Posts Tagged ‘Various Artists’

Various – The Downward Spiral (Redux) / The Best of Nine Inch Nails (Redux)

Posted: 5 November 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Magnetic Eye Records – 28th November 2028

Christopher Nosnibor

Magnetic Eye Records’ ‘redux’ series continues with another inspired choice in the form on Nine Inch Nails’ seminal release The Downward Spiral. The premise of the series is fairly straightforward – namely that a bunch of artists contribute versions of songs from a significant album to create a tribute rendition of said album from beginning to end. And then each release is accompanied by a ‘best of’ collection of covers of songs by the same band, where the contributors pick favourites ranging from greatest hits to obscure tracks lifted from the deeper territories of the catalogue. What’s impressive is that while many of the contributors to these releases tend to be relatively obscure, the standard of the interpretations tends to be high, which is testament to the curatorial skills of the guys at MER.

As a teen in the late 80s / early 90s, I was by no means alone in feeling like this was an exciting time for music, at a time of life when music comes to mean everything. Here in the UK, Pretty Hate Machine had created some minor ripples, and it was clear from ‘Head Like a Hole’ that Nine Inch Nails had something, even if that something did sound a bit like a harder-edged Depeche Mode. Landing just after my seventeenth birthday, The Broken EP was the most devastatingly brutal shock I had ever encountered. The thing is, it wasn’t metal – a lot of it wasn’t even guitars. And then, while the world was still recovering from that, Reznor delivered The Downward Spiral. It was – and in many ways, remains – the most fully realised, most expansive articulation of not only Nine Inch Nails, but of the human condition, in all its twisted, ugly complexity. It had everything, including vast emotional range.

The Downward Spiral landed at the perfect time for me, and as such, it’s an album I have a strong affection for now. Listening to this tribute version, it’s clear that the same is true of the artists who’ve contributed to it. That doesn’t mean that they’ve all delivered carbon-copy covers, and in many ways, it’s all the better for it. Kicking off the album, Black Tusk’s raging hardcore / thrash metal attack on ‘Mr Self Destruct’ is illustrative, in that it captures the nihilistic brutality of the original, and while it’s faithful to the structure, it’s very much about them channelling the raw emotion of the song in a way that they feel.

Grin’s take on ‘Heresy’ is dense and murky, dominated by a thick bass, and it’s solid. The chorus may not explode in a wall of rampant treble noise in the way the original does, but nothing could, so the fact they don’t even attempt to replicate it was a wise move. ‘March of the Pigs’ was one of the wildest single choices for a major-label release, and Sandrider’s version captures the song’s mania, while Daevar’s crawling sludge take on ‘Closer’ may lack the sleazoid groove of the original, but with the harmonic female vocals pitched against a wall of churning guitars, it’s still enough to bring on a bit of a sweat.

Author & Punisher – one of only a few of the acts I was familiar with in advance – present a stark, snarling rendition of ‘Reptile’. It’s an anguish-laden electro-industrial grind which captures the claustrophobic intensity of the original nicely, and credit to Between the Buried and Me for bringing more dark electronics and atmosphere to their rendition of ‘Hurt’ which is otherwise a pretty straight take – but what else is there to do? You can’t mess with perfection, and nor should you. The execution of the chorus is perhaps a bit emo, but it’s one of those songs that just hits so hard as long as you don’t try anything too radical. I don’t suppose Trent loses much sleep over the fact that the majority of people don’t even know that the Johnny Cash version was actually a cover.

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The counterpart Best of set packs quality from beginning to end, too, with notable names including Thou and Evi Vine. The latter’s choice is interesting, being ‘This Isn’t The Place’, culled from the 2017 EP Add Violence, and it’s dark and atmospheric, woozy and somewhat unsettling, making for a perfect homage and well-placed reminder that as much as NIN are a ‘songs’ band, their catalogue is bursting with cinematic, atmospheric instrumental works. And this is where this ‘best of’ set comes into its own: while there are, almost by necessity, takes on ‘Head Like a Hole’ (here presented as a stark, rolling, post-metal piece by Blue Heron) and ‘Terrible Lie’ (Orbiter actually taking it poppier in a 90s alt-rock way), there’s a leaning towards post-Downward Spiral material, from ‘Every Day is Exactly the Same’ (a song I really felt in my early years of corporate drudge) by Chrome Ghost and ‘The Perfect Drug’ (a song that felt a bit flimsy to my ears at the time but one I’ve grown to appreciate) by Nonexistent Night. Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree tackle ‘Over and Out’ from Bad Witch… Then there’s Thou’s savage version of ‘Suck’… woah.

What this showcases is not just how Nine Inch Nails have broken so much ground over the course of their career, and how significant a band they are for so many, but also how they have evolved over their time in existence. Trent Reznor is an artist who has often been imitated, but rarely matched, in terms of songwriting or production, switching his angle every time other show signs of catching up. The esteem in which he is held by fans and other artists is entirely justified.

Taken together, these two releases go a long way to reflect and represent just why Nine Inch Nails ae so revered. Credit is, of course, due to every contributor on both of these albums, and to the label for its curatorial work – but ultimately, it all serves as a reminder of just how essential Nine Inch Nails have been in the evolution of music over the last thirty-five years and more. This makes for a timely and fitting tribute to a truly pivotal band.

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Various Artists – an endless sky

Posted: 25 July 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Sinners Music – 28th February 2025

Christopher Nonibor

I’m a little behind with things. Life has a habit of running away at pace. There’s no small element of truth in the observation that Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans – often attributed to John Lennon, but which first appeared in the mid-1950s, in an article in the Stockton Record of Stockton, California.

