Barrera is the work of Spanish artist David López Saludes, who is also the person behind Soma, whose previous release on Inner Demons was “1984 Vías Para Un Mundo Feliz.” I enjoyed the Soma release immensely, so I was looking forward to see what this project sounded like.

Barrera is a Harsh Noise Wall project focused on no-input mixer techniques, so let’s dive in and see what we have. This disc consists of one 20 minute track, "No Crunch Wave Input, Ethereal Crush." As for the sound, if you are old enough to remember when the television station would sign off for the night and you would suddenly be hit with a blast of white noise until the station came online in the morning, this will be a wave of nostalgia. Well, nostalgia and white noise static. And heavy bass hum buried under the white noise. As with the television static, where you started to think you could see patterns in the static, this is a similar aural situation. The bass hum is not constant, although I wish it were, because it provides a nice low-end balance to the high-pitched static.

I appreciate the experimental impulse in using the mixer itself as instrument with no input, but at the end of the day, the question is how it sounds. I like a bit of variety in my walls, and this was too static for my tastes. However, if you like your walls to just be there, this may be up your alley. This disc weighs in at around 20 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.

Here we have another disc from the Hardest Working Man in Noise, Dan Fox, who has a whole lot of projects, and is the driving force behind Inner Demons Records. First off, a note about the title. I love the fact that Fox does not take himself too seriously. I am the Brett mentioned in the title, so I am in on the joke (and now so are you). The previous discs were "I Really Want Brett To Like This, But He Probably Won't" and "I Want Brett to Like This, Too." The question now is whether Xenon will like it, so let's dive in. This consists of four short tracks, titled only with Roman numerals.

I. This is heavy, jagged drone with some high pitched noise underneath. If you want wall of noise that is not overly harsh, but intense, this will fit the bill.
II. If you want it noisier, this is for you. High pitched squealing noise under a machine-like, pulsing wall of noise. This is like standing on a factory floor with everything set for maximum production.
III. More hypnotic drone with a constantly pitchshifting whine underneath that gives the whole thing a sense of underlying motion, while the heavy bass gives it an ominous feel. Well done.
IV. Finally, we have a more dynamic wall of noise. Completely destroyed voice, a beat (albeit not a consistent one), and heavily processed noise are all coated in a thick layer of static and distortion. To me, this was the best track on the disc, and a step away from the "find a sound and run with it" model of TIWIHWYT.

I really like these bite-sized walls. They are long enough to get into the feel of what Fox is doing, but not long enough that you get bored with it. Overall, this is another solid entry into the TIWIHWYT, and I suspect that Xenon would agree. This album weighs in at 22 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.

This is the first of five albums sent by NO PART OF IT (and yes, they do use all caps), a small indie label with just under 60 releases since 2008. XEREX (all caps again) is an anonymous musical project by brothers Karl & Jan from rural Jesse, Germany. They're conjoined twins who also happened to have been grown in a petri dish as elderly mathematicians in 1972. ‘XEREX Meets Dracula’ is their first "invisible story" in the spirit of "choose your own adventure"-style novels. Or so the minimal info on the project's Bandcamp website and back of CD states.

Essentially, this is a drone/industrial ambient album. Beginning with Bela Lugosi offering a greeting in his Dracula guise, the first musical track (there are fittingly, 13 of them) is an organ/noise combo that is straight ahead drone. This is followed by a track of bell drone. The next one might be a rushing water loop, or something that sounds like a short sample of rushing water looped with some other sound that almost produced a rhythm. So far these drone/loops have been unmodified, meaning - playing the same throughout the piece. This changes on Track 5 (the longest track @ 8:47) when the industrial/bubbly synth loop diverges from linear and seems to fold in on itself. Even so, it doesn't sound a whole lot different from beginning to middle to end. The bass wobbliness of #6 invokes a rhythmless ambient dub, while #7 sounds like the whining drone of a hi-tech vacuum. #8 is a dominant higher frequency drone that changes little except for some wavering and #9 is a more musical drone loop with an open sort of resonance. #10 ios subtly organy and #11 is not so subtly bellish. (Maybe bellicosely bellish.) #12 sounds like it has everything including the kitchen sink, and #13 is a different organ/noise drone combo. $14 is sort of a majestic/triumphant churchy organ drone, and remember that #1 ("Velcome") was the 12 second Dracula intro.

All-in-all not a bad album even if the drones are somewhat static, there is a nice variety of them. Spooky? A little, but not as much as I had hoped for. Cool artwork on the CD though

I was unfamiliar with this artist, but Soma is the work of Spanish artist David López Saludes, and the discogs biography states that this project "oscillates between Harsh Noise and Power Electronics." Because this is on Inner Demons, I have some sense of what I am in for, so let's dive in.

This release consists of two 3' discs with one twenty-minute track each. "Ejemplo" kicks it off with a heavy slab of incredibly harsh noise. There is a lot going on here, and the effect is complete and utter chaos. Just the way I like my noise. You can sometimes hear some vocals buried in the mix, but everything this track touches just becomes grist for the noise mill, and it is completely unintelligible. It is all coated in a thick layer of static and bits of feedback. In short, this is 20 minutes of sonic destruction.

Next up we have "Cinismo." This is heavy static with theremin / sweeping phaser that sounds like something out of a video game. I worried that this was going to get old really quick, but Soma uses this judiciously and in concert with a host of other sounds. Where "Ejemplo" was much more raw and unbridled, "Cinismo" is more deliberately put together. To be clear, this is also incredibly harsh, but it is a different kind of harsh. This track focuses more on the mid-range to high end of the spectrum, with plenty of static and hiss to go around. Well done.

Overall, this is absolutely fantastic harsh noise. If you like it heavy and you like it noisy, this is one you need to get. This set weighs in at 40 minutes.

I knew nothing about Scoliosis, but the link in the liner notes takes me to Stemms Tapes, which is listed as Cincinnati, Ohio. No info on Discogs, and I think I can be forgiven for not just doing a Google search on "Whore's Breath" at work. So let's get right into it.

This is two 3" discs with one track each. "Degenerative Disc Disease" kicks it off with a heavy slab of harsh noise wall. One issue that I have with HNW is that the walls are often completely static, by which I mean that there is one sound for the duration and one sound only. I get that this is part of the aesthetic, but it really isn't my thing. Thankfully, Whore's Breath manages to avoid this trap. There is a lot going on here, and there is enough variety here to keep it interesting, even if it sounds the same at first glance. Heavy bass rumble, static, and scraping sounds buried deep in the mix keep it engaging.

The next disc is "Spinal Arthritis" which switches gears to heavy static followed up by mid-range pulsing noise. This is heavy harsh noise wall, but it is interesting. When it ends, you are very aware of the silence.

Overall, if you like harsh noise wall this is yet another solid entry into the Inner Demons pantheon, and well worth checking out. This set weighs in at 36 minutes.