Since I have started working mondays and wednesdays I usually just have a headphone plug in one ear, so I can answer questions or whatever. In my left ear I heard talk about Top Model Sweden, schampoo, going to the gym, Prison Break, boyfriends, candle light dinners and dreaming of becoming a model. In my other ear I had this:
Master Musicians Of Bukkake - Totem One
Nicoffeine - Admiring Those Artholes
Nicoffeine - Savant Lies Away From Home
Nicoffeine - Lighthealer Stalking Flashplayer
Oxbow - Serenade In Red
Also listened, again, to the 5 track Vaginia Wolf studio recording I'm hoping PKT will start mixing soon!
Set 1 Death Grips - Beware Ol' Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya Dope D.O.D. - What Happened? Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show Henry Bowers - Swing Batter Batter Swing EFterblivna - Aporna Visar Hur (Feat. Tjyvis) Death Grips - Full Moon (Death Classic) KRS-One - Sound Of Da Police Dan Le Sac VS. Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill Sage Francis - Dance Monkey House Of Pain - Jump Around Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' To Fuck With M.I.A. - Born Free Death Grips - Spread Eagle Across The Block
Set 2 Link Wray - Jack The Ripper The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog Jack Ruby - Hit And Run Teenage Jesus And The Jerks - Orphans Crass - Do They Owe Us A Living? The Germs - Land Of Treason Flipper - Sex Bomb Minor Threat - Guilty Of Being White Adreanlin O.D. - Rock'n'Roll Gas Station Black Flag - Police Story Pussy Galore - Yü-Gung Jesus Lizard - Then Comes Dudley Refused - Pump The Brakes Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Fuck Shit Up Lake Of Dracula - Violators Holy Molar - Dungeons And Drag Queens 2 The Locust - Live From The Russian Compound Lightning Bolt - Dracula Mountain An Albatross - Lysergically Yours, My Psychedelic... All Leather - I Don't Hate Fags, God Does
A new attempt at updating this blog more frequently is to simply announce what I've been listening to during the day. This gives you an idea of what Ominous and Herr S-H is in to, and since the profile of Ominous is the personal taste of Herr S-H, it could be useful information.
For the moment, I'm working my way through the Whitehouse discography (from first to latest album, chronologically), and today it's been these:
Whitehouse - [1981] Dedicated To Peter Kurten Sadist and Mass Slayer
Whitehouse - [1981] Buchenwald
Whitehouse - [1981] Erector
Whitehouse - [1982] New Britain
Also:
Alexey Tegin - Gyer - Sacred Tibetan Music of Bon Tradition Tibetan drone music, chanting, bells, percussion, native instruments.
Wooden Veil - [2009] S/T "Dark ritual"-music, schamanistic tendencies and a little bit of noise.
Since I'm studying from home, and have been for more or less the last 7 years. I spent my days listening to music while I'm reading, writing or doing whatever. This gives me time to listen to a massive amount of new music daily, just too bad that the blog suffers constantly since I don't prioritize it that much. Anyway, it's due time for some musical tips!
Best albums of 2011, a bit late, but who cares:
Death Grips - Exmilitary Mix Tape This is the best hiphop album I've heard in my entire life. The vocal approach (or attack) is far beyond anything else, the spontaneuos use of live or sampled drums by Zack Hill is by far the most exciting beats I've heard. The sheer harshness, aggresiveness and violent approach is amazing. I can't even mention how many times I've listened to this album, it would be ridiculous to try.
Cut Hands - Afro Noise Vol 1 William Bennet (noise pioneer from Whitehouse) spent about 4 years making this album and the result is astonishing. The afro-rhythm inspired noise is pure gold. The voodoo ritualism is imagined as well as the tribal burial rituals and all sorts of primitive tribal ceremonies you could think of. That combined with some very Whitehouse-ish, yet more subtle, noise turns this album into one of the most-listened-to of the last two months. You could hear hints of what Bennet was planning on the Whitehouse albums Asceticists 2006 and Racket 2007.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake It would just be sad to not mention this political and musical masterpiece. PJ does it again, with backing from Mick Harvey on a number of songs. The best PJ Harvey album since the 90's in my opinion, the balance between the earlier Harvey and the later, softer and more melancholic Harvey is great.
Honourable mentionings: Wreck and Reference - Black Cassette (2011) Broken The Dead C/Throbbing Gristle/Sonic Youth-reminding sludge from America. Kreng - Grimoire (2011) Jazzy, evil and cynic ambient/noise. All Ominous Recordings releases, of course!
Best shows: Swans at Strand (Stockholm, SWE) The Skull Defekts at Strand (Stockholm, SWE) Nicoffeine at Schokoladen (Berlin, DE)
New discoveries (or re-discoveries) of 2011: Sightings Whitehouse The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation ANTIchildLEAGUE
For quite some time now I've been listening a lot more to noise/industrial and power electronics. I guess it started with my drummer moving back home to Norway, leaving me to start creating music on my own, and I needed some inspiration. After seeing a friend post a sample of the Tunnel Canary track Jihad on facebook, I started to check out the "related" stuff on youtube, found Maria Zerfall, got a tip to check out Blackhouse (a christian p.e.-group) and after that I was back in the swamps of the scene, scanning the net after weird industrial/noise/p.e.-tapes that were only released in 33 copies and stuff like that. I found a noise/industrial/p.e.-blog and started to check out the music reviewed there. On it, I found this album, and liked what I read:
"[...] a varied outpouring of sounds concerning control, oppression and patriarchy. The Father flits between spoken word and instrumental noise pieces, rammed with samples. Gaya Donadio intones the lyrics; her heavily accented Italian voice, emphasizing key words and segments."
That sounded really interesting right? After listening to the album, I was completely hooked. I've played it twice a day, almost, the last three days.
Soundwise it's a rather industrial story, with some harsher parts. But mainly it revolves around pulses, looped rhythms and buzz tones. The sound is cold, uneasy, dark and effectively creates a perfect atmosphere for the political lyrics of Gaya Donadio (vocalist).
Only One Mother (Track 9, my favorite on the album) "Nature, the real mother. Nature, the only mother. Mother of life. Nature, mother of death. The cruel nature, the cruel mother nature.
[...] She's vicious, she's pitiless, she's hurtless! Divine grace is all gone. She's the devil!"
Her lyrics are extremely relevant and extremely refreshing in a world filled with male acts/vocalists constantly using sexual abuse, porn and fascist thematics. I'm have nothing against that, I know the reason, the effectiveness and the thoughts behind it, but it can also get a little old sometimes. The spoken word parts move between whispers, snarls and emphasizings, but sometimes turn heavily distorted and aggressive.
Her heavy italian accent is to die for! I'm just saying. It gives the whole album a dimension it wouldn't have without the accent.
