Eightteen reviews

NXFXTXEX "63" CD-R Legion Sudan || http://home20.inet.tele.dk/eustachian/ls/ 14 tracks, 57:48

Nearly an hour of minimal and diverse experimental noise from Denmark, made up of a few substantially long songs and a number of significantly shorter ones. Expect a lot of blazing distortion that wavers from crunchy to fluttering, stuttered harsh loops or feedback, distorted radio signals, and lots of other random quirkiness. "~TRr4000" is a nearly silent murmur for a minute-and-a-half sans a blur of chewed up metal riffs, followed by "Stupid Human Jam" which seems to do the same with hip-hop/R&B type stuff for a number of minutes (along with some televangelist samples and whatnot). Then the aptly titled "Pinballin'" is made up of manipulated samples of, you guessed it, pinball; while "Idiot Human Jam" is more than six minutes of sparse, glitchy electronics with a lot of space and minimalism working in its favor. "~TRr100", on the other hand, is much thicker and more sinister, basically a dark ambient piece with tons of murky low-end and such. Despite what the title may suggest, "Dedicated to Vanilla Ice" is a mere 13-second blast of overt harsh noise mastery, which may or may not have any real ties to said white "rapper". Closer "Untitled (20 Minutes)" is in reality not 20 minutes, but a close enough 15, opening softly with some superb ambient chirps and hums. These sounds loop and repeat for quite some time, getting a bit more simplistic and droning as it progresses. I was surprised that the piece does in fact remain pretty laidback for its entirety, only increasing in volume and getting slightly more intense in the final six minutes or so. The CD-R comes in a slightly oversized sleeve xeroxed onto pink paper with some obligatory porn images (though at the least they're chopped and cropped in a way that makes them so you might not realize what you're looking at right away). Inside are a number of xeroxed inserts with additional artwork and text, all handwritten and, let's admit it, a bit on the sloppy side. But that's life, eh? NXFXTXEX is among the few experimental noise projects out there who seems to take advantage of humor in a way that I can tolerate, I must say. I'm still not fond of humor in noise in the least, but this type of work somehow manages to brandish the sense of humor as blatantly as possibly without overflowing into simply being cheesy or immature, and I think some of that might have to do with the variety of styles and textures displayed, at least on this particular release. I'm not floored, but I'm not turned away by it either. Decent... decent. - Andrew

Quixo/NxFxTxEx/Chefkirk 3-way split (Legion Sudan; CDR; 12 tracks; 63 minutes 19 seconds) (File under : DIY noise at it’s most radical presentation)

