DECAYCAST Reviews : PAN DAIJING “TISSUES” (2021)

DECAYCAST Reviews : PAN DAIJING “TISSUES” (2021)

Let’s go ahead and call this ‘noise-opera’, though enthusiasts of both disciplines will no doubt balk at the suggestion. This is not a lazy application of a loose monikor, however. ‘Tissues’ is a rarity in so far as it seems to engage with opera – and specifically the libretto – in a manner that extends far beyond pastiche, with a precise, meticulous vocal engaging with recognisable operatic techniques and extending them. The voice is used here both as a traditional instrument and a versatile sonic tool, not shedding the past but embracing the wealth of avant-garde composers – the likes of Maricio Kagel, or Esa Pekka Salonen – whose work has managed to puncture the future and straddle the past simultaneously. Nor are we treated to a cursory, dumbed-down invokation of noise-aesthetics. Between the driving, angular synthesis, and the muted distortions that underpin them, the listener is left with a pleasingly refined soundworld, and whilst it is by no means ‘noise’ music proper, it certainly calls upon that horizon, forging a hidden intensity from elements that might simply be functional in the mitt of a lesser composer. Theres probably loads going on here that I’m not picking up, and probably loads I’m getting wrong, but I don’t care – this whole album is awesome, inspiring stuff, the sort of thing you don’t want to get, or might never get, such is its fundamental depth and beauty. If it sounds like I’m smitten, I am. ‘Tissues’ walks a very tricky path – a journey littered with sonic devices that are used often and badly in incalculable inferior works, yet rendered here with precision and granduer, succeeding by virtue of an audible dedication to the minutiae of its material. It’s all excellent, but Part 3 in particular soars, with angry, staccato piano chasing a measured howl through a windy terrain, a brewing storm of buzzing distortion rising to euphoric crescendo, broken only by the emergence of the voice, descending into a dense fog, monotonous and playful, theatrical staccatos balancing against the dying ebb of a fractured tone, the artificial labour of a cello or broken radiator. No one description fits any given sound, each part bleeding into the next, a constantly evolving intensity. 

– Daniel Hignell (Difficult Art and Music, Distant Animals, 7000 Trees)

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TWO NEW RELEASES OUT TOMORROW ON DECAYCAST MAGAZINE!

TWO NEW RELEASES OUT TOMORROW ON DECAYCAST MAGAZINE!

Thanks all for following Decaycast! DECAYCAST is a sub label of Ratskin Records and specializes in small edition handmade cassettes, CDr’s, digital releases and small edition art objects as well as a Online Fanzine (decaycast.wordpress.com)

we’re really excited to present two new albums for release tomorrow both on limited edition CDR with handmade card stock slipcases.

Thank you so much to everyone that preordered! All pre orders have been shipped and any orders placed for Bandcamp Friday or over the weekend will ship out this coming Monday!

HAURAS “Chant For A broken Chalice” CDR/DL

decaycastoakland.bandcamp.com/album/chant-for-a-broken-chalice

AURAS has crafted a lush and foreboding sonic landscape with “Chant For A Broken Chalice”, their first release for Oakland based imprint DECAYCAST. On “Chant For A Broken Chalice” intentional and otherworldly sounds envelop into a whirlwind of a slow churning concoction of beauty and anxiety. Dense choral envocations pulse over a sea of strings, keys, percussion and voice. HAURAS crafts tense and delicate music concerned with the rapid decline of empathy as intensified through the violent throes of capitalism. Both meditative and a warning, like a distant pulse of a lighthouse gently peaking over the fog as a distant warning of impending doom and collapse, scary and at this point completely unavoidable, but wow the beauty and elegance of the message is not something to soon be forgotten.

“My work is concerned with the psychology of society at the end of Civilization.” – HAURAS

The first single “Hold My Hand” takes a psychedelic dubbed out industrial approach to transport the mood and psyche of the listener to a blissful yet slightly unnerving underworld. The vocals glide through the mix like a robotic worm infecting an unknown host. Like most of Hauras’s work; “Chant For A Broken Chalice” holds the listener in an hourglass where time is rapidly and chaotically slipping away. Intentional, heartfelt, and intense.

