In The Midst Of Upheaval, Artists Are Curating Online Festivals To Keep The Music and Art Flowing

On March 24, 2020March 26, 2020 By AdminIn news + premieres, WritingsLeave a comment

91327393_773555699837492_8091262595144613888_n

One thing is clear, the news is changing everyday surrounding, COVID-19, the newest and deadliest manifestation of a set of viruses known as Coronavirus, Although many were, and are still slow to adapt to the strategy of social distancing, a strategy recommended by many simply to flatten the curve of transmission in the US and across the world, to save lives but more importantly to ease the massive burden put in place within a “healthcare system” which was already on the brink of collapse. In a world already in social and political upheaval with racism and capitalism driving profits over people, artists and other marginalized members of society such as service industry, social and hospitality workers not to mention the inhumane and rapid growth of house less populations across the country and especially here in the Bay Area, visibility, resources and support systems for art, music and social practice were already practically non-existent, and for underground experimenatalists and activists alike, even less so. But in the true spirit of underground art and culture, artists and creators are adapting quicker than any of us expected, out of a necessity of survival. In a time when the day to day changes our reality in a way perhaps never experienced by this mass scope of the population at once, uncertainty is the only certainty. We talked to a few artists who are beginning to adapt new models to support artists almost immediately.

Chicago, IL musician and curator Ben Billington, who is one of the founders of the The Quarantine Concerts series based out of Chicago spoke with us briefly about the newfound series and how they are adapting to this unexpected shift in the arts and performance.

Billington says “The Quarantine Concerts are a collaborative multi-city endeavor meant to provide artists in our community a space to share their work and continue to earn a living during this time when most live performance opportunities have been cancelled due to COVID-19. By centralizing streaming efforts, we hope to drive larger audiences to the artists performing, with the aim of helping them earn more money in the process. The idea was formed by the collective minds of Experimental Sound Studio, Daniel Wyche, me, and Carrie Cooper — Daniel had planned an online concert himself since his tour was cancelled, and we all saw his post and sort of jumped at the opportunity to collaborate on something bigger.”

As a curator myself one of the inherent obstacles I can see with suddenly switching the majority of live performances and events to streaming/online is an over-saturation / lack of organization/scheduling which can lead to the audience or viewer simply being overwhelmed with content, without any actual direction. One friend is streaming here, another over here at the same time and we almost don’t know where to look. Through collaboration and selected curation, The Quarantine Concerts seems to begin to address this issue through mutual aid and collaboration in a way that individual artist streams or presentations fall short. Since Billington doesn’t solely rely on music/curating as a sole source of income, he is able to dedicate more time and resources to promoting the work of others. The series solicits donations for each event and 100% of the proceeds are split between the artists at the end of each night. A truly generous and radical act.

“Luckily I don’t rely on my art or event curation to make a living, so my time has mostly been spent trying to support others to get their art out there (and make some scratch) for as long as I can remember. That’s still very much my mentality while we’re on lock down”

Dr. Decaycast: What has been the biggest obstacle of the series and what are some valid critiques people have expressed thus far?

“So far, the biggest obstacle has been YouTube — our live stream was repeatedly being flagged for “inappropriate content”. So, the first hour of our first concert was us troubleshooting, and then making a last minute decision to switch over to Twitch. Luckily, it worked out and the whole concert happened, albeit 1.5 hours later than planned”

“I think the main critique is that not every art medium can translate well to the streaming format, and also, as soon as we announced the project, everyone wanted to be involved. Unfortunately there’s only so much time and bandwidth as a lot of us have day jobs on top of this fun project, so it’s day-by-day progress.”

Can you talk about what the series have coming up, performance wise, and how the curation works and how people can support?

“Tonight ESS is curating, Friday there’s a Chicago series called ACORN that had a bunch of shows cancelled, Saturday we have electronic music label Hausu Mountain curating a night. Next week we have Ithaca Underground curating a gig, Homeroom doing one, some others and many more to confirm. We’ve had curators approach us and we’re reaching out to some as well — curation of curation, for sure. Definitely not a free-for-all. Once a curator is confirmed, they pick an open date and we start the process of getting them the tech how-tos and other suggestions/guidelines”

Make sure to check out TQC website and schedule here and scope a performance.