In this world there’s something called popular music. There’s some sort of less popular music but known music called alternative music. Then of those more obscure there’s the underground music, where the people who refuse any sort of cultural standard goes. But if you taste is to be more than a specimen of the unknown there’s an alternative underground made of a dozen of people in contact together and releasing few dozen copies release and they know all of those who own their records and what they think of it. The advantage of the noise genre is that this kind of release are often decent recordings with decent artwork and very original sounds compared to all the shit-grind or DIY hardcore with cardboard drum that was popular when your older brother was still wearing sweatpants and came with this deche-charge tape. Now the CDR technology and the access to easier recordings process make that kind of release. And what is one of te best purveyor of that kind of release than Denmark’s own Legion Sudan records where the motto is Quantity, Not Quality. Sounds isolationists will get more of the most sick under-underground records for the most crazy price in the world. This record is one that I got form month, due to the ugliness of the artwork (apparently make of a Xeroxed toilet paper) I put it in the maybe someday I’ll take a listen bin… But as Label-owner Eli Gudnason told me about the greatness of the Quixo project that is on this 3-way split, a decent listening was due. Quixo is from the USA and plays a very shiny power electronic with static delivery and volume abuse. Sometimes more quiet, sometimes with guitar manipulation, these quiet moments, are a kind of preparation for the sonic turmoil of the rest of the track. The very first track smell the scent of an electrocution and the weird loops of the third one made me crazy. There’s a kind of musical approach too like there’s a kind of keyboard sound in the fifth track. Eli was really right, Quixo is a very nice project. I don’t know if I’d me able to handle more but it’s actually a pretty nice part of the split. NxFxTxEx come to this split with a very different approach. I don’t know, but now and you may see by the amount of review I did of the Danish project, but I really don’t know what to expect for every release. For the more mellow HuuHuuuuuuuuu EP and the Cannibal Hologram tape to the unlistenable sound collage of the early works and the more diverse and worked release of the Delusion Nag the sound of NxFxTxEx is always a mystery to me. This one begins with a very weird loop of sound sounds that reminds me the early songs of the Delusion Nag CDR (that was release on my own label, get it or die!!!) and it seems that even the way to create mindfucking loops evolved. There’s some distortion to the repetitions and there’s panning and other nice effects, unfortunately the succession between the tracks is cheap. The second track is ore of a feedback with some statics and some spacey sounds that reminds me of a bike race on Saturn or a kid playing with these kind of gizmo doing some bomb sounds that was on the market years ago. There’s also some more mind disturbing noises. In a way it gives a good 9 minutes of noise mood. The third rack of the NxFxTxEx part of the split begin on the same spacey path, sounding like a distorted theremin and then goes in a very dense for of solid noise with some invocative passage of more muscled noises. The third participant of the split is Chefkirk for North Carolina I guess. The first track is more of an anxious repetition of some noise layers with some looped screams and high passage. Very nice noise to finish this split, playing more in a conceptual side of noise, like composed with experiments parts, I’d really like to hear more of it since it really sounds good to my ears. The problem I got here with that kind of split is this on, when you listen to a split with three band, there’s always the third one you’re not able to hear since the split is too long… But Chefkirk hooked me a lot with their noise… That’s a pretty interesting Http://www.legionsiudan.cjb.net Legion Sudan

BxHxNxFxTxEx Oh, Noise (Legion Sudan; CDR; 15 tracks; 21 minutes 56 seconds) (File Under : First it was punk, now it’s… mmm… something noisy…)

Denmark’s NxFxTxEx is the kind of noise project I receive too much records for the interest I may give to them, some records are ok, some suck (I mean sounds like they took 10 minutes to finish) and some are nice, so I don’t listen to the records as soon as I get them. This one goes in the third category and it makes me realised that it should have been a great idea to play it before. For this time, Eli uses Danish trashers Broken Hallux (that seems to be a real kick ass sweat shorts-bandana band) and it goes a way further than the just distortion over the band’s tape, this is actually processed loops made with Broken Hallux sounds. Some tracks are real enjoyable loop noise where sometime you can hear volume playing more distortion and direct samples from the band. The results is quite amongst the best shit NxFxTxEx released by far and the most enjoyable part of the split is at the end when a big fat 7 minutes monster ambient drone that come on hooking my ears and say “that’s the shit”. Just for this one take a look at this records… But the rest is very nice too. That’s a good NxFxTxEx release. But notice that the sound of Broken Hallux is possibly quite important here… Viva Carlsberg noise and punk united… Legion Sudan/NxFxTxEx www.legionsudan.cjb.net Broken Hallux http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/brokenhallux/

I Am That I Am/Douglas Nine split tape (Noisetapes; Cassette;3 tracks (2 from IATIA, 1 from DG); ??? long enough to get your skull crushed) (File under : Power Electronics purity/Skull crushing ambient harsh noise)

