dick cheney made money off the Iraq war

[KitchenSink]

thanks man glad I could piqued your interest. I'm trying to recapture my ability to semi-articulately rant about music because I feel generally better when I have an outlet to vomit my feelings on shit haha. (Been so just mentally exhausted in recent years especially now with covid, but hoping I can keep dropping some ramblings in here with some kind of regularity.)

if you do decide to listen to the album let me know what you think. the vocals might take some adjusting to but imo they're the most rewarding part of the album. and while the electric bluesy-ness likely comes from an entirely different musical lineage than American electric blues (albeit probably with some influence) I do think there's at least some pretty noticeable sonic crossover (I mean the colloquialism "desert blues" doesn't come from nothing haha)
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[Applerill]

JasonConfused

(In all seriousness, while this doesn’t sound like my thing, that was a really great write-up <3 I’m soooo excited for more)

[Mercury]

[KitchenSink]

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Incapacitants - Zouvneree

it's probably glib at this point to describe any noise music as "visceral", but my understanding of Incapacitants (an understanding furthered by a mini-documentary on them I watched in 2019) relates that visceralness yes to the music itself but far moreso to those making it; if there's any equivalent to automatic writing for noise musicians, Incapacitants seem to embody that; with a massive array of decidedly cheap analogue gears of every sound color laid out in front of them and a seemingly endless well of screams and screeches waiting to erupt, they approach noisemaking very much with a "act now, think later never" strategy, and for the most part it works out fabulously for them. Their sense of sound textures and how to develop across whole albums them while maintaining a consistent atmosphere seems to be deeply ingrained at this point; it's second nature. That's what makes Zouvneree a bit of an oddity in the Incapacitants catalogue in that it almost feels rehearsed. There's still a fair bit of the balls-the-the-walls wackiness of As Loud As Possible strewn throughout here, but there's also far more empty space than the vast majority of Incapacitants records (probably even moreso than their relatively minimalist works in the early 80s). The second track in particular, the steady-paced "Development Hell In A Cell", is almost sinister in slowly-devolving collage of mechanical reverb and echoing static. It's a very interesting track and plays with some really cool sound palettes, but I can't help but feel like they're just not having as much fun with it. When it comes to the more energetic, almost happy variety of noise, Incapcitiants are essentially unmatched. When they're trying for darker, more menacing, less spontaneous tones however, I feel like there's just plenty of noise artists who have mastered this approach to a far more satisfying extent. Essentially I think the best Incapacitants albums are those that approximate the energy of their live shows, in which everybody on and within a 500 yard radius of the stage is losing their fucking minds and having a great time of it. All that having been said, Zouvneree is not a bad album by any means. There are genuine moments of brilliance seemingly every few seconds, and even more often than the spacier atmospheric darkness bits or these analogue-approaching-digital tones that sound like an entire dentist's arsenal of torture tools throwing a bachelor party (the drill's getting married mind you). Idk where I'm going with this metaphor. The album's strength lies in its unpredictability and penchant for constant fun sonic surprises. Brevity is often a weakness here.

Now last year Inapacitants dropped Onomatopée suicida

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this takes all the best parts of Zouvneree and makes them the primary focus. It's a constant barrage of "yo I didn't know you could make sounds like that WOO". Most excitingly (for me anyhow) is the final track, which is a 22 min live performance from 2019. I mentioned how Incapacitants are at their best in the studio when they embrace their spontaneity to its fullest, but with that said, their actual live albums have tended to disappoint me, either because they are excerpts not served from being cut short, or for because for some reason they decided that a much less exciting show is the one that should get the official release. The last track of Onomatopée suicida, conversely, is perfection. Body-shaking As Loud As Possible-tier noisy nonsense (almost bordering on HNW at points) with a constant stream of whistles and whirrs that poke holes in the sound walls, snaking and slithering around the static, not just as ornaments but as points of focus, forcing you to into that ocean of noise, but like it's an ocean filled with colorful pop rocks. It's got a lil touch of anger and darkness too but it uses it more as a periodic point of contrast, or as a light seasoning, i dunno. In a 40-ass year career this may very well be their best album to date. Or at the very least their most uh swirly. Fuck i have a headache.

I picked up this cassette at a DIY thing a few years back called Gay For Noise, and it's exactly what it sounds like. A collection of noise tracks that eschew the common dread and darkness of much of the genre in favor of bounciness and fun (shit still hurts your ears after awhile, but you recover your hearing with a smile on your face). It's a lovely compilation (that I really need to digitize and share at some point), and listening through it I feel like I am constantly hearing the effect Incapacitants have had on the noise-landscape, their encouragement to just fuckin go nuts and jump around on stage, to have some fun with the genre.

noise fascists btfo
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[Applerill]

Yeeeeee, I should dive deeper into their discog.

