UK label Cold Spring reissues “Shoot And Crucify” on CD on 24 July 2026, some 38 years after the various-artists compilation first appeared as a 50-copy cassette on the label in 1988. The reissue gathers 19 tracks from the industrial, noise and experimental underground of the late 1980s, compiled by Rob Maycock and remastered by Martin Bowes of Attrition at his The Cage studio.

“Shoot And Crucify” was the third tape on the fledgling Cold Spring label, part of the mail-order cassette culture that connected the industrial and noise underground before the internet. “The scene at the time was built on the mail-art network, exchanging ideas, sounds and art around the world via the postal system,” Cold Spring states. Only a handful of the compilation’s 19 tracks have since been reissued; the rest have remained unavailable for nearly 40 years.

Inside Cold Spring’s ‘Shoot And Crucify’

The new edition arrives as a CD in a matt digipak, with artwork by Abby Helasdottir that nods to the original tape’s design, alongside a digital download. Cold Spring prices the CD at £9.49 in advance of the 24 July release (£11.49 after), with the digital album at £7.99.

The 19 tracks document some of the earliest recordings by artists who went on to build long careers in industrial, noise and power electronics. Ethnic Acid is a solo outlet of Anthony Di Franco, who also records as Ramleh and AX. THU20 groups Guido Doesborg, Jac van Bussel, Jos Smolders, Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop.

Several of the same players also record as Kapotte Muziek and, with DMDN, as Death Pact. Frans de Waard, who runs the Dutch label Korm Plastics, appears both as Kapotte Muziek and within Death Pact, while DMDN, also a member of THU20, runs the Midas Tapes label. Satori is the duo of Dave Kirby and Rob Maycock, who first recorded together as Psychopath before adopting the Satori name.

Kirby also contributes two solo tracks. Redemption Inc. and Basquadeck Shelf both involve Neil Campbell, later of Astral Social Club, with Basquadeck Shelf adding Mark Turner of ESP Kinetic. L.S.D. is the project of Gianfranco Santoro, who runs the Italian label Final Muzik. Radical Change is Roberto Vicentini.

Well Crucial brings together Matthew Kinnison of Cindytalk, Richard Youngs, Stewart Walden of Smell & Quim, Campbell again, and members of The Strolling Ones. Merzdow Shek is Mario Marzidovsek. Nostalgie Eternelle pairs Dieter Mauson, also known for Occupied Head and D.S.I.P., with Stefan Heinze of Inox Kapell and Ferien Vom Ich. The State is the recording name of Steven Tanza, also of Bourbonese Qualk.

The full tracklist is:

1. Ethnic Acid – “Angel Of Death” (5:03)
2. THU 20 – “Winterswijle 5” (6:35)
3. Death Pact – “V2-II-4-87” (4:54)
4. Satori – “Post Frustration” (3:40)
5. Redemption Inc. – “Big Money Bad Money” (5:59)
6. Basquadeck Shelf – “The Undying Factory” (2:03)
7. L.S.D. – “Deserto” (1:28)
8. Radical Change – “Vexilla Regis” (2:29)
9. Well Crucial – “Kill Your Children” (1:08)
10. Ethnic Acid – “Flower” (7:13)
11. Dave Kirby – “Trinity” (2:57)
12. Kapotte Muziek – “Test Tension” (1:44)
13. Psychopath – “Rough Justice” (1:01)
14. Psychopath – “The Slab” (1:41)
15. Merzdow Shek – “Bavarian Aquarel” (4:12)
16. Dave Kirby – “Machinations” (1:26)
17. Nostalgie Eternelle – “Something On Your Mind” (4:21)
18. Nostalgie Eternelle – “Wipe Out The Past” (3:28)
19. The State – “Plight Of The Madmen” (1:10)

About Cold Spring Records

Cold Spring is an independent record label based in Northamptonshire, England, founded and run by Justin Mitchell, who had worked with Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth in the 1980s. The label started in 1988 as a mail-order cassette outlet, issuing early tapes such as a Psychic TV live recording and a split cassette by Angels Ov Light and Thee Angry Love Orchestra ahead of “Shoot And Crucify”.

Cold Spring moved into vinyl in 1990 with the compilation “…And The Wolf Shall Lick The Jewels From Your Belly”, featuring The Grey Wolves, Crash Worship and The Hafler Trio, and issued its first CD, Crash Worship’s “Asesinos”, in 1992. The label’s 1999 release of Genesis P-Orridge and Merzbow‘s “A Perfect Pain” became one of its most requested titles. Cold Spring began selling and distributing its catalog online in 1997 and has since built a roster spanning dark ambient, neo-classical, power electronics, Japanese noise and dark soundtrack material, working with artists including Coil, Laibach, Nine Inch Nails (on the “Recoiled” tribute), Mz.412, Sol Invictus and Prurient.

Recent releases include a boxset of Eduard Artemyev and Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov’s scores for Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, “Tarkovsky”. “Shoot And Crucify” returns to that early mail-order period, giving the label’s third-ever cassette its first CD pressing.

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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UK label Cold Spring will release “Tarkovsky”, a five-CD boxset gathering the original soundtracks to the five core films of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky, on 4 September 2026. The Cold Spring “Tarkovsky” set collects the scores to “Ivan’s Childhood”, “Andrei Roublev”, “Solaris”, “Mirror” and “Stalker”, remastered from the original recordings.

Inside the Cold Spring ‘Tarkovsky’ boxset

The boxset splits across the two composers who scored Tarkovsky’s core work. Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov wrote the music for the early films “Ivan’s Childhood” (1962) and “Andrei Roublev” (1966), both rooted in orchestral and choral writing. Eduard Artemyev scored the later three: “Solaris” (1972), built with abstract synthesizer drones and treated organ on the Soviet ANS synthesizer; “Mirror” (1975), a denser companion piece; and “Stalker”, where Artemyev layered synth tones, flute, harpsichord and tar to build the film’s central theme.

Cold Spring issues the set as a deluxe matt-laminate box holding five CDs in individually-printed card sleeves, each paired with an artcard reproducing the original Russian or Japanese cinema poster. The label describes the source recordings as “sympathetically remastered and presented as close as possible to how striking they would have sounded to audiences at the original film presentations.” It is available to order through the Cold Spring webstore and Bandcamp.

About the Tarkovsky soundtracks and Cold Spring

Eduard Artemyev (1937-2022) was a central figure in Soviet electronic music and an early user of the ANS photoelectronic synthesizer. His scores for “Solaris”, “Mirror” and “Stalker” pair orchestral and electronic sources, and stand among the most studied film music of the era. Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1936-2019), a composer and conductor, provided the orchestral scores for Tarkovsky’s first two features before the director’s work moved toward Artemyev’s electronic textures.

Cold Spring is a long-running UK label documenting dark ambient, industrial, noise and soundtrack material, and has built a catalogue of archival and reissue projects including its recent Hermann Kopp “Der Golem” soundtrack. The “Tarkovsky” boxset extends that soundtrack strand, collecting five scores that have long circulated separately into a single remastered release.

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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The fine UK label Cold Spring will release the original soundtrack to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1975 film “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom” on 13 February 2026 on LP, CD and digital formats. The collection marks the first time the film’s original music appears as a dedicated soundtrack release, and includes a new 12-minute piece entitled “The Salò Haunted Suite”.

The “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom” album assembles classical works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Carl Orff, Giacomo Puccini and Arnaldo Graziosi alongside material conducted or composed by Ennio Morricone. It also includes vocal performances by the cast and Morricone’s farewell piece “Addio a Pier Paolo Pasolini”, written after the director’s murder in Ostia in November 1975 and placed in the film’s final cut.

The “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom” original soundtrack appears in three formats via Cold Spring:

• Limited LP (blood red vinyl) – 12″ LP on blood red coloured vinyl, limited to 500 copies. The record comes in a matt-laminated gatefold sleeve.
• CD in ecopak – CD edition housed in a matt-laminated gatefold ecopak, including the 12:48 bonus piece “The Salò Haunted Suite”.
• Digital album – digital version available in 16-bit/44.1 kHz quality via Bandcamp, with the bonus suite included across album purchases.

The LP, CD and digital versions are scheduled to ship and release on 13 February 2026. Note that this date coincides with the 249th anniversary of the Marquis de Sade’s imprisonment in the Vincennes fortress on charges of “debauchery and immoderate libertinage”.

About “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom”

“Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom” is a 1975 political art-horror film directed and co-written by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film adapts the Marquis de Sade’s unfinished 1785 novel “The 120 Days of Sodom” and relocates its setting to the short-lived Italian Social Republic in 1944, commonly known as the Fascist Republic of Salò.

Pasolini developed the script with Sergio Citti, drawing on de Sade’s structure and integrating motifs from Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno”. The story follows four fascist officials who abduct a group of young men and women and submit them to a strict regime of rules, rituals and punishments inside an isolated villa. The film organises its episodes into “circles” that mirror Dante’s descent, charting escalating abuses of power.

Production took place in Italy with a cast that mixed professional and non-professional actors. The principal roles include Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle and Aldo Valletti as the four “Masters”, supported by Caterina Boratto, Elsa De Giorgi, Hélène Surgère and others. Cinematography was handled by Tonino Delli Colli, with editing by Nino Baragli.

The musical score combines original material from Ennio Morricone, performed on piano by Arnaldo Graziosi, with pre-existing classical works from Bach and Chopin, together with Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” and operatic passages by Puccini as key elements in the final soundtrack.

Pasolini completed the film in 1975. On 2 November that year he was murdered in Ostia, near Rome, three weeks before the premiere at the Paris Film Festival on 23 November 1975. In response, Morricone composed “Addio a Pier Paolo Pasolini”, later added to the film and now included in this Cold Spring release.

Censorship, bans and distribution

“Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom” quickly became one of the most controversial titles in European cinema. Italian censors initially rejected the film, then granted approval in December 1975, before withdrawing it again after a short national run in early 1976.

The film’s depiction of sexualised violence, torture and murder of characters presented as under eighteen led to bans or prosecutions in several territories. In the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Censors refused a certificate in 1976; later uncut screenings in London were subject to police intervention, and the BBFC only passed the film uncut for general release in 2000.

In Australia, the film was banned in the 1970s, briefly cleared in the 1990s, and then banned again in 1998 before being permitted on DVD in 2010. New Zealand maintained a ban until 2001, when it passed the film with an R18 rating.

Despite these restrictions, “Salò” circulated through festivals, specialist cinemas and later home-video editions. The Criterion Collection issued the film on LaserDisc in 1993 and on DVD in 1998.

About Cold Spring

Cold Spring is an independent record label based in Northamptonshire, England, founded in 1990 by Justin Mitchell. The label developed from Mitchell’s involvement in the UK’s industrial and experimental scenes and has built a catalogue centred on noise, power electronics, dark ambient, neo-folk, industrial, experimental electronics and dark soundtrack work.

Over more than three decades Cold Spring has released material by artists from Europe, North America and Asia, often focusing on archival, cult or boundary-pushing projects such as The “Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom”.

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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Cold Spring have announced the first ever release of the legendary BBC sessions by Pitchshifter for the late John Peel, “Peel Sessions 1991-93”.

These – ultra heavy industrial metal – tracks were recorded over two sessions at the Maida Vale studios: 28th April 1991 and 30th March 1993 and were sourced directly from the BBC Archives with remastering for CD and vinyl. The 1991 session was recorded during the same period as “Industrial” (Deaf Records / Peaceville), with the 1993 session recorded around the time of “Desensitized” (Earache).

Jon “JS” Clayden explains: “If you look on your Pitchshifter albums you will see that we always credit John Peel. He was instrumental in getting the band out there and often played our music on the radio when no one else dared. The ‘Peel Sessions’ we did were a great honour and every time I met John he was always such a great guy… a legend.”

Tracklisting of the “Peel Sessions 1991-93”:

1. Gritter
2. Tendrill
3. Dry Riser Inlet
4. (A Higher Form Of) Killing (Radio Phuque Edit)
5. Diable (Wayco Survival Mix)
6. Deconstruction (Reconstruction)

The release will be out in the following formats and can be ordered right here via Coldspring.

