It's been a while since I've received anything from French experimental/noise/industrial label Cioran Records, and I think that goes back to Camecrude in 2021. I can always tell a Cioran promo when it arrives before I even open it; they use all black packaging with handwritten lettering for my address. According to the promo sheets, Flagorne is the project of experimental black metal artist Maquerelle and industrial hardcore producer Afga061. Now just because I've never heard of these guys before doesn't mean you haven't, but unless you live in Europe, I'm guessing you probably haven't either. No matter, talent doesn't have to have a reputation to be good, and for what they are, these guys are pretty darn good.

'Les Couleurs D'une Fievre' ('The Colors of Fever') is five tracks in a mere 38 minutes, but you don't always need an hour's worth of material on an album to make a point, and Flagorne certainly makes its point emphatically, which happens more often than not in the industrial harsh noise genre. First track, "Salutations" begins on the lighter side of noise with an almost industrial ambient demeanor, but when Maquerelle comes in with anguished ranting in French, it won't matter if you know what he's saying or not. A little more than halfway through the noise, ranting and tumult gives way to a calmer but creepy electronic ambience with distorted speech and other odd sonic effluvia. While that track rolls seamlessly into "Addresses," it takes on thunderous bottom-heavy percussion and totally insane chaotic instrumentality with screaming vocals drowning in the morass. This is quite a lot to bear for five minutes, even for the most seasoned noise enthusiast. (Gotta love the snare hit and vocal "GAAa" at the end though. "Devore" seems almost the inverse of the previous track, but with a very strong sequenced beat and old school percussion that are reminiscent of Neubaten and Throbbing Gristle. Very industrial, and almost rock, with plenty of shock. Gotta love this track! I even like the way it peters out at the end with the eerie whistling. "De rien de bien" begins with loops that sound like a broken vintage videogame, but after only a little over a minute in, the crunchy medium tempo beat begins with more ranting from Maquerelle, and now we've got a real scene going on here. Just when you though it was getting a tad too repetitive, the scene changes to a beatless purgatory before plummeting into the hellscape it was always destined for, and Maquerelle ain't gonna let you forget it.

What I really like about Flagorne is, that as noisy as they can be (and that's a plenty most times), they temper it with non-harsh, sonically interesting passages. That is very evident on final track "Comme plusieurs" where the initial music is ominous but not overwhelming, and Maquerelle's vocals are more sung than ranted or screamed, somewhat in the style of a muezzin, rather than anything in the industrial rock vein. (Hey, he's got a really good voice too.) Strange, but oddly delightful and almost dream-like. For a debut, this is a stellar album.

Inner Demons has been branching out, and this is on a 5” CDR, rather than on their signature 3” discs. INFELIX hails from Seattle, Washington, and describes their music as “Death Ambient, Blackened Death Industrial, Doom Drone.” Their previous work on Inner Demons, “Eternal Hymns of Entropic Darkness,” was well done, so I was interested to see what INFELIX would do with a full-length disc.

This is pretty dark stuff, but not in a cheap “add a bunch of horror samples” sort of way. The label describes the album thus: “Constructed using analog limitations, capturing improvised rawness. Thematically influenced by mental depression, existential anxiety, Cioran, and Schopenhauer. Broken mechanical beats, death ambience, distorted vocal howls, and signature INFELIX bleakness. A soundtrack to the Holocene extinction.” And dystopian is an excellent word to describe this. This is the sound of mechanical decay, of machinery that has lived on past its usefulness but continues on nonetheless despite missing a cog here and a belt there. This is not the sound of anger or sadness, but rather resignation.

Some of the standout tracks for me are "The Stagnant Nausea ov Existence,” which brings together heavy beats and unintelligible screaming vocals. Crushing would be the easiest description. "E_R_D" has some spoken word mixed in about "civilization as we know it is about to disappear from off the face of the earth" with a plodding beat and gritty synth work. And finally, "Sepulchral Occupation" features a thudding beat with lots of electronic noises. This is the scene when the robots make their move and try to take over.

Overall, this is an interesting album and would appeal to those who like it heavy, but do not want it to descend into harsh noise wall. If you like it gritty, INFELIX has you covered. This is limited to 42 copies and weighs in at around 54 minutes.

The word infelix means unhappy, unfortunate, or unlucky. This was my first time hearing the word and my introduction to this Seattle-based artist. INFELIX is the work of one J.M. Stevens, who also records under the name Lapsed. He describes the music as “Death Ambient, Blackened Death Industrial, Doom Drone.” Sounds like the band name is fitting, so let’s take a step into the darkness.

We kick it off with “Hymn I: GBK,” which is a slow moving synth composition with an arpeggiated beat and distorted vocals. “Hymn II: The Divine Abyss of Sleep” brings in a heartbeat-like beat over noisy synth washes. Everything eventually dissolves into noise and the overall feeling here is pressure and a sense of relentlessness. “Hymn III: Doomed to Devour” is a grinding, repetitive composition with distorted screaming buried in the mix.