Denver, CO based artist Kevin Richards, who performs under the moniker Equine is hosting PLAGUE FEST out of their underground Denver, CO based venue Glitter City, but as many as the events over the last week, it will be without attendees. From the Plague Fest event page:

“Since we (and many other venues) have shuttered their doors, I have decided to attempt some online actions such as this to help pass the time. In addition I am hoping this will be a way for me to offset the costs of keeping glitter city going. Any funds you want to donate to this end, please send via venmo to @glitter-city Please be sure to donate to the artists performing via the means they provide, and of course, buy merch!”

Plague Fest begins today and runs through March 27th. Artists interested in getting involved should follow the link above for submission instructions.

Nima Dehghani, an interdisciplinary artist based in San Francisco and Tehran has relaunched his Netformance series as a way of connecting artists across various disciplines and continents shortly after COVID-19 began to rapidly spread. We got the chance to talk with Nima briefly about the Reconnect Festival. .

91169674_2836889059731929_2891907012038230016_n

“Well, I had a project called: Netformance which was dedicated to internet-based performances, I stopped this project 3 years ago, but after the strange coronavirus crisis, and seeing all my artists and non-artists friends stuck at their homes in quarantine, I thought that I can restart that idea, so contacted two of my friends in Iran (Fariborz and Sepehr) to see how we can come up with a creative idea to, first: entertain the people while they are bored at their homes! Second: engage our artist friends whom their shows or artistic projects are canceled or postponed.

Also how we can unite artists from all around the world, who for the first time are facing the same problem and experiencing the same critical situation at the same time? The idea of online performances is not something super novel, but we thought at this point providing a solid platform for this kind of art, would be helpful to re-connect people and increase the empathy and human connection and to help people go through these tough days with the help of art, together.”

89404950_10218862718750412_1763318266689748992_n 90473449_10218862719070420_749203185897308160_n

Here’s a Google Doc to Submit to the festival, which begins April 5-12th (FIRST EDITION) and will be held on instagram live An Austin, TX collective, seemingly inspired by the monumental cancellation of SXSW, started The Social Distancing Festival.

The festival like others above, has an open submission policy but is focusing on works that we’re specifically cancelled or drastically altered due to Covid-19. from the festivals website, “Check out the LIVE-STREAMS page, or click through the calendar to find out about streamed events from all over the world! Have an event coming up? Let me know about it through the SUBMISSIONS page!” One thing that;s quite unique and exciting about these festivals is their seemingly open submission policy, which is often a hurdle for underground or undiscovered artists. Here’s hoping these festivals will birth new collaborations and projects which may have not even been possible, or have an audience previously.

40203202_10156204124071693_7594413970820169728_o Bay Area artist and curator Karl Evangelista (and one half of the duo Grex is producing the Lockdown Festival happening April 4th, and features performances from heavy hitters Marshall Trammell, Oakland Art-Rock emsemble Grex, and the dark whirring sonic spirals of Oakland’s own Voicehandler, Submissions are currently open. Evangelista states “The purpose of the festival was to consolidate some of the effort I saw going into both community advocacy and music making in the face of quarantine. I just thought it might be nice to see that collective action is possible (and in some ways easier) via all these technological innovations that we’ve been forced to interface with these past few weeks.”

Aside from open submission festivals, many underground and small indie labels are doing online versions of their festivals and artist showcases. Erstwhile Records is planning an online version of their AMPLIFY Festival, you can join the Facebook group here. Also Southern, CA stalwarts Deathbomb Arc are supposedly planning an online version of their showcase as well. They recently had showcases booked in Oakland and in LA featuring Cooling Prongs, SARN, DIS Fantasy and They Hate Change, a queer rap duo from the swamps of FL taking the underground by storm.

While some are booking online festivals , others are sharing their own resources and encouraging to learn new tools and methods of sharing and promoting their work in times of extreme isolation. Bay Area collective Fault Radio, who already had a dizzying stream of online DJ performances ala Boiler Room has released an article on how to expand your practice in the time of quarantine.

Fault Radio’s Broadcast from Home . Details below:

Are you an artist or DJ who is self-isolating at home? Do you want to know how to stream your sets? Fault Radio is looking to host DJs who want to live stream from their house!

