cassette craze chronicles XLVI feat. AIDAN BAKER & WARIO PIANESI, CATATONIC LEISURE ALONE, CHURCHLICKERS, COLIN WEBSTER / BALÁZS PÁNDI / MATT CARGILL and COLIN WEBSTER / MARK HOLUB / NOAH PUNKT

Phew, that headline was a mouthful, wasn't it? Even though I snuck a cassette into my last Temple Fang double review there's still enough new tape left to justify this forty-sixth edition of cassette craze chronicles - and of course we're starting with the elephant-blue item, which sticks out most in the picture above:

AIDAN BAKER & WARIO PIANESI - 4Rooms (2026)

Yes, this tape is actually connected to a name tag and several layers of cardboard cutouts with a key ring. And no, it's not as impractical as you might think. It's indeed pretty easy to loose the shell from the ring, so you only need to think about how to store this thing. Mine is hanging on a hook close to my player.
I bought this tape directly from master Aidan Baker himself after his show on the MS Stubnitz in April. I don't know how many copies exactly exist, but it's surely among the rarest items in my music collection.

Musically this is a live improvisation session of the quality you should expect from the Experimental guitar player, who once again impresses with beautiful layers of Ambient, Drone and Noise Rock, while the source of Industrial beats (and probably other sounds I cannot with certainty distiguish from his performance and effects), operated by Wario Pianesi comes as a little surprise, since it's a Nintendo DS.
Full disclosure: Despite its apparent household-name popularity I had to look up, what this Gameboy successor even is, so I can only assume that there were (are? Sorry, I'm completely out of this loop...) not only games for the mini console, but also some kind of music / drum computer apps.

Well, if your name is Wario** this is for sure a fitting instrument of choice. And this session - divided into four rooms ("Room1", "Room2" etc.) - sounds seriously good. Intriguing stuff!

CATATONIC LEISURE ALONE - Veil of Sparks (2026)

The Japanese label NEUS-318 presents a live recording from China by a Russian musician living in Switzerland.

Catatonic Leisure Alone is a solo moniker of none other than Electronic Noise artist and saxophonist Anton Ponomarev (P/O Massacre, Witness Wounds, Suncuts, Teufelskeller - just to name the projects I have already written about).  "Veil of Sparks" consists of a half-hour long performance called "A Noise of Bunch" in two parts, both filled with immersive, aggressive, expressive, mean yet somehow meaningful Industrial Noise. Even the saxophone turns into a manipulated shrill murder apparatus far from a musical instrument and much closer to a mechanical drill recklessly probing your brain. A profoundly brutal trip to Dystopia, scaringly close the actual hell we're building right now. Sick!

The cassette in minimalist design is limited to not 50, not 75, but for whatever reason exactly 23 copies.

COLIN WEBSTER / MARK HOLUB / NOAH PUNKT - Neue Hard (2025)

The following two tapes were ordered directly from another saxophone player, the prolific Colin Webster, whose many appearances in my tape/record/CD collection mostly see him beside Rene Aquarius and Otto Kokke in Dead Neanderthals and in Jason Köhnen's projects Bong-Ra and The Lovecraft Sextet, but also jamming with many other musicians in various outings like Kodian Trio, Saxoctopus or the Martina Verhoeven Quintet. And then there's of course also the work (which probably paid more than all of these combined) on the latest Florence + The Machine album.

"Neue Hard" is a trio recording from Zürich with Mark Holub on drums and Noah Punkt on upright bass. Classic chaotic, but still seamlessly flowing, very musical and listenable Free Jazz with just the right Experimental edge. Rather on the traditional side of Webster's work, but not antiquated at all. Inspired performances, great natural sound of the instruments and a mix flawlessly showcasing both. What more do you need? Awesome!

I always love the lino-print on recycled cardboard aesthetic of his releases and the simple bold typo of "Neue Hard" on this cassette cover is no exception. Since this stuff is already from last year, there might not be too many copies left, so better check it out sooner than later!

COLIN WEBSTER / BALÁZS PÁNDI / MATT CARGILL - Chewed Up And Spat Out (2026)

The second Colin Webster session here, on which he jams with drummer Balázs Pándi and Matt Cargill (Sly & The Family Drone) on electronics, is a darker and weirder beast.

And a little under forty minutes is just the right length for this kind of beautifully eery, yet still wild Doom and Heavy Jazz. Brilliant stuff - and as far as tapes go - also almost gone...

