Forum Member Album Reviews

[Mondo Bungle]

everything by whatever the **** this is https://thenumber7.bandcamp.com/

1nd: I'm not gonna act like I'm particularly crazy about this one all that much, but I do think it has a proto-sound to something possibly awesome. Because it reminds me a little of a bunch of medieval sounding lo-fi dungeon synth ambient stuff I like, but just unrealized. Like, I could definitely see epic soundscapes coming out of these rudimentary drones with some more substance. This here is really simple but still holds true to whatever I just said. 5/10

The Son of 7: This is kinda catchy and kinda whacky, I enjoy the weird synth sounds and noises that I imagine came from Ki. The drums aren't amazing but aren't a focal point but do what they do to keep a rhythm going. The first track is still simple but not too bad. The second is a simple acoustic guitar track played over a low drone, and I think this could sound even more cool than I've been saying with some more substance, because I like the minimal melody but still think more could be built on it. A new electro-guitar comes in towards the end with a new melody to change it up for a few seconds before ending. Something might be building here with this project. 5/10

Static: I'm coming to find a lot of these drones sound fairly similar. The first track here is very quiet and very low, could probably stand to be louder. It's two different notes from what I can gather through to the end. The second already starts fuller than the first with richer and brighter chords that climb up and back down in it's short duration. Reminiscent of the first release, which I find cool. The last one starts with a nice lo-fi synth melody and repeats the riff in different pitches, high to low, a few times before a new, dronier melody finishes the track. I actually like that one a good amount and enjoy that the sounds are continuing to progress release to release, track to track. It's a nice one, genuinely. 6/10

123456789: So it would seem that the tones on this one are getting fuller and louder. First track is a simple little intro, not much going on there. The second has some weird drone chords to it and a kind of (almost) percussive looped churning beneath it to give it more variation than I've been hearing mostly. The third is some twinkly and bright synth chords that sound pretty nice actually and change over fluidly enough. The fourth is like the last but it's climbing down now, and is this a lightsaber that closes it off? So track five introduces percussion for the first time (aside from the second release but that was from the other track right?) It's some short drum/cymbal hits repeated through to the end. The last one here brings ins some raw and harsh, louder noise, which judging from the title is distorted vocals? Not my favorite kind of sound within the noise world but good to keep the whole project growing. 6/10

Besvær Salat w/ #####: *5 points are automatically awarded to this for using a sick ass album as the base* The sounds added to my already superb drone freezewave album seem to consist of the twinkly synths we've heard from some past material, and it works very well, at least much to my liking. Some points might be harder for me to catch the additions, like during the second track as it is all awash in the wall of noise I created, but I still make out some lower drones among all of it. I actually like this version of the third track better than my own, which was cool, but the synths here add a lot more to it to give a fuller, thicker feel. My little white noise bursts even sound cooler (I was iffy with them on the original), but with the fuller sound they find more meaning. Track four is another where it's slightly difficult to make out the nuances that have been added, it's another thicker and noisier one. As with the other, I think it's these low synth drones adding more dynamic to it though, where I thought the original was too minimal or repetitive, the subtly synths underneath it make it bigger. I'm barely familiar with the last track's original myself, it was a demo where I was trying to do more synthpunk stuff with drums and whatever, I hadn't really listened to it after the release. If I'm not mistaken there's added cymbals here though? Otherwise I dunno what to say, still cool. 7.5/10

#####: Right off the bat it sounds like this one is trying to experiment further with some new things. It's pretty quiet, at least on the first track, but there's a familiar sounding synth melody coupled with some new additions of a guitar sample (I think) and some kinda percussion to create a rhythm. It adds more to the same kind of things we've been hearing. The second track here got louder, some straight up noise in the bitch. And I like this one, not mind blowing by any means as it is this same wall of sound throughout, but it's a cool approach with rapidly pulsating and shrill frequencies. It reminds me of something I might have done back in the We Are Animals era of Salad. The third track went by very quick as I was typing that. It was a minimal ambient piece, but there was some more sounds we haven't heard with that higher drone, more pulsating. Quiet again. Track four is a simple synth drone/ambient one, no variation for the duration but still a nice comfy little tone, still quiet. The last one, which is a remix I imagine, is some more harsher noise. There's cool synth drones audible over a distorted and glitched out vocal track, and a decent drum beat comes in soon enough, which managed to give it some kind of rhythm even though not much changed in the noise. There's actually some kind of rhythmic noise thing amidst it all, but it sounds different after the drums end. So I think they actually made this one a lot more awesome than it'd be without them. 7/10

