[tzpCS90] TERRINE/FUSILLER – ‘Hashtag’ CS Split chic & choc. Terrine side: sonic heteroclism, x-ray choir, kick in the anthill. Fusiller side: suspended ambush, emotional electronica, broken-down car races.
[tzpCS91] RAPPORT1984 – ‘Le diable couleur de rose/Music for fainting’ CS Revised versions of the last two opuses. Double-speed electronic laboratory & asynchronous escalators. Concatenated miniatures, concrete syntheses & random ramblings.
Blazing Worlds s/t CS/LP Recorded during a week long Midwest summer scorcher, Blazing Worlds expands & contracts with six heavily hallucinatory movements that only hellaciously humid nights could induce and seasoned sonic psychonauts Justin Wright & Grant Corum could venture to manifest. Wright, whom is known for experimental takes on drone & rock in the long running Expo 70 project, and Corum, as a supernatural sonic forager in Million Brazilians, Timelash, and Psychic Sounds orbits, manifest a deep phantasmagoric excursion through brilliant atmospheres in a seamless performance.The material on Blazing Worlds harkens back to Wright’s synth-driven ’Sorcerer of Sound’ full of cosmic tones and other worldliness aura, blended with with Corum’s bent woodwind work & extraterrestrial sounding samples. Where this is certainly a departure from some of their previous work, the two seem to find equal navigation through their evolving compositions morphing into a singular melting chthonic mass, giving the listener an open ended impression of mesmerizingly vast sonic topographies all gleaming with moments of both glimpses of gorgeousness and the grotesque. CS on Sonic Meditations & Psychic Sounds / LP on Feral Child.
St James Infirmary – ‘Abandoned’ St. James Infirmary, of Ashington, Northumberland (UK), was formed in 1985 as the creative vehicle for singer, songwriter and multi- instrumentalist G.W.Lang and has been continuously active ever since. G.W.L. is assisted in producing his prolific multi genre-spanning output by an evolving and rotating cast of bandmates and (at last count), SJI has boasted in the region of 40 members. With ‘Abandoned’ GW Lang’s merry crew take on Americana, where Nashville is Newcastle, Lee Hazlewood lived in Ashington and The Byrds wrote ‘Sweetheart Of The Rodeo’ in Bedlington. Wry humour, societal reflections and dark observations, with rousing bittersweet melodies.
Look To The North – ‘A Shadow Homeland’ Look To The North is the “dronefolk” duo comprising David Colohan (United Bible Studies, Raising Holy Sparks) and Zachary Corsa (Nonconnah, Lost Trail). Recorded in 2021, “A Shadow Homeland” is 4 tracks of atmospheric other-worldly introspection; melancholic ambience interspersed with sparse piano, spoken word and field-recordings, creating an immersive transcendental twilit experience.
Nonconnah – ‘Shadows From The Walls Of Death’ Nonconnah are Zachary and Denny Wilkerson Corsa, a Memphis-based experimental music duo who explore themes of memory and the past, the lingeringly supernatural, and the profoundly American through hallucinatory layers of guitar and the spectral decay inherent in ‘obsolete’ recording mediums. Drawing on sonic traditions as varied as ambient and drone music, shoegaze, noise music, psych-rock, post-rock, and the occasional touches of old time/Appalachian folk music. The inspiration behind “Shadows From The Walls Of Death” is the trend during the Victorian era for eye-catching ornately designed vivid wallpaper, which happened to be laced with arsenic, slowly poisoning the occupants of the houses adorned with it and workers in the factories who mass-produced it. Left untouched, the wallpaper could release flakes of arsenic into the air or produce arsenical gas when conditions were damp. It was also linked to the widespread cases of mental illness at the time. Something decorative and ostensibly beautiful but potentially dangerous, both physically and psychologically. The album takes its title from Dr. Robert C. Kedzie’s book, published in 1874, warning of the dangers and containing samples of said wallpaper, collected from stores around Michigan. Thus making the book itself a dangerous artefact. The cassette outer and inner cover art features examples of the wallpaper.
Madrelarva – ‘Tierra de Silencio’ Madrelarva is a project of Spanish electronic musician Julio Tornero, who has been producing minimal techno, IDM and experimental music since 2015. Also recording as Dark Tibet, Oceanic Alpha Axis, Sequences Binaires, with his work published by a multitude of labels including Fmur, Intellitronic Bubble, Detriti, Phantasma Disques. “Tierra de Silencio” is an epic tour de force, comprised of four long-form tracks, journeying through spacious rhythms, modular arpeggios and analogue bubbles. Channeling artists like Conrad Schnitzler and Nurse With Wound, it’s a love letter to the formative years and evolution of electronic music.
