CDR's: Caaldruun, Dave Fuglewicz, Gnarly Sheen, Triangle And Rhino

CAALDRUUN - Headstone CDR 

(Foxden Recordings FD02; Ltd 25; USA) 2012

Sometimes a record is not easily defined, or interpreted in words. I can't gauge the metaphors correctly for this release by Caaldruun, the project of Eric Kessel, a new noise artist, or formerly unknown to me at any rate. Maybe these sound-structures were created using field recordings, maybe contact mics attached to unusual objects, maybe they are cleverly programmed analog synths, it's really hard to tell. The very refined use of his sound sources creates otherworldly, ambient spaces, mixed intelligently with a few pseudo-melodic textures and some abrupt cuts along the way that teeter the structures in upon themselves. One thing is for certain, this is one of the best debut releases I have ever heard, Kessel's work comes fully formed and mature, a superb release that must be heard. Limited to 25 copies this may already be out-of-print, inquire about it HERE.

 

Caaldruun Excerpt

DAVE FUGLEWICZ - The Wizard's Porch CDR 

(Self Released; USA) 2011

Dave Fuglewicz continues his creative streak with this excellent release. The inception of this album is explained in the liner notes: "I originally recorded this in 1996 as part of a collaboration, but that fell through and it stayed buried in my tape library until late 2010. I added some more to it with several VST synthesizers and so I present the two versions (from) 1996 and 2011". Each track is a little less than 30 minutes, both satisfying listened to separately, but I like it better as one long, cosmic trip, in two parts, running an hour. The structure is abstract and languidly paced, never moving far from the primary looping repetitions. Analog synths, bells, chimes and chirping/tweeting sounds create a minimalist, but well-textured evocation of a stoned evening (crickets, wind chimes and psychotropics) on "The Wizard's Porch". Get it HERE.

 

Dave Fuglewicz Excerpt

GNARLY SHEEN - Transit Of Venus CDR 

(DumpsterScore Home Recordings DSC#089; Ltd 50; USA) 2012

One of the most bizarre albums to have crossed my path in 2012 was this oddity, "Transit Of Venus", by Gnarly Sheen. Gnarly is the solo project of Morgan Rankin, who runs the Husk Records label with Josh Lay, but this album is on the DumpsterScore Home Recordings label, which has already brought out about a hundred limited edition releases since 2004. There is a definite horror film soundtrack quality to these compositions. Utilizing lo-fi synths, guitar, and drum machines, the mastering here is very strange, with some sounds unexpectedly loud and distorted in the mix and even, at times, seeming to be at odds with the structure they are coalescing with. Like this was made at the end of a psychedelic trip, these compositions are wobbly, unstable, the product of a mind that is still unhinged, emerging from an altered state. This is an excellent example of 4 a.m. bedroom isolationist music with each track fascinating, intense and moody. Get it HERE.

 

Gnarly Sheen Excerpt

TRIANGLE AND RHINO - Diamond Slime CDR 

(TNR Tapes; USA) 2012

Triangle And Rhino, the post-rock duo consisting of Jake Lexso and Matt Rappa, have another excellent release under their belts with this one, "Diamond Slime". I've compared their work before to Sun City Girls, but i think it's their eclecticism that bears that resemblance the most, otherwise these guys are definitely unique and getting better all the time. This release is one of their best and also one of my favorite releases of 2012. From the hyperactive opener, "I Will Protect You From The Mouths Of The Liars" to the epic half hour noise-rock title track, to the prank-call facetiousness of  "Teenage Brain Fucker" this album will leave you devastated in it's wake. Time for some larger indie label to grab this band up, you hear me Sub Pop? Get it HERE.

Triangle And Rhino Excerpt

Marax Mini CDR Releases

The Muchausen Sound label, run by Eric Crowe, has been putting out a bunch of 3" cdr's, most of them split releases featuring Marax, Crowe's long-running sound project, and other international noise acts. They are all ultra-limited, probably out of print by the time you read this since most of them seem to be in editions of only 12 copies! These are very interesting little releases with real nice graphics on the cover inserts. Marax puts away the atmospheric, horror-industrial approach he is sometimes known for and stays in a severe and punishing  PE/HNW mode. Track titles such as "Tumult OF The Mind" and "Ad Nauseam Of Rage" show the philosophical direction of his work on these mini cdr's. Coma Centauri (Brandon Clark, Japan) performs raging, extremist pedal  and contact mic noise;  Dao De Noize (Artem Pismenetskii, Ukraine) slow building synth sputterings and electroacoustics; Elle (Ludovica Corsini, Italy) molten, confrontational she-fuckery that seems to owe a debt to Debbie Jaffe's Master/Slave Relationship; Distant Trains (Charles Hoffman, USA) with a fascinating lo-fi, bedroom approach utilizing odd voice clips, distorted guitars, all sorts of kitchen sink ephemera; and Molting (Moe Lest(h)er, USA) conjuring up whirling, electronic firestorms. To check on availability contact Muchausen Sound HERE.

