Wreck And Reference - No Youth (2012)

Full Length, Self-released/Independent
April 15th, 2012

Genre: Experimental/Electronic Doom/Noise/Industrial/Post-Punk
Region: USA

This is a pleasant surprise. Wreck And Reference have just released their new album No Youth as a pay-what-you-want digital download on their bandcamp. They've requested I get this up here for you guys to check out. Be kind and give them something for their extreme generosity.

Another record mastered by Colin Marston (this guy is fuckin busy), but self-released by this duo that seem to be the only group outside of possibly Bad Life that approach the great Have A Nice Life in terms of strange weighted beauty, haunting ethereality, and their ability to escape categorization with their sound.

Wreck And Reference continue to develop and hone their unique style to new interesting levels with No Youth. It still retains that despondent atmosphere. No Youth is a little more tame and symphonic at the outset compared to Black Cassette, but and at various points this is contrasted with the ever-changing vocals and with many more sections of black metal percussion as well — for instance on "Cannot", "Inverted Soul", and "Nausea", with the MPC being subtly introduced underneath, buzzing and pulsing between the craters of silence and eerie sounds. "Nausea" has some excellent soothing vocals that contrast sharply with the blasts present and is one of my favorites on this album, next to "Cannot".

Moments of doom-like heaviness do appear though among the spoken passages laced with ambiance (the opener "Spectrum", "I Am A Sieve", or "The Solstitial"). Far less often than on Black Cassette admittedly but not to the album's detriment: No Youth is still plenty heavy but the approach has shifted slightly. Many tracks like "Obsession", "Edifice of Silt", and "Stage Collapse" are heavily symphonic, thick with cold entrancing melody and gloom. Sparks of industrial noise, humming, cycling psychedelia created by the MPC are far more haunting this time around.

As mentioned the vocals can be soothing and soft or droning, then in the next track they're scratchy and blackened, only to be followed by sombre speech or shaky singing. This can all occur within a single track ("I Am A Sieve", "Cannot"). It always works in the strange spectral atmosphere they create. And again the drumming drifts through multiple genres as well, sometimes tribal or semi-jazzy, sometimes doomy or black metal but as a key component it draws a lot of attention and is consistently entrancing.

Big recommendation for those who enjoyed their last one, another trip through the eletronic-industrial doom haze. Unlike Black Cassette I'm not sleeping on No Youth. I'll updated this if there's ever news of a physical release but their is no comment on that topic yet.

DOWNLOAD (Bandcamp)
DOWNLOAD (Mediafire)

Enemies List Home Recordings - Santa Is Real (2012)

Full Length, Enemies List Home Recordings
January 7th, 2012

Genre: Industrial/Shoegaze/Post-Punk/Pop/Electronic/Noise
Region: USA

"For the first time ever, the misanthropes and bedroom weirdos of ENEMIES LIST HOME RECORDINGS have banded together to celebrate the disappearance of the sun from the skies of New England with a completely free digital release featuring disturbing and turgid meditations on holiday gloom." - Enemies List Home Recordings

I was waiting for this. The only Christmas album worthy of spreading around.

The strange dudes over at Enemies List Home Recordings have composed 9 tracks for this album, 4 covers and 5 originals that read as follows:

1. Guggenheim Wax Museum – HAVE A NICE LIFE
2. Marches – Sleep In
3. The Icon and The Axe (HAVE A NICE LIFE Cover) – Giles Corey
4. Basic – HAVE A NICE LIFE
5. Way Down In The Hole (Tom Waits Cover) – The Flowers of Saint Francis
6. TALK AGAIN – Sleep In
7. A World Well Lost – America Addio
8. All Teeth (Afterlives Cover) – HAVE A NICE LIFE
9. Just Like Christmas (Low Cover) – Giles Corey

Yeah that's right: among the greatness there's 2 new Have A Nice Life tracks plus a Afterlives cover, a Have A Nice Life cover and Low cover by Giles Corey, and a Tom Waits cover by Tim's noise project The Flowers of Saint Francis. Those two Giles Corey covers man — wow. New Have A Nice Life is excellent and a perfect gift for the holidays, and everything else is just a tasty bonus for any ELHR fan.

They put this up for free and only ask in return that if you can, donate to the Enough Project. Enjoy and support ELHR however you can.

DOWNLOAD (Direct via ELHR)

Wreck And Reference - Black Cassette (2011)

EP, Flenser Records / Music Ruins Lives
February 25, 2011

Genre: Experimental/Electronic Doom/Noise/Industrial/Post-Punk
Region: USA

Here's one of those 2011 releases that I didn't listen to soon enough but had heard of vaguely throughout the year.

Wreck and Reference are a hard one to place and describe. The Flenser describes them as "pure misanthropic electronic doom". They're clearly influenced by the likes of Big Black and Swans to some degree, and I would even compare them to Have A Nice Life and The Angelic Process in some sense. Lo-fi, noisy, DIY basement/bedroom industrial doomgaze pop? Sounds idiotic and contrived but Black Cassette is definitely a unique and challenging record which really can't be boxed in by genres. One of those love or hate releases.

Vocals are what I noticed right away, clean and a little off key with that Dan Barrett style of singing from your heart, and there are very short sections where he reaches a yell you might hear in hardcore or screamo. Lyrics are focused on the "darker components of existentialist philosophy including the non-existence of god and fated death."  From what I can glean from other sources the only other elements used outside of vocals are live drums and an MPC which other than samples takes the place of a guitar and bass, and to be honest until I read up on it I almost couldn't tell it wasn't a guitar/bass. It's used exceedingly well throughout the record to conjure a bleary, despair-filled atmosphere. Drums range from slow and sludgy to jazzy to a hardcore/black metal pace, doing a great job of throwing you off before laying a nice foundation to the gloom.

