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DEAYCAST Reviews : MONOCHROMACY “Living Posture” CD (Stay Strange SD. 2018)

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DEAYCAST Reviews : MONOCHROMACY “Living Posture” CD (Stay Strange SD. 2018)

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Stay Strange SD Collective artist Esteban Issac Flores brings eight heavy, dissonant and atmospheric guitar based worlds oscillating between drone , noise, metal and industrial under tbe MONOCHROMACY moniker . Flores elegantly creates haunting and dissonant cinematic spaces for a wall of destructed waves of swelling chaos, choked screams decay into walls of thick oppressive fog of tone, climax and eventually swell back down into dreary, pulsating tones. Sine waves shifting into the horizon encapsulate a distant haze of confusion and dread.

On “Living Posture” , Flores creates a deep and complex tension between the various sonic elements, which really doesn’t ever falter throughout the eight tracks of dreary doom. Some of these atmospheres could call back to Times Of Grace era Neurosis (my favorite period of one of my favorite bands ) , SUNN O)))) , Earth etc but that would be sort of a lazy comparison as Flores has clearly refined his sound to something not heard before in the tropes of heavy music.

 

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Monochromacy “Living Posture” CD (photo from artist)

Monochromacy leaves the “tough guy” bullshit of extreme music far away in the trash for a delicate and intelligent experimental offering. Flores has clearly honed a unique philosophy and approach to present the listener with a tense, yet refreshingly present decaying burning structure of mammoth and intimidating take on noise-influenced, drone-metal. The plethora of unique territories covered on this record while maintaining an overall dark and dreary cinematic vibe is rather impressive to say the least.We are never left without a tight sonic line pulled taught across our reality/neck wth ever shifting tone, pulse and intention. what is going on? Where did he leave us atop this  fog  ridden, dank mountain of dissonance and confusion? What is GOING ON! Wow and just like that it’s over, what a listen.Absolutely essential ride for all fans of the heavier side of noisy guitar works and heavier dissonant, cinematic music in general.

DECAYCAST Reviews: DAHB “VISIONS FROM AN ASTRAL CORE” (2018)

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DECAYCAST Reviews: DAHB “VISIONS FROM AN ASTRAL CORE”

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Dahb hails from Philadelphia and plays mid-tempo, angular, rhythmically complex,  thrashing metal/metal core. At times operating more in the black metal style before quickly and swiftly switching the riffs and focus for a more angular, choppy melodic  style. The vocals are typical of the genre, somewhere between yelling and anguished screams, they sit atop the drums and shredding guitar perfectly. A standout aspect of “Visions from an Astral Core” is the complex rhythmic relationships between the drums and guitars, both firing in oppositional machine gun like rhythms, with dissonant, archaic strums atop the chopping riffs and blasting, rapid fire drums.  The track slowly turns into an abstract, atmospheric improvisation but Dahb never loses its poise or complex style. The improvised tail provides a nice crescendo to the track showcasing both their technical prowess as well as their ear to listen. Dahb’s strength lies within this compositionally and rhythmically complicated dynamic, giving them a heavy, unique sound all their own for fans of both technically proficient and chaotically charged heavy metal .

– Maniere Zappone

DECAYCAST Reviews: Jeff Carey “Zero Player Game” (Ehse Records, 2018)

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DECAYCAST Reviews: Jeff Carey “Zero Player Game” (Ehse Records, 2018)

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Jeff Carey‘s  2018 “Zero Player Game” which is actually out today synthesizes noise, cyberpunk concepts, and  abstract composition and  chance into a dark, heavy stew of experimental music. Carey’s sound on “Zero Player Game” is raw, fast moving, and uncompromising, at  times, sounding like a glitch-heavy classically inspired contemporary experimental music composition and other times bypassing the  dynamic and sharp ebbs and troughs for the all out sonic approach of mayhem. Carey’s sound oscillates between distinct and sonically intentional strategies. The sheer amount of  sonic spaces occupied throughout “Zero Player Game” is astonishing to say the least; sounds vary from thickly wet, pulsing pillars of square wave madness, short, quick, bubbly flesh being torn from bone accentuated by a cavernous thud, longstanding ambient background drones which create the architecture for Carey’s joystick of chaos to oscillate between endless synth and sample parameters in mere seconds. Whatever the compositional idea throughout, Carey has clearly mastered it. Carey’s sounds are deep, alive, and present, and despite their customized instrument/presentation being grounded in the  digital realm, sounds so life-like and present one can feel a slithery long arm reaching out of the speaker and  gently stroking your spine with a poisoned feather tip is the overall vibe of the sound. VISCERAL and R E A L, containing all what so many lack, ‘Zero Player Game” pulls no punches that operate outside of it’s own chaotic, but idiosyncratic structure and form and is in solid control of its own sonic destiny.

