Performed on turntables with electronics, Henry the Ironman by Philippe Petit showcases deliciously crunchy electronic textures that drone, hiss, crackle and morph into new realms. With only 3 separate tracks (the first being 20min long mind you) Petit covers quite a bit of ground on this excellently mastered disc on Beta-Lactam Ring.

According to the liner notes, the album was recorded live in a studio. Its tricky to find exactly the right words to describe this sound, but there are hints of a saturated Kanding Ray and Jan Jelinek on Tierbeobachtungen, but many additional layers of noise that give it something of an industrial sound. Additional appearances by sax player Perceval Bellone and Chinese samples by FM3.

Get this for the astounding sound of Salaryman's Dream alone, and ride the wave with noisey delight through the rest of this excellent release.

Another new netlabel focusing on 'the darker side of IDM and post-industrial music', as they like to declare. I have my own and quite critical theory on those labels, as especially the rather experimental-minded Electronica
(net-) labels are growing like mushrooms out of the ground. Whoever will be able to follow all label activities and releases, if especially this kind of music is available in uncountable numbers? Who is seriously able to separate the wheat from the chaff? If there wouldn't be a signed artist of this label (Mr. Sascha LPF 12 Lemon ' cheers mate!) penetrating me with uncountable mails and the usage of MySpace blogs, to check out the quality of the roster of this new and promising label, whoever knows, if I'd ever pay attention on them? After listening this very first release of Abstrakt Reflections, I came to the result, that ignorance to the efforts of this label would mean avoidance of quality and layered Dark Electronica/IDM music ' things I consume like water and air. APPARENT SYMMETRY is a US-based solo project of Zach H. and under this moniker he's able to offer us an attractive form of Downtempo-/ Ambient-Electronica music, which features a crunchy rhythm work very near to the ideas and allows comparisons to such cult artists like GRIDLOCK, or some of the recent Tympanik Audio projects like ACCESS TO ARASAKA, SUBHEIM, or CANDLE NINE. Zach sets the quality on a high level without simply copying his idols ' his true, layered Industrial ambience touches the eardrums. 'Skybending' is the name of the most addictive tune, chosen out of this masterpiece here, which includes brillant piano inserts placed in a fragile synths-sound environment and subtle inserted rhythm works. 'Mourn' is a spectacular Dark Industrial/Ambient album, which surpirises through its matured sound design, which is lightyears better, tahn anyone does expect from a newcomer. Keep it on both, label and artist ' this is a must-download-item.

Sweden's well-known lo-fi-terrorists return with a new and strictly limited MCD (100 numbered exemplars), produced and released completely on their own, by their MedCon label. You'll get 5 new tracks plus an additional live recording of the new track 'With Regrets' from this duo, from which 'Lost' and the mentioned 'With Regrets' are seemingly the tunes, which shall help to invade the dancefloors again. Especially 'Lost' follows their self-produced tradition of classics like 'Human Rites' or 'Trust', although their new compositions offer some changes. They could invest a bit into a better fx-processing on Fredrik's vocal performance, their monstrous distortion effects on the vocals seem to be a relic of the past. As I was about to rate something similary on the music too, I finally had to realize, that SEVERE ILLUSION vary more in their kind of expression. It is still an attractive form of minimal constructed EBM bass lines, accompanied with dozens of noises and effect ' but all arranged in more matured kind. 'You've Been Lied To' with its steady SYNAPSCAPE-like drum patterns is a hot favorite and unites the best elements out of the both main world of the SEVERE ILLUSION sound-dimension, noise and minimal hook lines. A well-done return into their own manifested niche of pummeling old-school Electro/EBM, which they have left too long before.

After their previous sonic issues (sometimes close to lo-fi techno and electronic razor-shaped industrial'¦you could imagine something amidst Negativland, Psychic TV and acid techno era strips), the mysterious duo hailing from east boroughs of Leeds ' one of the English city's baking some interesting experimental projects -, known as The Truth About Frank, reaches his 4th 4-tracks Ep just before announcing (finally!!!) their first full-length, acting as a confirmation of their skills in forging strange sonic creatures, which could be perceived as playful and disquieting, elegant and aggressive at the same time throughout rapid passages (or I'd better call them interpenetration of )from hollow even if agonizing dreams to sinister scary nightmares. These brainy guys don't use sounds to excess, but they wisely treat them in that hallucinogenic way able to pierce listener's search of strong audible emotions, stimulating thoughts without any recurrence to Gothicism or industrialism injections. Artworks ' there's one for each track, partially reminding those provocative collages of some cyber-punk graphic designer, rich in fluorescent outlines and psychedelic mosaics- seem to play almost as a caption for tracks and the above-mentioned contrast between peaceful and disquieting elements resurface mostly in the last one, Welcome, in which The Truth About Frank loops a low-pitched voice morbidly repeating 'Welcome to My World' on a flat slow-changing half-melody. You could easily grab the implicit irony and the keenness behind a track like that! Maybe this Ep will not murder your sleep, but it surely could unsettle it! I'm curious to listen TTAF forthcoming album after listening to this taste of their enjoyable quibbles!

