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Although the first six tracks of this disk can be found on the Voodooism collection, the remaining tracks are all unreleased and, since the release of the recent biography of Lee Perry in which they were praised to the utmost as crucial tracks, highly sought after. We apologise that it is not only a mere cd-r, but so pricey as well. And though I don't quite see the crucialness of the unreleased tracks here, the higher authorities on dub still argue its validity and, needless to say, it's an extremely limited issue.
There are these little things that Lee Perry will do sometimes that continue to make me giddy: capitalizing on the sound of a dying organ in its swan song, using the mixing console's test tone generator or a momentary feedback loop to create a blast of
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Three Upsetters LPs in one set: Africa's Blood, Rhythm Shower & Double Seven.
Collection of Recordings from Lee Perry's Black Ark Studio made throughout the seventies. All the tracks here were culled from rare singles - which now fetch a pretty penny on the market - most of which were never released outside of Jamaica and none of which appear to have been reissued on cd prior to this anthology. There is a fair amount of variety on this disk: reggae and dub (a few vocal/version back to backs) from The Upsetters, Zap Pow, Earl Sixteen, Leo Graham, The Black Notes, Lloyd & Devon and more. For those of you looking for Lee Perry's more insane forays be warned that the tracks found here are all straight up reggae and dub.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records, had issued more than 100 singles, or well over 200 tracks. Now, 30 years later, Trojan has re-issued the entire output of their UK singles on four double disc sets. Each set is a very handsomely packaged affair: the disks come in an attractive yet durable hardcover book, each with a different photo of the Upsetter himself on the cover. Each book contains several pages of bio information on Lee Perry relating to the period covered by each set, as well as 35 additional pages of notes on the individual recordings for each set and sprinkled with archival photos.
Volume one contains the first 50 tracks in the series and recorded in 1969, shortly after Perry left his last employer (producer Joe Gibbs) in order to promote his own work under the flag of Upsetter Productions. Given the year these recordings were made, it should come as no surprise to the dominance of rock-steady and ska tracks on this set.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records, had issued more than 100 singles, or well over 200 tracks. Now, 30 years later, Trojan has re-issued the entire output of their UK singles on four double disc sets. Each set is a very handsomely packaged affair: the disks come in an attractive yet durable hardcover book, each with a different photo of the Upsetter himself on the cover. Each book contains several pages of bio information on Lee Perry relating to the period covered by each set, as well as 35 additional pages of notes on the individual recordings for each set and sprinkled with archival photos.
Taking tracks from 1970, this set starts off in the apex of Perry's career. From the very first track, a classic - "Kill Them All" - you know you're dealing with a madman/genius. Along with lots of insane instrumentals, including "Toothache" (in which Mr Perry makes use of a seriously damaged and squeeling organ that sounds as if it were found in a rubbish heap), there are some great vocal tracks: the Soulettes doing "Let It Be", Bob Marley's "My Cup" and much more.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records, had issued more than 100 singles, or well over 200 tracks. Now, 30 years later, Trojan has re-issued the entire output of their UK singles on four double disc sets. Each set is a very handsomely packaged affair: the disks come in an attractive yet durable hardcover book, each with a different photo of the Upsetter himself on the cover. Each book contains several pages of bio information on Lee Perry relating to the period covered by each set, as well as 35 additional pages of notes on the individual recordings for each set and sprinkled with archival photos.
All tracks here are taken from singles released in 1971. As well as Bob Marley's haunting and strange "Mr. Brown" about a possessed and evil crow, with it's rumbling fuzzy organ filling out the bottom, there are a number of other tracks that Perry produced of Marley, as well as some beautiful vocals from Hortence Ellis and much more.
Starting in 1969, Trojan records began a special subsidiary label devoted to releasing the singles representing the best works from Jamaica's most profound producer, engineer and performer: Lee 'Scratch' Perry. In three years the label, Upsetter Records,
Reissue of Lee Perry's 1987 collaboration with Adrian Sherwood's Dub Syndicate. Perry and Sherwood share the controls and Perry exclusively retains possession of the microphone. Amusing, yes, but it's a bit cursed by that late eighties production -- read new
Released last week exclusively for Black Friday Record Store Day, here's a deluxe limited edition double vinyl version of this all-time Lee Perry & The Upsetters roots dub reggae classic. With one of the best album covers ever, a crazed giant super ape uprooting trees.
From 1976, recorded at Perry's famed Black Ark studio, it's an essential production from the man. Who is the Man. When it comes to dub production. Up there with other Perry-produced classics of the era like the Heart Of The Congos and War Ina Babylon.
You get three sides of dubbed out Scratch & The Upsetters groove - including 3 bonus cuts not on the original Island lp - with the fourth side featuring a custom etching. Also in the package, a 23" x 23" poster! One of the better Black Friday RSD releases in our opinion.
Like it says on the cover, Dub It Up Blacker Than Dread!
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12 cuts of stripped down dub, with some fine screams and other "non-musical" noises thrown in to boot. Quite similar to "Kung Fu Meets The Dragon." Recorded at the Black Ark by Scratch and mixed by King Tubby at King Tubby's. Features Aston & Carlton Barrett, Winston Wright, Gladstone Anderson, Skully and more. Pressed on a nice thick slab of Dutch vinyl directly from the master tapes.