The latest release helmed by Iain J. Cole and released on his Sinners Music label is something of a departure. Although bearing the ‘various artists’ label, it is, in fact, a set of collaborations recorded with a number of different authors, whose works are narrated by other speakers. Conceived , curated, and the stories edited by David Martin, Iain J. Cole provides the musical accompaniment for the five – or seven – pieces which make up this monumental release.

Each track is a true longform work: all bar two are around – or substantially over – twenty minutes in duration.

Martin’s own contribution, ‘Relic’ evokes aspects of both The Man Who Fell to Earth and The War of the Worlds, as well as various other sci-fi tropes and no small dash of Lovecraft. Cole’s accompaniment is absolutely perfect: largely ambient, it’s composed with the most acute attention to detail, adding drama at precisely the right points, but without feeling in any way contrived or over-egged.

‘What Rupert Don’t Know’ – an exclusive short story written by Glen James Brown and narrated by Alexander King sees Cole linger in the background with a soundtrack that hangs at a respectful distance in the background, and takes the form of some minimal techno.

Gareth E Reese’s ‘We Are the Disease’, read by Daniel Wilmot, has a very different sound and feel. The vocals have a scratchy, treble-loaded reverby sound, somewhere between a radio just off-tune and Mark E Smith. It’s a bleak tale, an eco-horror delivered as a series of scientific reports, and with Cole’s ominous sonic backdrop, which has all the qualities of a BBC Radiophonic Workshop piece, the tension is compelling.

Claire Dean’s ‘The Unwish’, narrated by Helen Lewis marks a necessary shift in the middle of the album – a female voice is welcome, for a start, and so is the change in narrative voice. Women writers observe and relay differently, and the details are integral to the literary experience. Add to that a Northern intonation, and we find ourselves in another world

As a collection of speculative and environmental sci-fci, an endless sky is noteworthy for its quality. The bonus cuts – a brace of ‘soundtrack’ instrumentals showcase Cole’s capacity to create immersive slow techno works which draw heavily on dub. ‘The Rupert Zombie Soundtrack’ is a sedate, echo-heavy slow-bopping trudge, and then there’s the twenty-minute ‘The Blind Queen Soundtrack’, which is more atmospheric, more piano, less overtly techno.

Over the course of some two-and-a-bit hours, an endless sky gives us a lot to process. So much, in fact, that I’m not even sure it’s possible in a single sitting. What does it even all mean when taken together?

an endless sky is delicate, graceful, detailed. Beyond the narratives – which in themselves offer depth and detail – there is something uniquely compelling about an endless sky. Keep Watching…

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Various Artists – Collage Music (28)

Posted: 20 January 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Institute For Alien Research – 15th January 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Bath-based microlabel Institute For Alien Research tends to focus on compilation releases, with open submissions, on various themes. One long-running series is Collage Music, each of which features fifteen works, the only stipulation being that their duration is 4:33. Not a second more, and not a second less. They’re not looking for interpretations of John Cage’s seminal work, and as such, the duration is in many ways arbitrary beyond the idea that artists respond to limitations and set parameters in different ways, and as this – the twenty-eighth in the series (as the title indicates) – illustrates the point unequivocally.

With ‘Circumstances’, Support Group ease us in gently with some slightly woozy, echo-soaked, ambience, before Lezet stammer and glitch through a multi-layered slice of abstraction with ‘Colonnades of Fear,’, which may also be ambient, but it far from relaxing, although it’s Robert & Lamy who are the first to venture into much darker territory, with the kind of doomy, drony warped tape and noise experiments that are reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle in places.

The arrival of ‘bruits de la vie’ by samelectronics feels like something of a watershed moment, being the first piece to present big, bold sounds – feedback and immense powerchords, which, instead of feeling heavy or oppressive, open an expanded horizon, to surprisingly uplifting effect. The rough, lo-fi punkiness of ‘Johnny got no respect’ by This is The Utter vs Chelsea comes as a surprise bang in the middle, being the album’s first straight-up guitar-based cut, and it’s a savage semi-cover to boot.

Along the way, there’s a superabundance of weird shit, with collages and field recordings and ethereal haunting soundtrack-like compositions, dark electronica, spaced-out BBC Radiophonic Workshop type soundscapes, and banging dance, courtesy of Sbilts, with ‘Acid Dog’, who mine a vintage techno sound propelled by old-school drum machine sounds. That snare! Samples! It’s a sonic time-machine!

Just as grassroots venues are essential on so many levels, so are labels who put out releases like this. Most of the contents of such compilations is ultra-niche, and will never expand beyond being so – and that’s ok. There is a huge audience with niche tastes who simply aren’t catered for by bigger labels, bigger venues. Most of the acts here are unlikely to ever play to more than twenty-five people, assuming anyone will put them on, and they’re never going to be snapped up by a label which has aspirations of making money. Self-releasing is find, but it’s hard to reach the tiny, fragmented target audience. But a label like Institute For Alien Research, having established a reputation for providing a platform for the full spectrum of experimental electronica and beyond, creates its own niche. It may seem hard to believe when there are maybe a few hundred or so people who are into it, but this really is what the world needs. Capitalism is killing cultural diversity, and it’s killing art.

The fact that Collage Music (28) is a mixed bag is a good thing. It would be all too tempting for the label to be picky, sniffy, selective, and offer up a compilation which is more homogeneous, unified, that presents, ultimately, a curated collection determined by personal taste. And that would have been fine, and entirely their prerogative. But Collage Music (28) is all the better for its wild eclecticism. You might not like all of it – and it would be probably be a bit strange if you did – but in listening to it, there’s a chance you’ll find your eyes are opened to something you didn’t know you would like, and it’s absolutely guaranteed you’ll hear artists you would never have otherwise encountered. So dive in!

