jackhammer

Oh yeah for sure and I have an album that I think you would like so swapsies!

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Zarko

Roma,Wien. – Mushroom’s Patience (2001)


GENRES – Experimental, Electronic, Avant Garde

Zeit – 6:35
Eaten Alive – 5:54
The Butterfly Bites The Hand Of The Thief – 4:27
My Alphabet – 4:30
Pontebba – 2:09
Vertigo – 7:38
Neubaugasse – 1:38
Obsession – 3:08
Traffic Lights – 4:02
Zeit Stop – 10:32
Bef – 4:06
Pontebba II – 2:27
Roma,Wien. – 7:12
Blind – 3:00
Von Unsren Augen Die Illuminierte Stadt – 1:25

This is the first experimental album I remember getting, and to this day it is still one of the few albums I have paid for from overseas after I couldn’t find it in the music stores in my city. Mushroom’s Patience is a project by an Italian trio that began in 1985, and has been part of the Italian Industrial scene for a while now. I introduced the album to most MB members via the competition, where it garnered some interest at least.

The album begins with a rain hammering the streets and bucketing down drains. Thunder crackles in the background, a prologue to the haunting piano that soon enters the track. Early on, the piano’s job is simple, with only a short burst of work, before its output becomes greater and greater. The volume of the piano slowly rises, as if it is a beast getting closer to its prey. The entire 6 minutes is just repeating these same few parts; First, the driving rain and thunder, before the piano does its short tune, and then echoes into nothingness. The piano riff doesn’t change throughout the entire piece. I love it .

‘Eaten Alive’ creates a mood that eventually feels synonymous to the titles suggestion. The heavy, brooding drumming, before the thunder and a deep sigh set the mood before some xylophones enter the track. The whole while, the deep breathing continues, as this beast produced noises of all variety. Some deep bass builds up the layers, until the whole track is vampiric, slowly driving forward but still confident it will catch his prey. It is another amazing track on the album. ‘The Butterfly Bites The Hand Of The Thief’ begins auspiciously, with the sound of a drill cutting into someone, followed by a scream. The whole track seems like a floating cream, much more upbeat that the previous tracks, but the low groaning vocals that display nothing but indifference to everything around them make the track what it is. Guitars take a slightly more important role, with the light and high picking accompanying everything. To me, the host (vocalist Simone Salvatori) is in an imaginary world, all bright but still obviously ‘fake’ and bogus.

‘My Alphabet’ changes up the pace a bit with some alternate rock base, with heavier influence by the drumming particularly. There are two voices in conflict throughout, one grunting throughout and the other remaining soft and ‘angelic’. It is quite a good contrast, and the rolling thunder is present once again in a fine little touch. ‘Pontebba’ is a small ‘reflective piece’, as some light breathing dominates the track and crackles of thunder spread across the sky just outside the window. This man is playing his piano, lonely, despondently, and without much time left in the world. The track picks up with some depth guitar and drumming, but nothing overwhelming that takes away from the main sentiment of the track. ‘Vertigo’ is a slightly jazzier tune, with an electric organ and clarinet providing the bass before drumming and some spoken word/begging vocals begin. Screams, thunder, coins dropping, and other random noises are intermittent throughout the track, and this whole process is repeated over 7 minutes.

‘Neubaugasse’ is the shortest track, but begins with that trusty drilling but it continues this theme of torture throughout, unlike ‘The Thief’ which only uses one sample. Some harsh avant garde piano continues in the background, trying to drown out the sounds as well as some slide guitar by Marcello Fraioli. At only a minute and a half, it is an interesting intermission though nothing amazing. ‘Obsession’ is packed with electronic mixing and psychedelic guitar licks and the return of the clarinet in the depths. It pretty much becomes an odd experimental alt rock song, and the final result is pretty interesting, with a lot of random percussion and vocal variety, with an almost Waits-esque feeling before sounding like they are singing to children. ‘Traffic Lights’ is another guitar strumming alt rock piece, with maniacal screaming taking place of the early vocals. Domenico Vitucci’s vocals are more animalistic than human, sporadic cackling laughter and screaming jumping into and out of the song. This becomes particularly scary and funny at the same time near the end of the track, when only the rains and his hysteria exist.

