the same, but it actually feels much more action-packed, mainly because René Aquarius' steady primitive pulse is a lot faster here. It's as minimalist as possible, yet it definitely is a beat at least.

The rest still is just blaring Ambient? Drone? Noise? Call it what you will, it is a big haunting wall of something. This track however features sharper textures, a greater richness and more movements in the sound. It even displays dramatic fanfare-like qualities, both from the keys and the sax, which is a lot easier to identify here, too.

Could be a chase from a dread in a labyrinth of spacecraft corridors. Or just a collapsing mind crumbling from within. One thing is for sure: both Aidan Baker and the Neanderthals show their most sinister side on this collaboration. The result is as restricted in form as you would expect, but cinematically wide and gloriously harrowing.
Want a good laugh? This might be the wrong choice. At least if nervous hysteria isn't your way of coping with this kind of psychological horror. Personally I just appreciate it in contened silence - and maybe also write a review about it.

"Cast Down and Hunted" will be released one week from now on September 13th.

The album comes digitally or in limited capacity on classic black vinyl in a simple but fitting layout and a nice cover artwork, which feels like a companion piece to the Vampiristic "Ordo Dracul Demo".

new sonic spells from the WV Sorcerer feat. DOLPO, FEN, HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE, IFFERNET, OTAY:ONII and P/O MASSACRE

No, I don't see these particular label specials disappearing as a returning segment on this blog anytime soon! Over the last months I've gathered three pre-orders from WV Sorcerer Productions again and now received a package containing five out of the total of six items. And when the last one is due in several weeks I might have already added something else... Who knows? But for now let's take a listen to what was in the current magick box:

P/O MASSACRE - Sonic Oblivion (2CD) (2024)

There cannot be enough Russian anti-war music right now!

The expatriates Anton Ponomarev and Anton Obrazena thought so too and destilled even more material from the sessions which formed their massive 2023 statement "Aural Corrosion" into another release. And this is not just an EP of leftovers as one might expect, but a double album too inconveniently ginormous to be released on vinyl, as the first of the four tracks alone already endures for forty minutes and the whole thing has a total playing time of two hours. Two hours mostly filled with pure apocalypse created by Obrazeena's scratching, screeching, serrating guitar, by crumbling walls of electronic noises, found sounds, synths and Ponomarev's doomsday saxophone on top.

It's always hard to determine what makes Harsh Noise like this listenable, what makes it good, especially when there are no completely outlandish ingredients like on the aforementioned opener "Progressive Collapse", which is just an endless havoc of pure destruction. The key may be that there's actually always something interesting and headphone-worthy bulding up and going on throughout this whole relentless assault. It's not just an alienating hostile statement you somehow have to live or die with, but it allows you to immerse into it.

"Love Waves", which is not a schmaltzy or sexual, but a scientific term in seismology, takes a similarly patient approach of slowly evolving its soundscape without straying from its main idea, as a minimalist Earth-like guitar lick gets more and more cornered by swarm of sharp Noise glitches, until after twenty minutes (which is two two thirds of the track) in my favorite dramatic moment of the album a very bold brötzmannish Jazz sax enters the crumbling building. In the end, just like finishing one round of a natural cycle, the debris settles close to where the track began.

"Nonslaught" certainly is less noisy than the rest, since it is mainly made by clean guitar and modified pocket trumpet. This is very frantic and unsettling though. The guitar plays in a completely chaotic Free Jazz fashion which I have come to expect in contexts like Jörg Schneider collaborations or the more aggressive side of Dirk Serries' body of work. The trumpet on the other hand seems to emulate a small warplane. And that is only before the atmospherically thick second half of the track...

But speaking of planes: The final track "Kirkenes-Tromsø" is actually based on one continuous sample of a propeller aircraft - while Obrazeena himself was flying it over Northern Norway, fleeing from Russia to escape being drafted for Putin's war in Ukraine.
No, nothing on "Sonic Oblivion" is just noise. This is art - evocative and powerful!