This is a release from the over-producing DIY noise label Noisetapes who’s run by canadian DIY noise fundamentalist Jason Campbell. Everybody in the noise scene know this, there ain’t no other person in the noise scene that can use the Noisetape name outside Jason, he’s possibly the most productive noisician out there, maybe one release a week… This release is an interesting thing since this is a split with Denmark’s own Douglas Nine (another project from Eli Gudnarsson of NxFxTxEx) and the clash between these noise bulimics was inevitable I guess. Jason goes out with this tape with his solo outfit I Am That I Am, which is just a small contribution to his soon to be hundreds recordings. The interesting thing with Campbell’s releases is that everything I’ve heard from him keep on being all relatively intense. This recording is a succession of more than violent analogue assaults that will make everybody searching for a secure sounds in the wrong path. If my speakers can speak, they should have yelled me to shut this fucking noise mess off. In a sense, I don’t know if there’s a lot of people who are into I Am That I Am or Jason’s release under his real name, but I think this is something that worth the experience at least once in a lifetime. This is really the fast power electronics experience at his best. I remember in Metal Maniacs they describe Merzbow as two R2D2 fighting, but this is possibly a Royal Battle of thirty-two R2D2 with really fast execution with an apocalypse of noise as a result. You can’t pass 10 second without a new sonic assault… Two word : mind crushing… Some may don’t take Jason seriously, but I guess his recordings are pure violent noise experience that proved his pertinence in the noise scene. Then there’s Douglas Nine on the other side of the tape. I didn’t knew what to expect from Douglas Nine, their previous CDR just made me couscious about the limit of being ironic (Hitler pictures sucks, even though he looks dumb) and the music didn’t impressed me, like the early NxFxTxEx does too. The beginning of the tape take me by surprise by the richness of the sound. There’s one big sounds with some surround soundscapes that makes this sounds minimal but rich. It goes I guess in the same vein as the last NxFxTxEx I recently reviewed. This make me come to a clear interrogation : why making 2 projects that sounds exactly the same? Anyway, this is zillion ways stronger than the earlier release of the project. This proved me once again that Eli’s methods of noisecrafting goes steps forward. Well, the sounds is not exactly monotonic, it evolves into different tone that are different but sounds the same. And yes I know this is a paradox. But sometimes the tone change drastically to another tone and here the beginning of another mammoth noisecapes and it goes in some slower parts too, in a way this is not just a simple sound, but it seems to. It ends up with some sort of static manipulation that fades the song nicely Once again a nice demonstration of strong ambient noise. When I say ambient noise, I figure that the structures are monotonic but the sounds is raw, not ambient but really harsh. Once again the song didn’t have a name, which is something I like from Douglas Nine that support the aesthetic of monotonic noise, I guess more minimal abstract artworks for solo release should be nice too. I really can’t wait as NxFxTxEx too, the following of Douglas Nine, but see a fusion of the projects and more time between release being done in the quality of the release should make it a way better. But the repetitiveness of this release make my head going nut, after 10 minutes, my head wanted to explose. The artwork for this one are pure DIY aesthetic, xeroxed cover are with information handwritten, cut and pasted on images. The cover is a partition, the IATIA is a collage with some flute schematics I guess and the Douglas Nine one is a very romantic-like painting, which is really better in a sense than the bad ironic artwork of precious release. For the cheap price Jason ask for his releases, get some and you can die un-peacefully in noise… Because this is a pretty interesting release for the cheap price… Noisetapes http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/hmr

Radio Anna Ki D8438 (Noisetapes; Cassette;2 tracks; one 30 minute side) (File under : Lo-fi, unoriginal, radio tuning to avoid)

Another Noisetape here, Radio Anna Ki, which I really don’t know what to expect but since there’s the word radio in the name of the artist, I guess this is a radio waving-sourced noise record. The cover is a cube with the title and R.A.K. written in front, not much more information, just a DIY cover. Well actually, it begins nicely, some loud noisescapes pounding out which are pretty interesting and relaxing until it got worst… Then there’s a complete Wu-Tang Clan song I guess (with the sampling) with hissing over it. Mmmm… Non Merci… After this songs there’s a succession of radio tuning which goes from opera broadcast and I hear Eminem once, well I don’t think I can hold more here. There’s no much more thing than that on this record. No power electronic processing, no ambient soundscapes. I guess this is really a waste of time… I can understand how it goes, some guys think they are nice and original, record it, send it to everybody, nobody likes it except people who can belive that some guys are serious making this, I know what I mean, early Foutredieu!!! was like that I guess. Anyway there’s better people doing that kind of noise, Chaos As Shelter and Radiode (as seen on Noise Sux 2). If you want to know what it really sounds like, take your old ghetto blaster in your garage, smoke a joint, press “rec” and have fun turning your radio tuner. That’s Radio Anna Ki… There are better Noisetapes releases out there… Avoid this one… Noisetapes http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/hmr