“You’ve heard of the Music of Tomorrow? This is the Music of the Day After
Tomorrow.” – Chris Ryan (Composer, Cerddorion Ensemble,, Tzadik)

“The sonic equivalent of expired film in my Holga.” – Richard Youngs 

BONUS BEAST “Live at Lewcid Joosebox” CDR/DL

decaycastoakland.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-lewcid-joosebox

BONUS BEAST (Ratskin Records, Coral Remains, Ryan King, et al) always brings a new and modified sonic whirlwind to the table and this recently unearthed board recording of live from Lewcid Joosebox is no different. A complex and psychedelic spattering of amalgamated synths, blasting and curdling mangled beats, with the occasional and sporadic transmission twisted warped vocals patterings peak out ever so slightly from the sampler, but this is no dance party, this is blasted out sonic destruction, controlled chaos, collapsing towers, the rhythms of the machines of the city clang and hammer against each other like a seizing engine about to blow. their first release for Oakland based imprint DECAYCAST and ir is not to be missed. One of the masters in the game. Very very limited

Nearly twenty minutes of blown out acid noise, crunched beats, signwave radio interference, mental decayed sprayed on the walls of the box as BOBUS BEAST blasts forth a sonic mayhem like no other. In the realm of early Robert Turman, MB, Esplendor Gemoetrico, etc

Please consider picking something up as it helps us sustain the project (both the imprint and fanzine) side of things.

Thank you so much for your support.

DECAYCAST Reviews : SHADOWS “Bruce Spills The Pills” Cassette (Polar Envy, 2018)

DECAYCAST Reviews : SHADOWS “Bruce Spills The Pills” Cassette (Polar Envy, 2018)

Cleveland, OH mainstays SHADOWS continue with their darkest Knight investigations of the conceptual underpinnings of Batman interpreted as dense noise, beats, industrialized rhythms and haunting spacial decay. Shadows is the duo of David Russell and Wyatt Howland (Skin Graft) and the sound on “Bruce Spills The Pills” represents aspects of both of their sonic styles well, however it gels to create a sound still different than either of their solo output. Composition wise, this cassette oscillates between more formalized sharp, cutting, harsh rhythmic works that Russell has become known for as COLLAPSED ARC and the DAVID RUSSELL SNAKE, mixed with Howland’s crude, disgusting, fuzzed out blasts of high pitched noise and squelching feedback. With three tracks on the A side and three on the B side, all offering their own take on the sonic mayhem contained within Of “Bruce Spills The Pills”. Personal favorite would be “Freak” from the middle of the A side.

Despite being a “noise” album in some instances, there are clear distinct tracks on this each with their own breath of sonic investigation, and despite their uniqueness and form and sonic palette, they flow together quite well, never leaving the listener bored or annoyed, rather on the edge of the speaker cone begging for bleeding frequencies to ooze from the cave into the inner ear. Shadows is highly recommended for all of your crude and dirty noise and industrial needs.

DECAYCAST Track Reviews: GOLDEN CHAMPAGNE FLAVORED SWEATSHIRT “Human Animal Chimera”

GOLDEN CHAMPAGNE FLAVORED SWEATSHIRT “Human Animal Chimera”

 

With “Human Animal Chimera” GOLDEN CHAMPAGNE FLAVORED SWEATSHIRT offers a blistering, slow-building rhythmic forward synth and drum track with various unheard and unique textures churning heavily in the background to create a thick, warm, but  slightly unsettling blanket to cloak your ears in as the track progresses into a darker, more sinister climax.  The drums are sharp and steady, militant, and pummeling, sitting perfectly in the mix to create a high tension blend of industrial, dubbed-out industrial forward banger. The bombastic drums create a stabbing and calculated backbone for the synth and other sonic parts to rattle this heavy and brooding sonic machine just as it’s ready to attack. Pummeling bass drums and toms   hammer away as a symphony of buzzing synthesizers creating a refreshing concoction of dissonant, yet unified and very well gelled sound. The sound of GCFS is both dark, and complex, while retaining a unique cinematic edge, which is often missing in more traditional forms of dance and industrial music. Sputtering and groaning synthesizers,  chirping sharp noise blasts and mangled voice samples create the sounds of animals and humans being glued and stapled together in a twisted, primitive lab, which sounds morbid, and yet, I can’t turn it off, I just want to hear more, and this is the fifth go around for this track for me in writing the review. This sounds great in headphones, but I can only yearn for this  track to be blaring in a club akin to the blood rave scene from Blade. I wasn’t able to find much on this project but follow their bandcamp and pick up the tracks that are there, you WILL NOT be disappointed. Heavy electronic music tracks are a dime a dozen, these days, but  Golden Champagne Flavored Sweatshirt bring hope for those of us who want our dance music, dark, heavy and uniquely heavy. A really refreshing listen, will be back for everything this project releases.