MARAX / COMA CENTAURI - Split 

Mini CDR (Muchausen Sound MS 09; Ltd; USA) 2011 

Marax Living For Others, Losing Self Excerpt

MARAX/DAO DE NOIZE - Untitled (Split)

Mini CDR (Muchausen Sound MS 36; Ltd; USA) 2012

Marax Migrating Skin Graft Excerpt

MARAX / ELLE - Untitled (Split)

Mini CDR (Muchausen Sound MS 34; Ltd; USA) 2011

Elle Excerpt

MARAX /MOLTING - Untitled (Split)

Mini CDR (Muchausen Sound MS 36; Ltd; USA) 2011

Molting Deadly Amoeba Excerpt

MARAX/DISTANT TRAINS - Napalm Zombie (Split)

Mini CDR (Muchausen Sound MS 06; Ltd; USA) 2011

Marax Rabbit In The Log Excerpt

Amigo, Crippling Deficincey, Charles Rice Goff III, Michael LaGrega, Pregnant Spore, Thirteen Hurts

 AMIGO - On The Sun 2xCDR 

(Self Released; USA) 2012

Amigo, from Flint, Michigan is Tim Flynn, the drummer for many Flint punk bands: Rats Of Unusual Size, The Freakies, Drat, etc. This is his first noise release, to my knowledge, but quickly establishes Amigo's humorous stance against the self-serious noise artist cliché. "On The Sun", the sole track on the album, is a joke- the track begins as our protagonist combusts when his wormhole sets him down smack dab in the middle of our solar system, and is gone in six seconds! After that, you'll be glad you've got the "Demos and Outtakes" disc that comes with this: a half hour's worth of guitar feedback and FX pedal experiments. Amigo's musical approach is akin to such artists as Emil Beaulieau, Crank Sturgeon, and other neo-dadaist noise performers. At the Flint Festival of Noise, in October, Amigo began his performance onstage, played for less than 10 minutes, then abruptly picked up his suitcase of gear and a battery powered mini-amp still blurting out feedback, walked out of the venue and down the street until he was out of sight! it's that kind of irreverence that is sometimes needed to keep it real in any art/music scene. I don't know if Amigo has an official site, but there is a Soundcloud account HERE. 

Amigo - The Sun Does Not Exist 

 

 CRIPPLING DEFICINCEY - I Am Terror's Snootiness CDR

(Self-Released; USA) 2011

Not much known about this project, no information available on the net, so can't say who is responsible for it, or where to acquire it. The name is pretty funny, that's not my misspelling. Sounding like a lot of noise releases I hear these days, possibly done with no-input mixer and scads of pedal FX with the occasional distorted vocal. Fairly heavy in places, definitely worth a listen. Write cripplingdeficincey at hushmail dot com.

Crippling Deficincey - Less Soft Habitat

 

PREGNANT SPORE - Experiments In Putrid Putrefaction Satisfaction CDR 

(Rainbow Bridge RB-124; USA) 2012

A Pregnant Spore release is always going to have the most extraordinary noise sounds. Maybe it's because the project founder, Justin Marc Lloyd, circuit bends so many of the pedal FX he uses in his gear setup. Whatever the case, his noise releases are among the most exciting out there."Experiments In Putrid Putrefaction Satisfaction" is no different, the spectrum of bass drones, squealing upper range pitches, and glitching, destroyed sounds form an extremely varied sonic canvas. The tracks on here don't sound the slightest bit "composed", but the randomness of these improvisations work for me as metaphors of cellular worlds, or electric charges feeding through networks of wires, things we can't necessarily make logical sense of. If still available get it HERE.