V01C3: I imagine this first track is an interview sped up and reverbed out. It's a cool intro track I think, though. Nice and squeaky. The next one is short and simple, but it leads to me to believe the rest is gonna be a harsher and louder delivery of distorted voice overkill. The next one wasn't exactly what I imagined going further, more of a quieter loop of some weird, low breathing, or whatever. Not much dynamic. The next one is short once again, and that is actually unfortunate because I loved it for the time being, and would really have liked to hear some more spazzy noise like that. The last is like the second, but ends with another awesome yet criminally short micro noise burst. The two tracks that made up the bulk of this release were simple and repetitive little noise clips, not too special in my eyes. At the same time, the short ones (two tracks totaling less than forty seconds) sounded killer, and I think it'd be awesome if they swapped places with the other longer ones even if it was just the same twenty second loop repeated a few times. Because that's more of what I like in noise music, spasms, dynamic and outrageous blasts of odd tones, but still subdued like they seemed to be. I liked this okay enough but didn't see enough variation where I wanted to see it to give it a higher rating, so with love here's a 6/10

2rd: So this is a remake of the first release. So my review would probably be pretty similar in all the points I made there. But I will say this one is better. I dunno how the first track changed, but the second is jacked up with some more distortion on the synths for noisier madness, yet it still retains the proto-epic melodies that I loved. That actually seems to be the difference here for the rest. It's louder and thicker, a tad bit noisier, but still captures the same fell and atmosphere that I did enjoy from the first. 7.5/10

Willy Wonka and the Noisy Factory: So here's the latest, let's see where we've come. Already can tell this is more experimental, a little bit more trippy, with the glitched out clips from the movie... (Gene Wilder rules forever) .... It's actually very weirdly atmospheric, and slightly unsettling. The next track goes more for noise assault. I like how you can still make out stuff from the movie, and this **** just got mad awesome after a minute and a half. This is a cool idea here, for the whole release. More harsh assault with the next track and this is also badass. The distortion and vocal clips totally complete the harsh noise aesthetic. I must say, the last track is a totally amazing remix of a song I already love. This has the noise assaults from before but they're more subdued here, more dynamic with the textures and also more throwback to the first track with the occasional psychedelicness. This one is seriously awesome though, there's some tones and textures that shine through almost from out of nowhere, and the melodies and atmosphere are still audible and present from the original track. So, the very last track released from this project is hands down the best yet. This release too. Going with an 8/10

[Key]

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

everything by whatever the **** this is https://thenumber7.bandcamp.com/

1nd: I'm not gonna act like I'm particularly crazy about this one all that much, but I do think it has a proto-sound to something possibly awesome. Because it reminds me a little of a bunch of medieval sounding lo-fi dungeon synth ambient stuff I like, but just unrealized. Like, I could definitely see epic soundscapes coming out of these rudimentary drones with some more substance. This here is really simple but still holds true to whatever I just said. 5/10

The Son of 7: This is kinda catchy and kinda whacky, I enjoy the weird synth sounds and noises that I imagine came from Ki. The drums aren't amazing but aren't a focal point but do what they do to keep a rhythm going. The first track is still simple but not too bad. The second is a simple acoustic guitar track played over a low drone, and I think this could sound even more cool than I've been saying with some more substance, because I like the minimal melody but still think more could be built on it. A new electro-guitar comes in towards the end with a new melody to change it up for a few seconds before ending. Something might be building here with this project. 5/10

Static: I'm coming to find a lot of these drones sound fairly similar. The first track here is very quiet and very low, could probably stand to be louder. It's two different notes from what I can gather through to the end. The second already starts fuller than the first with richer and brighter chords that climb up and back down in it's short duration. Reminiscent of the first release, which I find cool. The last one starts with a nice lo-fi synth melody and repeats the riff in different pitches, high to low, a few times before a new, dronier melody finishes the track. I actually like that one a good amount and enjoy that the sounds are continuing to progress release to release, track to track. It's a nice one, genuinely. 6/10

