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[k.p.g]

Gernstein - The Death Ointment (Tribe Tapes)
I’ve had this disc for a little over a year now, and just decided to sit down with it. What an odd disc! Lots of piano suites cut in with noise blasts & vocals cutting in and out. Great job on Max’s part to doing the reissue. I would’ve never heard it if he didn’t.

K2 - Tekhnodrug (Narcolepsia, At War with False Noise)
I don’t know how much of a wild claim it is to make, but I find the more synth heavy K2 stuff to be far more interesting than the harsher junk work he’d go on to produce. This is a weird & hypnotic record. The cut-up is nowhere near the precision perfect brand he would go onto produce, but that’s the most charming part of this entire thing.

Gene Pick - Shit or Go Blind (Dead Gods)
This release takes a while to pick up. I almost thought of bailing on it towards the end of the A side. But as soon as the thought crossed, then the dynamics kicked in. Raging synth attacks from everywhere. A sleeper in the dead gods catalogue.

Oozing Meat - Contaminated (Dead Gods)
Noisecore at its finest!! Oozing Meat always proves to be a powerhouse band, both live & on record. I love the spliced in parts of tape skipping & what sounds like throwing around construction materials in between the blastbeats.

Meat Casket - Piece of Shit (Mechanical Presence)
One of my favorite new acts to emerge from this year. A single, 21 minute piece makes up this release, and it keeps you hooked for that entire run time. An excellent combination of searing harsh noise & junk rumbling that can’t help but make you smile from ear to ear by the end. I love when harsh noise is this much fun.

[Scream & Writhe]

MERZBOW - Aqua Necromancer DLP (Absurd Exposition, 2022)
Been nagging loudly about vinyl reissues of old CD albums, especially where new/old stuff has been shoved right into the middle of the original tracklist. But here I am, enjoying this with no complaints whatsoever. Guess I'll just shut it in the future, hah.
A much slower affair than the surprisingly little else I have of Merzbow (is there more Merzbow like this one or is it... well, what is it?). I'm very fond of the looped samples of music which he showers in distorted hiss, warm blasts of noise and just... meandering knob-twisting. Come to think of it, this reminds me time and again throughout of the STAR album on Hospital. It's all just so relaxed and comfortably lost in a way that I love. No rush getting anywhere either. Noise with a slight smile to it, if you will. Charmed!

The Star comparison is a good one. There's plenty to kick back to and just soak in the warm wash. The same techniques are employed on Door Open At 8 AM, but there's less urgency here. Aqua Necromancer's rhythms are more relaxed, tantric.

I admit I was at first dismayed when Masami presented this new track listing, but I was pleased to discover that the additional material elevates the experience and I quite enjoy the extra pieces.

[murmur]

Ezia Piermattei - Rosume (Joy De Vivre)

Really varied, interesting, and sparse sound collages on this tape, with contents ranging from strange vocal and field recordings to fragments of music. The way it’s all put together keeps you guessing and is very affecting. It’s hard to put words to, but is excellent.

Max Hamel/Zach Rowden - TPMMUTON (self-released)

I got a copy of this after getting (and enjoying) the second one, which is a single tape. This is a double (in a butterfly case, very cool) with each artist taking one cassette. The Max Hamel one sounds like synths (modular ones, maybe?), but used in a unique and atypical way, to my ear anyway. The result is really dense without many tones, more bursts of sound that are related somehow, but not clearly or directly. The Zach Rowden tape is more in the tape music-zone, droning but with sudden, brief pauses in the sound that are really effective in being kind of unsettling and forcing your attention back to the music should it wander. There’s a frantic energy to it, which isn’t something I would normally associate this sort of music with.

[k.p.g]

Johnny R. Spykes - Monthly Madnezz [Volume 1: March 2018] (self-released)
It’s Olson doing his thing. You know how it is; flutes, synth, mixer feedback. It made for a very fried out, 3AM listen this weekend.

Bill Nace/Diagram:A - Collaboration (Open Mouth)
This & the Olson record were two random finds after stumbling into a record store I’d never been to before in the city. I’m not even sure what year this came out. It just had a post it note detailing what it was. It’s certainly not out of the question that Bill could’ve dropped these off in person to the store, but I wish I had more information on the release as a whole. Like when did it come out? I’m unsure, so I can’t really count it in my end of the year list. But it really rips well enough to make any year end list. Bill & Dan make for an unexpectedly great combo; guitar, tape(?) & regurgitated synth jams galore.

Josh Hydeman - Fatal Ninja (Broken Ear Records)
A pretty flawless tape. Is it maybe the ultimate C10? For me, it’s a toss up between this or Prurient’s “African Division.” But let’s discuss Josh… this tape is such an oddball brand of power electronics that switched between home built synths, live excerpts, manipulated tape & fuck-you aggression. Whenever I’m in need of a quick listen, this tape will always deliver.

Scar Crowe - A Sudden and Unexplained Drop in Temperature (Cipher Productions)
The audio equivalent of being invited to sit by a crackling campfire. It’s just that you are also lost in the middle of the woods when you discover this fire. It’s a warming ambience found within a haunting backdrop.