Home Features LOCAL LIVE AND UNDERGROUND HALF YEAR REVIEW (NEW MUSIC 2022)

    LOCAL LIVE AND UNDERGROUND HALF YEAR REVIEW (NEW MUSIC 2022)

    Image featuring album covers by Swans, Kollaps, Michael Berdan, Greg Anderson, Aidan Baker and More for the Local Live And Underground List For Discipline Mag

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    Welcome to the latest instalment of the Local Live and Underground list for Q2 of 2022. For the uninitiated, this recurring feature arrives at the regular quarterly interval, and provides an overview of new music of the live, local, and underground format.

    In this edition, we’ve got some heavy hitters nestled in amongst some first timers on the website. There’s a new release from the mighty SWANS (albeit, of suspicious origins – more below); new albums from regularly featured artists such as Kollaps and Aidan Baker; new music from industrial and experimental legends; as well as some local releases that should absolutely be on your radar. 

    If you’re in the market for noise, doom, drone, industrial, experimental, and punishing varieties of eccentric outbursts, then look no further… 

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    Michael Berdan: The Demon

    Most people will know Michael Berdan as the frontman for industrial metal band, Uniform. Others may recognise him for his impressive range of classic industrial shirts. Regardless of your existing relationship with Berdan’s work and/or wardrobe, unification can be achieved through shared appreciation of this solo release. 
     
    Released on Phage Tapes and with artwork perpetrated by the good people at Deathbed Tapes (a collaboration of labels, if you will), Michael Berdan’s The Demon presents four tracks of modulated synthesis and unruly beats and samples.
     
    The horror inspired release sidesteps the *scream-in-your-face* antagonism you’d expect from Uniform, but brings a good helping of energy and tension through its percussive industrial elements and choice of sampling. As the final track comes to a close, there’s an almost soothing quality that’s flowed throughout this dark rhythmic noise. Music to work to, or, even just be busy to. 
    Michael Berdan of Uniform performing in an Atrax Morgue shirt
    Showing off the wardrobe - Michael Berdan in an Atrax Morgue shirt
    Michael Berdan of Uniform performing live in a Coil shirt
    And again in a Coil shirt

    Viviankrist + La Furnasetta: Noise For All Genders

    Noise for all Genders featuring Viviankrist and La Furna

    La Furnasetta is an artist I’d “seen around”, but had never managed to lock down. Viviankrist is new altogether. But the two have teamed up for a split release of lo-fi power electronics. 

    Tracks 1-4 let the Oslo-based Viviankrist introduce the record, and they do with a range of dark and occasionally dance-able tunes. A constant haze overshadows these tracks, as well as some of the bleeps and bloops we’re used to round these ways. 

    La Furnasetta takes on the latter half of the album, though the range of music on offer is far more eclectic than insinuated by the sharpness and clarity of the opening. Darkwave infused techno appears on “Born Again”. A Nico inspired gothic organ dirge from the crypt arises on “Via Broletto”. And a whole bunch of smashes, beats, and full-bodied industrial noise make track length appearances throughout the Italian noise-maker’s tracks. 

    Logic Lost: “Learn Nothing”

    Indonesia power ambient artist Logic Lost has released new singles ahead of their upcoming album, Degenerates. The tracks are apocalyptic and abrasive ambient numbers, and you can read more about the recent Logic Lost singles in the link. 

    Swans – Fifteen Steps (Live, San Francisco ’86)

    For anybody familiar with the Swans live catalogue, you’re likely to know:
    A: just how vast this is
    and
    B: just how fantastic some of the material can be.
     
    From the variety of the sounds, to the beauty of the work, and sheer tectonic force of it all – they’re the kinds of albums that summit some of the highest peaks of sonic worship. Something I’m sure those who have burrowed down the rabbit hole can attest to. 
     
    So, with such grandiose accolades for Swans live albums out of the way, it’s time to look at the latest live release, Fifteen Steps, an album which has seemingly appeared out of nowhere. It’s not the first time the murky origins of a Swans live release has raised an eyebrow or two, but this one is unique for its release straight to Spotify – a placement that, presumably, requires Michael Gira‘s express permission before upload.
     
    Logic would dictate that it has likely come from the collection of live recorded Swans shows that are readily available on the Jarboe website (probably this one). But why and how this landed on the Swans Spotify remains a mystery. 
     
    The album itself harkens to the Public Castration Is A Good Idea era, comprising of tracks from Greed and Holy Money which were the mainstay of live performances in 1986. As for the audio, it comes and goes. If this is indeed the show identified on Jarboe’s website, then the audio trouble is explained by the blown p.a. and decay of the original recording. 
     
    Fifteen Steps is probably going to be of most interest to the die hards, but it does include a couple of good renditions in “Coward” and “A Hanging.” 
     
    *Michael Gira has been contacted in regards to the origin of this upload. 

    Witches of Malibu: “K​.​O​.​L​.​S​.​D.”

    Witches of Malibu is a (relatively) new project of Skott Rushold, the man responsible for Hunting Lodge and the classic industrial/power electronics release, Will.
     
    On this occasion, we’re treated only to a single track, which is presumably part of a bigger release of work. K.O.L.S.D. is the name of the track, and it sounds much like cover image looks – twisted knobs, noise effects, and echo for days.
     
    As stated on the Bandcamp, this music was made with new gear, and it appears to be a primer for what’s to come next.
     

    Harmony of Struggle – Tearing Your Mind to Pieces

    No stranger to the pages of Discipline Mag, Harmony of Struggle is another project of Poland’s Michał Kiełbasa. With more projects you can shake a stick at, the ardent industrial practitioner operates in every corner of industrial, from neo-folk to noise, but is perhaps best known for his mainstay industrial metal project, Whalesong

    Harmony of Struggle continues to hold the line of industrialism with its grating lo-fi power electronics and pulsing industrial feedback. Submerged vocals struggle for air or even clarity with more than a hint of Genocide Organ seeping through.

