TIM HECKER - APONDALIFA [2010]

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BONGRIPPER - HEROIN [2002]

"Bongripper is an Experimental Doom band from Chicago started in 2005. They released “The Great Barrier Reefer” in 2006. which was one track, 79 mins and 27 secs long.
Their second full length “Hippie Killer” was released on June 20, 2007. It is 79 mins and 59 secs long, but separated in 10 tracks. Also, in 2007, they released a noise drone album sans drums entitled, “Heroin.” It was initially limited to 25 with the special edition “Heroin Kit” complete with shooting up materials.
Bongripper’s fourth album, “Hate Ashbury” was released on April 23, 2008. A 65 minute song comprised of dirty heavy doom, drone and noise.
Also, Bongripper collaborated with Chicago noise band, Winters in Osaka for a 3” CD in 2008 entitled “Meat Ditch”." LAST.FM
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BLACK DICE - BEACHES AND CANYONS [2002]

"New York City is a laser light show. It is everything you could conjure, juvenile and immediate, like the overblown store-bought psychedelia of Pink Floyd: mall and science museum culture. Like a proudly brandished tie-dyed t-shirt, Black Dice dances and hums its way from a Phish concert crowd straight to the Knitting Factory by avoiding the funk, amping the jams, and turning up the volume.
Black Dice's Beaches and Canyons is full of spaced-out planetarium moments, drenched in high-pitched squeals and thunderous low end. "Seabird" is a tone poem: the repeated sound/image of flight and wings is warped until only creaks remain. Repetitive knob-turning seems to conjure animals who appear to be fighting. The frogs always win.
The album generally tends to eschew pounding hardcore rhythms, employing beats in unique and clever ways throughout the compositions to keep them vital. The drums are very effective throughout in their ability to add presence to the ongoing loops, adding a pounding heart to the web of tortured sounds and affected melodies. While the violence seems to be almost entirely washed away from their previous efforts, the impressive aspect of this LP is its ability to translate the live show for which the Black Dice is primarily known into a private show-- an ideal recording. These songs seem more like juxtapositions, blueprints, instructions.
With Beaches and Canyons, Black Dice fully embrace the chanting, pounding and moaning of the Grateful Dead: lovin' the jam. These songs, all of which I've heard played live in the past six or so months, are imminently changeable, fluid, and interesting. The songs reveal themselves in subtle ways, hiding their identities for minutes at a time, then briefly reappearing as themselves throughout the song, as a slightly repeating pattern or token sound. The songs go out of and back into themselves in a manner similar to John Coltrane's late-era renditions of "My Favorite Things": the crowd in Japan, stunned by an hour-long take on Rodgers & Hammerstein, suddenly remember what they're enjoying when the theme returns as a slurred parade of squeaked notes.
"The Dream is Going Down" is Black Dice at its evocative best. At the end, the song breaks down, like any good trip, into its most primal elements: Hisham pounds away on the drums, Aaron hums and half-sings through thick delay while Bjorn and Eric shriek and wail on guitar, voice, and effects. "Big Drop" points to Black Dice's most violent impulses, spreading seven or eight grindcore melodies over the course of nearly 17 minutes. It seems to be all beach here, too-- ebbing, flowing, and following the water. The screams are balanced with falsetto moaning, which falls into itself, collapsing, canyoning, ending.
"Endless Happiness" is a mess of recorder sounds and chiming, ring-modulated guitar, as well as the heavy bass swells for which Aaron is known. The percussion kicks in halfway through the track, and the recorder begins to sound Ayler-esque while the modulations and bass swells stay constant. The loops reach a frantic pace before dying, leaving a bed of static dry air. Air is overcome by water, and the end of the track is a thorough brain-cleaning, a nice and clear literal representation of the 'beaches' component. The collage of water samples lasts for several minutes-- a lucid translation from thought into music of a serenity Black Dice rarely acheive.
Black Dice have managed to create an album that properly illustrates the changing nature of their sound. Many groups have found this extremely difficult to achieve on tape, often sticking to formulas in the studio while limiting their experiments to live shows. Beaches and Canyons is an intense document of Black Dice's evolution-- cycling through styles and equipment like they're simple and meaningless tools, eyes on the goal of reorganizing sound and transforming it through sheer volume." PITCHFORK