We will be providing the following:

We have the capability to do remote streams without having our team present.
We will teach you how to stream while providing technical support
We can provide Stream-Kits (limited)
We will feature your set on our archive (Youtube, SoundCloud & website).
We will open an online event where people can donate. Revenues from the event will be divided between participating artists and Fault Radio/

Lastly, we figured we’d announce a new project related to all of this melee, a YouTube Playlist Series of themed mixes titled #StayTheFuckHome Mix Series with themes ranging from bay Area Experimental Music to Underground Electro, to In Home Workout Mixes, Cooking Mixes, and more. Here;’s the first one, and please support all of the artists in this mix by going to their respective bandcamp pages and buying directly.

DECAYCAST Reviews: ZSA ZSA GABOR “Left Skull Bank” Cassette (Stay Strange, 2017)

On May 23, 2018May 24, 2018 By AdminIn Reviews, WritingsLeave a comment

DECAYCAST Reviews: ZSA ZSA GABOR “Left Skull Bank” Cassette (Stay Strange, 2017)

“ZSA ZSA GABOR is dead” but the sounds, voice, and pulses in a ritual are anything and everything but that. ZSA ZSA GABOR is one of the artists and founders of the Stay Strange SD Crew who boast a new label imprint, show collective and all creative force led by San Diego stalwart Sam Lopez aided in sound and words from Ariel Irbe, Esteban Flores and Micheal Zimmerman, allwith their own projects to boot under the collective umbrella. Irbe performs and records under the S O L V moniker, while Flores work as Monochromacy represents powerful, thick, radicalized guitar forward drone/noise works.

“Left Skull Bank I” opens up the cassette after a brief intro with a dark, smudged, thick drone which slowly encapsulates the listener and then drops them in a voice cell of terror, confusion, disorientation, The time to talk isn’t now or maybe again for an hour or even a year. Seal your lips shut for it’s time for the hymn of ZSA ZSA GABOR. This release is relentlessly and refreshingly diverse in its sonic character and nuance of sound and style; oscillation between spoken texts , drone, ambient, field recordings, distant screams that ring like a hammer smashing an ancient bell, and string based swells ZZG has something for everyone , but at the sane time NOTHING FOR YOU. They owe you nothing and owe everything to the void. Full tilt sonic mayhem engulfs your last thought and hope as your skull is cast aside like an extra, misshaped, unneeded brick into the ever-growing pile of death.

0010707345_10 (1)

“Left Skull Bank 2” picks up close to where part 1 left off, with a thick, buzzing, shaking vibrato of stringed chaos while a monotone, anxious, realistic voice reads and breathes upon every swelling stringed drone of death, and after a “brief demonic interlude” the listener is cast once again into the chaotic experiments of death with Part three, twisting and tangling the false hope that we once had with harsh stabs, angry, dissonant, atonal swells through a purgatory nobody wants to even pass by for a minute. This cassette runs the full scope of experimental sounds but in a a unique and refreshing way, no rehashing, no redux, this is simply top notch experimental music, get about it, be about it. .ZSA ZSA GABOR is a thick, swollen, controlled anger, which is more or less the sound of a decaying future; you’re dead long after you found out when you’re going to die, and if you’re worthy this might make an appearance at the funeral to help shovel your lifeless corpse to rest eternally and be consumed by the wormed earth. Follow ZSA ZSA GABOR HERE and HERE.

DECAYCAST Reviews : TODD ANDERSON – KUNERT “A Good Time To Go” (This Is Non Linear,2018)

On May 12, 2018May 12, 2018 By AdminIn Reviews, WritingsLeave a comment

DECAYCAST Reviews : TODD ANDERSON – KUNERT “A Good Time To Go” (This Is Non Linear,2018)