“Zero Player Game” is comprised mostly of intense, sharp and dangerous, cut-up music with an organic, live and honest feel, something not easily achieved. The press release states,  “Jeff Carey’s fourth CD release is is electro-instrumental music performed with custom software controlled by a joystick and gamer keypad. Zero Player Game is an intensely artificial sound world where beats and bass lines are replaced with an elastic structure of synthetic texture, feedback and bit crushed noise blasts” which offers a deeper explanation into how exactly this  style was developed and we wonder for this release specifically? However “Zero Player Game” was created compositionally, it at no point leaves the listener in a static, boring place, for every sonic action is a new adventurous wormhole for the ear to slither down into as the brain begins to break attempting to decipher these cosmically deep and  adventurous soundscapes.  Highly recommended for fans of noise, harsh noise, and electro-acoustic cut-up. Angrily blistering yet peacefully blissful music for the curious ear. Jeff is also on tour  supporting this release so check the dates and his website below!

NOVEMBER 6, Bushwick, NY @ H010 Gallery

7, Providence, RI @ Machines with Magnets

8, Ithaca, NY @ The Chanticleer

9, Columbus, OH @ Fuse Factory

10, Louisville, KY @ Kaiju

11, St Louis, MO @ The Juice

12, Dayton, OH @ Skeleton Dust Records

13, Chicago, IL @ TriTriangle

15, Pittsburgh, PA @ 3577 Studios

16, Nyack, NY @ Nyack Village Theatre Boutique

17, Philadelphia, PA @ Vox Populi

DECEMBER 2, DC @ Rhizome

3, Johnson City, TN @ The Hideaway

4, Gainesville, FL @ The Limin Room

5, Miami, FL @ Churchills

6, Orlando, FL @ Wills Pub

7, St Petersburg, FL @ Paper Crane

8, New Orleans, LA @ Mudlark

9, Birmingham, AL @ Firehouse

10, Asheville, NC @ Static Age

http://jeffcarey.foundation-one.org

 

DECAYCAST Reviews: PBK & John Wiggins “Where Pathways Meet” CDr (Acousmatique, 2018)

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DECAYCAST Reviews: PBK & John Wiggins “Where Pathways Meet” CDr (Acousmatique, 2018)

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PBK & John Wiggins take a  far  out ride to the  depths of  sound  design collaboration. “Where  Pathways Meet” on newly formed San Francisco label Acousmatique Recordings,  is two top notch sound artists/designers smashing into  one and other basement studio style for a warm, complex journey through a myriad of minimalist, orchestral, and cinematic takes on experimental music.

DONE #2 (4-01) is blends lush strings, new age droned chirping caked with gently fluttering synthesizers, ringing shimmers of decaying sine ways, and subtle string groans into a soothing, pulsing ambient/drone work. Other tracks such as UNTITLED #1 (9-98) are much more diverse in their approach and sonic characters. This longform collage blends crunchy digital noise sources, churning, bubbling square wave synth grumblings atop psychedelic swashes of lo fi static for a disorienting, dense, and compelling ride through the designers mind. Bubbling distortions of  memory fizzle, pop, decay and a new sound is born. Uniquely indescribable sounds, a chattering humming bell, a sqwaking, choking robotic bird belches out a sonic buzz of disorientation ringing in the inner ear. Field recordings cough ancient  stories of a forgotten room where an ancient sonic experiment has died.  

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The John Wiggins track JW BED #7 (2-98) creates a highly tense situation with it’s long-form, nearly silent, digital  waves decaying upon a shore which is  sure to slice and dice the  throat of  any and all in the  wake of the crescendo, early sun distortions bleed the ear  until the  quietest big becomes amplified into a cacophony of  uncertainty and virus, while the  PBK solo track PBK UNTITLED SOURCE (10-98)  closing out the download leaves us  with a stringed morose background for a nightmare of loss and a question never to be asked, cause the  ear and brain has  faded away with the very last note.

from the  artists…

“John Wiggins is best known as an Emmy winning film and television sound designer, working for HBO and his own production company, Wonderland Sound. Wiggins is a master of the techniques of musique concrete, his experimental work often consists of painstakingly arranged synthetic and natural sounds that create extraordinary “living” audio environments. In 2017 Wiggins was one of the distinguished winners of “PRESQUE RIEN” Luc Ferrari Prize.

