The seventh stroke of the pointed Zeitkratzer lash has been added by William Bennet, one of the most inspiring pioneer of the so-called power electronics and industrial music throughout his provocatory project Whitehouse, whose name for all hungry listeners who are not so learned about the origin of this sonic species was taken from one of most notorious pornographic English zine as well as from the surname of Mary Whitehouse, one of the fighting Christian activist, which gained some notoriety for her puritan campaigns since the 70ies and so an easy target for Bennett & C., whose music could be considered as a sort of stage and "speaking" corner for his anti-toadyism and anti-moralist agreeably harangues standing upon his intent to forge what he defined "the most extreme music ever made", which was going to be earsplitting and violent either in its form and in its content.

Even if there's no use of strictly electronic devices, I'm sure Mr Bennett had appreciated both the extrapolation from his rich repertoire and the "orchestral" version by Zeitkratzer's musicians directed by the pianist Reinhold Friedl who have been able to preserve the surgical harshness as well as the powerful emotional impact of the original compositions and their ability in melting them throughout the aid of zeitkratzers' deep knowledge of amplification and microphone techniques which is evident since the opening piece Munkisi Munkondi (many pieces by Bennet's are entitled with African names as his fascination for African and Haitian music and culture had been attested by his attempts of integrating some sounds form that imaginary, particularly percussions, in its brutal assemblages ), taken from Bird Seed (an album recorded in 2003) and referring to the ritual sculpturing of wooden representations of local gods or protecters obtained from the painful scratches of each villager on primordial trunk, whereas amidst the clashing orchestral magma some ascending sounds reminding the typical screeching of whizzing cars are intertwined with amplified wind instruments looking like the harrowing moos of cows condemned to slaughtering or the frightened squawking of ducks before turning into fois-de-gras.

The opening sinister shrill sound of Nzambi la Lufua of the colliding hight-pitches, which gradually descends, of a trumpet and a trombone could remind the anguishing scenario of an agonizing farmyard before the moment of absolute silence (Bennett prefers to speak about "short moments of reflection"), detaching this track from the following one, Scapegoat, a magistral drone-like piece where dilated instruments seems to be scorched by tremolo and vibrato effects. The tremendous and devastating corporeity of Bennett's music has been highlighted by the following track, Faiground Muscle Twitcher, a sort of noisy representation of the spasm of a muscle just before an unavoidable pain whose ritualistic side hides in some hidden chidplays easily suffocated by distorted and high-pitched string sounds, whose abruptive end sounds like those reassuring words a nurse normall says to a fearful child after injection. But the most ritualistic moment of this performance, live recorded in Marseille in 2009, is Bia Mintatu, whose vortical ascension of asymmetrical loops, sinister noises and paralysing glissandi refers to a particular tribal African invocation in the form of litany, intended to propitiate the destruction of any potential enemy. The obscure and noisy lameness of the frozening final track, The Avalanche, is the perfect way to finish this immersive sample of orchastrated noise. Brilliant!

Not so long ago we've reviewed their live vinyl + dvd, it was nothing but a morsel of a forthcoming banquet and here is the new full-length, it's the last episode of what so far can be defined as a lucky career. They've always had beautiful recordings but this time the production is incredible, so tip of hat for the sound engineer has shaped this diamond so brilliantly, it's impressing since every frequency is so boombastic you can't even believe the band is just a drum and voice/guitar duo, at the same time it's not too loud but just crystalline. The fact is that after a series of incredible releases this' just good, or at least I think despite some killing tracks this time the whole product is a little bit less ass kicking than the last two records. For those who still don't know the band we're talking about a duo mixing heavy depressive blues, Nick Cave, post-rock, some alternative noise rock influences from the nineties and influences from the best italian songwriters from the past. Maybe it's just a suggestion or just the inflection of the singer's accent, but for the first time I notice some similarities with Paolo Conte (by the way, they're coming from the same area), sure here the lyrics are more cynical, more bohemienne, but the sour/bitter view of the world is quite similar they just like of Conte's irony. Despite my comment on the fact this' just a bit less brilliant then the last two records, it features some incredible songs like in the case of 6, 2, 5 and it shows how writing simple tracks with just two basic instrument and a voice can be a display of talent for a craftsman and that's the case. Just a couple of piano notes added for the arrangements, and some additional feedbacks to complete the recipe. As I've said I prefer their previous materials but still a great band.