Sadly, an unremarkable new album from Lee Perry. It's tempting to give props for sticking with a live band to lay down the tracks on this album, but then I remember those insane Ariwa proto-drum n' bass discs that Perry put his name to and think better of it. The tracks on "Jamaican E.T." sound like some tepid hotel reggae band where a drunk and senile Perry has stumbled over from the
1988 recording of Lee Perry made in an English studio and backed up by studio musicians. For the most part this is standard late-eighties reggae fare (including a couple Marley covers: Exodus & Keep On Moving) except for the fact that Lee Perry is on the microphone - and that always has interesting results. The first track in particular is interesting, for it sounds like a toasting track from late night college radio 'Scratch' style. There's something to be said about the sound of a group of studio musicians and back up singers dutifully backing up an absolute madman... I'm just not sure the word has been invented yet.
Still at it after all these years. One of the forefathers of Reggae and Dub is back with another album. This one recorded as he neared the age of 70 in 2004 and seeing a wider release thanks to Narnack who have included a bonus disc which includes a few remixes by the likes of DJ Spooky and Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio). With Swiss group White Belly Rats as his back up band, Panic In Babylon is a record of seriously solid reggae beats and funky soulful groove but as always, the focus is on Perry's amazing ramblings, insights into and delusions of madness and brilliance. Definitely one of the best Perry records in a long while. In fact we know loads of folks half Perry's age that sound totally tired and past their prime, but here is Mr. Lee 'Scratch' Perry, well into his 70's and kicking up a serious dubbed out shitstorm and showing everyone how it's STILL done!
459-page exhaustive biography of the Upsetter himself, one of the most important figures in reggae music. Wow.
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Latest chunk of murky sonic misery from this Oklahoma one man ultradoom outfit, and while many of the releases on Black Horizons would most definitely qualify as doomy, calling PoM a 'doom metal' band might not seem like a good fit, as this is not any doom metal band, PiM's weirdly distinctive sounds is more murky creepy crawl that churning crush, the guitars are blurred muddied thrums, the drums a weirdly programmed beat that sounds like it might be more at home on a Scorn record. The vocals slipping from distant demonic howl, to haunting croon. The sound rife with strange buried samples, streaks of feedback, spidery minor key melodies, the sound, a lurching tarpit creep, a little bit skittery, an electro-doom ballad, abject and miserable, but strangely motorik and mesmerizing, and just blurred and droney enough to be tranced out and near meditative.
The B side even moreso, a strange landscape of glitchy processed low end, all murky throb and smeared crumbling bass, melting and oozing, the drums a barely audible pulse way down in the mix. It's like a weird home brewed take on Skepticism, as if you were listening to them play in the house next door, the sounds leaking through the walls, losing all definition, and instead, transformed into a strange series of impressionistic pulsations, and rib cage rattling throbs, beneath some harsh vokills, and a shimmery patina of high end skree, but again, all melted down into one oozing viscous blackdronedirge mass.
Like all Black Horizons releases, the packaging is incredible. The tape features a silver metallic label and along with a printed insert on green metallic paper, is housed in a thick obi-style sleeve, which in turn is wrapped in a black cloth patch, everything them wrapped in a silkscreened silver on green metallic O-card. And of course, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!
Killer ep from this one man US funeral avant doom outfit. The sound here veers wildly from tripped out doom-ed psychedelic experiments to moody post rocky instrumentalism to bizarre drum machine flecked drone plod, and yeah, finally to some buzz drenched bizarre doom. And bizarre it is. Of the four tracks here, only one is actually doom metal all the way through, and even then, it's fractured and fucked up and freaky as all get out. Makes sense that this was released on the same label that gave us a recent Gnaw Their Tongues release, as PiM are definitely another obtuse doom metal variant, and we LOVE it.
The opening track begins with some classical guitar, draped over distant cacophonies, and fluttery flute, glitched out electronic buzz, clouds of swirling effects, strange detuned melodies, thick slabs of corrosive buzz, anguished wails, before the second track kicks in and the band pound out a slow motion doom crawl, the distortion brittle and crumbling, the vocals in the red and hyper distorted, in fact, all the sounds are super blown out, and then near the end, some weird way up in the mix acoustic guitars drift in, as the doom pounds on beneath. Then comes a brief instrumental interlude, all gentle piano, simple guitar strum, and some obtuse, slightly out of tune slow motion leads, until the doom drops, and the song lurches woozily toward the final track, a warped dronescape, all whirring electronic low end, distorted voices transmitted beneath some rubbery bass, so detuned you can hear the strings rattling against the frets, and then out of nowhere, some super primitive drum machine surfaces, its stilted machinelike skitter, draped over the throbbing buzzing electronics below, so bizarre, and so brilliant.
We tried to order a bunch of these, but only managed to get a handful, limited to 100 copies, packaged in cool mini dvd sleeves, with full color artwork, each one hand numbered, last copies ever.
Latest blast of twisted druggy slo-mo heaviness from this Oakland outsider doomlord, whose sound seems to have reached some sort of bizarre apex with Confessions, the first song alone tells the tale, plonked funeral piano, all manner of sampled voices, the vocals a demonic shriek, the riffs blackened and buzzy, what sounds like crickets, beneath spidery minor key melodies, it's haunting and harrowing, almost like a more 'musical' Gnaw Their Tongues, the same sort of sprawling cinematic vibe, the sound weirdly industrial too, an ominous creep, that in places reminds us of Wolf Eyes.
