Henrik Nordvargr Björkk - I End Forever

How do you describe something that is unclassifiable in the traditional sense? Dark, electronic, futuristic soundscapes! Yeah, that sounds pretty good... perhaps I should add eclectic and engaging, as well as a deeply satisfying listen. I can't even recall how I discovered this musician, but in the short time since I was introduced to his works, I have managed to amass a collection that numbers at least 12 strong. Not much considering the large number of items in his catalog, but in my defense, he is exceedingly hard to find - at least in the amount of time I am willing to devote to hunting his works down. I highly recommend I End Forever; it is the most accessible album of Henrik Nordvargr Björkk that I have found to date. And now a little bio about the man himself...

Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk has long dominated the postindustrial music genre with his multiple musical projects that breach numerous genres and musical styles. Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk has lead such eminent musical projects as the black industrial MZ412, Hydra Head 9, and the now decommissioned Folkstorm as well as the legendary martial orchestral / ambient project Tordoih. Having penetrated so many domains of postindustrial music, it makes sense that Henrik would eventually leave his mark upon the dark ambient music arena. It is very telling when a musician who works under numerous personifications chooses to assign his own name to an individual project. Having led the assault under various monikers, it remains Henrik’s dark ambient music production that has earned the right to exclusively bear his name upon its title.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?4mywymumzkt

Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children

If you have been studiously following the journey through the music that I find most interesting, you have surely noticed that the last several posts may have been a wee bit hard to stomach - in fact, many would hesitate to call it music at all; so now I will be nice and present you with a classic album that promises to take you someplace pleasant... A little bit ambient, a little bit psychedelic, a little bit trip-hop.

Enjoy!

Here's what Pitchfork has to say:

Sometimes an album is so good and makes its case so flawlessly that it spawns a mini-genre of its own and becomes shorthand for a prescribed set of values. The Velvet Underground's third and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew are two older records that spring to mind, and I'd toss in Spiderland as well. It's not a long list, but somewhere on it belongs Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children.

Boards of Canada's sound is not wholly original. Seeds of it can be found in Eno, Aphex Twin (in a big way), The Orb, and all over the home listening electronic scene that sprang up in the wake of Warp's Artificial Intelligence compilation. Boards uses drum machines, samplers, and an unfathomable collection of analog and digital synths, like others in their sphere. Their chords are typically gauzy ambient, their beats head-nodding downtempo. Properly speaking, they invented nothing.

And yet, the parts have never come together quite like this. The first thing to note is that Music Has the Right revealed Boards of Canada to be geniuses with texture, where god is in the details. The incredibly simple melody of the short "Bocuma" becomes a lump-in-the-throat meditation on man's place in the universe through subtle pitchshifts and just the right mist of reverb. The slow fade-in on "An Eagle in Your Mind" is the lonesome sound of a gentle wind brushing the surface of Mars moments after the last rocket back to Earth has lifted off. The long history of the electric piano was nothing but a lead-in to the tone Boards used on "Turquoise Hexagon Sun", the perfect evocation of a happy walk through the woods in an altered state. Every IDM artist since has at least once labored over their modular unit to get a patch that sounds like one of the many brilliant sounds found here.

Boards of Canada had released some singles and two EPs previous to this record's release, material which showed that they'd already developed their sound. But with Music Has the Right to Children, the duo set out to make a proper album, and approached the album from a rock perspective, carefully mixing and editing the track sequence, while drafting interludes and tightly restricting the palette. You aren't likely to hear more subtly effective layering of sounds on any electronic record in the last 10 years: Music Has the Right to Children is as unified and complete they come. Here, Boards of Canada set their sights on a small set of moods and characteristics-- innocence, apprehension, wonder, mystery-- and probed every possibility in minute detail.

What's it all about, then? "Childhood" is the usual answer, but that's not as easy a connection as it seems on the surface. The giggling voices of kids that crop up are a sure giveaway, as are the song titles ("Rue the Whirl", "Happy "Cycling"), but Music Has the Right to Children avoids the twinkling music box melodies that Múm has been coasting on for a while now. Boards managed to evoke childhood without seeming cute or twee. It's childhood not as it's lived but as we grown-ups remember it, at least those of us with less-than-fond recollections. The shades of darkness and undercurrents of tension accurately reflect the confusion of a time that cannot be neatly summed up with any one feeling or emotion.