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Various Artists – Human Worth III

Posted: 3 November 2023 in Albums
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Human Worth – 3rd November 2023

Christropher Niasnibor

For all of our astounding advances over the last three millennia, as a species, man is not only a bad animal, but the worst. We have the capacity to achieve truly great things, but instead expend immeasurable amounts of time and effort – and that most ruinous of human constructs, money – on destroying one another and the planet we inhabit. The world is eternally at war, but recently, tensions have escalated to levels which are difficult to comprehend: as the war in Ukraine continues to rage, with almost universal condemnation of Russia, events in the last few weeks in the Middle East have provoked rather different reactions. Division, it seems, begets division, and it seems that the frame has frozen while people bicker over sides, the need to condemn Hamas and to support the mantra that Israel has the right to defend itself.

Perhaps some of this is war-fatigue, perhaps it’s the influence of the media, perhaps some of it’s simply pure shock at the horror of the scale of the bloodshed, but it feels as if the world has paused while all of this plays out with gruesome inevitability. Social media is a minefield, and it feels like any kind of comment could prove inflammatory. But the fact is, political allegiances need to be set aside in the face of the fact that thousands upon thousands of civilians are dying – with women and children disproportionately affected.

The notes which accompany this release set out the situation plainly and directly: there is no need to employ emotive language here, as the stark facts hit far harder.

‘Children in Gaza are living through a nightmare – one that gets more distressing by the hour. So far since the war broke out nearly 4,000 children have been killed – that’s 800 more than yesterday! This horrifying a number surpasses the annual number of children killed in conflict zones since 2019. With a further 1000 children reported missing in Gaza, assumed buried under the rubble, the death toll is likely much higher. All the funds raised through this charity release will be donated to help Save the Children and their network of charities to provide direct lifesaving and mental health support, distribute essential supplies, as well as education facilities and safe spaces for children.’

We know that Human Worth are good guys: the label’s very name is an advertisement for their operating model which involves the donation of a portion of sales proceeds from each release to charity, and they’ve put out a couple of charity compilations already in their relatively brief existence. And while governments sit and watch on, or otherwise give their unreserved backing to Israel, Human Worth have galvanised themselves and their impressive network of artists to pull together a new compilation from which all funds raised will be donated to support Save the Children’s Gaza Emergency Appeal.

This is reason enough to buy it anyway. But this is a stunning release in its own right, featuring twenty-eight tracks from the Human Worth roster and beyond, with a slew of exclusive cuts which make this a quality compilation of music from the noisier end of the spectrum.

It’s got some big hitters, too: Steve Von Till is up first with ‘Indifferent Eyes’ and Enablers are also up early with ‘In McCullin’s Photograph’, and kudos to both the label and the artists for coming together for this.

Sort of supergroup Cower, featuring among others, members of Blacklisters and USA Nails and who released their album BOYS through Human Worth in 2020 offer an exclusive in the shape of the jarring ‘False Flag’, as do Thee Alcoholics with the jolting ‘Catch the Flare’.

Elsewhere, we get representative selections showcasing the best of the label’s recent releases, not least of all ‘Wasted on Purpose’ by Remote Viewing’ and the astringent nine-minute behemoth that is ‘As Shadow Follows Body’ by Torpor from their devastating debut Abscission. Newcastle noisemongers Friend give us eight minutes of carefully-considered transitions and some really quite nice melodies as they build the emerging riff-monster that is ‘Uncle Tommy’. The buzzy, lo-fi gothy synth-punk of The Eurosuite’s exclusive cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Zero’ is quite a contrast – and sounds like one of Dr Mix and the Remix’s brutal smash-ups – and on the subject of brutal, the sub-two-minute grindcore assault that comes courtesy or FAxFO is utterly furious. HUWWTD’s Late Cormorant Fishing makes for an unexpected standout. Think Shellac with metal vocals and you’re on the way.

Despite the rushed – by necessity – nature off the release, the sequencing shows real consideration as the songs shift between different atmospheres and moods. Human Worth III displays the consistency of quality we’ve come to expect from the label, and the artists’ rapid willingness to contribute speaks volumes about all of them. As a result, Human Worth III is a bloody good album. Go buy it – and pay as much as you can.

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Various Artists – 60 Seconds Each

Posted: 16 October 2023 in Albums
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Corvo Records – 15th October 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In the spirit of this optimism, we have the cynical manoeuvring of disaster capitalism – but we also have 60 Seconds Each. Yes, to spin the adage, we have ‘when there’s a massive fuck-up, collaborate to release a compilation album.’

As the accompanying notes explain, ‘This LP was born out of a data leak: In 2022, the opening of the position of Professor for Sound Art at a German Art Academy attracted the applications of a broad, international panorama of sound artists. After the position was filled, the email rejection to all other applicants was sent by mistake by the university with an open distribution list (cc).

‘Kristof Georgen, one of the applicants used this mishap to develop a concept for a collective sound art project, inviting the artists included in the open cc to send a 60-second sound piece.

‘A group of 32 artist who were prepared to understand a record as a group work, followed the invitation – the result is 60 Seconds Each. The fragmentation of many music scenes during the pandemic, which still lingers today, is countered here with an artistic statement. This heterarchical approach transformed the application competition into an artistic cooperation which ultimately became a very diverse compilation, a one of a kind „Salon des Refusés“ of sound art. The time limitation of an LP and the restricting concept of 60 seconds stands as an antithesis to the unmanageable and boundless characteristic of the data leak.