And the whole record pretty much follow suit, like some twisted soundtrack, the sound a bleak, miserable drift through various horrifying tableaus, the voices croon, weep, howl, the piano seems to underpin it all, some mysterious bit of miserable melodicism, underpinning the grinding, buzzing blackness above, the sounds coalescing into riffs here and there, laced with spidery acoustic guitars, occasionally splintering into metallic shards, clattery and cacophony, blown out and blackened, all the while, strangely melodic, utterly haunting, definitely noisy, but muted and muddy, as if these sonic horrors were being viewed through a dirty blood smeared window, in a dilapidated old house, or through a crack in the wall of an old musty cellar. And it's almost as if all of these sounds, and all of this music, was fighting some unseen black force, an invisible hand reaching from the beyond, the music in a constant state of struggle, of anguish, the sound of a tortured soul, a sonic glimpse into the blackness that lurks beneath the everyday, a sound desperately clawing its way heavenward, while some grim force forever drags it right back down into the depths�
WAY recommended for fans of Gnaw Their Tongues, Bunkur, Celestiial, HQO, Loss, Monument Of Urns and other purveyors of bizarre bleak blackness.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!
Upon first glancing at The Undead Shall Rise, we just assumed it was, ya know, another metal record. That all changed within the first two seconds or so, and before long we realized we were being confronted by one of the most bizarre metal records we've heard in some time, and nothing could really prepare us for the utter weirdness pouring out of this record's filthy grooves, so weird in fact, that we weren't even sure what speed the record was supposed to be played at (it's 33, we decided). Closer inspection revealed that this is, in fact, a concept record about... ZOMBIES!!! YES!!! Conveniently separated into two movements, Before (Side A) and After (Side B, duh), the album plays out like a nightmarish piece of cinematic horror. Filthy, molten guitars, subsonic doom bass, and the kind of vocals that make small children cower in absolute terror weave a story of the post-Zombie apocalypse, while, not surprisingly given the theme, Italian-inspired synths swirl about like an inescapable disease ready to take you straight to hell. The intense demon croaks (or zombie croaks, more appropriately) are just about as uncomfortable and vile as you could ever hope for, and the heaps of creepy ambience and the overall spaciousness of the recording help to add a truly disconcerting vibe. While much of the record plays out as an abject, lumbering doomscape, there are other moments that almost bring to mind Neil Young's soundtrack to Dead Man. Obviously for a record about zombies to succeed, it needs to recall a certain loneliness and sense of despair - check. The record makes you feel like you have lost all sense of control as the zombies fuck shit up and make existence generally unpleasant. So, if that's your idea of a good time, you may have just found your favorite new record.
Limited to an insane 250 units, each copy of The Undead Shall Rise also comes with a hand scrawled note covered in movie blood, conveying the narrator's last moments before everything goes to shit.
In the wake of the Gravitar boxsets, Eric Cook - the drummer from the Michigan powerhouse of hypno-ferocity - offers a couple more CD-Rs of his Persona electronica side project, not included in those sets. "Fencesitter" calms down the manic Lesser / Kid 606 drill 'n' bass workouts that Cook has previously offered; rather, interlocking drum programming loops form an abstract electronica
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Eric Cook, the drummer from Michigan noisemongers Gravitar, goes on an unlikely excursion into broken electronica rhythms not unlike Aphex Twin's "Digeridoo" with a slew of more traditional drum 'n' bass breaks, all crunched together with a white-hot electric distortion. Remixes courtesy of AQ-fave Lesser, the ubiquitous Kid 606, Warn DeFever, Totemplow, and Marumari. Excellent.
In the wake of the Gravitar boxsets, Eric Cook - the drummer from the Michigan powerhouse of hypno-ferocity - offers a couple more CD-Rs of his Persona electronica side project, not included in those sets. "Splinter" is even further removed from the drill 'n' bass workouts of previous Persona releases, concentrating on metallic tonalities. Scraped and hammered percussion (gongs, pots,
Second issue of this fanzine done by notorious Nordic noisician Lasse Marhaug (Jazzkammer, etc.). Super nicely put together (it looks like a "real" magazine), but definitely a fanzine in its enthusiams... Marhaug and a few friends go one-on-one in in-depth interviews with such interesting contemporaries/colleagues as Incapacitants, Earth, FNS, Attila Csihar, Don Dietrich (of Borbetomagus), and more...
80 pages or so, squarebound, color cover, color interior (with lots of cool photos/graphics), on a nice matte paper stock, kinda like a double-size, Marhaug-curated edition of The Wire, but the content is ALL interviews (well, and ads). And the interviews are quite interesting. And go in some strange directions...
A new fave 'zine!
Third (duh) issue of this fanzine done by notorious Nordic noisician Lasse Marhaug (Jazzkammer, etc.). Super nicely put together (it looks like a "real" magazine), but definitely a fanzine in its enthusiasms... Marhaug and a few friends go one-on-one in in-depth interviews with such interesting contemporaries/colleagues as Svarte Greiner, Pumice, Phill Niblock, Graham Lambkin (of The Shadow Ring), Moe, Will Guthrie, Carl Michael Eide (of Ved Buenes Ende fame!!) and more...
96 pages or so, squarebound, color cover, color interior (with lots of cool photos/graphics - the Pumice piece is actually done in the form of a comic strip), on a nice matte paper stock, kinda like a double-size, Marhaug-curated edition of The Wire, but the content is ALL interviews (well, and ads, which are interesting too - the back page is a full page ad for an upcoming Reynols 20th anniversary 7 cd box set on Marhaug's Pica Disk label!!!). And the interviews are quite interesting. And go in some strange directions, indeed...
Still new fave 'zine, heartily recommended to anyone into experimental drones, noise, black metal, cool artwork, and other weirdness. Only five bucks more than a copy of The Wire and well worth it.
