DE·TA·US·TO·AS ‎– The Immaculate Triumvirate

DE·TA·US·TO·AS ‎– The Immaculate Triumvirate 12″EP Bestiarie 2018

Although I am not at all familiar with this Spanish project DE·TA·US·TO·AS, I am at least familiar with the label who released it, as they have recently re-issued an early Trepaneringsritualen tape Martyrium on 7”ep + CD. That context then becomes quite relevant to this review as the feel and stylistic approach of The Immaculate Triumvirate embodies grim ritual ambient/ death industrial soundscapes coupled with hoarse croaked vocals. Essentially, if I heard this without context I would have sworn I was listening to Trepaneringsritualen, and with particular reference to the earlier releases in a more ritualized and less song structured style.

As Above So Below leads off as the first of four compositions, and opens at a funeral march pace with shrill strings, grinding bass drones, sparse gongs and other ritual implements. These elements combine as the semi-abstract backdrop for the heavily echoed and smoke charred vocals which are moaned, and throat chanted somewhere off in the murky cavernous depths. The following track The Infliction Apex charts more tribal spheres in a loose song-based format, with heavy rolling mid paced percussion, drawling horns, and vocals split between droning throat chants and a rasping croaked style. Zealots opens side B and is another piece which perfectly balances abstract ritual soundscape drones and rhythmic percussive structured elements, this time sounding to be heavily treated oil barrel type percussion, while the muttered and echo treated vocals bleed across the sonic spectrum. The final of the four tracks is Sanctuary Serenity Scourge and steps back into calmer ritual ambient territory, framed around gongs, flickering fire like analogue textures, slow thrumming bass rhythm and dual deep throat chants and rasped ritual invocations.

In many ways the influence of Trepaneringsritualen weighs heavily on this release, yet at the same time this influence does not feel to be in any way cynical, particularly given how strong the end result is and the fact that DE·TA·US·TO·AS has twisted such influences to their own and very positive ends. Packaging wise, the clean graphic design style sees a number of symbolic references embedded within the font style and layout, while the band logo is printed on the outer plastic slip sleeve. Sonically and visually, this is a recommended release.

Mlehst – The Difficulty In Crossing A Field

Mlehst – The Difficulty In Crossing A Field 2xLP Hospital Productions 2017

With a discography of over 100 releases spanning back to 1991, Mlehst are a project I am not at all familiar with other than name alone. To then speak of The Difficulty In Crossing A Field, this is not a new recording from the solo project All Brentnall, but is a re-issue of a limited CDr dating back from 1998. As that was the same year when Hospital Productions as a label was originally launched, I am then going to assume that this album had a strong impact on label boss Dominick Fernow around that time, and hence is the reason why it has been plucked from obscurity for its reissue on double vinyl.

Sonically speak, the album is made up of four tracks of an experimental noise style, which feature as lengthy compositions on each LP side (10 to 19 minutes each). Far from being a hard and hard noise style, this is controlled and consider experimental soundscapes, including extensive quiet passages and a subtle dynamic depth and breadth of sound. While the mood and tone is loose and abstract, at the same time is not chaotic, instead showcasing a deft sense of compositional approach.

On the opening cut Flowery Twats it uses short segments or sections of choppy cut ups are used and at times are almost of quirky cartoonish quality, given way to passages of compositional restraint featuring cavernous doom addled reverb and mine shaft echo. The following piece Can Such Things Be? opts for quite prominent cyclic drones which stop short of breaking out into a noise squall, while maintaining a backdrop of sonic mineshaft depth and further augmented with indecipherable radio chatter.What Comes Round Goes Round charts a tensile muted industrial soundscape style, but the mood of this style is fractured with occasional choppy voice cut ups which become increasingly animated as the track progresses. The title track is the final of the four pieces and is clearly the nosiest, featuring a series of mid to high tone fragmented sound bursts, but which slowly morph into consolidated and thick pulsing drones, while later half then deviates off into fractured noise cut ups, before slowly descending into cavernous looped territory.

With the original CDr issued in only 100 copies, it is probably safe to assume it The Difficulty In Crossing A Field is one of the harder to find and consequently less heard releases in Mlehst’s discography. Obviously this new edition of 250 copies on gatefold vinyl, with artwork replicating the original, will then go part way to remedying that situation, given this is an enjoyable album of an experimental noise style.

Nil By Mouth batch reviews

ANTIchildLEAGUE / Cronaca Nera ‎– Bruises and Bites MC Nil By Mouth Recordings 2017

ANTIchildLEAGUE (aka the solo project of Gaya Donadio), has teamed up with Cronaca Nera whom I have not come across before. Although it appears they are an Italian project who issued two release back in 2001, which was then followed by a period of 13 years silence before reactivating in 2014, and now seems to be a trio including the involvement of Andrea Chiaravalli (aka Iugula-Thor).

For this collaborative tape Bruises and Bites features sonically fierce power electronics, and at times sounding completely psychologically unhinged based on the veracity of the vocals courtesy of Gaya. The title track opens the tape and complete sets the scene for the entire tape. Featuring saturated fried static, pulsating and grinding noise and aggressive echo and distortion treated vocals, these sonics elements have been cleaved into thick and punishingly loud structures which are pushed to overblown intensity. To then speak of the vocals, these are a standout element, where depending on the track, the voice appears to be barking orders and demands, and set against a secondary voice of variously choking, rasping and crying tones. Although sonically the material is choppy, loose and at times quite chaotic, there is clear compositional focus and intent which is clearly detectable under the more outwardly unhinged sonic elements.

