Nekrasov: Perishable Things (4.5/5)

Joshua's Top Five EPs for 2010
#3 of 5



Year: 2010
Genre: Blackest of Metals
Label: Self Released
TRT: 14:33

Apocalypse. Armageddon. Nuclear Holocaust.

Basically what Merzbow would sound like if he made a black metal record, viscerally offensive to the senses.

01 C.Z.V.M
02 WOMB
03 DARK AT THE END OF LIGHT
04 O FOOL!

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Controlled Bleeding: Shanked & Slithering (4/5)

Year: 2005
Label: Soleilmoon Recordings
Genre: Power Electronics Noise
TRT: 79:41

I picked up this album along with about 8 other noise cds at a Wolf Eyes show I attended a few years ago, but I only recently gave it a serious listen, and it has risen above the rest. One night I popped this record into my stereo system and listened to it VERY LOUD at 2am whilst reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower saga (the saga that named this journal). It was an aurally overwhelming, brutally divine experience. It's a bit difficult to put into words how some noise is better than other noise, or to sequester the differences found within "the good stuff". All I can say is, once you release yourself and let this sinister wall of sound wash over you, once you find the warmth in letting go of everything, maybe you'll understand a little more.

This is really a compilation that spans the groups vast career, which makes the consistancy of quality it all the more remarkable. They have released nearly 30 records since 1983, covering many different genre along the way.

01 Swallowing Scrap Metal No. 9
02 Shanked And...
03 Bees No. 1
04 Bees No. 2
05 Dry Lung
06 Vole
07 Experiments Infuck
08 Bladder Bags (Session No. 1)
09 Hymn No. 1
10 Horsemeat (Yak Remix)
11 Swallowing No. 5 (Power Mix)
12 Bladder Bags (Session No. 2)
13 Hymn No. 2

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Merzbow & John Wiese: Multiplication (4.5/5)

Year: 2004
Label: Misanthropic Agenda
Genre: Harsh Noise/Power Electronics
TRT: 61:14

I was addicted to noise as a genre for a period of time, and it changed my perspective on many things, not all of them music related. I had been deeply entrenched in noise for about a year when I picked up this cd. I bought it because I knew of Merzbow, and had tried to crack open his massive discography to no avail. Also, the sweet digipack had a hand in convincing me to drop the $10.

I was a bit aprehensive, having been let down by previous material, but Multiplication sucked me in from the start. Furious sonic assault and swirling stridency combined with immense texture and the mass of a black hole converged on my senses, pushing me past the point of resistence, and into the warm pool of numb wonder beyond the wall.

John Wiese & Merzbow collaborated through the internet to create this masterpiece, with the former covering the first five tracks, and the latter the sprawling closer. I don't listen to noise on a regular basis anymore, but when I do, this is one of the handful of albums I go to for my cacophonic fix.

01 Bonanza
02 Luxor Skyship
03 Spell
04 New Wave Dust II
05 Erotic Westernscape
06 Multiplication

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Azure Skies: Azure Skies (5/5)

Year: 2001
Label: Ant-Zen
Genre: Rhythmic Industrial Noise
TRT: 62:26

Azure Skies is the one-off collaboration of the artists behind Sanctum and Mental Destruction (who consequently also run the Northern Lights record label, home of the legendary Extol and Lengsel). And while you can see influences and styles from both, this transcends either in my mind. I've never heard anything else quite like it. There's something here that just envelopes you and washes you away, whether violently or subtly (sometimes both simultaneously). This is yet another album essential to the formation of my musical and artistic development.

It was released with four different covers, and it's damn near impossible to find a copy of any of them.

01 Crater
02 Deniability
03 Hydrazine
04 Collapse
05 In Eclipse
06 Bring Back Nothing
07 Still
08 Forward Contamination
09 Water, Tree, Stone

Wolf Eyes: Dead Hills (4.5/5)

Year: 2002
Label: Troubleman
Genre: Dark Ambient Noise
TRT: 23:26

Wolf Eyes was a gateway group for me. I had hear 3 seconds of a Merzbow track earlier that year, and immediately spurned the idea of listening to, literally, noise. Let alone aknowledging it as a genre. Well fast forward a few months to the annual MacRock festival at James Madison University. I saw Wolf Eyes on the bill, and was intrigued. I wondered how the hell "noise" could be pulled off live. I had no idea what was in store for me. Sitting there on the side of the stage I was mesmerized by the technique and precision used to make the unearthly sounds coming out of the speaker system. It was something like an out-of-body experience, I was just floating. That concert completely changed the way I listened to music, as well as my own thoughts and definitions of what exactly music is.

I picked up this EP and their full-length Burned Mind that day, and listened to this EP on the drive home. It's one of the most disturbing things I've heard. Completely enthralling, it creeps under your skin like tiny little scarabs, gnawing a way to your heart.

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Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music (5/5)

Year: 1975
Label: RCA
Genre: Avant-Garde
TRT: 64:11

This album was almost acidentally ground-breaking when it was released. It's basically a great big middle finger from Lou Reed to RCA, as they would not release him from his contract early. So to fulfill his contractual duties, Reed released this double LP of nothing but layered guitar feedback. While at the time, I'm pretty sure Reed was doing this out of spite and not for the sake of art, this little musical expletive undoubtedly influenced the likes of Merzbow, Aphex Twin, Autechre and many more, myself included. Listen to this album at least once, if only for the sake of antecedency.

One more thing; While shunned upon it's release, these vinyls fetch upwards of $200 these days, probably because of the shunning. I would love to own a copy due to the special way the B side of album 2 is cut...to loop endlessly. That's insanity.

01 Metal Machine Music I
02 Metal Machine Music II
03 Metal Machine Music III
04 Metal Machine Music IV

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