• CD in matt-laminate 6-panel digipak
• Ltd Ed 500 copies on white heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve
• Black heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve
• Ltd 100 copies on Black & White swirl heavyweight 180g vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve *

Only available at Pitchshifter UK tour (*)

Pitchshifter UK tour

• 26th Nov: Thekla, Bristol
• 27th Nov: Gorilla, Manchester
• 28th Nov: The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
• 29th Nov: The Garage, London (sold out)
• 30th Nov: Rock City, Nottingham

About Pitchshifter

Pitchshifter, an industrial metal band from Nottingham, England, is known for blending aggressive guitar riffs with electronic, drum-and-bass, and techno influences, creating a gritty, cyberpunk-inspired sound. Formed in 1989 by brothers Mark and Jon “JS” Clayden, the band initially drew inspiration from industrial acts like Godflesh and Ministry. Their early work, such as the 1991 debut “Industrial”, leaned heavily into dark, abrasive textures that mirrored the desolate feel of post-industrial Britain.

Throughout the ’90s, Pitchshifter evolved, infusing their sound with more accessible, electronic elements. Their 1998 album “www.pitchshifter.com”, marked a peak in their popularity, featuring tracks like “Genius”. Known for its satirical, anti-establishment lyrics and electronic sampling, the album showcased a futuristic edge.

Pitchshifter toured extensively with bands like Korn and Nine Inch Nails, aligning them with the rising nu-metal wave. Though they disbanded in 2003, Pitchshifter left a legacy as pioneers in genre fusion, influencing countless artists across metal and electronic music. The band has reunited sporadically since then.

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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Out via Cold Spring is the album “Broken Allures” by Jac Berrocal (Nurse With Wound collaborator), David Fenech and Vincent Epplay. The album also features Cosey Fanni Tutti and Jah Wobble. You may expect a blend between industrial, experimental, avantgarde, ethno-ambient and dark jazz.

“Broken Allures” is the fifth LP from the trio where they continue their unique recording style with a musique concrète approach to mixing.

Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey) contributes vocals, cornet and electric guitar. She has also written lyrics for two tracks on the album and worked on the instrumental track “Viva la Hacienda”, which, in her own words, recalls her time recording with Throbbing Gristle.

Jah Wobble (founding member of Public Image Limited, and collaborator with Brian Eno, Björk, Bill Laswell, Primal Scream, Sinéad O’Connor and countless others) plays bass on one track.

Check out the video for “Outspoken Caress”.

The release is available in 3 formats: CD in a matt-laminate flood-printed digipak, a regular black vinyl edition in a matt-laminate sleeve with full-colour insert, and limited edition of 150 copies on transparent yellow vinyl.

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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The avant-garde trio comprising Jac Berrocal (Nurse With Wound), David Fenech, and Vincent Epplay has unveiled their fifth LP, “Broken Allures” to be released on Cold Spring on the 30th of August. This latest release continues their approach to musique concrète, blending the sounds and techniques of each member.

The album is available in several formats via Cold Spring:

• CD in a matt-laminate flood-printed digipak.
• Limited edition of 150 copies on transparent yellow vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve with a full-color insert.
• Black vinyl in a matt-laminate sleeve with a full-color insert.

French musician Jac Berrocal is renowned for his collaborations with Nurse With Wound, Vince Taylor, Jaki Liebezeit, Pascal Comelade, and Sunny Murray. For this project, the trio further enlisted the talents of two musicians: Cosey Fanni Tutti and Jah Wobble.

Cosey Fanni Tutti, known for her work with Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, and COUM Transmissions contributes vocals, cornet, and electric guitar, and has written lyrics for two tracks.

Jah Wobble, a founding member of Public Image Limited and a collaborator with a diverse array of artists including African Head Charge, Brian Eno, Björk, and Sinéad O’Connor, lends his industrial dub sound to the album.

“Broken Allures” includes the track “Outspoken Caress” featuring Cosey Fanni Tutti, with a video directed by Vincent Epplay.

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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Out of print for a decade, the fine British record label Cold Spring has now reissued the cult release “Recoiled” featuring Coil Remixes of Nine Inch Nails tracks. This much-demanded new vinyl edition of this legendary collaboration comes in black or coloured vinyl in full-colour sleeve with printed inner sleeve.

Note that the ‘Pallid Amber’ version which is limited to only 100 copies was only available via Cold Spring and this as a strictly one copy for customer only. If you attempt to buy more than one copy, your entire order will be cancelled. This way the label wants to avoid scalpers are getting their hands on this release.

Both the ‘Heavy Gold’ and ‘Solid Bone White’ come in a limited edition of 500 copies. Also available is a black vinyl (with T-shirt of wanted) and a CD in full colour digipak.

All orders direct from Cold Spring will receive a release promo card.

Genesis of Coil / Nine Inch Nails LP “Recoiled”

The Nine Inch Nails tracks on “Recoiled” were remixed by Danny Hyde (Coil, Electric Sewer Age) and Peter Christopherson (Coil, Throbbing Gristle) on the demand of long time Coil admirer Trent Reznor. Reznor sent over the original multi-tracks and DATs to Hyde and Christopherson, who independently mixed versions and then met to synch both creations.

It was first released in the 5-track format on February 24, 2014, via Cold Spring posthumously after the deaths of the two original Coil members, Peter Christopherson and John Balance. “Recoiled” is actually based on the fan-created digital EP, “Uncoiled”, initially released freely on The Pirate Bay as fully tagged MP3s and FLAC files of the remixes, including original photography and printable jewel case inserts.

The “Recoiled” EP contains remixes of four Nine Inch Nails songs, including “Gave Up”, from Broken (1992), and “Closer”, “The Downward Spiral” and “Eraser”, from The Downward Spiral (1994). The Cold Spring release of the album features additional mastering, and a remix of the song “Eraser” that was not on “Uncoiled”.

These 5 lengthy compositions (just under 40 minutes) are pre-Ableton / laptop generation type creations, with the use of baby alarms and numerous wires to create the effects.

Track listing:

A1. Gave Up (Open My Eyes) (5:28)
A2. Closer (Unrecalled) (7:41)
A3. The Downward Spiral (A Gilded Sickness) (7:59)
B1. Eraser (Reduction) 8:45
B2. Eraser (Baby Alarm Remix) (8:54)

Here’s an idea what to expect

Below is a 21 minute video posted by Danny Hyde in 2018 showing the making of the Nine inch Nails “Recoiled” record. Danny: “Maybe it will go in some way in Explaining the steps taken for the release. The end section of video has footage filmed at time of construction, with various solo samples.”

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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Here’s quite a surprise that was offered us today! In collaboration with Cold Spring we at Side-Line present you “Extinct “, a unique collaboration between the industrial breakbeat pioneers of Meat Beat Manifesto (Jack Dangers) and the king of Japanese noise, Merzbow (Masami Akita).

On “Extinct” the duo takes listeners on a journey, focusing on the dismantling of beat and structure and recycling the result through layers of beautifully crafted noise and feedback loops. The release will be out on CD (pre-order here) and on LP (pre-order the black LP here / pre-order the ltd. red LP here) next to download via Bandcamp and streaming on other platforms.

You can now exclusively stream the full release on Side-Line.

The 20 minute opener “Flakka” takes constantly evolving breakbeats (which are gradually broken down over time) and drives it through a filter of harsh noise, “destroying the old to give birth to the new”, as Todd Robinson (Subunit) puts it. On side two we find “Burner” of which the initial drum beat is broken down so that it is barely recognisable.

The duo’s collaboration is actually best described by Jack Dangers who says: “We may not speak the same language, but in the vortex of sound there is a raw, primal understanding that transcends words. Noise can be art – a visual representation could perhaps be Jackson Pollock’s ‘No. 5, 1948’ – a plexus of chaos redefining what music can and could be. Pushing boundaries with Masami wasn’t just a musical adventure, it was a masterclass in sonic anarchy.”

About Meat Beat Manifesto

Meat Beat Manifesto is an industrial, electronic, experimental group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens that was formed in 1987 in Swindon. Fronted by Dangers (the only permanent member), MBM have proven versatile, experimenting with techno, breakbeat, industrial, dub and jazz fusion while touring the world and influencing major acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy. Some of the band’s earlier work has been credited with influencing the rise of the trip hop, big beat and drum & bass genres.

About Merzbow

Merzbow is Masami Akita, ‘the King of Japanese Noise’. Born in 1956 in Tokyo, he formed the premier Japanoise group Merzbow in 1979, and has released over 400 albums to date. Akita has worked with many different media, both in a directorial and soundtrack role. He has also developed performance works and art installations involving Butoh dance and other Japanese cultural forms. Merzbow has collaborated with many of today’s most important recording artists and continues to be one of the most prolific musicians alive. The name is derived from Kurt Schwitters’s artwork ‘Merzbau’, and is pronounced the same way.

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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Stephen R. Burroughs will be always connected to Head Of David. After the split of this legendary formation -which already happened early 90s, Stephen R. Burroughs got involved with numerous sonic projects. In 2013 he released the official debut album “Lost Corridors” of his solo-project Tunnels Of Āhon Cold Spring. The work revealed a mix of influences moving from Ritual to Dark-Ambient and Cinematic to Industrial. Stephen moved on releasing new material. By the end of 2023 Zoharum released the album “The Smeared Cloth 2012-2018 Unearthed” featuring a selection of previously unreleased tracks. The album is quite diversified but still featuring the familiar sound and influences from TUNNELS OF ĀH. Time for a chat with Stephen R. Burroughs. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I realized the first official Tunnels Of Āh-album “Lost Corridors” was released ten years ago now. How do you remember this debut album and how do you perceive the evolution of the project, the sound & the albums throughout the years?

Stephen: It happened quickly. I’d written the material and decided to upload them on to an online page. As I was posting I realised I didn’t have a name. At the time I was reading “Nightside Of Ede” by Kenneth Grant. A section of it is titled “Tunnels Of Set” and I added the sanskrit ‘Ah’ to replace ‘Set’. Within hours Cold Spring contacted me saying they liked what they hear and it started from there.

As for the sound and material I follow my instinct. I simply see what emerges and take it from there.

Q: Head Of David remains the most famous project you’ve been involved with. What did you keep in mind from that period and how much of all side-projects (think about writing, spirit, way of working…) do you still use in Tunnels Of Āh?

Stephen: I’m asked about Head Of David quite regularly but there is no connection between Head Of David or any musical work I do now. Head Of David is a distant place now.

Coma’, which got released fueling my enthusiasm to record more FRAG which I continue to do. Tunnels Of Āh has gone quiet apart from the aforementioned re-releases. I’ve played twice as Frag with a third date in February.

Q: The recently released album “The Smeared Cloth 2012-2018 Unearthed” reveals previously unreleased tracks. Tell us a bit more about the background of these tracks which have been written over different periods and why did they remain unreleased? How did the album and the selection of tracks finally came to live?

Stephen: The material on “The Smeared Cloth 2012-2018 Unearthed” was written at the beginning of Tunnels Of Āh and simply lay in my vaults with no outlet or intention of releasing them till I had the chance and the desire to release a retrospective collection of work. I was very pleased with the “The Smeared Cloth”.  I have another album of retro material coming out on Zoharum in 2024. This will include the original album recorded around the time of “Deathless Mind” which I sidelined in favour of new material.

Q: I’ve always experienced Tunnels Of Āh and especially this new album as the offspring between different music genres; Ritual, Dark-Ambient, Experimental, Drone, Cinematic, Industrial… name it. How do you explain this eclecticism which is however characterized by a dark sound atmosphere? How would you introduce your music/sound to people who aren’t familiar with Tunnels Of Āh?

Stephen: I really don’t know how I describe my work. It gets filed under all those descriptions you mention but I genuinely just followed my instinct and wrote. It does have a dark atmospheric fell to it so I suppose I’d describe it as that.

Q: Do you follow a specific procedure in the composing process and what are the different stages to achieve a song/album?

Stephen: I simply believe in experimentation and following my instinct. I have never thought of being part of some particular genre, I allow people to decide for themselves.