NxFxTxEx Huuhuuuuuuuuuuu EP (Legion Sudan;CDR; 4 tracks; 36 minutes) (File under : A noise project that tends to find his way…)

Denmark’s own Eli Gudnarson started this project I guess in 1998, I got some of their previous recordings and I don’t feel the need to listen to these records since I never find their works really amazing. NxFxTxEx’s (that means Nut For Trendy Ears) earlier releases were like compilation of tracks he made with his computer and sounded to my ear too lo-fi and too much of a mix of different housing sound source, like on a song called Nightmare there got some bad Anal Cunt sampling and sound from a waking-up machine (sorry I didn’t find the name in English for this). Anyway I was intrigued by the fact that Legion Sudan say that this album was “brutally harsh computer noise”. When I first heard the album my reaction was to say that this is not as brutal as it is supposed to be. Anyway, the first track is a little bit disappointing, but the 3 other tracks on this record are absolutely magnificent. The thing I think about Eli and NxFxTxEx is that he possibly don’t know, but his projects (such as Douglas Nine) are slowly becoming to my hear something as a good minimal noise project. I guess minimal is not the term, monotone can be the word… I mean all songs are like long filthy electronic drives with few changes that are what noise is all about : making people nuts. I really enjoyed the 3 last track especially the third one that features more high parts but still remains a monotonic wall of sounds. Well if you like your noise squeaky and fast and violent, NxFxTxEx is possibly not really for you (but check out the Blakkfetus record also on Legion Sudan), but on the opposite hand if you like your noise near ambient but still really noisy and minimal, check out NxFxTxEx since their sound will possibly evolve, but as they define their sounds as “brutal”, maybe I’m wrong and the project will evolve on an harsher path. But there’s a potential of becoming a super nice project. Legion Sudan www.legionsudan.cjb.net

review :: moron musical release :: No Laughing Matter label :: Legion Sudan musical artist :: nxfxtxex

Denmark plays home to the deliquents behind the impossible to pronounce nxfxtxex project and their "misnomer of the week" entitled disk "No Laughing Matter". I haven't been exposed to a lot of Danish noise but if this is representative then I guess that' my folly (something Legion Sudan is working to eradicate). So getting back to the title of this CDR, not only is it terribly misleading, I feel like I am perhaps being used as guinea pig for some reverse psychology experiment. This is not funny. Stop laughing. I said DO NOT LAUGH! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING? That's an easy one, this disc sports an outward smirk that no amount of pot smoking or pornography perusal can diminish. It's a loud and raucious affair of course so don't pick this up expecting a safe all ages tiddlee hee. But this release's gleeful trickster cavorting can't be hidden by any amount of distortion or ragged skree - it's foooooney and I like it. nxfxtxex teeter around a wide number of noise camps. For the price of admission the listener gets introduced to V/Vm digital misbehaviour, hair on fire Mandragora label freakouts, lo-fi Casiocore, sparking and sputtering glitch outburts and even a digital hardcore influenced bit of potty mouth reminiscent of the most freeform Stunt Rock material. Despite being all over the place it definitely maintains a consistent personality, half "pull my finger" and half Bart Simpson slamming pots together while marching about screaming "I AM SO GREAT!". The "Simpons" reference is apt since one of the tracks here emulates Bart's favourite gift from Homer, a toy that has three buttons which trigger a canned "go to hell" or "kiss my butt". Bart declares "I will never get tired of this" which must represent my demographical bullseye as the extended speak and spell Tourrette sesion here of "cock ... cunt" has me grinning like an stinking arse despite its risk of immediate employer sourced wrath (do not blare this disc at work).