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ASVA - FUTURISTS AGAINSTS THE OCEAN [2005]

"For those who are paying attention to the doom metal scene, Futurist's Against the Ocean sells itself without one note being heard. Just look at who is involved and their pedigree: G. Stuart Dahlquist from Sunn 0))) on bass, B.R.A.D. from Burning Witch on drums and vocals, and Trey Spruance from Mr. Bungle on guitar, piano, and tubular bells. Rounding out the lineup is John Schuller from Master Musicians of Bukkake on guitar, Jessika Kenney from Gamelan Pacifica on vocals, and Troy Swanson on organ. If that was not enough to get the salivary glands pumping, Billy Anderson is behind the producer's desk like he was for High on Fire, Sleep, and Melvins. For those familiar with the names, Asva's sound should come as no surprise. But where other avant-metal supergroups (Fantômas, for example, or Tomahawk) don't deliver on their promise, Asva takes a glorious heavy racket, removed from the regular tropes of the doom scene enough to make both this group and this album something really special. The opening track, "Kill the Dog, Tie Them Up, Then Take the Money," is the most conventional track, moving at a glacial pace, with guitars inching from one note to the next, almost as if the metallic drone of the amps were playing through the guitars, and not the other way around. But by track three, "Fortune," the ambience has taken over, and the metal melts away. Droning organ, loping bass, and spiders-on-the-fretboard guitar scrapings set the scene for Kenney's vocals. More operatic (think Diamanda Galás) than tortured (like Khanate's Alan Dubin), Kenney's pure tones are easier on the ear than the scene-standard barked whisper/growling. This leads right into the epic closer, "By the Well of Living and Seeing," which melds the ambience of "Fortune" and the droning assault of "Kill the Dog" to Kenney's multi-tracked chanting vocals and a guitar straight out of an Ennio Morricone score. It is a perfect summation of the album, and Asva's sound in general: operatic ambient western doom metal, to pin words on it. Recommended heartily for those interested in the avant-metal scene." AMG

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KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - PLAYTHROUGHS [2002]

"The first full album that prolific, multifaceted electronic composer Keith Fullerton Whitman released under his birth name (following 2001's 21:30 for Acoustic Guitar, but also several releases by his breakcore/drill'n'bass alias Hrvåtski, among others) contains five similar-sounding, decidedly minimal extended drone pieces. The entire album consists of nothing but processed guitar tone, though since the guitar is all but imperceptible as a point of origin for this music, the emphasis is squarely on "process" and "tone." The process, which involves running a guitar-generated signal (not the actual guitar sound) through a carefully arranged sequence of programmed Max/MSP modules, effects pedals, and other signal processors, is described in loving detail by Whitman, at heart a true academic, on his website. For the vast majority of potential listeners, of course, the explanation is just that -- academic -- but, unlikely though it may seem, this is an album that richly deserves many listeners, because the tones it contains are nothing short of breathtaking in their beauty and simplicity. There's not a whole lot on the surface to differentiate these five pieces, but each eventually reveals a discernible identity. Opener "track3a (2waynice)," the shortest and simplest, sets the tone with a glacial, gradually mutating collection of warm, lucid, harmonious drones. "Feedback zwei" introduces slightly more movement and progression with a subtle, cyclical pulsation, occasional points of feedback, and a slowly building field of muted, engulfing static. "ACGTR SVP" stands out as perhaps the most distinct, with its dense accumulation of tones and slightly buzzy, organ-like texture, while both "fib01a" and "modena" return to the placid drones of the opener, embellishing their steady hum with gentle, burbling, vaguely aqueous fluctuations. It's difficult to qualitatively distinguish Playthroughs from much of the ambient, drone-based music that's out there, although it does have a conspicuously unpretentious and inviting quality -- a sense of openness that must be ascribed to the unabashed consonance it retains (there are strikingly few instances of true dissonance to be found here) in spite of its constantly shifting harmonic content, which creates the sense of a continual unfolding or blossoming. It's equally hard to comprehend the evocative and emotional effect of this music, and harder still to describe it: it seems to function on a fundamentally different, precognitive level. But simply put: this is some of the most soothing, stimulating, and spellbinding sound that has ever been put to plastic. Without doubt, a masterpiece of modern minimalism. Emphatically recommended." AMG