‘Zeit Stop’ is a continuation of the opening track, virtually exactly the same, but with some driving percussion (What sounds like a steel pipe hitting another) as well as aggressive ghostly vocals. They seem to be everywhere, throwing abuse at the listener before floating away, before coming back to curse their pains. At over 10 minutes it is the longest track on the album, and even if it does rehash many ideas, I still love it. ‘Bef’ has a more controlled electronic jazz beat, as a fairly standard almost light DnB drumming sound works in conjunction with the trumpet of Flavio Rivabella. Mixed into this are more lingering vocals as well as a deep guitar riff and screeching violins. This track has so much packed into a fairly structured area, and it all works. Everything simply works well, and the overall resultant tone is top notch.

‘Pontebba II’ is another continuation, of the earlier Pontebba, and it works well as a 2 minute break before the final long stretch on the album. ‘Roma,Wien.’ Is the standout track on the album. Filled to the brim with melancholic vocals and deep bassy electronics, as well as random feedback sounds, it is a track that I showed many MBers during the compilation. The vocals are distorted to the point of no longer being able to understand them, and yet at the same time they convey so many different emotions. From dishevelled to angry to insane to happy, it has it all. It is the standout vocal performance on the album, and the underlying synth and piano just top off the cake. The track flicks between electronic, rock and avant garde at random times depending on what the prominent instrumentation is. This is without a doubt one of my favourite tracks of all time, and should be experienced. And to top the topped off cake with a cherry, it has whistling… Only a supremely confident artist would do such a thing and know it will work .

‘Blind’ begins with a violin’s beauty being destroyed and eventually sounds like nails on a chalk board. The driving instrument in this track is the trumpet once again, as well as a bass. It certainly is the jazziest tune on the album, but at the same time it is all so painful, with the scratching chalkboard never quite going away. ‘Von Unsren Augen Die Illuminierte Stadt’ is the final track, with a major contribution by ‘Novy Svet’, another Italian underground experimental post-industrial band.

This album personally is the number one experimental electronic out there. Even when it feels like its lagging, it is only doing so in comparison to the gold tracks found elsewhere on the album, and even the repeated sounds don’t discourage from the overall result. What else is there to say? Get this album I guess…

TOTAL SCORE

9.5/10

– Eaten Alive
– Roma,Wien.
- Blind

Zarko

Only 2 downloads for the last comp... Little disappointing but I have enough faith in MB

jackhammer

Once I have got the May monthly comp sorted I will get it down and listened.

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Bulldog

I downloaded it. Top-drawer stuff, just like the first one you did. The Bim Sherman and Matryoshka tracks were the standouts for me.

I've really gotta hunt down these albums. Judging by the videos, this one sounds brilliant - sounded to me like a cross between Waits, early Nick Cave with a little bit of Vangelis thrown in. Top stuff, and a great review (as always).

Zarko

I swear I said 'Just ask' re: getting the links

I mean I won't upload them (my cap won't allow) but I will always help out finding links...

For example...

Zarko

The Brotherhood of the Bomb – Techno Animal (2001)


GENRES – Hip Hop, Industrial, Experimental

Cruise Mode 101 - 4:48
Glass Prism Enclosure - 4:23
Hypertension - 6:14
DC-10 - 4:33
Robosapien - 5:45
Freefall - 5:03
Monoscopic - 5:54
Piranha - 4:58
Sub Species - 4:18
We Can Build You - 4:16
Blood Money - 5:22
Hell - 5:33

Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick’s project was introduced to me via ‘Re-Entry’, an electronic-industrial double album that, whilst solid, was burdened by its enormity (Only 3 out of 12 songs are under 10 minutes, and all three of those aren’t far off, not to mention a 20 minute track). 6 years after Re-Entry, the duo produced and released ‘The Brotherhood of the Bomb’ and it has become an instant hip hop favourite of mine. Mixing an intense static noise industrial tone with hip hop beats and rappers and creating back beats that work great in conjunction with the rappers in particular. There is nothing delicate about the album, and the result is yet another top notch album.