Pregnant Spore - Untitled

THIRTEEN HURTS - Threshold CDR 
(Self-Released; USA) 2011

Richard Adams, aka Thirteen Hurts, released "Threshold" in 2011. This is a journey into extreme states of mind and body via noise. Very well textured compositions with rhythms emerging occasionally, not programmed rhythms, these are very primal and seem to have emanated from power electronics process, at times glitching uncontrollably, only maintaining time for moments before changing direction abruptly. Track 5, "Percolate", reveals the more controlled side of his improvising, as drones are stretched out in long form, with tonalities fluxing in and out of the mix, at 17+ minutes this is a very impressive slowly building electronic storm. Recommended! Get it HERE.

Thirteen Hurts - Thrombosis 

 

CHARLES RICE GOFF III / MICHAEL LAGREGA - 
Four Compositions For The 2011 Kansas City Electro-Music Festival CDR 
(Taped Rugs Productions; USA) 2011

Charles Rice Goff III has been a name I have known since the early 90's when he had some of his electronic music released on the Ecto Tapes label out of Oklahoma. Charles is based in the Kansas City area and the music on this CDR was performed for the Kansas City Electro-Music Festival in 2011. These compositions were created in collaboration with Michael LaGrega who performs on synthesizer. The aesthetic here is one that Goff knows very well, he's been doing this sort of thing for over 20 years, equal parts space rock, avant garde and sound collage. Here he adds, as well, his voice in places, utilizing a vocoder effect. The vocal parts are hit-or-miss for me, but the compositions built up between sequenced parts and textural, sweeping synth tones sound very good. The use of turntable loops from rare records adds another interesting element to this music. Get it HERE.

Doctor Dolittle's Sonic Tonic

 

CHARLES RICE GOFF III / MICHAEL LAGREGA - Records Music CDR
(Taped Rugs Productions; USA) 2011

This release documents the preparation and development of themes to be performed at the Kansas City Electro-Music Festival in 2011(see review above). There are some differences in these compositions to the live performances but the overall sound is the same, a sort of throwback to space rock, ambient music and cassette underground weirdness. Get it HERE.

Thuringia

 

ILSE Label: Dave Fuglewicz, Billy Gomberg, Anne Guthrie, Nick Hoffman, Half An Abortion, Richard Kamerman, Hal McGee, Violent Pink, Aaron Zarzutzki

DAVE FUGLEWICZ / HAL MCGEE (Ilse, 14) Synergistic Reconstruction (2011) CDR

One of the foremost American noise artists, the superhumanly prolific Hal McGee, teams up with another stalwart of the U.S. cassette underground, Dave Fuglewicz, to create "Synergistic Reconstruction". The original sound source material by Fuglewicz, composed on software synthesizers, was remixed and added to by McGee on a bunch of analog synths and circuit-bent instruments producing all manner of electronically derived sounds. McGee, as mixer, really sticks to his Burroughsian guns on this one, using chance tactics to slam sound fields against one another, creating their own unintentional logic. These compositions (there are four) are built from such disparate sonic events that they seem to be always moving towards some impossible destination. Fuglewicz's looping textures reign in McGee's more excessive tendencies as, amidst all the chance happenings and bombardments, a directional line will emerge moving towards a cohesive structure, centering the composition with McGee's squabbling sweeps and chattering seeming less reckless and more integral to the overall fabric. Fascinating and recommended! Get it HERE.

HALF AN ABORTION (Ilse, 11) Naked Math Machinery (2011) CDR

With astonishing power, Pete Cann, aka Half An Abortion, creates nightmarish paintings from the colours of his sonic palette. The images conjured on "Naked Math Machinery" are fantastic, though completely abstract and  from unrecognizable sound sources. These are very harsh, caustic sounds with little low-end, feedback-derived noise possibly composed using contact mics and no-input mixers. Whatever the humble, or not-so-humble, origins of these sounds, they create structures where every event is magnified to monstrous extremes and unleashed with blistering savagery. The second track, "Paused Growl", with its false ending is particularly dynamic, and the final track titled "During The Swim" has a more varied structure, with its stop and start framework, but it's still a very stern sound and an engrossing one. Cann is onto something here, he's found a new way of expressing the  noise paradigm. No cliches, just a beautiful cacophony! Get it HERE.