Q: You like working around ‘conceptual’ themes which I think are totally matching with the Ritual side of your music. What do these concepts mean to you and is there any deeper link with your belief in Buddhism? How do you transpose themes and concepts into sound?

Stephen: Yes, the conceptual side of my work is so important to me. These concepts are my life. Buddhism is my practice and post-Head Of David I joined a Buddhist community and worked for a Buddhist movement. I was close to ordination and the movement imploded  leaving me to leave. As for transposing this into sound, once more it all lies in the feel of a piece. I don’t approach work with a particular concept in mind. And I am certainly not trying to convert people to my way of thinking. I do believe that everything we do, from having breakfast to sweeping the floor is an active aspect of ritual.

Q: What comes next?

Stephen:These days I’m working more on my other project Frag. Frag started in the early 90s. The name was presented by Paul Smith (Blast First). I recorded an album for Blast First which sadly never emerged but I carried on recording with no intention of releasing this material. It was only 2020 that I was approached by Cruel Nature Recordings to release something. Out of all the cassettes I made at that time only one remained, “Controlled Coma”, which got released fueling my enthusiasm to record more FRAG which I continue to do. Tunnels Of Āh has gone quiet apart from the aforementioned re-releases. I’ve played twice as Frag with a third date in February.

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

Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient, Experimental, Cinematic, Neo-Folk.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Clay Ruby strikes back as Burial Hew unleashing a new album on Cold Spring which is a kind of compilation. “In Hiding” indeed features nine cuts which have been originally released on compilations.

Content: I’m used to discovering very diversified influences by this project. It’s not that different now, the album sounding as a true compilation. The influences are very diverse; from Dark-Ambient to Experimental to Neo-Folk impressions to a kind of obscure Chamber-Music to Power-Electronics to Martial. Now bombastic and then dreamy; now instrumental and then featuring vocals, this album really reveals the total sonic universe of the project.

+ + + : Clay Ruby sounds comfortable with any kind of dark music genre. From merciless Power-Electronics to artistic Neo-Classic elements his music canvas seems to be endless but always touched by creativity. The music is often complex and appealing for a strong  visual aspect. It’s first of all a work without compromises.

– – – : Diversity means that you’ll always find a few tracks to your taste but I’m sometimes missing a bit of cohesion between the tracks.

Conclusion: Definitely not the best work from this artist although an interesting selection of maybe forgotten and/or less familiar tracks.

Best Songs: “A Kiss To Birth The Rotted Sun”, “Penitential March”, “O’ Crescent Shedding Queen! A Dark Tide Is Cast Inside The Hearts Of Those Who’d Lay Siege To Your Luminous Shade”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/burial.hex

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq Read the news on ‘In Hiding’.

About Burial Hex

Burial Hex is the long-running solo project of musician Clay Ruby. Its catalog draws on Dark-Ambient, Experimental, Neo-Folk, Power-Electronics and Martial influences, released through labels including Cold Spring. “In Hiding” collects nine tracks previously issued on various compilations.

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

Sonologyst is solo project of Italian sound artist Raffaele Pezzella. Out now via the UK label Cold Spring is the new Sonologyst 2CD album “Sonic documentary” which re-discovers the charm of shortwave transmissions, and more precisely the clandestine shortwave transmissions culled from a span of nearly four decades (1982-2021) via the so-called Number Stations.

These transmissions include repetitive voices, signals, sound pulses and short pieces of music, all of which was collated and edited to compose the tracks of the main album. Originating from covert radio stations engaged in military and espionage endeavours, the tracks unveil a hidden sonic landscape of strategic communication. The whole is a mix of dark ambient, deep drone music and cinematic sound art, providing an auditory exploration “of the ongoing Cold War” as the musician puts it.

The second disc offers unaltered recordings accompanied only by a drone. Raffaele Pezzella adds: “It offers an unfiltered glimpse into the world of clandestine communication, where words are transmitted beneath the radar and in the shadowy confines of the electromagnetic spectrum.”

This double CD comes in a matt-finish gatefold ecopak with graphic design by Abby Helasdottir and is available below.

About the so-called Number Stations on this new Sonologyst LP

Number Stations have been broadcasting short-wave radio transmissions for decades, detectable at various times and durations across numerous frequencies. These enigmatic broadcasts, often featuring voices reciting sequences of numbers or letters using the international phonetic alphabet, Morse code signals, or sound pulses, typically begin with unique transmission start signals, such as musical snippets, letter sequences, or note scales, recurring at scheduled intervals.

Telecommunications experts have extensively researched these transmissions, revealing their use by various secret services for sending brief text messages to undercover agents abroad. Post-1989, following the Berlin Wall’s collapse, there was a notable decline in these broadcasts. However, recent years have witnessed a resurgence, with new broadcasts emerging from global players like China, Korea, and India.

Shortwave radio, an inexpensive and reliable medium, remains largely impervious to interception or blockage, barring nuclear events, making it an ideal clandestine communication tool in an era akin to a new Cold War. Reports of number stations date back to at least World War I, with accounts such as Archduke Anton of Austria, during his youth, intercepting and relaying their messages to Austrian military intelligence.

These high-frequency radio signals, transmitted at lower powers, can traverse the globe under optimal conditions influenced by local RF noise, weather, seasons, and sunspots. Effective reception requires a suitably tuned antenna, which may be noticeably large, and a high-quality receiver.

While the exact locations of many numbers stations remain unknown, their transmission technology is well-documented: standard shortwave transmitters with power outputs ranging from 10 kW to 100 kW.

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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Out on September 8th is a brand new label sampler from the fine Cold Spring label. “Arise – A Cold Spring Sampler” is being released as a 2CD in gatefold ecopak and holds 33 tracks.

“Arise” is the first sampler in this 20+ years old label sampler series since the “Earthen”, which was released in November 2018. Included is material from Cold Spring’s current and forthcoming releases covering industrial, esoteric, dark ambient, noise, ritual, drone, doom metal, experimental, electronica, or yet dark soundtracks.

Included is work from Kollaps, Llyn Y Cwn, Khost, Jagath, Trepaneringsritualen, Coil, Merzbow, She Spread Sorrow, Frank Hall, Dead Voices On Air feat. Cevin Key, Lull, Mz.412 , The Circular Ruins And Mystified, Common Eider, King Eider, Colossloth, We Be Echo, George Fenton, Kristian Eidnes Andersen / Lars Von Trier, , Himukalt, Sonologyst, Satøri , 400 Lonely Things, Tunnels Of Ah, Sleep Research Facility, Burial Hex, Tenhornedbeast, Fm Einheit / Lee Ranaldo, Spk, Oleg Karpachov, Drew Daniel / John Wiese, La Breiche,
Neil Chaney, Gp-Orridge & Dave Ball.

Check out the tracks below. Warmly recommended!

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

The Wisconsin based horror electronics / post-industrial project Burial Hex is back with an all new album, “In Hiding” on the fine Uk label Cold Spring later in September.

When we say ‘all new’ we’d like to point out that “In Hiding” is actually a selection of 9 compilation tracks, curated by Clay Ruby, all featuring 2022 mixes by Clay Ruby and Nathaniel Ritter and remastered by Nathaniel Ritter.

Out on 22nd September 2023 many of the tracks on this album were from cassettes, vinyl, or digital-only releases for labels such as Brave Mysteries, Aurora Borealis, Clan Destine, Small Doses, and Buh, appearing here on CD for the first time – or in the case of “Pentitential March”, never-before released.

You can pre-order the set below from Bandcamp. Read the review of ‘In Hiding’.

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

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

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Craig Varian released his first works as 400 Lonely Things twenty years ago. This new work is a conceptual release inspired by the artistic work of Richard Scott Hill. You’ll find information about his work on the net while the front cover is an illustration made by him.

Content: This work leads us into deep, mysterious, Ambient fields. It has something pretty Cinematic as well. The composition is made of field recordings, electronic sound treatments and a few, spoken, words.

+ + + : There’s a kind of duality running throughout the work I really like. It has a deeply relaxing, and evasive effect on one side and an ominous sensation at the other side. The artist excels in the use of an extended, sonic, canvas which he infused with few spoken, sampled, words getting git more mysterious and still visual at the same time. I like most of the tracks but especially the last -and maybe darkest one, is my personal favorite.

– – – : You feel that the album has been conceived as a conceptual work and I miss the visual side it has been inspired by.

Conclusion: An interesting album filled with contrast although remaining pretty homogenous.

Best songs: “I Live In The Green Blooded Forest”, “Oh My Soul”, “Many Moons”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.400lonelythings.com / www.facebook.com/400LonelyThings

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq Read the news on ‘Mother Moon’.

About 400 Lonely Things

400 Lonely Things is the dark ambient, drone and electronica project of American musician Craig Varian, working with weathered sampling and melancholic instrumentals that trace back to recordings he made with late musical partner Jonathan McCall in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, Varian frequented Banning Mill, a haven for artists in the backwoods of the American Deep South, where he was exposed to the artwork of Richard Scott Hill, whose piece “Minotauress” he later purchased and used for the cover of “Mother Moon”. The album was released on Cold Spring on 24 March 2023, produced by William Basinski and presented in a 6-panel spot-varnished digipak.

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

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

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: This work is a split release between Scottish artist Kevin Doherty (SleepResearch_Facility) and Welshman Benjamin Ian Powell (Llyn Y Cwn). They both are familiar with the Cold Spring roster but it’s quite a while ago we heard new stuff from SleepResearch_Facility.

Content: Both artists and their work have been inspired by great elements from nature. SleepResearch_Facility composed one single, extended, cut which sounds like the offspring between a dark Soundscape and Dark-Ambient. Llyn Y Cwn moves on with 3 cuts with a similar sound and approach. There’s a strong visual appeal created by obscure sound treatments.

+ + + : I’m not that fond listening to split-albums but you don’t really get this sensation with this opus. Both artists sound pretty complementary like working around the same concept and with a similar approach. The sound creates an imaginary vision of nihilism and despair. There however is a kind of prosperity hanging over the tracks. I like the extended opener by SleepResearch_Facility but also recommend listening to “Dale Dawn” and “Doppler Current Profiler” by Llyn Y Cwn.

– – – : Even if this split album is pretty cool I would have preferred to hear two different albums -and especially more stuff from Kevin Doherty.

Conclusion: A good-old split album inspired by a conceptual theme dealing with the power and magic of nature.

Best songs: “Sargo” +“Dale Dawn”, “Doppler Current Profiler”.

Rate: 7½.

Artists: www.resonance-net.com / www.facebook.com/llynycwn

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About SleepResearch_Facility and Llyn Y Cwn

SleepResearch_Facility is the solo project of Kevin Doherty, a dark ambient artist from Glasgow, Scotland, active since around 2000. His compositions favor beatless, extended, richly textured pieces built for sleep-conducive listening, with little to no rhythmic content. All of his albums have been produced or engineered at Somnambu-Lab in Glasgow.

Doherty debuted with “Nostromo” on Cold Spring in 2001, inspired by the spaceship in the film “Alien.” He followed it with “Dead Weather Machine” and “Dead Weather Machine Re:Heat” in 2004 on Manifold Records, both built from a single manipulated recording of a malfunctioning electric fan heater, then “Deep_Frieze” in 2007 and “Stealth” in 2012, both on Cold Spring.

Llyn Y Cwn is the dark ambient project of Benjamin Ian Powell, who has made electronic music for more than 25 years. Powell works as an electronics technician for the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University and draws on field recordings from Arctic research cruises and the landscape of his native North Wales. The project takes its name from a small lake at 715 metres in the Glyder mountain range of Snowdonia.

Llyn Y Cwn releases on Cold Spring include “Twll Du” in 2019, “Dinorwic” in 2020, “Du Y Moroedd” in 2022, “Megaliths” in 2024, and “Megaliths In Dub” in 2025.

Doherty and Powell first appeared together on the Cold Spring compilation “Arise – A Cold Spring Sampler” in 2023, following the joint album reviewed here, “Sargo / Posidonia,” released on Cold Spring on April 21, 2022.

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

Genre/Influences: Experimental, Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: This album is a collaboration between two Hungarian artists who already worked together a decade ago. The work is an audiovisual production featuring eight tracks.