Packing is cute but simplistic, a photocopied reproduction of classroom doodles complete with anarchy symbols, pot references, what I beleive is a picture of Tom Jones, cartoon violence and of course, a large collection of dildos (obligatory). What it is not however is a decent storage vehicle for a CDR. The Legionairres should really consider at the least investing in some protective CDR sleeves since mine looked like it had been strapped to underside of someone's skateboard just before the grind competition by the time I received it. Song titles are a tad incomrehensible but "funny urine used" was my personal fave.

With noise releases I mainly look for two things - brutalistic and enveloping cacaphony or a wet raspberry splurge of sonic enthusiasm. This effort radiates some heavier elements but spends most of its time taking the piss out for a walk about the world's sonic enviroment. This is one of the better bits of aural nose thumbing I have heard in a while and those in need of some crass juevenielle energy to offset their culturally enforced grayness, nxfxtxex could be just the wafting stink palm you were looking for. Fucking eh.

NXFXTXEX "Delusion Nag" CD 6/10 - [Brise-Cul] I'm not all that familiar with this project (hailing from Denmark) but this is a fairly strong EP of experimental noise. Starting off is "Salsa Intro" which, perhaps sadly, is not at all "salsa", but instead around two-and-a-half minutes of staggered and glitchy harsh noise - not too aggressive, but not quiet or weak either. "Extravagant Boob" is another quick one (less than three minutes) with a similarly chaotic structure that is a bit more wispy and abrasive, still without getting to a point that I would call aggressive. "What I Do Best in the West With Breast" is a remix by Foutredieu!!! that actually stands out quite a bit with some subtle melodies in the distance behind reverberated high-end distortion and some more droning ambient textures. "Seated for Perfect Freshness" sounds like hyper distorted, chopped up, and rearranged video game music (not bad); while "When We Boogie" runs much longer and brings in more of a dark ambient vibe… still offering a dose of cutting feedback alongside biting crackles of distortion coming in. It's definitely more minimal and spacious. Closing is "I Like Music…": 14 minutes (by far and wide the longest track) of slightly more generic harsh noise done with the more quirky and spliced up movement of the first two tracks, as well as some of the minimal elements of "When We Boogie". It definitely has enough changes to get through, and there's some really great "harmonized" (in a way) distorted feedback panning around four minutes in. The CD-R comes in a slim slipcase xeroxed onto cream colored paper with some photographs on it that I can't discern. It looks alright, the quality is decent, but the actual imagery and stuff isn't my thing. There's a small insert inside that has some additional recording information and art on it as well. This is pretty good. Of course, you know me, I think the goofy song titles are dumb and I'm not a fan of that whole deal, but I like this. I think it harms NXFXTXEX a little bit that the best track on the disc technically comes from Foutredieu!!!, but hey, a good track is a good track! Running time - 34:19, Tracks: 6 [Notable tracks: What I Do Best in the West With Breast, Seated for Perfect Freshness] Brise-Cul Records - http://www.brise-cul-records.cjb.net

by Joe Lombardo:

Kraftværk 8000/SEISM, split cassette on www.noisetapes.zik.mu The Kraftveark 8000 side consists of ten tracks that are a bizarre mix of styles, ranging from harsh noise to experimental and interesting mix of both. Track one is quite harsh while the next track is completely the opposite and could possibly be heard in a club where they like interesting electronic music. Next is a looped with a pulsating beat and high stream of noise. Track four is a bit more abrasive with a blasting loop again that is then disturbed with some noise and ends. Five is a bit playful and experimental with tones, bleeps and static. The next track is spacey with a single sound that swims in the silence of the room as I type and gently pulsates not doing much of anything other than creating a pleasant atmosphere. It now is coupled with some other tones and they disappear as quickly as the appeared and then cut. Next up is a bit more my speed, a little more harsh and fluttering noise that has a low and distant sound then fading out to finish. This really was not what I was expecting, then again as always, I am not sure what I was expecting, still an entertaining listen to say the least. Contact www.k8000.cjb.net SEISM is Jason Campbell. This piece is probably as educational as it is plainly interesting to hear noise being a bit more political. I personally don't think noise is political, like PUNK might be, but this is a little refreshing to hear some like this once in while. It starts out with an interview of someone and is blanketed with a thin layer of static noise over it only to have the interview stop and replaced with a slight drum beat in the background. The track itself has tons of different sounds and other samples added through the duration of the piece, while slowly culminating to a massive mount of noise by the middle and then the piece recreates itself, transforming into an eerily soft drone of noise, bachelor pad music with piano and rarely some spoken word. In the end, this is not as abrasive or as harsh as I would have liked, but it is another cool release by Noisetapes. Contact Jason at and www.geocities.com/jcampbe...Seism.html