(Also Merc, the joke is that the “electric blues” Jason would confuse with the blues rock he loves)

[Mercury]

[KitchenSink]

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Teodoro Bello - Libro De Recuerdos

pretty sure this guy was being used for money laundering in the late 90s/early 2000s. Showed up outta nowhere with really high production values, interviews (which he only gave 2 of ever I could find, one of wish was only 15 sec long) contain vague and contradictory information about his origin, was almost instantly invited to major music awards, received radioplay despite having subject matter nominally banned from most Mexican radio, and he vanished off the face of the earth after releasing 3 albums in rapid succession ......

anyway, money laundering scheme or not, this is honestly good stuff. Upbeat corridos from a dude who's vocal range is fairly limited but delightfully soulful, and surprisingly delicate given the subject matter (my Spanish is garbage but as far as I can tell this is mostly narcocorridos, aka drug ballads). Fairly simple structure to most songs, steady rhythm, pleasantly deft accordion work, light repetitive string backing, and Bello's emotive voice making me fully believe that regardless of any *ehem* illicit components to his career, he cares about the music, and it sounds like he is genuinely writing about real shit he sees (although again my Spanish is garbage so don't quote me on that). There's a subtle melancholy here that forms a consistent vein throughout the whole album, even the more relaxed songs feel somewhat reflective in tone as a result. The accordion being responsible for the bulk of moving any given song forward melodically is an interesting touch that helps hold one's attention and gives Bello more freedom to focus on the parts of being a vocalist he's clearly more proficient at (aka taking one single mood and running with it for the entire song) while letting the accordion lead. At a certain point the album does start to feel a little samey, perhaps just a bit too shiny and polished, and by the end Bello's vocal limitations have started to show a bit. But honestly, even if it's a bit of a one-trick-pony I enjoyed this album a fair bit (Bello has a really fantastic ear for a catchy melody). Apparently most of Bello's career consisted of behind-the-scenes writing for other narcocorrido artist, and I can definitely see where his strength is likely more as a songwriter than as a solo performer. Will have to revisit if/when I improve my Spanish because I could catch traces of what sounded like some really cool storytelling shit going on, feel like my mostly monolingual self missed out this time around. Anyway shoutouts to the accordion guy, hope they let him in on some of the dirty money because dude earned it
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[KitchenSink]

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Sephardic Folk Songs by Gloria Levy

fuCk I'm tired today. uh this here's an album called Sephardic Folk Songs by Gloria Levy and it's an album consisting of Sephardic Folk Songs by Gloria Levy. is good
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[KitchenSink]

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辐射较弱 Faintish Radiation by Mamer

now this was an unexpected pleasure. My only previous knowledge of Mamer came from his 2009 album Eagle, which was a lovely collection of slickly produced pastoral folk tunes. An extremely warm and friendly album, not to mention often pretty catchy. Faintish Radiation, by contrast, is a live collection of (I believe) solo improvised music for alternatively guitar (both acoustic and electric), bass, dombra, and occasionally voice, and the performances span the entire spectrum of string-based improvised music from delicate and reminiscent of Mamer's folk work to harsh and dissonant and almost reminiscent of someone like Derek Bailey (not nearly as adventurous mind you). The more harsh and heavy tracks are on the lighter side as far as improvised music of that ilk goes, leaning more towards sustaining a consistent hypnotic atmosphere rather than exploring a large range of sounds or employing extended techniques. This isn't a bad thing; Mamer finds a groove that fits and expands on it for like 5-8 minutes, and by keeping the sonic palette of any given track relatively limited, when he does decide to branch out beyond what he's already established in a given track, even if only a little, the familiarity and in a way comfort you already have with the established parameters of the track serves to greatly emphasize and enhance any little variation he decides to throw in there. A prime example might be the almost Earth-esque "Kün", a noisy electric guitar drone that lulls you in just enough for Mamer to play this tiny games in disrupting listener expectations, a few bars of minimalist repetition suddenly distorted by pedal effects and bent strings that were not used at any point prior and used only very sparingly going forward. Despite the loudness of the track, there's a great deal of restraint here in terms of only using the musical tools at your disposal when they will have their greatest chance of proper impact. The following track "Kim" continues this trend in a fully percussive idiom; rhythmic steadiness is established and then just as quickly interrupted if not by subtle syncopation then by overblowing the speakers until the audio clips and creates this delightful lo-fi reverberation effect, before eventually just shifting into a straight up harsh noise jam, and then back to this heavy but really playful kind of bass work, and then back to harsh noise... really the only complain I have about this album has to do with its versatility being a kind of double edged sword in that it is also kind of sonically inconsistent, and occasionally jarring in a way that isn't quite as fun as what I've listed above. Sometimes he gets into a really nice delicate folky groove and I just kind of want that to continue rather than give way to more noise jams (at least, not yet.) The album flows oddly; I have no real problem with the first few tracks being on the more abstract side (although I'm guessing the album would sell better with a more conventional opener) but really the album seems to be sequenced at random. I think rearranging the tracks could greatly improve the listening experience. I like almost every individual song here but it flows clunky at best. You'd lose absolutely nothing listening to the album on shuffle. Might edit this later after I've determined what I feel is a more ideal song ordering for the album, but even in its default state I can still recommend to anyone who likes improvised music of any sort (while bearing in mind that, with a few exceptions, it's a little more on the conventional side as far as improvised music goes. not the noisiest or most out there by any means, just really solid left-of-center jams without necessarily reinventing the wheel. recommended)
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[KitchenSink]

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Crack Mix 396 by Tygapaw

i cannot stop listening to this. it's a really cool approach to a mix in that although some of the tracks might be considered kind of "obvious" selections (I Remember, Pump Up the Jam, etc) she spun mainly really obscure remixes of said tracks that totally shift the vibe to match the overall flow which is this like mid-point between more industrial tinted techno (of the sort she makes when producing) and more classically minded house jams. You might not even catch how versatile the whole mix is given how well it flows and how seamlessly everything connects; of the goal of a good dance mix is to make it feel like one continuous track so the groove never stops, well mission fucking accomplished. This woman is a master on the decks fr, pure compressed dance party in a bucket this, just add water and get groovin
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