Akustikkoppler (Acousticcoupler) is Hamburg duo, MatthiasSchuster (Geisterfahrer, DasInstitut) and MalteSteiner (Notstandskomitee, DasKombinat). They create experimental electronic music and last year they dropped their fourth album. AllesMußRaus (EverythingMustGo), which was mastered in 2021 but the actual recordings were made between 2008 – 2012.
The whole ten tracks are instrumental and they most certainly run along the lines making noises that please them and incorporating those noises into music that they inspire. There is the space like “Heimweg“, with a 70s kitsch feel, and yet it could be a science fiction horror in the cold void. Or the throbbing and wandering nature of “Horses And Carriages Burn“, as spikes of electronics speak up or the oddity that is “Dinge, Die Unter Dem Tisch Lagen” or the things that were under the table, which could be a whole new world with out of place bleeps and reverberations.
It might be experimental but AllesMußRaus is very enjoyable. There are bright noodling bits and even tracks that have a dance beat, yet overall the album is nearly hypnotic as you become engrossed in listening to everything going on. Akustikkoppler seems to be hitting all the good notes.
Out on the rather impressively named Culture Vomit Production, is the new album from London’s Pillars Of Golden Misery, called Turbo Necropolis. Another experimental noise project of the very busy Howard Gardner, who is also Non-Bio and a member of Decommissioned Forests.
The lethargy of “The Demon Ray” turns your way, low wave pulsing which continues into the stalking “Ultimate Fighting Claw Death“. The ominous “Big-Time Blade Trader” lumbers with reverberation causing rising internal tensions and this is built on with “Temple Of Catastrophe” as Gardner adds his intonations to the track that is forever doomed to haunt that mystical abode, and this is just a few of the pieces.
For the most part, Turbo Necropolis is an instrumental affair, and as I always say, it is never good to pull apart instrumental albums as they are crafted often to create a mood. Gardner has put together eleven tracks, that paint a picture in sonics of an ancient city inhabited by the dead. The oppressive dark spaces, wind swept halls, temples where possible sacrifices were made and the people that never left.
The chanting in the title track makes me think of the Indiana Jones movie, Temple Of Doom, and the imagery fits so well. A place tainted by blood sprays and screams of the unfortunate, now rendered in shadowy electronic creepiness, as you make your way through the establishment. Pillars Of Golden Misery are inviting you to visit their Turbo Necropolis…..it’s a nice place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there.
The Drood are a US based band, on the label eMERGENCY heARTS, that we are not unfamiliar with, and their single “It MustNeeds Wither” has received ‘the treatment‘, also known as the remix from fellow American project Dead Voices On Air which is Mark Spybey. A founding member of Zoviet France and Download with cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy…. honestly you should look him up to see the other artists and acts he has been involved with because it is a lot..
This remix has the ambience of the 60s at Venice Beach at the time of the Mama’s AndThe Papa’s, with a similar vocal arrangement, though the beginning is far more an electronic and ethereal soundscape, tinged with a timeless longing, that seamlessly blends with the singing. “It Must Needs Wither” is based on Shakespeare’s “Othello“, and it is dedicated to those we lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a beautiful remix that is haunting until the last note, so check out the Dead Voices On Air remix of The Drood track “It Must Needs Wither”.
Madil Hardis is a German musician living in London and she has released a new single “Holding On“. This is a cover of the 2017 track from the electronic wizards, Empathy Test, which Hardis has admitted is one of her favourite bands.
A simple piano line is all that is required to kick this off, with Hardis’ solemn vocal performance an emotional affair, beseeching. Her angelic tones backing herself up in rounds that echo the fragility of life.
Such a sensuous sadness being explored in this version. Hardis’ vocals are both electrically mesmerising and gut wrenching all at the same time, still haunting you after the song has long finished. Love, loss and the mourning, fill the cup of this pared down version of the excellent “Holding On” by Madil Hardis.
“Night Device” is not the name of the single from Mexico’s Edge Of Decipher, but rather the encompassing ideal for the two tracks. Released on the 4th of December, on the Machina Ad Noctem label, both “Against The Night” and “Loaded Trembling Device” are not new, though now having a remix overhaul, each are ready to breathe anew.
“Against The Night” has the Hollow Mix and I wonder if this name comes from the rhythms that sounds like plucked rubber bands and struck empty bottles. The darkness of the night could never dim, nor contain this joyful myriad of exuberant noise, only enhancing the brightness against the inky blackness.