Ahti & Ahti – ‘Nokivesi’ LP Ahti & Ahti is the duo of Finnish sound artists Marja Ahti and Niko-Matti Ahti. Originally created as a radiophonic piece for the Oscillations Radio Marathon in 2020. Nokivesi (soot-water) embraces sound montage and cut up conversations alongside instrumental and electronic sound, combining the complexity of the field-recorded sounds and compositional sensitivity.
SUMMER NIGHT AIR – ‘5 (remixed)’ SNA broke their 8-year hiatus with the release of the mesmerising album ‘5’ in Oct 2022. One year on, Crue Nature release ‘5 (remixed)’ which compiles ambient, house, electronica, post rock/shoegaze, dub and electro pop remixes from artists such as The John Cream Collective, Cathode (aka Steve Jefferis, one half of Warm Digits), Score (aka Chris Tate, from Salisman, One Key Magic, d_rradio) and ako (aka Simeon Soden, one half of Badger).
COLD COMFORT – ‘All Power No Sour/Selected Works’ Cold Comfort is Ben Forrester, a musician who since 2021 has been blending punk, electro, drone, metal, hardcore and slacker rock into one humungous sonic melting pot. This 20-track cassette compilation features the debut album “All Power No Sour” and selected works from 2022. Lyrically drawing from mental health episodes, political frustrations and paranormal experiences, this is a collection of revelations that is equal parts cathartic, raging and euphoric.
PLAGUE ARISH & PARADOX ENCOUNTER GROUP – ‘Tarred & Feathered’ A collaborative work of experimental sound art that melds modular synths with noise, dark ambient and industrial atmospherics into unsettling, thought-provoking soundscapes.
TIBSHELF – ‘Understander’ If you’ve ever wondered what a track that samples Albert Ayler, Jimi Hendrix, Terry Riley, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and ‘Withnail & I’ might sound like? Then this album has it. The second album of sampledelic plunderphonics cut n splice from Lee Etherington (founder of TUSK Festival/ former member of tape manglers Posset), twisting and screwing funk hip-hop techno, film dialogue, noise rock and a smorgasbord of every sound from under the sun into a fresh sonic glory like you’ve never imagined.
SHAN – ‘Knotweed’ Debut outing from the Tyneside noise rock/sludge duo, who channel their frustrations with employment, self and prescribed medication, and the current state of the UK through raw, stripped back, unadulterated punk rages. FFO: Unsane, The Melvins, Eyehategod
Directives – ‘Glimmer’ CDr With its much more accessibly rhythmic construction, Glimmer runs a very different program than the occult abstractions of 2021’s Protenomaly or 2017’s Usphutorontus Deius Nissesubla, both released as intimately handmade cassettes by Aubjects. As with Directives’ prior two releases, in the 8 tracks of ‘Glimmer’ there is a core source material of lo-fi cassette-recorded guitar improvisations, cassettes and reels from personal archives and iPhone recordings purposefully captured in significant places and moments. The songlike composition mode of these pieces stems from Directives’ long time love of remarkable explorers in electronic music including but not limited to Severed Heads / Tom Ellard, Haruomi Hosono / YMO, and misc releases from Mille Plateaux & Raster. Apart from these and other “IDM” and / or “bedroom producer” type material influences, the sound is still overtly dreamy, psychedelic and flavored with dashes of industrial / cassette culture aesthetics, 80s/90s psych / “shoegaze” and noise, centered around manipulated guitar sounds. Pro-pressed CDR in hand-painted / hand-stamped / hand-numbered paperboard jacket. Full color booklet on specialty paper, hand stapled / folded by the artist. Booklet encloses a small slip of blank notebook paper of specific significant origin, given randomized coverage of transparent shimmer. The recipient is invited to utilize this paper in a personally meaningful fashion, ex: write out a wish and burn. Package also includes accordion-fold mini-booklet, hand-cut / folded / stamped salvaged paperboard pull-strips for pocket items extrication of CDR (on R) and booklets (on L), and painted yellow outer salvaged paperboard strap w/ stamped & glued album title slip. Comes enclosed in salvaged plasti-zip bag for protection.
Black Tempel Pyrämid – ‘Meditations On Consequences’ and ‘Sun Songs’ Black Tempel Pyrämid is an experimental American primitive Krautrock band from Walsenburg, CO. A sonic endeavor of Patrick R. Pärk, who is a deep diver of primitive droning Kosmische territories, prolifically releasing albums and performing under his own name and through projects such as Black Tempel Pyrämid, RUFFINI, Kösmonaut, Life Education and Teeth Of Glass. “Meditations On Consequences” was written and recorded between June – November 2022, in tandem with “Sun Songs”, which was written and recorded between September – November 2022. Both albums are heavily influenced by Grails, GY!BE, MMOB, and Ash Ra Tempel. A collection of sonic heady works will pull you in for a bizarre and dark American primitive nightmare journey.