123456789: So it would seem that the tones on this one are getting fuller and louder. First track is a simple little intro, not much going on there. The second has some weird drone chords to it and a kind of (almost) percussive looped churning beneath it to give it more variation than I've been hearing mostly. The third is some twinkly and bright synth chords that sound pretty nice actually and change over fluidly enough. The fourth is like the last but it's climbing down now, and is this a lightsaber that closes it off? So track five introduces percussion for the first time (aside from the second release but that was from the other track right?) It's some short drum/cymbal hits repeated through to the end. The last one here brings ins some raw and harsh, louder noise, which judging from the title is distorted vocals? Not my favorite kind of sound within the noise world but good to keep the whole project growing. 6/10

Besvær Salat w/ #####: *5 points are automatically awarded to this for using a sick ass album as the base* The sounds added to my already superb drone freezewave album seem to consist of the twinkly synths we've heard from some past material, and it works very well, at least much to my liking. Some points might be harder for me to catch the additions, like during the second track as it is all awash in the wall of noise I created, but I still make out some lower drones among all of it. I actually like this version of the third track better than my own, which was cool, but the synths here add a lot more to it to give a fuller, thicker feel. My little white noise bursts even sound cooler (I was iffy with them on the original), but with the fuller sound they find more meaning. Track four is another where it's slightly difficult to make out the nuances that have been added, it's another thicker and noisier one. As with the other, I think it's these low synth drones adding more dynamic to it though, where I thought the original was too minimal or repetitive, the subtly synths underneath it make it bigger. I'm barely familiar with the last track's original myself, it was a demo where I was trying to do more synthpunk stuff with drums and whatever, I hadn't really listened to it after the release. If I'm not mistaken there's added cymbals here though? Otherwise I dunno what to say, still cool. 7.5/10

#####: Right off the bat it sounds like this one is trying to experiment further with some new things. It's pretty quiet, at least on the first track, but there's a familiar sounding synth melody coupled with some new additions of a guitar sample (I think) and some kinda percussion to create a rhythm. It adds more to the same kind of things we've been hearing. The second track here got louder, some straight up noise in the bitch. And I like this one, not mind blowing by any means as it is this same wall of sound throughout, but it's a cool approach with rapidly pulsating and shrill frequencies. It reminds me of something I might have done back in the We Are Animals era of Salad. The third track went by very quick as I was typing that. It was a minimal ambient piece, but there was some more sounds we haven't heard with that higher drone, more pulsating. Quiet again. Track four is a simple synth drone/ambient one, no variation for the duration but still a nice comfy little tone, still quiet. The last one, which is a remix I imagine, is some more harsher noise. There's cool synth drones audible over a distorted and glitched out vocal track, and a decent drum beat comes in soon enough, which managed to give it some kind of rhythm even though not much changed in the noise. There's actually some kind of rhythmic noise thing amidst it all, but it sounds different after the drums end. So I think they actually made this one a lot more awesome than it'd be without them. 7/10

V01C3: I imagine this first track is an interview sped up and reverbed out. It's a cool intro track I think, though. Nice and squeaky. The next one is short and simple, but it leads to me to believe the rest is gonna be a harsher and louder delivery of distorted voice overkill. The next one wasn't exactly what I imagined going further, more of a quieter loop of some weird, low breathing, or whatever. Not much dynamic. The next one is short once again, and that is actually unfortunate because I loved it for the time being, and would really have liked to hear some more spazzy noise like that. The last is like the second, but ends with another awesome yet criminally short micro noise burst. The two tracks that made up the bulk of this release were simple and repetitive little noise clips, not too special in my eyes. At the same time, the short ones (two tracks totaling less than forty seconds) sounded killer, and I think it'd be awesome if they swapped places with the other longer ones even if it was just the same twenty second loop repeated a few times. Because that's more of what I like in noise music, spasms, dynamic and outrageous blasts of odd tones, but still subdued like they seemed to be. I liked this okay enough but didn't see enough variation where I wanted to see it to give it a higher rating, so with love here's a 6/10

2rd: So this is a remake of the first release. So my review would probably be pretty similar in all the points I made there. But I will say this one is better. I dunno how the first track changed, but the second is jacked up with some more distortion on the synths for noisier madness, yet it still retains the proto-epic melodies that I loved. That actually seems to be the difference here for the rest. It's louder and thicker, a tad bit noisier, but still captures the same fell and atmosphere that I did enjoy from the first. 7.5/10