Douglas Nine/I am that I am - split, cassette IATIA showers through the speakers with lots of high pitched metallic noise; looped, adding some seemingly vocal like sounds that aren't clearly audible, but effective. I like that although Jason uses a lot of loops; he doesn't dominate IATIA with them and lets the noise just bounce around like a small rubber Crazy Ball that I used to have. Fast for the most part, but slowing up in parts so that you can play catch up. By the seventh minute into listening, >loops are a bit more rampant and a monotonous beep, beep sound start to get on my nerves, then again at about the tenth, everything slurs together, blending into a nice noise piece all unto itself. Some more blasts of vocals, followed by a wave of more static based noise. The second track is not as dense as the first one, lots of high frequency beeps and very brief sonic tornado like vocal blasts. If you are looking for that NEW sound then you have got the wrong cassette, but if noise is what you love than I think you will be very pleased. Another fine listen, form Noisetapes. Douglas Nine was something that I was eager to give a listen, because I could easily recall the last review I did of them. Here on this split, the noise is a bit move varied, yet still that powerfully mind numbing monotony that develops at a snails pace. This was exactly of what I was somehow expecting, long barrages of loops that are then subtlety suffocated by and replaced with a static possibly form channel zero. After a long while a new sound sample comes into the picture and is looped for a few minutes while a fluttering silence comes to along take over and dominate the end of this leaving you wondering if it will burst in noise again or will it continue to just flicker to the finish. Contact the following address for more information. frognoisefrog@yahoo.com and legionsudan@hotmail.com

by Steffen Sørensen:

NXFXTXEX "Cannibal Hologram" (Noisetapes - C60)

Yet another one from danish Nut for trendy ears, only this is released on canadian Noisetapes. I don't know about this one, I've been listening to it for some time now, and the associations I get are that of a lawnmower. The music isn't really that threatening, which power electronics usually seem to be, but hover as a wall of mid-freqeuency noise in the background. I like Nut for trendy ears' cut-up sound much better, as it is more, entertaining .... Great, now the tape just fucked up on me, making tape salat out of the actual tape... shit.... I think I'll just stop here.

NXFXTXEX "Huuhuuuuuuuuu EP" (Legion Sudan - CDR)

Fucking great cover; farmer kicking dog. This is like the essence of Jutland, hillbilly fucking country. The titles of this one are just as interesting: "Yisrael", "Baghdad Oil", "Vestjysk Hitler" (tag den i bonderøve), and the title track "Huuhuuuuuuuuu", makes me wonder if Eli is trying to draw parallels between the middleeast and Jutland? The sound on this fucker is harsh, much harsher than previously mentioned NXFXTXEX tape. This is blasting stop and go, power electronics. It seems one has heard this before, yes....? As I said, I prefer the weirder NXFXTXEX as on "Moske sku brænde kirken".

