Jazkamer - We Want Epic Drama

Another month, another Jazkamer. I said earlier on that I originally planned to review all of these monthly Jazkamer-releases, but decided not to. I kinda want to go back on that now, so there may be a few random reviews of the older discs as well in the future, but now it's time to review the June-edition.

"A big-band noise extravagansa. The first studio recording of the Metal Music Machine line-up; two drummers, electronics and three guitars. Artwork by Justin Bartlett." This is what the website says, and I was prepared for something like their classic Metal Music Machine album, but I was wrong. Starts with heavy drumming, and though there has been some intense guitar, electronics, drum sessions on their previous monthly releases this is again something completely new. It's full on trash rock metal noise without being anything other than pure energy, and this disc is also the longest disc amongst the monthly-series so far at least, with two tracks spanning over 70 minutes. It acutally sounds like the second track could've been devided into two separate tracks as well, but that's not the point really. It's often hard to make a good record lasting as much as 70 minutes as it's not enough just to make good and interesting music, but it should also work as a whole, but if there are anyone that I trust could make it it's Jazkamer. With a harsh noise wall-, drone- or ambient-record it's often important to get the length to it for it to work. With more dynamic and organic noise it's harder and especially with rock-noise. I'd say the electronics are more like a mild spice to the whole rock stew on this record than a very dominating sound source, but it's always there.

Now why did I really enjoy this so much compared to other full on rock noise records? I can't really say why, but what hit me was that the sounds of the instruments were allways really clean and it never stopped evolving, though it at the same time were quite static in its sound. Organic and of course something different once again from Jazkamer. Already looking forward in getting the July-edition in my mailbox.

Scumearth - Deranged Prototype

So the story goes: I had 20 minutes to kill with some sound and figured I should take a dive into my pile of unheard 3"es. There should be no reason for saying this, but for those who don't know the format, it's just a smaller CD(r) than the regular 5" discs that rooms up to 22 minutes of music, and from a random pick I ended up with a 3"CDr housed in a mini DVD-case with two 10 minute tracks, released on R.O.N.F. Records. It was from an artist I hadn't heard of before called Scumearth with a convincing title, "Deranged Prototype".

The first sentence I noticed were "Played and recorded live with no overdubs or computers", something I though would be interesting to fill my time-gap. Only a few seconds after I pressed play I was into it. It sounded very controlled, but still chaotic and improvised. Dark and heavy with an intro to take you slowly into the first piece, but it didn't really take long before it was a full blast. No overdubs but still very composed in a way, with enough layers to keep the interest up all the way through, and before I knew it the first track was over. A great piece that made me happy it was one more track to come.

And then the second track started with full on noise, but it's not what I would call a classic harsh noise wall track, but rather space-industrial harsh noise. Too much variation to make it a wall, and to be honest I did actually like this second track even better than the first. If it's so that this is live material, not edited nor fixed I'm really impressed with the steadiness of it. I like nothing more than to find harsh noise records that I feel I could put on over and over, and with this I did that. I actually walked over to the stereo while writing this review to put it on again, and now I'm back on track two. Reading a bit more within the info from the cover I see who directly or indirectly (as it says) has inspired the artist on this release, and with references like Pain Jerk, M.S.B.R., Merzbow and more pure gold artists, you've set gold’s that are almost impossible to reach, but this time I'm convinced. It's happy noise all the way through, a pure euphoric journey with loads of energy and interesting sounds.

If you're into noise, trash, grind core and other great stuff you should check out R.O.N.F. Records' website. There should be something for everyone there. And by the way, I also have a tape compilation with fresh-idea-experiments coming out there soon as Torstein Wjiik.

Bjerga / Iversen - Time Lapsed & Short Circuit (Two floppy discs)

These two reviews were written on discogs a while ago. Decided to rewrite them a little and put them here. Both releases are strictly limited, but rumours says they will be re-released sometime in the future as part of a box-set. More on this later (maybe?)!


TIME LAPSED (Originally written April 13. 2009)

Classic format, strange music. This is some of the strangest work I've heard from the fantastic duo, Bjerga/Iversen. It's only just over 1 minute long which made me think I was gonna get a short drone/ambient-piece, but it seems to be a speed-up of a longer track or something, which makes it hard to get a hold of. It's also short on the low frequencies, something I think would be better for a longer track. But it's definitively interesting, as this is one of the most on the side releases from this hyper-productive duo. Never have you heard them like this before!



Short Circuit (Originally written January 25. 2010)

Ok, what is this?

First of all we have the format, which is excellent in its way of being very little accessible. Then we have the "problem" that most people can't even get the file out no more as floppy-drives are no longer the most common thing on the modern computer. Then there's the size of the disc which does not allow very much of either playtime nor quality as it can only store 1MB which compared to the modern MP3-players would usually be 250.000 times less storage room. Needless to say it's a pain for most people, but for format fanatics, like myself, this is pure gold. And when it comes to the music… The last time I heard this duo on a floppy-disc it was something strange which almost sounded like a speed-up version of a concert or something. This time it's a static noise-drone with some people talking over. Sounds like a recording of someone talking during a very static sound check where the mic is being moved around. It's really hard to get into, but when you've heard it once it's hard to put it away without wanting to spin it again just for the fun of it. And glad I did 'cause the more I played it, the more I got out of it. It's not what I would concider a high quality release, but damn is it a great one! Fun, unpretenceaus and it's so damn short you can't get tired of it before its over. Another great floppy from the duo. Please keep 'em coming!