mailorder update: Codex Empire and Blush Response

Both Codex Empire and Blush Response deliver a new 4 track 12″ EP on the Berlin based label Aufnahme + Wiedergabe… both projects are exponents of the current techno scene which blends dark goth inspired sounds from the 90’s and EBM rhythms with contemporary industrial techno music…

While Codex Empire is more into 90’s goth/darkwave when it comes to lending elements Blush Response seems to more focussed on (harsh) EBM… still both new EP’s will also interest fans of industrial music and especially those into rhythmic noise… think Ant-Zen style…

Both records can be ordered by through the ET mailorder or the ET discogs webshop… I only have a few copies of each… so be quick or be sorry…

Below you can listen to a full track of each release…

Radio Resistencia with live Murw

This Thursday (25th of February) a new Radio Resistencia session wil take place at Kapitaal Utrecht… live on stage we have Murw from Utrecht… he was present on the Kamp Holland compilation I released some years ago… around that time he also performed live for Radio Resistencia… back then quite a noisy improvisation site with live electronics…

This time most likely the live set will be more dance music orientated… this is a new direction for Murw… he is experimenting with live techno… still improvised at some points… and also still present is the musicians’ interest in lo-fi electronic sounds… so some chip tune sounds and elements will be present… but also some more pounding techno tunes…

We start around 20.00 hours CET and end around 23.00 CET… entrance is free… as always… I will spin some records and so will dj Alacidus…

Here is a bit of Murw live at the Gransnapolsky Festival from a few weeks ago…

Glice

In the end I am not a big noise fan… I do like noisy music and industrial music and sounds… but most noise is just noise to me… noise for noise sake is not my cup of tea…

But since a long time I do listen to noise music such as performed by Sonic Youth for example… this as it is not just noise… it has interesting narratives to get into and lots of dynamics and it plays around with genre definitions… well these same aspects I recognise in the debut album ‘Lix’ (it is a shamed but only available digitally for now) by Dutch noise duo Glice…

Glice did present an EP a few months ago which I enjoyed but this album is just way beyond that… the music is richer in sounds and textures and due to this much more daring and interesting… from the first seconds it grasps you and pulls you down under in creepy soundscapes and nasty noise pieces…

The opening piece “Terebinths” is a 10 minutes long ritualistic dark trip… something which will appeal to fans of old Lustmord stuff… and absolute highlight is “Flax” which is the most melodic (sort of of) and tranquil piece of the album… almost meditative but too disturbing in the end… another highlight is the bombastic “Tamarix”… which could have been on an old Cold Meat Industry record…

The 80’s and 90’s industrial influences seems to be there but the music by Glice is very much contemporary too… fitting in somewhere with the post-techno music by Kerridge for example… really an awesome release… also for non noise fans…

You can see and hear Glice live on Thursday 21st of January at the Radio Resistencia session at Kapitaal in Utrecht…

And… enjoy “Tamarix” here / below…

Baldruin (again)

A little while ago I wrote a few words on the Baldruin tape release “Miniaturen”… a wonderful piece of ambient music which I still play a lot… a few days ago the new tape by Baldruin arrived… it is entitled “Klaue”…

While “Miniaturen” and most of the music by Baldruin is quite subtle “Klaue” opens with some rather distorted and noisy music… still short pieces of ambient sounds… and especially the A side of the tape is done in this way…

As said….  like on “Miniaturen” the songs/tracks are short pieces of music… and on the B side the music is less noisy and returns more to subtle electronic music and playful tracks dominating the listening experience… the style more typical for Baldruin…

But… do not get me wrong… the more noisy pieces are equally good and interesting as they show a different side of Baldruin…

And… another side of this project is evident on the also recently released split 3″ cd with Micromelancolié… on this cd Baldruin is present with three cover songs… all done in a truly original way… adventurous, playful and done with a funny twist… worthwhile to check out for sure!

Here is one piece from the “Klaue” release…

Neugeborene Nachtmusik

Neugeborene Nachtmusik is the brainchild of Soldat Maurizio… he first joined the Enfant Terrible family with his project Milligram Retreat… after that project was destroyed by the other band member involved he continued under this new alias…

Residing in Berlin he continued to shape his music more and more into an unique style of this own… some results of this were displayed already on the various artists releases “Exploitation“, “I Am Enfant Terrible” and “Post-everything“…

Now the time is almost there that his debut album will be poured out over you… this album simple entitled “Neugeborene Nachtmusik” is something highly awaited by me… and I am happy it is in production now…

When it comes to the music it displays the talents of the musician very well… you get served six long tracks with effective minimalism and trance indulging sounds… influences from elektro, industrial, noise and (black) metal can be traced… the album is diverse but coherent in displaying the specific personal style of Neugeborene Nachtmusik…

This album is a pitch black experience… a shamanistic ritual and a dark trip which takes you by the hand and leads you beyond and back…

Here is a full track preview of one of the album tracks with a fan art video… enjoy!

Goo morning

Every morning before going to my job I have about time for one side of a record… often resulting that I play side A from a certain record one morning and the the next morning I continue with the B side… anyway last year the most played record in the morning was Sonic Youth’s “Goo”… an album from 1990 I totally rediscovered last year…

In the past I listened to a lot of Sonic Youth… then for some years a lot less and since two years or so I play their music again quite often… in the past I liked “Confusion Is Sex”, “Sister” and “Dirty” the best… “Goo” never really was among my favorites… maybe as it is a sort of in-between record… in a way it combines the sound of “Daydream Nation”… dreamlike sequences bordering melancholy melodies and noise eruptions… and on the other hand the song based tracks like on “Dirty”… or maybe this is all nonsense as the band has on many album (including “Dirty”) played around with noise, song structures and melodic movements…

“Goo” anyway made a lot of sense to me last year and I played it so many mornings… sometimes the A side and sometimes the B side… but mostly the A side…  And… you need to love the cover… also if you do not like Pop art… Also this record is a good starting point of picking up my renewed interest in Sonic Youth… I stopped following them after “Experimental Jet-Set, Trash And No Star “… so let’s see what is there to explore…