Ready to dance, clap and sing along? Well sorry, the latest three additions to my tape collection certainly aren't. Or actually... at least the first one might actually be down for a crazy rabid mosh pit.
大鬼众 GHOSTMASS - 大抱散 Improvisation for Dusty Ballz (2025)
Not long ago I reviewed Ghostmass' album "Ghost Meditation", collaboratively released by WV Sorcerer Productions and Dusty Ballz Records. The latter hopefully explains the weird title for this second joint release: It simply is a live session the Chinese group played for that label.
Even though the instrumentation on this recording - with bass, drums and lots of electronics - is the same, the band shows us a pretty different face. The slow Drone, traditional Chinese/Mongolian undertones, the meditative vibes - you have to look way harder for all those here.
Instead chaotically fast and aggressive sounds dominate most of these forty minutes. At first it seems mainly like a wild explosion of Noise and Grindcore, with all the sick screams, shouts and screeches. A demolishing fun party - with some surprisingly satisfying sounds mixed with the raw in-your-face brutality.
But somehow there is more... a Heavy Free Jazz element that keeps getting more prominent until on side B the album turns into an unexpected mass of John Coltrane worship in the most brute outlandish, but strangely enough not in he least disrespectful way, with throat singing emulating the ecstatic saxophone of Trane's later works and the two long tracks even being called "Ascension" and "Om". Purists may get one or two heart attacks on the way, but what else is the finale of this album if not Free Drone Jazz? Just the appropriate manner of coming down after this wild whatthefuckery.
Do I have to mention that the punk-ish artwork rules? That's how you design a tape!
Even though the instrumentation on this recording - with bass, drums and lots of electronics - is the same, the band shows us a pretty different face. The slow Drone, traditional Chinese/Mongolian undertones, the meditative vibes - you have to look way harder for all those here.
Instead chaotically fast and aggressive sounds dominate most of these forty minutes. At first it seems mainly like a wild explosion of Noise and Grindcore, with all the sick screams, shouts and screeches. A demolishing fun party - with some surprisingly satisfying sounds mixed with the raw in-your-face brutality.
But somehow there is more... a Heavy Free Jazz element that keeps getting more prominent until on side B the album turns into an unexpected mass of John Coltrane worship in the most brute outlandish, but strangely enough not in he least disrespectful way, with throat singing emulating the ecstatic saxophone of Trane's later works and the two long tracks even being called "Ascension" and "Om". Purists may get one or two heart attacks on the way, but what else is the finale of this album if not Free Drone Jazz? Just the appropriate manner of coming down after this wild whatthefuckery.
Do I have to mention that the punk-ish artwork rules? That's how you design a tape!
WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS - The Devil And The River, Volume One (2024)
New Mexican solo performer William Fowler Collins brushes his electric guitar. With a calligraphy brush. While holding one chord. For half an hour. And that's all this is.
Shouldn't there be more? No, this is absoluty fine. Excellent minimalism that sounds indefinitely more cinematic than anything you're imagining right now. Trust me!
The subtle artwork and violet/clear tape shell don't try to direct too much attention away from the beautifully rich simplicity of the music. Thank you Karlrecords for bringing this super slo-mo soundwave to my ears!
Shouldn't there be more? No, this is absoluty fine. Excellent minimalism that sounds indefinitely more cinematic than anything you're imagining right now. Trust me!
The subtle artwork and violet/clear tape shell don't try to direct too much attention away from the beautifully rich simplicity of the music. Thank you Karlrecords for bringing this super slo-mo soundwave to my ears!
DAVID WALLRAF - Crudeltá Necessaria (2025)
Coming with a lot more explanation in liner notes about the necessity of cruelty in art as "a last line of defense in the political and artistic struggle against societal and political pressure" the noises on this second Karlrecords mini album are a lot more antagonistic than Fowler's meditation. However it's not a completely abrasive Harsh assault, but a very controlled, meticulously fine-tuned recording.
David Wallraf, Noise artist and theorist from Hamburg, who actually regularly gives lectures on the subject, approaches his work from a very academic angle. But fear not, the music here is still enjoyable without a degree in theoretical musicology!
With a firm stance in Electro-Acoustic Avantgarde, in conceptual connection to the cinematic works of Pier Paolo Pasolini and using sound design fragments of his movies from the 1960's on tape loops, Walraff creates intriguing Experimental soundscapes of Ambient, Drone and Noise which get more and more imaginative and narrational as the thirty-four minute running time of "Crudeltá Necessaria" go on.
The closing long track "Petrolio" alone justifies listening to this album, as it combines the vibrations of cosmic Berlin school Electronics with The Bug style Dub and the majestic organ Drone of Anna von Hausswolff in a timelessly evocative way.
And while you should never misplace the anonymously clear shell, the artwork of this hand-numbered tape is a classy beauty.
David Wallraf, Noise artist and theorist from Hamburg, who actually regularly gives lectures on the subject, approaches his work from a very academic angle. But fear not, the music here is still enjoyable without a degree in theoretical musicology!
With a firm stance in Electro-Acoustic Avantgarde, in conceptual connection to the cinematic works of Pier Paolo Pasolini and using sound design fragments of his movies from the 1960's on tape loops, Walraff creates intriguing Experimental soundscapes of Ambient, Drone and Noise which get more and more imaginative and narrational as the thirty-four minute running time of "Crudeltá Necessaria" go on.
The closing long track "Petrolio" alone justifies listening to this album, as it combines the vibrations of cosmic Berlin school Electronics with The Bug style Dub and the majestic organ Drone of Anna von Hausswolff in a timelessly evocative way.
And while you should never misplace the anonymously clear shell, the artwork of this hand-numbered tape is a classy beauty.
