Noistruct – Front Toward Enemy (Chase Records)
One of the Older Netlabels in hard electronic music is Chase records from france. Number 49 here is from the australian producer Boris Otterham aka Noistruct. A compilation of unreleased tracks,remixes and tracks previously released on labels like 8-bit recordings and Night Terror Recordings. 26 files of various styles like oldschool(amiga-?)”breakcore”, hardcore & drum&bass. Lots of movie samples,dirty breaks and a good flow in most of the tracks makes it an interesting web release, one of the few good ones you can find now and then in the big pile of boring copycat stuff.
Stoornis/Coexsystems Rave Alarm/Level Five Exp. (Audio Riots)
The second 7” on the Audio Riots imprint from germany. The A side by Stoornis contains solid acidcore around the 180bpm, unfortunatly with some overused new style bassdrum modulations in some parts. The Coexsystems side is full of nervous percussions and a highpitched acid bassline at 170bpm. the sound is more oldschoolish than the the A side, makes it the better track for me. Comes on marbled white and light blue vinyl.
Corecaine – Geiger Counter (Legs Akimbo Records)
7” release number 4 on this label from the Uk, limited to 110 copies. A mixture of speedcore,hardcore and death metal. both tracks start with long intros and go over to fast distorted bassdrums, Side A in a industrial hardcore way, Side B with metal guitars,some crossbreed-like breaks, strange stumpling beat patterns and screams here and there. One of better releases on this label.
DJ Die Soon – Curse Of The Yonoyon
Die Soon from the Small But Hard label/collective with his first output, self released in file format. 10 more or less short tracks full of abrasive, distorted, experimental Hip-Hop/downtempo beats and feedback noise. without vocals on the most tracks, it sounds like an instrumental, updated version of Din-sts and Paul PMs Fever.Raw and Dark.
This will be reissued on Thirdtypetapes as a cassette release.
Mickey Napalm – Toxic Elements
Kardiac – Play God
Napalm Def – Tigers
(Hirntrust Grind Media 33-35)
Those 3 seven inches coming with 3 American acts from the Death Rap genre. With the Vocal version on the A side and an Instrumental Version on the B side those records open the view to a disturbing, noisy Hip-Hop Subgenre with Psychotic Lyrics and cranky distorted Beats. Kardiac comes in clear red and Mickey Napalm in Neon Green vinyl.
Facialmess/Seal Team 666 – Human Is As Stupid Does (Hirntrust Grind Media)
With 7” number 36, Hirntrust returns to the noise fields with metallic, broken and beat triggered harsh noise. powerful and well produced aggressive Sounds by Kenny Sanderson and J.Randalls (Agoraphobic Nosebleed).
Fishstix – Gunshot/Kurruption (Clash Records)
Number 14 in the Clash 7” series with an up-to-date juke&jungle mixture. Footwork/juke and similar plastic stuff is usually out of my radare, but this 7” sounds a bit like a ruffer and better version of the original ideas. In this rare case it doesn’t sound like a butchered jungle classic. Some ragga vocals cutted on the juke beats mixed with a few jungle breaks and sounds. For me, the jungle outbreak at the end of the second track makes it worth a listen.
Oblique – Flies With Vinegar (Bruits De Fond)
Oblique – Death Canal (Bruits De Fond)
Gunter Saxenhammer – Planeta Modular Mix (Planeta Modular)
Flies With Vinegar is the 1th and Death Canal the 5th mix in the Dig it! digital mix series on French experimental hard electronics label Bruits De Fond. Dark industrial techno and bass music,broken beats and rhytmic noise,some rap parts and so called breakcore thrown in too, flawless mixed as always by DJ Oblique who makes the balancing acts between vinyl and digital releases and puts it together to a well selected mixture. He also released earlier mixes on Planeta Modular where Gunter Saxenhammer made the last contribution so far with his Mix from 2012. A perfect DJ aswell, he mixed an excellent selection of hard, experimental, broken electronic music. A good example of the power and diversity of this in most parts undefinable music.
Noize Creator – The Future Is Cancelled (Praxis)
Praxis records continue with number 51 by Noize Creator, owner of Suburban Trash Records from Dresden. A1 with clean but raw breakcuts over halfstep beats and dark, haunting, moviescore like soundscapes. Next track sounds like Noize Creators idea of drum & bass, a straighter beatconstruct with massive percussion,and noises in between.The other side starts has a creepy background followed by brute halfstep noise beats followed by doublebass outbursts and shrill sounds with a menacing feel. Track 4 with a hint where you have to go, an long build up of breaks and gloomy breakdowns overtaken by a bulldozing drum pattern.
A well produced 4 tracker with the flawless trademark beatprogramming and movie references you know from Noize Creator since he jumped on the broken train over a decade ago. Dark!
Brandon Spivey – Past.Present.Future (PHD Records)
Phase Distortion Records from minnesota/usa with a love for the 90ies acid gave Brandon a plattform in 2011,to release new material after a long pause. Spivey, known from his releases together with Richie Anderson as A’Simetric, A.C.A.B., Agro, Wah Wah and more, on labels like Kill Out Rec, Drop Base Network and Epsilon Rec.,he delivers 9 Tracks of different variations of Acid. You get everything from clean melodic electro breaks,faster broken beats with hectic acid basslines,and some 4/4 acid techno. On this clear transparent 12” he traded the ultra harsh hardcore as you know from records like his great solo record on the deadly systems label for diversity and playfulness, i think you can hear the fun he had producing it.