Mike Neaves – ‘You’re Welcome’ When he’s not playing in The Eurosuite, or doing stints with Sly & The Family Drone; Plurals or Nitkowski, Mike Neaves makes skittering fractured 160bpm techno. He’s had releases on Hominid Sounds and Rat Run Records. This is his latest album, is a masterpiece of spidery fractured techno, made on “not that much” equipment with all live takes from a sequencer. The cover art goes some way to begin to convey the sense of liminal disquiet from the tracks inside: A desk stranded in a decaying narrow room under ugly fluorescent light. Mechanical industry and fucked architecture. The jittery Monday AM interior of your skull, and the mutant sounds of the weekender you wish you were at instead.
Salisman & His Unwavering Circle – ‘Parched’ The house of the Unwavering Circle has been decimated. The organ stopped working. The pews are covered in dust. The pool has been drained following an unfortunate accident. This is the soundtrack for the troubled times of our dear Salisman: Rivers of synthesizers. Pedal steel drenched in warbling tape echo. Tense electronic rhythms and rustic percussion. Perhaps you might follow him, as he collects the remnants and the husks of his failures. Via discipline, perseverance and unmatched wit, he will press on.
Pound Land – ‘Violence’ ‘Violence’ is the new album from Pound Land – eight filthy tracks of vitriolic desperation recorded by the core duo of Nick Harris and Adam Stone and featuring a number of guest musicians, including Steve Watson of Iron Monkey and solo artist Adam Petiss. ‘Violence’, the band’s sixth album, often veers towards a nineties alt-metal/industrial sound, along with the usual smatterings of customary Pound Land abstraction. In addition, this new album continues to aggressively push lyrical themes relating to the same old shit that seems to be getting worse: corporate hegemony, business culture, mainstream media influence, automation, class polarisation and economic austerity.
Dragged Up – ‘Hex Domestic EP’ Dragged Up are an off-kilter psych-garage proto-punk band. Formed in Glasgow in late 2018 by Eva Gnatiuk (Las Mitras), with Simon Shaw (Trembling Bells) & the writer Lisa Jones. In 2019, Chas Lalli (Vom/Bad Aura) & Julian Dicken (The Cosmic Dead) joined. In 2022 Stephan Mors (The Owsley Sunshine) replaced Dicken on drum duty.
ele0nora – ‘tuuljamuud’ ‘tuuljamuud’ by eleOnora is an album with abstract meditative voice as its chore element. It is the artist’s first solo release which consists of improvisations from three different recording sessions made over the period of 13 years. Like the time range suggests this album is retrospective in its nature. Although the recordings were made many years apart from each other they display similarity in their mood. It is one of the moods that eleOnora has been developing in her work over the years – an idea of a statically flowing, slowly morphing, minimalistic voice holding space for the listeners. eleOnora (Eleonora Kampe) is an Estonian-Latvian singer and avant-garde vocalist. She works both as a solo artist and in collaborative projects that include noise and ambience duo Road To Saturn, static abstractions project Tencu/eleOnora and an avant blues experiment Ringhold.
Posted onJuly 3, 2023|Comments Off on Cruel Nature
Clara Engel – ‘Sanguinaria’ Ten stunning new songs of transfiguration from the Toronto-based artist, accompanied by electric and acoustic guitars, talharpa, gudok, lap steel, melodica, and percussion. A mystical work, mixing classical and dark folk wanderings with misty soundscapes, which creates an abstract, new world atmosphere. An album with a deep longing at its core that makes for a subtle yet incredibly moving experience.
Baker Ja Lehtisalo – ‘Crocodile Tears’ A collaborative album of new wave industrial doom songs by Nadja’s Aidan Baker and Circle / Pharaoh Overlord’s Jussi Lehtisalo/ Early in 2020 Lehtisalo and Baker began trading sounds over the internet—fragmentary keyboard licks and textural guitar riffs, retro electro-beats and pulsing bass lines—slowly constructing them into songs that combined a sort of ’80s New Wave/AOR aesthetic with a heavy/noisy/shoegaze/industrial sound. The end result was ‘Crocodile Tears’, five catchily anthemic songs channelling the perhaps unlikely pairing of Godflesh and Jan Hammer, electronic pop and pretty melodies mixed with textural guitars and heavy metal riffs
TUNNELS OF ĀH – ‘THE SMEARED CLOTH (2012-2018 UNEARTHED)’ TUNNELS OF ĀH is Stephen Āh Burroughs, who was the founding member and vocalist for HEAD OF DAVID; a band who also featured Justin Broadrick and Dave Cochrane, emerging on the seminal UK label Blast First records in the mid-1980s, creating a sound that paved the way for industrial-metal and noise-rock. TUNNELS OF ĀH is Burroughs’ ritual dark ambient industrial project, which debuted with the album ‘Lost Corridors’ in 2013.
