From: atman@ecst.csuchico.edu (Thin Layer Of Pond Scum)
Subject: Some reviews: inlc Merzbow & Bigod 20
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1992 19:41:36 GMT


Here's a bunch of stuff I've picked up since the last time I did
reviews.  Most of this stuff isn't new anymore, but I don't like writing
reviews until I'm familiar with what I'm reviewing (much to the dismay
of my editor.)

Here's what I'm reviewing this time:

Ajax - One World CD5 - WAXCD 9112
Skin Chamber - Wound - RCD 9274
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexyland - WAXCD 017
Bigod 20 - The Bog/IQ CD5 - 9 21755-2
Death & Horror Inc - Machine Altar Transmission - FPD3110
InterMIX - InterMIX - TMD 9230
The Hanatarash - Hanatarash 3 - RRR049
Merzbow - Great American Nude/Crash for Hi-Fi - ARCD-035
The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld - 314 511 034-2

-> Ajax - One World CD5 - WAXCD 9112

Boring 1-2-3-4 drumbeat + cheesy melody + cheesy lyrics + cheesy samples
dance industrial.  Occasional trumpets.

  It's one world that we're living in
  What happens here
  could affect us all.

Yawn.  Be specific, please.

Original + 3 mixes (to spite Mason,) plus 2 mixes of Mind The Gap, which
is more of the same, but slightly better.  Probably not worth your
money, or anybody elses.  A boring waste of aluminum and plastic.

-> Skin Chamber - Wound - RCD 9274

This is Paul Lemos + Chris Moriarity from Controlled Bleeding.

This is really, really heavy stuff. It's all percussive, grindy-screamy
dark imagery kind of stuff.  Some songs have guitars, some are fast,
some slow.  Lots of machine sounds, including grinders, saws, metal
clanks, etc.  2 choice tracks include  "Swallowing Scrap Metal (Pt. 2)"
which is an incredibly harsh, noisy, grating, clang & scream through
fuzz + distortion thing, and "Healing Time" (a CD bonus track) which is
an expansive gothish percussion + horns + growling piece.  Great stuff,
but hard to listen to all the way through, at least for me.

-> Revolting Cocks - Big Sexyland - WAXCD 017

This a Ministry + Richard 23 of Front 242 side project.  It's
characterized by drum machines, samples, bass, some guitar & Twitch-era
Uncle Al vocals, none with much distortion (an inadequate amount, in my
opinion.)  There are some good songs on here, and after you listen to it
a few times, it kind of takes hold.  It's not the hard, driving,
shit-kicking album that _Beers, Steers + Queers_ is, but is credible.
It's pretty sparse compared to a lot of Al's other stuff.  There tend to
be long sequences of drums with one other thing going on, like a
bassline or samples.  I like it well enough to play occasionally.

"Union Carbide" is the song that comes closest to greatness, being
thicker than the rest, and having more distortion.

-> Bigod 20 - The Bog/IQ CD5 - 9 21755-2

Three mixes of "The Bog," one mix of I-Q.  Highly wondrous Techno with a
good bass foundation, mechanical-but-spooky Belgian-accented (?) English
lyrics, and fun fills.  I'm not sure how well the song topic connects
with the average urban or suburban music listener; if you asked me to
list my top 100 fears, "drowning in a swamp" wouldn't even make an
appearance.  Neither "The Bog" nor "I-Q" are as good as "Carpe Diem,"
but are highly recommended to those who appreciate good Techno.

-> Death & Horror Inc - Machine Altar Transmission - FPD3110

Canadian harsh-end dance industrial.  I've heard a lot of people compare
DHI to Skinny Puppy, but I don't think you can really make a fair
comparison.

