Unexplained Sounds Group has had another stellar year releasing ambient, experimental and post-Industrial music from around the world in 2021. We had the pleasure of reviewing their mid-year compilation on July 28, and now that the year is complete, USG end the year by giving us 35 tracks from artists like Gintas K, Aidan Baker, Echoflex and a cast of many.
Costa Rica, musically, has always been a mystery to me. The last contact I had was with a brilliant DJ out of San José who hosted a progressive rock radio program, but to find out that there is experimental music coming out of the country is a very pleasant surprise.
Cyanosis is not a stranger to this site, as Efrain Valerio’s work was reviewed when he participated in a split album with our friends Destruktionsanstalt in April. This is the first chance I have had to hear his own work, and it is as bleak a recording as I have heard in a long time. This is what power electronics and noise should be. The sound is claustrophobic, something like being locked in a metal box inside a roaring volcano. This is literally the first image I had while listening to the album. It is that brutal, yet it manages to maintain some structure to it, and even has a feeling, in parts that it would have belonged to an Alfred Hitchcock movie had he still been alive during the 2020s.
Very impressive.
The second release from Raffaele Pezzella’s Unexplained Sounds Group’s latest acquisition, the magnificently dark Reverse Alignment record label.
This is a different affair from yesterday’s compilation, which was more extreme in sound. New State of Flux doesn’t have the same reach in terms of geography, but it covers music which is more focused, more intense, and gives a feeling of being part of a film-noir soundtrack. Of particular interest to me was the piece done by Vongoiva called Palovankka, which you can hear below. Well done, as always.
Gradual Hate Records has had a stream of excellent releases this year, but this album by HIEMIS, an artist out of Spain, is the best of the bunch. This is dark, gothic (in the original sense, not the bad makeup sense), ethereal and would compare well to artists who made their mark with labels like Projekt Records, Cold Meat Industry or 4AD (think Dead Can Dance).
What pleases my ears the most is the heavy, almost liquid-like sound that resonates so deeply in my speakers that I feel like I’m inside of a cave enjoying almost pure isolation. It’s quite a magical, meditative release, and I look forward to hearing more from HIEMIS in the future.
For those of you, my friends, who were avid readers of my previous blog, A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music, among the musicians I was proud to champion was Destruktionsanstalt, whose works were featured at this link. I’m pleased to say that Per Najbjerg Odderskov has a fresh release under that monicker, splitting it with a project which is new to me in Cyanosis. The first two tracks from from Destruktionsanstalt, and unlike many noise bands, there is a nearly surgical focus on both tracks. The pummeling noise fest has a vibe utterly indebted to the masters, especially early period-Throbbing Gristle and a name not mentioned enough these days, Maurizio Bianchi (M.B.), whose work always reminded me of the more frightening side of documentary, clinical music of the experimental variety.
Cyanosis was a pleasant surprise for me. Not quite as noisy, the track they offer is crunchy, yet has a cinematic air to it. I look forward to learning more about them.
Much respect to Marbre Negre, a newer label out of Reus, Spain, which specializes in dark ambient releases. They’ve left quite a good impression.