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WILLIAM BASINSKI - THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS I-IV [2001, 2003]

"William Basinski (Houston, 1958), a New York-based classically-trained clarinetist and saxophonist, specializes in compositions for loops and drones. He began experimenting with compositions for piano and tape that created a melancholy ambience via looped and overdubbed melodies with Variations - A Movement in Chrome Primitive (1980), released on Variations - A Movement in Chrome Primitive (Durtro, 2002 - Die Stadt, 2004), and A Red Score in Tile (1979), released on A Red Score in Tile (3 Poplars, 2003).
Shortwave Music (1982), some of which appear on Shortwave Music (Noton, 1998), processed and assembled snippets of radio broadcasts to produce atmospheres at the border between musique concrete and ambient music. The River (1983), collected on the double-disc The River (Noton, december 2002), was the most mature expression of “shortwave music”.
Melancholia (Durtro, 2003 - 2062, 2005) collects more loop-based vignettes from the 1980s, closer in feeling and scope to Erik Satie and Brian Eno.
During the 1980s, Basinski often played saxophone during multimedia performances, and was a member of the Gretchen Langheld Ensemble, which later evolved into House Afire. In 1989 he opened his own loft for the creative arts, nicknamed “Arcadia”. Throughout the 1990s he refined his song-cycle Hymns of Oblivion. In 1997, Basinski launched his performance-art act Beautifying America. He also formed the electronic ensemble Life on Mars. Basinski has also created videos and films, notably the “ambient film” Fountain (2000)." LAST.FM

THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS I
THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS II
THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS III
THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS IV

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THOMAS KÖNER - LA BARCA [2009]

"Glacial soundscaping, glorious arctic ambience, heavy bass. best heard on headphones or a gigantic sound system. or in a cave.
Thomas Köner, born 1965, attended the music college in Dortmund and studied electronic music at the CEM-Studio in Arnhem. Until 1994 he worked with film sound as sound engineer. He extended his concept of sound colour to moving images, resulting in video installations and film works. 2000 the Montreal International Festival New Cinema New Media awarded him the “New Media Prize”. 2004 the Prix Ars Electronica awarded him the “Golden Nica”, and he was awarded the “Produktionspreis WDR / Deutscher Klangkunst-Preis” (german sound art award). His media installation “Suburbs Of The Void” received the Transmediale 2005 award in Berlin and was presented at La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro La Fenice as a live performance in the same year. Köners video “Nuuk” received the Tiger Cub Award (best short film) during the International Filmfestival Rotterdam 2005.
While studying, he dedicated himself to intensive sound research in the recording studio. His first impulse consisted in avoiding rhythm and melody and focusing instead on the phenomenon of sound colour. To intensify the experience of sound, he decided to work with other media, resulting at first in the collaboration with film artist Jürgen Reble and the live performance Alchemie (1992). Following this, he started to compose film soundtracks and electronic live music to accompany old silent films for the Louvre Museum and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris." LAST.FM

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HORSEBACK - THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN [2009]

"Jenks Miller’s psychedelic/drone project, Horseback, produced an avant-garde sleeper-hit with 2007’s Impale Golden Horn (Burly Time Records/Holidays for Quince Records). That record, which Aquarius Records’ review staff tentatively described as “the best drone record of the year” upon its release, boasted four lengthy tracks, each one a vibrant, kaleidoscopic journey toward a manic, inevitable nirvana. More melodic and accessible than most noise records and noisier than most dream-pop records, Horseback’s debut carved itself a niche somewhere between Merzbow and Stars of the Lid, offering a refreshing sound to fans across many sub-genres of psychedelic music.
Horseback toured in the fall of 2007 with Meisha/Arco Flute Foundation/New American Folk Hero visionary Mike Tamburo, including a stop at the fourth-annual Arthur Magazine-curated Million Tongues Festival in Chicago."

