Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient, Industrial, Cinematic.

Format: CD, Digital.

Background/Info: Manabu Hiramoto started making music twenty years ago. The Japanese artist released an impressive number of works by multiple labels like Athanor, Ant-Zen, SSSM, Zhelozebeton ao. He this year released his first album by the leading Dark-Ambient label Cyclic Law.

Content: The work takes off with impressive, overwhelming, soundwaves leading the listener into an icy, frightening sound experience. We next visit imaginary, abyssal, sound depths creating reverie and achieved with subtle sound treatments. The work is progressively evolving featuring metallic- and other Industrial noises plus an impressive canvas of effects.

+ + + : The work is diversified and not always that easy to catch but the opening- and penultimate cut -which are quite different from each other, reveal the strength and creativity of the project. Shinkiro has used a true sonic arsenal to achieve this production appealing for a wider audience and not just Dark-Ambient fans.

– – – : The diversity of the work has something confusing.

Conclusion: I have mixed feelings with this opus but I prefer emphasizing the crushing passages which are just great. 

Best songs: “The Wind”, “Mountains”, “Fire”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/ShinkiroOfficial

Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Out on March 23 is a massive deluxe boxset of Zero Kama. The set (limited to 500 copies) includes the entire existing recordings of Zero Kama on 3 individual vinyls. More info on these recordings can be found below. The recordings were transferred from original tapes, and were mastered by Martin Bowes at the Cage Studios and Micro Majong at Micro Majong Studio.

Instruments made from human bones and skulls

Zero Kama was an experimental music project founded by Zoe DeWitt in 1983. The first release of Zero Kama was the title “V.V.V.V.V.”, recorded for the Nekrophile Rekords cassette compilation “The Beast 666”. In 1984 followed the cassette release of the album “The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H.”, which is commonly regarded as one of the key albums of the ritual industrial subgenre. All instruments used for this recording were actually exclusively made from human bones and skulls…

Here’s an idea how that sounds:

Following an invitation of the NL-Centrum Amsterdam, Zero Kama played two live concerts in the Netherlands in 1985, and – after two more releases on the Nekrophile compilation “The Archangels of Sex Rule the Destruction of the Regime” – completely withdrew from the public.

The later live performances were realized with befriended musicians such as Didi Neidhart and Muki Pakesch, whom Zoe DeWitt knew from the Austrian music underground of the 1980s. Since that time there have been a couple of re-releases of Zero Kama recordings, amongst others the 1988 vinyl version by the French label Permis de Construire, followed by the CD release in 1991.

In 2001 the French label Athanor published “The Goatherd and the Beast”, a 10″ vinyl containing tracks from various compilations that were recorded besides “The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H.”. This collection was also included as a bonus CD in the “Live in Armhem” double CD release by Athanor in 2008.

In 2014 Athanor finally published a remastered version of “The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H.” both on vinyl and CD.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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“Desertland” is the all new album for Shadoworld, which is actually the duo consisting of Roberto Del Vecchio and Old Boy aka Claudio Carluccio. Especially Roberto Del Vecchio will ring a bell, he is an Italian composer since 1994 and founded projects such as Gothica (Cold Meat Industry), The Last Hour (Other Voices Records / Seventh Crow Records) and Les Jumeaux Discordants (Athanor Records). Claudio Carluccio from his side is an Italian multi-instrumentalist he worked with various musicians.

Shadoworld debuted in 2017 with a self titled album on The White Room Netlabel, followed by the “Silver Rain” in 2018.

On “Desertland” you can expect dark folk with a touch of western style and modern electronica, combined with neo-classical. The band’s label describes it as music that “in some parts reminds of Nick Cave, Death in June, Depeche Mode, Johnny Cash, Ennio Morricone, Mark Lanegan.”

Check it for yourself below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, soundscape.

Background/Info: This work resulted from the common efforts of Bardoseneticcube (Russia) and Shinkiro (Japan). Both artists are already active for a couple of years now and have already released an album together under the Bashin moniker. This album entitled “Four Noble Truths” got released in 2011 on Athanor (France).

Content: This album reveals 5 compositions leading the listener in a quite progressive, but dark and somewhat cellar-like sound universe. You feel like you are walking through endless corridors where haunting sonic waves  progressively come down on you. From high resonating and sharp noises to low, vibrating sound vibes this work will give you an instant freaky sensation.

The work sounds like it is being reinforced by aquatic field recordings (or samplings) while a kind of industrial-ambient sounds can be heard as well. “Inner And Outer Space” is an imaginary exploration of a doom- and hell-like sound universe where an endless darkness will fall over the poor visitors.

+ + + : There’s a cool progression in the global composition, which mainly comes through during the first cuts and the great debut track. This is a work with some strong visual appeal.

– – – : The progression of the tracks sounds cool although doesn’t reveal any kind of climax so in the end –and especially on both last cuts, there’s a stagnating aspect running through this work.

Conclusion: If this work is meant to explore different aspect and corners of space, it for sure will rapidly become a kind of nightmare made of terrorizing sounds and disturbing passages. It will however appeal for lovers of extreme sensations in sound.   

Best songs: “Fluctuations”.

Rate: (6).

Bands: www.facebook.com/BARDOSENETICCUBE-245760298802610 / www.facebook.com/ShinkiroOfficial

Label: www.zhb.radionoise.ru / www.facebook.com/zhbrecords

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The french label Athanor, known for releasing occult and/or ritual ambient and industrial music, has returned.

Available in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies in digipak and 20 pages booklet is the newest release by Les Jumeaux Discordants: “Les Chimères” (you can order one of the 300 copies right here).

The album is the first all new release in quite some time from Athanor, the cult label that counts releases in its catalogue from such bands as Les Joyaux De La Princesse, Ain Soph, Zero Kama, Blood Axis, Golgatha, Shinkiro, Mental Measuretech and many more.

You can expect the use of heavy percussions reminding of Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Camerata Mediolanense, Les Sentiers Conflictuels, Blood Axis, early Laibach or Dead Can Dance. This is the second album based on Gérard de Nerval’s poems “Les Chimères”, Charles Baudelaire, Empedocle and Angelo Tonelli.​

Les Jumeaux Discordants is a ritual project born in 2005 by the union of Roberto Del Vecchio’s music and Aima. Roberto Del Vecchio (The Last Hour / ex Gothica) is a composer since 1994 while Aima started her project in 1996 working around poetry, photography, music and multimedia.

Here’s how they sound:

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com