Mondo Bungle

This album was one of the ones from Zorn that I'd read and heard a lot about before I started to explore his discography. It features a few guest musicians, most notably Mike Patton on vocals. This was another reason I'd seen a lot about it, as I was already a huge Patton fan and checking out stuff he'd been involved with. Trey Spruance is in there too.

This album has a diverse range of sounds and influences, from chamber music to ambient, sound-collage to avant-garde (you know, whatever that means in a general sense). It has an overall chamber/orchestral sound to it, created by a wide array of instruments such as flutes, viola, guitar, percussion, to name a few, and the use of turntables and samples.

It is a tribute to French activist Jean Genet. The album is a short one, under 30 minutes, consisting of four file-card compositions, all named after a color (Blue, Yellow, Pink, Black). The first two tracks are very downtempo throughout, featuring incredibly sparse instrumentation and even sparser vocals. "Pink" starts out a bit more raucous but soon retreats to the more lax chamber sounds of the first two, albeit not for long. It breaks into a sample heavy piece after about four minutes in, with crashing waves, and ethnic vocals. Patton maintains his "creepy breathing" vocals as well, soon to be accompanied again by the rest of the band. Six minutes in dynamics start to get a little crazy, with thumping percussive moments alongside squealing sound effects, shifting from this back to the chamber music multiple times. It goes on like this for the rest of the track. The closer, "Black", is my favorite here. A very unsettling atmospheric track featuring some throat singing by Patton (I assume) and other dramatic vocal movements. The atmosphere for this one grows very dark with rattling chains, scraping, choral samples, distorted guitar, and an overall feeling of anxiety. A great way to close the album, in contrast with the "easier" chamber music from the first three tracks.

This is generally a quiet album, that seems to rely on the sparseness. Not one of the more accessible ones from Zorn's catalogue, but also one that's not at all too hard to digest.

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Mondo Bungle

You know, I have no idea what it's like to be in real need. Sure my family's income is below the poverty line, but the same goes for dozens of millions of other US citizens who aren't making ****. Sure, I'll go a day or two without eating, but growing children are going weeks. Sure, I have to sleep on the street sometimes, but I don't live there.

That being said, I'm sitting here at a laundromat waiting to hear from my parents, completely unsure of whether or not we'd be getting another hotel room today. The last one would be *recollects last two years* the twenty-first different weekly we've stayed in since moving here. My parents wanted to move for better work opportunities and better general living. All that's changed is that we haven't seen anything we've had locked up in storage at all, we're making less money, and I don't sleep on a bed anymore. It's the same aside from that, their attitudes haven't been good for like six years. They complained every second then, they complain every second now. I've woken up every night for a couple days shouting terrible things at my dad because of a dream I'm having where I'm doing the same. I've had near uncontrollable urges to kill them both in their sleep, sometimes the only thing that's stopped was lack of a weapon. But then I feel so bad for them, like when my dad goes and does something pleasant and completely selfless, or when I get an email from my mom while I'm away saying "It would be better if you stayed a little longer. Don't know where we are going to be staying tonight. Sorry it has to be like this."

What's a boy to do?

To relate the first paragraph saying it's not so bad and the second filled with bitching: The whole point is, I just don't even care anymore. I've grown completely numb to anything at all since moving here. Sure, sometimes I visit friends and have a good time but they don't know I'm dead inside, why would I bother them with that nonsense? And yeah, there are days worse than others, but who the **** cares. I'm cursed with this crippling indifference. Not upset and not happy. There's nothing I can do about anything so why dwell on it?

tl;dr: I'm too punk for feelings anymore.

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Mondo Bungle

Here's some random things I've wrote down in my physical journal

"I am surrounded by dirt and large crawling organisms and trees and leaves. Clouds are my favorite natural occurrence. If I were a cloud, would a cloud be me? Above everything else (quite literally), the cloud is sublime. The cloud is carefree. I bet that the cloud is happy. The cloud is moisture attached to dust. I am a skin bag filled with moisture. the brain controls me. The cloud has no brain, it is not controlled. The cloud looks so soft. but the cloud's life is short. We see new ones everyday. All different yet all the same. A cloud could not be me and I could not be a cloud. I'm lost in these woods again, but not like the first time I was here. Leave me here, let the bird chirps and branch cracks fade. This is where I find myself at ease. However, I am a weakling."