AARON ZARZUTZKI / NICK HOFFMAN (Ilse, 4) Lost Corner (2011) CDR

The pure sound invention of Aaron Zarzutzki and Nick Hoffman using various noisemakers on this album, "Lost Corner", is quite remarkable. Looking at the inner sleeve photo it appears the compositions were created using synthesizers, (circuit-bent?) drum machines, fx pedals, and contact mics on various objects, including a sewing machine. These improvised environments are created from small sound events that overlap, many of the sonics have percussive qualities and appear for a few seconds in the mix to disappear or come back later. Reminds me of Roscoe Mitchell's "The Maze" or some of Anthony Braxton's more esoteric compositions for percussion. The two improvisers are throwing a lot into the mix, but never latch on to a theme, the whole thing plays like Dadaist poetry à la Kurt Schwitters, but not having any crescendos wears on the concept by the end. Through and through its directions seem tentative. Still remarkable if only for the sheer scope of the varied palette. Get it HERE.


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BILLY GOMBERG, ANNE GUTHRIE, RICHARD KAMERMAN (Ilse, 10) Blue & Gold, Delicate Sen (2011) CDR

Billy Gomberg collaborates with french horn player, Anne Guthrie (Director of the S.E.M. Ensemble in Brooklyn) and Richard Kamerman in the trio project, Delicate Sen. "Blue & Gold, Delicate Sen" is a superb album of beautiful sound worlds created by these artists. Four long tracks of improvisation, similar in intent to the Zarzutzki/Hoffman release reviewed above. Both albums are made by artists who are, apparently, very familiar with improvisation and have the daring to pull off what they attempt. It's a fine line and doesn't take much, in either case, to succeed or fail aesthetically, but where this album succeeds in a stronger way, for me, is by finding correlations in the audio stream between the improvised parts that cements their structure. These compositions are not extremely driving, or dynamic, but the languid flow of ideas across the sound field is, nevertheless, very satisfying. Whatever themes appear are very minimalist, usually a fluxing note, or multiphonic, that slowly stretches the composition as other quiet strands enter and dissolve. An absorbing listening experience. Get it HERE.

VIOLENT PINK (Ilse, 5) Propaganda Of The Deed (2011) CDR

Violent Pink is the noise project of Tyler Keen, from Augusta, Georgia, active since at least 2009, with several CDR's and cassettes to his credit, including one on AMK's Banned Productions label. This album, "Propaganda Of The Deed", starts off with an old-school, industrial style sound-clip montage, then speeds off like a rocket into a violent world of noise. His feedback based vocal approach is familiar, from Masonna to Prurient to Torturing Nurse, calling forth the psychedelic elements of this style as well as, in this case, the more dominant metal origins. The two tracks with Pete Cann, aka Half An Abortion, whose contributions are easily discerned, are the high points of this album as the heavy solidity of Cann's source material anchors the compositions. It's quite a trip, one that noiseheads will love. Get it HERE.

SPLEENCOFFIN Label: Embarker, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Arvo Zylo

The sPLeeNCoFFiN label, out of Baltimore, MD, has been releasing limited edition noise on cassettes, CDR's and vinyl since 2003. Co-founded by Marlo Eggplant and Timothy Wisniewski, the label's philosophy of releasing albums of "raw experimentation in diverse forms" endears me to them right away. Their discography is extremely diverse and many of the out-of-print items from their catalog are now available as free downloads (including several by Marlo Eggplant, one of my favorite women on the noise scene). Some of their recent releases look really interesting, several Hazardous Guadalupe albums (an early Marlo Eggplant band project); Kreace Peeps, described as "crudely recorded and sloppily improvised excursions into tropical free-jazz, inept folk, harsh world beat, dissonant new age... (etc.)"; and Arrington de Dionyso's "Music For Two Tape Recorders", a 2 tape set that is meant to be played simultaneously on two separate cassette players to achieve it's effect. Give this label a visit HERE.

EMBARKER (Spleencoffin, no cat. #) Big Gary (2011) Cassette

Embarker is the solo project of audiovisual artist, Michael Barker, from New York. This tape, "Big Gary", comes packaged in a very unassuming lined yellow legal-pad cover that looks to be hand typed. The cover, even with the fine line-drawing, provides no indication of what this will sound like, so I push play and the tape begins with a synth filter slowly widening, moving up in pitch, rising like that for a while, then abruptly ends. Sounding for a moment like the tape is being eaten by the cassette player, but then a strange pattern of synthetics emerge forming another composition, adding glitched, out-of-key elements, high-pitched exclamations, sample & hold overloading of repetitions. All these sounds overlapping and building slowly into new arrangements. Then the patterns draw apart, becoming separated from their origins. Like random machine sounds convening, or music created by coordinated mechanical events. The B side begins more rhythmic, with a bass drum/cymbal, filtered and banging over and over while making slight timbral changes. This rhythmic structure is built up with random-sounding synths that often move in to the mix for a moment only to disappear. Definite link here, sound-wise, to the early cassette underground stuff like that of Carl Howard's NoMuzic. In the more recent context maybe this is a sort of minimal breakcore. Difficult to define, yet very interesting and unexpected. Get it HERE.