Fever Spoor / Filthy Turd / NXFXTXEX "Split" (Legion Sudan - CDR)

I think Marcel Herms is the man behind this artwork, apart from also doing Fever Spoor, one of the three acts on this split. He has on this one created some churning tracks that reminds me a bit of Government Alpha, just milder. Filthy turd has one track that has a lenght of 22 minutes. Hard hitting noise attack, that pulls your teeth or artificial teeth out, whatever you might have. There are some background shifts, covered by a veil of white noise, that shifts some too. This pretty much sums up Filthy Turd. Last but not least we are faced with the cut-up electronics of nxfxtxex, sounds like your modem had the flu. Microsounds or whatever, I'm not really sure what this is called. Pretty entertaining.

Douglas Nine "Schmerzhaft" by Moron (industrial.org)

Ahh, nazis. I can think of few idealogical icons that are more cartoonized and less meaningful at this point than the freshly pressed shirts of the well dressed national socialist party. Hitler has been reduced by cultural and especially government propaganda based misuse to little more than some dude with a funny moustache who looks like the head honcho at the Ministry of Funny Walks. It's not that fascism is all that funny or that the lessons of "Triumph of the Will" are no longer relevant, it's just Hitler is now the Jack Lord or Elvis of world dictators. Your mom is a nazi. Your teacher is a nazi. Your kittykat whining at the door is a nazi. So what exactly a minimalist Nerve Net Noise style exploration has to do with a bunch of Hitler adoring party members is as good your guess as mine.

So ignoring the non-sequiter "schmerzhaft" packaging (it is the usual shite photocopy job without so much as a protective sleeve), what the listener is offered here is some old school minimalism which I actually kind of enjoy despite the repetitive monotony. Legion of Sudan describes this as "brutal PC noise" (PC as in computer, not PC as in politically correct presumably due to the ambiguous cover art) but dry and draining like a 35 minute lecture on drywall is more apt.

Structurally the tracks are comprised of slight variations of a very constant distortion system, a low pile yet scratchy band passed fuzz which has a definite line noise quality about it thanks to the buried high end whine. Its squashed and strictly restricted single dimensional tone is broken off into mostly regular blocks suggesting a 3 or 4 second delay line as the main compositional tool. The entire release is formed from these slim pickings with the only compositional flash being removal of the silence, slight shifting of the noise spectra, a Bart Simpson sample and a kissy kiss noise tagged onto the delay line somewhere mid release. This latter emergence is a nice touch actually as you will find your mind starts to tune out the steady noise stream like so much enviromental background which triggers a definite smurk when you realize that a smoochy sound has insinuated itself into your peripheral vision like an obnoxous aunt at some family reunion.

I find this release a bit hard to take sides with. The packaging is definitely dumbass since there is no context for it (and the sonics here are too dry to be all that intense and there is no political content to the music). The sonics are so sparse on the development front that this has to be approached as an some sort of freeze dried Aube influenced microsound exploration with either complete disinterest or a hell of lot of patience required from the listener. I was going to slam this for taking 35 minutes to develop a 10 minute at most idea but I am finding that like many minimalist releases, the finer lines become apparent with closer inspection. If you can get aural sustenance solely from the tiny shavings left from running the fuzz of a monolithic data file alternately between 1/8th and 1/16th clipper attachments then this is the release is for you. For some unknown reason I find myself part of that demographic but the ridiculousness of the fact is not lost on me.

Douglas Nine "Schmerzhaft" 2002 (Legion Sudan)

3/5

This shit is the harshest noise stuff I've ever listen. No, it's not so hard-listen stuff, I think it's just pure analog (fuck the digital, heh!) noise. I mean, it even soft-listen noise. Coz' when I listen to digital noise it seem to me more extreme because of its hi-fi and loud multi-frequenced sound. But here noise recorded not so loud and has low-fi sound. Because of this it seems less extreme. But anyway, about 35 minutes of good noise improvisation. Ask noisy label Legion Sudan for it.