There are some interesting sounds to be heard here and a big dose of atmosphere to be enveloped in. Black Cassette has very ethereal and melodic moments interlaced with the heavier machine-like trudging. "Surrendering" starts off quiet with what you would swear was a bass with creaking samples behind it, eventually squirming into a dense and noisey haze with a wicked warped synth section. Melodic, intense and depressive.

"In Chains, Awakening" throws you for a loop with a fast drum section that moves into a satisfying bassy, distorted groove that grows, getting louder and louder as the drums pound and the vocals dive below the noise. "Evening Redness" starts of twangy and sludgy with pained yells and ends with a bouncy coda heavily affected by the volume nob and some ace drumming. Halfway through "Desire, Ether" a huge switch to a psychedelic and very heavy industrial doom sound is made, very gloomy and dark. All the way through its strange knowing what you hear is not a guitar though some moments do jar you just enough to question it.

I think Wreck And Reference show great promise and have laid down something strange and bold here. This definitely isn't for everyone but I certainly suggest giving it a try. It's grown on me immensely. Those who like Have A Nice Life, Swans, Big Black, Mamaleek, etc. should take a chance on Black Cassette. You can get a copy on vinyl over at The Flenser and you can download it for free on bandcamp.

DOWNLOAD (Mediafire)
DOWNLOAD (Megaupload)

You Slut! - Critical Meat [2008/VBR]

A nice blend of post-rock and electronic that sounds like what would happen if And So I Watch You From Afar and Fang Island had a spastic, hipster lovechild. Very short release (less than 30 minutes), but it's perfect for the type of music it is.

Artist: You Slut!

Album: Critical Meat

Release Year: 2008

Genre: Post-Rock/Electronic

1. Cut & Shut by You Slut!

2. On the Count of 13

3. Roofio Shoots, Roofio Scores

4. On-The-Spot Tina Turner Fire

5. Pie to the Death-Faced Indie Kid

6. 1s, 2ns (The Original Door)

7. Jarabew

8. Mybloodyjesusexploreronfire

Download VBR (Megaupload)

Nero's Day at Disneyland - From Rotting Fantasylands [2009/VBR]

I'm not entirely sure what can be said about this album that'll live up to what it truly is. In terms of electronic music, it's easily one of the best albums ever written, and also my favourite electronic album. I'll just post what last.fm says about the guy, since it's a pretty awesome description of the music:

"Blending haunted 15th century sacred music and a tangled mess of burnt out electronic noise with a crushingly huge sense of scope, Nero’s Day At Disneyland seems to cram together the entire musical history of the last 2000 years."

Unfortunately I don't have a higher quality link, but this more than does it justice. I'll re-up a 320 link if I ever get my copy of the CD in.

Artist: Nero's Day at Disneyland

Album: From Rotting Fantasylands

Release Year: 2009

Genre: Electronic/8-Bit/Glitch

1. In Aisles

2. Civilizing People

3. No Money Down, Low Monthly Payments

4. Child Protective Services Theme Song

5. Charging Swarm of Mousketeers

6. Everything Must Go

7. Death Parade

8. Action Winter Journey

9. Stretched Linen Over Contorted Bodies

10. Eulogy For Nick Galvas

11. In Keyed Fantasy

12. Probably End Up Dead in Ditch Somewhere

13. Plumes of ATM Sinew

14. Vengeance in Cloudland

15. Sprawling Idiot Effigy

Download VBR (Megaupload)

Murmuüre - Murmuüre (2010)

Full Length, Cold Void Emanations
March, 2010



Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient/Electronic
Region: France

Murmuüre is one guy from France recording bizarre and creative black metal. The self-titled is short (just under half an hour), well written, and quite unique. There's a heavy emphasis on synth/electronic sampling, a noisey electronic haze blankets the album but underneath there is a distinct black metal sound and structure which focuses the chaos to some extent. Brilliant atmosphere is created from improvised guitar soaked in effects with giant swells of noise; this is definitely a gem.

Full stream of the album right here. Information here:

"All Murmuüre material is based on a one hour guitar improvisation from November 2006.
Selected parts were further edited to fit a rythmic structure, and merged with additional layers of sound.
This process of mixing & endless re-writing took 3 years until final completion.
The percussions are a mixture of the original programmed drums, and some (extremely re-edited) additional live drumming.
Vocals were recorded during a cathartic trance at a sacred place in the forest, with a mini-disc recorder.
Being almost inaudible in the music, they're strictly conceived as a vocal sigil technique, a vehicle for intent.

The 30 minutes long, self-titled release is possibly the first and last Murmuüre record.
I've put so much in it that it will be hard to match, and there would be no point in doing something more just for the sake of it."

DOWNLOAD (Mediafire)

Thomas Giles - Pulse [2011/256]

This is COMPLETELY different from Thomas's previous effort. While the electronic influence is still present in this album, it's nowhere near as prominent. Pulse is more of a progressive rock album with some electronic influence. Some songs are very different from the rest of the album ("Catch & Release" comes to mind) but everything else compliments the rest of the album fairly well. Great way to start 2011.

Artist: Thomas Giles

Album: Pulse

Release Year: 2011

Genre: Progressive Rock/Metal

1. Sleep Shake

2. Reverb Island

3. Mr. Bird

4. Catch & Release

5. Hamilton Anxiety Scale

6. Scared

7. Reject Falicon

8. Medic

9. Suspend the Death Watch

10. Armchair Travel

11. Hypoxia

Download 256 (Megaupload)