This little unassuming tape arrived in our mailbox all the way from NZ, where the artist Todd Anderson – Kunert is based. This work titled “A Good Time To Go” boasts the sonic equivalent of finding that perfect moment to ditch out on the show or event or interaction that you’re probably enjoying (or maybe not ) but are suddenly met with that harsh and disorienting wave of uncertain feelings, emotions and sense of space or lack thereof. This album is very much that. the albums opener “No” starts with a slow quiet drone which ascends into a loud, shuttering thud, and steadily breaks up into a more distorted, disorienting, confusing version of itself until the listener is left with their own feelings of confusion about confusion. Dark, crumbling noise swashes give way to more rhythmic patterns which oscillate moments between disappearance and uncertainty while bathing the listener in a sharp bath of loud and overwhelming sounds all to build to a climax and erase themselves to the point where only the distant hum of a sharp bell remains, a single alienating tone tuning and ringing inside the brain of the unsuspecting listener. The overall vibe is dark , disorienting , haunting with spurts of beautiful articulate decay.

The albums strongest track “It’s Taking Forever” is an honest, heavy take on what could be best described as digital power drone. Lots of dark and articulate textures exist throughout, crawling and wringing out dark, alienating slime into the ear, especially on this second stand out track which really carves out a lonely and confusing sonic space, oscillating between traditional takes on drone, ambient noise, “power ambient” some might say. Overall a solid release with a wide interpretation on what could be considered psychoacoustic drone music.

TODD ANDERSON-KUNERT

DECAYCAST Reviews: V/A: NO WORKERS PARADISE 8 Cassette Boxset (Chthonic Streams, 2017)

On December 31, 2017December 31, 2017 By AdminIn Reviews, WritingsLeave a comment

DECAYCAST Reviews: V/A: NO WORKERS PARADISE 8 Cassette Boxset (Chthonic Streams, 2017)

NWP_prototype_original NWPbox_original

With the rise of accessibility for artists and producers to create sound, music, art and the ability for those artists to contextualize, and re contextualize their work in a seemingly often dizzying whirlwind of labels, sub-labels, sub-labels of sub-labels, through, you guessed it, the INTERNET; questioning the role or necessity of a small independent record label in these weird, confusing post-post modern days of malleability of meaning, format and intention, seems like probably a good idea. How many of them are genuine, how many of them truly put the artist first, and in priority, how many of them believe and stand behind their “product”, behind both the “artist” and the “artwork”. Derek Rush‘s New York – based imprint, Chthonic Streams does just that, and they do it with style, focus, and intention, as exemplified by the labels’ most ambitious and potentially most conceptual release to date, at least in its packaging and form, is the “No Workers Paradise” boxset. You should keep reading, but what I also recommend is that you stop what you’re doing and instantly ORDER THE BOXSET HERE!

We are fans of boxsets, we are fans of conceptual art, and we are fans of toolboxes and ridiculously ambitious projects here at Decaycast, and Chthonic Streams exhaustive 8 hour cassette boxset titled, “V/A: NO WORKERS PARADISE” covers all of these bases and more, in one, mechanical, maniacal offering. Boxsets are awesome, and they’re even more compelling when they actually contain new material, by, gasp, even living artists. No shade on the myriad of Miles Davis and John Coltrane CD reissue boxsets that we have all seen and probably purchased, but eight hours of new material, from eight heavy hitters in the noise/industrial/power electronics scene enclosed in a matte black tool box, accompanied by a zine and customized time card to boot, is not really something we could (or should ignore). We received a rather large media mail box from New York and upon opening, the “No Workers Paradise” boxset emerged, a sleek matte black toolbox with a shiny chrome latch and basic font that reads “No Workers Paradise” is affixed to the top. Its interior reveals eight 60-minute cassettes and a zine/accompanying booklet for the release, and customized time card emerge as the tools for the job, so to speak. It was time to clock in.

As with all of the labels’ releases, the artwork is done by label head honcho Derek Rush who also books shows, is an active DJ, and works in graphic design and photography, so it comes as no surprise that all of the artwork included looks stunning and professional, accented by the printed booklet and cassette artwork itself. We haven’t even gotten into the sounds and this is already worth the $75 price tag without question, a truly beautifully put together collection. Now into the meat and bones of these disgruntled, bloody and beaten-down workers, we will delve into the sounds in reaction to the tormented work day!