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BELONG - OCTOBER LANGUAGE [2006]

"Very much in the vein of Fennesz and others carrying the torch of guitar experimentation from Kevin Shields, Belong's debut record isn't a series of recordings made to be played piece by piece at random intervals. October Language is very much an album designed to be listened to from start to finish; slowly evolving and unraveling one sheet of distorted guitar textures over another until there's simply no room left to cram in much more. But what sets Belong apart from the rest of their classmates in the school of Shields is their attention to detail. Distinct but melodic passages swell up from out of nowhere and then gradually fade into the static and whirls of feedback and sound; small fragments that appear early on in the lineup make returns later on (with close and active listening). And while fans can pine away and wait for that next My Bloody Valentine release (if there ever is one), there are thankfully instances like October Language that make the prolonged wait immensely more enjoyable. " AMG

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TIM HECKER - AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY [2009]

"Tim Hecker's elegantly inventive way around sound art moved into a full decade of released work with An Imaginary Country, one of his most serene and, from its striking start "100 Years Ago" forward, uplifting albums. The power of feedback as exultant swell has had many iterations over the years and it would be understandable to call its use here shoegaze or something similar -- combined with the electronics on the appropriately named "Sea of Pulses" or "Where Shadows Make Shadows," the striking penultimate track, any number of superficial connections could be drawn to artists such as Fennesz and Ulrich Schnauss. But each of those performers has his own approaches, as does Hecker himself, and the breathless extended surge of the album as a whole takes the slow-rising-dawn power of such work down his chosen road, perhaps best summed up by the song title "Currents of Electrostasy," with piano and feedback turned into a blissful but still mournful whole. Hecker's ear for appropriate names for his songs crops up throughout -- the chilled emptiness of "Borderlands," chimes echoing off into an unguessed distance, may be the warmest dark ambient song released in 2009, though "Paragon Point" comes close for both steady looming power and an enveloping sense of atmosphere." AMG

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TIM HECKER - HARMONY IN ULTRAVIOLET [2006]

"Canadian Tim Hecker has been a respected force on the electronica scene since his debut Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, came out in 2001 (in addition to his work as Jetone). Since then, he has consistently released experimental ambient music that broadens standard compositional barriers while still remaining accessible, and such is the case with Harmony in Ultraviolet, Hecker's fourth full-length. Though most of the tracks on the album are separate entities -- including each part of "Harmony in Blue" -- they work together to form an idea that's greater than its individual elements: a sense of exploration and sadness and understanding of the infiniteness and uncertainty and expanse of the world. Themes are introduced -- a looped arpeggio, a distorted guitar riff, lone keyboard notes -- but nothing is ever fully developed, nothing ever completely exposes itself. Instead, there's a suggestion that's built-up and expounded upon but never quite resolved, long notes that pull themselves in and out of focus are favored over melodies, leaving a kind of agitation in the listener like the dark restlessness of an industrial city. Three notes make a chord but somehow Hecker's don't, they're so different in texture and scope; in fact, they seem almost peacefully at odds with one another, aware of the others' existences but content to ignore them. It's the music of a gray urban skyline, of the kind of loneliness that comes from being around too many other people, of rusted fences and cold empty windows and distance, music that swells and crescendos, sets itself up for the denouement but never arrives at the climax; it's endlessly patient yet eager to move on. Wet bass notes and emaciated electric guitars, awash with distortion, crush together with programmed noise and drones, sounds erupt and are then dismissed, fifty minutes of questions and intimations, of resignation and acceptance, but not -- definitely not -- of answers. We'll have to find those ourselves." AMG

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TIM HECKER - MIRAGES [2004]

"At the height of their powers, white-noise godheads My Bloody Valentine would be known to leave their guitars alone on-stage at the end of a performance, feeding back for up to 30 minutes while the audience was left awash in the sound of static running on static. Imagining that effect not as an end, but as a beginning, Canadian Tim Hecker offers his third album of dark grey fog (his sixth album if you count his techno background as Jetone). Starting with "Acephale," Hecker takes control of the effluvial hiss and slowly melts it down, making it into clear angelic tones on "Neither More Nor Less," fluttering waves on "Celestina," and even rounded pulses on "Kaito." But like a gentle master, Hecker eventually breaks his smoke bubbles, allowing the gas to float free on the generously long closer, "Incurably Optimistic!" Yet low and behold, the vapors continue to hold the shapes in which they were once held, drifting not up and away, but moving in paths around an undeterminable axis until they finally disappear without the least bit of a whimper. But like matter, sound is a finite yet never depleting thing, transferring from electrical buzz to moving air to cerebral stimulation. Potential energy waiting, just waiting to go kinetic again." AMG

