It's really difficult to recognize the points of departure of this collaborative project by Henk Bakker aka HEK (former member of Dull Schicksal with Lukas Simonis, Hajo Doom an Colin Mclure and one leg of Static Tics) and Jelmer Cnossen aka Malorix, but I think the drawn analogy between the computer (or ableton) assisted way they dissected, miniaturized, crumbled, aggregated and treated inputs from respective instruments - bass clarinet and drums - in order to discover their hidden and more extreme sonic potential and excavation, digging or any other possible activities concerning underground passages or tunnel (as well as any related biological reaction such as the stuffy feeling related to the rarefaction of air) is proper with their sound. You could feeling like some worker in the bowels of the earth for extraction of minerals or for the drilling of the rocks in order to create tunnels for underground trains while listening heavy matsuri-like bumps or hammering, saw-like cacophonic noises, sinister echoes, disturbing explosions and other sonic sketches with many somewhat imaginative episodes - my favorite ones are Specon 9 (where it seems there are sudden gusts from dark underground zones, mixing with clanking rods), Conlet (it seems that the track echoes the devastating whirling of a drilling blading while severing electric wires during its rotation, inspiring some dizzy feeling), Exart (during its listening I imagined some mad miner, who decided to kill a big community of underground bugs or rats with a plenty of sticks of dynamite...), Fiek and the final S-Scape (you could imagine the above-mentioned miner, who frantically looks for a way of escape after realizing that he destroyed its torch together with a plenty of rats!)-. This impacting Dutch project offers a little bit uncanny but very immersive listening experience.

Fertanish is an experimental noise project by Bill Murphy from Washington, DC. On this full length debut outing of 12 tracks Fertanish ensures that the listener will be jarred out of complacency and exposed to some highly toxic sonic environments. The cover of this slick CD digipack (a mantis munching on a fly) is perhaps more symbolic than literal, as this isn't a field recording soundtrack for a Discovery Channel show on entomology. Well, there are places that have some of those elements, albeit sounding like they were run through a woodchipper, but more on that later.

'Practitioner' opens with a manic barrage of percussion and effluvia of noise that's akin to what Amon Tobin might sound like if he tried his hand in the noise genre. It morphs into this bouncy little Morse code rhythm for a bit and then the noise changes shape, size and dimension, spiraling ever upward. Fascinating. 'Mud' has a burbling, liquidy quality to it with heavy percussion loops and pounding drums. It moves faster than its title would indicate, but it does have a certain sludgy quality to it. 'Cockroach' makes use of sporadic gated percussion interjected with screeches until a torrent of noise overwhelms everything. Random sample & hold synth melody, chirping birds, other field recordings (then later some simplistic melodic synth) is a weird contrast to the shrieking cacophony that permeates this piece.

'Jetha' starts out with programmed rhythm on cymbals before the grating 'fingernails-on-a-chalkboard' noise takes over. Noise and field recording loops abound interspersed with burst rounds of kick-drum. 'We Wished for an Explosion' is heavy drum pattern and loops of other-worldly noise sonics, gated, backwards, over-under-sideway down. 'Airspace' takes field recordings of nature and environmental sounds and puts them in a blender of sonic distress. Is that jet overhead obliterating everything in its path? 'Grace,' the shortest piece on the album at a little under minute has a barely discernable melody in the background of this steadily harsh noise environment; you can hear a few tweets too, not of the Twitter variety.

'Lamb's Confusion' is more playful in the rhythm aspect, but no less heavy than what's gone on before. Storm giants dance a lumbering jig pummeling each other while gnomes laugh. 'Terminelegy' is ominous dark ambient with processed spoken vocals. 'Tired' has crunchy noise looping and a cuckoo sound descending synth sequence, and the sound of a billion birds gone wild. (The Hitchcock film has nothing on these avians.) Things get even wilder with bits of cleverly employed voice samples and a hundred elements I can't describe adding to the controlled chaos. Final track, 'The World Has Ended and We Have All Passed On' is an epic 14 ½ minute piece that seems to sum up everything that's gone on before it.

For noise enthusiasts, 'Zero Zero Three' is a veritable smorgasbord of turbulent pandemonium, and Fertanish shapes this sound sculpture like a true artist. You can tell a lot has gone into this work. I don't know the artist's vision for the future, but I'd like to hear Fertanish try something that tempers the abrasive side with less harsh sonic environments utilizing the sample and looping techniques that the artist has obviously mastered. (A little noise goes a long way in my world.) The CD seems to be widely available - Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby, etc., etc., so if you're a noise enthusiast, I suggest you pick up a copy as it is quite an engaging listen.

