Pulse Emitter - Violent Cosmos

Artist: Pulse Emitter
Release: Violent Cosmos
Label: Organic Pipeline
Year: 2007
Format: CDr
Tracks: 2
TRT: 49:51

Pulse Emitter has been doing "synth-noise" for over six years now and this is finally the first time I get a good listen of his work. The disc contains two live track over 23 minutes each and packaged in a clear slipcase with artwork of a flower in some nice hue coloured background. The cdr is coloured nicely as well. Simple and crisp, much like the noise which I'll get into now.

Both tracks performed are pretty much the same. This is slow noise! If I were to try and describe a sci-fi style of noise this would be it. The first track has lot's of odd spacey sounds and tunes that carry throughout it that fading in and out of each other. At 15 minutes into the first track it gets very sci-fi with computer bleeps and tones. Like some spacecraft is trying to tell us something, except this is from a movie in the 50's. I liked hearing it when this bleep noise came in a first but it goes on for a bit to long. After a while there's some low rumbles and blowing type wind sound that pretty much ends the track. Track 2 starts off a bit louder than the first with some high level wind type blowing sounds and clicking rumbles. It gets hissy at times with little variation going on. There's some noise mixed together well and then the space noise starts to kick in again at about 4 minutes. At around 8 minutes the space noises start to really get silly to me. The track starts to end nicely with a more ambient style than the previous track but then gets into this space noise again that was same about 10 minutes ago.

This disc was tough for me to judge badly because if understand correctly all the noise was made from just synths performed live in one take, but it just gets a bit lacking at times and puts me to sleep. If this noise was made just from a laptop I would have be even less impressed. It doesn't conjure up a "violent cosmos" to me, more like a ship passing through a black hole or let's say a "violet cosmos", which is what the artwork would indicate. I guess if your more of a fan of ambient noise and projects like Hive Mind this one may be of more interest to you.

Colossus - Tar Heaven Wonders Of The Ancient World

Artist: Colossus
Release: Tar Heaven Wonders Of The Ancient World
Label: none
Year: 2007
Format: CDr
Tracks: 6
TRT: 41:01

There's 6 tracks on this disc and the titles all start with "At...". A good theme that fits this disc well. The disc starts off with some light guitar drone on "At Rhodes", much like Yellow Crystal Star, it's very melodic. The drone riffs carry for a few seconds and fade into one another nicely. At 4-minutes there’s introduced a rumbled loop as added bass effect thus turning the track in a light doom metal feel. There’s some great guitar effects as well near the end. I was going to do a track by track review but the sound and style is much the same as the first track so I’ll just sum up. It’s ambient guitar. This is stuff to listen to while reading outside on a clear sunny day. It’s the music that evokes memories. All the sounds are crisp and the music is actually decent. This guy knows how to play guitar. There are deeper tracks as well, like track "At Giza", where the guitar has more bass and longer drone. As far as experimentation goes I think track "At Ephesus", at over 11 minutes, is the closest. Lots of guitar play with some random riffs. The disc ends very nicely with a beautiful track titled "At Babylon". Starts with a slow guitar loop and builds up till the end. If your a fan of Boris or The Goslings then check this project out for sure. It's right up there.

The package is a well stenciled white CDr wrapped up in a folded picture of a tree. Don't like the picture much but it does fit with what I said earlier; "Listen to this outside in the sun." There's an insert as well with track titled and such. No website though. All together I enjoyed this one a lot and simply cause of the fact that it's very muscial/ambient noise it has a lot of replay value.

Crossbred - Dead In Her Drum's Rhythm

Artist: Crossbred
Release: Dead In Her Drum's Rhythm
Label: Organic Pipeline
Year: 2007
Format: CDr
Tracks: 1
TRT: 29:12

Crossbred is a new project to me but they've been around for a few years now. It's a female noise unit from Osaka, Japan so that's a good sign already. There's a lot of guys out there wanting to hear more noise from girls and even though I'm married to a woman noiser, I agree. The world needs more females doing noise.