The double CD is a collaborative release of WV Sorcerer with Utech Records.

HYPNODRONE ENSEMBLE - The Problem Is In The Sender — Do Not Tamper With The Receiver (CD) (2024)

Still a long album with over seventy minutes playing time, but surely easier to access and digest than the P/O Massacre we just barely survived is this new recording by Hypnodrone Ensemble.

As you would expect from a band centered around the two prolific Canadian guitarists Aidan Baker and Eric Quach the group stays true to the premise of its name with a wall of Shoegaze, Ambient, Drone and Doom packed in indeed hypnotic, psychedelic, slowly developing long tracks.

In striking contrast to most releases of their respective main projects Nadja and thisquietarmy however this ensemble features real organic drums - and a lot of those. One, two, three drummers are working here in unison, there in polyrhythmic chaos under the long guitar notes and noises and the steadily pumping bass lines. As a whole you could file this slighty tribalistic, transcendent sound either in the Kraut or in the Post Rock folder. Is Space Gaze a genre? Wonderfully trippy escapist stuff.

But wait, that is not all! This session was recorded without an audience, but while Hypodrone Ensemble was on a European tour with special guest Chinese-American singer Otay:onii, who lends her special voice to all five tracks, adding an enigmatic mystical vibe and emotional resonance to the music, which makes it even (significantly) more special.

Besides classic digipaks it seems WV Sorcerer has found a new favourite packaging for CDs, as just like the last Zaäar live album "The Problem Is The Sender - Do Not Temper With The Receiver" comes in 7" vinyl single format with an Obi strip. (You choose if you prefer the black or white side of it.)

The multi-label release is also - more or less - available on vinyl and cassette, offered by Wolves and Vibrancy and Cruel Nature Records.

OTAY:ONII - 冥冥 Míng Míng (Sanguine vinyl LP) (2021/2024)

Speaking of Otay:onii: Here's a vinyl reissue of her amazing album "Ming Ming"! Yes, this is undoubtly the most unnecessary purchase of this bunch for me, because I already own it on CD.

But sorry, I just couldn't help it. After all this emotionally gripping Experimental Electro Folk Artpop Noise masterpiece is one of the most essential works on the label so far. Having seen the Elizabeth Colour Wheel singer dedicate the most breathtaking performance of Roadburn Festival 2023 to it elevated the deeply personal concept album about her two-world identity even further for me. Music seldom gets more powerful than here.

The transparent red vinyl comes in a completely new alternative artwork. And with "Enter The Wound" it also features an excellent six-minute bonus track.

FEN - 結構 Structure 1603 (CD) (2022)

And here's the long overdue purchase. I had saved this CD to get alongside with something else for a while and now finally the time had come. It's a thirty-five minute live performance of experimental improvisation inside a historical castle in Kyoto by a collective of four musicians from Japan, South Korea, China and Singapure, with the biggest name probably being Otomo Yoshihide.

Even though the performance of guitars and electronics starts and ends with a mean feedback which made even my half-deaf cat look up a little annoyed for a moment, the core of it actually is a very introspective and meditative experience.

Fuzzy warm, bubbling and buzzing frequencies and neuron-stimulating impulses in Ambient equilibrium. Entering Zen through Fen.

IFFERNET / DOLPO - Split (Dark Red vinyl LP) (2024)

And now some nasty dirty rancid low-fi, but somehow still pretty epic Black Metal! There's not really much I can say about the French Black Metal duo Iffernet, except that they are reminding me of a raw caveman version of Misþyrming - and fuck yeah I dig it. But their two tracks are only the first half of this split release.