The six distinct tracks span in the order of 30 minutes of music, which is further housed in a faux leather slip-sleeve, with further printed insert and postcards featuring group imagery in an S&M style. Issued in an unknown limitation, this is harsh, hard and high-calibre modern Italian power electronics.

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Instinct Primal / Purba ‎– Forest Ritual MC Nil By Mouth Recordings 2018

Here is a collaborative release between Instinct Primal (the solo project of Jan Kruml), and Purba who is a Russian musical project focusing and Bon ritual music. Purba in its current form is the solo project of Svyatoslav Ponomarev, but of note is that an earlier incarnation of the group included the membership of Alexei Tegin (from 1996-2001), who is currently recognised as the leader of the Phurpa and who also play ritual music in the Bon tradition. But aside from that point of interest and link to Phurpha, this is a Purba release where evidently Forest Ritual is the first recordings made in 18 years. Musically speaking the material on Forest Ritual, features two lengthy ten-minute tracks and is as archaic as they come, with the basis of the recordings made in October, 2016 in a forest close to Kutna Hora, Czech Republic, which is the town where the infamous Sedlec ‘Bone Church’ is located. The cover then identifies the music is: “featuring snow, wind, trunks, stumps, and rusty nails in an ambient ritual of earth and fire”.

Day Forest Ritual (Part One) Holy Fire sonically features a myriad of field recordings including: frozen winds whipping through trees; creaking branches; footfalls tramping in the snow; and wood chopping for thudding percussive impact. Mid track contains some static noise hum before receding again and making way for throat derived vocal chants which are raw and animalistic in their delivery. The final section has the feel of being a studio treated recording of a roaring fire but elevated to shrill intensity. Night Forest Ritual (Part Two) features yet more forest derived sounds merged into vague ritualistic soundscapes, but here with a more prominent droning framework (again assumed to be the result of post recording studio treatment), and late passage contains a lone ritual drum and low garbled voice.

Definitively organic and ritualized in all aspects of sound and presentation, this is evocative and obscure in the best way possible and sits alongside the more abstract ritual sounds from the Aural Hypnox collective. The packaging also suits the feel of the music perfectly with the tape and multiple inserts with forest and nature imagery wrapped together with stained cheese cloth, twine and wire. At this point of the review, clearly you will know if this is an underground ritual obscurity for you.

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Naxal Protocol ‎– The Stasi File MC Nil By Mouth Recordings 2015

Being a couple of years old already, I have had this tape for some time but only recently learned that the project is helmed by Piero Stanig of the older Italian experimental noise industrial project Cazzodio. To then highlight differences, with Naxal Protocol ‎the sound is originated towards a controlled heavy electronics style, where two tracks of around ten-minutes each feature on The Stasi File.

Stop And Frisk Induction features first and is a track of ominous cyclic drones with controlled bass driven undercurrent of vague rhythmic elements and buried samples of ill-defined and undecipherable meaning. Tumultus Et Urbanae Seditiones follows on the flip side and is choppier in execution, with rough thick distortion and friend noise hewn into rough looped structures, with occasionally detective crime interview dialogue samples, but mid paced and controlled overall. Mid track the loops elevate in intensity to more direct impact, before receding again into the final section.

All in all this is an enjoyable albeit short release, where the special packaging of a ‘top secret’ envelope with various printed inserts addressing societal control via police/ government/ military force is a nice touch (and limited to a 130 copies).

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Prurient / Hanged Mans Orgasm – Unknowns

Prurient / Hanged Mans Orgasm – Unknowns LP Hospital Productions 2018

To provide background context, the two lengthy tracks on Unknowns were originally featured on a bonus cassette issued in late 2017 as part of a special bungle package of Prurient’s time stretching 7xLP release Rainbow Mirror. In its original context it appears it was conceived as a companion to the main release, however sonically speaking the material on Unknowns differs substantially form the sprawling ‘doom electronics’ synth and noise experimentation of Rainbow Mirror. Yet the resulted differences are easily explained by the involvement of Patrick O’Neal of Hanged Man’s Orgasm (aka Skin Crime) and Kris Lapke (of Alberich) providing the sonics on Unknowns. Dominick’s involvement then comes from his reading the short story published in the booklet of the Rainbow Mirror release and as highlighted by the promo blurb, “sub bass electronics”.

In The Ashes Of Science We Fall is a track which incorporates Dominick’s reading of the Rainbow Mirror short story, but with its understated and half whispered delivery which is also placed within the background of the mix, it leaves the sonics to take the prime focus. Consisting of radar channel scanning noise and Morse Code chatter, it creates a tensile minimalist industrial soundscape completely different to anything featured on Rainbow Mirror. The second track In The Peeling Birch We Remain, is sonically similar to the first, mainly due to the radar scanning type sonics, but is also is instrumental in execution and incorporates more obvious urban based field recordings which have been twisted and manipulated into low grinding and vaguely pulsing rhythmic loops towards the later half.

Despite technically being a companion release, I have found the sonic form of Unknowns to be much more engaging and direct than much of the sounds found on the parent release Rainbow Mirror. In then noting how different it is in sound and approach, regardless of its original association as a companion to Rainbow Mirror, Unknowns can be fully appreciated as a standalone release. Presentation and artwork is slick with clean graphic design which matches the look and feel of Frozen Niagra Falls, noting that the visuals for both have been completed by visual artist Adam Marnie.