On the next disc we start off with “Hymn IV: Hoarding Decay.” Now we're getting noisy. This is a kind of static composition reminiscent of waves crashing on a beach with heavily distorted vocals. ”Hymn V: The Anguished Light” keeps the noisiness going with screaming vocals and screeching feedback squalls. Everything moves slowly, as if covered under a thick layer of mud. “Hymn VI: Eternal Suffering” closes it off with more crunchy beats and heavy noise with some synth lines emerging from the sludge as it progresses. The slowly progressing synth line is almost hypnotic, as it repeats the theme over and over within the maelstrom.

There is a lot going on in these compositions, and there is a nice mix of noise and synth which keeps it interesting. If you like it heavy and dark, this will be right up your alley. This album is limited to 42 copies and weighs in at around 39 minutes.

I was not familiar with either Sick System or Rosa Luxemburg. Sick System describes themselves as "Anti-fascist Harsh/Noise/Drone/Wall project." There is not much else. The liner notes state that Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919), described by one of her colleagues as the "most brilliant intellect of all the scientific heirs of Marx and Engels," is one of the most original and influential thinkers in the history of Marxism." The notes conclude that "Luxemburg was a brilliant thinker, sharp-tongued rhetorician, and trailblazing leader of the proletarian revolution. This album is an humble homage to this inspiring woman, for whom 'the most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.'" Sounds promising, so let's dive in.

This disc consists of three tracks, each titled "I Was. I Am. I Will Be. (Homage to Rosa Luxemburg)," all weighing in at 6:36. The first track opens with a spoken word snippet discussing socialism and the connection to the workers. This then kicks into a wall of harsh noise blast. The second track keeps the noise rolling strong with a healthy dose of feedback. I like the variety in the noise; this is not just put a sample in front of a recording of television static. It’s well-crafted and engaging. The last track is similar in style to the previous tracks. It is as if Sick System wanted to portray what it would sound like to be in a wind tunnel while the fragments of the disintegrating building whip by you. It becomes almost hypnotic until it ends with another sample stating that "we must fall forward into socialism or fall backwards into barbarism."

If you are looking for something that is a bit more politically oriented, this may not suit your tastes, as the samples seem almost incidental and are limited to the beginning and ending. However, if you like harsh noise wall with a hint of socialism, this is well worth picking up. This disc weighs in at around 20 minutes.

If this sounds familiar, it's because it should be. This was first released on Spectre in 2005, and I reviewed it back then (has it really been that long?). I have intentionally not gone back to see what I wrote back then because I want to listen to it without any preconceived notions. That said, I have enjoyed Fox's work immensely, so I knew what I was in for. For those who are unfamiliar, this is the work of Dan Fox, who is also the person behind the Inner Demons label and a host of projects, including This Is What I Hear When You Talk, Fail, and, of course, Loss. Let's dive in.

This is heavy as hell, but not in the way one would think. Rather, this is emotionally heavy. From the minor tone synth and the screeching sound that usher in "The Turning" to the stark ending works of "A Moment of Reflection," which is one of the darkest, most authentic power electronics tracks I have ever heard, there is a sense of tension in the tracks that weighs on the listener. There are moments of respite to be sure. For example, "Happy Ending?" is almost peaceful compared to some of the other tracks and "Wrapped Up" is a bit of spacey ambience with some crackling noise and a some flanger thrown in. Fox manages to take truly beautiful synth lines and reflects them through a funhouse mirror to show the ugliness just beneath the beauty that is demonstrably only skin deep. But the tension is between the lovely synth work and the harsh noise and often barely intelligible vocals layered in sheets of distortion that keeps everything interesting. "As Seen on TV" is a great example of this approach.

There are two remixes and one of the original tracks was also a remix of a prior Loss track. It was interesting to listen to "A View From Afar" and hear how Fox has reworked "All the World's a Stage, But I Just Work the Lights" from A Letter That Will Never Be Sent, which was the track that made me originally fall in love with Loss. The original musical themes are still there, but there is a different feel to it. At times it is almost subdued, but like a cat waiting to pounce, it suddenly explodes. This really is a remix rather than simply a cover of his own tracks, as remixes can tend to be. Where the original "Happy Ending?" is almost languid in its smoothness, albeit in a melancholy way, "Happy Ending? (Tension and Sorrow Remix by Loss)" is much more jagged, with a lot of hiss and crackle and spoken word added in about having a panic attack. This is much grittier and really calls attention to the question mark in the title. Where the original still had a sense of resigned hope, this version gives no such solace, even as it smooths out and becomes much more symphonic. For the last remix, Talvekoidik plays it a bit too safe with their remix of "The Turning," and I would have liked to see them mess with it a bit more and put their stamp on it. Still, it helps to have great source material.

In short, this is a disc that has stood the test of time and sounds every bit as fresh as it did when it was first released by Spectre almost two decades ago. If you missed it the first time, you don't want to make the same mistake twice.