The B side belongs to the Italian Drone Doom group Dolpo, whose previous album "Inner Himalayas" still has a special place in my heart and on my cassette shelf. Their new longtrack "The Gonzo Anthropologist: Advanced Techniques" takes a long while to fully embrace Metal territory. Most of the time the closest element to that is the Stoner Doom bass line, which could just as well be labelled as Psychedelic Rock. The rest is an interesting mix of traditional Tibetian wind and percussion instruments, a rather tribal, shamanic rhythm approach and a dynamic tapestry of layered guitar and Ambient sounds culminating in a beautiful Post Rock fashion. Great stuff!

The transparent red vinyl looks good, actually very similar to the Otay:onii record, and the packaging... is something. Nice cover artwork, obi strip, lyric sheet and postcard for Iffernet, so far so good. But then there's that booklet for Dolpo. WTF? Do you know that Erich von Däniken Space Jesus  conspiracy VHS tape weirdness item from the vinyl version of Blood Incantation's "Hidden History Of The Human Race"?

This thing, which absolutely cannot even be meant to be in any way conclusive or even readable (I'm not even showing the worst pages below), plays in the same ballpark. Absolutely bonkers, all over the places insanity? Enlightment? Whatever? Not exactly what I would have connected with the music, which just doesn't sound like Skeletor speaking in emojis at all, but it's a fun extra anyway.

And definitely a thing where some other underground labels would probably have stopped the artist to save money. But WV Sorcerer Productions is of course all about special stuff slightly outside of the norm.

Great split LP. And what a great haul as a whole! 

cassette craze chronicles XXXIII feat. AIDAN BAKER, AVI C. ENGEL, MAIRU and MONOVOTH

Cassettes, cassettes, cassettes, ca...? Wait. Something feels weird, I don't know...

Well, let's just - sloooowly - get started with a serious statement of Doom:

MONOVOTH - Pleroma Mortem Est (2024)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

After playing with several adjacent influences on the rather Avantgarde self-titled debut, Lucas Wyssbrod's solo project Monovoth now dedicates itself fully to pure Funeral Doom in a flavour close to Bell Witch. Albeit not being equally colossal in size "Pleroma Mortem Est" breathes a similar air of cosmic magnitude with heaviness and beauty seemingly not made for our limited mortal perception.

It's just that brand of the genre I totally love to let myself fall into. The cassette format enhances the impression of a forever returning cyclic nature just by "Grata Mors" and "Somnia", the respective first tracks  of both sides beginning with deliberately similar intros, which can make it hard to determine where you are at first. In the end it doesn't matter, because from this album's perspective the listeners' little matters are just small insignificant specks on specks of stardust anyway.

MAIRU - Sol Cultus (2023)

Sometimes huge and aggressive Post Metal can feel a little stale and tiring, but this band just has that certain it, which captures me. I just have difficulties putting this tape into my play... Ok, now I get it! Something felt strangely off about this cassette since the moment I opened the package from Trepanation Recordings. My dear Dan, you sent me the wrong format! No worries, that's not a biggie actually, CDs are fine and both have the same price, so this doesn't bother me.

It disqualifies the release from being featured here however, so I have to stop this mini review at this point and carry on with the two *checks twice* actual tapes which I recently got from Cruel Nature Records... 

AIDAN BAKER - Everything Is Like Always Until It Is Not (2024)

After Monovoth already taught us that most of all is Death Aidan Bakern continues our philosophy lecture with the observation that "Everything Is Like Always Until It Is Not".

With each of its eight tracks named after one word of the album title, this is an album which undergoes an according subtle dramatic change during its runtime. It starts as if the typical sound of Aidan's band Nadja had been reimagined in a relaxing Ambient Doom Jazz setting, with synth and flowing guitars meandering in slow waves above smooth bass lines and half deliberately-amateurish / half Smooth Jazz drumming.

There is a monotonous undertone lurking somewhere in the background, which in the beginning is providing a sense of comfort. During the second half however it grows to an ominous Drone, which takes over more and more of the sonic space, making it more and more uncomfortable until with "Not" the album ends in an openly contorted reflection of its beginning.