"Why do the woodland creatures run away from the humans? The birds and rabbits coexist, and I am a giant. But I am no predator, I'd tell you that if I could. But I don't think you would believe me. I am just like you, scared, confused, frantic. Our bodies are not without fur. I am no predator, we are all prey."

"Life is a long, drawn out improv, not a three chord pop song. there is nothing more surreal to me than the day to day life we lead. Call it boring or mundane, but it is an infinity of spontaneity. Each second is different, each minute breeds new possibilities, each day is a miracle. Is it wonderful or terrible? I dunno, I'm all negative. That's the way I see it though, and I'm still sad."

"I've got a bird's eye view of the ground but I'm still not high enough."


I do really love clouds

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Plankton

Very profound, those words.

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Mondo Bungle

Gonna start of my Winter special with these cold mongers, one of the grandaddys. I will be talking about at least one black metal band per day, spotlight some of their albums, mix in some old school minimal wave.



Immortal - At the Heart of Winter

If there’s anyone who knows cold, it’s Immortal. Music sometimes has a feel of “coldness”. It’s raw, it’s atmospheric, it’s minimal. I don’t know if Immortal fit the bill for having the sound or more just the imagery and lyrics about ice, some kind of musical placebo effect. By the time this came out, they weren’t all that raw or all that minimal. This album is a showcase of talent, with more complex structures, riffs for days, and an ever changing tempo. From here on they’d act as a kind of technical/thrashy black metal band. “Withstand the Fall of Time” is the opener, and boy howdy does it set the tone. No dilly dallying here, right into the blastation. Immortal does the mid paced stuff really well, we see it slow down from their first albums, which I would actually considering a better example of cold music.

Anyway, the mid paced jams are incredible. Extremely catchy and always rather epic sounding. The guitar is the undisputed champion of the music. Immortal are a black metal band that pretty much always drop one of the best riffs you’ve heard. “Solarfall” starts of with the trudging. A really nice instrumental intro. It dips into a more atmospheric break and right back into this super riffing. Like I said, always dropping these badass riffs, and the one after the break is definitely no exception. Some clean guitar to aid the chug riff that comes up next. There is a heavy amount of “riding into battle” riffs, if you know what mean I use the term to describe these epic and galloping moments of genius.

“Tragedy Blows At the Horizon” is the the longest song, coming next. Once again right into the heavy groove riffs. I’ve never thought about Abbath as an awesome black metal vocalist, with his froggy croaks in the early days. With this album it’s a bit more harsh and extreme. Fun fact: Immortal started out playing straight death/thrash metal.



“Tragedy” brings the fast blasting back. Some more clean guitar in here too. It’s seriously one of my favorite things in music, double kick and midpaced drum beat.

Really though, the thrash influence so prevalent. Think about bands like Artillery and Coroner, for example. It’s a fairly progressive album in terms of the plethora of hard riffs and tempo changes. Clean breaks directly into a massive shift to brutality, and vice versa.

This album pretty much never lets up, we have no shortage of excellence. It’s a good album to recommend people getting into black metal. It’s definitely accessible and I’m sure they couldn’t resist these riffs, usually featuring tremolos and heavy and chords all day. and Also a very clean production sound to show off this mastery of sound.

One of my favorite moments comes from “Where Dark and Light Don’t Differ”, an amazing breakdown around three minutes, nine seconds. With this new style shift we don’t see Immortal dealing too much with speed, but when they do, it’s some of the best out there. The title track starts clean and slams right into a mega heavy riff, easily one of the heaviest songs on the album. Two years prior Demonaz got severe tendonitis (from playing so brutally fast, how about that”. My favorite Immortal album, a definite standout in their discography if not just for these riffs. Like I said, I’d recommend this to black metal newcomers. The thrash, the leads, the clean breaks, have it being a great introduction.



