Gangleri – music reviews

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.
Links: Machinist, Betontoon

Not quite the first release of this Dutch project, but I didn’t know it. Shame on me! However I expected something more noisy and soundscapes are usually not my thing, this pretty damn dark soundscape album is very good! Low frequencies, deep beats, dark drones, a threathening atmosphere, it is all there. Three tracks making a 67 minutes album released on an “ambient/ noise/ drone/ audio-collage/ fieldrecording label based in Groningen, the Netherlands” that I also didn’t know. “Black Block” is impressive, well recorded, comes in a nice package and I think this is a must-buy for people who like Megaptera or Vestigial or who want something darker than the average CMI release and something better than TenHornedBeast.
Links: Machinist, HeilsKabaal

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.
Link: Alampo Records (see their website for the band’s sites).

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”.
Links: Dead.Circuit, Alampo Records

Totally unexpected a new album of Ginger Leigh fell in my mailbox yesterday. “Mercant Of Death” is another typical Ginger Leigh album. Sound collages with strange samples, weird rhythms and this time more vocals than we are used to. Swinging ‘noise ‘n’ roll’ (even though this new album is again not as noisy as the earlier albums) with jungle sounds, Middle Eastern flutes, etc. making a sound that I still have not heard anywhere else. Inspite of the strangeness, I find Ginger Leigh listenable and very enjoyable. Nowadays you can also have a try before you buy, since the website has free downloads and Ginger Leigh got a Myspace, see below.
Links: Ginger Leigh website, Ginger Leigh on Myspace

It seems that this is my first encounter with Refuse To Die, even though they have released material since 1996. However the bandname suggests a martial industrial project, the cover of this album is a better pointer of the style: weird and ‘collagic’. Most tracks are sound-collages, either or not with an industrial tone, sometimes a bit soundscapish, sometimes more industrial/noisy. It is all pretty strange stuff, so do not be surprised to get a little bit of cabaret as bonus. An album full of odd ideas without much of a definate style is of course a ‘dangerous’ thing to do. I can hear the humour in some tracks, some tracks are nice to listen to, but there is also a totally awfull track called “Who Are The Brain Police” and there are things that simply don’t ‘work for me’. I doubt that I will play a cd like this very often. Perhaps I should put a few tracks on the mp3 compilations that I play in my car, but 45 minutes of such weird stuff…? Of course you might actually enjoy crazy industrial sound collages, so just visit the band’s website to listen to some tracks and see if this is an album for you.
Links: Refuse To Die, The Eastern Front

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 Industrial Culture and today while I was fooling around on the internet I ran into projects and labels that I never heard of. N.Strahl.N appears to be an extremely active German project with a style that varries from soundscapes to power electronics. While looking for more information, I noticed this free-to-download album on their ‘website’. “In Absentia” is about 33 minutes long, has four soundscapes that are not too interesting, but the last track is a very dark and pretty good noisescape. Apparently I will have to look a bit through the band’s discography to see if there is more stuff in it that I would like.
N.Strahl.N has quite a few releases on a label called Tosom which has dark ambient releases, but also a power electronics series and a noise-ambient line. Most mp3s that I heard are just alright, but there is also interesting material there. Some other things that I ran into are the Alampo Records / Malachia label from Italy and a Dutch project called dead.circuit both of whom I hope to have a cdr to review some time soon.
The funny thing is that compilation of such labels also contain industrial acts that I do know, so I suppose it is all a ‘more underground’ side of the industrial scene. Good that we have the internet to run into these kinds of projects by accident!

Those who fear that Galakthorrö is becoming soft with the newer sound of Haus Arafna and November Növelet, releases of Herman Kopp and Herz Jühning can rest assured tonight: Subliminal made another total noise album. The first two tracks lets you get used to the fact just mentioned, but from track three on, you get some rather harsch noise with distorted vocals. Subliminal has released another album on Galakthorrö (“Gracebudd” 2000), but I don’t know it and they appear on the excellent “Galakthorrö – Kosmoloko” compilation (2004, which I have no legal copy of yet, so I haven’t reviewed it). “Coping” reminds quite a bit of the harscher side of Haus Arafna here and there. I wonder how it comes that Galakthorrö projects somehow all seem to have a sound based on whatever sound mr. and mrs. Arafna have produced. Does the label manage to track down such projects, are they involved in them theirselves, it this a group of friends working in the same studio? Whether it is noise, “angstpop” or “Kalte Welle”, it is not too hard to recognise a Galakthorrö sound in projects. As long as it is good, this does not matter of course. Subliminal is surely no Haus Arafna copy and like I said: if people think that Haus Arafna got too soft, they can now buy “Coping”.
Links: Subliminal, Galakthorrö