‘Cruise Mode 101’ offers up these factors straight away, with a harsh roaring beat, driven by heavy drumming tuned with the heavy industrial sound, as well as a controlling bass line that blends things up. I was quite pleasantly surprised to hear a familiar voice, only to find out that the lyrics and vocals were performed by the Chicago group ‘Rubberoom’. Everything is so loud, you would think it’s about to collapse in itself. You would think with such intensity from the back beats, the rapping and the various sounds and squeals that something would eventually overpower everything else, but it never does. It holds a constant flow as all the factors accompany each other extremely well. It is a definite ‘body mover’ if there was anything on the album. Rubberoom are also in great form, unfortunately they aren’t to be found anywhere else on the album.

‘Glass Prism Enclosure’ changes things up, as the tempo is turned down. At the beginning it seems almost trip hop-ish, with an icy backbeat controlled by short and sharp beats. The accompanying vocals were performed by the Anti Pop Consortium and they are sort of hard to describe. It’s abstract rap that doesn’t revere speed, instead making the music great through controlled lyricism and melancholic enunciation. The track isn’t really a favourite, but it is interesting nonetheless. ‘Hypertension’ is the first purely instrumental hip hop track. They have their own specific ‘flair’, and although they are hardly as nice as the tracks with the other MCs, they hold their own in the context of the whole album. Hypertension is one of the better instrumentals, with some dark dubbing sound, and the overall mood is one of forewarning.

‘DC-10’ is another slow paced track, which sounds muffled at times, and is full of some weird and wonderful sounds. The vocals begin with a deeply distorted groaning voice, before Sonic Sum enters the track with some clean rapping before it all explodes. The noise is turned up 50 notches, as Sum struggles to overcome the destruction. I loved it the first time I heard it, and I still love it today. The process of ‘calmness’ to insanity is continued throughout and it is makes the track amazing. There is also a bit of scratching present, and there is little doubt that this is one of my favourite tracks on the album, and it certainly doesn’t feel like a 4 minute track once it’s finished.

‘Robosapien’ is the best instrumental track on the album, with a chilled ferocity that isn’t present on any other instrumentals. It isn’t the noisiest, but it doesn’t really need to be in the scheme of things. ‘Freefall’ is full of short and sharp tones fighting through a wall of low volume static noise. ‘Monoscopic’ is abound with bassy dubs that are stifled until they escape from their prison to creates a spacey overtone. All three tracks are good, and Robosapien especially is one of the better tracks on the album, but they all feel a bit boring after a while compared to the insanity of the MC’ed tracks. They would probably be more standout if they were part of a separate entity; unfortunately that is not the case. They are definitely more down tempo, and perhaps I am just in the mood for some aggressive stuff.

‘Piranha’ is yet again another bombastic track, accompanied by Toastie Taylor’s gravelly reggae articulation. In their lairiser rapping, they make the track animalistic, with little control over what comes next. The track only gets better as time goes on, as Taylor correctly describes the performance as driven by impulse. It really is a dramatic transition between the instrumental tracks and rapping tracks. It’s almost so different that it becomes a shame that one side of the album is so much better than the other, despite that one side still actually being quite good.

‘Sub Species’ is a rolling instrumental filled with noise. The conventional beats are built up of unconventional means, whether it be feedback or other assorted power electronic noises. It sort of carries on the reggae feeling, if there is any such thing as reggae industrial hip hop. It is another one of the better instrumental tracks on the album. ‘We Can Build You’ is another slower rapping track, with El-P and Vast Aire providing the solid lyricism and styling. It is an interesting track, but I feel in the scheme of things, it’s too slow… In comparison to ‘Glass Prism Enclosure’ that was at the point of an album where it felt ‘suitable’. By now, to have more tracks that carry on the instrumental tracks tempo is a shame because the actual tone of the instrumentals become overbearing when they are all bunched together. I can’t stress enough that the rapping is good though, despite the speed of the track.