Stylistical roots of Heldentod can be traced back to the so-called death-industrial, a sub-genre which has never pierced mainstream in spite of many sarcastic observers could recognize that contemporary cultural debates often turn into a focus on macabre and grisly themes or funeral commemorations. Those listeners who have a certain familiarity with early expressions of this branch are going to notice the fact Heldentod mantains continuity with some past acts such as Brighter Death Now, Atrax Morgue, The Grey Wolves or Anenzphalia from the conceptual viewpoint at least but at the same time, their sound morph sounds original enough. The initial title-track of "The Ghost Machine" immediately sets the scene with the frightened description by a female voice of the emotional dynamics in detail during a scary appearance, emphasized by spooky sounds and an appropriate vocal treatment (...and manipulation of vocals is one of the strongest point of this project..), before the sinister thunder announcing the materialising of this ghost while the lady keeps on repeating that "his touch annihilates". Then many phantoms could come one after the other while listening through stifling atmospheres, grim sonic clashes, heavy treads - such as in the gloomy marches of "Kindermoerderin" (a reference to the so-called phenomenon of radiant boys, ghots of naked or white-dressed little boys, whose appearance foreshadows forthcoming bereavements according to related legends) or "The Sentient Darkness" -, bloodcurdling inhuman yelling and screams - some of them suddenly shatter in a so unexpected manner that they could make your flesh creep such as in "Encystment Process" or "Revenant" -, ectoplasmic drones and clips from Geiger counters while detecting strange anomalies. The style is quite homogenous with the only exception of "Betrayal", whoch sounds more power-electronics oriented. If you're not too suggestible and daredevil enough, try this record while sleeping in a dark room...better if alone or your chattering teeth could wake up your partner if overpowered by some funk!

Noise Nazi is the enigmatic and often offensive harsh noise project of Matthew Bonk of Wisconsin. Noise Nazi boasts an intimidating catalog of over 100 albums, EPs, and split releases in a variety of formats. Bagman is a power electronics noise project from the United Kingdom. I have had limited exposure to Bagman's work, but he appears to have released almost 30 albums, EPs and splits since 2008.


Mind Altar is a CD-r released by Medical Malfunctions Records in a plastic sleeve, which is pretty standard for this genre. The album consists of 4 tracks ranging between 6 and 10 minutes each. The sounds presented in Mind Altar are dense and old-school: gritty, harsh, and dominating. This release captures Noise Nazi doing what he does best, creating a world of his own, tempting the listener to play Mind Altar loudly, but leaving the listener in fear of severe hearing loss. Bagman provides a vocal compromise to the noise that manages to perfectly match the intensity--sometimes yelling, sometimes talking, never decipherable--but ultimately becoming a source of comfort amidst the aggression.


Mind Altar album would fit nicely into any noise collection, reminiscent of Massonna or Merzbow, but with less churning and more cohesion. By the end of Mind Altar I actually have the impression the artists have reached into my brain and are massaging it for me with their violently soothing work. Certainly now that the album is over there is a numb feeling where my brain is supposed to be.

I had not heard of this project, but evidently it is mainly the work of Martin Bladh, who is best know for IRM. According to the label, 'Rothko Field is a highly charged and visceral auditory experience...mind bending and turbulent sonic explorations that are grainy and tense, where uneasy frequencies intersect with caustic drones, infected, insectile buzz, swelling drifts, and intense, slow motion percussion driven sludgery. Further comparison reveals Rothko Field to be less schizophrenic, less challenging, and more structured than in the past, coming off as both spacious and yet suffocatingly claustrophobic (and ultimately closer in style to IRM), suggestive of a spiral downwards into mental decay and degradation, and further enhanced by Martin's uniquely distressed and provocative vocalizations.' How's that for two really long sentences? On to the music itself. From the very beginning you know that this is going to be an odd listen as the singer(s?) shout out a litany of potential behavioral problems that may befall a young person. What makes it all the more powerful is the staccato vocals and the fact that you can actually understand them. Overall, this album is much more varied than the typical power electronics release though. For example, 'Hypnagoga' is calming spoken word over a peaceful melody and the sound of cats meowing. 'In the Skin,' reminds me of some pretty dark PE stuff ' think some of Navicon Torture Technologies' older stuff on Malignant. 'Void' is supposed to function as the 'mirror' of the two parts, according to the label, and this is interesting ambience and dissonance. At his point the album titles become backward as well, and there is a kind of stylistic similarity between the forward and 'backward' tracks, especially with 'dlohserhT.' 'dleiF okhtoR' is the longest track on the album at 17:11 and consists of some punishing, slow grinding guitars and percussion. It seemed to go on a little long, but if the intent is to wear you down, it certainly does the trick. Overall, this is one of those albums that defy a neat categorization, which is nice for a change. But it is definitely noisy and heavy. This album weighs in at around 57 minutes.