GX JUPITTER-LARSEN / ARVO ZYLO (Spleencoffin, SP-27-CS) Xylowave/Zylowave (2012) Cassette

GX Jupitter-Larsen needs no introduction, to anybody even in the periphery of the noise scene, Larsen's project, The Haters, is legendary as one of the defining artists of the genre, up there with the likes of Hal McGee, Merzbow, Whitehouse, etc. This split tape with Arvo Zylo, titled "Xylowave/Zylowave", is a 2012 release on Spleencoffin. The first side belongs to GX and here he creates an urgent sound, though to the ear the basic patterns do not change and there are no clever editing tricks, there's something beautiful in these long stretches of wind-licked, barren machine-noise. This is crushing, bruising, yet when listened to in a certain way can be heard as ambient sounds. Rising frequencies punch holes in the structure, power tools shower sparks, until in it's final incarnation it becomes crunching rhythmics that descend to an abrupt ending. As awesome as you'd expect!

Arvo Zylo is a distinctive noise artist, though not yet well known, I've reviewed his work favorably HERE. This is quite different from the crazy combination of prog, krautrock and industrial forms I heard in Zylo's other work. His B side, "Zylowave", starts with staccato 8-bit repetitions, charged electrons fluxing throughout, then partial dropouts in the mix on one side of the stereo frame or the other. My Sansui S930's are put to the test, but they're used to this kind of noise abuse, since I've had 'em for 30+ years! Midway through, it all becomes hissing and constant crescendos with no means of resolution. Another wondrous slab of power electronics!

Finally let me say this has one of the better conceived cover graphics I've seen of late, handsomely printed in black and silver, a nice art package. Recommended! Get it for $5 (!) HERE.

ACCLIMATE - Songs For The Dead, 2011

ACCLIMATE (Samboy Get Help! Recordings) Songs For The Dead (2011) CDR

Acclimate's last album, "World's End", released early in 2011 (and reviewed HERE), displayed composer, Artemis K's, talents for creating lush soundscapes sandwiched between dynamic rhythmic sections. On this new release, "Songs For The Dead", the rhythms are, largely, foregone but replaced by a richer exploration of the cinematic aspects of his music. These deeply atmospheric sound worlds are created by all means of invention, synthesizer pads are drawn out into swelling ambient textures, samples are piled up, noises throb, drones seem to form out of these varied sounds but all around the stereo field are sonic events morphing into the aural equivalent of some kind of closed-eye hallucination. Indefinable, cutup voices frequently become a part of the textures, whispering, begging you to listen, small segments of emotional outbursts, sometimes the voices chastise and warn against an inevitable future. It occurs to me that these songs are not, so  much, "tributes" to the dead, as nothing sentimental can be found. Ending the album with the track, "Silence", however, cements the whole concept so perfectly, and it's a point well made.  Fans of Dark Ambient/Industrial genre will love this album. Limited to 100 copies. Get it HERE. 

CEREBRO MORTO Label: Andrew Coltrane, Gianluca Becuzzi, N.

Cérebro Morto, based in Portugal, is releasing some very interesting exploratory sounds these days. As label owner, Tiago Jerónimo says: "Cérebro Morto is interested in manifestations of the so called experimental, unconventional, or exploratory music, with special focus on electronics, electroacoustics, and improvisation." I like everything about this label, the sounds they are putting out, the snap-shut plastic cd cases, the artwork graphics, even their logo! Not to mention their name translates to "Brain Dead", one of my favorite over-the-top horror movies ever (early Peter Jackson). Besides the three excellent albums reviewed below, this label has also released another favorite noise project of mine, Pregnant Spore, and very soon Maurizio Bianchi. Cérebro Morto is one to keep an eye on.