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TIM HECKER - RADIO AMOR [2003]

"Tim Hecker's first album for Mille Plateaux, Radio Amor, follows two excellent efforts for the relatively smaller yet similarly prestigious Substractif label, and accordingly consolidates that pair into his most inclusive and presentable recording yet. It merges the haunting majesty of his debut full-length, Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again (2001), with the loose conceptual framework of his follow-up EP, My Love Is Rotten to the Core (2002), and does so without being quite as overbearing as those two releases may have felt to listeners interested in simply engaging music rather than far-fetched conception. There are thus two primary sides to Radio Amor: its sounds and concepts. The sonic palette Hecker draws from here is strikingly reminiscent of his previous work. Heavily manipulated waves of drone again clash and splash against one another, often doing so with near yet subtly off synchronicity in the right and left channels. The effect is slightly disorienting, and that's precisely the point, as Hecker's overall aesthetic seems centered upon an otherworldly style of sound manipulation meant to baffle even the most seasoned digital-music listeners. The conceptual framework he builds upon is likewise hazily vague, and no doubt purposefully so. The track titles don't allude to much on their own, yet when coupled with the album's remarkable packaging, a whispered narrative begins to shape, one involving remote seafaring, faint transmissions, compass guidance, and a third-world locale. It's perhaps fitting then that the album's climax, its most deliciously harrowing seasick moment, "Azure Azure," comes late in the album, following "The Star Compass" and preceding "Trade Winds, White Heat." By that point, Hecker has once again swept you away with a seamless album that demands beginning-to-end listening, and this time he does so with the timeless grandeur and universal appeal of a Hemingway-esque lost-at-sea novel narrated from the omniscient perspective. This is far, far from your ordinary ambient album -- if you're willing to dive into its depth rather than merely skim its surface, that is." AMG

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TIM HECKER - HAUNT ME, HAUNT ME DO IT AGAIN [2001]

"On Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, Tim Hecker downshifts from his minimal techno alias, Jetone, to create rich, textured ambient music of the highest order. Despite the infusion of glitch elements like static and electronic interference, Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again sounds deep and wide, like it was meant to bounce around a cathedral, or as an accompaniment to a planetarium show. There are nine titled pieces here spread across 20 tracks and one bleeds into the next, lending an unusual sense of continuity for an experimental electronic release of this length. Glistening drones are threaded with deliberate hiss and ghostly voices and the occasional treated piano and percussive elements crop up here and there as accents. While the tracks vary in approach and character, the overall mood is consistently one of contemplation, wonder, and awe, with vague hints of dread and violence appearing in the periphery. Picking out individual highlights is difficult because the album is so consistent, unified, and whole; suffice to say that Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again is a brilliant album of subtle, evocative mood music. " AMG

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DEATHPROD - MORALS AND DOGMA [2004]

"Morals and Dogma is Deathprod's first solo effort in eight years -- his activities as a sound engineer and his participation in the improv quartet Supersilent have kept him very busy in the meantime. But despite a lot of water having run under the bridge, the album doesn't present a rupture or even a significant change in direction from its predecessors (especially Treetop Drive). There's a simple explanation to this: the album's magnum opus, "Dead People's Things," was recorded sometime in 1994, at the time Treetop Drive was going through its final stages of production. "Orgone Donor" is from 1996; the two remaining tracks were recorded in the fall of 2000 for a dance performance by the Kreutzer Kompani. Then again, Deathprod's music creates its own space out of time, so the chronological aspect (or the "newness" of the music presented here) has little relevance. What does matter, though, is the quality, and on that count Morals and Dogma features some of Deathprod's finest, most moving music. Presented as the stark accompanying soundtrack to the rituals of a secret society (hence the black-on-black design), the album consists of four engulfing drones. Hans Magnus Ryan and Ole Henrik Moe, faithful collaborators since Helge Sten's earliest experiments, provide once again the musical body in which Sten works what he calls his "audio virus." "Tron" and "Cloudchamber," the two dance pieces, offer the darkest landscapes. The latter's infrabass frequencies and soft bow scratches create a gripping post-apocalyptic atmosphere. But the 20-minute "Dead People's Things" steals the show. The piece is dominated by Ryan's whiny violin and Sten's test oscillator, which he plays like a theremin, sketching the saddest melody. Highly recommended to fans of atmospheric experimental music." AMG