Willy Wonka and the Noisy Factory: So here's the latest, let's see where we've come. Already can tell this is more experimental, a little bit more trippy, with the glitched out clips from the movie... (Gene Wilder rules forever) .... It's actually very weirdly atmospheric, and slightly unsettling. The next track goes more for noise assault. I like how you can still make out stuff from the movie, and this **** just got mad awesome after a minute and a half. This is a cool idea here, for the whole release. More harsh assault with the next track and this is also badass. The distortion and vocal clips totally complete the harsh noise aesthetic. I must say, the last track is a totally amazing remix of a song I already love. This has the noise assaults from before but they're more subdued here, more dynamic with the textures and also more throwback to the first track with the occasional psychedelicness. This one is seriously awesome though, there's some tones and textures that shine through almost from out of nowhere, and the melodies and atmosphere are still audible and present from the original track. So, the very last track released from this project is hands down the best yet. This release too. Going with an 8/10

Mondo, sincerely, thank you so much! All of your thoughts on this are ones i'll take into consideration when I continue with my work, but I'm glad nothing really got a 2/10 rating or whatever, so I must be doing something right.

I'm very happy you like the redone album of yours as I think I did a pretty good job, and the Willy Wonka is possibly my all time favorite thing I've made to date, so I'm glad that one was your favorite as well.

Again, thanks again for your in depth reviews, means a lot coming from you. Sincerely.

[Tristan_Geoff]

Someone review track 4 (or the rest of SNZZZFST if you want).

[Mondo Bungle]

It's super loud and spazzy, fairly textural and harsh noise that sounds like it came from some guitar noodling 7.5/10

[Tristan_Geoff]

Originally Posted by Mondo Bungle

It's super loud and spazzy, fairly textural and harsh noise that sounds like it came from some guitar noodling 7.5/10

[Blank.]

Anyone want to review more edgy than you?

Son Of Abbot - More Edgy Than You

[Mondo Bungle]

https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/album/reverb-earth
https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/album/rejsekammerat
https://mathscience.bandcamp.com/album/meefer-radness
https://znmusic.bandcamp.com/album/altar-of-z-n

[Key]

Eorðe

[Frownland]

Wolves In Sheepskin

Indecent Vibrations
self-released; 2013

3.6 out of 5

By Ted Rogen
Stryder Rymer and Christophe Bassett started a project called Wolves in Sheepskin, which is an improvisational collective out of San Marcos, CA that recently released a four-song EP entitled Indecent Vibrations. The songs on this EP are not for the faint of heart. They are experimental, often harsh instrumental compositions that are gritty lo-fi explorations of sound. The sounds may be comparable to being on an alien planet talking a walking tour through the industrial district. Abrasive, often jarring sounds leap at you as if you are going through the cogs on the machine as the disorderly harmonic distortion create waves of white noise.

Indecent Vibrations begins with “Robot Intestines” which contains a steady kick drum that coincides with the sound of steam being blasted through a pipe. You can imagine the proletarian alien workers hitting steel with their archaic hammers. As the song progresses it becomes more chaotic as if the circuits have gone haywire and no one is really in any control of this machine. A meltdown seems imminent.

The 17-minute “Flashback” has a little bit more space than its predecessor in which you are able to differentiate the distinct noises. This song lacks any kind of percussion that keeps it moving forward. Instead there is an onslaught of reverbations, feedback and distortion to keep you interested. “Aneurysm” is the ‘’I have done too much acid and it is turning bad” type of song that produces the most claustrophobic inducing sounds I may have ever heard. For those with anxiety attacks this track is ill advised. Listeners be warned and proceed with caution. The album closes with “Echoes Of A Distant Memory” which is a trudging concoction of dissonance and noise. Well what were you expecting?

There is a niche audience for this music. This is the opposite of pop music and it is at the threshold of what you might consider music. Will you enjoy it? There is no better way to find out by taking a listen for yourself.
https://wolvesinsheepskin.bandcamp.c...ent-vibrations

[YorkeDaddy]

i've always wondered what mondo would think of cloudcover

https://cloudcover1.bandcamp.com/

i'll swap if u down