When you discover that Boards of Canada took their name came from an organization committed to educational film, the overriding idea of their project clicks immediately into place; tapes with narration and incidental music accompanying filmstrips that were always damaged from age and overuse on poorly maintained equipment. The warbly pitch and warped voices mirrored the anxiety that came with the "carefree" days of being a kid and living subjugated by others. Boards of Canada tapped into the collective unconscious of those who grew up in the English speaking West and were talented enough to transcribe the soundtrack. No need to get hung up on specifics; however we lived and whoever we were, Music Has the Right to Children reflected back the truth for a lot of us. You can't ask more of an album than that.

—Mark Richardson, April 26, 2004

Download:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dymn2kizzmt

If you don't mind...

Could you just leave a few words about your impression of the music posted here?
I'd really appreciate it; even if its just 'I liked it', or 'I hated it'...

Thanks!

Leviathan - Tentacles of Whorror

Most of you will scratch your head when you actually listen to this album and wonder if I have gone quite crazy for not only listening to this genre of music, but also for unleashing it on my unsuspecting friends... but then most of you will realize that it's in my nature to shake things up.
What sets these guys apart (I think) from bands like TKK and Ministry is that these guys (those in the Black Metal genre) actually believe in the evil and don't use it as a kitschy vehicle. Kinda scary, but then again, I can't really understand the lyrics anyway... This is just grinding, evil metal to make your ears bleed and your soul weep! Enjoy!
Oh, and lest I forget, this connects to my previous posting because this guy collaborates with Sunn O))) - that's how I discovered the disturbing world of Black Metal...

Here is what Crysis from sputnikmisuc has to say about this album:

Quality Metal in the United States is few and far between. The country is awash with trendy, unoriginal, and badly written excuses for Metal. The Black Metal scene in the United States is even more dismal, with Agalloch straying farther and farther away from Black Metal, Xasthur getting worse as time goes on, and other bands which aren't up to par with their Scandanavian brothers, it seems that Black Metal is going extinct in the United States. However, there is still a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. San Francisco's blasphemous, one man Black Metal act Leviathan is still going strongly, playing the incoherent and evil Black Metal so many fans admire. It's everything one could want from a Black Metal band and then some, consistently putting out quality material which is worthy of comparison with the likes of European Black Metal, something which almost every USBM band can't say.

If you have heard Leviathan's first full-length album The Tenth Sub Level Of Suicide you will know that Leviathan means business, and that you will only find the darkest of the dark, and the most evil and blasphemous of Black Metal. The man behind the mask, or should I say the man behind the corpsepaint, Wrest is a very talented individual who plays every instrument and provides the vocals, and everything is of the utmost quality (production aside). Also if you know a lot about Leviathan, you will know that Wrest is not afraid of experimenting with various sounds and instruments, whether it be a piano or acoustic guitar, Leviathan has used pretty much all of it at least once. Most of the time, though, it's all straight-forward, in-your-face Black Metal. Wrest is not one to screw around, and he is dead serious when it comes to his music.

The guitars on the album are of the typical Black Metal type, lots of grinding and buzz-saw like sounds, but also every once in a while there is a break from the action, like in the middle of A Bouquet Of Blood For Skull, where the heavy instruments break off to reveal a calming, yet chilling, bridge, with ominous guitar picking and strange ambient effects in the background. There are also some great riffs featured here, but don't expect them to be melodic, they are all very crushing and hateful, and thats what makes Leviathan different. Wrest isn't afraid of breaking away from grinding, fast guitars and to go into a catchy, dark, and sinister riff which will get any metalhead moshing in a matter of seconds, perfectly portrayed in the song Heir To The Noose Of Ghoul, which showcases tons of riff changes and great variety. The drumming is very, very well done, and it is part of what makes the overall sound Leviathan produces. Wrest often strays away from the typical blast beat and adds his own touches, whether it be a fill here and there or a nasty double bass kick, and it will knock you off your feet and take you by surprise.

The vocals are another thing which makes me grin from ear to ear. Wrest is one of the best vocalists in Black Metal, and even though his voice is layered and sometimes distorted, Wrest has one of the most evil Black Metal shrieks I've ever encountered. They are high-pitched and ghastly, it's hard to imagine a human being can make a sound like that. Needless to say they fit the music with the utmost perfection, and you won't even notice the lack of variety in the vocals, since none is needed. It's a shame that the vocals are so well done, because the production of this album is pretty terrible. The guitars are a bit overpowered by the drums, and the bass is a bit swallowed, but since this is a Black Metal album, I won't complain too much.