This reduction to the essential determines also the visual concept of the release. Fragments of redacted email addresses of the participating artists, forming a cloud of unreadable data which merges into the background of the cover art are an essential part of the design. The 60-second grid also structures the vinyl groove into a strict visual pattern, which can be read as small chunks of each participating artist’s work.’

The visual aspects of the album are almost worth the purchase alone, with the back cover and each artist’s notes which accompany their piece in the hefty booklet presented as redacted emails, prefaced by a concept-heavy but accessibly-written essay by art, design and music researcher, curator and DJ, Prof. Dr. Holger Lund, who asks:

‘Can sound art be funny and ring 300 bells on 1200 stomachs? Can it be macrocosmic and reflect time, living beings and the future? Can it be micro-cosmic and dedicated to the sound of snowflakes or the beeps of e-scooters? Can it be prophetic and deal with dying instruments? Can it sonify non-sonic things like light, shadow and air? Can it turn techno beats “inside out”, that is left-field? And can it build a specific atmosphere and dramaturgy in the miniature format of 60 seconds? It can do all that – and much more, as the present record project 60 Seconds Each shows.’

With thirty-two tracks – some full compositions, some fragments, others either simply sketches or field recordings – packed back-to-back and lasting just over half an hour per side, the individual pieces become a part of the whole, a jigsaw or sound-collage more readily experienced as the sum of the parts, instead of broken down. The brevity of each piece also makes it rather difficult to really unpack specific merits on the individual works, because out of context, we’re presented with simply a snippet of sampled dialogue, some electronic bleeps, a burst of noise, a gurgling drain, some plan weird manipulated vocal stuff, engines, birdsong, distortion and, well, you name it. Many of the pieces would simply serve as interludes on any other album, but here we have an hour of incidentals and interludes, or otherwise of sample snippets where you may skip pr otherwise choose to listen to the whole track… But rather than being frustrating, this sonic patchwork quilt is so much more than the sum of its parts, and the segments coming at you at such pace is dizzying.

Veering wildly between the playful and the hyperserious, and those which it’s difficult to determine, intermingled with the abstract, hefty beats banging hard between moments of soothing ambience, the experience is one of overload – information overload. But information is currency in this age of digital insanity. We’ve gone beyond the relentless blizzard of information and communication, to an existence dictated by algorithms and three-second video clips, attention spans so stunted so as to even find a hundred and forty characters excessive; tl; dnr – thinking not good. Even our anger at the state of the world is abridged to the point that it’s articulated in GIFs and memes, and we don’t even know why we think what we think, because we’ve been deprived of the time and the capacity to analyse and weigh up our responses. Religion is no longer the opium of the people: 24-7 online media has usurped it, combined with an epidemic of addition to prescription painkillers which means that opium is in fact the opium of the people (prescription painkillers are now considered more addictive than heroin, and their use is certainly more widespread). Anyone in a fucked-up state would probably do well to avoid this release. But I digress.

Despite tighter regulations around data handling, breaches are increasingly commonplace because the pace and pressure of work environments force human error. Whoever hit ‘cc all’ made a mistake with consequences, and while responsible, the ultimate responsibility lies with the system, a system where academic institutions are business operations and everything ultimately comes down to the bottom line.

It’s quite remarkable that this bunch of rejects – sorry, group of academics – came together to contribute to this project instead of pursuing the institution for compensation.

In much the same way as the tape experiments with cut-ups and inching, and drop-ins conducted by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin in the late fifties and early sixties sound to create an experience which was closer to perception, so 60 Seconds Each presents an auditory experience analogous to flicking through TV channels while scrolling X or Facebook as you’re being bombarded by messages on WhatsApp when you’re actually supposed to be working. Yes, 60 Seconds Each is as close to everything all at once as is conceivably possible, and it makes for a truly mind-blowing hour, after which a period of silence with eyes closed is strongly recommended.

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Various Artists – Rental Yields Volume 5

Posted: 1 October 2023 in Albums
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Front & Follow / gated canal Community – 6th October 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

When Front & Follow called it a day as a label, it was a sad day, and their subsequent emergence from the mothballs for the Rental Yields series was extremely welcome. This was a project that came from the heart and really showed what F&F was all about – yes, music first and foremost, but also community. By working with a certain network of artists, the label built a community of its own, but there was always a sense of locale which was integral to this, and this is what compelled label-leader Justin Watson to resurrect the label to release a series of fundraisers to help raise money to tackle homelessness in Manchester.

This is a project which has clearly taken on a life of its own, and it seems unlikely that when first touting the idea, Justin could have ever seen the deluge of contributions which would pour in over the coming months. He writes, ‘Over 100 artists are involved (the spreadsheet is fun), each one tasked with creating a new track from the sounds created by someone else –we are then collating the tracks and releasing them over 2022 and 2023… This is VOLUME FIVE –THE FINAL VOLUME. 19 tracks, 38 wonderful artists. All money raised will go to SPIN (Supporting People in Need), whose purpose is to feed, shelter, clothe and generally support the homeless and people in need of Greater Manchester.’

This release simply shouldn’t exist. Homelessness shouldn’t exist, either. Levelling up my fucking arse. This government can’t even manage the basics, and while the imminent cancellation of the stretch of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester is making all of the headlines and the government are refusing to comment on the ‘speculation’ about the inevitable, insisting that there are many other projects which are equally essential to the plan to provide the north with the same quality of life available to those in the capital, the fact that homelessness remains such a huge issue in Manchester is evidence that they’re not receiving the finding they need either. It’s not just Manchester, but charity begins at home and people can only do so much, so it stands to reason that F&F should donate to a local charity.