A long time I didn’t really know Haus Arafna, their other project or their label. Almost five years ago I decided to buy a Haus Arafna album and reading back my review of that time I found the album just fine at the time. I guess the cd grew on me, since I consider “Butterfly” to be a masterpiece nowadays. I didn’t come to buy more Haus Arafna music, but apparently started to look for their material on the P2P network that I use sometimes (rarely actually). I have some other Haus Arafna albums on the computer by now, some are nice, some are too noisy and none is as good as “Butterfly”. I suppose in the process of looking for Haus Arafna material, I also ran into the sublime album “Magic” of November Növelet, which I bought immediately. Somewhere along the line I also pulled “From Heaven On Earth” off the web and this album is not only definately good enough to buy, but also still available even though it’s quite old. “From Heaven On Earth” is not as much a disco cd as “Magic”, but has more of that odd Galakthorrö style of music: minimalistic, a bit ambient, a bit industrial, some soft rhythms and a lot of weird sounds. The style is dark and charming, elusive and provocative and most of all: very original. “From Heaven On Earth” could be an album for people who don’t like the harscher side of Haus Arafna (you just have to get used to it!) and perhaps also for people who find “Magic” too poppy, but “More Satanic Heroes” (1994) too harsch. It’s quite a typical Galakthorrö release, but as long as it’s only Galakthorrö releasing this kind of stuff, I don’t mind the ‘typicallity’.
There is a 7″ just released, I hope to be able to review it soon. Two of the four tracks can be listened on the band’s Myspace, check out the links.
Links: November Növelet, Galakthorrö

This rather old release was the second project on Galakthorrö not being mr. and mrs. Arafna themselves. Galakthorrö seems to use the following terms to describe their releases: “angstpop”, “Kalte Welle” and “Intensiv Elektronik”. About the first term, I recently wrote a few thoughts. The second term is German for “cold wave”, so I guess that makes a Galakthorrö version of that style. I don’t know what is meant with the last term, but who knows it refers to Karl Runau.
Karl Runau goes from minimalistic ambient with some rhythm to bleepy electronics. It surely fits on Galakthorrö and perhaps the sound reminds a bit of some November Növelet tracks here and there. “Beyond Frequencies” is a nice album that could definately appeal to people who listen to minimalistic electronics outside the industrial scene too. The computer sounds have been popular in some techno movements a while ago, so… Anyway, something less noisy than many other Galakthorrö releases but of course very strange.
Galakthorrö

I don’t remember what I was looking for, but last week I was on Last.fm, not a website where I can be found very often. I stumbled upon Herz Jühning, a name that didn’t ring a bell. The man appeared to be on Galakthorrö, so I decided to see if I could listen to some music (Last.fm doesn’t offer any.) Since everybody seems to have a Myspace, also does Jühning. Very nice industrial disco. Perhaps a bit too much reminding of Haus Arafna, but very, very nice. Jühning only has a sold out 7″. Too bad!

This running into Galakthorrö made me decide to have a better look at the label. Their “Galakthorrö – Kosmoloko” compilation has some nice tracks on it from Haus Arafna and November Növelet (of course), but also Karl Runau and Maska Genetik. The last project Subliminal has better tracks on her Myspace than on the compilation. So, I got in contact with Galakthorrö and ordered some albums that I should have bought before. Too bad that there is nothing available from Maska Genetik anymore.

In any case, I had heard the term “angstpop” before, but I didn’t know what people mean with it. It appears to refer to music in ‘the Galakthorrö vein’, the not (too) industrial or noise tracks of Haus Arafna or November Növelet, Karl Runau, etc. The label itself uses the term too. So I guess I missed something. In any case, the term now seems to be (ab)used in many ways. It is an album by SPK, there is a website angstpop.com which is about a much larger scope of music, new bands having nothing to do with Galakthorrö claim to play “angstpop” (and indeed a band such as the Dutch Distel has a ‘Galakthorric sound’). I guess after 10 years of existence, mr. and mrs. Arafna have made way to a new trend. I’ll just look around a little to see if it’s all good enough to listen to.