The album clocks in at a very lengthy 1.2 hours, and it's hard to take in with one sitting. The good thing about the length though, is that you get a ton of high quality Black Metal, and this album proves that Leviathan is at the forefront of the current USBM scene, producing album after album of quality material which is easily accessible to the fans of this band. Tentacles Of Whorror is a superbly written piece of music, that is worth the attention of Black Metal fans all over the world.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mwdwdmem1jy

Sunn O))) - White 1

OK, congratulations if you made it this far! You are now at the Final Test. If you make it past this one, you will be invited to the Drone Graduation Ceremony and be welcomed to the ranks of The Musical Fringe. But beware, this final installment will test your endurance the most...

Pitchfork says (with tongue firmly in cheek):

Please please, come inside. Welcome to Magnetic Park. We've just finished drawing the pentagram in goat's blood on the floor and we're almost ready to conjure up the seventh level. What? Just a "door-to-door encyclopedia salesman," huh? Well, there'll be no need for encyclopedias where we're going, but I'm afraid you've already seen too much for us to simply let you leave... alive! OH, I'm kidding. Relax. You'll only have to stay until the ceremony is complete, at which point you'll hopefully be a true believer like the rest of us. Now please put this cloak on, say a prayer to the severed head, and prepare your body for the fluid of the infants.

Let me just introduce everyone, then. Those two around the black ring of fire, Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, are the originators of this sacred music and ceremony you are about to experience, Sunn O)))'s White1. The individual resting on the mystical stool of the beheaded is Rex Ritter, formerly of such cults as Fontanelle and Jessamine, and to his right is Joe Preston, of Earth and The Melvins, who prepares the accompanying drum machines to our din of sin. The one awash in his own feces is Julian Cope. He'll be regaling us with one of his famous odes this evening, and hopefully making his exit shortly thereafter. Between you, me, and the skinned bunny rabbits, he sort of gives everyone here the creeps.

It has begun. Since you are new to the ceremony, I will walk you through the dark and deafening sounds your aura will soon be cleansed with. The music currently loosening your bowels is the obstinate bass feedback the group is known for in this community. It serves as the breaker upon which the guitar tremolos crash, giving the duo their distinctive and brooding sound. Julian arises now to begin his exercise in theatric word painting, "My Wall". It's really quite enjoyable to listen to, and even more fun to recite once one gets past the coquettish nature with which he refers to Anderson and O'Malley.

The key to deciphering Cope's abstract speech can be found in the line, "My wall, my wall, caught beneath the thrall of my wall," referring to both the weight of the song and his faux-epitaph-- "here be the wall of Johnny Guitar." Ready? Repeat after me, "Old mother-fucker, she was a cock-sucker." Isn't he a lyrical genius? And now begins the instrumental outpour. Be sure and pay attention to how the tonal washes of the electric strings continue to lull you into a false security while the occasional crashes harshly bring you back to the reality of your knocking knees.

Don't be frightened, that's only Runhild Gammelsaeter of Thorr's Hammer fame. She marks the beginning of "The Gates of Ballard" portion of the rite by rising from the throne of discarded headcheese. Her chant serves as the high-end compliment to the single rising tone of instrumentation. The strong bass kicks in, stalls, and eventually progresses into a rhythm outfitted by a programmed drum, courtesy of Ritter. This atmosphere is explored off and on for the remainder of the song, until it eventually gives way to "A Shaving of the Horn That Spared You".

This "Shaving of the Horn" track is meant to explore the more experimental yearnings of the dark Lord that oversees all such doom metal. It pulses at times like a Stockhausen-directed helicopter, with hissing and popping that's occasionally cut by angular guitar noises. The humming you hear is meant to provide an accented beauty to the harsh sounds and effects that O'Malley and Anderson usher forth from their instruments. The truly remarkable moment has not yet come upon us, though. Be patient, you will see.

AH! THE HUMMING HAS TRANSFORMED ITSELF INTO A GNARLED AND UGLY GROWL! ALL THINGS ONCE CONSIDERED STUNNING AND ATTRACTIVE ARE NOW PEPPER TO YOUR EYES UPON BEARING WITNESS TO THE POWER OF THE SATANIC DRONE!