No doubt, mister Baker knows what he's doing with this fearless exploration of (un)easy listening. And Cruel Nature Records know how to pack and design a tape release. Perfect concept and execution all around!

AVI C. ENGEL - Too Many Souls (2024)

I didn't hate it, but partly I felt a little lukewarm about Avi C. (formerly Clara) Engel's last album "Sanguinaria". "Too Many Souls" however is a different beast. Not that the general approach of Engel's music would have changed - that's not something anyone would seriously expect I guess. They still cultivate an intimate, very DIY kind of acoustic singer/songwriter sound, based in equal parts on Folk, Classical, Alternative and in lack of a better term Experimental influences.

The seven tracks of this new album - including a wonderful cover of the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger", which joins versions by Oceans Of Slumber and Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter in my collection - all just find the right tone of introspective, but still interesting and listenable brooding. Among the minimal arrangements of guitar, percussions and occasional melodica, which carry Avi's soothing vocals, especially the gudok, a lute-related Slavic string instrument, is the emotionally captivating star of the show.

A beautiful, poetic album with the same nice (even though not necessarily most convenient) cardboard packaging as seen with Aidan Baker's cassette, including Engel's own artwork and a great looking shell.

NADJA / AIDAN BAKER - Nalepa

Nadja, Nadja, meine lieblich lärmende Babuschka, über dich zu schreiben fällt mir nicht leicht!

Es ist das ewige Problem des Rezensenten mit der ereignisarmen Musik: Es passiert einfach nicht viel, über das sich berichten ließe. Oder?

NADJA - Nalepa (LP) (2022) / AIDAN BAKER (CD) (2022)

Wie so oft im Drone (Metal) ist auch auf dem neuesten Album des in Berlin residierenden Duos der Klang an sich das Hauptereignis. Songs im engeren Sinne gibt es nicht, nur ein sich geduldig in erster aus Gitarrenfeedback und pumpendem Bass live mitgeschnittenes "Funkspiel" in sechs Teilen, welche man auch noch passender als Bewegungen bezeichnen könnte.

Zusätzlich zum dröhnenden Getöse der Saiteninstrumente bietet "Nalepa" allerdings auch ein in der fleißigen Diskographie Nadjas eher seltenes Extra auf: Statt des häufig gehörten Computers spielt Gastmusikerin Ángela Muñoz Martínez ein echtes organisches Schlagzeug.
Ja, so ein bisschen erinnert diese Kombination an "The Singularity" von thisquietarmy und Away. Und nein, das stört nicht.

Ebenfalls im Funkhaus, Berlin eingespielt, allerdings ein paar Wochen später, wurde das identisch "Nalepa" getaufte Bonusalbum, welches der LP als CD beiliegt.
Es ist klanglich eng mit dem Hauptalbum verwandt, besteht jedoch nur aus vier "Radioplay I" bis "Radioplay IV" betitelten Tracks und wurde - ebenfalls inklusive Livedrums - alleine von Aidan Baker eingespielt. Dadurch wirkt es ein wenig fokussierter und konzentrierter als das Nadja-Werk. Da mich zusätzlich die Pressqualität von eben jenem nicht hundertprozentig überzeugt, wäre dieses kleinere "Nalepa" auch mein Favorit, wenn ich mich für einen entscheiden müsste.

Ich tendiere allerdings eher dazu, beide als gemeinsame Erzählung zu betrachten. Wer mehr auf die von Godflesh inspirierte, rifforientierte Seite der Band steht oder shoegazigen Gesang erwartet, der wird mit beiden "Nalepa"s nicht bedient. Trotz des auffälligen rhythmischen Elements ist dieses instrumentale Doppelalbum ganz klar für die Fans der weniger konket greifbaren, ganz kompromisslosen Experimentalbebrummung gedacht.

Und jene werden auf jeden Fall verwöhnt. Meine Trommelfelle vibrieren in Trance.