Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

Witch – Paralyzed
Paralyzed is the second album by Witch, a band who have generated a little ink as a result of the occupant of their drum seat, J. Mascis. Of course J. is better known as the guitarist and lead singer of indie-legends Dinosaur Jr., but his influence doesn’t appear to figure too deeply in Witch’s sound, at least on the surface. Instead, these guys seem way more intent in resurrecting the beast of Uriah Heep or something.

The Howling Wind – Pestilence & Peril
Pestilence and Peril is a bit of an off kilter take on black metal. If one chooses to categorise it as such. It’s got quick tremolo riffs, scary voices, and distorted, post apocalyptic, burned world sound affects, which have certainly found their way onto many metal albums. Sometimes the vocals head a bit into death metal territory, as they’re delivered with a guttural growl. But where black metal is, sometimes purposefully, poorly recorded, to the point where such a sound has become somewhat generic, Pestilence and Peril is clearly and professionally recorded. I say clearly, but that’s not to say there isn’t a fuzzy ambience present.

The Fun Years – Baby, It’s Cold Inside
The Fun years are a duo, consisting of turntablist Isaac Sparks and baritone guitarist Ben Recht. Their music takes a few approaches to create an ambient space, some of which may spark memories of several similarly aligned artists, both recent and vintage. The scratchy, possibly old records used by Sparks will inevitably draw comparisons to Philip Jeck. The differences may be subtle, but what stands out is the fact that the Fun Years’ music sounds relatively modern, not aged, as Jeck’s music does. Some of the guitar passages throughout the album do echo Fripp and Eno, to the extent that the guitars are used to create a soft atmospheric backing. It seems as though anyone who uses a digital delay these days is designated with that comparison for some reason, yet Recht invokes “Frippertronics” without any of the stiff, unemotional detachment which often goes along with that tag.

The Sleep Sessions & Thirteen Fingers – Somnaphobia
Somnaphobia is a two way split between Polish based noise project The Sleep sessions and north Carolina horror obsessed harsh noise and dread filled grey drone project Thirteen Fingers with each party offering up six tracks each.

Merzbow – Arijigoku
Arijigoku finds Merzbow returning to his former musical life before noise as a drummer, with heavy use of live drum rhythms to create what’s best described as a jamming noise record with rock and jazz influence rhythms abound. It’s another curious often rewarding progression in his shifting sound world.

Mattias Petersson – Floodlight
Mattias Petersson take on electoinca is damaged, juddering and stuck, though it often shows great melodic flare and beauty as well as noisy and atmospheric learning’s too. Floodlight is his second full length and his first release for Ideal Recordings.