CHURCHLICKERS - Churchlickers II (2026)

Is this an album or rather an EP with bonus tracks? I'd say the latter, because I already owned the second half of this latest Churchlickers tape - which consists of live recordings from the MS Stubnitz - as a digital release from last year.

The opener "Whiteout" is also familiar as a previous live single, but now we get to hear a studio version of this great slowly building Post Rock track, which begins with dark piano, adds twangy and later more and more heavy and atmospheric guitar work. What could have been produced to a huge epic of Mono dimensions with many instrumental layers and a perfect bombastic sound doesn't give in to this temptation, but willfully keeps the unfiltered punkish DIY attitude. And exactly that interplay between cinematic ideas and honest minimalist rawness is the central strength defining the trio from Hamburg.

Only a quarter as long as the opener the three-minute track "Wasp Cemetary" is another great example for that, as well as the familiar live tracks, which well... also include a repeat of that very track. But anyway, that actually doesn't attract any negative attention and it's of course generally nice to have this material on tape now, too. The intensity of those keys in "Frost" alone is worth it. Lick this! 

** Hmm... Coming to think of it... is Wario even real or is this some kind of "Adaption" Kaufmann & Kaufmann situation? ;)

MAUD THE MOTH and AIDAN BAKER live on board the MS Stubnitz, Hamburg (April 24th 2026)

After Roadburn Festival comes the Roadburn Blues, that thing where you have seriously developed an entitlement for amazing performances, secret show announcements and a community of kindred spirits to share it with on a daily basis. But instead you get the disappointing grind of everyday life.

Before my five-part Roadburn review - which is in the works, but always takes its sweet time - comes my report from the first show I visited to actively fight Roadburn Blues. And with these two performances, which would both have been absolutely worthy of being a part of the festival, I made the absolutely right choice.

I had a moment of doubt though. The audience boarding the MS Stubnitz didn't exactly look like the usual Ambient/Drone/Expermimental crowd (if there even is something like that) - and a look at the merch table revealed that some Polka thing was playing. Wait! What?
I actually had to check the date, remained confused for another moment, before I realized that there were two parallel events happening on the ship and I had to go to another room, where I had never attended a show before. With the stage being on floor level it felt much more intimate, while still having those huge Stubnitz acoustics. Perfect for this night's artists.

AIDAN BAKER

Aidan Baker came with a guitar, his effect board and a violin bow, delivering a truly beautiful, emotionally laden Ambient set in several unbroken connected movements. You could both feel the endless experience the male half of Nadja has with this kind of performance, as well has the soul he still pours into it.

The biggest break of the flow happened towards the end, when everything was caught in a rectangular loop, before Amaya López-Carromero aka Maud the Moth joined in on eery vocals and keys, together with her guitar player (and also Healthyliving bandmate) Scott McLean. Their improvisation was a stunning finale for this immersive show.

MAUD THE MOTH

Since everything was set up anyway, it wouldn't have bothered me at all, if they had just continued with Maud the Moth's show immediately, but of course they took a little breather, before the singer sat down at her keyboard to play one older song, which just consisted of piano and her half-operatic hauntingly beautiful voice.

After that McLean joined her for a set of manifoldly layered newer tracks, in which synths, guitar, samples, loops and López-Carromero's spectacular singing grew to breathtaking dramatic highs.

And just when you thought the mixture of ethereal Neoclassical, Experimental Post Something music couldn't get better, Aidan Baker came back for one last trio performance during the finale "Kwisatz Haderach", the last track from Maud's recent 2025 album "The Distaff". And wow, what a mighty way to finish this night! Roadburn Blues definitely beaten - for now.

Cool, I see you actually scrolled through all my pictures! So normally the review would end here, but since the band in the ship's main room was still playing I also stayed for a couple of their songs, which somehow added to the Roadburn feeling, when you walk out of one thing and into something worlds different. So here's my absolutely unqualified "review" of that show as well:

HEPTA POLKA

As the name says, these are seven guys playing Polka (and other Folk music with inspirations from all around the globe). When they switched on their party mode it was definitely too much and a bit too shallow for me, especially after the spiritually charging music I had witnessed before.

But when they took it slower, Hepta Polka actually developed some intriguing depth... so between these poles all in all this had propably been a pretty good show as well, I guess. But that's it now! Any more of my opinion would really be presumptuous.



Weird place to end a live report, I know.



Deal with it!

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!