-Monier Watson For DECAYCAST

 

 

DECAYCAST Premieres: Post-Industrial Darkwave duo V.E.X. Shares New Video “Dancing At The End Of Time”

DECAYCAST Premieres: Post-Industrial Darkwave duo V.E.X. Shares New Video “Dancing At The End Of Time”

Bay area artists Roxy and LuLu, as V.E.X., (and a myrid of other projects) have been playing music and creating art together for years on end in the bay area and beyond, yet somehow always bring something refreshingly new and politically necessary to the table, and their latest single, supported with a brand new video here “Dancing At The End Of Time” is certainly no exception.

From the artists;  “Dancing At The End Of Time” is a low-fi synth ballad of remembrance and resistance in a dying world, the true story of two femme freaks gentrified out of the city but not out of their souls, holding onto their love in spite of all the hate, dedicated to crafting underground subculture music for outcasts, the forgotten, and those fighting back in this genocidal abusive white supremacist capitalism patriarchy death spiral.“

“Dancing At The End Of Time” offers a celebratory, yet real and  visceral look at two femmes resisting the violent forces of oppression and gentrification through the streets of a forgotten and endlessly morphed San Francisco.  “Dancing…” gels haunted vocals and murky, analog synth arpreggiations, creating both a serene and haunting vibe which encapsulates the listener into a tale from the past.  Watch the  video below and read some words on the track and video from V.E.X. below. The track is from an upcoming split with Moira Scar.

“Roxy and LuLu have been playing music together since 2001, as The Floating Corpses, Angel On The Nod And The Phantasy Defylement, Terrran Traumantics, Moira Scar, and V.E.X. being the most recent incarnation. V.E.X. (Vortex Empath Xen, formerly Voltage Empath Xanaxax, Ventriloquest Ectoplasmold Xanaxax) is Lu Lu “Lucifer” Gamma Ray and Roxzan “Roxy Monoxide” Zatan as industrial-dark-wave synth-punk surreal-doom noise-romance duo. V.E.X. creates, V.E.X. records, V.E.X. plays shows.”

Check their bandcamp below and make sure to check for select tour dates and an upcoming split with Moira Scar.https://xanaxax.bandcamp.com

     – Meniere Zappone

 

DECAYCAST News: Let’s Burn It Down: Mixed-Genre Benefit Show Invades Richmond District in San Francisco Tonight w: CCR Headcleaner and more!

DECAYCAST News: Let’s Burn It Down: Mixed-Genre Benefit Show Invades Richmond District Tonight w: CCR Headcleaner and more!

CCR HEADCLEANER Photo: In The Red Records

There’s no secret 4/20 in San Francisco in 2019 can be a shit-show,  with zombie-like blood thirsty capitalists co-opting and  squeezing any profit they can out of literally anything cannabis related, and culture related for that matter, while steamrolling communities with racist and patriarchal policies which put the cities most marginalized at risk.  Any and all culture in San Francisco seems to be at best, null and void for the distant future, to the lazily observing outsider,  but local organizers fight back against this hypocrisy with a psych forward diverse musical event where you can support a good cause while  having your brain melted with outsider sounds from some of the bay area’s stranger and more esoteric musical offerings. We spoke with the main organizer,  Andre Torrez of the Brown Recluse Variety Show, a local radio program on BFF.fm. about the event and why it’s important to support organizations that help folks clear their criminal records or  marijuana and other non violent low level crimes, especially now in an ever changing Bay Area landscape that seems hell bent on destroying anything that rebels against this hyper dangerous runaway capitalist model.

“With the annual crush of humanity on Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill reaching near mythical proportions, 4/20 in San Francisco is pretty much a stoner holiday. It seems like a no-brainer to tap into this crowd for some low-level marijuana offense criminal justice reform.

California’s recreational use marijuana law went into effect in 2018. At this point, any partakers are “barely legal”. Good times! But what about all those pot-case convictions prior to the new law kicking in? Bummer? Not so fast.

Recently Code for America, a nonprofit that helps gov’t use tech to better serve people, worked with San Francisco’s D.A. to clear more than 8,000 marijuana convictions.

Why stop there? Marijuana is just the tip of the iceberg! Expunging old, low-level convictions can help tens of millions of Americans so they can get jobs, housing and education. Algorithms helping break down these barriers? It’s already happening! But it takes time, resources and money.

Pocket your vape pen and follow the wafting haze from the park on 4/20 and step inside SF’s Neck of the Woods(406 Clement Street) for the Blown-Out, Blowout Benefit Show: Barely Legal Edition.”