Guitars, synths, vocals, samples, and power tools.  The big news here is
the opening cut "Chemical Land."  Like all the other cuts, it has a
guitar, nicely distorted, and/or samples carrying the melody, and the
vocalist is really singing the lyrics.  Each piece is very distinct. The
album's lyrics have a theme of fear/machines/pollution/alienation, but
aren't anything special.  They sound good with the music, but they
aren't poetry, or deep in any way.  It's a good, solid album, and I
recommend it.

The House Of Fringe
PO BOX 670 Station A
Toronto, ON
Canada M5W 1G2

(no affiliation, etc.)

-> InterMIX - InteRmIX - TMD 9230

Good but unremarkable Bill Leeb/Rhys Fulber stuff.  This diagram should
explain it quite concisely:

                  +------------+
   Front Line ==> | House Beat | ==>  iNtERMIx
   Assembly       | Xmogrifier |
                  +------------+

Cool, kind of funky, and you can capitalize it any way you want.  I
think the capitalization rule applies to the music somehow as well.

-> The Hanatarash - Hanatarash 3 - RRR049

Yes, this is Japanese noise stuff, for those of you who have not been
paying attention.  Most of it seems to be acoustic or electronically
generated "normal" sounds, like a guitar, pieces of metal, or a drum
machine running at 250 bpm, or sped up vocals, etc, run through a
digital effect that stretches it way out of shape and makes it noisy,
fuzzed, and distorted. It's quite varied, and some is quite melodic, or
at least repetitive.  The sound quality is pretty good, and some of the
song titles are interesting "White Anal Generator," "Black Hole Maw,"
"Dub Dub Overlord," but it's not the kind of noise I'm looking for. It's
too close to the original sounds.  See Merzbow, below, for a comparison.

There are a couple of yell-and clank pieces too.  Droning noise + chains
on metal + Japanese shouting.  Eh.

This is the kind of thing that has to be played loud, or in a set of
headphones.

I think the last four songs on the disc are all squashed into track 11,
but I can't be sure.

There is a writeup involving the Hanatarash by Seymour Glass of
Bananafish magazine in the CD insert which is very amusing.

-> Merzbow - Great American Nude/Crash for Hi-Fi - ARCD-035
             Live in u.s.a. 1990

More Japanese noise.  This is much more pure compared to the Hanatarash
disc above; it is all noise, all 77 minutes of it, and you can't ever
really tell what the sources are (with one exception; see below.)

The album is an 8 track live disc, each song recorded live while Merzbow
was on tour in the US in 1990.  The disc starts with a track called RRR
Loft, Lowell, MA (19/9/90), which is slow and predominantly pink noise,
and gets noisier and more varied with each track.  The final cut, which
is the only studio cut on the disc, contains bits where you can make out
the original sound sources, but most of it is a highly textured noise
collage -- 17 minutes of highly textured noise collage.

You really have to listen to this disc all the way through in one
sitting.  The progression from pink to texture takes you into the disc
gently, and leaves you feeling like you have accomplished something when
it is over.  You almost have to listen to this disc actively.  If you
put it on in the background, it will distract you and demand your
attention. The tracks are not in chronological order, so the arrangement
is no mistake. The sound on it is wonderful; it is very clean, with
exceptional reproduction in both the low bass and high treble ranges.
The short, unnoisy sections are free of tape hiss, and even make good
use of stereo.  Very highly recommended.  Much thanx to Mason for making
this stuff available.

-> The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld - 314 511 034-2

Really good laid-back synthoid/'lectronic bass-profound tripping music.
Spacey drum machine w/ samples stuff.  This is a 1990s techno-oriented
Dark Side Of The Moon without the angst and pain.  I think almost
everyone either owns this or has heard enough about it that I don't need
to spend any more time on it.  If not, just go get a copy.  Chances are
you'll like it, and if not, you can always trade it to someone who does.

-- @Man

-- 
  atman@ecst.csuchico.edu  ||  What good is it if it doesn't distort?
  
  I have an idea for a flagpole.  I'd like to run it through the color 
  quantizer for any comments/suggestions.   -- almost Aaron Birenboim
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial