Snowblood discography (Super Fi)

Super Fi released 3 albums by this lot over the years. DIY doom stuff from Scotland. Heavy and a bit odd.

Criminally underrated.







oh, and some of them have a new band called OMMADON who are well worth checking out. More bleak doom.

Dripping Ancience - s/t (Ocrilim)

Another great release by Mick Barr of Orthrelm/Krallice.

This time he's playing an Azeri Tar and has an improv percussionist backing him up.

Closest comparison i can think of is Flower Corsano Duo



Definitely like to hear more of this side project.

Melvins - Everybody Loves Sausages (Ipecac)

Juno are selling the wav of this for £10.99.. Can't find FLAC anywhere. Ironically, Boomkat now have the CD on sale for £6.99.

OK, it's the Melvins. If you don't love the Melvins then you might as well stop reading now. Go out and buy a copy of Lysol or Houdini or something and sort your pitiful life out.

Everyone else is probably aware that this is them doing covers with an occasional guest appearance. Not a million miles away from the Crybaby album. Personally that's one of my favourite. This isn't too shabby either.

Kicks off with a great version of Warhead by Venom. Let's start off with a controversial opinion - the Melvins version is better than the Venom version. For a start it doesn't lead into total dross like Lady Lust.

Instead they go into You're My Best Friend by Queen. Great song. Great cover. Then it's straight onto an awesome version of Black Betty. Dale or Coady turn out some awesome cowbell action on this one.

Can't be bothered going through every song but some highlights are a version of Station To Station by David Bowie with JG Thirwell of Foetus joining in for 10 minutes of kraut-esque joy; Timothy Leary Lives by a totally obscure KBD type punk band; and Heathen Earth by Throbbing Gristle finishing things off is a treat. Ooh, one more, Tom Hazelmeyer (of Halo Of Flies and head honcho of Amphetamine Reptile Records) joining in for a snotty version of Art School by the Jam.

If you like Melvins and generally have good taste in music then this one is a no brainer.

Damnations Hammer - Disciples Of The Hex

You like Celtic Frost?

Damnations Hammer exist somewhere in the wilds of the North West of England and have made one hell of a savage metal album. Musically it's very Celtic Frost and the vocals sometimes sound like the guy from Primordial/Blood Revolt.

I Hate Records from Sweden put out the CD earlier this year. They put out stuff like Pagan Altar, Evoken, The Austrasian Goat, Jex Thoth etc so you know they've got fine taste in metal.

Highly recommended.

Friend Collector - FCII (noise rock)

Discovered this via the excellent Built On A Weak Spot blog. A great place to find new noise rock stuff. Sadly it's stopping. Real shame.

Anyway, they compared this to Drunk With Guns, Glazed Baby and Swans.

Got to agree that this is good stuff. Filthy Am Rep noise rock. Nothing quite beats it.

Not Waving (ex Walls)

new Not Waving album is streaming over at Dummy

It's half of Walls (the Kompakt one not the Iron Lung one) and it's similar kind of fuzzy synth oooze. They've got some EPs on the bandcamp as well which are also lovely.

Oblivionation (ex OUT COLD) new songs

The Oblivionation demo was fantastic

Basically it's folk from Out Cold doing a band that sounds pretty much like Out Cold. Early 80s US hardcore stuff played by masters of the sound who were doing it years before it became even remotely acceptable let alone slightly popular.

Kirin J Callinan - W II W/Thighs 7"

An Australian guy that's come up with some creepy Foetus style music. Jittery drums overlayed with goth-tinged weirdness. Bizarre industrial pop.

And that's just the first song. The flipside is minimal guitar stuff with drawling vocals. Think Tom Waits or Scott Walker.

Really struggling to describe this accurately. Which is a good thing.

This guy is a total freak off in his own little sound world.

Red Hare - Nites Of Midnite (Dischord)

ex Swiz band on Dischord. What the hell else do you need to say?

Unfortunately, Dischord are yet another independent label that don't make FLAC available. They do mp3 so at least they've got some idea that it's the 21st Century. However, at the risk of repeating myself, why would I want to pay money for a poor quality reproduction of the music? FLAC is the exact thing that comes out of the studio. Aaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh etc etc etc etc.

Anyway, it's really fucking this good album. Fingers crossed they tour the UK.

FACT magazine's Best Of Bandcamp

FACT magazine have started a Best Of Bandcamp feature

Basically, each month they pick about 10 awesome things they've found on Bandcamp.

They have good taste in the general 'dance' music thing so it's worth checking out if you're into any of the myriad genres that fall under that definition.

Neon Piss - Vinyl Rites

Somehow missed that Neon Piss have a new 7" out. We're talking great tuneful punk. Like The Observers (if you're skinny) or like Wipers (if you've got a beergut).

Bologna Violenta - The Sound Of compilation series (Grindcore Karaoke)

What does a band sound like when their entire discography is played at the same time? A glorious, hideous mess. That's what.

Surprisingly, it also makes for quite interesting listening. Actually listened to quite a few of these so far. Honestly, I thought I'd listen to about a minute of one of them, have a laugh, and then just forget about it. Not the case though.

Should mention Grindcore Karaoke have put up a whole series of these albums. 40 artistst get the Bologna Violenta treatment in total. Everything from Abba to Pantera.

The Charles Bronson track above is a good place to start as it's a mere one and a half minutes long. Gives you an idea of how it all works and how you you can hear sounds fade in and out. Also, shows how the sound changes dramatically towards the end as less songs are playing.

It sounds like 7 Minutes Of Nausea or something like that. Or a bit like the Anal Cunt 7" with 5643 songs on it. AC basically recorded short songs layered on top of each other. Total mess.

The Abba track sounds good as well. You can occasionally pick up bits of melodies from the gloop. Not a million miles away from the racket V/VM used to make.

It makes you feel a bit like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit when you're listening to it. Absolute headfuck.

Doom - 25 Years Of Crust

Who'd of thought you'd see the day when Doom released a greatest hits album ;-)

Power Trip - Manifest Decimation (Southern Lord)

Boomkat sort out FLAC for Southern Lord in the UK so go here for when it's released early next month - http://boomkat.com/search?q=southern%20lord&fields%5B%5D=

Or else, Southern Lord might put it up on their bandcamp

This is, quite possibly, the best crossover thrash revival album that's been made. If you told me it was a long lost album from the mid-80s I'd be inclined to believe you.

Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Cro Mags, Hirax and so on.

Municipal Waste seemed to kickstart the thrash revival and since then there's been tons of fairly mediocre bands floating about. Even the best bands just sounded like mere pastiche.

Power Trip don't fall into that trap though. They've cracked it. They've made a crossover album that is genuinely as good as the original 80s stuff.

Indricothere - II (ex Behold The Arctopus/Krallice/Gorguts etc)

Amazing OTT widdly technical metal stuff.

It's the solo project of Colin Marston from Behold The Arctopus, Krallice, Gorguts, Dysrhythmia etc.

What else do you need to know?br>
Totally mindmelting stuff.

Simon Aulman - Doctored Placebo

Welcome to my newest planet of grotesque elephantine distortion and tender licking exquisiteness. Yes I like this one quite a lot - but the newest one is always overrated. It starts the way I'd love everything to start and belly and end - with something blunderingly simple and repetitive. Unfortunately it sounds more repetitive than it really is. It sounds like some lazy five second loop going on till OAPdom. But it's actually quite complicated and if you listen hard you can hear how it moves from being jumpy and off-kilter to being smoother and better-flowing. But no one will listen hard - or soft - or at all. And that's how it should be. I'm bored of it already. The moment the final track is starting to upload I want to get on to the next thing. The second track is actually even lazier than the first one. How I love lazy music. It's the kind of slightly odd music that your mum loves - because it's so insta-sexily hip-in/out rhythmic - but every muso will despise it because it's just a lazy echo-y thing. The title of the second track is inspired by the title of that absolutely fantastic old documentary about Chet Baker - "Let's Get Lost" - which I watched this morning before it got light, before the boot-sale. If Let's Get Lost is still on youtube then it's well worth a pot - and probably a more delightful experience than hearing this album. A lot of work went into the third and fourth tracks. When I say "a lot of work" I mean about an hour each. Which for someone as impatient as myself is a long time in front of the computer. I totally love them. But it's the same love you have for your own farts and your own children and poetry and dreams - no one else is intrigued. But anyone who makes it to the centre of the tracks will maybe like the lusher slower keys, losing the war against the terrible distortion. And maybe not. The long final track is probably fairly boring to anyone else, but I like it and I can assure you it's not repetitive at all - every moment is unique. This is my favourite album so far. Everything was made in LMMS - which I've now been using for about a month. I haven't learnt anything more since about the second day. Malcolm Gladwell says that in another ten thousand hours I should be a genius at it. The prang is that it's getting harder - the more I know the harder it is to keep it simple and naive and I'm losing the freedom of being able to think Oh Bugger It and then just echo everything so that boring random bangs become simple minimal swaying procreative pleasures. I spent more time doing the cover than I did doing the first and second and final tracks and look how crappy-naff-sicky that photo turned out, which is a good lesson to anyone else who is patiently polishing their turd.

Barge - No Gain 7" (Grave Mistake)

Premium quality Infest/No Comment worship.

Music From Saharan Cellphones Vol 2

Contemporary pop music from the Sahara desert, where songs are stored on cellphones. Collected in Northern Mali in 2010 (since taken over by extremists who've banned music on cellphones) the second volume expands into new sonic territory - from dreamy Niger guitar ballads, Bamako club juke, to hi energy Moroccan child Raï - with a focus on the Autotuned DIY creations circulating the desert.

Only half way through listening to this second instalment of Music From Saharan Cellphones but it's standing up well with the awesome first volume.

Basically, it covers the mutant sounds of the Saharan desert. A scene where music gets passed around via mobile phones. Completely the antithesis of "authentic" Womad style world music. Recognisably African in sound but filtered through autotune and hip hop and rock but in completely and utterly unique ways.

Impossible to describe really. It's totally sui generis.

Under The Church - Demo 2013 (old school death metal)

ex Nirvana 2002.

Fiends for old school Swedish death metal will have already clicked on the link.

Samothrace (20 Buck Spin) & Bell Witch (Profound Lore) - London, Monday 6th May

So yeah, this isn't really a review of the bands' records but fuck it. My blog, my rules ;-)

Milgram Records presents:

Monday 6th May
@ The Black Heart, Camden

SAMOTHRACE
doom from the US on 20 Buck Spin


BELL WITCH
doom from the US on Profound Lore


BALISTRARIA
raw black metal from Lich/Hunger/Human Junk folk

£10 in, 7pm start

http://www.facebook.com/events/438921616184495

Blackest Ever Black

BLACKEST EVER BLACK have a bandcamp page now - http://blackesteverblack.bandcamp.com/

Home of some of the best electronic sounds going at the moment: Raime, Regis, Cut Hands, Dalhous, Vatican Shadow, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, Prurient. Harsh & bleak techno/industrial sounds.

They've only got two albums up there at the moment but hopefully they'll put the back catalogue on. There's a Prurient piece and also this from Alexander Lewis:-

Night Birds - Maimed For The Masses 7" (Fat Wreck)

Loved the last Night Birds LP.

This 7" is more of the same. Tuneful, surf guitar tinged punk rock. Agent Orange, Adolescents, Descendents, Zero Boys and that kind of thing but with an added dose of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and Man Or Astroman?

Kind of surprised to see it being released by Fat Wreck. Not quite what you usually associate with them. Hopefully should mean more people get into them. Good for them. Also makes it more likely they'll come back and tour the UK again.

Seriously, Night Birds UK tour soon please.

Apparently there's a new LP out soon too. Can't wait. In the meantime these 4 songs will have to tide me over.