The one positive outcome of a truly depressing situation is that all five of the Rental Yields compilations is absolutely superb, and this fifth and final one is a glorious showcase of predominantly regional talent from a city with a long history of producing outstanding music, alongside Leeds. While it’s fair to say that much of this musical output has been born from frustration, it only serves to demonstrate just how much the north has contributed, and continues to contribute, to the nation’s creative output. And a nation without art… is simply dead. Over the last nineteen years, which I’ve spent living in York, I’ve often said that the best thing about living here is its proximity to Leeds. The city’s music scene is phenomenal, and where in London could you watch local / national / international touring bands while supping local ales for four quid a pint?

So, while the fact of the matter is that there should be no need for this album in terms of its social motivation, Rental Yields Volume Five is ultimately yet another essential release in terms of the fantastic music it showcases. More than any of the preceding editions, it’s a murky, atmospheric collection.

I’d been bobbing along nicely to the mellow drift before the penetrating feedback blast that heralds the arrival of ‘Rental Yields Weekend in Manchester Mix’ by Dan Gusset vs Omnibadger. Had to be these buggers, of course. Regular contributors / usual culprits, they bring another layer of discomfort to the party. It’s like Test Dept’s ‘Unacceptable Face of Freedom’ for 2023, a punishing, sample-filled industrial racket that tells it like it is, and without compromise. We live in harsh times, dominated by harsh language from government, and if ‘and then it was gone’ by gormless vs Distant Animals is superficially buoyant, the underlying stains of noise are dark and turbulent and this is the noise that fills our heads day in, day out, as we walk down the street. There is no escape, only the delusion. There is plenty oof harsh reality to be found on here, with thick bass blasts dominating Repeated Viewing vs Four Italian Pep Pils’

Most of the contributors on here are new to me, but as has been the case with all of the previous instalments, the quality of consistency is remarkable, and it’s incredible to think that this is a compilation assembled from open submissions. Rental Yields Volume 5 feels more like a film score than anything else, the tracks showcasing a cohesion and unity our government could only dream of. But then, this what happens when artists come together for a cause. And coming together is the crux here. The entire Rental Yields series is essentially about unity, and also about compassion. The government, and the capitalist world at large needs to learn from this. In the meantime, this glorious compilation provides a much-needed salve to the muscle-twitching rage the societal situation elicits. It’s yet another great album from Front & Follow, who deserve to hang up their virtual boots after this.

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Various Artists – Spectrum

Posted: 17 April 2023 in Albums
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Cruel Nature Records – 20th April 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

Regular readers – or even more casual ones – will likely have noticed that Cruel Nature releases have received a fair bit of coverage here. The Newcastle-based cassette label, and brainchild of Steve Strode, are now celebrating a decade of their existence, releasing non-conformist, way-outside-the-mainstream music, and they’re celebrating with a compilation of 23 (of course, it has to be 23) exclusive tracks recorded specifically for this release, on a label who can now boast the tagline of ‘Channelling sonic diversity since 2013’.

Spectrum very much succeeds in showcasing that sonic diversity, presenting a collection that spans ambience to brutal metal. In times past, no-one who would listen to one would listen to the other, but my own musical journey over the last decade and a half means that whereas once I’d have sneered at one and hesitated over the other, I’m now on board with both. And why not? Cruel Nature Records has spent a decade now giving a home to music that doesn’t really fit, and doesn’t conform to a specific genre.

Of the 23 contributors, a fair few of them have previously featured on these pages, so new material from them is most welcome. VHS¥DEATH are among them, and ‘Sacrifice’ is a relentless industrial hardfloor disco banger, which couldn’t be more different from the mellow jazz ambience of Aidan Baker’s contribution, ‘Grounded Hogs’. And in a nutshell, the contrast between the two tracks instantly encapsulates the ethos of Cruel Nature. Anything goes as long as it’s different and interesting.

It’s great to hear snarking antagonists like Pound Land in the same space as Nathalie Stern’s haunting atmospheres and the spare folk of Clara Engel. Pound Land deliver a gloomy grinder in the form of ‘Flies’; despite its minimal arrangement, it’s dense and oppressively weighty, not to mention really quite disturbing in its paranoid OCD lyrical repetitions.

‘K Of Arc’ by TV Phase’ is a punishing, percussion-led trudge through darkness, while Charlie Butler’s ‘Eagle’s Splendour’ which immediately follows couldn’t be more different, it’s rolling piano and soft, rippling chimes providing six and a half minutes of mellow enchantment.

Petrine Cross bring a rabid howl of utterly crushing, dungeon-dark black metal that’s as heavy and harrowing as anything they’ve done, making for a most welcome inclusion here. Offering some much-needed levity, Empty House’s ‘Blue Sky Dreamers’ is a wistful slice of breezy indie with a hint of New Order, not least of all on account of the run-filled bassline, while Katie Gerardine O’Neill swings something of a stylistic curveball with some quirky deconstructed jazz.

Also worthy of mention (although in fairness, there isn’t a contribution on here that isn’t, had I the time for a track-by-track rundown) are Aural Aggravation faves Whirling Hall of Knives and Omnibadger, with the former whipping up a mangles mess of glitching distortion and the latter – these buggers get everywhere, having featured on the Rental Yields compilation I covered only last week – mixing up a collage of hums, thunderous drones, and a cut-up melange of feedback and miscellaneous noises to discombobulating effect. Then again, the final two tracks, courtesy of Lush Worker and Lovely Wife respectively bring some mangled reverb-heavy drone-orientated avant-noise and eight and three-quarter minutes of demented, downtuned, downtempo sludgy space rock. Both are truly wonderful, and this is a superlative compilation that perfectly encapsulates the eclecticism of Cruel Nature. It’s also the perfect illustration of why we need these small labels who aren’t driven by commercialism or profits or shareholder value. For disseminating all of this weird and wonderful music – music which often challenges the very idea of music – the world is a much better place.