Jean Feraille – Manifeste A Son(s)(Résistance Des Matériaux)
Second output on Bruits De Fond’s sublabel Résistance Des Matériaux. Aphasia under his Jean Feraille alias with 6 tracks following the path of his Revolutions Per Minutes release on the same label,combined with the chanson vocals of Mistress Bomb H on 3 tracks. Harsh industrial Breaks and sounds with an abrasive feel and experimental Programming makes this record a welcome relief in the broken beat or what some people still call “breakcore” sector, where many producers lost the will to experiment in change for dancefloor friendly straightened generic sounds.
Various Artists(Spin Dynamics1-4)
-The Building Principle
-Spin Echoes
-Pulse Sequences
-Hyperfine Interaction
A young up-and-coming experimental electronic label from Mainz/Germany,started in 2012, with an big interest in diversity of sound. No style limits existing on the releases as long as tracks are interesting enough to be released. Most of the 4-6 tracks on each record are undefinable in style, ranging between broken beats, techno, tek, drum & bass, acid, dub(step)and “breakcore”,produced by several international artists,known and yet unknown(at least to me). watch out for the next promising releases.
Swarm Intelligence – Forced To Unknown (Acre Recordings)
5 Track digital release on Acre Recordings from Edinburgh,who release both vinyl and digital. Swarm Intelligence from Dublin shows his concept of broken beat,”breakcore & drum & bass on this release, usually also producing dubstep,techno and other stuff. solid beats and cold atmosspheres overall with a techstep feeling in parts and a remix with a female vocalist that falls a bit out of the picture,reminding on old enduser tracks.The best track might be Fousoc,a fat rolling stepper, featured in the death canal mix from DJ Oblique.
Rudelbumsführer Alois Glotz – Das Privileg Des Bessergestellten (Voluntary Whores)
A new cassette label focused on noise, ambient, musique Concrete, field recordings and drones and sublabel of shhhh. This limited C30 tape features 6 tracks of doomy,haunting soundscapes and drones with an opressive feeling, produced by Jean Bach, the man for bizarre track titles and sounds, maker of the Trennlinie Zwischen Gesten zine. A nice Artwork and a little plastic soldier inclusive.
C_C – Retro Action (Bedroom Research/Thirdtypetapes)
Bass heavy, sharp distortion and glitched downtempo breaks from french artist C_C. a distinct interpretation of current bass music,fresh and unpredictable.Digitally released on Bedroom research and re-issued as cassette on Thirdtypetapes.
DJ Balli / Ralph Brown – Tweet It!(Extratone Mix)(Sonic Belligeranza)
Maybe the most experimental concept and also the strangest record so far on DJ Ballis label from bologna.The Picture disc in Twitter artwork is based on the concept of the 140 characters rule on Twitter, Every track name looks like a tweet and explains the Mathematical Idea behind this record and how as a result the Bpm of every 1:40 minutes long track is 1400BPM beside intro and outro. You can assume that Twitter would sound like this if it had audio output. I really like the concept behind this record (as always on SB) and i can see how it can work as a DJ tool or as an exaggerated answer on slower speedcore,to ridicule the “hard guys” scene, but i am not sure if this was the intention of both artists. There is a little scene for this kind of fast music, but i think they also see it just as a fast dance music rather then sound experiments.In my opinion it loses the integrity and depth, that you can find partially on this record.
a034 – Children Of The Void (Rxstnz)
Various – Beyond The Void (Rxstnz)
Italian based label Rxstnz with the newest 9 track album in digital format from a034. He developed his own version of dubstep or contemporary bass music avoiding all the stereotypes like wobble bass or sawtooth synths and give it an almost movie score like feeling using also real instruments like violin and guitar. A dark journey with some twists that was followed by a remix CD containing 12 tracks by people like Hyena,Mbst8,Oyaarss,Ripit,Tzii and others. An exellent compilation of diverse approaches on a034’s music, resulting in unformatted broken beats and bass music,dark ambient, experimental hip hop and even a death metal remix.
Ab-Hinc – Farkhülse Fist Reconfigurations(Widerstand/Wire Globe)
After 5 years of silence Widerstand returns in collaboration with Wire Globe for a 2×12” remix album. The original material was experimental downtempo breaks with a dark depressed feeling, released as Widerstand 4 in 1997. Pure, Kovert, Eiterherd, chfs, Kajkyt, Opcion(Ab-Hinc), Shiver Electronics and Freudenberger now put there hands on it, resulting in 8 long, dark sound experiments between drones,dark ambient and illbient like beatconstructions. A really good atmospheric soundscape, just the one dubstep remix sounds a bit out of place for my taste. “The digital version will be extended from time to time with additional reconfigurations.” is written on the labels relaunched website.