    Despite being one of many projects that operate in seperate fields, it still remains distinctive from many of Kiełbasa’s other projects. Reinventing the wheel, this is not, but creating consistency in a musical realm that’s susceptible to mediocrity, this absolutely is. 

    Caleb Joyce: Aqueous State

    Hailing from Melbourne, Caleb Joyce is a somewhat overlooked but rather prolific drone artist (consult his Bandcamp if you’d like to go further down the rabbit hole).

    On Aqueous State, the sounds on this record maintain a symbiotic relationship with that of a body of water. It flows, it weaves, it rises and it falls. Sounds often start from the minimal, and seamlessly build into ringing drones that engulf the listener in contemplative ambience. “Dripping On The Concrete” achieves this particularly well. 

    On the inspiration and sentiment of the record, Joyce had the following to say:

    Seeing how water makes its way in the world as the central source of everything we have, how it can sometimes be the worst thing in your life, how it’s slowly disappearing with no replacement, all you can do is wonder and hope sometimes.

    Mixing everything with nothingness, Aqueous State is a deeply contemplative and immersive record. It’s a wondrous and ever-flowing journey that expands outwards into profound and undefinable realms. Its cinematic quality wouldn’t make this out of place while scoring a museum exhibition or slow motion nature shots in a documentary. 

    Michał Kiełbasa + Aleksander Papierz: Movements

    If the name Michał Kiełbasa looks familiar, well, that’s because you just read about him above (I told you he has a lot of projects). In this instance, he doesn’t get all of the lime light as he has teamed up with Aleksander Papierz for this collaborative release. 

    Background information on Papierz is less forthcoming, but I can confirm he’s a practitioner of brass and involved in the jazz community, presumably in a more “free jazz” capacity.

    Here on Movements, we’ve got four tracks (“Movements…” 1 through 4) where the two unleash the tools of their trade upon one another. Kielbasa on MS-20 and modular synths, and Papierz on saxophone and effects.

    Rather than flat-out cacophony (as no doubt some would have imagined), there is a strong sense of flow to this record. There are rises and falls, as well as drone and some more abrasive moments. Overwhelmingly, it’s the way that the two manage to weave in and out of the other’s sonic space without overshadowing that is the most endearing quality of this record. 

    Cinemartyr: OPT OUT

    Punchy, playful, and with an unrivalled bass rumble, Cinemartyr have come out swinging with their latest album, OPT OUT.

    Originating in Limerick, Ireland (the former murder capital of Europe, no less), but relocating to New York City, Cinemartyr is the brainchild of Shane Herrington. If moving to NYC was intended to relieve Herrington’s stress levels, going off this album alone, it doesn’t seem to have worked.

    The pummelling uneasiness of OPT OUT is palpable. It’s music that afflicts the listener through the magnitude of its instruments and unpredictable noise rock/math rock tendencies. With the instrumentation often taking on percussive qualities, and operating under a mantra of “The body dictates the note,” these thick slabs of sound hit right in the gut. 

    From the industrial thumping of “Art Forum”, the spoken word insanity of “Cancellation Policy”, and the rising keys and and ambience of final track “Water Graphics”, there’s an unmissable sense of tension throughout the record. OPT OUT is like a bureaucratic nightmare that’s so insufferably suffocating, the only option left is to beat your way out.

    The Lord: Forest Nocturne

    The Lord is none other than Greg Anderson of Sunn O))) fame. Forest Nocturne marks his first solo release, though with a familiar voice, Atilla Csihar, in-tow. 

    Forest Nocturne oozes with the kind of dense, inescapable riffs you’d expect from a man of such credentials. The riffs expand into remarkably heavy territory and mushroom into cinematic spectacles that are as satisfying as they are hypnotising. 

    Riddled with old school death metal worship, gothic inspired organ, and closing out with Atilla Csihar’s gurgling vocals on final track, “Triumph of the Oak,” overlook this record at your own peril.

    Kollaps: Until the Day I Die

    Until the Day I Die is the latest record from Melbourne-turned-European post-industrial act, Kollaps. Reviewed in full, Discipline Mag had the following to say:

    An album of dread and atonement. Of passion and compulsion. Of opiate affliction and energy. Until The Day I Die harkens back to a time when the outsiders were condemned to pave their own way through grit and determination. Not to feel for a trail left by others, then cry when lost. 

    Without fear of hyperbole, this is the strongest work of Kollaps to date. Until The Day I Die proves that perseverance and commitment, combined with a healthy dose of pain and misery, can and do yield results.

    Aidan Baker: Tenebrist

    Aidan Baker is one half of drone/sludge/shoegaze band, Nadja. Aside from working with Nadja, Baker also maintains an impressively well-stocked Bandcamp of solo releases (discussed in detail in this recent Nadja interview with Discipline Mag).

    For the most part, Tenebrist settles into fairly rhythmic kind of post-rock riffs… and then processes the hell out of them. The front end of the sounds have all the necessary qualities required to soar – repetitive and off-kilter riffs, disregard for standardised time signatures, and and seemingly sporadic drum beats. But it’s the low end that prevents these sounds from finding orbit – anchoring these tracks to the ground and dragging them across the asphalt in a blissful rumble of static and feedback. Nice. 

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    The founder and creator of Discipline Mag, Daniel has been an ardent follower of music subculture for as long as he can remember. The combination of this interest with many years spent abroad confirmed the necessity of Discipline Mag as a vehicle to tell stories from the underground.