Sturqen – Raia

April 25, 2012 • self-released

Another random Bandcamp discovery for today: Sturqen's Raia. I've finally hit a sort-of-average release after a slew of good ones. (About time.) It shows the somewhat amateur side of Bandcamp well, though it's not terrible.

Raia is basically a noisy and bleak sort of minimal industrial music—lots of distorted and amelodic synths, noisy beats, dissonant and aggressive tones, and the like. Sort of like super-slow electronica, on LSD, in space. It's a very concrete atmosphere they have going on here, very cold, mechanical, and, again, bleak. It's an okay style, not totally appealing to me, but sometimes it's the kind of thing I'm in the mood for.

However, the tracks are mostly short and quite simple, which leads to the album's biggest problem: nothing ever really gets a chance to develop very much. Instead, most of the tracks are just a few simple loops which fade in, play for a bit, then fade out rather unceremoniously. While many of the sounds and textures are pretty neat, the fact that they just don't go anywhere makes the album a bit dull and difficult to really immerse yourself in.

So I find it really hard to recommend this. There are, again, some cool ideas, but the way they're presented doesn't really do anything for me. I can see this duo releasing some really interesting and focused material at some point (maybe they already have) but I don't think this is the one.

5

Aphelion – Lay

July 2008 • Shadowgraph Records

I'm usually not a big fan of "scary" media—horror films and video games, that sort of thing. Scary music, on the other hand, I enjoy (maybe on some kind of masochistic level, but still). Aphelion's Lay is probably one of the first albums I ever heard that really freaked me out. It doesn't really do it to me anymore, but it's still a really neat experience.

Most of the music could be called "death industrial"—a very heavy, fast, highly-distorted, and dark kind of industrial. There are beats buried pretty deep down that are easy to miss, and would probably be missed if it weren't for the repetition in the samples and bass lines overtop them. And pretty much all of Lay is an incredibly dense wall of sound—bass hits, screeching distorted noises, voice samples, heavy glitches, all assaulting the listener at high speed and high volume. Every once in a while, something more upbeat will play, only to be mercilessly cut off by something incredibly dark (see "Chest Cavity"). It's all really well done.

It can get a bit tacky, though; tracks like "Circumlocution" have a beat texture and pattern that reminds me of some of the sillier speedcore stuff I've heard (especially repetitive cymbal crashes), which poorly contrasts with the darker and more serious sampling and ambience in other tracks.

I was also disappointed by the fact that most of the tracks are incredibly short—around two minutes on average—which isn't really enough time to get a good mood going for the most part. This is sort of a compliment in a way, because many of the tracks should have gone on a lot longer (like "Frozen Birds" of "Be Still", one of the best and creepiest). On the other hand, because of some of the unnerving and disturbing samples, maybe that's a good thing.

In general, though, Lay is pretty darn good as long as you aren't listening to it alone and in the dark. It's not the best industrial album, or the best scary album, but it does its thing well enough.

7

Vatican Shadow – September Cell

June 18, 2012 • Bed of Nails

I've known of harsh noise artist Prurient for some time now, though I was never really much of a fan for one reason or another. This sideproject of his, Vatican Shadow, is however a completely different thing altogether—instead of unforgiving noise, it's more of a subdued electronic/industrial project. And it's pretty darn good to boot.

Each of the four tracks is more or less the same thing: fast, thumping, low-end-heavy drum beats, accompanied by slightly dissonant, droning synthesizer and the occasional background noise. (The last track has a more ambient sound to it without the drumbeats, which is also pretty effective.) The EP has a muffled, futuristic sort of atmosphere that I find really enjoyable (though it's not as pronounced as, say, Burial). You can tell they were written by a noise artist, though; even though they have good buildup, the endings are either simple fadeouts or just nonexistent; "September Cell (The Punishment)" practically ends in the middle of a note. It's a bit strange, but a small nitpick I suppose.

Anyway I find myself enjoying September Cell for the most part. If nothing else, I'll keep an eye out for future Vatican Shadow material because I see some potential here. (Apparently there's been quite a lot of Vatican Shadow stuff out in the last year or so; I guess I could look into that.) All told: nothing mind-blowing or particular original, but a neat little experiment for sure.

6

Crash Worship – Asesinos

1992 • Cold Spring Records

Crash Worship was an interesting band. When they were active in the '90s they were very well-known for their concerts, which bordered more on the improvisational stage-performance side of things which were chaotic to the point where the police would shut down many of their shows. I was of course too young to attend any of these shows, but whatever it was about their shows that made them so (in)famous has become utterly lost in their studio output (despite the studio being where the band started).

Asesinos is a compilation of excerpts of various tapes and EPs that came out at the very start of Crash Worship's existence which have been remixed and edited. While these sorts of compilations often serve as a great way to show off a band's better output, if that is the case here then Crash Worship's earliest material must have been truly dismal, because Asesinos is a pretty boring release.

As is typical for Crash Worship it generally has a sort of tribal-industrial sound going on, with lots of repetitive drums (some drum machines), electronics/synths, weird bass guitar, studio dubbing and other effects, the occasional incomprehensible shouted vocal, and the like. Even though I've heard this compilation several times and have gotten pretty used to the band's sound, though, it still comnes off as nothing special. Each track has a very distinct sound and atmosphere (mostly along the lines of claustrophobic / stuffy / distant) but there isn't any development, just the same beats and sounds repeated for minutes at a time. Additionally, most of the time there isn't a lot ever going on, just a simple drum beat and a couple of synths or samples over top, and that's it. These songs would probably be pretty interesting in a live setting, but listening to them in the album format is kind of dull.

There are some cool sounds here and there, but ultimately nothing grabs my attention and I find it really difficult to pay attention to the music, even for a little while. It just doesn't interest me, which is unfortunate because it's not that bad of a release. It's just something I don't find myself wanting to listen to. On the other hand, I imagine that this music would be really good sampling fodder due to the aforementioned drum beats and interesting sounds. Unfortunately that isn't what I'm looking for in a good listen, and Asesinos doesn't really deliver. (Note that they did get better studio material, and Espontáneo! and Triple Mania II are both pretty decent.)

5