Immortal - Battles in the North

Skipping Blizzard Beasts to talk about this. One of the early albums, but not quite as complex as the first. Now this album is all about speeds and rawness. No clean guitar, or atmospheric stuff. They still do the midpaced stuff, and it really works well with the blasting. A less heavy drum sound than At the Heart… but the kicks have a much louder sound and go for the fast beats all around. It’s a no nonsense album, fairly simple but a relentless attack on the senses. This was the album to introduce the theme of Blashryrkh, a winter land of demons and battles. They continue on with it from here on out.

It’s an album for the chaos, the merciless and frantic. The riffs are more in the way of traditional black metal riffs, as opposed to the epic riffs of At the Heart. A ravaging from beginning to end, nonstop. It’s not regarded as a discography standout, sounding like the awesomer Pure Holocaust. Short and super effective, razor sharp to the core. I’d recommend stopping here after you’re more acquainted the raw assaults of old school black metal.

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Mondo Bungle

Vinterriket

Vinterriket (literally, the winter realm) is a man of many albums. An extensive discography of mostly ambient, in fact. The metal stuff focused on an unorthodox style of black metal, interlaced with programmed drums and neofolk influences.

Having as many albums has he does, there’s bound to be some clunkers. After giving up on black metal he switched to a strictly ambient/neofolk sound. Some is great, some is definitely boring. Programmed drums and synths are used heavily in these albums, to create a “shinier” ambient.


Der letzte Winter - Der Ewigkeit entgegen

Here’s one of the more metal oriented albums, with just three ambient tracks. His trademark ambient soundscapes set the tone for that shiny black metal. The guitars are raw but the synths swirl together with the riffs. His vocals on this ambient are reminiscent of Varg on Filosofem. Drowned heavily in feedback. They are pushed underneath the music. Combining the rawness with the synths is a really great sound. These synth sounds are often epic and folky sounding. Still have a neofolk influence in here, with many string instrument sounds, and bells and woodwind sounds and whatnot. Even some electronica infusion.

It’s something different in the world of ambient and black metal. Opposed to Immortal, he utilizes repetition and simplicity in the riffs and the atmosphere is just great. The programmed drums work well enough, but not enough soul as a drum kit. All the qualifications are here, raw, atmospheric, and cold. Once again and artist who has dedicated his project entirely to the Winter. Synth melodies are everywhere, but there’s some especially great and epic sounding. Check this out for an example, great atmosphere and plenty of beautiful synth lines in here.




Horizontmelancholie

As mentioned earlier, the ambient albums are pretty hit or miss. Here is one of the better ones. black metal is gone, and we hear some clean and deep vocals a la neofolk. These albums have a pretty dark feel, amplified by the album covers in grayscale or black and white, samples of swirling winds. It’s quite immersive, you get sucked in. Oddly enough, I feel these ambient albums catch a more epic atmosphere than the black metal ones. Synths are showcased, it’s like a forest, man. Quiet and cold for those nights of snowcapped trees and building fires.




Let’s give it up for Gaahl, well besides wanting to torture a gay man to death and drink his blood. This guy lives on the top of a cold Norwegian mountain in a lone cabin built by his grandparents, tell me that’s not cold. A pretty black metal guy too:

“Gaahl is a practitioner of Norse Shamanism and can often be seen wearing a Mjölnir pendant. Gaahl has stated that his intention with Wardruna is to bring Baldr out of Hel so he can die an honorable death and return to Valhalla.”

He’s one of them prejudice dudes though. He came into Gorgoroth a bit into their career, it wasn’t the best era. Gorgoroth’s first two are classics of the genre and really great in the relentless department.

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Mondo Bungle

Winter is my favorite time of year. A traditional winter scene, snow all around, covered trees, and wintery looking houses with smoke billowing out of the chimney, one of the most pleasurable images to my eyes.



It’s a thing of mystery and wonder, and a strange yet warm and familiar comfort. It’s a thing of silence and isolation. It’s a thing of atmosphere.


https://troublesalad.bandcamp.com/album/rejsekammerat

This is my own album dedicated to it. The title translates to “travel companion”. I used that isolation to create something beautiful. The songs just beckon to the Winter. I’ve put together some of my best compositions and development here. Even some electronic melodies. The closer is the highlight in my opinion. Using reworked arrangements from collaborations between Bill Laswell, Pete Namlook, and Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) to layer the others in a song with an atmosphere like no other. Tibetan field recordings from Jenssen are showcased as well. I have also featured a sinister, dark, and raw cover of the theme to the Snowhead Temple in Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.

