Murder Corporation * Auf Wiedersehen (cd 2010)
“This is a “different” style for Murder Corporation. Auf Wiedersehen is a dark industrial ambient opera mixed with military marches music. Only for MC lovers.”
I guess I do not fall in that category. “Different” I took different from brutal unstructured noise, but inspite of the marchmusic and propaganda film samples, “Auf Wiedersehen” consists mostly of boring noise and I cannot find the “dark industrial ambient opera”. The package is quite something though, some kind of foldout digipack (a “jakebox”). Limited to 93 copies.
Links: Murder Corporation, Ars Benevola Mater
I always thought that Land:Fire was a dark ambient project. I have some music on compilations and maybe I (unconsciously) heard that Herbst9 is another project of this duo, but when I recently heard a great noise track of Land:Fire it became time to really listen to this project. “Shortwave Transmission” opens brilliantly with very dark ambient noise with industrial rhythms. There indeed are a few dark ambient tracks, but the larger part is really my kind of noise. Great material!
I never really knew Isomer, I never really heard their music. When I read that this dark ambient band made a noisier album, I decided to try their latest attempt. “Face Towards The Sun” contains some great ambient noise tracks, some less interesting atmospheric tracks and some good dark ambient; the larger part is noisy though. Overall I am quite pleased by this album which serves well as background music.
What a nice surprice, a new Dead.Circuit cd fell on the doorstep today! Limited to only 97 copies comes this 26 minutes cdr with 3 tracks that the label describes with the very nice term “cinematic noisescapes”. Inspite of the variety of styles that this Dutch project uses on its flyers, the sound of this “industrial tribute to the routine of working class society” has the style of the previous release that I reviewed. This is great, since Dead.Circuit knows how to make dark noisescapes. This is not a piece of chaotic noise, but nicely structured, with many samples, just think about Propergol or Sistrenatus and about as good as these two too! I hope a label like Hermetique will pick up this project soon.
I thought that when I ordered my copy from Tesco, I would have it sooner than when I would order it from Cold Spring. After two weeks of waiting, Tesco tells me that it will take another 10 days before their copies arrive. Impatient as I am I spent € 9,50 to get a 
A week or so ago I ran into Machinist and decided to order “Cyclus I”. While doing that, my eye fell on another release called “Black Block” which is a magnificent dark ambient soundscapes album. “Cyclus I” slightly differs in style, it is more “noisescapes”. Again there are three tracks, but this time only making half an hour of music. The first track is a bit too monotous noisy and not all that great. The other two tracks are darker and better, but also more noisy (especially in some parts) than “Black Block”. I guess this is more of the sound that I expected (hoped for), but I think “Black Block” is better, especially regarding atmosphere. But… the second and third track of “Cyclus I” are not bad either.
In the past I have tried some smaller (industrial) labels without much succes. In the end the good projects usually end up on a larger label and consequentally on the regular mailorders. For quite a few years I haven’t taken much effort to find interesting smaller labels, so I had to run into a few to show me that this can actually be quite interesting. For a mere 8 euros I bought this Alampo compilation of a little over an hour and it is actually very nice! The music can be described as dark ambient and soundscapes with an industrial and noisy edge. Most tracks are pretty dark and nice to listen to. There is (of course) also a not too good track (of Akronia) and a superb track comes from Machinamentum Victum Tortusve (too bad about the whip sample). Indeed, this is a nice sampler if you like the darker side of electronics and when you do not fear a healthy bit of noise. I guess I have to look into the label and the projects a bit more, since these small labels release small labels seem to have a high release-speed.
I don’t spend much time looking for projects that I do not know, but I am glad that I ran into this Dutch project. Dead.Circuit does not mind much about keeping one style, but on “Repressed Memory Therapy” the style is dark noisy soundscapes with total noise moments. The sound reminds quite a bit of Propergol at times (a bit too much sometimes), which is a good thing since Propergol has not released much recently and his sound seems to become less extreme. The people who like the older works of Propergol should definately try to get one of the 97 copies of this Dead.Circuit album. “Repressed Memory Therapy” might not always be as good as Propergol or Sistrenatus, but our Dutchman surely knows how to create a dark and filthy atmosphere with echoing film samples, distorted/noisy edges and here and there going completely loose with an almost power electronics track. Of course it is also a debut and small release, so who knows what the future will bring. A cheap 70 minutes album for lovers of “noisescapes”.
