To say that a line-up which features Discharge vocalist Jeff (JJ) Janiak, guitarist Stig Miller (Amebix), drummer Roy Mayorga (Nausea/Amebix) and bassist JP Parsons is an enticing prospect would be an understatement. This type of musical pedigree promises us that something special looms on the horizon in the form of Let Them Eat Fake (Neurot Recordings).
It is coming to the end of another year, a time with some celebration you may have heard of on the horizon and, more importantly, for end of year lists, where mostly sane people agonise and debate about ranking excellent things they enjoyed in an arbitrary list format which simultaneously means nothing and everything at the same time. It also means that albums released between now and the start of January will normally get overlooked; which, in the case of Great Falls and A Sense Of Rest (Corpse Flower Records), is a criminal injustice.Continue reading
Otherwise known as CEKE for obvious reasons, Ambient art-collective Common Eider, King Eider has been prolific this year, with new album A Wound Of Earth (Cloister Recordings) following its predecessor A Wound Of Body (Cyclic Law / Sentient Ruin Laboratories) by a mere two months. This latest effort houses four tracks of dark, spectral noise that unsettles the mind.Continue reading
I love random. I honestly thought when I received Transmaniacon it was just… random fate. Then I put on my glasses and actually read what I had been sent. Transmaniacon featuring Lydia Lunch and Maya Berlin. Lydia Lunch… Lydia Lunch… the same Lydia Lunch of my childhood? The same Lydia Lunch from the Lower East Side? The Lydia Lunch from those movies? The Lydia Lunch I had just seen with Anthony Bourdain on Parts Unknown?Continue reading
Even for lovers of the Doom genre such as myself, it’s never a bad thing when a new variant on the strain comes along. Step forward Vouna, a Washington state-based project, whose synth-heavy take on the Funeral sound adds lush, frosted textures to a bleak atmosphere.Continue reading
Several years ago I reviewed a local gig containing a set by Manchester-based post-Hardcore band Knifecrimes, and enjoyed a chat with their fresh-faced East Anglian guitarist. These days Joe Clayton still classes Manchester as home but is now a sought-after producer and mastermind of the multi-faceted, enigmatic Pijn, whose first album proper Loss (Holy Roar) is a pulsing ball of creativity.Continue reading