Vol 2, no. 2

This month’s disc was posted today. Also, any ordered/promised copies of the new WiT disc, Rue Des Lombards have also been posted.

Next Month: Red Mannequin Rape – Fruiting Bodies

Where is This – Rue Des Lombards

This has been a long, long time in the making, and I’m delighted to say it’s finally here.

Rue Des Lombards is a concept album about a Parisian street and my interactions with it when I went there on holiday a few years ago. The street links two bear bars, Wolf Bar and Bears Den. The tracklist is below:

1. Underground Cavern (Bear’s Den) (25:36)
2. Marco in His Work Clothes (5:20)
3. Wolf Bar (10:24)
4. Greg in His Sports Gear (9:52)

The record comprises mostly of Loud, Drone-y, reverb filled HNW (such as on Underground Cavern and Greg in His Sports Gear) which is punctuated by Wall-ish HN spells (most notably, the movement filled and constantly shifting Marco in His Work Clothes, as well on the more static, but still shifting Wolf Bar). This record is one of things I’m the most proud of.

Here are some samples for each of the tracks:

Underground Cavern:

Marco in His Work Clothes:

Wolf Bar
Sample 1

Sample 2

Greg in His Sports Gear:

This is the largest print run I’ve ever done for a record. Pressed in an edition of 100 copies, this pro-cdr in a standard jewel case features 4pg booklet and on-disc printing, with artwork by the loverly Sven Klippel.

To order:
Rue is 5EUR. Postage and Packing is most likely 2EUR (will have to check when sending the first orders out, might go upto 3EUR, if I haven’t charged enough postage)

Update from the Ether #60

Carrion Black Pit recent Bored Bear release, MYTHOS, which got 5/5 is ALBUM OF THE MONTH at MusiqueMachine! *happyface* Copies still available!

The first track is available to stream in full (on CBP’s soundcloud) here:

Update from the Ether #59

Fantastic review (four stars!) of Narcissus at the Gym from MusiqueMachine! Really chuffed. Copies still available!

Where Is This – Narcissus At The Gym [Bored Bear Recordings - 2011]

Mark Ward’s Where Is This is one of the few Irish noise projects I’m aware of, it’s been active since 2008 and it’s fluctuated between experimental, harsh noise and harsh noise wall genres with ease and skill since it started.

“Narcissus At The Gym”, released through the acts’ own Bored Bear Records, leans towards the drone/experimental and power electronics grounds, with its very liquid, hypnotic and extra-delayed cauldron of sounds.

The homoerotic cover art, the titles and the excellent booklet of this tape tell us tales of queer, self-obsessed masturbation in an appropriately chaotic stream of thoughts manner. It might not be everybody’s cup of tea since it’s about sweaty cocks, but it’s nice to have very descriptive and well thought concepts presented in noise releases sometimes. It’s something to look at and think about while listening and it enhances the whole package.

I found the thirty minutes of this tape thoroughly enjoyable in their wide spectrum of emotions and frequencies. The extreme abuse of delay effects  are disorienting at first, but after ones ears adjust  to  the sound it becomes soothing, while the feedback-driven pieces are pretty good and intense, calling to mind classic british power electronics and drone music.

Overall, “Narcissus At The Gym” is well balanced and less aggressive than expected. Even if it should be the first Where Is This power electronics release, the whole experience is almost easy listening chill out music to my ears. I don’t mean this as a negative comment at all though, and I think that Mark Ward has done a good job which clearly shows he can conceive and effectively render  noise music compositions and the feelings he has in mind. In conclusion I give two thumbs up to this tape and recommend it to fans of good ‘n’ creative noise.

4/5 – Nicola Vinciguerra

Vol 2, no. 1

The first release in the new series was posted to all paid up subscribers today. As it stands there is one subscription left, if interested, please contact me asap.

NEXT MONTH: Piss Gag – Try

Update from the Ether #58

Quick update: There’s one spot left on this year’s Richard Ramirez Subscription Series. Email asap if you want in.

 

Update from the Ether #57

Firstly, there are still a couple of slots available for this year’s Richard Ramirez Subscription Series. If interested, please email anotherthreewordbandname [at] gmail.com for subscription details.  To current and new subscribers,  January’s discs will be posted out this week coming.

Secondly, Martin P of MusiqueMachine just posted a review of Fuck Patrol’s (a project between myself and Richard Ramirez) second released Courtship Disorder, and I’m absolutely chuffed! Full text below.

Fuck Patrol is a duo, consisting of Mr Richard Ramirez (Werewolf Jerusalem, et al) and Mr Mark Ward (Where Is This); and this is their second release- thier first release ”Contact” appeared on southern US label Violent Noise Atrocities. Apart from being blessed with a quite unbeatable name, Fuck Patrol also have a very nice line in retro homoeroticism too – with iconic photos of strapping chaps from the 1950s (i’m assuming) adorning the covers.