Active from the end of the 80s until the first years of 00s (but recently reformed and touring again), Starfuckers were an Italian band that started playing following the Stooges / MC5 revival that in Italy had different followers with bands that started as garage bands just to increase their distortion level (Monks, Sick Rose and Mouse Blasters were some of them). Their first album "Metallic Diseases", followed that style but soon after they changed everything by starting to experiment with guitar noise and lyrics. Writing their lyrics now in Italian language and singing them into a declamatory style, Starfuckers with their new MLP "Brodo di cagne strategico" could had been filed under the "conceptual noise" folder. The new detached vocals along with layers of guitar feedbacks often coupled to sax solos made of them a sort of Bukowski transposed to music. The following album "Sinistri" (available on this CD along with "Brodo di cagne strategico", two compilation tracks and another unreleased one) was even more conceptual and if on the previous MLP, guitar still had some Stooges influences, on this album improvisation and noise play a big part. Jazzy guitars and drums along with noise and theatrical vocal lines are the core of these recordings and only "Ordine pubblico" sounds like a sort of post rock track. ORDINE '91-'96 gathers this material and if you missed it, this is a good way to discover it.

Active since 2000 with different mini albums and four albums Le Singe Blanc arrive to their fifth one titled BABYLON. Co-produced by Bar La Muerte, La Face Cachee, Whosbrain Records and available in vinyl and CD format, the new album see the French combo bringing to their audience nine new tracks in balance from jazz, punk and noise. Since from the opening tune "Bombadilhom" they sounded like a mix of Primus and Zeni Geva to me and the during the whole album I didn't changed my mind. Having the same sonic power of the Japanese band headed by KK Null and the craziness of the Californian combo (check for example "Tapadi" with its drunk choirs and its funk'n'punk attitude). I really enjoyed the album and even if at a first listen Le Singe Blanc could sound like a bunch of Smurfs on acid, at end of the album you'll find out that all this is making sense and you'll appreciate the 90s noise influences and their improvisation attitude (which on tracks like "Sblaf" reminds me of Magma).

Maybe inspired by the faint rays of sunlight of the morning hours of Swedish spring and summer and by the somewhat pleaseful sense of being lost to the world and contemporarily bliss a similar enviromental set could induce, Our House Is On The Wall, the debut release from the Swedish duo Murralin Lane, made up of David Wenngren aka Library Tapes - a piano-based intimist experimental project issued mainly by Kning Disk and Home Normal -, appreciated young composer in the minimal-ambient neo-classical scene running Auetic, a label which is bringing out some interesting acts pushing out the boundaries of the so-called poetics of absence including his side-project Le Lendemain backed by Danny Norbury (I reccomened to have a listen to it as well) and his partner Ylva Wiklund, looks like a collection of ethereal transmissions from a parallel dimension. On this occasion, David let his piano - a sort of trademark of his personal style... - rest in order to work on electric alembics by collecting some delicious electro-acoustic cameos and fragile compositions wearing the melancholy hat and covered with dark-tinged ceruse. The sound space appears dominated by self-shaping drones of noisy and silently raging on the same time streams, on whose constant flow Ylva seems to put flowing ampoule of brimful vocal excerpts (sometimes recorded through a mobile phone as it's clear on the final trilling of When I Told You) resounding from the cavity in the wall where they built their sounding nest from the second track Folding Paper Planes oscillating between anesthetic depictions of void spaces and nyctalopic vocal vaporizations in the airless atmosphere saturated by distorted tuning forks and oblique sonorities. Murralin Lane's dimples sound easy to be tasted till its final fading out with its cinematic suite, which let me imagine Eskilstuna, the Swedish village from which they emit transmissions, is really close to Twin Peaks...