MACHINA AD NOCTEM
In contrast, The Late Version of “Loaded Trembling Device” is not about beauty, instead, very much has a purpose. A seriousness crept in. Do machines fear and would the thinking be the whirring processors computating every variable? The music running up and down over and over again, with sudden breaks of clarity before the race to freedom is recalculated.
Edge Of Decipher has this wonderful knack of combining electronic instrumental music and imagination, in such a way, that it tells you stories without the need for words. He creates worlds of men, machines and starlight, which is a gift. “Night Device” is for name your price on Bandcamp.
LMX has released his third album, Habits & Addictions, on the Meshwork Music label, as of October the 28th. Keep in mind that this German electro-pop musician isn’t even twenty yet…….
There is occasionally, a harder edge to this music than you think. “Addiction” has elements of industrial experimentation, while the circling fragile sadness of “Not Made For This” is in the morose synths even with the constant paced rhythm.
There are beautiful synth lines in the spiralling “More Time” with almost an 80s feel to it, then you have a kind of ambient euro dance thing going on with “That Summer“. The heart rending “Stay” is yet another facet of the performer and writer, with such a simple track that bares his soul. In all, there are ten tracks, all flourishing these incredible electronics and lyrics.
I know that it is the current rage to use those vocal modulation thingies to give the singing that echoing tone but I’m not a great fan of it, especially when you can hear the fact they can sing. I really wanted to hear LMX without it, however I’m sure maybe it’s just one of my foibles and I am fairly certain there is a multitude out there that absolutely love it. Other than that little quibble, it’s a really excellent dark pop album and some tracks did become embedded into the old brain box, refusing to leave.
LMX is going to have a long future in the music scene, if this is to go by and he does have a great pedigree, being the son of X Marks The Pedwalk’s ESTEFANÍA and SEVREN NI-ARB, who also helped produce this album. Habits &Addictions is emotion filled, raw and yet, in the end, looking for the light, LMX might become your addiction.
Non-Bio is the most excellent industrial project of the rather busy Howard Gardner, whom is based in London and is also in the projects Pillars of Golden Misery and Decommissioned Forests. Halloween was the release date for his latest album, Monkey Feather.
The first track is also the first single/video, “Island In A Lake Of Spinal Fluid“, and the electronic reverberations are already tingling under your skin. Low and intense with Gardner’s voice adding to the noise, the screaming metal sounds, causing ripples to send those tingles down your back. Rhythmic noise is the order of the day, so with that in mind “Monkey Feather” will not disappoint. The crunchy beats fall over each other with sharp agitation, the vocals almost inconsequential in the scheme of things, as all that matters is the pile driver pushing into your head.
Primal is one way to describe “The Melting Man“, not only with the beats but with what sounds like horns bellowing, before the ancient warriors storm the palisades of their foe. “Pressure” is a slower beast, like an iron lung life support, giving the needed air to a patient who cannot fend for themselves. Inhale and exhale with the pressure of accumulated shadows, death is waiting as the life stutters under the heavy odds. It is almost like a chopped up classical piece, gurgling in the background at times.
The grinding electronics vibrate and buzz, consuming the human you are. This is “Amputate Product“, as each bit of the body is replaced by cybernetics… bringing you closer to being part of the machine. The screeching beats chomp away incessantly. Down in “The God Factory” they are busy, twiddling knobs and generating those miracles of life. Making things to keep you alive for longer, glitching and oscillating, usurping the laws of natural order.
Now one is more cyborg than man, here comes the “Imbalance“. The memories of a life lived different or seemingly flashbacks of another person’s previous existence, which is surely not yours. The synapse pulse within the electrical stream trying to reconcile the loss of what was so readily given up. A sharpness and a metal tinged pain. The last track is an absolute treat. When you get two very capable artists of rhythmic noise….well hold onto your pants. “Amputate Product” the STAHSCHLAG remix, has Sebastian Sünkler taking an already heavy track, winding it up and amping up the existential dread. A monster lurks below the surface wanting to escape.
Yep. I hate to tell you but I think this might be the best Non-Bio album to date. It fair pummels the senses, raw and brooding with Howard’s discombobulated vocals filtering through, a comment on the desire to enhance the body and live longer, though, then is it truly considered living? A Monkey Feather is an incongruous thing when talking of playing God but damn it, so good when Non-Bio pushes that electronic noise.
When things go bump in the night, you are sure to get music to remind you not all is known or seen. October 31st or All Hallows Eve, saw the new EP, Avernus, be unleashed by In Tenebris, upon the world while the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest. This is the more ambient product of German electronic musician, Sebastian Sünkler, whom is better know for his power noise project, STAHLSCHLAG.
