Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Vrioon

Sparse piano notes and gentle bleeps and electronic hum combine to create a meditative mood.

In Zaire - Visions Of The Age To Come

In Zaire are an Italian group based in Berlin. They play dub and funk influenced psychedelic rock. There's a clarity and precision to their sound that helps makes it almost hypnotic.

 

Learn more

• In Zaire bandcamp
• In Zaire Discogs

Group Home - Livin' Proof

Group Home were a short-lived hip-hop duo that were associated with Gang Starr. Both members of the act appeared on Gang Starr's Daily Operation LP, and Livin' Proof was produced by DJ Premier.

 

Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek - Bird, Lake, Objects

We've already highlighted the work of the electronic musician Jan Jelinek. But he's recorded a lot of great releases so we feel no shame in bringing another to your attention.

On Bird, Lake, Objects he collaborates with vibraphone player Masayoshi Fujita. Like Jelinek, Fujita's music shares an interest in exploring gentle texture and layers.

The product of their partnership is this hypnotic, immersive album.

Malediction - Mould Of An Industrial Horizon

Malediction were a British grindcore act from the early Nineties. They were pretty well known on the tape-trading scene at the time. They put out a bunch of releases. This was one of my favourites.

 

Choubi Choubi! Folk and pop sounds from Iraq

Another Sublime Frequencies compilation, this time collecting together pop music from Iraq.

Kikagaku Moyo - House In The Tall Grass

Kikagaku Moyo are psychedelic explores who switch between extended acid-fried wig-outs and gossamer smooth folk sweetness.



Want more?

• Kikagaku Moyo on Discogs
• Kikagaku Moyo on Bandcamp

Black Mountain Transmitter - Black Goat Of The Woods

The soundtrack to a nightmare curated by David Lynch.

 

Chico Hamilton - Peregrinations

Chico Hamilton was a jazz drummer and bandleader who came to prominence in the 1950s. Initially he played West Coast jazz, but throughout the Sixties and Seventies his music continued to evolve and move with times. In the 1970s he came to embrace the fusion sound that had emerged at the beginning of the decade.

That's where we find Chico Hamilton on 1975s Peregrinations.

 

• Chico Hamilton's discography
• Chico Hamilton obituary

Jan Jelinek - Prime Time

Jan Jelinek has released music under a variety of different aliases (Farben and Gramm to name a couple).

Under his own name his predominantly released glitch techno. But on this EP from 2012 Jelinek goes for something different: a sound collage of different samples and audio snippets.

Herbie Mann - Stone Flute

Jazz flutist Herbie Mann had a lot of pop hits over his career. But on Stone Flute there's more of a progressive vibe like he's playing the quieter moments of Miles' Bitches Brew.

Don Cherry - Organic Music Society

Don Cherry was always one of the most adventurous musicians throughout his career. During the 1970s he started to explore African, Middle Eastern and Asian music. And one of the best examples of this genre fusion can be heard on Organic Music Society.

Koreisch - This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex

Apart from eulogies on a few metal blogs you can’t find much information about Koreisch on the internet.

They released their sole LP in 1999 on Screams of Salvation. And subsequently re-released on Calculated Risk Records in 2004. Neither pressing gained much attention.

Which is a criminal shame as This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex is as an inventive and extreme record that the metal world has yet vomited forth.

Grind, doom, samples and sounds capes are thrown together allowed to rot down and then sprayed at the listener like a sonic slurry.

Piercing guitar riffs, ominous rumbling bass, dirge crawl and grind spazz outs are interspersed with jarring, alienating sounds capes. Consistently painful and unpleasant, this is music as torture. And yet it is oddly compelling drawing you back into its dark, smothering, suffocating embrace.

I consider this one of the most extreme records I have ever heard. Bands have played faster and harder, but the continued dislocating shifts in tempo, pitch and tone mess with your expectations. And that is something very rare and precious.

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Preferred drink: Water

Death Strike: Fuckin' Death

Death Strike was a short lived project helmed by death metal legend Paul Speckman. Despite being one of the scenes original movers and still active to this day, he has never really enjoyed any particular success.

In 1985 when death metal was still an underground scene, he recorded a 4 song demo called Fuckin’ Death. After getting a deal for his new project Abomination, Nuclear Blast issued the demo in 1991 as an album bulked out with some new tracks.

These new tracks are awful and for the purposes of this review we‘re going to ignore them. Because for pure visceral excitement there is little that can match those original demo recordings.

There’s a heavy thrash influence to the music, understandable given the time of the original recordings. But that thrash edge gives the filthy, dirty, fire snorting, death metal beast a relentless pummelling velocity.

Every time I listen to Fuckin’ Death it reminds me of the adrenaline rush I felt when I first heard death metal. There’s been better played, better produced death metal, however, just try and stop yourself head banging to Mangled Dehumanisation or Pay To Die. Go on, try.

Preferred drink: Water

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