Debut issue of this fanzine done by notorious Nordic noisician Lasse Marhaug (Jazzkammer, etc.). Super nicely put together (it looks like a "real" magazine), but definitely a fanzine in its enthusiams... Marhaug and a few friends go one-on-one in indepth interviews with such contemporaries/colleagues as Oren Ambarchi, Bruce Russell (Dead C), Sissy Spacek, Sete Star Sept, C. Spencer Yeh, ARCN TEMPL, Daniel Menche, Gold Soundz label/zine, Zweizz, and more...
90 pages or so, squarebound, color cover, kinda like a double-size, Marhaug-curated edition of The Wire, but the content is ALL interviews. And the interviews are quite interesting. And go in some strange directions... We were especially amused that most of the questions in the Oren Ambarchi interview, were all about AC/DC!! And Daniel Menche gets quizzed a lot about his physical fitness.
A new fave 'zine, can't wait for issue #2.
What starts off as an angular instrumental juggling act comprised of one part circus, one part surf, one part Talking Heads, and one part jazz, eventually becomes a much less interesting all parts punk pop. Perhaps they should have stuck with their much more promising and energetic original direction? At any rate, they're certainly not a long-winded bunch, taking care of business in
We heart Bo Anders Persson! What a hero. Still going strong well into (and beyond?) his sixties, leading a band that's been around in one form or another more or less SINCE the sixties - we're talking about the those joyful psychedelic heavies, legendary Swedish "krautrockers", the timeless Trad Gras Och Stenar, and the group's prior incarnations as International Harvester, Harvester, and Parson Sound. The amazing archival release of Parson Sound's Terry Riley inspired drone-psych, circa 1967-'68, was until now the earliest music we'd heard from Bo Anders. But what was he up to even before that? We know that as a guitar player, he was hugely influenced by seeing Jimi Hendrix. But this new disc of his earliest, previously unreleased recordings, brought to us by the same label that did the Parson Sound set, shows a different side to Persson, being a portrait of the artist as a young academic composer. Persson has tape machines in hand, not an electric guitar. It's some wonderfully droney, avant garde 20th century classical music, from before Persson heard Hendrix and got into more rock-oriented music making. The experimental nature of these compositions however is in keeping with the adventurous direction of Parson Sound, et.al., later on.
These pieces, recorded when Persson was a student at the Royal Academy Of Music In Stockholm, from 1965 to '67, constitute a mixture of eerie drones, minimalist electronic loopscapes, and, at times, what we might describe as beatnik sci-fi exotica. There's a female singer on much of this who provides wordless, abstract vocal acrobatics (she's good - this type of singing requires a lot of control), her delicate cries variously accompanied by fluttering flute and unidentified electro-acoustic noises, jazzbo hand percussion and equally jazzical contrabass, as well as the ever-present shivering electronic atmospheres. It's all very out-there, but still quite listenable, even as it sometimes gets darker and more dramatic, almost claustrophobic in its subtle intensity. We kept being reminded of some of the music from the original Star Trek TV series soundtrack! Also, Luigi Nono and Luciano Berio, composers like that. We're no experts, but this sounds pretty good to us, and we'd guess Persson could have continued on with a highbrow career as an arty musique concrete composer, if radical hippie communal psych sounds hadn't become his thing.
Our favorite track may be the last, the disc's longest at over 24 minutes - a rhythmic abstract dronescape constructed from a short sampled bit of speech, that as it's looped and layered becomes more blurred and burbling, turning into a mesmeric mumbled murmur. Nice! Dronophiles will want this for that track, "Proteinimperialism", alone.
Includes a booklet, with vintage photos & graphics and extensive liner notes (in the form of an essay entitled "The Utopian Dreams of Bo Anders Persson") Note: there's a much more expensive double-lp vinyl version of this as well, currently on backorder, but we will be able to get more eventually if you're interested, let us know!
In a relatively short period of time, Ty Segall has developed a totally recognizable style of super blown out garage punk that we just can't seem to get enough of. And a lot of you must feel the same, cuz the records keep pouring out and selling like crazy.
So it was quite fitting that when we first played this in the store a customer immediately asked "So what Ty Segall project is this?" and he was right on, because even though the Perverts are even more in-the-red and fucked up and punk sounding than Segall's other records, it still has his immediately noticeable rad guitar playing and wild vocals all over it. We dig how Segall is following in the tradition of old school punk and the early days of vintage garage rock where folks would put out singles almost every month, and have a billion different side-projects. Lucky for us everything he's been doing is sounding so great so we say, go ahead and keep on being the hardest working man in blown out garage rock!
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Pretty much as soon as we heard this, we knew it was going to be Record Of The Week, and not just black metal record of the week. In the past, Peste Noire seems to have always been unfairly categorized as an Amesoeurs / Alcest sideproject (we plead guilty of that as well) due not only to the presence of Neige, the mastermind behind both Amesoeurs and Alcest, but the seemingly shared membership between all three bands, and while Neige did no doubt contribute much to Peste Noire's sound, it seems Peste Noire was much more the brainchild of only remaining original member, Famine, whose other main musical outlet is the almost equally twisted Valfunde, and as if to prove the validity of the above claim, has assembled an almost entirely new lineup (although Audrey from Amesoeurs contributes some vocals) and cobbled together the most damaged, most fucked up, most gloriously bizarre Peste Noire record yet. Which if you've heard any of the other records is definitely saying something!
The record is weirdly arranged, five proper songs, with 2 minute or shorter song fragments and interludes, some that play like proper songs themselves, only truncated, others that act as intros or just totally tweaked unhinged sound experiments, but somehow, songs and non-songs alike hold together beautifully, and bafflingly, the band having created some sort of crusty, blackened, melancholy, depressive French folk flecked classic metal.