Phillip B. Klingler is considered a pioneer of noise in the U.S., but has also been recognized for his work in the areas of ambient, drone and glitch music. He uses samples, turntable, analog and digital synthesizers to create dense structures of bizarre sonic origin. He has had numerous albums released and collaborated with the likes of Jim O’Rourke, Wolf Eyes, Dirk Serries, etc.

Acousmatique is a record label from San Francisco, California that is focused on publishing and promoting the best contemporary music by artists from around the world. Follow the label for new publications in the Acousmatic, Electroacoustic, Immersive Audio, Musique Concrete, and West Coast music genres. Check out the full catalog at
acousmatique.bandcamp.com”

 

DECAYCAST Reviews: MOIRA SCAR “Wound World Part 1” (Near Dark, 2018)

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Bay Area queer deathrock stalworts MOIRA SCAR are back with their new full length on CD/CS/ and  digital via Oakland’s NEAR DARK imprint, which is run by dark gothic outfit, OTZI whose newest offerings, “Ghosts” was  covered HERE a few weeks ago. Moira Scar currently is in trio form with their latest offering  with Roxy Monoxide: guitar, sax, vocals, LuLu Gamma Ray: synthesizers, vocals, and Aimee S: drums. Moira Scar’s newest full length, “Wound World Part 1” boasts seven snappy, punchy, femme forward dark punk/death rock cuts,  intentionally building upon their unique, sought after, indimable sound of their previously released full lengths, “Psychoid”  and “Scarred For Life”. With an augmented lineup, and a slightly darker and more rock forward sound, “Wound World Part 1” might be the most intentionally straight forward, intense  and focused sound the outfit has  concocted yet, and the  recording production suits the  sound perfectly. Thick pummeling percussion, wailing, screaching vocals, fuzzed-out chugging, angular guitar riffs and the staple walls of  reverb’d saxophone.

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“Snap Back” might be the most traditionally “Moira Scar” sounding cut on here blending heavy bass riffs, walls of  sax with driving punk inspired hard hitting  drumming and the signature  layered vocal efx stylings which could take the  sonic shape of anything from low  distorted  growls to high pitched shrieks of intense washes,  utilized to great success on the track “Chrysalis Skull” The operatic style walls of  vocals blend perfectly over the frantic, manic heavy  drumming and thick slabs of  guitar and  bass work. Slower, more  post rock inspired track “Zeta Rainbow” offers chugging, blown up guitar riffs with dragging slagged out bass lines with more  traditional breakdowns where the guitar and  dual vocal  processions shine brightest.

Moira Scar’s  sound is  thick, violent,  present, and demanding of the space it requires and  deserves. Death rock, like any “sub-genre” can be formulaic, boring, and  predictable, but “Wound World Part 1” is the complete opposite; fierce, unique, cathartic, and nasty!. In a time where we need it most,  Moira Scar once again, and perhaps with more force than ever proves they are  here to stay with some of the most forward thinking and necessary sonic offerings within the contemporary rock scope. This record rallies against the dying, boring, overdone and under thought  droves of CIS white-male “dominated”capitalistic rock scenes, by raising the bar and  flushing the  boring and  inspired rock trends down into the sewer where they have belonged this entire time, and serve as an assault on the  normative, re-hashed, uninspired music that often fills the  airwaves. Moira Scar is a weapon against a  violent, patriarchal system of despair, confusion, and  entanglement and  “Wound World Part 1” is the next logical step in the bands seemingly endless progression of reinvention. One of the most important contemporary dark rock acts going, period. This record is not to be overlooked.

Order the  New record HERE and  HERE

MOIRA SCAR

NEAR DARK RECORDS

DecaycastREVIEWS : P.C.R.V. “Note To Self” CD (LEM , 2013)

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DecaycastREVIEWS : P.C.R.V. “Note To Self” CD (LEM , 2013)

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P.C.R.V. is the longstanding project of Billings, MT based artist Matt Taggart . His PCRV Project historically has focused on harsh noise (passionately crafted with intent and direction) In a blend of a cut-up and wall styles of noise PCRV squeaks out intense soundscapes of conceptual noise music. Newer, more recent recorded works and performances have somewhat abandoned P.C.R.V.’s “signature style” so to speak, for a more fluxes / dada / playful/ conceptual approach to sound and performance; this newer style possesses no lack of excitement or interest though, almost always holding the same tension that the HARSH noise recordings do, just in a different and unique way.
“Note To Self” is no exception- a blending of all his styles – harsh noise, Minimalist breaks , tension, multi dimensional uses of sound through varied sound sources and rules of engagement with said sound sources, occasional jazz like sputterings and “field recordings” who knows? Who cares really , cause it sounds CRUNCHY. PCRV shows he as a near uncanny ability to navigate these drastically different styles of sound preparation and intent.