There seems to be a whole industrial scene (or several of them) that I don’t really know. A while ago I was contacted by a label called 
For their hundreth release The Old Europa Café label has released a 7-cd compilation with a track of each band and project they have been involved in during the years. However looking around the internet it seems like the bands are featured alphabetically, this is not the case, the cds are ordered somewhat thematically / according to style. “Somewhat” I say, since it is not completely that there are industrial and folk cds, there is some overlap. That is only for the better, the compiler of the cds has a rather good ear for things. In the beginning I had the idea that there are alternally more industrial and more folky cds, but this is not entirely true. The compilation opens with a cd with mostly not too extreme noise, a nice cd. Then follows a cd with more (neo)folky music, but not the too typical sounds of a compilation that I reviewed a few days ago. Then we have cds with power electronics and the extreme, chaotic style that isn’t mine, but also more old industrial things, strange experimental soundscape music and more of an old neofolk cd that I find awfull (Ain Soph, that sort of bands). Having heard the whole thing, my temporary conclusion is that the first cds are the most interesting and towards the end are some cds that I will probably never play. I think that four out of seven cds are enough of my taste to put in the player every now and then, so the “price/quality balance” is not that bad. 
I don’t listen to dark ambient all that much. I do like the music, but I find it often too monotous or (nowadays) not dark enough. Loki has always been a label that tracked down the better industrial and ambient projects, also projects that have a nice twist in their sound. Incendium II is almost completely a dark ambient compilation. It has the maximum length and old and new bands on it. The tracks are certainly varried enough, most of them are pretty good as well and there is some pretty dark stuff here. Therefor I suppose that for the few euros that this compilation goes, you can get some of the better stuff here. Of course, this being a label compilation, all tracks can be found on other Loki releases as well.
A compilation dedicated to North Korea with a whole range of interesting bands to be found on it. Putting the cd on I am very pleased to hear that Turbund Sturmwerk didn’t loose their touch afterall. Their latest tracks were not too great, but their “Reunification” is pretty damn good. It opens very loud with a bit of a Firsst Law sound and after a noisy middle Turbund falls back in known patterns, but overall I am happy with this wonderfull track. Lovers of harsch noise can enjoy themselves with Operation Cleansweep, Con-Dom and Genocide Organ. The track that Militia contributed is quite nice, but when we skip on to Ex.Order we hear another wonderfull “ambient noise” track with a great dark sound. The Grey Wolves tear our ears to shreds with their power electronics and to close off Anenzephalia put together a quite typical track with minimal noise and screamed vocals; not their best material, but not boring either. Overall “Juche” is mostly a compilation for people who like the harder side of electronic music and who had to wait for their favourite projects to finally release something new. “Juche” has a nice A5 package, produced in North Korea and is limited to a mere 15.000.000 copies, so hurry up!
I have never been very fond of this project. This classic power electronics project makes too much power electronics for me. An extreme sound with earcracking noises, screamed vocals and too little structure for my liking. I would have liked to see them in Antwerpen a few months back, but I could not go to the Luchtbal the second day of the festival. At that festival the “Remember” vinyl set and shirts were available, the 2cd followed a little later. I decided to get a copy, because I have known GO for about as long as they are around, but I didn’t have anything of them. Knowing their sound, I bought this cd more for archival reasons than to play. “Remember” is filled with live recordings from 1989 (when the band started) to 2000 and have been reworked by Jérôme Nougaillon (Propergol/Hermetique) for this release. Here and there you will find a more industrial and rhythmical track, but most of the cds are filled with the most brutal kind of music imaginable. Since the band is not only extreme in sound, but also in lyrics and artwork, there is a nice text of Richard Stevenson who tells a bit of art and provocation.