The boxset starts with the label owner’s project, COMPACTOR, offering a strong, mechanically styled “old school” feeling industrial track with clanging rhythms, backed with the tick tock tick tock of the overlord’s clock. The panopticon is omnipresent and the worker must continue. Wake up. Work! Time To Work! Until you DIE, and DIE, until you can clock out at the end of the day and do it all again. Compactor’s sounds generally fall within a more mechanized style of industrial, there is soul, but it’s the soul of a robot programed to destroy itself, through repeated, violent, senseless rhythms, yet Rush’s sound and sample choices are powerful and intentional. The, slow, churning blown out percussion blends perfectly with the high squelching feedback of industry/insanity and multi-layered, multi-timbral synth workings. Compactor’s offering is the perfect opening to the project, cold, alienating, mechanized, and dense; the perfect ramp up to the more fuzzed out, abstracted works of some of the other contributors to the boxset, The Vomit Arsonist, Redrot, Gnawed, and Filth, amongst others.

NWPcenterspread_original

Another standout sound work in this massive offering comes from Denton, TX’s FILTH, who offers up his own interpretation of an hour slice of the standard american work day. Rob Buttrum’s FILTH project is known for his menacing cacophony of industrialized noise, power electronics and analog psychedelic compositions. FILTH brings his A game to work for with a dark, brooding, menacing stitching of fuzzed out, psychedelic noise and drenched in feedback power electronics, in what can only be described as the FILTH sound, which we have covered in the past HERE in an interview with Buttrum and his label OUT OF BODY RECORDS. Buttrum does offer a rhythmic backing at times, but in a different, slightly more diffused, muffled style than COMPACTOR, but don’t skimp on the manual, because there is a harsh reality in store if you don’t, and you’re likely to get gobbled up into the machine and spat out as puny remains, but FILTH’s sound is not exclusively harsh, tripped out noise, there are abstracted broken rhythms, there is intention, it is planned, and panned, it IS the sound of the second hour of the day forcing itself into the negative space of your brain, that may in fact, prove to be your last of the day, of your life. FILTH is the sound of a rusted, dilapidated, unstable, harsh machine taking its unknowing operator with it to an early grave. Planned obsolescence, like user, like machine.

Michigan’s REDROT (Chondritic Sound, Bloodlust, Slaughter Productions) aka Ryan Oppermann offers another standout track on “No Worker’s Paradise” with one of their tracks titled, “Work Release Program Terminations”. REDROT is blackened, harsh noise/PE, with slices of blown out beats, and angular rhythmic structures over a sea of dense power electronics and industrial. The machine has already regurgitated the one time worker into a mess of fleshy, red, sacks of rotting remains, and REDROT is the absolute perfect soundtrack to the coworkers slowly and confusingly sweeping the bloody bits into a bag for disposal. Redrot carries a white noise sword which swiftly and steadily shaves away at the listeners inner ear canal, until a drop of blood leaks out, and starts a mechanical frenzy leaving the workers, along, confused, and scared as the drop turns into a red pool where music dies.

Another standout offering on this project is Minneapolis, MN’s GNAWED, aka Grant Richardson. We’ve covered one of GNAWED’s previous releases HERE on Decaycast.

GNAWED‘s track for “No Worker’s Paradise” is similar to his other industrial, harsh noise, power electronics hybrid funeral stylings; chaotic, yet restrained, busy yet articulate, harsh but at times even beautiful. Much like FILTH, GNAWED uses homemade analog electronics to create a brooding, dark, cavernous sound all of his own. His “Terminal Epoch” album from Phage Tapes, would be the closest style wise that I’ve heard for the track for this boxset. GNAWED is a master of tension through intentional and articulate dynamics, balancing sharp, harsh sounds with lower, more brooding under swellings of terror; the track slowly and painfully oscillates between violent shudders, chaotic, dense, noise blasts and distorted, broken voice swells.

THE VOMIT ARSONIST, EXISTENCE IN DECLINE, BLSPHM and WORK/DEATH also punch in with powerful sound works blending industrial, harsh/blackened noise, power/electronics and dark, experimental moods of the harsher, angular style.

NWPtapecovers_original

The boxset as a whole is a lengthy listen clocking in at the 8 hour mark, but when one thinks of the slow, grudging, unrelenting time clock of the american work day, this tour de force of harsh industrial / PE serves as a warm, relaxing day on the beach as a vacation, even for a day, from the alienating, hellscape robotic world that is American capitalism. Rush does right by all of the artists involved with stunningly beautiful and appropriate artwork and packaging as with all of the labels releases. A must for any noise collector, and/or hater of capitalism.

ORDER THE BOXSET HERE!

Chthonic Streams Online Store

Label Website

LIMITED TO 50 NUMBERED COPIES
(additional 16 go to artists only)

DECAYCAST#036: NIHAR BHATT : V/A: ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE DJ Mix

On November 30, 2017November 30, 2017 By AdminIn .Episode Downloads, Events, mp3, WritingsLeave a comment

DECAYCAST#036: NIHAR BHATT : V/A: ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE DJ Mix on RATSKIN RECORDS, 2017

IMA “Meshes”
TERROR APART “Perfectly Nowhere”
BIG DEBBIE “E.P. Hypnosis”
AH MER AH SU “Write This Off”
SNEAX (LaTron + Obsidian Blade) “Till The End 100%”
Piano Rain “Last Year” Remastered
PRIST “Still Movin'”
FORBIDDEN COLORS “Green Smiley Face Sticker”
BONUS BEAST “Direct Dive”
ZEEK SHECK “7777-01-07 Son”
JOSHUA KIT CLAYTON “Morning Rasp”
HIROSHI HASEGAWA “Homeobox”
MALOCCULSION “Walk Of The Dead, Part One”
S.B.S.M. “Godzilla”
POD BLOTZ “The Current”
MOOR MOTHER “CTM Five”
BRIAN TESTER “Chrono People”
GOLDEN DONNA “Wired For The Worst”
THE CREATRIX “D B No Moral Universe”
CIARRA BLACK “Don’t Say It, Volume 1”
RUSSELL E.L. BUTLER “Technofeminism House”
ZANNA NERA “In My Veins”
JASMINE INFINITI “Scratchy A”
ELROND “Hart Start”
DIMENTIA “Specimen Identity”
PARALYCYST “Untitled”
SHARON TATE FETUS EXPLOSION “Personal Brand”
V.E.X. “Ride The Time”
arc “Breathe Couplings Undulation Map”

NIHARMIXCOVER_VER5

On The Origin Of Rogue Pulse / Gravity Collapse: About two weeks to the day before Ghostship, we returned home after days of protests; as always feeling defeated, BEING defeated another day of violence enacted upon the communities’ consciousness; Witnessing the beautiful families of oakland wading through never ending rivers of trauma enacted on all marginalized communities through state sanctioned violence and racism in Oakland, and the Bay Area at large. A compilation will not solve this, a thousand compilations will not solve this, but we have done nothing to combat this and we have to start somewhere. ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE is an uncertain yet thorough attempt to demonstrate to propose a restructuring of how artists, labels, promoters, venues and other “institutions” and INSTITUTIONS use their privilege, time, talents, and resources. But before we could do that, and begin to unpack the complexities around all of these issues, in one single night, the community lost thirty six souls, including founding members of our collective, artists on our label, family members, and so much more in Ghostship and then months after RP/GC was released, almost a dozen more in the San Pablo Fire months later which displaced hundreds of longstanding Black members of the community, and lastly the North Bay fires. There is only so many ways to process or not process this stuff, but we came up with a compilation. We weren’t sure how long it would be, who would be included, how we would present it to the public without exacerbating the commodification of grief, and without taking visibility away from traumas enacted against the Oakland community at large, outside of the “artistic” community. We weren’t really at all sure how we would divide up the money, how we would promote it, but sometimes you don’t have any other fucking choice, even if it raised $100 you never know how far that could go.. Ghostship was, and still is a horrendous blow to our local creative community, many of whom had already been resisting against the structural wrath and chaos of a white supremacist, sexist, capitalist culture, and therefore already just struggling to create and survive, day by day hour by hour minute by minute. In short, many communities were fragmented and tormented long before Ghostship, and Ghostship, for many of us, brought a blade of mass trauma slicing through reality, grief, chaos, distrust and confusion that uprooted the community in so many different ways. The Immediate Fire relief fund literally saved people’s lives by the way and all the love should be given to them and those working on the periphery as well.