We spoke briefly with organizer Andre Torrez of The Brown Recluse Variety Show, who  talked about the importance of organizing a benefit show and co-opting this  green day for a good cause,  “This is the 4th installment, though I haven’t thrown this party in 5 years. I used to be a DJ at KUSF 90.3 FM. When they were taken off the air I started the tradition of organizing a benefit show that was 4/20 themed. It’s not so much out of weed adulation, though I’ve definitely had my own adoring moments. It was more from my own observations of how 4/20 is like a California phenomenon. It really is treated like such an event as it is. Anyhow I like puns and themes, so I would get whatever local bands and acts I could convince to play for the cause of getting KUSF back on the air. Fast forward 5 years and they kind of are back on the air as KXSF 102.5  and I’m now affiliated as a BFF.fm DJ and recreational weed is now legal, so I needed a new cause.

Andre Torrez . Photo: Jaime Borschuk®️

I work at a local TV news station and that’s where I heard about all these low-level marijuana convictions getting expunged by the SF D.A.’s office. The cause to me was clear: more of this kind of work. When I dug into it and found out it was Code for America’s Clear My Record Campaign that was behind creating this algorithm that helped expunge more than 8,000 cases, I reached out to see if they’d like to be the beneficiary.  I respect what they are working towards and how this impacts people’s chances for a greater housing, education and job opportunities. Really this is a manifestation of the income disparity I see on the streets everyday in San Francisco, especially living in the Tenderloin these last 10 years. People need help and not enough of us are stepping up to do something. I don’t expect a fat billion dollar check to come out of this, but even small-scale philanthropy can help make a difference.”

 

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“This year’s lineup includes local, psych-heavyweights; CCR Headcleaner, bringing you riffs for days! Oakland’s Milk For The Angry is hot with their new cosmically, psychedelic-flavored album ‘Extraterrestrial Desert’. Ratskin Records’ Cyborg Eye, a dark and moody East Bay duo, will wow you with their gear. Hauras sets the experimental tone including a special screening of film work by Myleen Hollero. And if you like Glitter Wizard, then you won’t want to miss “members of” in the country-folk duo known as Honey Bucket Boys. DJ Mashi Mashi of Galaxy Radio fame will be spinning vinyl all night.

Come on out and stick it to the man. The fun starts at 8pm. $10.”

FACEBOOK EVENT

DECAYCAST Reviews : HAPPINESS FOREVER “Primitive Dimension” Cassette (Mondo Anthem!, 2018)

DECAYCAST Reviews : HAPPINESS FOREVER “Primitive Dimension” Cassette (Mondo Anthem!, 2018)

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Another short but powerful offering from the PACNW’s Happiness Forever, titled “Primitive Dimension”, which is  aptly titled for this minimal but powerful sonic offering, A dark pulsing arpeggiated square wave  synth opens the track, slowly and effortlessly edging the listener to the edge of the cliff out of the gate.  Hard  stereo panning madness ala Phedora era Tangerine Dream when the tech left too many fuzz pedals in the chain in the best way. Lower pitched synths slowly undulate as the panoramic view widens and we are left  confronting out demons.  Pulses slowly phase and undulate across the spectrum of rhythmic militancy, shifting ever  so slightly to create a psychedelic fuzz of confusion. Long  drawn out bell-like sounds breathe in the background creating tension and thickening up the form to a dense, stew of synthesizer sludge.

 

Perfectly timed, the A side gives breath to a more subtle and sparse (but  equally dark and unsettling) B side which begins with murky, basement synthesizer swells, ringing inside the cochlear with beautiful collapsing sine waves, radiant, insect-like buzzing sounds, throttled tones of a  disharmonious and gray sunset. Happiness Forever creates peaceful yet slightly unsettling and  dissonant tone poems for  fans of  drone, ambient and synthesizer music. All the individual synth  voices sprout equal trees within a sonic forest of psychedelic electronic explorations.

DECAYCAST Reviews: CONCRÎT “Far” (2018)

DECAYCAST Reviews: CONCRÎT “Far” (2018)

Madrid, Spain outfit CONCRÎT blends decayed out ambient textures with atmospheric howls, delicate, haunting, creaks and bends in sound and tension, mixed with dark industrialized rhythms, and heavy field recordings ranging from disaster to psychoactive terror/tragedy.  CONCRÎT takes the raw field recordings at a great value, using the voice as a sort of lead guitar over the top of the dark, churning, mechanized rhythms of catastrophic failure with  dissonant rhythms. “That’s the way freedom is and we wouldn’t change it for a minute”. The music could be higher in the mix, though it does afflix the listener’s brain on the tension and caustic nature of these events blended with such mechanized, alienating sounds, though at times the voice does become so dominating we almost forget we are listening to “experimental music” though it’s not for the worst effect.  The ambient sections prove to be some of the stronger work on “Far” though the whole album holds it’s  weight in dissonance, and minimalist looping  rhythms. Closing with “0000” an unknown field recording of  chatter and a detuned, decaying piano rhythm slowly spins the listener into the end of this dark and morose sonic offering.