The intro begins with sizzling shimmering cymbals, simple percussion, eventually joined by beautiful ethereal female vocals, as well as some raspy blackened not-really-harmony vocals, then the riff comes in, and damn if it isn't a riff from Star Wars, but super distorted and blown out, pounding, crusty, epic and majestic, the rasped vocals over a haunting military sounding speech. And then straight into the first 'proper' track, which begins as some sort of sea shanty like French folk song, but with the addition of some hellish black vokills, you can almost imagine a table full of French soldiers, and one dripping slimy otherworldy beast, all singing along, glasses raised to the sky. Then in comes a very classic sounding metal riff, but the guitars muted and woozy, the tempo lurching and seasick, all manner of different vocals, crooning, shrieking, howling, then an awesomely weird squiggly bit of low end, super tripped out and psychedelic but somehow subtle and buried in the mix. Guitars soar and sing and jangle, wrapped around equally dramatic vocals, a total French folk crust anthem.
The follow up track begins all dark acoustic guitars and birdsong, martial percussion, eventually exploding into a super buzzy distorted march, pounding away, midtemp and melancholy, before returning to a super gorgeous, hauntingly depressive gothic crust almost-ballad, blackened and distorted, but also post rocky and strangely emotional and moving.
The 'interludes' include some warped and warbly haunted house piano, doused in hiss and crackle, ghostly female vocals drifting amidst the warm whir, sinister laughter, squalls of maniacal shrieks, dueling male / female vocals, almost operatic, soon joined again by that monstrous blackened croak, warm woozy calliopes, soundtracky keyboards and the sound of storms, tons of reverb and delay, tape hiss and softly crumbling distortion, all creating perfect segues between loping depressive midtempo blackened post metal lurch, super blown out in the red almost D-beat pounding buzz, those vocals transforming from hellish howl to deep moan, there's even some wheezing harmonica, all leading up to the final track, "Soleils Couchants", which begins with birdsong again, and an awesomely angular and beautifully twisted guitar part, paired up with a gorgeous minor key harmony, before slipping into a moody downtuned creep, complete with weird frog like vocals, and a looped bit of beeps and chirps, total post-doom weirdness, literally like nothing you've ever heard, it sounds a little like that first part of the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride at Disneyland, where you're just floating through the dark bayou, lit only but slivers of moonlight and the flickering light of fireflies, it's like a soundtrack to that, swampy and doomy and mysterious, until the band launches into a strangely melodic black doom midtempo jam, the guitars minor key, multiple vocals merging into raspy otherworldly harmonies, before breaking down into a long stretch of just guitars and vocals, the guitars twisted and spidery but still melodic, the voices tortured but super passionate, yet again infusing the fucked up twisted blackness with pathos and emotion, keeping it from being weird for weird's sake, this is something else entirely. What sounds like a child's voice joins in, twisted around that hellish vokill, all draped over a gorgeously catchy riff, reminding us a bit of Katatonia or Lifelover, before spiraling and sprawling into a seriously melodic blackened post rock jam, and then finally returning to the doomy lurch that began the song some seven minutes earlier.
Peste Noire have (again) managed the seemingly impossible, creating a record both totally twisted and damaged, but also lovely and moving and melodic, a record that ranks up there in our pantheon of most bizarre and fucked up black metal records ever, while somehow appealing to even the not so metal inclined, a confusional mix of black and crust and pop and folk, all twisted and tangled up and forced through Peste Noire's cracked musical sensibilities, the result, a record fucked up and fantastical, and this review not withstanding, almost impossible to describe.
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We have been totally obsessed with French black metallers Amesoeurs, from the second we first heard their debut ep (and only proper release), Ruines Humaines, absolutely one of our favorite black metal records ever, a disc of glistening, My Bloody Valentine like buzz rife with strangely melodic indie rock jangle and occasional female vocals, all wrapped in sonic spikes and buzzing guitars and blasting beats, a bliss pop disc in black metal clothing if there ever was one. In reviewing that disc we mentioned that there were various other related bands we were feverishly trying to track down, one was the even less metal, and more blissed out Alcest (whose debut cd is out of print, but whose brand new full length should be out soon) and the super demented, slightly more typically black metal Peste Noire. Now, when we say "slightly more typically black metal", it's all relative, by any other standards, and compared to any other BM bands, Peste Noire is anything but typical, but compared to the relative poppiness of Alcest and Amesoeurs, this stuff is as black as it gets.
We had been trying to track down their debut for ages, but since it took so long, a brand new full length dropped in the meantime, this disc right here, so we figured we oughta start with this and work our way back. We do have the first record in stock, and it's just as amazing and fucked up and freaked out and absolutely recommended as essential, so if you want this one, odds are you're gonna need that one too (so just ask), but just so you know what you're getting into, let's investigate the bizarre soundworld of France's Peste Noire....
The problem is, it's really hard to describe just what the heck Peste Noire sounds like. They are definitely black metal, but the arrangements are so bizarre, and often not very black, everything is fuzzy and off kilter and distorted, dizzying and haunting and creepy, stumbling and whatthefuck as often as heavy or buzzing.