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AGALLOCH - THE SILENCE OF FORGOTTEN LANDSCAPES [2009]

"Disenchanted and frustrated with the confines of their previous projects, Agalloch began in 1995 as the creation of John Haughm and Shane Breyer. In early 1996 in Portland, Oregon, USA, songs began to be produced by the duo and, during the summer, Don Anderson was added to the band to further refine the material. These songs would later become the From Which of This Oak demo tape in the autumn of that year. This recording showed a large amount of black metal influence, with an amount of material which would later appear on subsequent albums in one form or another. Shortly after the recording, Jason William Walton was added to the line up as bassist.
In 1998, the three recorded a new promotional tape solely for labels. It caught the attention of The End Records, who offered them a record contract, resulting in the Pale Folklore album. The album features less of a black metal influence than before, many totally reworked demo songs, more folk elements and neoclassical interludes. The album was met with much critical acclaim. After the recording was complete, Breyer departed from the band line up.
After a quiet period, the band released an EP of unreleased material from 1998-2001 entitled Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor, revealing even more of a neoclassical and experimental element of the band and generally less distorted vocals. The EP also includes a cover of folk noir band Sol Invictus’ Kneel to the Cross, that would later be released on Sol Lucet Omnibus, French label Cynerfierrd’s tribute compilation to Sol Invictus." LAST.FM

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BEN FROST - BY THE THROAT [2009]

"The music Ben Frost is about contrast; influenced as much by Classical Minimalism as by Punk Rock and Metal, Frost’s throbbing guitar-based textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that often eschew conventional structures in favor of the inevitable unfoldings of vast mechanical systems." LAST.FM

DL PART1
DL PART2

SUN CITY GIRLS - 330,003 CROSSDRESSERS FROM BEYOND THE RIG VEDA [1996]

"A melting pot of music styles — demented surf, Indian Rāgas, free-form noise, gamelan percussion, fractured folk, you name it — with doses of kabuki theater, shadow puppetry, and maverick guerilla stagecraft thrown in, the avant-everything Sun City Girls were a fiercely independent and experimental trio whose only credo seemed to be to continually stretch boundaries while remaining amazingly inclusive, a process that led to a dizzying array of vinyl, cassette, and CD releases over a period stretching nearly 20 years.
Formed in Phoenix, AZ, Sun City Girls first performed under the name in 1981, and after morphing into the short-lived Paris 1942 (with former The Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker), the group emerged as a trio with brothers Alan Bishop and Sir Richard Bishop and percussionist Charles Gocher in 1982. Sun City Girls released their first album, Sun City Girls, in 1984 on placebo Records, going on to release nearly 30 official albums since then, along with countless limited-edition vinyl, cassette, and CD-R projects, making the group’s discography almost impossible to completely document. Throughout its history Sun City Girls remained a challenging, unpredictable, and eclectic musical unit, operating outside the commercially driven aspirations of the mainstream recording industry, and eventually becoming something of a beacon to independent musicians and artists everywhere. Relocating to Seattle in the early ’90s, Sun City Girls established their own label, Abduction Records, as well as an archival imprint, Sublime Frequencies." LAST.FM

DL RS PART1
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NURSE WITH WOUND - SOLILOQUY FOR LILITH [1988]

"Where did this come from? An ambient album from Nurse with Wound in 1988 was an invigorating shock to the system. Soliloquy for Lilith was a complete turnaround from the kosmiche/noise that Steven Stapleton and crew had been coming up with. Six tracks, each roughly 20 minutes, one track per side of a triple-vinyl box set, each piece subtly different from the others, all with a quiet power to completely dominate the environment of wherever it is played. The mystery of the album lay in its unique sound source -- Stapleton merely looped a collection of effects pedals together and then found that by gesturing in the air around them, as if playing a Theremin, he could manipulate the tone generated by the electricity itself. What a wonderful discovery, and put to complete use here, as the possibilities in the setup are fully exploited over the course of two hours. Slow pulses in the lower register, similar to what Alan Lamb came up with in his high-tension wire recordings, complete with annular buzzes and high-end controlled feedback. It isn't far-fetched to see the roots of this album in the drone experiments of La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, or Tangerine Dream's epic Zeit. Occupying a completely separate corner of the massive Nurse with Wound catalog, Soliloquy stands outside of genre, and in the right frame of mind, outside of time. An absolute classic. " AMG