We've got a lot of releases from the Russian Electroshock Records label to review, so let's dig right in. When you review for Chain D.L.K., you never know what you're going to get, so you have to be prepared for anything. Actually, Anatoly Pereslegin's 'Xenophobia' was the first CD out of the big batch recently received from Chain D.L.K. HQ to review that I auditioned, but decided to put aside until my ears worked up the courage to hear it a couple of more times. Yes, it is that harsh. Xenophobia is defined as a fear of foreigners, or other races and cultures. Perhaps in the context of this work, it could mean races alien to the planet Earth, as it sounds about as alien as you can get, and is sure to alienate the 'average Joe' listener.

Anatoly Pereslegin is a Russian avant-garde artist of some renown (at least in Europe) and has an association (and several releases) with the Electroshock going back to 2000. Some of Pereslegin's other releases have included symphonic and orchestral elements and have been more accessible than 'Xenophobia,' which is PURE NOISE. Well, the vast majority of it is. I don't often encounter noise releases that are as brutal and uncompromising (throughout) as say, Merzbow, but this is certainly one of them.

Since the Noise music genre encompasses such a wide spectrum of form and style, it is necessary to define what we are dealing with here. First ' Drone- a constant, linear wave of sound devoid of any rhythmic properties. Not all drones are pleasant or ambient in nature; some drones (like the sound of a swarm of bees) make for uneasy listening. This is the type of drone we're dealing with on 'Xenophobia'. As for ambient, the traditional use of the term applies to background music or noise; a sonic environment that serves as atmosphere rather than the focus of attention. 'Xenophobia' is more along the lines of noise pollution rather than ambient in the same way the sound of a crackling campfire may be construed as ambient and the sound of a firestorm is not. In order to be ambient (at least for me), the sonic environment must be tolerable (and likely even enjoyable) over a lengthy duration. This is an aesthetic that perhaps not everyone will agree with, but for me, is necessary to establish. If I were to call this release 'ambient,' someone might get the impression that the sonic environment of 'Xenophobia' was subdued. It certainly is not.

Unless you're a real pure noise enthusiast, you are likely to have stopped reading this review and moved on by now. With that in mind, the rest of the review is for the purists. I have often wondered what it is about the harsh noise genre that attracts listeners to it. It is easy enough to understand the artists' motivation in making musical statements, but listening to unpleasant walls of sound is no easy task. It seems like more an intellectual exercise than an emotional experience. For me, I prefer Noise music with a variety of sonic events, or changes over time. Sometimes there can be a bit of subtlety to the process, but it's difficult to be subtle when the predominate character of the music is a harsh sonic environment.
'Xenophobia' consists of three lengthy pieces, ranging from about 21 to 27 minutes each. There is little respite in any of these pieces. They are all made up of complex electronic drones and squalls that carry on throughout each. The first piece, 'Kiss of the White Dwarf' begins with a drone that sounds like the previously mentioned swarm of bees. There is some pitch variation, other waveforms and harmonics that join in, some LFO oscillation modulation, ring modulation, and white noise elements. There is a subtle undercurrent of orchestration, but it is really subtle and sporadic. The piece wavers in intensity where at times only the (filtered) white noise element is present. The mix of pitches is interesting to a degree as it seems to flow seamlessly. The tonality and texture of the composition morphs over time. Frequencies are mostly in the mid-range, although there are lower and higher frequencies introduced at various points over time. The piece has an ebb and flow which is an interesting aspect, but in a disturbing way. None of the sonic events are enough to hold your attention, but like a train wreck, the music allows for no distraction either.

'Rape Quantum' is the toughest listen on Xenophobia (and longest track too), as it is a thick plume of noise often as screechingly uncomfortable as fingernails scraped across a blackboard. It is as uncompromising as it gets in the harsh power noise genre with varying degrees of intensity; a seemingly relentless oil plume of noise pollution. 27 minutes is definitely an endurance test. The last piece, 'Heteroemergency,' doesn't seem radically different than the other at first. However, there is more variation in sonic events'¦still subtle to a degree. At about the eight minute mark the sonic barrage calms down to a dull roar for a bit as steamy white noise washes over the wall of sound. Then, it just stops for a couple of seconds. (What's up with that?) It seems as though a new piece begins mid-track shifting tonality with interplay of random sub-sounds that may or may not be orchestral elements. Eventually it homogenizes with a series of modulated drone tones in the mid-to-upper frequencies and becomes a bit choppy. This piece is an extremely challenging listen, not just because of the harsh nature of the music, but because of all the elements going on. It's like a noise symphony. The one thing that disturbed me about all three pieces is that they just end, not fade away. It seemed odd.

I hesitate to make a comparison with Anatoly Pereslegin's 'Xenophobia' and any other artist or release in the noise genre; it would be selling it short, and perhaps put it in an unfair perspective. Sure, I could site Merzbow, Conure, Karkowsky, or even Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' for its uncomfortability factor, but the fact is, Xenophobia' is quite different than all of them. It will test you listening stamina in more ways than one. For me, this is not a pleasurable experience, but I can appreciate the artist's intent and effort. So this is a difficult CD to rate. If you're really into noise music, give it an extra star and a half. If you're not, take away three stars, you just won't like it. One thing is certain; Electroshock Records seems to be on the cutting edge of unusual electronic releases and now that they've ramped up their catalogue, you're sure to be hearing more about them and their artists in the near future.