Take the opening track, some sort of crumbling distorted soundscape, lots of fuzz and hiss, plenty of reverb and druggy murk, industrial percussion and washed out ambience, some super beautiful clean guitar, that fragments into fractured weirdness over which harsh blackened vocals howl and shriek, the guitars eventually growing more and more distorted and FX drenched, while all around swirl strange sounds and demonic voices. But then the second track kicks in and things settle down for the most part. A relentless black buzz, but not typical in any way, a sort of old school thrash, but all twisted and tangled, the guitars are all over the place, the background is a constant wash of fuzzy roar, while up front, the main riff is sharp and angular. The vocals are a hateful hissy howl, the drums a stumbling blast, but amidst all this chaos are bits of perfect poppiness, killer melodies, amazing (and unlikely grooves), super hooky and catchy, but in a way that seems impossible. Within three minutes, Peste Noire go from buzzy blast, to dreamy melodic drift to midtempo groove to lumbering doom, but always imbued with a strange pop sensibility and always wrapped in all manner of fucked up sounds and damaged production.
Some bands are obviously 'fucked', the drums a crumbling mess, the recording quality ultra shitty, the mix all over the map with LOUD drums or super inaudible guitars, we love that stuff, but Peste Noire is fucked in a completely different way, listening to this, you can tell these guys are amazing musicians, and have an absolutely solid idea of what they're trying to do, It's just that what they're trying to do would never occur to anyone in their right mind, Which is exactly what makes their music so compelling and so totally mind blowingly bizarre.
As with all music, metal in particular, it's all about the riffs, and thus the guitars, and the guitars here are fucking amazing, sometimes spun into crystalline melodies, delicate and sparkling, other times super dense downtuned buzz, occasionally weird and angular and super mathy, the quality of the guitar sound too is ridiculously varied, from clean and clear, to muddy and murky, often at the same time, and always in the same song. At some points it almost sounds like these guys were mad musical alchemists who took two different records and crammed them together creating some unholy sonic beast, poppy and catchy, but bleak and brutal and demented, an unnatural blackened buzzing freakshow of sound, but always as beautiful as it is fucked up.
The whole record is peppered with non musical weirdness too. The extended intro of "Maleicon", an extended rant in French, growled and spat out over a backdrop of moans and drones, or the brief "Extrait Radiophonique", which sounds like a crackly record of maniacal screams, tolling bells, and all sorts of slamming and banging, but somehow even those parts all essential to the demented and damaged vision that is FolkFuck Folie.
Definitely another contender for black metal record of the year!!
Includes a bonus track, an older track from a split with Finnish black metallers Horna (not out yet at the time of this list), which is way more black than the rest of the record, but is just as weird and amazing. Packaged with a huge booklet of lyrics, photos, liner notes, drawings and plenty of other strangeness.
A while back, it seemed like everyone, ourselves included, was totally obsessed with a French black metaller called Neige. Doesn't ring a bell? How about his shoegazey post-black metal outfit Alcest? Or his fuzzy black metal gone bliss pop combo Amesoeurs? His fracutured new wave black metal combo Valfunde? Or even his more 'traditional' black metal outfit Peste Noire? Yep, you got it now.
Been a while since we've heard from Neige, since then, he joined another 'dark metal' band, and he's also joined long time aQ faves Forgotten Woods. While that's pretty exciting, and we're always up for hearing more of what Neige has to offer. We also sort of wish he'd just cut down on the various side projects, so we wouldn't have to wait nearly as long for a new Amesoeurs, Alcest or Peste Noire record.
But while we wait patiently, we can now revisit the first Peste Noire full length, with the unwieldy title La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence, finally reissued! We've been dying to list this, but until now we haven't been able to get enough. Above we call Peste Noire Neige's more traditional black metal group, but that designation is really relative, as the music of Peste Noire, while being black and buzzy and heavy and grim, is also totally tweaked, fractured and fucked up, rife with all manner of whatthefuck, from gorgeous sweeping melodies, to strange samples, so completely confusional arrangements, to bits of liturgical music mixed into the buzz, to some serious pop tendencies. But somehow it all works. That is if by works, you mean, constitutes one of the most awesomely fucked up lo-fi melodic outsider black metal records ever!! We raved about the latest Peste Noire a while back, the awesomely titled FolkFuck Folie, and everything we loved about that record (also just reissued) is present here as well, but if anything, all of those things are just, well, MORE. More fucked up, more freaked out, more melodic, more lo-fi.
Just take the opener, "Nous Sommes Fanes", begins with some record crackle, before the band lurches into a weird drunken waltz, sounding more like the Reeks And The Wrecks than any black metal. The guitars and drums swing woozily, the drums and cymbals super blown out, over the top, an ultra distorted guitar spins a web of damaged leads, before slipping into a strange moody post rocky drift, replete with big boomy reverb drenched chords. But then the second track kicks in, and we're back in more recognizable black metal territory, and even though it's buzzy and black, it is incredibly melodic, poppy almost, the melodies soaring and epic, the track is peppered with blasts of blasting grimness for sure, a bit of a crusty punk vibe all tangled up with the buzzing blackness, but even when the song is blasting blackly, close listening reveals all manner of melodic weirdness going on beneath the surface, and it doesn't stay below the surface for long, as the song shifts into loping minor key almost-dirge, before finish up how it started, with that strangely emotional super melodic soaring blackened buzz.
And so it goes, the band lurching from midtempo lope to roaring furious blast, to almost doomy plod, all strangely muddy and murky, the various parts twisted and gnarled into something totally unique. The guitars are incredibly varied, going from Ved Buens Ende like Slint-worship, to filthy Darkthrone-d crunch, to gorgeous almost folky finger picking, some serious moments of Opeth-y flutter peppered amidst the crusty blackness.