Reviewed by Andrey

Douglas Nine "Schmerzhaft" by Steff (Panik #3)

It seems to me that we here in DK have a totally underrated and overlooked noise scene. Recently I was sent a couple of cdr's by Legion Sudan, a danish lowbudget underground label, which I didn't even know existed. Douglas Nine is one of the Legion Sudan projects, and "Schmerzhaft" is one such release. Totally primitivem grinding high frequency noise, like a drill going to your head. No compromises or arty-farty inputs/passages on this one, only sheer noise. One thing that doesn't impress me though, is the reactionary imagery, which I think way too many noise projects use these days (come up with something new!). But all in all, I think Douglas Nine is some of the better digi-noise I heard this year.

nxfxtxex "Moske sku vi brænde kirken" by Steff (Panik #3) nxfxtxex or nut for trendy ears as it also is called, is another Legion Sudan project. Compared to Douglas Nine for instance, this one is pretty out of the ordinar. Wierd, digital, cut-up noise, with tracks ranging from 8 seconds and less, to 3-4 minutes, The cdr has 53 tracks, all that differ in lenght, intensity and quality. The track I like the most, be it a very typical sort of noise track, is "Earaches are cured by noise", which is hi-frequency noise, with scratchy sounds, that lasts only for half a minute or so. On other tracks you have deathmetal samplings, and fucked up, manipulated pop shit. I like the experimentation with many, short tracks that differ alot, and the cdr has a nice lighthearted and humorous feel to it. Looking forward to the sound matures a little, and Im definately keeping my head up for future Legion Sudan releases.

nxfxtxex Kaleku (cd-r, Eustachian Test Tube Music) Bag det temmelig kryptiske navn nxfxtxex finder man den randrusianske noise-musiker Eli Gudnason. Gudnason har siden 2001 udgivet ikke mindre end ti selvstændige værker og fire split udgivelser samt medvirket på 12 compilations – en udgivelsesfrekvens, vel kun nyligt afdøde Johnny Cash har en reel chance for at matche med de næste par måneders slutspurt inden julehandlen. Denne høje udgivelsesfrekvens er dog ganske normal for den musikalske genre, nxfxtxex befinder sig i – og de fleste af Gudnasons produktioner er udgivet på de cd-r og kassette-formater, som er tilsvarende typiske for noise-scenen. Heraf har han udgivet de fleste selv, om end han da også har fået nogle ting ud på et prominent noise-selskab som amerikanske RRRecords.

Gudnason har selv valgt at kalde sin musik for experimental noise pop, hvilket – selvom der absolut må lægges vægt på ordet noise i denne sammenhæng - ikke er helt ved siden af. Udgivelsens numre bygges nemlig op omkring en række hvide støjflader, som Gudnason dog, ved at lægge små rytmiske ting ned i mixet, får taget noget af den aggressive brod af. Således kan lytteren konstant ane en række forvrængede elektroniske lyde, der hopper og skøjter rundt i lydbilledet. Af samme grund bliver Kaleku - modsat mange andre udgivelser inden for noise-genren – ikke monoton. Derimod virker det ofte som om, at Gudnason er bange for at gå i stå musikalsk – at lade de rendyrkede støjflader stå alene. Når de gør det, bekræftes man da også i den mistanke, at Gudnason simpelthen benytter for mange billige tricks i form af presets og forprogrammerede synths.

Kaleku er dog til syvende og sidst en ganske gennemsnitlig dråbe i det alt for store hav af udgivelser, der præger noise-scenen. Ep’ens produktion virker ganske enkelt for tynd, da de lag, der benyttes undervejs, ikke er i stand til at fungere hver for sig. De enkelte delelementer trænger derimod alt for kraftigt igennem i lydbilledet, når de sættes ind, hvorved de obstruerer resten af nummerets flow. Det virker på mange måder som om, at Gudnason enten har for mange ideer pr. nummer eller for lidt tid til at få musikkens forskellige lag til at arbejde sammen. Med andre ord ville lidt ekstra produktion og mixning gavne denne ep gevaldigt.

Anmeldt af Morten Bruhn

Yderligere information Besøg http://nxfxtxex.cjb.net

Udgivelsesinformation Udgivet på Geiger.dk d. 01/10 - 2003. Læst 226 gange