Content: The music is taking us back to early 80s Experimental projects. The work is constructed with Industrial sound treatments and a true arsenal of noises with spoken, Hungarian, lyrics on top. The sound of true string instruments has been manipulated by effects and experiments.

+ + + : This work reminds me of the magic of Industrial pioneers. Early 80s were a prolific ground for legendary artists so “The Agitated Calm Of Insubstantial Space” took me back to Test Department, The Hafler Trio ao. The work reveals a kind of free style probably featuring improvised passages but also great Industrial sound treatments driven by linear percussion. The spoken parts inject a touch of mystery on top of the work but still feel like part of a concept.

– – – : Some parts are a little less to Experimental to my taste.

Conclusion: This is the kind of work appealing for fans of Cold Spring Music.

Best songs: “Landscapes”, “Tower”, “Fox”, “Spaces”.

Rate: 8.

Artists: www.sandorvaly.com

Label: www.newpolarsound.com

About Sándor Vály & Attila Kalóczkai

Sándor Vály and Attila Kalóczkai are two Hungarian artists who previously collaborated roughly a decade before this release, per the review. “The Agitated Calm Of Insubstancial Space” is their shared audiovisual work of eight tracks, combining Experimental and Industrial sound design with spoken Hungarian text, released via New Polar Sound.

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 dark ambient / drone / electronica project 400 Lonely Things returns with an all new album on the 24th March via Cold Spring. Produced by William Basinski it is a dark ambient, sample-based ‘séance to the Banning Mill’, which was basically a mansion and haven for artists in the backwoods of the American Deep South in the 1970s-1990s.

In the 90’s, 400 Lonely Things’s Craig Varian frequented the Mill in the years before it closed. It was here that he was exposed to the artwork of Richard Scott Hill, whose artwork “Minotauress” is on the album cover. This album, born out of that first visit to the Mill, is an imaginary soundtrack ‘to the many years of solitude the Minotauress spent hanging in the musty, secret winding halls of Banning Mill’.

Since the days of the Mill (and Varian’s subsequent purchase of “Minotauress” shortly before the Mill closed), Craig Varian, along with best friend and late musical partner Jonathan McCall, found a thread of music they’d been consistently making yet had previously failed to notice – melancholic instrumentals with weathered sampling at its core – going back to their earliest recordings in the late 1980’s. Eventually, this music was called 400 Lonely Things.

The release comes presented in a 6-panel spot-varnished digipak. Check below for the download too. Read the review of ‘Mother Moon’.

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

Genre/Influences: Soundscape, Experimental, Cinematic.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Mick Harris (ex-Napalm Death, scorn ao) set up Lull in 1990. He didn’t release new Lull stuff for a while but the lockdown brought him back to his love for Soundscapes creating this new work featuring four cuts.

Content: The Soundscape format is obviously noticeable from the very first seconds of the work. Dark, buzzing, sound corridors create an obscure sensation which is accentuated by a few, extra, noises.

+ + + : Both debut cuts are absolute freaky and definitely what you might expect from this kind of music. It’s a sonic metaphor to quicksand; it all happens progressively, getting you deeper away into a dark underground. The ominous atmosphere accentuates the state of fear and that’s precisely what lovers of this music genre expect.

– – – : Both last songs are more predictable and without a true climax.

Conclusion: The positive side to Covid-19 is that several artists -like Mick Harris, went back to somewhat forgotten projects.

Best songs: “Range”, “Expanse”.

Rate: 7½.

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About Lull

Lull is the dark ambient project of English musician Mick Harris, formed in 1990 after Harris acquired a sampler, a reverb pedal, and a 4-track recorder following his departure from grindcore band Napalm Death. Harris has also recorded as Scorn and Fret.

Lull’s previous album, “Like a Slow River”, was released in 2008. Side-Line announced the follow-up, “That Space Somewhere”, in November 2022, with Cold Spring releasing the 4-track album on December 2, 2022, reviewed above.

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

Genre/Influences: Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: “Malfeitor” brings us back to 1989 when MZ.412 was still active as Maschinenzimmer 412. The Swedish masters of ‘Black Industrial’ released this album by Cold Meat Industry as vinyl format and later on in 2001 as CD. It also was the last album released as Maschinenzimmer 412.

Content: The work brings us back to early Industrial works. The composition is carried by non-stop dark percussion parts. It sounds like heavy loops now and then mixed with spoken samplings and half-spoken, tenebrous, vocals.

+ + + : You clearly can feel the Industrial 80s spirit which I’ve always liked for its creative and authentic spirit. It’s magic to realize how this album from forgotten times still has this original power and impact.

– – – : The sound formula becomes a bit repetitive and predictable after a while.

Conclusion: Back to the 80s which was a golden era for Industrial music.

Best songs: “Malfeitor”, “Virus”, “The Death Of Lasarus”, “Ecaf Dloc II”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.nordvargr.com/mz-412 /  www.facebook.com/MZ412official

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About Maschinenzimmer 412

Maschinenzimmer 412 was formed in Sweden in 1987 by Henrik Nordvargr Björkk, Jouni Ulvtharm Ollila, and Leif Holm, alongside their other project Pouppée Fabrikk. The band’s debut release, “Macht Durch Stimme”, came out in 1988 on the tape label Mechanik Cassettes in an edition of just 50 copies; it was later reissued by Cold Spring with a previously unreleased bonus track. Jonas Drakhon Aneheim joined in 1995, replacing Holm, and the band was renamed MZ. 412. “Malfeitor” was the final album released under the Maschinenzimmer 412 name before that change.

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

(By Stéphane Froidcoeur for Inferno Sound Diaries/Side-Line Reviews) 2022 has been once again a sad, bloody and terrible year. Living in a mad world music once more remains a true therapy to appease pain and frustration. Concerts and festivals came back; the perfect place to meet friends again. Artists remain prolific releasing great studio work. So I’m once more closing the year by a personal selection of my very own ‘best of’-albums of the year.

Over 700 productions have been selected while 540  reviews have been made all over the year. Some productions have been refused because the style of music didn’t fit, while other reviews will be postponed to 2023. I’m really grateful to all labels, bands and promoters considering my work and efforts and I hope you’ll go on providing me new promos next year.

I one again have to express my deepest gratitude to Rich Bova (NEIKKA RPM) who for years and years now is reading, correcting and improving my reviews. Without Rich there would be no reviews. I also want to thank Bernard Van Isacker – chief redactor Side-Line Music Magazine – for the successful collaboration. 

Up now to 2023. I already reduced my activities this year and will move on reducing it in 2023. I made my first reviews and interviews back in 1991 (!). Some of the readers and artists weren’t even born when I wrote my first review for Side-Line. So after more than 30 years non-stop activities I think it’s not that strange to move on slowly.

I also want to express a big ‘F*** you’ to so-called ‘artists’ and label owners who don’t realise and appreciate the work I’m doing by making reviews and preparing interviews to get them in the spotlights. The attitude and less of respect shown by those people – luckily a very few number – is just unacceptable… but I’m afraid it reflects the world we’re living in… Behind a genius artist is not always hiding a great person… It’s quite strange to realise the ’biggest’- and long-time established artists from this scene often are the most accessible ones.

Writing reviews remains very ‘subjective’ and always a source of discussion, but keep in mind it will be always the perception of the reviewer. I can assure you I’m always trying to argue my reviews the best as possible. A review will be never objective, but has to be honest!

Like every year I’ve made a selection from the best albums of the year. This ‘TOP 25’ covers different styles like EBM, Dark-Electro, IDM, Synth-Pop, Ethereal, Dark-Ambient, Industrial, Cinematographic, Gothic, Post-Punk, Cold/Dark-Wave, Dark-Techno and a few related genres. It remains an exciting but tough exercise.

This ‘TOP 25’ is taken from the promotional material I got while compilations, ‘best of’-productions, EP’s and singles were not considered.

So, here’s my ‘TOP 25’ from 2022 and don’t forget to share it with your friends….

Top 25 albums 2022

1. IVARDENSPHERE: “Ragemaker” – Metropolis Records
2. DIE ROBO SAPIENS : “Robo Sapien Race” – Alfa Matrix
3. EBE04 : “Inrush – Give/Take
4. CALDON GLOVER: “Labyrintia” – Cyclic Law
5. ROME: “Hegemonikon” – Trisol
6. NEIKKA RPM: “Scorpio In The Hourglass – Alfa Matrix
7. VANGUARD: “Spectrum” – Infacted Recordings
8. SUICIDE COMMANDO: “Goddestructor” – Out Of Line
9. ELM: “Penetrator” – Alfa Matrix
10. OBERER TOTPUNKT: “Totentanz” – Danse Macabre Records
11. THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE: “Fascination” – Metropolis Records
12. BLACKBOOK: “Confessions Of The Innocent” – DarkTunes Music Group
13. BEYOND THE GHOST: “Sundown” – Cryo Chamber
14. THEN COMES SILENCE: “Hunger” – Metropolis Records
15. PRINCIPE VALLIENTE: “Barricades” – Metropolis Records
16. DAWN OF ASHES: “Scars Of The Broken” – Artoffact Records
17. MONSTERGOD: “Ozymandias” – Space Race Records
18. STATIQBLOOM: “Threat” – Sonic Groove Records
19. AXIOME: “Field Guide To Alien Planets And Other Disco Balls – Audiophob
20. REICHSFEIND: “Darken” – Alfa Matrix
21. FIRST AID 4 SOULS: “I Am The Night” – Alfa Matrix
22. ORDO ROSARIUS EQUILIBRIO: “Nihilist Notes And The Perputual Quest 4 Meaning In Nothing” – Out Of Line
23. KILL SHELTER: “Asylum” – Manic Depression Records / Metropolis Records
24. JAGATH: “Svapna” – Cold Spring Records
25. KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND: “Voodoo” – Shyrec

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

Genre/Influences: Industrial, Experimental, Ritual.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Russian Jagath collective is back on track unleashing a new album by Cold Spring. Operating from Russia and composing their music as a ritual from abandoned industrial areas they dedicate “Svapna” ’to the victims of totalitarian regimes’…

Content: The work holds on the modus operandi and influences from previous works. This is pure Industrial music reminding us of the early 80s experiments. The 4 tracks are progressively built up, mixing infernal Industrial sound treatments and improvised noises together with flutes and mystic chants.

+ + + : And once again Jagath reminds me of the early hours of Industrial music. They have the political engagement of Test Department but are also composing their stuff in the true spirit of Industrial bands. The tracks are meticulously built up, sounding rough and unpolished and yet with captivating chant passages.

– – – : I don’t have real minus points but the work might need a few listening before you really get into it. .

Conclusion: I’ve always been devoted to the true Industrial spirit from the early 80s and I know that there are not many formations like Jagath that are able to bring this spirit to life. Respect guys; for your music and commitment!

Best songs: “Unmada”, “Prabodhan”.

Rate: 8½.

Artist: www.jagath.ru / www.facebook.com/jagath.industrial

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About Jagath

Jagath is a ritual industrial and dark ambient collective operating from Perm, Russia. The project records at abandoned industrial locations, including underground sewer shafts and hollow oil tanks, without digital synthesis, relying instead on hand-crafted instruments, found objects and voices. “Svapna” was released on October 5, 2022 through the UK label Cold Spring, dedicated to the victims of totalitarian regimes and recorded among the last sessions inside the tanks before they were scrapped. Side-Line interviewed the collective in 2021 under the title ‘Unveil Life In The Abyss’.

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 UK based Cold Spring label has a rather interesting re-release out on February 23 from Psychic TV: “Those Who Do Not”. The album holds recordings of a live concert by Psychic TV in Reykjavik, Iceland that took place in November 1983 and which was organized by HÖH and GRAMM Records.

The live album will be released on CD, and in 3 different 2LP versions: a version on red vinyl sold via Cold Spring only (230 copies) and one on white vinyl (230 copies) which will only be sold via indie record stores, plus a standard black vinyl edition.

At the moment of this live recording the lineup of the band also featured Peter Christopherson and Geff Rushton (John Balance) of Coil next to Genesis P-Orridge, Alex Fergusson, John Gosling, Godkrist, Grey Wolf, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Thee TOPI Method and Priestess. This full show also holds the recordings of the Pagan marriage between Genesis and Paula P-Orridge conducted by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson Allsherjargodi.