In 2005 Harlow MacFarlane surprised with with an amazing noise demo. He managed to create a threatening sound that suggests an extreme noise outburst. The sound reminded me of Propergol. Sistrenatus was soon picked up by Cold Spring. The noise outburst that doesn’t come on the demo can be found in the second half of the debut cd (the first half is the demo) where Sistrenatus shows us his violent side and the total made a wonderfull album. Later Sistrenatus came in contact with Propergol / Hermetique who was interested in a release, “Wrought Iron Railings” is the result. When I put the eagerly awaiting cd in my player, my ears were damaged by a massive wall of power electronics that made me express a few curses. Also the next few tracks contain the extreme side of Sistrenatus and for a while I feared that the whole cd would sound like this. Fortunately in the second half Harlow displays the sound that I prefer, dark and noisy soundscapes with a threatening atmosphere, so it seems that this new album is “Division One” turned around. The first (short) extreme tracks are not bad, but when the experimentation and atmosphere comes in, this is where (for me) the strength of the project is to be found and again this sound is executed well. “Wrought Iron Railings” may again be a bit short (42 minutes), but it sure is another great album of musical extremity.
Jérôme Nougaillon (Propergol, Hermetique) agains turns up under a different name. He himself describes the release as “atmospheric ambient”, but my description would be “threatening noisescapes” or something in that vein. The music is obviously made by mister Nougaillon who as no other knows how to set a dark atmosphere with an extreme electronic sound. Probably too noisy for people who like ‘the CMI-sound’, not with the power electronic outbursts that we love Propergol for, but a must-buy for Propergol fans and the ultimate “noisescape” album. Yep, he has done it again, a magnificent piece of work that may be even better than some Propergol albums (or at least just as good)! (Limited to 471 copies btw.)
No wonder that I never heard of this project, it is from the metal scene. Trist brings a double cd of which the first is called “Hin” and the second “Fort”. The first cd contains one one hour long track, the second cd shorter tracks (but still upto 15 minutes). The style is what I would call “noisescapes”, monotous noisy dark ambient. The first cd is way too long and too monotous, the tracks on the second cd often open very dark with horror samples and a great atmosphere, but unfortunately, also these tend to become a bit too monotous. Yet, this double cd is not bad at all, especially not for people who like extremely dark ambient.
Every now and then I receive a cd of Ginger Leigh, that weird American electronic project. The new album has as always ‘minimal packaging’ and the strangest sound. “And The Hallucinations” is again less noisy than its predecessor, but still has ‘that Ginger Leigh sound’. That sound is hard to describe, since I know no comparison. Strange samples in loops, either melodies or rhythms (which can be industrial as well as jazzy or anything else), together with more strange samples, (near) Eastern instruments or voices, guitars, singing, jungle sounds or whatever. Here and there the sound gets a distorted, noisy twist and on a few occasions the sound comes pretty close to noise. All this makes weird soundscapes with an atmosphere too. Also on this new album, older tracks can be found. All I can say is, if you enjoy strange sound collections with a noisy edge, get in contact with Ginger and try one of his albums.
Steinklang again offers a cheap compilation with tracks of their own and befriended releases. III is not as II a double cd. The first half of the cd is filled with industrial, dark ambient and a violent noise track of Dissecting Table, the second cd with neofolk and other folky sounds. Just as with the previous two issues of the compilation there are some very good tracks here and especially bands that were new to me, so that is always nice.
I have been in doubt whether or not to buy this album. I read that it is rereleased material, but the booklet doesn’t say from when the recordings are. I have a 1999 split cd of Drape Excrement with Catharsis which is nice, but nothing like Söldnergeist. Since Söldnergeist is on the album, I decided to order it afterall. Well, all music is by Drape Excrement and the first half of them are reworked by Söldnergeist. The style is dark ambient and noisy ambient, but the sound mostly remains that of Drape Excrement and not that of Söldnergeist. The result is nice, but not smashing.