Charlie Butler – ‘Parts Unknown’ Charlie Butler is a Lanarkshire based artist who began a series of solo releases in 2021 exploring psychedelic, ambient, heavy and hypnotic sounds alongside being a member of Cody Noon, Neutraliser with Mike Vest, Mothertrucker and Head Drop. He has had work published by Weird Beard Records, Cruel Nature, Fuzzed Up & Astromoon and Panurus Productions. Parts Unknown” is Butler’s first full solo release since moving from Reading to Lanark.
Posted onJune 5, 2023|Comments Off on Monorail Trespassing
[mt142cs] Vasculae – Spectrum Art c-44/DL Long-delayed ‘split fracture’ album offering mirror images of past, present and future Vasculae. On the A-side, recent sessions from 2020 and 2021 — the same period as the ‘Broken Lust’ album, continuing that inward struggle of darkened clang, enveloping tonal loop stasis and (un)restrained fragments of multi-tracked grit; noise-as-all-source. For the B-side, a glimpse of the project’s inception with a side-long harsh piece recorded in 2012 during the first five-hour recording session and painstakingly edited apart/together over the course of nine years. Edition of 100, with full color covers and labels.
Posted onMay 18, 2023|Comments Off on Cruel Nature
Omnibadger – ‘Famous Guitar Licks Vol. III’ Stoke’s finest birthing their second (not third) LP from found sounds, industrial scuzz riffs, dubbed-out delays, whitenoise, dictaphones, and eight-tracked drums.
Waterflower – ‘All Art Is Ecological’ Waterflower (Sabīne Moore) is a multi-faceted eco-futurist artist from Latvia. Using plants and mushrooms as instruments, Waterflower creates a blend of experimental electronic music that speaks to the urgent need to protect and preserve our natural world. The album “All Art Is Ecological” challenges us to reconsider the role of art in shaping our ecological future, featuring an array of tracks. The mostly instrumental, cinematic album includes one track recorded on a found piano during tour travels, tracks with mushroom-generated music, and an improvised duet with an orchid-generated melody. The album highlights Waterflower’s interest in ecology, originally through plant and mushroom music practices, inspired by Timothy Morton’s essay that states that every artistic practice is ecological in a philosophical sense. As we are living in the age of extinction, art can help us embrace the moment and live central in our own catastrophe.
Volk Soup – ‘Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol 1’ Volk Soup have been building a steady body of work. Over the past couple of years, they’ve been consistently releasing singles and pairing them with B-sides of equal stock. Now all compiled together, ‘Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol. 1’ is a tidy encapsulation of a band at their embryonic best.
Gvantsa Narim – ‘Apotheosis Animæ’ Latest album from the enigmatic sound artist, who takes inspiration from religion, esotericism and Georgian polyphonic music, fusing classical arrangements, meditative drones, and ethereal atmospherics, into an aural experience of contemplative rapture. Her latest work was written in late 2022 / early 2023 and tells the dark and cold story of winter. Apotheosis and soulful whispering like the wind, where the immensity of mysticism reigns.
Eijra Woon – ‘Sophia’ Breton musician Eijra Woon, is probably known to some as a member of the groups Nádleehí and Zeijra, who oscillate between ambient, post-rock and experimental approaches. Alluding to aspects of Gnosis and the Fall of Wisdom, “Sophia” contains three studio tracks and a live track of quite different designs, each using different constellations of sound sources such as santur, various guitars, korg, metal objects, percussion and voice, maintaining an atmospheric framework. The album expresses a cathartic process both on a personal and a mythical level through four tracks. From suffering, imprisonment, doom and despair to relief and deliverance. It’s about turning deep trauma into a strength.
Of One/Whirling Hall Of Knives – ‘Recoil/Greywash’ OF ONE: Alan O’Boyle is one half of early 90s electronic act Decal, one half of Legion Of Two, all of Legion Of One, and a legend in Irish underground electronic music; releasing his sounds on esteemed labels such as Planet Mu, Rotters Golf Club, D1, Leaf, Law & Auder and Saberettes. In 2021, Alan launched his new project, Of One, releasing two albums for Front End Synthetics – the first new material he has issued since 2009. Cruel Nature welcomes Alan’s latest recording, ‘Recoil’, an epic throbbing acid-techno monster club banger. WHIRLING HALL OF KNIVES: A collaboration between Magnetize and The Last Sound, Whirling Hall Of Knives’ harsh smouldering circuits and eruptions of panicky white noise have a profoundly unsettling quality, a sense of gnawing paranoia but interspersed with moments of almost euphoric epiphany, as if in the grip of an unshakeable 4am psychosis a growing sense that the door will be kicked in at any second and the world outside will come pouring in. Psyche electronics of a particularly greasy and grime-flecked hue. Like Surgeon jamming with Dead C. Like rave gone bad.