Out of print for 23 years, the material has been meticulously remastered, with the track order finally arranged into what was the original show.

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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Hailing from Leicester (UK) Wooly Woolaston is involved with Colossloth for quite a while now. After having released his first album on the Belgian label Doom Structure (2008) he next released an album on Doom Mantra Records (2009) and one on Dark Meadow Recordings (2011). Things started to get more ‘serious’ when he signed to Cold Spring Records. Colossloth this year released its fourth full length album for the British label. “Promethean Meat” reveals a harder sound driven by harsh rhythmic but still centered around noisy sound treatments. Colossloth never stops evolving in sound and influences while holding on its rough and merciless sound.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: How would you introduce Colossloth to people who aren’t familiar with your work? How would you define yourself as an artist/musician and what characterizes your sonic alter-ego? 

Wooly: I’d introduce Colossloth as a one man Experimental Electronic artist where there are no rules to recording or playing music, I definitely don’t class myself as a musician as I can’t play any instruments as such, my main weapon for recording is a sampler and loop stations.

Q: You’re already active for multiple years now so how do you see the sonic journey and evolution of Colossloth throughout the years? 

Wooly: Yeah I’ve been going for about 18 years, the music has changed massively in that time and that was always the plan, to keep evolving and moving in new directions and not following a formula, I’m really happy with how the music has transformed from the first tracks which were long guitar drones and now somehow it’s evolving into harsh electronics with sections of melody.

Q: Your work has been always centered around ‘noisy’ sound treatments although the newest album “Promethean Meat” indeed reveals an interesting evolution into harder, rhythmic, fields. What have been the main sources of inspiration to write this new work and what kind of album did you’d in mind? 

Wooly: Yeah the new album is the first time I’ve actually used a traditional drum sound, I sampled live drummers and manipulate it into something different and it seems to work. It was a bit of a gamble using drum tracks as I never wanted the music to sound mathematical and calculated but it seems to bring something new to the sound.

Q: “Promethean Meat” is an interesting and intriguing title but what did you try to express here and in which way can it be seen as a metaphor to the world we’re living in? 

Wooly: The title is based on a theory that humankind has reached its highest level of evolving and has now stared to slide backwards  we don’t need to think as much anymore as our phones do it for us, we don’t need to walk anymore as everyone is using electro scooters etc.

Q: What have been the different stages in the creation and production of the album? And can you reveal details about your way of working and eventually criteria you handle to produce your sound? 

Wooly: There is no specific way of working, I create hundreds of samples and loops and then try to make tracks out of them. A lot of the time it doesn’t work but when it does it does, I then take them to my friend Tom’s studio where it all gets recorded properly. It’s a really enjoyable way of working. 

Q: Your country is going through hard and instable political times. What impact does it have on you as citizen and artist (-especially referring to Brexit)? So what brings the future for Colossloth? 

Wooly: Funny enough I’m looking at playing dates in Europe in 2023 and the whole system has changed for me to do such. Our country has been ran by clowns for the last few years and it’s time for a change!

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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Cold Spring is to release “That Space Somewhere”, the first new album in 14 years from Lull – the dark ambient project of Mick Harris (Scorn, Fret, ex-Napalm Death). The 4-track release is the follow-up to 2008’s “Like a Slow River” and will be officially out on December 2nd.

Mick Harris began the project Lull in 1990, when he acquired a sampler, a reverb pedal and a 4-track recorder. After leaving the grindcore band Napalm Death, Harris wanted to create dark ambient music.

Here’s a video teaser for the new album.

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: Rhythmic-Noise, Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Wooly Woolaston aka Colossloth strikes back with his fourth full length album released by Cold Spring. He also released a few earlier albums before the Cold Spring period.

Content: I always linked Colossloth to heavy experiments in Noise. This album is not that different for the Noise influence, but the production became more rhythmic than ever before. From a pure anarchistic and improvised-like approach to heavier, rhythmed, pieces leading the listener into frenetic dance and transcendental sensation this work has a lot to offer.

+ + + : This is without a shadow of a doubt the hardest work by Colossloth and especially the accentuated rhythmic format sounds great. The work might appeal for lovers of true Noise improvisation but also for Rhythmic-Noise fans in need of dance. I like the heavy, repetitive, noise loops mixed with Industrial sound treatments leading you into trance. There’s also the more atypical “Dead Swan Song” which is slower and guided by ghost-like female vocals.

– – – : I’m less convinced by the debut part of the work which is more into pure improvisation.

Conclusion: This album sounds like being composed by a sonic ogre turning noises into dance.

Best songs: “Flowering Discipline”, “Dead Swan Song”, “Tethering The Constellation”, “Drownsize”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/colossloth

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About Colossloth

Colossloth is the solo project of Wooly Woolaston, based in Leicester, England. His first album was released on the Belgian label Doom Structure in 2008, followed by an album on Doom Mantra Records in 2009 and one on Dark Meadow Recordings in 2011, before he signed to Cold Spring. “Promethean Meat” is his fourth full-length for Cold Spring, marking the first time Woolaston built the tracks around sampled and manipulated live drum recordings rather than his earlier, more purely improvised approach. Woolaston discussed the album’s evolution and themes in a Side-Line interview.

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

Genre/Influences: Black-Industrial, Death-Industrial.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Originally released in 1988 by Mechanik Cassettes, “Macht Durch Stimme” was the debut work of Swedish Maschinenzimmer 412. Driven by  Henrik Nordvargr Björkk, Juni Ulvtharm Ollila and Leif Holm this trio got international fame by their hard EBM project Pouppée Fabrikk. Mz.412 became a true reference in a different scene and brings their early work back alive while a bonus cut has been added.

Content: This work brings us back to a very own interpretation of Industrial and Dark-Ambient. The tormented atmospheres have been accentuated by Industrial noises while now driven by slow rhythms, and then by a Martial-like rhythmic. You’ll also notice hard screams, saturated noise waves and field recordings mixed together in repetitive loops.

+ + + : This work hasn’t lost its initial magic and remains a true reference in a style Mz.412 has invented. I enjoyed the tormented sonic voyage, which also sounds sophisticated. I still find back the true, Industrial, spirit form the early years which has been masterly adapted into something new. This was the debut of a successful career.

– – – : The bonus track which is an alternative ‘tape’ edit to the “Rood”-track is a cool extra for the fans but nothing more.

Conclusion: “Macht Durch Stimme” sounds as a true sonic Poltergeist and will occur you a cold sweet sensation.

Best songs: “Aptionstheorie”, “Sequela”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/MZ412official

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About Mz.412

Mz.412 was formed in Sweden in 1988 as Maschinenzimmer 412 by Henrik Nordvargr Björkk, Jouni “Ulvtharm” Ollila and Leif Holm, and is credited as an originator of “black industrial,” combining industrial noise, ritual ambient and black-metal atmospheres. Jonas “Drakhon” Aneheim joined in 1995, replacing Holm, around the time the name was shortened to MZ.412. Björkk, also active as Nordvargr, has additionally recorded in Deutsch Nepal, In Slaughter Natives and Sällskapet, alongside Thomas Ekelund, and has collaborated live with Trepaneringsritualen. “Macht Durch Stimme” was the band’s 1988 debut on Mechanik Cassettes, reissued here by Cold Spring with a bonus track.

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

Out via Cold Spring on November 4th is a re-release of the debut album from Dead Voices On Air (Mark Spybey of Download/ex-Zoviet France, Reformed Faction), featuring cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy/Download).

The original release “Abrader” (1994) blends processed sounds from primitive instruments and found objects into hypnotic looped rhythmic structures, with dark clusters of heavy ambient. It was the first ever of over 80 releases (so far) by Mark Spybey using the name Dead Voices On Air.

“Abrader Redux” features the three lengthy tracks that were released on the original cassette, plus the bonus tracks that were included in the 2009 reprint as part of a double CD, and now with two ‘new’ previously-unreleased bonus tracks.

Here’s a teaser for the release.

Dead Voices On Air was formed in 1992 when Mark Spybey emigrated to Canada from his native England. Dead Voices On Air was mostly a solo project of Mark Spybey for a long time, expanding to the band only several times before, but since 2020 it’s officially a full band including Mark Spybey, Lori Cole, Marko Roberti and Anatoly Grinberg.

Below you can buy the CD release or the download straight from Bandcamp.

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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(Photo by Anatoly Pakhalenko, Natalia Pakhalenko / Kalachinsk, Kolhoz record) Out on November 18, 2022 via Napalm Records is an all new EP by Nytt Land, called “Ritual: Blood of the West”. The tracks for the forthcoming EP are actually based on tracks from their latest album, “Ritual”, that have been reworked in a gothic western style.

Out now is a first single, “Dark Country. Ritual”. A official video for this track is available below. The band says this about the first single: “Old Ritual went through its rebirth in a new sound, new form and comprehension. And it was in the gothic atmosphere of the old west that he was born again. Ritual continues, prepare for the Ritual!”

Watch the official video for “Dark Country. Ritual”.

Regarding the full EP they say: “We’ve said many times that country and blues music are some of our favorite music genres. This EP is our tribute and memory to those great musicians who stood at the very origins of American country and blues music, those whose music inspires us daily. For us, working on this album has become the most unusual, but at the same time extremely interesting experience. And we really love that we did it!”

Nytt Land are a two piece Nordic folk and ambient band, from Kalachinsk in Siberia, Russia. Started by husband and wife Anatoly and Natalya Pakhalenko in 2013, the band released their album “Fimbulvinter” on Cold Spring Records in 2017.

Their subsequent album, 2018’s “Oðal”, was also released on the label. In August 2021, the band released their newest album “Ritual” through Napalm Records.

Good to know, the band has been publicly criticizing the war Putin started against Ukraine since the early beginning.

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: Experimental, Minimal-Electro, Dark-Wave.

Format: Digital, 2CD.

Background/Info: Kevin Thorne continued on with We Be Echo after the band split. It brings us back to the early 80s and influential British artists like Throbbing Gristle. This album features the original songs from the debut album “Ceza Evi” (1983) plus bonus tracks and other cuts recorded during that period.

Content: There’s a lot to say about this album featuring a total amount of 32 songs. The common element between all cuts is the easy recognizable 80s spirit of early Electronic experiments and Cold-Wave music. Genesis P. Orridge contributed to one of the cuts, which also is one of the best exposures of this work. You’ll (re)discover numerous instrumental cuts, but also songs with vocals giving a more accessible touch to the work.

+ + + : I have to admit I can’t really remember to have ever heard We Be Echo, but this work is a cool discovery and especially for bringing good-old memories alive. I especially like the Electro-Wave approach with the magic of analogue gear, but still a few typical elements from that period reminding us that musicians were first of all experimenting with instruments and noises.

– – – : Some parts are a bit too Experimental, revealing a kind of free-style approach; no compromises and no rules, but pure sound-anarchy.

Conclusion: Cold Spring Records once more brings forgotten -or unknown, treasures to the surface. I enjoyed the ride.

Best songs: “Inside Life’s Wire”, “This Hour’s Mine”, “Dirty Harry”, “Manson”, “Got You”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: http://webeecho.com / www.facebook.com/webeecho

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

About We Be Echo

We Be Echo is the project of English musician Kevin Thorne. The debut album “Ceza Evi” appeared in 1983 on Cause For Concern. Thorne followed it with the cassette album “Pressure Point” in 1985 and “Nothing Left” in 1986, both on Mystery Hearsay.

After a long break the name returned with “Beat Of The Drum” on Sleepers Records and “Darkness Is Home” on SoundOv, both in 2020. Archive sets followed with “1980-1986” on Contact Minimal Records in 2022 and the three-CD “Facets (Recordings 1981 – 1989 & 2020 – 2023)” on Ultra-Mail Prod. in 2023.

The “Ceza Evi / Compleat Edition” double CD reviewed here was issued by Cold Spring. A We Be Echo track was later included on the label compilation “Arise – A Cold Spring Sampler”, released on 8 September 2023.

