Mutant Ape - What's Left?

Artist: Mutant Ape
Release: What's Left?
Label: Dumping Ground Recordings
Year: 2006
Format: Three Biz-Card Discs
Tracks: 3 (1 per disc)
TRT: 13:00

I will start by saying that I have a small card disc and 3" fetish so my views may not be as objective as anyone who doesn't share this same fetish, but this release was a must buy/review for myself and I figure it deserves some extra mention.

Three tracks with one track each per card disc; "Blue As A Dead Baby", "Feeding Myths", and "What's left?" making these three. Track one starts with a slow rumble moved by repetitive scrapes as if stomach bowels are being stretched longer and longer until it fades apart. There are hints of soft vocals whispering hideousness in your ear as well. The second track offers something louder with ripping vocals and delay looped screeches of noise from the dissected brains of Hell. Totally random too. Not sure what is being said but it doesn’t really matter, except for the religious sample at the end. Vocal noise is art through pure sound, right? The third disc, being the title track, is a melodic noise piece that seems very orchestrated. The ear piercing vocal bursts and harsh walls of noise make this the loudest of the three tracks, and every sound is fit well with a purpose. An excellent track, never mind the previous two.

The packaging is perfect. It has the three card discs tightly wrapped up in a sheet of card paper with the black and white and red image of a dead child lying on a cold steel slab. Each disc is simply mark as 1/2/ or 3 with a picture of some morbid fancy with the track name over it. A sheet of paper is also inserted inside the package with the track names and liner notes.

I will add that this material was recorded on Friday the 13th, as it notes, which adds to the overall general creepy state you get from this release. A must buy, if it's sold out then what left's for you is nothing but tears of a blue dead baby.

Random Insults - Songs For Robots

Artist: Random Insults
Album: Songs For Robots
Label: Roil Noise Offensive
Year: 2005
Format: CDr
Tracks: 10
TRT: 36:26

Songs For Robots is a journey. When listening to this CD in one sitting I get the feeling that these tracks are trying to tell a story, and with track titles like Work Nuclear Disaster Cleanup Unit you can tell there is a point to be made with this disc. Like it is stated in the Roil Noise Web Page RI is emotion made into music. And it is very clear in this CD.

The tracks all carry heavy bass synth that move each track along without the listener getting tired and wondering off whilst the track moves. The drums are very industrial sounding, and not something youd hear from the MET label, these are drums that make industrial what it is, scratchy and focused. You cant dance to this! There are no vocals in any of the tracks either, which is not something I don't like. If a CD can pull off 40 minutes without any vocals and still sound good, hell I'm all for it. Like I said in the beginning too, this CD tells a story, and you don't always need vocals.

In some ways you could classify this as a noise/industrial CD as well. A few tracks contain sections of pure static rhythms and loops of fuzzy bass lines. Another note is that this CD sounds like Autechre run threw a robot destruction from hell compressor. The beats are very unpredictable at times and the have that same feel as some late 90's Autechre tracks did (tracks 1 and 10 to note), except for the fact that this is industrial music, and there's a story to tell here; Assemble to Disassemble. This CDr had recently been remastered as well.

Art work is great too and is done by Adrian Dimond, the front man behind Xdugef, who has done many art projects. The only draw back to the CD is thats it's 37 minutes. I would have loved a 60 minute CD of this and maybe a few tracks with "robotic vocals", but then that would have changed the plot.
Songs For Robots