The Uh - big badass lathe (cassette)

I never heard of The Uh before. But then again, when you`re writing reviews concerning non commercial music you always discover new stuff. That`s the fun and challenging part of my work. This is a two song mini noise album. And what the hell does it looks \ sounds like ? Here goes:

1- `it will get you where you want to be` (13.50 minutes). This is an epic, relentless attack of the senses. This is some heavy (grungy in a loose and improvised way), aggressive, angry highly pissed-off  guitar and \ or distortion pedal noise. Ouch my ears!!!

2-  `absoluteinsane 3`(14.02 minutes). Things start off with some heavy metal guitar which easily goes into extreme harsh noise territory. Not an easy listening experience. It recalls Merzbow` s all out old school noise attack. Damn, my ears are bleeding, I need some nice, relaxing ambient darkwave to heal my wounds (Schloss Tegal anyone ?). Info here:

http://the-uh.blogspot.ca/p/so-buy-our-shit.html

They` re also part of the Saint Petersburg Institute of noise, check it out:

http://stpetenoise.blogspot.ca/p/spin-job-discography.html

Clang Quartet - live at voices in the valley noise rally 08-14-2009 (bootleg tape)

I bought a Clang Quartet CD a couple of years ago  (can`t remember the title) and I wasn`t impressed.  

It sounded like your usual run of the mill generic harsh noise fest (done with distortion pedals). Well, a bootleg live recording of a solo noise artist, that`s new. I never heard a bootleg or original live noise set yet. I was curious. It was a (16 minutes) short concert so my aural torture would be nice and short. There`s four tracks which sounds something like this:

1- (1.38 minutes) the introduction amazing minimal electronics with meditative undertones (too short for my taste buds).

2- (9.45 minutes) a nice mix of electric guitar, percussions, horns, and electronics. A psychedelic, spacey, cosmic jam session (recalls at times Sun Ra and Alien Planetscapes), good stuff indeed.

3- (3.52 minutes) an intense blend of noise with percussions (the noisy ogre is slowly waking up).

4- (10.45 minutes) the conclusion an epic, crazy, highly intense mix of percussions \ percussive elements with some noise and ambient noise undertones. The noise ogre is running loose. Yep, the truth \ noise is definitely out there.                                                                                    

Bobby Beausoleil - Lucifer rising soundtrack and sessions (CD)

This is a compilation of Bobby Beausoleil`s various incarnations i.e. bands. There`s  some material from The Orkustra (his first band),  The Magick Powerhouse of Oz (two tracks) and  The Freedom Orchestra. A lot of material was recorded in the sixties and you can feel da vibe indeed. And no, it doesn`t sound like The Beattles (during their psychedelic period) and it doesn`t sound either like a tainted version of Iron Butterfly`s `In a gadda da vida`. Upon listening to this, I was pleasantly surprised. There`s some amazing stuff in there. I doesn`t sound dated at all (insert here a bunch of progressive rock bands _______ ). And what can we expect ? 

There`s 22 instrumental tracks which offers a good variety of styles. You will hear some instrumental \ psychedelic rock with ritualistic undertones, some minimal electronics, spacy rock songs (with horns included), a good pile of psychedelic jam sessions. You can feel some influences at work here: Sun Ra, Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett period), Walter Carlos and some Ennio Morricone (yes, it`s that good).  A double CD album courtesy of Arcanum Records (2004). Highly recommended if you ever manage to find this forgotten gem. Kaplaw!!!       

                                         

Mr Steel (part 2 of 2)

Here`s the complete scan of Mr Steel # 3, the last issue. There`s some truly amazing art pieces in there.

A STRONG WORD OF ADVICE:

THIS IS NOT FOR THE EASILY OFFENDED, THE FOLLOWING IS ADULT ORIENTED MATERIAL.

You`ve been warned, so leave me alone.