This track was a live recording at The Rain Dogs in November, 2005. Not sure were that is but I can assume it's in Japan. The track opens lightly with some sampled vocal loop, ring loop and some great synthesizer softly playing in the background. It picks up and there's more bits of noises added with some echo's and fade. The track is very light so far but there's a lot going on. The vocal sample still plays in and out as well. There's the introduction of laser sounds to and some very high pitched feedback at times. At 3:30 a digital delay starts to come in with a quick ripp'n pattern. This style is very in tune with early Dead Voices On Air material or Coil. Experimental and musical at the same time. The synth is great, played by Mayuko, it adds a very nice touch to certain parts of the track. At around 5 minutes the track gets louder with more echo vocals and sounds. Lots of movement in this track so far and I'm just 6 minutes in. Rie Lambdoll is listed as the one providing the sounds and seeing as this is a live take with no edits I'm pretty amazed at all the stuff that was pulled off in one take. Very well done and the live sound production is pretty damn good too, no crowd! At 12 minutes in the style is still going good. Lots of delayed fade ins and outs of sounds and loops. There's some more vocals samples. Then a drum beat starts coming in. Now on thier website it states that they do "free progressive music" but still, this kinda surprised me. I expected it from the title but the drum playing wasn't harsh at all. It was pretty much a tech-style drum. I gotta say I didn't like the track much after the drum came in but I love thier style; "Just keep on dance and killer noise!" such cool and classy chics. I'm a big fan of musical noise for sure but it was too clean sounding compared to the rest of the track, if your a harsh noise fan. There's also a bassline loop that comes in as well. More vocal yells come in too from the Rie. Kinda one or three word yells. Simple and if they were in English I don't think I'd understand them. Throughout all this drum beat noise the synth is still great. Played very well. At 17 minutes the drum finally stops and goes into more experiment sounds with some cool vocal effects. Kinda goes into a circus crazy type bit right now and I love it. Still musical but still fucked up. The sounds begin to start to revert back to what the track was sounding like in the begining, and this is good. I like a lot how the track ends. It was very much in tune with the Japanese sound and I mean that litteraly. Japanese vocals with some Japanese sounding instruments being played. Sadly it ends like someone just unplugged my stereo from the wall.

The artwork is simple as hell. It's a plain black CDr with no text written on it at all and packaged in a plastic sleeve with a white paper sheet that has a picture of a green soundwave on it. A picture of the band or the performance would have been better, if available. Overall, this track was a pretty good listen and the drum bit was only for a short time. I probably would have like it a lot more if there was a live version without the drums and then a remix version. It's got a lot of good elements in it though. Sometimes it's ambient other times it's harsh, but the harshness is about a 2/5. It peaked me enough to wanna hear more from these girls, er, I mean artists.

Atläs - Catacombs

Artist: Atlas
Release: Catacombs
Label: Elite Tapes
Year: 2007
Format: CDr
Tracks: 2
TRT: 18:24

This is the very short EP of Atlas's release from the label Elite Tapes. Judging from the website and it's first release this label looks to be off to a good start. And yes, the labels first release is not a tape.

Both tracks are untitled and they are the type of noise tracks I'm starting to get into more. Very musical sounding. The first track, at 8:57, starts with a light fading in drone and soon newer softer drones and wisps coming. They all fade very well together and smoothly. There's a few subtle loops as well that drift in and out of the soft haze of noise. Around half way through it picks up a bit with the level of drones and tones and then fades out into a loop to end the track.

Track #2, at 9:26, starts with water dripping and again, soft drones and tones that fade in and out. Sounds much like a Edward Ka-Spel experimental track he would have done with Tear Garden. Really light and smooth. Moves in the right directions and isn't boring at all. Both of these tracks would play fine on a creepy horror flick as just background noise. Both these track also seem to fit a certain formula the artists had in mind, which I like a lot because it means he put thought into this creation.

The packaging and artwork is the DIY style with a 2 panel cover in a plastic sleeve and limited to 28, but I'm so use to seeing these now that I don't even think twice anymore. I just go for the noise and in this case I really would love to here more from Atlas.