DL RS DISC1
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BORIS WITH MERZBOW - ROCK DREAM [2007]

"For starters, leave all expectations of what a(nother) collaboration between Boris and Merzbow might sound like, because Rock Dream is nothing like Sun Baked Snow Cave, which was released by Hydra Head in 2005. This limited-edition double CD (5,000 numbered copies) was recorded live in November of 2006 at Tokyo's Earthdom festival. Rather than a free-form improvisation drone and noise fest, it features Boris running through their own set with the mighty noise master (here known as Merzbow One Man) as an additional member of Boris, transforming the power trio into a quartet. The band runs through its set, or, rather plods and hammers through it, from the 35-plus-minute "Feedbacker" and "Black Out" to "Evil Stack" and "Rainbow" on disc one. Make no mistake, there's plenty of noise here. Boris have never backed away from the loud and proud; it's just that Merzbow's textural additions give the band's already loosely based tunes on disc one more power and presence. The fantastic sound quality makes every one of these nuances ring in crystal distorto-sonic. Evidence as to what actual Boris songs sound like -- which are more in evidence on disc two -- can be previewed in the smoking rendition of "Rainbow" that closes the initial CD, with Wata's spooky voice and freakout guitar solos contrasted with the otherwise subdued tune. Merzbow brings a shockingly primeval yet controlled power to that mix. For all of its improvisation and volume overload, "Feedbacker" itself is amazingly listenable and its melody distinct. When it comes to "Black Out," it gets rougher, and "Evil Stack" is simply too much for mere mortals.
But it's on disc two where everything really kicks into gear. "Pink" starts it off with a bang, and the band is in full throttle, rocking it to the rafters and beyond. Merzbow's complementary swathes of power electronics add so much to Wata's guitar and Atsuo's drumming is double and triple time, leaving Takeshi to hold this machine to the ground. "Woman on the Screen" is pure punk metal pyrotechnics, with drum whomp and bass and guitar scree poured through Merzbow's wildness -- in this short track he is totally unhinged. Think of Motörhead-accompanied power tools. As the band literally rages through "Nothing Special," "Ibitsu," and "A Bao a Qu" -- with lots of whoops and hollers to underscore this pure rock-out orgy -- the energy is unrelenting. The first 17 minutes of this disc are some of most intense in freak rock existence. Things slow a bit on "The Evileone Which Sobs," but only in tempo. It's still pure guitar, bass, and drum insanity and Merzbow ups the ante with enormous drones and a high-pitched swell that never goes above the higher end of Wata's guitar scream, keeping it all in some middle range of the doom zone. (Is she the hippest guitar player in rock or what?)
The greatest moment of the entire proceeding, though, has to be the off-the-rails version of "Just Abandoned My-self," which begins at about 95 mph, gets to 120 mph, and then heads further into the red-line zone without abandoning its RAWK crunch. When Wata cuts loose on the solo, Merzbow gives her the biggest hammering wall of absolute maximum power to play off of, matching pitch and texture without being tempted to take it over the ledge into chaos. It walks the tightrope for the entire proceeding without once hesitating or falling over into simple excess. Feeling like a showstopper, it turns out that Boris has one more in the can in an eight-minute version of "Farewell" that could make Sonic Youth at their best look on in disbelief and total envy. Indeed, it's almost as if Jimi Hendrix and his keen melodic sensibility were backed by Glenn Branca's multi-guitar orchestra, but it's all just Boris and Merzbow. When Wata lets herself go here, it's sublime; she climbs that monolithic pillar of racket and brings order to the chaos with her solo temporarily bringing it near the ground again before it just explodes for the finish. This is a breathtaking gig and more than anybody would have hoped for, or, based on past listening experience, had any reason to hope for. Indeed, Rock Dream is exactly that, and sends heavy music in 2007 off with a grand display of mercurial, majestic sludge and wail." AMG

DL RS PART1
DL RS PART2

VBR@~250KBPS