 ANDREW COLTRANE (Cérebro Morto, CM007) Urge To Kill (2011) CDR

I've favorably reviewed Andrew Coltrane's music before (HERE). His work is always fascinating, recorded under a variety of guises and informed in equal doses, it would seem, by the noise movement, free jazz and the German electronicists (TD, Klaus Schulze, etc). It would be damned near impossible to hear everything he has released over the last ten or more years, just due to the huge scope of it, numerous small run/limited edition releases in various formats, but noise fans/collectors should do themselves a favor right now and acquire all they can of his varied and inventive discography.

His new release on Cérebro Morto, titled "Urge To Kill", is another superb effort, this time with Coltrane putting his stamp on the "horror noise" sub-genre. The nearly 18 minute (untitled) opening track begins with grim electronics and voices like out of a Fulci movie, frantic, strained emotives, fever rising, and then jump cuts into a sweeping synth filter opening and closing ever so slowly. Small events happen within this minimal structure, echoey noise attacks poking, phased and pitch-shifted voices droning almost invisibly in the background. The synthetic tones become more assertive as analog textures modulate and recede. Essentially what I would call a "noise-ambient" composition, forbidding but with many interesting sounds happening inside the dense sound structure. A palpable metaphor of a lunatic mindstate on the edge and about to do something terrible. The second track is shorter, about 11 minutes with a more propulsive sense, an unfurling center that seems to burn, random high pitched whistles flying past like harpies. Only more volume can do this track justice as it rushes along breakneck, all hissing and frenzied. This is the point where rationale has become undone by a compulsion too great. What was foreshadowed on the first composition becomes real, with a malevolent ending dead-end cutoff. RECOMMENDED! Get it HERE.

GIANLUCA BECUZZI (Cérebro Morto, CM008) Haunted (2011) CDR
 

Gianluca Becuzzi has been around since the early 80's working in the areas of electroacoustic and noise music. His creative activities under such guises as Kinetix and Noise Trade Company, in collaboration with industrial band, Pankow and with another Italian noise composer, Fabio Orsi, have resulted in a wide range of experimental releases. "Haunted" consists of four untitled tracks, the middle two longer compositions are the same length, 12:48, and they are bookended by two shorter compositions also both the same length, 2:33, creating a sort of magickal symbol, or equation. The longer two compositions inhabit a similar space, long reverbs and expansive ambient textures rising/falling in the mix with striking atmospheric punctuations and scraping sounds. Even with a flair for the cinematic touch, the clanking of chains, pots and pans rattling, junk metal being dragged around, are typical filmic devices that create a "haunted" ambiance. In correlation to the title, however, this seems a little shallow, it's got all the trappings right, but it doesn't scare, so the payoff isn't quite there for me personally. But when considered apart from the album title's allusions, this is still an interesting, even extraordinary, excursion into electroacoustic soundscaping. Get it HERE.

N. (Cérebro Morto, CM006) Macabre Lust/Destination Morgue (2011) 2xCDR

The mysterious N., aka Davide Tozzoli, has been active in the Italian noise community since the late 1990's. Known for his work in the death industrial/noise genres, one look at his discography and such titles as "Hospital Murders", "Asphyxiating" and "Born To Die", you know what to expect. My expectations were confounded, however, on this release because, where one would expect clichés, there are none. This is an inspired approach to the noise aesthetic.

Macabre Lust, recorded in 1998, begins with a synthetic loop, repeating rhythmically, very minimal, the changes in the structure are small and happen incrementally which makes for a good sport of active listening. The second track lets you know that the rest of the album is not going to follow along the same sort of repetitive approach as the first. All the voices are up close in this environment, with distorted synths talking, singing, sometimes mourning, other times clutched in fear. These sound structures have a twisted, chattering life to them. The heavy (digital?) distortive processes wrenching the subtext here, each composition is it's own holographic image of a world that may be a part of the one we are in, or may not. The second half of this set, consisting of a single 22+ minute track titled "Destination Morgue", was recorded live at a 2007 festival of the same name. Seems to me the mysterious N. has not significantly changed his approach in the nearly ten years that separate the two discs. This noise shows possibly more of a debt to MB in it's stern conception. It is very strange to hear audience members having what sounds like casual conversation during N.'s live set. As it went on, the voices captured became another element of the experience and I found it quite invigorating, the ending applause is enough to realize there were many who really were listening! Much recommended. Get it HERE.