The second to last track "Dueil Angoisseus (Christine De Pisan, 1362-1431)" is all gorgeously bleak and buzzy, midtempo and melancholy, but then draped over the top is super clean, classical guitar, way up in the mix, that gives the track the strangest vibe, makes it sound strangely pretty. Finally, the disc finishes off with "Des Medecins Malades Et Des Saints Sequestres", which begins with a tangle of effects drenched hammer-ons, unfurling a haunting, off kilter melody, the drums a distant lo-fi pound, when the song kicks in, it's almost eighties metal, albeit filtered through a grim French black metal lens, but the riffing, so classic, and so cool sounding when cloaked in a filthy production and that demonic rasp. But this song too, shifts into some strange other space, and is suddenly
infused with what sounds like a wall of whirring organs, those hammer-ons return, and the song is some strange minor key doom pop epic, that flits back and forth between that eighties riffing, super distorted, and that sprawling metallic poppiness, before transforming into a blaze of super effected metallic chug, finishing off with a strange super distorted almost-jig (!), the drums huge and pounding, while the guitar plucks out a strange distorted melody, much like the opening track.
Needless to say (funny how we always say that after SAYing it for several thousand words), this is one of our favorite black metal records ever. Fucked up, but black and heavy, poppy and hook filled, but still grim and buzzy, if you loved FolkFuck Folie, you'll love this, if you dig Amesoeurs and Alcest but want to hear that sound dipped in filth and painted black, well then this will definitely do the trick. If this was brand new and had just come out, it would be, without a doubt, one of our records of the year (not just black metal either), but as it is, this is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL AND RECOMMENDED!
It seems like every time there's a new Peste Noire record we make it Record Of The Week. Which only seems strange until you actually hear it. And hear how fucked up and totally bafflingly brilliant it is. With every record Peste Noire seem to move further and further away from the grim black metal that birthed them, but to be fair, no one in Peste Noire has spent much time playing what anyone might consider 'typical' black metal, especially mainman Famine, now rechristened La Sale Famine De Valfunde, who used to play in Alcest. Though we should note he took extreme umbrage when we suggested that Alcest / Ameseours mainman Neige had anything to do with the music of Peste Noire, which is also surprising considering that one member of Alcest and one member of Ameseours are also members of Peste Noire and we assume do contribute musically. But really, none of that matters as much as the very very strange sounds these folks create, and the fact that metalheads still dig it. In fact, we're constantly perplexed by certain bands that for no good reason remain beloved to even the truest grimmest metalheads. To be fair, Peste Noire, for all their twisted sonic proclivities, are still masterful black metallers, it's just that those blasts of brilliant black metal are often separated by strange accordion driven French folk music or some twisted bit of confusional psychedelia. Which brings us to L'Ordure A L'Etat Pur, the latest, and yes, perhaps greatest from these French misanthropes. And as always, it only takes the first track, a shot across the bow, to reveal their true intentions, as twisted and unlikely as they may be.
The sound of wind and rain, of crashing surf, distant foghorns, underpinning some reverbed clean guitar, riffs ringing out over these sounds of the sea, a second guitar adds some melody, and there seems to be a wolf howling, or a voice imitating a wolf, there are tolling bells too, and the beginning of what sounds like it could be a jig, or some sort of gypsy folk, maniacal rambling vocals surface, the guitars growing more distorted, the sound tense and dramatic and growing moreso, before no not launching into furious black buzz, but instead some sort of shuffling post rocky groove, the vocals unhinged and maniacal, wrapped around a chugging riff, and some simple propulsive drumming, not so much metal as rock, and then the sound does erupt into a kind of blackness, soaring and droney but before full blackness is achieved, it returns to that sort of sea shanty that opened the proceedings, and the howling wolf returns. Some double kick drumming ups the ante, and finally, the song lurches into more metal territory, but again, more sort of blackened rock, like Khold than Darkthrone, with some seriously catchy riffs, and then, HORNS, moaning ominously, adding some cool texture, and giving the song a sort of "Tusk" vibe, until the metal peels away completely, leaving just horns and acoustic guitar, a sort of oompa oompa polka, with a trombone playing the main melody. Oh yeah, and some accordion. We're in full on French street music territory now, and then the metal guitars swoop back in, as do the vokills, but now they're playing a killer metallized version of that polka, with some strange trilled vocal harmonies and some weird droned out guitars, which suddenly stop, leaving just the sounds of what sounds like sword fighting, and the song shifts gears again, bursting into an almost ska sounding punkish sprawl, only to moments later shift again into a gnarled bit of noise rock, and it's right back into the oompa oompa metalized ska, the vocals transforming into a sort of goregrind gurgle, the music stopping briefly to reveal the sounds of a barnyard, all chickens and roosters, then when the music kicks back in, the vocals simulate the sounds of chickens, Famine singing variations of "Ba-kaaaw", before finishing off in a killer mathy tangle of dynamic chug and pound.
And that's just the first song. And fear not, we won't go through every song here part by part, although we could, and reading this without listening would make this new Peste Noire sound like thee most bizarre record EVER, and heck, maybe it is, but impossibly, it also sort of works, in a dizzying, whatthefuck sort of way.