Fans of the label with absolutely love this, and for those unfamiliar with the label, there couldn’t be a better introduction. Here’s to the next ten years of Cruel Nature.

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Various Artists – Rental Yields Volume Four

Posted: 7 April 2023 in Albums
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Front & Follow – 14th April 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

These are shit times to be alive in Shit Britain, UK Grim: having taken back our borders, this green and pleasant isle is floating in a sea of shit – literal shit – that we’ve pumped out onto our beaches for our domestic holidaymakers to swim in, and we have 16-hour quest to leave the country to go on holiday for those who want to escape for a bit – damn those French bastards for checking the passports off non-EU visitors. But hey, at least we got rid of all of those foreigners working on coffee shops and bars for minimum wage and those doctors from overseas, right?

And yet, while the cost of living is spiralling, major corporations – and not just energy providers – continue to push up prices, not to cover the cost of paying their workers, but to preserve profit margins. It’s not that they can’t afford to increase wages, they simply won’t because capitalism is built on maximising profit. Fuck the staff, look after the shareholders. And of course, rent continues to rocket: landlords, too, need to protect their rental yields

An investigation undertaken in behalf of The Guardian late in 2022 found that ‘asking rents on new listings are up by almost a third since 2019, and some people are facing increases of up to 60%. Prices in 48 council areas are now classed by the Office for National Statistics as unaffordable when compared with average wages’.

The trouble is, capitalism is based on exploitation, and invariably, the wealthy become wealthy and grow their wealth through the exploitation of the less wealthy.

There is an irony here: in nature, the most successful parasites achieve a symbiotic relationship with their host. Under capitalism, the parasites seem determined to kill the host (the poor) on the premise that there will always be more. But then, the same is true of the human relationship with the planet: only, the resources are finite and there isn’t another planet, so we’re fucked.

The accompanying text pulls no punches in explaining the context:

“As we travel further into the year of our overlord 2023, the cold snap that had enveloped the country no longer seems to mock us as we struggle to complete the simplest of daily tasks. With public services at a standstill as the people actually doing the jobs fight tooth and nail for honest payment and work prospects, the rest of us eke out a little more of the heat reserve to keep us going as the ice finally begins to thaw. But the Rental Yields do not stop. The opportunity to make hay while the sun refuses to shine carries on as if no one was suffering. The money continues to be made and the towers in space continue to be built. Dark shadows now dominate the skyline of a city that has been forgotten to the wishes and demands of the few. Some will say this is the progress promised by those in charge of levelling up. But many others will suffer as the bankrolls of the rental yielders grow ever fatter. Still, the spring brings promises of its own.”

What makes life in this endless torrent of shit in which we’re all sinking is that there are some people who aren’t cunts, and who go out of their way to make the quality of life better for others, as well as themselves. The guys who run Front & Follow are among them, as are the many, many artists who have contributed to the Rental Yields compilation series, of which this is the fourth, showcasing tracks by myriad underground acts, remixed by myriads more in an exercise in infinite cross-pollination.

Featuring 26 new tracks and 52 artists, all money raised from this release will go to SPIN (Supporting People in Need), whose purpose is to feed, shelter, clothe and generally support the homeless and people in need of Greater Manchester.

As with the previous instalments, Volume 4, is very much geared towards ambient and more sedate electronica. With so many tracks and such an epic duration, and given the nature of the material, Volume 4 is a wonderfully immersive experience.

The overall quality is, again, excellent – meaning it’s consistently great across the duration and there’s nothing that makes you feel inclined to hit skip. There are, as always some names that leap out for a range of reasons: Kemper Norton. Yol, Omnibadger, The Incidental Crack, Field Lines Cartographer, Sone Institute – but the main point of this is not the names, but the merits of collaboration and collectivism.

Some tracks do stand out, notably ‘Acid Bath’ by BMH vs Lenina for it’s pumping beat, and CuSi Sound vs Robbie Elizee’s ‘I’m Not A Tourist, I Live Here’ for its overt wibbly synth weirdness, for starters. ‘The Enamel Hamper’ by Cahn Ingold Prelog vs The Ephemeral Man is a nine-and-a-half-minute dark psychological drift, while Omnibadger vs Grey Frequency’s ‘Speeding Ground (Part iii)’ is a glitchy, collaged morass of disorientation, with layers of noise, tribal drumming, and disembodied vocals, and ‘Home on the Whalley Range’ by Opium Harlots vs Yellow6 combines dark ambient, murky noise, and a hint of The Cure’s ‘Pornography’ to forge something intensely claustrophobic.

Solo1 vs yol’s ‘Black Spoons And Crosses’ is a collision of ambience and noise that will twist your brain, and the sonorous drones of Laica vs Learn to Swim’s ‘High Yields, Low Prospects’ is a doomy post-punk affair with an agitated drum machine hammering away amidst a sea of murk, and both the title and sound encapsulate the sentiment and the message of the album as a whole.

It is, once again, a triumph, not only artistically, but socially: the Rental Yields series is the epitome of community. And while our government speaks of community while acting in every way to destroy it, promoting division by every means, and social media has become a warzone whereby the goal is achieved, musicians are showing the way. This, this is how we will survive the shit and create a better future.

