MP3s

[Music] Subact – The Dubsquad EP

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

I have to thank my friend Yasen Kazandjiev for quite a few upcoming reviews of some of the most intriguing music I’ve heard in some time, starting with this EP by Dresden-based band Subact.

There are elements of bands like Ozric Tentacles and other psychedelic prog groups as well as sample work reminiscent of Front 242 and other Electronic Body Music bands from Belgium and Canada which I grew up listening to. This music is thoroughly modern, but it also hearkens back to an era when sampling technology was new. Martin Grellmann and company have done stunning work balancing past and present with this release.

[Music] JOHN 3:16 – Sinner’s Prayer

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Wave after wave of beautifully crunchy, hypnotic drone is what makes JOHN 3:16’s new release (a reissue from 2011, apparently), a 30-minute affair, so appealing. The guitar playing is so heavily textured that you feel like a sonic blanket has wrapped you up, making you forget, albeit temporarily, the vagaries of the world.  Drone music tends to be hazy, but this release would have been a stunner during the psychedelic 1970s as much as it is today.

This is a stunning mini-album. Many compliments to Philippe Gerber, JOHN 3:16’s leader and guitarist, for pointing me to this reissue.

[Music] Frail Digit Lamb’s Tongue – Just Rulings in the Court of Astaroth?

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

I normally don’t cover much noise because the scene is filled with garbage.  Most of it consists of nihilists more interested in shocking their readers with crap record covers than constructing sonic art.  Most sound like a teenage kid flipping on the switch to their mother’s vacuum, recording it, and tacking on a diatribe and an asking price for $5.  Pass.

This album was a pleasant exception.  We have 67 tracks of short, sharp, no-nonsense noise, courtesy of Geronimo Arafat’s noise project, Frail Digit Lamb’s Tongue.