The rest of the record does offer more surprises, as well as some more traditional black metal, but even at its most buzzy and blasty, the sound will splinter into some strange super distorted can-can, guitars will suddenly unfurl wild squiggles of high end, the sound suddenly devolving into a sort of effects heavy progged out swirl that then transforms into a pounding almost industrial crunch, wreathed in more moaning horns, or a fight will seem to break out in the middle of the song, shattering glass, sirens, all while the song continues to chug and churn, the sound slipping easily from dark, gnarled crusty pound to woozy meandery clean guitar post rock and then to glistening soaring sonic majesty, only to have a chorus of weirdly chanted vocals surface and totally change the vibe to more of a stein hoisting sing along. The blasting buzz here tends less toward the grim blur of classic black metal and more toward a sort of goofy gallop, but one that suits the band more than the other ever would, and amidst all this weirdness, PN can whip out a stretch of impossible beauty or extreme blackened bliss, the sort of parts you want to go on forever, but in the ADD world of Peste Noire, those moments are fleeting, and will soon be subsumed by some new, stranger sound. Elements of power metal abound, but like all of the other musics bastardized here, it becomes just another twisted / fractured facet of Peste Noire's bizarre musical universe. All culminating in the beautifully mournful slow core doom of closer "La Condi Hu", a creeping lament, heavy and distorted, but darkly melodic and melancholy, laced with clean hushed vocal harmonies, but then you couldn't have expected that to be all, in swoop some sad sad strings, some chugging guitars, building to a minor key bit of blackened post metal, and unlike the rest of the record, nothing gets super weird, the band remain heavy, the music tense and dramatic and emotional, continuing to build, the sound intense and moving, laced with mysterious proggy sections, cool female vocal harmonies, dense intricate drumming, there's even a cool wild sort-of-drum solo, with the drums spitting our an avalanche of beats, beneath spoken female vox, which leads right into a super gorgeous stretch of minor key, slithery bass driven heaviness, that any band would kill for, but these guys leave for last, letting the sound wind down, and displaying without a doubt, that there is some sort of method to Peste Noire's extreme and utter musical madness.
Ever since we listed the Amesoeurs record a while back (and actually even before) we've been trying to track down records by two related bands, the equally blissed out black bliss combo Alcest, and the much more primitive and black Peste Noire. While we've been unable to track down either cd, we did manage to get a bunch of copies of this brand new Peste Noire lp, one side featuring 4 songs from a rehearsal, the actual versions of which will be on the upcoming full length, while the B-side is a sidelong black buzz epic recorded a couple years ago.
Nothing about Amesoeurs will prepare you for Peste Noire. There is a similar melodic sensibility, but beyond that, it's a whole different beast. The four new tracks are killers, and for rehearsal tracks sound amazing, so much so that most bands would be pretty happy with the versions here, loud and heavy and recorded super hot. The forthcoming full length on which these songs will appear is to be titled Folkfuck Folie just for a brief glimpse into the twisted minds behind the music. Things begin with a weirdly majestic and martial intro, with complex drums and strange arrangements, almost like some medieval carnival music, before bursting into full on furious blackness, buzzy and relentless, but even in the blasting things are slightly off kilter, damaged and demented sounding, and very very melodic, mathy and complex, super harsh vocals over the top but they can hardly disguise how utterly hooky these songs are. In fact, after hearing Amesoeurs and Peste Noire and Alcest, it seems to be these guys' M.O., write killer pop songs, amazing hooks, unforgettable melodies, then try to disguise them as best they can as buzzing black metal. It never works completely, which is why this stuff is so remarkable. Some of the songs have tons of syncopated chug, giving the songs an almost proggy vibe, almost like some weird mix of Emperor and Voivod. Blooping bass, cascading sheets of guitar and gorgeous minor key melodies. Can't wait for the new record. If these are only sketches, we can hardly fathom how freaked out and amazing the actual songs are gonna be.
The B-side is an older recording and is much more rough and lo-fi, raw and blown out. Lots of reverb and effects, but still rife with plenty of surprising melodic breakdowns, impossible catchy and lovely for something this black and raw. It gets even weirder near the end, with a long stretch of scratchy record crackle and monklike chants, and then a super pretty laid back acoustic outro. So amazing. Everything these guys touch turns to black gold!
Packaged in a super striking black and white sleeve, band photos and liner notes on the back, including the legend 'Hooligan Black Metal' that seems to make almost no sense when paired with the music inside...
Vinyl only, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Okay black metal freeks and fanatics. We've all been going apeshit for everything and anything from the super tangled and inbred French micro-scene that spawned Alcest, Amesoeurs, Mortifera, Valfunde and of course Peste Noire, and we had been trying to track down enough of these double cassettes to finally list, and obviously we did, but odds are these will FLY out of here, and as we're not sure how limited these actually are, and how long it will take to get more, if indeed we can, please be prepared to maybe be disappointed, or very patient as we try to get more.
We reviewed Peste Noire's second full length FolkFuck Folie a while back, and the Lorraine rehearsal lp, both were amazing, stumbling chaotic, filthy fucked up blackness, and these two tapes are no different. If anything, they're more raw, and more gritty and blown out. Lo-fi and ultrablack. The first track is so fast it almost sounds like it was recorded at the wrong speed. But much like the records proper, the sound lurches from furious black blasts to stumbling midtempo buzz, to plodding almost-doom, but even on these early ultra lo-fi recordings, the mood and vibe is already in place, haunting and creepy, demented and freaked out, borderline psychedelic at times. Noisy as fuck, crumbling and super distorted, everything painted a washed out black, grime-y but at times weirdly melodic and blissy.
Collects pretty much all of Peste Noire's recordings outside of their 2 proper cds and the rehearsal lp (including their problematically titled 2001Aryan Supremecy demo, which seems out of character since according to Encyclopedia Metallum, their lyrical focus is on "Aesthetics of Evil, Medieval Demons and Decadent Poetry") including a couple unreleased bonus tracks. But probably, unless you're a crazy obsessed tape trader, you haven't heard any of this stuff anyway.
Needless to say, WAY recommended, and again, probably super limited, so act fast.
Cool packaging too, two cassettes, laid side by side in a small printed black cardboard box, with two inserts, old demo covers on one side, liner notes on the other.