K(no o)- For Sally For Miila
K(no o)– Hell.o K
K(no o)- no01CKmixTAPE
Another new name in the recent harsher bass music scene in the cutting room rec/ small but hard surrounding that raised my brow with surprising raw and compromiseless noise breaks,slow and abrasive, fucked up stuff. Traces of hip hop and dubstep can be heard, but distorted and twisted beyond recognition. I also wanna hear more tracks like the collaboration track with Vorrs, one of there best so far that can be heard on the no01CKmixTAPE. More experimental hip hop mixed with disturbing broken beats, featuring people like Sensational,6RME, DJ Die Soon, Walter Gross and others. All available through K(no o)’s Bandcamp as digital releases.
Alarm
…is an experimental noise label from Cologne existing since 2011 with 11 cassettes and two LPs released so far. Some of the artists are John Wiese, Lasse Marhaug, Jared Blum, Euphrat Und Tigris, Freedom Of Knowledge, Parenthetical Girls and The Skull Defekts. Music from harsh noise to unusual hip hop or techno and other undefinable sound experiments makes it an interesting sympathetic label open for all kinds of weird stuff, the name is program. Check it out by yourself for a deeper view into the single releases.
Various – CRRMMXIII(Cutting Room Records)
12 track compilation cassette limited to 100 copies working with in the same surrounding of harsh broken beats as the Small But Hard Label. Tracks from C_C, Dead Fader, Die Soon, Anbu and K(no o),extreme punk hardcore from Brutes and NO and other weird electronic explorations make it one of the best compilations this year. Fresh and Powerful.
Devilman – Devilman(Small But Hard/Murder Channel Records)
Devilman is Shigeru Ishihara aka DJ Scotch Egg on bass, Gorgonn from Dokkebi Q on the beats and Taigen Kawabe doing vocals. The result is there own industrial version of heavy distorted dubstep,experimental hip-hop and illbient. The cd contains 9 tracks and a video clip of the first track of the cd. there is a limited reissue on Murder Channel Records with a second cd containing one other track and four remixes by Sensational, C_C, Dead Fader and Devilman themselves.
Low Entropy – Defiant(Legs Akimbo Records)
Low Entropy is back to the scene since 2009 and released over 150 tracks since then by himself or on several netlabels. He is covering a wide range of styles all over the electronic music map as it always was in his earlier times.Hard acidcore, doomcore, breakcore,sound experiments, techno and everything in between. On the Defiant 8 track netrelease he exposing his love for 4/4 doom hardcore in the PCP style and ultra fast and harsh acid reminding me on Brandon Spiveys hardest tracks. There is a need for more Low Entropy tracks on vinyl again. Netreleases are no permanent solution.
Boogie Boy Metal Mouth – Boogie Boy Metal Mouth(I Had An Accident Records)
First release of the duo from boston on this experimental rock/noise/hip hop/leftfield cassette label from the Annapolis/Maryland. They call there music psychedelic punk rap wich describes it very well. It sounds like a mixture of garage/blues rock, hip-hop and punk, reminding on Death Grips,MC5 and Beastie Boys. Raw real and programmed drumming,noisy guitars and distorted screaming vocals makes it a very powerful and angry output. The hit on this one is “what i want”. The artwork shows a burning car that fits the sound perfectly. I look forward to the next releases of them.
FX – Demonic Possession Volume 1(Demonic Possession)
There is a new wave of producers and labels who dedicated themself to the darkside jungle of 92/93 and producing new tunes with the aesthetic of the old. FX with breakbeats in a 4/4 rhythm dark atmosphere,horror movie samples and mentasm synthstabs,in short everything you would expect from a oldschool darkside tune. Maybe a bit to straight for my taste but overall a well produced retro 12”.
DJ Excel – Just When You Thought It Was Safe(7th Story Project/Ninety Two Retro)
Another two Oldschool Jungle/Hardcore labels specialized on re-releasing rare vinyls from circa 1991-93. The DJ Excel one is now exception. Its known and famous for its heavy sampling of the movie “Jaws”. Released in 91 as one track on one side and drumloops on the other,it comes now on this 12” with the original tune remastered in all its glory and two new remixes from DJ Fav and DJ Stoopid doing a good job with 4/4 breakbeat hardcore in full effect.
Equinox/Nebula – The Phantoms (Nebula Remix) / Sound Barriers(Bustle Beats)
LXC/Senses – I Know U / Rodney’s Choice (Bustle Beats)
Bustle Beats is a 10” sublabel of Subtle Audio from DJ Code, both releasing experimental and deep drum & bass.
Equniox in remix with some atmospheric and impellent, fsst breakbeats with many beat switches and pushing synthstabs. The other side shows a more dreamy atmosphere and a stepping beat programming. On release number 2 LXC comes with tribal, crashing percussions in a clever footwork/juke like hitting drum programming.really pushing. Finally Senses with a great thundering techstep tune. Speech samples from the movie “Mark Of The Death” reminding on tunes like “death trip” from Plasmic Life. Mentasm stabs all over the track,dark basslines together with the technical cymbal chinking drumming sounds like a perfect mix out of darkside jungle and techstep.
Reviews by Zombieflesheater