I had something in mind when I released Besvaer Salat, and cold and synthy piece of atmosphere and drone. While listening to minimal wave albums of the 80’s and noisier stuff from the modern day, I wanted to smash it all together. Less of a melodious jaunt than this, but still influential in terms of the 80’s synth sounds and minimalism. A great example of this style of music.



Croatian Amor have a very special sound. Can you think of something cold and warm all at once? A modern artist that still utilizes old school synths and drops them into a bath of lo-fi noise. This is the kind of thing I’d recommend to noise beginners.





I find it wonderful how an artist can conjure different textures of cold. This is Alrakis, whereas you might have a winter forest feel with things like Vinterriket and Evilfeast, Alrakis has that lost in space, isolated coldness, and I’m sure space is pretty cold. When it comes to creating a lonely and cold atmosphere, he does a stellar job. Once again this is an artist burying the distorted vocals under the raw and harsh riffs. I always like to think of vocals in this vein of metal as another instrument, in combination with the music for extra atmosphere. Raw and melancholic are the guitars, riffs of sorrow and dejection. The drums are quiet but also vital to the atmosphere. It is generally slow or mid paced, unlike what you’d expect to find in black metal. It works well for this atmosphere. I think the synths on here shine with amazing melodies, the sound is way more crucial for creating the feel of this project than Vinterriket. Lo-fi riffs meld chords together creating a void of noise beneath these synths. It just all works out so well. Another incredibly immersive listen. This will draw you inside the music, it will engulf you.

With space in mind, I have to mention this. Now I’m not sure if it’s really, I’ve seen people say otherwise, but what a concept.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMB_cold_spot

A region in space even colder than the rest. Ain’t that awesome?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_(astronomy)

So, voids are a thing, a weird thing. Vast stretches of empty space containing little to no activity such as galaxies and stars. Space is nothing yeah? So, less than nothing in a void? I dunno, but it’s still just a radical concept.


Astral Silence

Astral Silence take it a bit further. Other acts feature heavy use of synths as a droning backdrop to the music, but this one takes the synths to create spacey and psychedelic textures as well. It’s a unique atmosphere, similar to Alrakis, but still in a league of it’s own.

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Mondo Bungle

Slam the door on warmth and enjoy the frost. An ice land, Eismitte in Greenland, with a record low of -64.9 degrees C.



Oymyakon, Russia, where the ground is permanently frozen. Record low of -71.2 degrees C.



The coldest place out there, Vostok, Antarctica. It’s a lovely place. An arctic research station where has dropped to -89.2 degrees C. The coldest time of year here is August.


Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss

This is the landmark. Varg, the king of black metal, has put together the blueprint for what was to come in the black metal word. Just four tracks featuring repetition and cold atmospheres. He starts dabbling with synths to layer atop the metal, and captures that perfect, cold atmosphere. Each track is amazing, from the drawn out massive opener, the minimalistic snow drenched title track, to the magnificently epic “Inn i slottet fra droemmen”. In my opinion however, “Tomhet” (literally, emptiness) is my choice for top track. One hundred percent ambient perfection. With an old school synth set up, a raw and bleak feeling is conjured up here. It is super minimalistic, but I can’t help but listen to it entirely all the time. Broken up into two sections, the first half a moonlit walk through the forest, and the second a comforting almost nostalgic melody.



Fan made video that I really love. This is an awe-inspiring scene.


Burzum - Hliðskjálf

After being sent to prison, Varg would set out into the world of pure ambient. The previous album, Daudi Baldrs, gets a good amount of hate for the production coming from a cheap prison synth. I still love it though, it's a medieval and evil in a ridiculous way sounding album. But this album is so much fuller, more complex, and you know, colder. Highlighting more folk elements and deeper compositions. The atmospheres evoked are truly something else, and imagery from the listener is surely amazing. I see dark forests, yeti like beasts, abandoned cabins of log, and a mysterious land of woods and permafrost. The production still leaves a tad bit to be desired, but works well enough.