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Various Artists – FEAST 6 Halloween Show – Tower Studios, Stone, 30th October 2021

Posted: 2 November 2021 in Live
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Christopher Nosnibor

That there is a shortage of grass-roots venues is a widely-reported fact, and the last year and a half has only exacerbated what is, put bluntly, a crisis in the music industry. At the heart of it all, the problem is is that we exist under capitalism. Art and capitalism simply aren’t compatible. We therefore have a model whereby venues need to book acts who will bring punters who will pay for tickets and spend money over the bar. But how do acts who simply don’t have an established audience, or are unlikely to ever attain that kind of audience reach whatever audience they may have? How do acts who need the exposure get the exposure in the first place? The system is flawed. However, recent years have seen the emergence of a different kind of venue, with rehearsal rooms doubling as gig spaces. They maybe small, but that’s for the better – gigs with an audience of maybe 20 people don’t need a lot of space. Unlicensed, BYOB means no overheads or costs there, and because these spaces make their money by other means, any takings from gigs are simply a bonus. They also tend to benefit from being on industrial estates, meaning there’s less risk of neighbours complaining about noise, meaning the only downside is that they’re not so often in prime city centre locations. But how many small venues are these days?

Places like CHUNK and Mabgate Bleach in Leeds and Hatch in Sheffield have led the way, and now Tower Studios in Stone, a little way out of Stoke-on-Trent, presents a ‘proper’ gig following one shot for online streaming as part of the last FEAST event (with FEAST being very much something born out of lockdown with a series of streaming events).

For a place a bit off the beaten track, it’s stunning. Scratch that: by any standards, it’s stunning. A rehearsal space with a stage and meticulously maintained, it’s something else. The PA speakers are halfway down the room in the main room and face the stage, doubling as monitors, meaning the band get to hear the ‘out front’ mix instead of the monitor mix. There is a second, smaller room, but we’re in the main room tonight for a lineup of noise and experimentalism, and if the audience isn’t huge, at least they’re receptive.

Omnibael open with an ear-bleeding blast of space rock feedback with industrial percussion worthy of Godflesh. Jase plays pedalboard predominantly. Brief moments swerve into black metal, but it’s mostly just a relentless barrage of noise. The third track goes a bit Sunn O))), with big hefty power chords paving the way for more raging metal noise. The duo’s experimental explorations may yet to have found a firm stylistic footing but this outing is perhaps their most focussed and most intense live workout yet as they continue to evolve.

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OMNIBAEL

The second act, Vile Plumage, make like performance art, but struggle to keep straight faces, like they know this is audacious and preposterous. The gloved hands over faces cover grins disguised as menacing smirks. Stop start blasts of noise judder and thud. A rattling bean tin. We got given pebbles to toss into a bowl, and it was all quite bizarre and confusing, but entertaining in a strange and ritualistic way.

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Vile Plumage

I must have zoned out or blanked out for the next twenty minutes. Something about some guy cranking out electronic noise reminiscent of early Whitehouse while shouting torrents of vitriol and profanity through squalls of feedback, I don’t know much and I can’t comment on whether or not it was any good. But I think it happened.

Garbage Pail Kids is an experimental duo which features Theo Gowans, aka Territorial Gobbing – meaning that anyone familiar with the scene will have an idea what to expect –namely anything as long as its experimental, noisy, and improvised – and Basic Switches, the experimental side project of Leeds indie act Cowtown. Weirdy drones and feedback strongly reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle dominate the set. There’s echoed vocal oddness and endless pulsations with phasers set to warp and stun. Crazy headgear is of course a signature, and the headgear is particularly crazy here. The ‘anything goes’ oddity is nonstop, and at one point we find Theo playing keyboard barefoot while ululating wildly. It’s a complete headfuck, but a brilliant one.

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Garbage Pail Kids

Final act Ashtray Navigations are far easier on the ear. Predominantly dominated by dark, ambient sounds and gentle ripplings, although these are ruptured by dense synth bass and crushing beats. They venture deep into prog and space rock with vintage drum machine sounds: the snare is pure Roland 606. The set builds with some bumping bass that’s more akin to Chris & Cosey’s Trance era works. After a guitar string change that does slow the momentum just a little, the last piece combines the throb of Suicide with extravagant prog guitaring. It works primarily because of the blistering volume that’s utterly gut-trembling.

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Ashtray Navigations

It makes for a great end to a great night, offering a selection of sounds that have enough in common to be complimentary, but different enough so as to snag the attention. With any luck, this will become the blueprint for nights to come.

Various Artists – Long Division Festival 2021, Wakefield, 25th September 2021

Posted: 26 September 2021 in Live
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Christopher Nosnibor

It’s been a long time coming. Not only was Long Division postponed from 2020, but the usual may / June date pushed back – and back – to the penultimate weekend in September. In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate Long Division over the more renowned Live at Leeds, which increasingly feels more mainstream-orientated and generally more commercial, while the smaller event has retained its predominantly local focus (plus the now-obligatory Scottish contingent, who are always welcome) and a sense of catering to a broader demographic, with up-and-coming talent sitting comfortably along well-established and even what I suppose you might consider more heritage acts. In short, there’s something for everyone, and with Wakefield being a compact city, none of the venues are more than a few minutes’ walk from one another.

An indication of a well-planned festival is the breadth and depth of the bill, where it’s possible to spread the quality over the course of the day instead of flopping listlessly around in the early evening before all five of your must-see acts all playing between half eight and eleven, and arriving early doors meant being rewarded with The Golden Age of TV being first on at WX – a new venue, and a good one, right next to the wristband exchange. WX is spacious – by which I mean huge., but has good sound, and band seem to enjoy the big stage. The band have evolved significantly during their time away, and if Bea’s oversized jacket has a touch of the David Byrnes, vocally, she’s transitioned from Florence Welch to Siouxsie Sioux as she leads the band through a tight and energetic set of guitar-driven post punk infused indie rock. They’ve certainly set the bar high for the rest of the day.

