Listen to this.

I've been radio silent for too long.

This post is simple, fantastic music that I'm currently enjoying and that I'd like to share. If you like anything you hear, please purchase it in some way. The underground needs you.


Serum Dreg- Impure Blood

Filthy, cavernous, reverb-drenched black/death. These arcane offerings truly capture something depraved and ugly about the human condition.

Winters In Osaka/Astro

Pulsing, cinematic urban ambient that blisters into a harsh noise assault. Equally influenced by American drone and Japanese noise. 

Bekëth Nexëhmü- De svarta riterna

Another excellent release from the prolific Ancient Records, the true lords of the underground. Beketh Nexehmu play very well produced anti-cosmic black metal. Submit to them.

Grav- Omhulda ondskans kretslopp

Another Ancient Records release. Fast, complex black metal with a hauntingly-beautiful clean guitar sound.

Funeral Parlor/Nihilarch split

A beautiful looking tape. Funeral Parlor's side is his trademark melancholy synth work. Nihilarch is much the same, only with a dose of power-electronics influence.

Niko Scorpio- Book of Flies Review

Niko Scorpio is a multidisciplinary artist from Finland, who works in the mediums of sound, photography, film, and dance. He's produced a metric shitload of experimental albums but this, as far as I know, is his only live work.

I was attracted to it based on its concepts, more specifically its packaging. Originally disclosed in 2004, Book of Flies was released in a hand-made addition of 13 copies, each housed in an ancient book, repainted for the new use.

I found this to be a remarkable joint abuse/embrace of the concept of seminal books, a statement, perhaps, of disparagement for the old and the dead.

I hoped dearly that the music would be as outstanding and interesting as the themes of the release. Fortunately, this ended up being the case. Book of Flies is a beautiful dark ambient piece chock full of dynamics and beauty.

It begins with the sound of wind, timeless like the speech of the old ones, synthesizer notes buried under the fogs. Electronic bleeps and bloops to remind us that this is, indeed music being made by a person. I found this section so relaxing and stimulating that, honestly, I forgot that I was supposed to be taking notes for a review.

Soon an organic, sensual rythm, played on what is presumably two rocks, joins in. The track begins to take shape around this rythm, synth lines and pure noise morphing into this pulsating, gyrating beast. It's truly hypnotic.

The song ends as it begins, with whisps of windy noise.

This is a good album to celebrate the death of an old regime, perhaps. Who knows, it might make you want to burn some books.

it can be found here

Cloudrap/Vaporwave/Oceangrunge/etc.

Recently I've spent some time reevaluating meme-music, basically anything that is primarily disseminated and consumed through the internet. This includes recent phenomenon like cloudrap, vaporwave, witchhouse, seapunk, oceangrunge, etc.

I originally put off this music as being either atonal oddities or boring attempts at anti-capitalist lampooning, but recently I've realized that it's fully capable of standing on its  own, a kind of dayglow, millennial cousin to 80s dark ambient.

 Below are some album recommendations. They might be completely obvious, but any music you haven't heard of is new music to you, I guess.

 $uicideboy$- I No Longer Fear the Razor Guarding My Heal 

One of the few cloud-rap albums that doesn't ape Yung Lean. There's real southern menace here. If these guys weren't totally crossfaded they'd slit your fucking throat.

 Oscob/Digital Sex- Overgrowth

Overgrowth is achingly brilliant, a naturalist, sample heavy work that's composition echoes Shoji Yamashiro's work on the Akira soundtrack.

Future Girlfriend- Pink Dance EP

Reverb soaked future funk, complete with anime samples.

DEIPHIX- The Pulser

The Pulser sits closer to noise than anything else on the list. Befitting of its title, its mostly made up of washes of sampled sound treated and coaxed into heavy, sludge metal rythms. I think this is what the kids call "oceangrunge."

Xavier Wulf- Project X

A little more aggressive and poppy than anything off of this list. Punk-inflected aggro hip hop with downtempo beats.

Valerian Springs- God Isn't Dead

Gorgeous, new-age influenced synths buried under thick ocean samples. Also ocean grunge.

Yung Fern- Offering

Picture Yung Lean inspired by a health dose of  Kierkegaard.

HENTAIBOYS- I AM ALONE

Bassy, catchy cloudtrap.

Do. Not. Sleep. On. Hentaiboys.

Striborg- "This Suffocating Existence" Review

Striborg, at its core, is meditation music. Melody and dynamics are forever pushed to the side in favor of pure atmosphere, creating a wall of sound designed to put listeners in a state.

The importance in Striborg's recorded material, the newest being This Suffocating Existence, lies not in its sound at all, but the effect it has on its listeners psyche. Because of this, I refuse to talk about the sounds themselves. That would be doing the band a disservice.

Instead, I will surmise, in one sentence, the spiritual effect This Suffocating Existence had on me during its run time.

Realizing Your Bones Will Soon Be At Home Among Dirt and Wood.

Here Is What You Should Listen To This Week

Self explanatory. 

4. Ad Nauseum/Funeral Parlor/Waves Crashing Piano Chords/MPHIAT/Contraktor

A fast-paced five way split between 5 very crucial acts of the modern avant-garde. Ad Nauseum is crunching, vaguely-martial power electronics with excellent vocals. Funeral Parlor offers haunting minor-key synth riffing. WCPC is more of the same potent microphone/amplifier perversion. MPHIAT is delightfully blackened, while Contraktor takes on static wall noise. 

Ad Nauseum, Funeral Parlor, and WCPC are the highlights of this split, but MPHIAT and Contraktor both bring some excellent sound.

Cop it here.

3. Limbs Bin/Sidetracked- Split

Two of the finest acts in modern fast music sharing a tape. Not much more you can ask for.

Sidetracked's side is excellent. They experiment with a kind of song cycle, a singular drone interspersed with powerviolence minitracks. It's refreshing. 

Cop it here

2. Spectre Eyes- Spectre Eyes

Spectre Eyes play minimalist, no-wave tinged Post-Rock in the vein of Swans or late-period Talk Talk.

The production is excellent, with a surprisingly clean guitar taking center stage.

Only for rainy days.

Cop it here

1. The Giant Worm- Castings

This is a bit of an odd one out.

The Giant Worm is firmly indebted to the old school of avant-garde, the Beat Poets, The Fluxus, etc.

Castings is an album of improvisational spoken word set to improvisational music yet, somehow, it sounds cohesive and intentional.

Cop it here

From The Vault- Racetraitor "Burn The Idol Of The White Messiah"

In the 90s, hardcore kids embraced eco-terrorism, veganism, abrahamic religion, and an opposition to sex for anything other than procreation. Bands like Killtheslavemaster, Vegan Reich, and Repentance all espoused hardline positions.

Destroy Babylon was the main hardline publication, its main topics being the murder of hunters, abstinence from sex, and spirituality.

Of course, this was all hilarious and hopelessly naive, and a good example of the circular nature of ideology. Become too steeped in your beliefs and you will begin to deny the humanity of anyone who opposes you. 

A lot of these bands were pretty atrocious musically but Racetraitor, from Chicago were actually really good. Burn The Idol Of The White Messiah is their best release.

Most of it is heavy, sludgy, death metal-tinged hardcore, but there are a few left-hooks.

The whole thing is on youtube. Start here.

Monthly Mix

Made a mixtape. Check it out.