A man, alone, finds himself deep within frozen trees. He rests as his journey is long.



The best track here. So oddly calming, powerful and daunting.

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Mondo Bungle

Arctic ambient is a minimal and obviously chilling style of music. It’s basically what thirty below sounds like. More isolated than most other things. The wall of ambient sound will sometimes resemble harsh arctic winds and the like. It’s generally full of nuances and different textures, it may as well be snow in audio form. This kind of minimalist stuff is more engulfing and calming than other types of ambient in my eyes. Easier to get lost.

Thomas Koner here is top of the game. Welcome to the north pole.




SleepResearch Facility - Deep Frieze

Now here’s a stunner, possibly the best I’ve heard from the genre.



Described as "Ultra deep, glacial Dark Ambient, based around Antarctic co-ordinates", what else do you need to hear? An entity of sound. Then again, I am no album review expert, and while I love this music, I lack much of the proper musical and sound knowledge to go too far in depth with the ambient reviews… Still...

...there is a certain comforting warmth in the encroaching slumber of hypothermia


Battle Dagorath

This is a cut above the rest in my eyes. Incredibly solid atmospheric black metal. They utilize minimalism and repetition to the fullest, creating long icy jams. This album here is my favorite, and one of my black metal favorites altogether. In the vein of Paysage d’Hiver and things like that, a perfect mix of freezing ambience and raw walls of sound. Now these guys have surely dedicated everything to cold. Look at all their covers. Read the song titles. Snowy mountains and trees, souls and darkness and all that. Among the most monolithic and massive of the style. I was already hooked though, before even hearing the music, just seeing that awesome name.

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Mondo Bungle

Some Classic But Forgotten New Wave Gems

So, maybe not all strictly new wave in the vein of Devo or whatever, but it’s just a blanket term. These are some gems from the 80’s that all seem to have flown under the radar. Heavy on the synth in here, and usually a coldness to it to tie into the theme. “Coldwave”, even. It’s a thing, you could recognize the sound. Minimal synthpop based around a darkness and chill, like the black metal featured here.


Solid Space - Space Museum (1982)

Starting off with my absolute favorite, another all time favorite as well. Although still highly obscure, Solid Space were one of the most revered in the scene. Alright, I dunno if that’s true, but I imagine it very well could be. This is their only album, a sci-fi inspired oddball amalgamation of post-punk, synthwave/electronica, and folk rock. It’s so short at barely over thirty minutes, but just so effective and sweet. This is actually less minimal than most minimal wave I think, with more layered compositions and a richer, more complex setup. Bizarre acoustic guitar acoustic guitar melodies and samples pertaining to science fiction and space. A certain mystery to it, a masterpiece, highly recommended.


Oppenheimer Analysis - New Mexico (1982)

Another one I’d imagine being bigger than the others. This is more straightforward synthpop than Solid Space, with very catchy, dancey pop melodies and the like. Still fuller than some minimal wave. Another masterpiece.


[b]Ceramic Hello - The Absence of A Canary (1980)

Getting a little more esoteric now, colder, deeper. This is a minimal synthpop album with experimental elements. Full synthpop songs with a nostalgic and raw (if you will) mood, sprinkled throughout with whacky instrumental interludes ranging from atmospheric to downright odd. The full tracks get fairly odd too, with erratic and unconventional synth lines and reverb/delay riddled vocals. The third track, “Climactic Nouveaux”, is an iconic song for the style, at least I think so. That’s what I play for people to describe minimal wave, such a great track.


Crash Course In Science ‎– Signals From Pier Thirteen (1981)

Noisier here, kinda more abrasive. Industrial-ish sounds under the synthpop, it’s metallic, sharp, and brilliant. Almost a Suicide sound, but less no-wave. Pulsating and mechanical beats, female vocals.


Circuit 7 (1984)

This is the dance jams. Muffled percussion under the synths, which are highly new wave. Is that a saxophone? Hell yeah.


Pavillion 7B

Prominent French coldwavers. Great female vocals and dark beats.


Martin Dupont - Just Because (1984)

Some more guitar utilization like Solid Space. New. wave.

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