‘Blood Money’ is the final instrumental that is filled with melancholic and malevolent beats. The track personally offers some imagery to a bubbling cauldron, with elements being mixed and matched for an unknown result. It is probably one of the better paced instrumental tracks, that isn’t too fast or slow, and offers up some different song constructions. The album ends of a high note with ‘Hell’ featuring Dalek. It all sounds very acoustic and disconnected til Dalek brings it together with his morose rapping and surrounded by dark backbeats. He doesn’t break tone, creating the sense of discord as the cacophonic world implodes around him.

‘The Brotherhood of the Bomb’ certainly is a change for the better for Techno Animal. It is filled with intricate and exciting beats, as well as the ‘perfect blend’ in the majority of tracks. Unfortunately, due to being lined up against the violent MC tracks, the instrumentals feel a bit lacking, especially when they have 2-3 instrumental tracks in a row. They aren’t bad, and they offer their own great moments, but they simply don’t match up to the great rap tracks. Still, it is an album worth checking out for hip hop or industrial fans.

TOTAL SCORE


– Cruise Mode 101
– DC-10
- Piranha

Not great video quality, but good enough

RE: Last week... I felt like having a break and just didn't feel like listening to anything, and I wasn't really enjoying much music wise. I musically wiped myself out you could say. But back and raring to go.

jackhammer

I definitely like the sound of this. Have you heard Broadrick's side project Ice? I'm sure you would enjoy that too.

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Bulldog

This one sounds great too (you're on form with this thread ). The only hip-hop I've got are the obvious classics and the only industrial I've got is Einsturzende Neubauten, so I'm very unfamiliar with those areas of musicks. I'll be keeping an eye peeled for this one then.

Zarko

New Dark Age – Yen Pox (2000)


GENRES – Dark Ambient

Nightrise - 9:38
Hell's Gate - 11:34
Scorched Earth - 9:34
Blood From The Heavens - 11:52
Silence And Desolation - 13:08
Sunfall - 9:22

Requested by Obombration. I would have liked to think that I listened to my fair share of dark ambient music. When Obombration requested I review this album, I didn’t know what to expect really, knowing he is into his metal. After one listen, I have decided this is my first true dark ambient album I have actually listened to .

Now, I am not being a slack arse here or anything, but I seriously do not know what the hell to write for this album. It is everything you would expect from a dark ambient album. Full of electronic drones that don’t necessarily lead to a high point as one would expect with a post rock sort of affair; instead there is a never ending melancholic tone. It comes from the earth itself, as if a beast of unimaginable evil resides beneath the crust. It is to the point where I feel I am ripping off Obombration, so rather than attempt a full review, I will use these recommendations to highlight some small aspects of the album and avoid giving it a full review.

I can easily understand its appeal to a certain audience however. It contains a haunting nature, as one would expect from the genre, however it has done it a lot better than from other dark ambient groups I have listened to since finding this album.

I think the real problem is, this would be a perfect album in the right situation. Unfortunately I am very rarely in that situation. It would be good sleeping music, however I cannot sleep with music on in the background, and it simply gets my brain working too much unless I am absolutely pissed or tired as hell. It’s not the type of album I wanted to turn off because it isn’t boring by any stretch of the imagination, but in the same vein I felt it wouldn’t get really special on a personal level.

It is worth a check out for fans of the genre. Unless you think this sort of music will be appealing to you, then I wouldn’t recommend it as it truly is an acquired taste. In the end it isn’t the type of album that you can characterise in words. It is an experience, where you have no idea where the album would lead you, and is unique to every person who tries.

Some may find the imagery disturbing in this youtube video…
– Hell’s Gate (Extract)

Apologies to Obombration for the lacklustre comments, I shouldn’t have promised more .