HEY! Where you going? Don't leave yet! BUT YOU LEFT YOUR ALL YOUR CLOTHES AND PAPERS HERE! Yeah, I don't know what his deal was, guys. I guess some people just can't handle the brute power of music like this. What a pity...

Download:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mtq1day3ann

Coil - Time Machines

Here is the second installment in the industrial drones trial. Like the NWW album, this release is also subtly insidious in its psychological effects...

"We attempted to dissolve time." That's how the late John Balance, half of the now disbanded British experimental musical duo Coil, described the aim of their 1998 release Time Machines (Eskaton). Balance said this with such matter-of-factness that you hardly notice the ludicrousness of his claim. No mere sensation-hungry dabblers when it came to tearing down the doors of perception, Coil certainly had reason to stand behind their assertion. Having logged countless hours drifting in the lapping tides of Time Machine's slowly unraveling synthesizer drones, I can tell you that Balance and musical partner Peter Christopherson definitely succeeded in their attempt. Coil's m.o. with Time Machines can be best summed up by the title of Spacemen 3's 1990 demos compilation Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (Bomp). Starting from the premise that hallucinogens can remove oneself from one's temporal reality, Balance and former Throbbing Gristle member Christopherson (with assistance from William Breeze and Drew MacDowell), set out to synthesize music that would catalyze and tease out the temporally-disruptive effects of specific chemical compounds. If that sounds a bit dry, there is indeed an aura of scientific self-seriousness to the release. Each composition is titled with the chemical name of the substance it has been designed for - track one, "Telepathine" (an earlier term for the compound found in Ayahuasca or yage, popularized by Burroughs and Ginsberg); track two, "DOET/hecate"; track three, "5-Me0-DMT"; and track four, "Psilocybin." But for Coil, science was another form of magic, something driven home by the album's cover design: a black, glossy oval that alludes to the obsidian "scrying mirror" of Renaissance magician and astronomer John Dee, who supposedly used the stone to conjure spirits. (A limited number of albums also came with a set of stickers that when placed on top of each other depicted Dee's sigil, the Hieroglyphic Monad). I should confess, with much embarrassment, that for the many times and many different contexts in which I have listened to Time Machines, I have yet to experience any of the tracks while on the substances for which they were specifically engineered. That said, the album's transportive effects are noticeable even while listening sober (and are certainly heightened by strong doses of THC). My experience has largely been subtractive: it is hard to do anything or to think about anything with much success, or even "actively listen," while Time Machines is playing. It is the aural equivalent of an isolation tank, in that you don't even notice the vessel falling away, you're so immersed. Turn it on, tune in, and dissolve. - Matt Sussman

Highly Recommended!
Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?qzmmddnd3zm

Nurse With Wound - Soliloquy For Lillith (Six Songs For Lilitu)

For the next several posts, you will be tested!
I am taking you on a journey through the haunting and surreal world of industrial drones!

Our first visit will be to a soundscape created by Stephen Stapleton (a.k.a Nurse With Wound)
The album was recorded by Steven Stapleton and his wife Diana Rogerson in May 1988. The only sound source was a number of effects units which he had set up to operate in a feedback loop - there was no original input signal being processed, simply the feedback hum generated by plugging the original chain of pedals back into itself. However, when Stapleton went near the pedals he found the sound changed in accordance with his proximity to the various pedals and units. Stapleton created the album by gently moving his fingers above the various units to create the slow, subtle changes in the sound. This fortuitous accident is utilized to stunning effect on the six sidelong pieces that comprise the album. As this shouldn't happen, Stapleton has put the album down to an electrical fault of some sort in the studio. This was acknowledged on a later reissue with the credit "our thanks to Electricity for making this recording possible".
Soliloquy for Lilith is an album of complex, powerfully realized moods, both somber and fragile; one of the most rewarding "ambient" albums ever made. Giant sheaves of majestic, glacial sound are wielded in repetition, with the inevitable effects of sound decay and distortion creeping in at the high end and bottom tones. It's a gleaming sound full of depth and dimension, like a work of modern metal sculpture in which you can see your distorted reflection. When given your full attention, the coldly warm tones have the effect of rendering thoughts, and therefore time itself, neutral. The same sound palette is used throughout, but each track manages to be very different from the last, birthing its own unique phantasms.

Highly Recommended!
Download:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ymyz3z5wjtm