What was crucial for us was linking in those deeply affected and lost in Ghostship fire while also keeping the financial and conceptual focus on the organizations we chose to support before the fire, Black Lives Matter and St James Infirmary in San Francisco. Before we knew it, it was out. It was like the best and worst possible distraction, and in MANY ways, postponed a lot of the mental and physical healing that members of the collective needed to do for ourselves but at the same time it was, and still very much is an entry point for beginning the process. For me personally, this has easily been the single most important release I have ever been a part of for numerous reasons, but the single biggest reason is because it saved my life, literally, so many times I cannot even count and it did that by showing me the undeniable ferociousness of our community. Every track on ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY COLLAPSE, came as a blessing, a hug, a shoulder to cry on, but also they came as weapons, one hundred and eighty seven weapons, and we couldn’t be happier with the finished offering, as it strives to demonstrate the unrelenting power through all of the trauma and grief that our community and the people of Oakland, through various intersections possess and present with every moment that they exist. Nihar’s essential, heartfelt, and nearly perfect distillation of the thirteen hours of Rogue Pulse / Gravity Collapse, carefully and masterfully sharpens heavy stones of grief into razor blades of warmth, love, creativity, and determination of our community like daggers to the throat of a broken, corrupt system. Every tear shed will eventually freeze to form an icicle to thrust into the socket of a system which has cast away so many amazing, beautiful, creative, people.

This mix is one for everyone who has lost a loved one at the hands of systemic violence. Your tears will not go unnoticed, and this is just the beginning.

Follow Nihar’s projects NINE, \ LEFT HAND PATH & SURFACE TENSION

The physical edition of ROGUE PULSE / GRAVITY is SOLD OUT as of Today, but the digital download is available HERE ON BANDCAMP via RATSKIN.

-MD. Dec 1, 2017

DECAYCAST REVIEWS: HEY EXIT “Else” Cassette/Digital (2015)

On July 10, 2016July 10, 2016 By AdminIn images, Reviews, WritingsLeave a comment

“Else” was recorded by HEY EXIT, in Brooklyn NY in 2015, but you’d never really be able to tell as it comes off as this sort of timeless drone recording. “Else” starts with a low, slow, cloudy drone and slowly builds and destroys subtlety across the entire album. The first sounds that emerge are delicate. spacious, tone poems of humming synths? guitars? who knows? but the source a1533371763_16 isn’t really that important and the sounds create a sonic space that exists somewhat outside of codified instrumentation, structure, rhythm. The sonic palette of HEY EXIT is largely of a similar toolset, at least on Else, and the cassette is broken up into five tracks, however they all function as one breadth, decaying and gently bleeding into each other. “What Role, If Any” is probably the track that feels most complete on its own in terms of a moving composition within itself and offers arguably the most sonic density and variety on this EP.

The sounds themselves are a plush mesh of drones, blissed out and stretched out orchestral swells, slow attack guitar swells, strategically placed crunches of rumbling distortion, and wind. The tempo of Else is made up of slow, delicately offered pulses, as if someone was breathing out the notes, blowing ou

t the tempo on a single flickering candle, but not through a wind instrument, the attack is gone, the breath has transformed into a slow, churning, crawling, beautiful sound. The slow, crawling , glossy pillars of sounds , at times almost seemed to sync up with my breath as i was sitting in the dark listen

0005269479_10

ing to the cassette on repeat. This is excellent “meditation” music, or at least music that begs of slow action, slow thought, slow body movements, and slow listening. There are moments that get “noisy” in the traditional sense, but they never obliterate or destroy the more quiet, subtle tones that dance and breathe as he main life source of the piece. “Else” is a delicately crafted ambient drone offering for fans of slow, delicate, breathing music to listen to on a foggy, crawling confusing day. Highly enjoyable.

You can check this release and more from HEY EXIT, here

decayREVIEWS: MOTH COCK “Moth Cock” LP (Tusco/Embassy, 2012)

On December 22, 2012December 26, 2012 By AdminIn ReviewsLeave a comment

DecayREVIEWS : MOTH COCK “Moth Cock” LP (Tusco / Embassy , 2012)

So I was walking through the woods after a long night of being lost and found a very scratch dirty muddy and ominous looking record – I picked it up and decided to review it – attempted to clean with a mild BLEACH. Solution but it may have etched the record even further into unplayable hell –
I drop the needle .