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

“Macht Durch Stimme”, the debut release of Maschinenzimmer 412 (a.k.a. MZ. 412) is a true milestone in the history of Swedish black industrial music.

In 1987 Henrik Nordvargr Björkk, Jouni Ulvtharm Ollila, and Leif Holm formed Maschinenzimmer 412, next to their other project Pouppée Fabrikk. Jonas Drakhon Aneheim joined in 1995, replacing Holm and the bands anew got abbreviated to MZ. 412.

Originally released in 1988 by the Swedish tape label Mechanik Cassettes (run by Memorandum’s Petter Marklund), “Macht Durch Stimme” came in a tiny edition of just 50 copies. For this reissue out via the fine label Cold Spring all of the material was remastered from the original 4-track tapes and a previously unreleased, exclusive track that was rediscovered when listening through the old master tapes was added as well.

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

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

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info:  Christopher Walton -who I remember from his Endvra project, strikes back with the first new album of TenHornedBeast in five years.  The work is directly inspired by the doom stone in the crypt of York Minster. It’s a relic from the 12th century, carved in deep relief, illustrated for a medieval audience the horrors that awaited sinners in Hell. 

Content: The concept of the work has been transposed into an extremely dark and tormented atmosphere. Raw, ripping noises, buzzing sound waves, echoing drones and Industrial blasts are leading the listener into an obscure universe of sonic horror.

+ + + : The main strength of this work is the extremely tormented atmosphere hanging over the production. It in a way is a Walton trademark. He became an expert creating perverted sounds and -atmospheres and he once more encaged the listeners in imaginary, frightening dungeons. The ominous sphere mixed with heavy Industrial blasts come to an apotheosis at “Upon Their Head Names Of Blasphemy”.

– – – : I personally prefer the first half of this work, both last cuts being less convincing.

Conclusion: TenHornedBeast belongs to the darkest sonic artists from the Ambient/Industrial/Ritual scene and this new opus only confirms the demonic effect of its creation.

Best songs: “Upon Their Head Names Of Blasphemy”, “Into The Mouth Of Hell”, “This Is The First Death”. 

Rate: 8.

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

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

Genre/Influences: Experimental, Abstract, Ambient.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Unexplained Sounds Group label owner Raffaele Pezzella moves back to Cold Spring to release the newest work of his Sonologyst music project. It’s a new conceptual work inspired by scientist Michio Kaku exploring the ‘paraphysical dimension of cosmic music.’ 

Content: The work of Sonologyst is a new kind of sonic puzzle or sound collage mixing dark atmospheres with vintage sound treatments and Experimental music reminding me of the early 80s era. The tracks have been progressively built up by an impressive arsenal of noises and manipulated sound treatments.

+ + + : Raffaele Pezzella reveals himself as a true sound scientist. You get the impression the sounds of this work have been composed in a sonic lab instead of a studio. But I like the accessible format of the work which I think is mainly due to the dark atmospheres recovering the work. This album makes me think of an imaginary fusion between Experimental- and Ambient music but even Krautrock.

– – – : Sonologyst remains a true sonic enigma which is not always easy to catch and to endure. You better like Experimental productions when listening to Sonologyst.

Conclusion: I’m always impressed by the sonic complexity of Sonologyst compositions and this new work is not that different but it’s one of the best albums of the Italian artist in history.

Best songs: “Ad Astra”, “Through Memories And Galaxies”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/sonologyst

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

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

“Until The Day I Die” is the third album from the Australian post-industrial outfit Kollaps to be released on June 24th via Cold Spring.

A wide variety of metals and raw materials were used in the creation of the album including metal grates, a rusted hoist, cement cylinders, field recordings, hammering of various decrepit objects, broken amplifiers, an exposed reverb tank, various synthesizers, and the ‘metal coil’ which is a crudely self-constructed artifice.

The material was entirely written, recorded, and mixed at the self-constructed ILoveHeroin Studios built above a sculpture museum in Lugano, Switzerland. All instrumentation was handled by Wade Black except for bass guitar by Andrea Collaro recorded at Hangar 121 in Lenate Pozzollo, Italy on all tracks except “D-IX” and “I Believe In The Closed Fist”, handled by Black, and additional sound design and percussion by Giorgio Salmoiraghi.

The album was mastered by James Plotkin and completed with cover artwork by Nullvoid (Thomas Ekelund | Trepaneringsritualen).

The 7-track release comes on CD in a 6-panel digipak and on vinyl with a full colour matt-laminate sleeve and printed inner lyric sleeve.

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

Genre/Influences: Experimental, Cinematic.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/info: “Imagining October” was originally written in 1984 but never released. Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) released this work as a Soundtrack for the Derek Jarman film “Imagining October”.

Content: You immediately recognize the Soundtrack approach of the production, but still an explicit Experimental approach characterizing the sound of both protagonists. The tracks are diversified, featuring classically trained male vocals next to choir chants. The tracks are recovered by dark strings.

+ + + : This work was composed by 2 legendary artists from the UK underground scene. I like the album’s diversity, but especially the more accessible second- and third cuts. The work has a strong visual appeal mainly emerging at both cuts.

– – – : This album remains pretty abstract and without the movie you probably miss an important part of the global production.

Conclusion: This previously unreleased work clearly is a sensational collaboration between two legendary artists.

Best songs: “Imagining October II”, “Imagining October III”.

Rate: 6½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/electricboydb

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq Read the news on ‘Imagining October’.

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

Genre/Influences: Death-Industrial, Horror-Electronics.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Clay Ruby strikes back with a new conceptual piece of music released under The Burial Hex Moniker. “Gauze” has been released after a few collaborative productions.

Content: The sound universe of Burial Hex remains dominated by the fusion between different influences. Industrial sound treatments have been mixed with Minimal-Electronics, field recordings and heavy screams. it creates this familiar horror-sensation which also moves into mystic parts accentuated by Gregorian chants.

+ + + : Burial Hex remains a master when it comes to compose disturbing music. It’s mainly due because of the freaky, obscure atmospheres hanging over the work. The songs move from harsh, Death-Industrial parts to sophisticated, ghost-like passages. “Two Rivers” is a great track in this genre. There also is something authentic running through the work; a more intimate part creating a dark serenity which mainly emerges at “Double Scorpio”. Another attention grabber is the opening piece reflecting sadness created by the cello-like tune.

– – – : Burial Hex has been never an easy going sound experience, but rather a work for initiates.

Conclusion: Burial Hex has released an endless number of works, but “Gauze” sounds as a must have for tormented souls.

Best Songs: “Two Rivers”, “Double Scorpio”, “Lion’s Breath”, “Lost Sailor”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.facebook.com/burial.hex

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

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

Out today via Re:Mission Entertainment is the second album, “—-X—-“, in an ongoing collaboration between Dead Voices on Air and Snowbeasts. For this release the two bands took a slightly different approach during the recording. Most of the songs were passed back and forth via file transfer until the songs felt finished. “This resulted in a more composed, or thematic feel to the album, which features more lyrical content”, so the label emphasizes.

The release is out as a download and as a limited CD digipak (100 copies) via Bandcamp (where you can order it. A special T-shirt is also available for ordering.

Spybey’s lyrical content continues to be preoccupied by the political challenges of our time, believing that we have entered a new era of autocracy. He believes that we are in danger of being seduced by the incessant barrage of lies, half-truths, trolling and allegations. That we are being wilfully misled by petty tyrants, upper class twits, the filthy rich, pathological liars and narcissists.

The duo says: “We are oppressed through the weaponisation of fear, in a vain attempt to obscure the political and strategic ineptness of our politicians. The enemy is anyone who dares to think or act differently, or who challenges the kind of beliefs that have plagued mankind: hatred of others, hatred of minorities, hatred of those who seek to instil hope and compassion into our societies.”

Spybey specifies even further: “I’m 60 and I’m still pissed off. Perhaps more pissed off than ever. I confess I find it ever so hard to believe that with all of the advances that humans have made during my lifetime, all of the wonderful things we have achieved, that our countries (the USA and the UK) have ended up electing, being led and represented by people like Trump and Johnson. I can’t believe that anyone could be stupid enough to believe that the world is a safer and better place because of their contribution, or lack of it to the maintenance of peace, stability and wellness. To all of you who say that musicians shouldn’t get involved in politics, I have this to say. I make music because I am able to do it. It’s my right to create and by doing so I am afforded a voice and a platform. It’s one of the many privileges of living in a ‘free society,’ (whatever that means). I make music because I want to and if I didn’t think that by doing so that I couldn’t reach out to people and to respectfully challenge the status quo, in an attempt to make some kind of meaningful contribution to society, I’d quit tomorrow, pack up and go away. For Trump and Johnson, you can easily add another dozen or so ‘world’ leaders names to the list by the way. Politicians are not all the same, and if you think that, then I’d like to respectfully suggest that you might want to do something about it. We deserve better. So yeah, when I started to write lyrics for this record, I really couldn’t avoid mining some of these feelings and I’m kind of unapologetic about it. I don’t like to offend people but enough is enough folks, we deserve better.”

Simon Paul, a well known graphic artist from Toronto, Canada provided the artwork, which plays on a number of themes from the album. The CD was mastered by another member of the Dead Voices on Air family, Anatoly Tokee Grinberg from Moscow.

Here’s the album itself.

About Snowbeasts

Snowbeasts is the duo of Robert Galbraith and Elizabeth Virosa. The project was formed in 2014 in Providence RI after a series of heavy snowstorms. Earlier releases were cinematic modular landscapes and droning dark ambient while later tracks can be more beat oriented.

Snowbeasts has numerous releases scattered across their own Component Recordings and Paris’s MTronic. They have also recently completed a trio of albums with beat oriented noise artist, Solypsis including two for Ohm Resistance.

Along with Snowbeasts, Virosa and Galbraith produce techno under the name Obscure Formats and electronic dance as Pattern Behavior.

About Dead Voices on Air

Spybey started his career in the North-East of England with Zoviet France in the late eighties before moving to Vancouver. It was here that Dead Voices On Air were formed. Spybey also worked under the name Propeller and was an original member of Download, who included members of Skinny Puppy. Spybey was the voice of their 1996 release, “The Eyes of Stanley Pain”.

After leaving Download he started a series of collaborations, appearing on over 50 albums in a five-year period. Perhaps his most significant collaboration was being asked to be part of CAN guitarist Michael Karoli’s band Sofortkontakt! and appearing at the CAN 30th anniversary shows in 1999. Spybey was a close friend of Michael Karoli prior to his death in 2001 and had toured with him as part of legendary CAN vocalist Damo Suzuki’s Network in 1998 in North America, appearing in the German TV film by Peter Braatz, “On the Air”.

Spybey has recorded, toured and played live with numerous collaborators including Faust, Michael Rother (Neu!) and Dieter Moebius (Cluster), members of The Legendary Pink Dots, Mick Harris (Scorn, Painkiller), Jarboe (Swans), Simon Fisher-Turner, Richard Sanderson, James Plotkin (Flux, Old, Scorn), Robert Hampson (Loop/Main), Jochen Arbeit (Einzturzende Neubaten), Darryl Neudorf and Sugarpill (Abintra), Not Breathing, Pigface and Martin Atkins.

He has worked with a number of record companies, including Kranky, Nettwerk, Invisible, Cold Spring, U.M.P and Soleilmoon. Spybey was part of the band Beehatch with the late Phil Western of Download, who released three albums and toured Europe. In 2004 he formed Reformed Faction, a duo with founding member of Zoviet France and Rapoon mainstay Robin Storey. The band have released a number of albums and have played live in both Europe and North America. He now resides in his native Yorkshire, in the UK.

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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Out later this year via Cold Spring is the vinyl release of the official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle) and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid).

The limited edition 12″ vinyl features an etched B-Side, plus liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London.

Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work and the combination of music and imagery remains powerful to this day.

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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Out now via Batrachian Recordings and distributed exclusively via Cold Spring in the EU are the remastered wax cylinder recordings from Aleister Crowley recorded in the period between 1910 and 1914. The remastered recordings are now being released on the MCD “All Words Are Sacred”. This a reissue of some of the only known recordings from the infamous occultist, mystic, magician, poet, novelist, sexual deviant, and all-around misfit.