On the cover, “Note To Self” Boasts an intricate, yet crude collage by the artist himself – which is the perfect visual representation of the sounds existing within this album. PCRV’s sound palette has been quite diverse over the years and this disc is no exception. Jumping from harsh and blown out to subtle, conceptual and super minimal gives the listener a wide array of sonic possibilities and interactions, even the harsh sounds in this disk have a playfulness to them, the artists intention ? Really comes through in an interesting way. It’s a game – but it’s not . And also catch this dude LIVE if you get the chance, you may not know what to expect ; DADA / FLUXUS games or HARSH FUCKING NOISE, but it’s a great treat either way – TOP NOTCH.

LOVE EARTH MUSIC

P.C.R.V.

written by. Malo

DecaycastREVIEWS: +DOG+ “The Family Music Book, Volume 1 (Love Earth Music, 2013)

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DecaycastREVIEWS: +DOG+ “The Family Music Book, Volume 1 (Love Earth Music, 2013)

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The Family Music Book , Volume 1, the latest offering of a
Live album by the longstanding harsh noise project +DOG+ headed by southern california’s Steve Davis and aided and abated by an almost endless list of Collaborators who have joined the ranks of +DOG+. The first track is a live recording of a show I was actually at from The Lab, in San francisco, CA, which was pleasing to see. +DOG+ rips roaring mechanical robots of destruction harsh noise – in the purest form
– the fidelity of this recording is good, but it doesn’t quite do the live performance justice; to no fault of +DOG+ obviously, they are just a really intense live act, and the visceral intensity of the set in the flesh was near impossible to capture in any format- a ultra subjective digression for sure, but see these guys LIVE is the point! This album functions as A compilation of live sets up and down the coast demonstrating a wide array or +DOG+ sonic amalgamation pf aesthetics and cast members- including, but not limited to, broken blasts, pummeling industrial materials, piezo feedback noise, wall, and at times. Power electronics with manic and thwarting screamed, over -modulated vocal hymns, belching shaking synth slams, radio static scanning, unknown samples to boot and churning walls of ???feedback which blend the storm of chaos that is +DOG+ together.

Live “noise” albums can be a tricky thing, like any live album actually, but somehow +DOG+ pulls it off with this one – the variance in sounds, duration, and recording quality give a nice mix of what +DOG+ is capable of at any given performance, based on the mood, concept, and personnel of the event. Often blazing with screeching oscillating interpolating distortion and caucophanous rage, and sometimes just the static of an AM radio bleeds through, but no matter what happens the listener is caught with surprise and the emotional, political and poetic fury that is +DOG+. Look for this CD directly from the label,
LOVE EARTH MUSIC a longstanding label which does it right, support this label.

written by: Malo

decayREVIEWS : EN NIHIL “The Approaching Dark” CD (Eibon Records, 2012)

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ennihilEN NIHIL is one of those artists that remains back in the shadows , with much more of a modest output than many of todays noise/experimental artists who release literally everything they record. THE DARK PULSING SKULL that is En NIHIL has chosen his position- remaining a bit in the shadows, while crafting throbbing, articulate noise / drone / dark ambient / harsh from
An unassuming position in the dark mist. I have a few of his releases and they are all composed and compiled with care, craft, and attention to detail, with the latest release, “The Approaching Dark” being no exception.

This disk flows seemlessly through harsh noise, rhythmic dark industrial, ambient spaced out textures and swelling rhythmic intensity blend together to give breath to the harsh blasts that lay beneath a thick yet subtle fog. Each sound on the disc comes across as intentional and deliberate – again and again combed over – no happy accidents here – every sound is carefully and conceptually placed to create an interesting and ominous space- giving way to the next and last sound; texture tension rod of black smoke .

At times super harsh and blasted out, and at other times restrained , EN NIHIL Creates a delicate balancing act of harsh abrasive pulsing attacks, desolate and  near classical like compositions fueled by pulled back ambient sections which make the louds louder and are a wonderfully paced black breath to the overall ebb and flow of the disk. Composition wise, the disk doesn’t let up – a perfect balance of dense, anxiety ridden movements  and sparse  textured based tracks make this disk a fluid and theatrical atmosphere- just abrasive enough- and the  artwork fully supports the sound, very high quality all around. This is  bleak, dissonant soundscapes  for a  future vision of the  absence of a current polluted consciousness. Be on the lookout if you can ever  catch him live, because  performances are  few and far between.

Mp3 Sample “The Hearts Relent

Get it from the  label  http://www.eibonrecords.com/

http://ennihil.blogspot.com/

written by : malo