The disc has one long track of harsh noise. It kicks off with a sample of one man enquiring as to the possibility of another man coming again, then the hammer drops and the noise jolts in. Immediately the listener is plunged into a surging wall of low-mid frequency noise, with moaning bass and buried elements which sound junk-y at one point, then ethereal the next. Buckets have this similar quality when struck or thrown about: metallic clanging, but also more resonant tones – presumably from the bucket amplifying its own sounds. These buried sounds take on an increasingly mysterious nature, almost like a ghostly cheer; and they appear with more and more frequency, becoming an integral part of the overall sound, rather than a mere detail. The churning low-end does dominate overall proceedings, but from time to time the crackling treble raises its head above the surface. Its only about halfway through that these treble frequencies finally come out to play, smashing in waves against the low-mid foundation. From here on, the track does noticeably increase in intensity; until, by the end, the bass is really pressurising the wall of noise. The twenty-six minute track climaxes with another sample, that answers the question set up by the first sample.

This is a fine piece of harsh noise, but one that straddles the line with HNW. It clearly displays HNW’s preoccupation and care with texture; and, indeed, whilst there is change and movement, that change and movement is all within quite restricted parameters. Its a very immersive recording, with the brain looking behind and below the blizzard of the mid-frequencies to find other things – and find things it does. During the course of “Courtship Disorder”, I could hear: voices, someone thrashing about in the background, ghostly synth tones and someone singing to themselves (sometimes a playful child, sometimes an elderly woman with dwindling cognitive abilities). Its almost like standing before a waterfall, with persons unknown committing acts unknown behind it… Hopefully theres a lot more to come from Fuck Patrol.

4/5

Update from the Ether #56

Two new BBR reviews by Roger Batty from MusiqueMachine, including a 4/5 and a 5/5 (!).

Black Leather Jesus – Vastgebonden [Bored Bear Recordings - 2011]

“Vastgebonden” is the 12th & last in the series of twelve monthly 3 inch CDR releases that were been put out through-out 2011 by Ireland’s Bored Bear Recordings. Each release in the series celebrates, pays tribute and chronicles one of the many projects of highly influential & respected Texas noise artist Richard Ramirez.

Along with Werewolf Jerusalem Black leather Jesus is one of the most known & prolific of Ramirez’s many, many  projects. BLJ was originally formed back in 1989, and has had rotating line-up ever since that has at points had up to 13 members connected to the project- Ramirez has been the only constant member through-out the projects existence.

At present the line-up stands as: Richard Ramirez, Sean E. Matzus(Last Rape, In The Land Of Archers, [Untitled], TheWhitehorse), Austin Cooley(Concrete Violin, Painful Vigil), Leeann Rogers(Hierchiss), Carol Sandin(Painful Vigil), Joseph Gates(Vargrwulf, Zionist, R.S.P.), Nathan & Randa(Ascites & Godless Girl), Robert Newsome(White Gimp Mask, Four Flies, The Girl In The Wooden Horse Torture), Scott Houston(Respirator & S.P.I.T.) Thomas Mortigan(RU-486), Vanessa(R.S.P., Viking Movement, L’Exorcisme), and Vance Osborne(Priest in Shit, In the Land of Archers). Whether all 13 members listed above are playing on “Vastgebonden” is unclear, as there’s no mention on the sleeve or discogs whose taking part in this track.

BLJ sound is best described as a often dense yet shifting mixture of harsh noise, extreme industrial texturing, HNW, and all manner of noised-up & perverse matter. Subject wise BLJ focus in on gay S&M,  gay bondage, and genreal sleazed/ painful gay themes. Vastgebonden is the Dutch word for Bounding or restraining by one or more  with ropes, cords, strings, or the like.

The single self titled track on offer here comes in at just over the twenty one minute mark. The track starts out with a rumbling & taunt wall of steel battering type noise that has a nice sleazy under current running through it. But pretty soon caustic shoots of noise are fed into the mix and these take in  seared spirallings, white hot scrubbings, hissing and more layers of steel sheet like abuse.

The collective cleverly layer ‘n’ shift the noise textures here so the original rumbling ‘n’ battering sleazed wall can still be heard, yet there’s a real feeling of movement & shift here, but things never become too crowded or over-full with BLJ adding or shifting one rewarding noise texture or another into the mass of sleazed, brutal yet controlled sound. By around the mid-way point things are getting very dense & muilt-layered with  more seared, sharper & higher pitched junk metal like forks been added to the mix, along with scrubbing ’n’ feasting static tonality, and these are all underfeed by brooding yet brutal metal drags & white noise churns. Really there’s so many great twist ‘n’ turns with in this track I could go on & on describing them forever.