The tracks include Crowley’s recitation of the first two “Enochian Keys”, original poetry, incantations, and songs. It also holds intonations of black magic rituals as well as ruminations on topics from the sinking of The Titanic to American independence.

The original wax cylinder recordings were later transferred to 78 RPM discs and the material has now been newly remastered and comes presented in a 6-panel ecopak with specially-created artwork.

Check out the release 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!

side-line.com

Out on May 6th via Cold Spring is the Genesis P-Orridge & Dave Ball OST release “Imagining October”.

The official soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1984 short film “Imagining October”, with music recorded by Derek’s friend and collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), and Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) will be released on limited edition 12″ vinyl. The material was recorded at the DJM recording studios in Theobalds Road, London.

The vinyl features an etched B-side and includes liner notes by James Mackay (Jarman’s producer, collaborator and archivist).

The track-listing is as follows:

1. Imagining October I
2. Imagining October II
3. Imagining October III
4. Imagining October IV

Derek Jarman put together a program of films for the London Film Festival, reflecting the cutting edge of the London avant-garde of the time. Recorded at the same time as “The Angelic Conversation”, “Imagining October” was filmed in the Eisenstein Museum in Moscow, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery, the GUM department store facing red square, and the fire temples of Baku in Azerbaijan. The painting sequences with a group of soldiers (Angus Cook, Stephen Thrower, Peter Doig and Keir Wahid) was filmed in London. Jarman considered it one of the best, if not the best, of his shorter works. It was intended as an agit-prop work.

About Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English film director, stage designer, author and gay rights activist. He was outspoken about his personal struggle with AIDS. On 22 December 1986, Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive and discussed his condition in public. His illness prompted him to move to Prospect Cottage, Dungeness in Kent, near the nuclear power station. In 1994, he died of an AIDS-related illness in London, aged just 52.

Although he made a long list of feature films and short films, you will know him best for the the following videos he also directed: Read the review of ‘Imagining October’.

• The Sex Pistols – “The Sex Pistols Number One” (1976)
• Throbbing Gristle – “TG Psychic Rally in Heaven” (1981)
• Marc Almond – “Tenderness Is a Weakness” (1984)
• Bryan Ferry – “Windswept” (1985)
• The Smiths – “The Queen Is Dead”, a short film incorporating the Smiths songs “The Queen Is Dead”, “Panic” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” (1986). The “Panic” sequence from The Queen Is Dead was edited to form the video for that single (1986).
• The Smiths – “Ask” (1986)
• Pet Shop Boys – “It’s a Sin” (1987)
• Pet Shop Boys – “Rent” (1987)
• Pet Shop Boys – several concert projections (released as “Projections” in 1993)
• Pet Shop Boys – “Violence” (1995)
• Suede: “The Next Life” (1993)

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

“Du Y Moroedd” (Welsh for ‘the black of the sea’) is an album of dark ambient by Llyn Y Cwn (aka Benjamin Ian Powell) and features field recordings made from submerged recording devices deep underwater from the coasts of North Wales to Greenland and the Arctic Ocean.

Benjamin Ian Powell explains: “The tracks were created onboard the RV Prince Madog whilst conducting research using multibeam sonar to locate, survey and identify shipwrecks from WW1. The multibeam sonar creates images of the seabed using acoustic reflections. Many of these sites aren’t just wrecks; they are mass war graves. The vital shipping channel to Liverpool passes the North Wales coast, the U boats would sit and wait; listening. When heard from under the water, each ship has its own unique acoustic signature based on the size of the engine, shape of the propeller, curve of the hull. These acoustic tell-tales were used by the U-boats to identify targets. The shipping lane became a shooting gallery of easy pickings and the submarines were able to slip away undetected into the black of the sea.”

The album features recordings from the hull of RRS James Clark Ross whilst ploughing through ice fields off Greenland, from a “sound trap” attached to an anchor as it descended through 80m of water to the seabed, and sounds from onboard the RV Prince Madog with its pitched engine drone. There is also a recording of the bell at Trwyn Du lighthouse, Anglesey, that was made in August 2020, days before the bell was removed to be replaced with a modern fog horn – prior to this, the bell had rung every 30 seconds since 1922.

The release comes presented in a 6-panel digipak and will be released on 25th February 2022 on the fine Cold Spring label.

Here are 2 excerpts from this 10-track strong release.

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

Over the past 12 months Inferno Sound Diaries‘ Stéphane Froidcoeur selected nearly 750 productions of which 600 also got a review on Side-Line. Some productions have been refused because the style of music didn’t fit, while a lot of reviews are still to be published in 2022.

Stéphane: “I’m really grateful to all labels, bands and promoters considering my work and efforts and I hope they’ll keep on providing me new promos next year. My greatest gratitude and thank goes once again to Rich Bova (NEIKKA RPM) who for years and years now is reading, correcting and improving the reviews. I don’t have enough words to express my gratitude and without Rich I simply would have to stop this job. No need to say I’ve been once again disappointed by a few so-called ‘artists’ and label owners. The attitude and lack of respect shown by those people -luckily a very few number, is just disgusting… but I’m afraid it reflects the world we’re living in… Behind a genius artist is not always hiding a great person…”

2021 has been also a very special year for Stéphane as he celebrated his 30th anniversary of journalism with an impressive series of interviews featuring very different people from this scene. Stéphane : “Big thanks to Séba Dolimont, Suicide Commando, Juno Reactor, Raison D’Être, Jürgen Vanvlasselaer, Rich Bova, Armageddon Dildos and Bernard Van Isacker who kindly accepted to contribute to this celebration.”

Here are the interviews conducted:

• Celebration Interview with Bernard Van Isacker (Side-Line & Alfa Matrix)
• Celebration Interview’ with Uwe Kanka / Armageddon Dildos
• Celebration Interview’ with ‘Music Lover’ Jürgen Vanvlasselaer
• Celebration Interview’ with Rich Bova / Neikka RPM
• Celebration Interview’ with Peter Andersson / Raison D’Être
• Celebration Interview’ with Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor
• Celebration Interview’ with Johan Van Roy (Suicide Commando)
• Celebration Interview’ with Seba Dolimont (Alfa Matrix)

Like every year Stéphane has made a selection from the best albums of the year. This Top 25 covers different styles like EBM, Dark-Electro, IDM, Synth-Pop, Ethereal, Dark-Ambient, Industrial, Cinematographic, Gothic, Post-Punk, Dark-Techno and a few related genres and is taken from the promotional material we got while compilations, ‘best of’-productions, EP’s and singles were not considered for this ‘best of’.

But now, here are the 25 best albums!

1. Rome – “Parlez-Vous Hate?” – Trisol
2. Circumpolar – “Awaiting The Dawn” – Alfa Matrix
3. Clicks – “Goth” – Dependent Records
4. Of The Wand And The Moon – “Your Love Can’t Hold This Wrath Of Sorrow” – Heidrunar Mykrunar
5. Crystal Geometry – “Distressing Visions” – Sonic Groove
6. Mechanimal – “Θόρυβος” – Inner Ear Records
7. Raison D’être – “Demonum“ – Cyclic Law
8. Zwaremachine – “Conquest 3000” – Phage Tapes
9. Eclipsed – “Holyiens” – Electro Frequent
10. Nattskiftet – “Stamplar In” – Progress Productions
11. Nnhmn – “Deception Island 2” – Zoharum
12. This Morn’omina – “The Roots Of Saraswati” – Dependent Records
13. Skrika – “Fifth Nature” – Cryo Chamber
14. Llumen – “Polygon Heart” – Alfa Matrix
15. Not My God – “Simulacra” – Metropolis
16. Seasurfer – “Metropolis” – Reptile Music
17. Ps Stamps Back – “Au Bout De La Nuit” – Ant-Zen
18. The Illusion Of Silence – “Gardens In The Dark” – Shadowplay
19. She Spread Sorrow – “Huntress” – Cold Spring Records
20. Blutengel – “Fountain Of Destiny” – Out Of Line
21. Agonoize – “Revelation Six Six Sick” – Reporecords
22. The Force Dimension – “Mortal Cable” – Sonic Groove Experiments
23. Cubic – “The Cubic Alphabet” – Alfa Matrix
24. Pyrroline – “Struggling” – Electro Aggression Records
25. Beckahesten – “Tydor” – Cyclic Law

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

She Spread Sorrow – Huntress (Album – Cold Spring Records)

Genre/Influences: Industrial-Ambient, Experimental.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Italian Industrial diva Alice Kundalini strikes back with the fourth full length album of her sonic brainchild She Spread Sorrow. “Huntress” is inspired by the artist’s dreams and the ‘story of a huntress and her morbid and psychotic relationship with her prey’.

Content: The concept or theme of “Huntress” has been adapted into a poignant, and spooky Ambient-Industrial format. The song writing remains pretty minimal-like, but the atmosphere hanging over the songs has been empowered by ominous sounds. Repetitive, resonating sequences are expressing a kind of nearby danger. The half-spoken and somewhat whispering production of the vocals accentuate the ghost-like effect.

+ + + : I already enjoyed previous productions by this artist, but what Kundalini has accomplished on “Huntress” is a true masterpiece. She’s not only creating her very own kind of Ambient/Industrial music, but still a minimal production built up with poignant Electronic sequences and anguishing atmospheres. “Huntress” is a tormenting experience, but one you simply want to immediately renew after the last track. The last track “Parasomnias” is the longest and most elaborated piece of the work, but my personal favorite cut is “Stand” for the great sequences and demonic sphere. 

– – – : I only regret the album is only featuring six tracks, but quality is definitely better than quantity…

Conclusion: I don’t know where She Spread Sorrow will end and how this project will evolve, but one thing is for sure, Alice Kundalini has accomplished her magnum opus!

Best songs: “Stand”, “Parasomnias”, “Blue”, “Get Me”.

Rate: 9.

Artist: https://shespreadsorrow.wordpress.com /  www.facebook.com/shespreadsorrow

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

Genre/Influences: Industrial-Ambient, Experimental.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Italian Industrial diva Alice Kundalini strikes back with the fourth full length album of her sonic brainchild She Spread Sorrow. “Huntress” is inspired by the artist’s dreams and the ‘story of a huntress and her morbid and psychotic relationship with her prey’.

Content: The concept or theme of “Huntress” has been adapted into a poignant, and spooky Ambient-Industrial format. The song writing remains pretty minimal-like, but the atmosphere hanging over the songs has been empowered by ominous sounds. Repetitive, resonating sequences are expressing a kind of nearby danger. The half-spoken and somewhat whispering production of the vocals accentuate the ghost-like effect.

+ + + : I already enjoyed previous productions by this artist, but what Kundalini has accomplished on “Huntress” is a true masterpiece. She’s not only creating her very own kind of Ambient/Industrial music, but still a minimal production built up with poignant Electronic sequences and anguishing atmospheres. “Huntress” is a tormenting experience, but one you simply want to immediately renew after the last track. The last track “Parasomnias” is the longest and most elaborated piece of the work, but my personal favorite cut is “Stand” for the great sequences and demonic sphere. 

– – – : I only regret the album is only featuring six tracks, but quality is definitely better than quantity…

Conclusion: I don’t know where She Spread Sorrow will end and how this project will evolve, but one thing is for sure, Alice Kundalini has accomplished her magnum opus!

Best songs: “Stand”, “Parasomnias”, “Blue”, “Get Me”.

Rate: 9.

Artist: https://shespreadsorrow.wordpress.com /  www.facebook.com/shespreadsorrow

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

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

“Iron Speaks” has become known as the ‘lost’ Tunnels Of Āh album since it was abandoned as the fifth album release due to it sounding ‘unengaged’ to writer Stephen Āh Burroughs. Until now that is. Dense informs us that after reworking the original material, “Iron Speaks” emerges as a rediscovered official sixth album release.

The material itself on this album deals with the transitional stages of life and death. The title, “Iron Speaks”, is a reference to the chapter in the Koran which states that iron emerges from the heavens as a gift to mankind.

The release is out on the Italian label Hypershape Records and comes in a limited metal box.

About Tunnels Of Āh

Formed in January 2013, Tunnels Of Āh is Stephen Ah Burroughs (previously part of the cult band Head Of David).