“FAR is the first EP of the dark ambient/industrial act CONCRÎT, based in Madrid, Spain.
The EP moves between soft programming and noisy mechanical rhythm mixed with historical speeches and ambient sounds, FAR is inspired by the human need to reach further and the consequences of exploration and conquer, the hope and the horror; Inspired by the voices of Amelia Earhart, Ernest Shackleton, Neil Armstrong, and the accident of the shuttle challenger and the attack to Hiroshima, with American presidents Reagan and Eisenhower’s speeches. The last piano piece is inspired by airports as non-places, where even travellers on their pursuit to the most remote destinations remain anonymous.”

 

 

DEAYCAST Reviews : MONOCHROMACY “Living Posture” CD (Stay Strange SD. 2018)

 

DEAYCAST Reviews : MONOCHROMACY “Living Posture” CD (Stay Strange SD. 2018)

Stay Strange SD Collective artist Esteban Issac Flores brings eight heavy, dissonant and atmospheric guitar based worlds oscillating between drone , noise, metal and industrial under tbe MONOCHROMACY moniker . Flores elegantly creates haunting and dissonant cinematic spaces for a wall of destructed waves of swelling chaos, choked screams decay into walls of thick oppressive fog of tone, climax and eventually swell back down into dreary, pulsating tones. Sine waves shifting into the horizon encapsulate a distant haze of confusion and dread.

On “Living Posture” , Flores creates a deep and complex tension between the various sonic elements, which really doesn’t ever falter throughout the eight tracks of dreary doom. Some of these atmospheres could call back to Times Of Grace era Neurosis (my favorite period of one of my favorite bands ) , SUNN O)))) , Earth etc but that would be sort of a lazy comparison as Flores has clearly refined his sound to something not heard before in the tropes of heavy music.

 

Monochromacy “Living Posture” CD (photo from artist)

Monochromacy leaves the “tough guy” bullshit of extreme music far away in the trash for a delicate and intelligent experimental offering. Flores has clearly honed a unique philosophy and approach to present the listener with a tense, yet refreshingly present decaying burning structure of mammoth and intimidating take on noise-influenced, drone-metal. The plethora of unique territories covered on this record while maintaining an overall dark and dreary cinematic vibe is rather impressive to say the least.We are never left without a tight sonic line pulled taught across our reality/neck wth ever shifting tone, pulse and intention. what is going on? Where did he leave us atop this  fog  ridden, dank mountain of dissonance and confusion? What is GOING ON! Wow and just like that it’s over, what a listen.Absolutely essential ride for all fans of the heavier side of noisy guitar works and heavier dissonant, cinematic music in general.

Buy The CD Here! 

DECAYCAST Reviews : Expose Your Eyes “Brain Pan” Cassette (Aphelion Editions, 2018)

DECAYCAST Reviews : Expose Your Eyes “Brain Pan” Cassette (Aphelion Editions, 2018)

 “Brain Pan” is a compilation album of sorts spanning nearly three decades of the Expose Your Eyes moniker via Paul Harrison. This long-form cassette explores harsh, heavy manipulated noise/voice, a myriad of field recordings, slow moving and cavernous drone and ambient works, low-fi voice manipulations via  cut up and  distortion methods, glistening warm synth poems clamored against harsh noise mayhem; the  stylistic shifts throughout the release exposing the listener to a mixtape style of experimental styles. 

Standout track “Rend” blends heavily delayed percussive events with a mid-toned whirring, slowly building tension and anxiety and almost seems to crawl out of the speaker into an unsuspecting nervous system. Other tracks such as “Red River 2” offer a more sombre, melodic approach, while still retaining elements of experimentation and loose compositional structure.  The label describes the process of choosing from the vast sea of material presented to them by the artist, “For this album, Paul sent me a whole stack of recordings that I then carefully sifted through to select the pieces that would finally be presented here, and I’m really pleased with the results we’ve achieved.  

Go ahead and delve deeper into the vortex for a whirlwind of (un)easy listening.  

It will leave you washed up on a distant shore of your consciousness, perspectives altered. 

Curious, bizarre and wonderful… “

All in all “Brain Pan” explores a wide variety of experimental sounds and really theres something for everyone on this cassette from  the uneasy, nauseating sounds and sights of one (cough cough) Smell & Quim (who Harrison was a member of) to the lush, hypnotic, Organ and synthesizer forward dronings of early  Tangerine Dream. Pick it up on limited edition full color cassettes or  CD’s from the label HERE