All told this track  is a great, brutal & sleazed boiling mixture of harsh noise & seared/white hot industrial noise  with junk metal elements & HNW dwells. This is certainly one of the highlights of this great series, and a wonderfully  seared yet sleazed end to the series. Keep you eyes on Bored Bears Recordings website as the whole series of 12 Richard Ramirez releases are going to reissued on a ltd 4 disc CDR set.

4/5

Carrion Black Pit – Mythos [Bored Bear Recordings - 2011]

“Mythos” offers up five slices of  seared, atmospheric & sometimes layer active Harsh Noise Wall that’s themed & based around HP Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythology. Carrion Black Pit is the horror themed AHNW & HNW project  São Paulo, Brazil based Elias Chieka Jr who is most known for the great Harsh Noise /Industrial/HNW/noised-up Sword-and-Sandal soundtrack project Sleep of Ages.

The five tracks on offer here last between five and twenty four minutes a piece, and each track nicely summons up in ones mind the huge, brutal, dark and often many limbed images of the Cthulu gods. The tracks are nicely sequenced into each other-so you get an unbroken yet some times jarring HNW ride.  All of the tracks here are great & manage to blend loud & battering walled noise with atmospheric layer detail & offten brooding undercurrents. But I think the highlights for me are the  five minute opening track “Cthulhu, The Sleeping God” which is built around drilling ‘n’ entrancing insectile looped purrs that are underfed by this distant subterranean like bubbling like drone ‘n’ ebb. The track creates this great other worldly, dark & intense vibe, so one can almost see the huge slumbing & black as night Cthulhu in his vast lair.

The other highlight here is track number three “Yog-Sothoth, The All-in-One And The One-in-All” which is the longest of the five tracks at just over the twenty four minute mark. The tracks ‘wall’ starts out as very urgent, yet fairly fixed & seared mixture of roaring black juddering & higher pitched skipping static grain. Moving towards the 8th minute, and the higher pitched skipping textures seem to become more whipping like- as if Yog- Sothoth tentacle covered frame is starting to slowly vibrate, twitch and lash out its smaller tentacles. By around the 13th minute this strange chattering & insect like dark alien voice like textures are added to the ‘wall’, and these really send a shudder down ones spine as if somehow CBP has  managed to capture the voice of Yog- Sothoth.

So “Mythos” another great release from this project with CBP perfectly capturing the dread, brutality, shuddering inducing alien & timeless darkness of the Cthulhu mythology & it’s dammed gods. Simple put Elias Chieka Jr is truly one of the most original & creative talents working in both HNW & harsh noise scenes today. Pick up one of this releases 25 copies  before there all gone!

5/5

The Richard Ramirez Subscription Series 2012

So, bet you didn’t see this coming, but we’re back again and there’s going to be another whole year of Richard Ramirez releases. The theme for Volume 2 is new projects where all the projects here will have their debut on Bored Bear.

The first new project is NEW YORK RIPPER*, a project with Richard and Geoff Markoff. Other projects in the series will include PISS GAG and THE KILLER WEARS BLACK GLOVES (a new HNW project) as well as various other projects.

Now, down to the nitty gritty.

This series is limited to 16 copies of which there will only be TWELVE for sale, a slight increase from last year’s 14 copies. Last year’s subscriber’s will get first refusal at taking up this year’s subscription, but there will be (at least) two spaces for new subscribers.

The price for the series is 50EUR ppd WORLDWIDE (that’s a 3″cdr sent out to you ppd once a month for the next twelve months).

Please email your order asap (as these are strictly limited) to anotherthreewordbandname@gmail.com. This is not the paypal address, which will be supplied via email. Orders will be dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis, so get in quick. No trades. All subscriptions have to be paid in full by Friday 20th at the latest, or your spot will go to the next person on the list.

*NYR has a release listed on Discogs, but this has not yet been released, and won’t be until Spring/Summer after the NYR release on BBR.

Update from the Ether #55

Firstly, there’s an in-depth Where is This/Bored Bear interview by Roger Batty over on MusiqueMachine just out. Thanks so much Roger! You can find it here.

Secondly, things are moving again on the Rue Des Lombards front. A new duplication place is being orgamanised, and I’ll keep you abreast of when it should be out.

Third, I’m working on a new record called Mercury Kisses.
Fourth, the 2011 Richard Ramirez Subscription Series is going to have a boxset! I’ll let you know when that’s out too.

There may be more things, but I have forgotten them.
Toodles.