It’s a quiet buzz, something churning your stomach a bright flash, the soar around you starts to shake – for no reason at all – everything begins to turn subtly orange and green as if your retina is slightly being drilled by a microscopic drone – the slow taking effects of the Moth Cock .this record is like a bad trip , with good company- starting out subtly and slowly building up to a twisted, deranged, cacophony of jazzlike drums played on the couch with Mosquitos circling the head of the percussionist into a frenzied disorienting dizzying amalgam of fucked up and mind bent sounds. Puttering out walls of horns, a racket of broken pot and pan percussion, tape players eating loop tapes and spitting them back up into the bell of a muffled fighting , bent horn. Throughout the record MOTH COCK ebbs and flows through what could be pigeon holed as broken free jazz with electronics but it’s so much more (and less ) than that – a blowing , buzzing , pussing , tripping orchestra of NONE belts forth nearly forty minutes of some of the most deranged jazz ever to be pressed to vinyl and left to Rot in the woods… The varied instrumentation of horns , reeds, and broken electronics sews together a murky stew of sonic confusion and mayhem, Swinging, twisting, tangling around itself MOTH COCK chokes itself until the last gasp of broken wind is emitted through the bell. Also two color screen printed covers, With WTF inserts and brown/ grey / orangish swirl color vinyl to boot

TUSCO/EMBASSY

MOTH COCK

DecayREVIEWS: BASIDIOMYCOTA/PLAYING WITH NUNS Split CDr (No Label)

On February 12, 2012February 16, 2012 By AdminIn ReviewsLeave a comment

PLAYING WITH NUNS / BASIDIOMYCOTA “Split” CDr (2010?) basidiomycota split
First three tracks are by a project from Argentena, “Playing With Nuns” who seem to have a lengthy stream of work according to their discogs. The disc begins with some well prepped tape snake hiss mixed with lower rumbles, which subtly gains structure and textures of what it might sound like the last few seconds of being trapped under ice, and all death’s inherent delays. Easily the best paced track? on the disk? churning, churning, tense, lower fidelity tape scraping, mixes with oscillator explorations, CBradio gone awray, parts recorded through a coca cola bottle gas mask??? higher pitched feedback carves into solid middle range timbre, eight broken speak and spells slowed down to shopped and crude pacing, all while still moving forward and backward at the same time. The second and third tracks are more rhythm brain ? pop? (haha) forward, but UMMMMmmm, don’t make me feel as uncomfortable (shoot me brains in) as the first piece (I think that’s OK, right?). Good movements in themselves but the first piece caught me most by the throat,ALL the way up to the oscillator heli attacks of the 1:20 mark of track number two, another high point. sssssspeaking of “by the throat” type stuff, track four and five, Basidiomycota and Co. graft dense, layered lobotimone$$$y hook systems for self taught surgery school in the girl’s bathroom with the hairdryer in the sink, the SOUND OF NEURAL SHOCK, again and again and again. Frothy architectures of warbling delayed LFO and LSDee buzzsaw waveforms, from tooth to throat—cutting through your speakers and turn them into high pitched frontal-lobe modification receptors, the sound design of your own death/reincarnated/incinerated as a 222,220 volt power inverter. calmer delayed waves of voice structures give way to alien flutters, nanobot druid hums for the 23rd century. Outer space music to abate the post pre- post-human… Charge your 9v brain supply to die 1000 times over and over again with this mix. Does your skull still work? Is it still holding in the flesh??? Leave the volume set alone to pan out decay your neighbors into the ground where they belong. Sharp,sharp, sounds throughout. Pretty good release overall, seems that maybe they should have done more than 10? maybe not though,,,
Packaging was standard color xerox printout in thin plastic bag with yellow CDr w/ sharpie. Not the worst, NOT the best, though the drawing and layout are quite snazzizy…
written by: malo
Overall : 8.1/13.0
BASIDIOMYCOTA – @ LEWCID JOOSEBOX
PLAYING WITH NUNS @ Discogs