Something unnatural this way comes, in the form of an ancient “Relic“. The synths waver in high pitch warning and the clash of tones signal there is something that feeds on the darkness, an aberration has become unbound. Sinister electronic overtones, coalesce with slow rhythmic beats… a heartbeat from a demonic being, in the cathodic noise, casting a foreboding shadow for this is the “Dynastic Cult“.
The beginning of “Traits” is almost transcendental, though almost immediately drenched in a claustrophobic pall of dank noises. The ringing, instead of being enlightening, joins the overbearing build up of portent. The final track is “Iconoclast” and the beast waits, no longer in torpor, as the music oozes with sharp edges, stalking so that you can almost feel the fetid breath on the back of your neck, though nothing can be seen through the mists. How long do you have?
Avernus strikes a chord somewhere in your brain that stores your animal ability to sense danger. Something dark and threatening lurks within, nothing like us and with evil intent. The music conjures a myriad of feelings and visions, like a good horror movie, never showing you the monster but rather letting your imagination run away with the subtle suggestion simply in the tone or noises within each track. And each listen will reveal more than you previously heard. Sünkler’s famous crunch is bleeding through a little into this EP, giving the ambient tracks a rather delightful texture and most definitely increasing the menace.
Today I added a new tag to my list. Industrial space music.…. I’m pretty chuffed about that. The reason behind the new tag is the debut EP from Perth ambient electronic/industrial project, Open Mirror, called Contact Void, out on Western Australian label, Lightarmour Editions. Grant Slee is the human component of OpenMirror, as they windup for the release of the full length album, Contact Mortis.
The three track EP starts with “Contact Void” with its vast tendrils of sound and synth wavering out into the reaches of unknown universe, amongst the stars, quasars and heavenly bodies. Expansive and glittering. Somewhere in the back of my head, “Oxygene Pt 4” by Jean-Michel Jarre is prickling at my concious, because it reminds me very much of the space sound scapes created by the electronic French genius. The next track is “Contact Void” revisited as the Liminal mix, longer than the original. Brusque, more drawn out, as if this wasn’t the shiny and smooth trip expected. There is hesitation in the music as it plucks up the courage to sail forth. Those brighter synths are there but also an underlying ground swell of harsh noise creeping into the rhythm. Maybe contact with aliens beings, in the transmissions.
Sequentially, the tracks keep getting longer, with “The Dead Hotline“, clocking in at 13 minutes and 40 seconds. This is the Signal Extended mix, a different concept in some ways as it is not space related. There is a sadness in the music and the harsh noise is making its presence felt now, like the static on the radio, unable to find a channel. The music is now a spirit box, a conduit for the voice of the dead. A very Australia voice asks the aether questions, with the hope of a rely.
Though one is Earth bound and the other about space, there is a common theme… discovering what is it, there in the dark, or rather who. Well played OpenMirror because not only is this EP thought provoking, it’s genuinely both fascinating to listen to and very enjoyable. So how will you ContactVoid?
Who is Andrei Rikichi? Hmm, even with the bio, we think he might be a bit dodgy. A multi-instrumentalist son of a Japanese diplomat, working between Switzerland and Belgium. Seems legit. His album, “Caged BirdsThink Flying Is A Sickness” was released on the Scottish label, Bearsuit Records on August the 31st
From the first track, “Theme From The Butcher’s Parade“, the first salvos are fired, giving one an insight to the unbound lunacy and charm within this very short album, the whole thing weighing in at just over 26 minutes, for fourteen tracks. Tastes of hurdy gurdy classical music, warbled operatic singing and crazed hazed guitar barrelling through. Some tracks are like sitting inside someone’s head while they trip out on acid, glitching electronics binding it all together.
“Whatever Happened To Whitney Wallace” assaults your senses, “This” literally being a 10 second noise, which amused me to no end, and “They Hide In The Dark Forest,” is kind of like Laibach on mind altering drugs married to elevator music. The title track, “Caged Birds Think Flying Is A Sickness” is slightly more winsome and thoughtful, similarly for “Death Of A Postmaster” in a wandering, ambient way.
We have no pictures of Rikichi and some say he only comes out at night to hunt for food and record. Who honestly knows and unless you are willing to set bear traps to find out……. probably no point in losing sleep about it. For some reason, I fully believe the fellows from Monty Python’s Flying Circus would have found it all rather inspirational, due to the psychotropic qualities, which may well have you sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what could happen next.
Onyx Music Reviews 