Tunnels Of Āh signed to historical UK label Cold Spring Records in 2013 for the debut album “Lost Corridors”, followed by “Thus Avici” (2015), “Surgical Fires” (2016), “Charnel Transmissions” (2018), and “Deathless Mind” in 2020.

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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Originally released on CD in 1998 (Alien8 Recordings), the Maso Yamazaki (Controlled Death) album “Frequency L.S.D.” is now presented on vinyl for the very first time via Cold Spring and this on 400 copies. The release features 14 extreme Japanese noise tracks.

To be released on 26th November 2021, you can check out the release below.

About Maso Yamazaki

Maso Yamazaki started his Masonna project in 1987 in Osaka. The name is a combination of the Japanese words Maso (masochist) and Onna (woman). It is also a pun on the name of the pop singer Madonna. The name is sometimes rendered as an acronym for Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé or Mystic Another Selection Of Nurses Naked Anthology.

Maso also performs as Space Machine using vintage analog synthesizers. He has performed with the psychedelic rock group Christine 23 Onna (with Fusao Toda of Angel’in Heavy Syrup), which then became Acid Eater with the addition of two members, as well as the noise supergroup Bustmonster and the noise trio Flying Testicle.

In 2018, Maso began performing and releasing under the name Controlled Death.

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

Here’s something you should check out asap. Two Swedish industrial artists have united as Det Kätterska Förbund (The Heretical Association) for the release of the album “Lidaverken Del I: Att i Vådeld Förgås”, namely Nordvargr and ᚦᛟᚦ ᚷᛁᚷ aka Thomas Ekelund (Trepaneringsritualen and Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words).

Ekelund, who also runs the label When Skies Are Grey besides, and Henrik Nordvargr Björkk (MZ.412, Pouppée Fabrikk, Folkstorm etc) have both been slowly and methodically working for almost 5 years to finish the first album of this project. The result, 7 strong industrial rhythm tracks, is rather excellent as you can hear below. Out via UK’s finest industrial label Cold Spring.

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

Here’s something for the readers amongst you. “William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin” is brand new vinyl release on Cold Spring Records holding rare recordings of beat/cut-up writers and artists William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. The release comprises the complete recording of Burroughs reading live in Liverpool in 1982, plus performances by Gysin of a selection of his poems, as well as home recordings made by the pair in Paris in 1970.

All recordings present on this release are taken from original tapes in the British Library collection. The release is officially licensed from the British Library, The Estate of William S Burroughs, and The Estate of Brion Gysin.

About William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II as he was really named, (1914 – 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, credited as a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. A further five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences.

He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and made many appearances in films. He was also briefly known by the pen name William Lee. Burroughs created and exhibited thousands of paintings and other visual artworks, including his celebrated ‘Shotgun Art’. Burroughs’ last filmed performance was in the music video for “Last Night on Earth” by U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.

Despite being a fan of a right-wing columnist, many in his entourage such as Genesis P-Orridge and Al Jourgensen are notable for far-left, anti-capitalist, and anti-fascist politics. He was also a fan of the left-wing Dadaist movement. His overall views can generally be seen as anti-establishment, anti-conditioning, and anti-control.

For the rest Burroughs led a turbulent life to say the least…

About Brion Gysin

Brion Gysin (1916 – 1986) was a painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.

He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the novelist William S. Burroughs. With the engineer Ian Sommerville he also invented the Dreamachine, a flicker device designed as an art object to be viewed with the eyes closed. It was in painting and drawing, however, that Gysin devoted his greatest efforts, creating calligraphic works inspired by cursive Japanese “grass” script and Arabic script.

Burroughs later stated that “Brion Gysin was the only man I ever respected.”

Also Gysin had a life full of experiences including being expelled from the Surrealist Group by André Breton.

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

The UK label Cold Spring has an interesting releasing coming up on November 26th, namely a vinyl release of “Moments” by Lull aka Mick Harris (Scorn, Fret, ex-Napalm Death). Originally released as a 99-track continuous CD in 1998 by Relapse, it is now presented on vinyl for the very first time in a 2xLP format pressed on 180gm brown (500 copies) and black (250 copies) vinyl and housed in a textured gatefold sleeve. It has also been expanded to 100 cuts with bonus material from the original recording sessions.

Harris had begun Lull in 1990 after leaving the grindcore act Napalm Death. Acquiring a sampler, a 4-track recorder and a reverb pedal, he set about creating dark ambient music and released five albums and several EPs prior to “Moments”.

Here’s the promo video for the release.

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

Genre/Influences: Noise-Ambient, Experimental.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Nevada (USA) based female artist Ester Kärkkäinen is now active for a couple of years under the Himukalt moniker. She released a considerable number of productions over a rather short lapse of time. This album is a re-release of the original album released in 2018 on Malignant Records. The songs have been remastered and there’s one extra song featured. The album is now for the very first time available on CD.

Content: Himukalt transposes music into terror! This album is a heavy piece of manipulated noises, taking off as an imaginary noise-generator. Quite progressively the tracks become more accessible, but it remains an extreme sensation in sound, perverting ‘music’ into a hardcore dimension. On top of the Noise basis there also is a strong Ambient sphere. Ester Kärkkäinen is also using her voice as an extra sonic input while on one of the tracks you’ll notice hot sensual panting.

+ + + : Some elements of the work remind me of early 80s experiments, a time where artists were really creative in the way of using their instruments and voice or simply crafting their own instruments. Even if this work sounds extreme in sound, Himukalt took care to polish it with a darker, ambient touch. There also is a kind of dynamic emerging from the repetitive Noise loops. Last, but not least, the digipak format looks great and matches its content.

– – – : If you’re not into heavy sonic experiences dealing with Noise you better avoid this work.

Conclusion: We have to salute this album, composed by one of the rare female artists dealing with Noise, but it also is an accomplished production in its genre. 

Best songs: “Nude On Beach”, “Want You To See Me – The Voyeur Tapes #10”, “Staggered, Crush”.

Rate: (7½).

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

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

Out now is the newest EP from the Belgian IDM/exprimental act Kilmarth. Titled “Derrière le Miroir” it contains 3 new tracks as well as remixes of the band, the French experimental project Zumaia and the Belgian compatriots of Aiboforcen. This release should please the fans of labels in the likes of Hymen, ant-zen, M-tronic, Cold Spring and Cryo Chamber.

You can download the EP right now from Bandcamp or stream it from various services worldwide.

About Kilmarth

Kilmarth is the solo instrumental project of Cedric Wattergniaux who has been active in the dark music scene since the early 90’s. First as writer for various fanzines until he started writing for our very own Side-Line magazine until a few years ago. Also featured on the album is his son Elias Wattergniaux, playing guitar on “Mirrors”.

The project debuted in July 2017 with the 3-track single “The End of Humanity”, followed by the 1-track single “InkrapinbbaN” in March 2018 before releasing a first EP one month later, “Catharsis”, which was also released on CD.

Two years later, in July 2020 a new single was released, “The White Willow” and now a brand new 6-track EP.

Kilmarth back catalog

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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At the end of 2020 Cold Spring Records released the official debut album “Devalaya” from the Russian collective JAGATH. The band name is taken from Sanskrit and means ‘world’ or ‘universe’. Even if JAGATH doesn’t feel connected with the early Industrial music movement, the album and its global approach both reveal noticeable links like the use of recycled- and hand-crafted ‘instruments’. “Devalaya” is a true fusion between typical Industrial elements like percussion and Ritual elements accentuated by voices and didgeridoo-like sounds. I talked with Gregory Skvortsov about the album and the project.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Let’s start with the beginning; how did JAGATH saw the daylight? Can you introduce the band members and tell us something about the input of each other? And what’s the original goal of the project? 

Gregory: JAGATH never saw daylight, it is always in twilight… It started in 2014, we are urban explorers and we began to dig into construction shafts of a sewer collector nearly 30 meters deep. We found a very interesting reverb, I immediately decided to record something there, but Nils got ahead of me and wrote some music with a friend. It nudged me, and we began to go there and write sound samples, then made several jam sessions. Chaospasm and one of his friends brought ethnic instruments, then Max Wolf appeared with his homemade didgeridoo. We also played a big live show there, with lights, lasers and fire. All this material is still waiting to be released.

The guys wanted to make something more like Ethnic or Psychedelic, but I suppose my goal was to release inner demons, audiolize the feel of Post-Industrial age, ‘unveil life in the abyss’. I don’t really know why my concept won, and the other guys are sabotaging this interview.

Then I finally brought this party to the oil tanks located at an abandoned power station and we started recording material which later became “Devalaya”.

Q: You’re composing your music with hand-crafted instruments while recording in very special locations. This way of working clearly evokes the early spirit of Industrial music! Do you feel connected with the early Industrial music movement and tell us a bit more about this way of working? How does it happen? 

Gregory: We have only some Ethnic instruments and mostly use found objects -junk that lays in the tank like sticks, metal scrap, rocks, bottles, etc. We also make our own things, like a didgeridoo made of plastic sewage pipe (which was broken several times), a strange sounding thing consisting of an IKEA metal bowl and a bearing ball and a gong made of a metal tray. I also like using cheap contact mics, clamping it to everything.

I don’t really think JAGATH is connected with early Industrial music although the spirit still inspires me. Once when I lived in a commune in Saint Petersburg, I found some local junk and made a spring guitar-like thing, then I realized it is like one that FM EINHEIT used.

Q: You last year released your official debut album “Devalaya” which means “Temple”. Tell us a bit more about the writing and eventually concept of this work? How did you create and produce the different tracks of the album? 

Gregory: We were writing it for 5 long years, we have done multiple sessions. Then I just removed everything bad and stitched good parts together. Everything was (and still is) recorded on a single cheap Zoom H1 recorder, so it was hard to clean up the records, but I got a clear picture in mind how it should sound, and it worked. 

Some tracks were augmented with didgeridoo overdubs and smashes recorded in the final stage, like “Agadha” (Abyss). The track “Devalaya” consists of 3 parts -basically 3 different tracks from different sessions.

Our later albums –“Agni” (self-released on Bandcamp), “Inodaya” (upcoming on NEN Records) and “Svapna” (looking for a label) -were much easier for production, they were recorded fully live, because maybe we became more ‘professional’, but they sound not so rich and intense, as for me, though they are different, and that’s good. And the concept always stays the same.

Q: “Devalaya” clearly sounds Industrial, but there also is a Ritual element in the production. What does this Ritual part stands for and what means Ritual music to you? 

Gregory: Industrial Shamanism. We are getting really stoned during the recording process, by the way. It takes a lot of effort to get over the concrete fence in the end, and then get to home, especially during Winter.

Q: You already talked about abandoned industrial locations where you’re composing your music. How did you come to this idea and what’s the importance of such a location and the impact on the music? 

Gregory: Post-Industrial and Post-Cold War abandoned environments always inspired me -around Urals you may find enormously big desolated factories (like Uralmash), hundreds of dismantled nuclear ICBM positions. An abandoned power station and its tanks is one of such places showing power of something huge but eventually unneeded. (Last photos of it, 2020, before snowfall: https://yadi.sk/d/4ctzBoPGYNojeQ )

I recorded the reverb of the oil tank, so we can take it everywhere and play live.

Q: Do you’ve concrete plans to play live? And how would you transpose the sound of JAGATH in front of an audience? What brings the future?

Gregory: We’ve played live several times in Perm and in Saint Petersburg, played at an open-air forest festival Systo and at an abandoned Red Triangle factory in Saint Petersburg: https://youtu.be/okMVGH-kQb8 

We are going to perform at the Perm Wave-festival at a local jentrified factory on April, 24th, and at an abandoned warehouse, later in May, maybe we will even stream this.

I want to play live at huge Industrial locations officially, in front of the public, but I think it is impossible in our lovely totalitarian Russia, where everything must look nice. I hope someday we will play live in Europe in some Industrial museum (like Landschaftspark in Germany) or maybe even in an alive factory. Got some ideas of more electronic sound.

My personal future seems to be much more obscure than it usually is, I don’t have any job right now. And I see no future here in Russia.

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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