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The Golden Age of TV

Solo artist Mayshe Mayshe’s sparse, minimal ethereal synth pop provides a strong contrast. Although with no obvious or radical changes, with the hair dryer still a feature of her set, she conjures magic with vocal loops and atmosphere, with an array of heavily-echoed modes of percussion and some shuddering bass frequencies. There’s some really deft and dextrous pedal work and real-time mixing, and it’s a captivatingly understated performance.

It’s back over to the WX, where Hands Off Gretel open with ‘Milk’, and Lauren Tate is straight in with a full-throated roar and all of the Cortney Love guitar poses with her foot in monitor. ‘Bigger than Me’ from the new Angry EP is a rager: there’s no question they’re at their best when they really let it all rip, and less so when it comes to chat between songs, while Lauren has trouble with a bottle of water for much of the set. New song ‘War’ is also a stormer, and ‘Don’t Touch’ from new EP also has bite, if very strong hints of The Pretty Reckless. They close with a passable but middling rendition of Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’, and the lasting impression is of the style and the delivery rather than the songs.

Last time I saw Cud was 1992, and I had wondered just what kind of interest there would be in them in Wakefield in the middle of the afternoon. They’re one of those bands who were never cool, but then didn’t much give a fuck, and it seems little has changed, really. Carl Puttnam has still got the moves, and the look of a chubby pimp with lounge style vocals. They’re well-received, with a lot of middle aged people dancing down the front, especially to ‘Rich and Strange’ and the baggy groove of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ during which some guy in a ‘Child of Cud’ T got on stage and did a Bez. And you know what? Maybe nostalgia is what it used to be, and they were good fun.

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Cud

Remaining in the WX, it’s not quite as busy for Brix and The Extricated, who power through a lively set. She’s got all the energy and positively full the state with presence, a restless force and a whirl of red sequins and platinum hair. The Fall’s ‘Feeling Numb’ lands fairly early on, and after ‘Dinosaur Girl’, they’re into the timeless classic that is ‘LA’. It doesn’t get better than that.

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Brix and the Extricated

Only, perhaps it does: Big Joanie have got The Establishment rammed to capacity, and it’s remarkable to see how they’ve gone from supporting Charlie Bliss at Headrow House in Leeds just a couple of years ago to playing one of the buzziest sets of the day ahead of a tour supporting IDLES in 1,500 capacity venues. This, of course, makes this afternoon’s set all the sweeter, and what’s so pleasing to see is that the band themselves haven’t changed. They still stand out, with their standing drumming as the sparse power trio deliver simple chord repetitions with instant hooks. Less is definitely more and they looked to be really enjoying themselves, too, and if you‘re looking for examples of strong role models with a positive message as well as great tunes, they deliver, while being completely devoid of cliché.

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Big Joanie

Watching Lanterns on the Lake’s mellow, expansive post-rock with some smooth textures and dynamic drumming, I realise that I’ve witnessed – quite unintentionally – a day of music with predominantly female-fronted acts, and it’s incredibly refreshing considering just how depressingly testosterone-led most festival and gig lineups are. Equally, the stylistic range is remarkable. Lanterns are easy on the ear but by no means dull, with hints of Portishead, and they end the set with guitarist Paul Gregory with a shredded violin bow after a truly epic crescendo. The experience is subtly powerful and ultimately quite moving.

Skipping across town, we find Idlewild front man Roddy Woomble in a church laying an (almost) solo set. We’re seated, in pews. The same pews we saw Scots troubadour RM Hubbert a couple of years back. Place is tight for the performers, and Woomble paces a tight spot as he really inhabits the songs, where a retro drum machine and washes of synth back his voice.

Making a swift and sadly premature exit, I scoot (not literally) to dive bar Vortex for Weekend Recovery. A band who’s ever-evolving, they have a different lineup post pandemic, and tonight stripped back to trio, their sound is a lot harder, heavier and darker. Lori’s looking a bit Susie Quatro. ‘In the Mourning’ crashes in second in and drives hard. With Lori on sole guitar duties, it’s down to the dirty fat bass to fill out the sound, and it certainly does. ‘There’s a Sense’ soars and slams and nags, while ‘Yeah!?’ takes a slower, more sultry turn. The set closer and upcoming single single sees shared vocal duties with bassist and further accentuate the harder sound, and it’s a cracking close to a sweaty set.

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Weekend Recovery

We’re spoilt for choice of headliners, and while I’d have loved to have stuck around for The Lovely Eggs, trains make this unfeasible, and so I go for Hull’s brightest new hopes Low Hummer, a band very much on the up, and fast. Just a week after the release of their debut album, they’ve been booked to replace The Anchoress supporting Manic Street Preachers on tour in a week or so, they could well be on the brink of being big, and deservedly so. They may be a comparatively ‘new’, and youthful, too, but they exude a stong assuredness and they sound amazing, and so tight. Blasting in with ‘Take Arms’ and they pack the songs back to back with no pausing for breath and no messing about. The songs are built around steady repetitions, and they’re simultaneously dynamic and nonchalant in their delivery.

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Low Hummer

So while the rail network is shaky and world continues to go to hell, it’s beyond uplifting to be able to forget about it all for a bit and lose yourself in a day of quality music. It’s an incredibly welcome return for Long Division, who’ve not only done a great job with the lineup and scheduling with spacing between bands, but also wonderful to attend an even with such a great atmosphere, free of dickish behaviour – and with a general sense of community. Things are a long way from being back to normal, but Long Division provided the perfect escape. A triumphant return.

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