The Key to Nchuandzel –
N’gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!

The Music?

The Words

The tentacled brain behind The Key to Nchuandzel has long teased me about the existence of the N’gasta! Kvata! Kvakis! album, withholding me the privilege of being able to listen to it, peer into its essence, become shattered by its gaze… Fortunately, the time of reckoning is here and the Key is unleashed, for all to be enraptured.

In twenty minutes and five tracks, The Key to Nchuandzel bewilders and astonishes incessantly with its improbable but characteristic black metal. Black metal? That’s the idea I had at first, but I’m far from being certain anymore. Grindcore, … Read more

Bollywood – Bollywood

The Music

The Words

Experimental is the land of all possibles. Bollywood paints a rather stellar example of this in the realm of jazz with their self-titled debut album. Released on 12 August, it was briefly available through TVL Rec‘s page, and abruptly taken down—forbidding my sharing it. However, this can’t stop me from talking about it.

A few minutes over thirty, Bollywood is an album of what sounds like free jazz meets lowercase music, with each track fronted by a different solo instrument—here saxophone, here bass, and so on—backed by insectile percussions, noise backing tracks, or electronic experimentations. … Read more

Sectioned – Annihilated

The Music

The Words

A cursory glance at the cover art for Annihilated, by Edinburgh’s Sectioned, might fool you into believing that this is some sort of sappy indie folk record; with its earnest depiction of what is presumably an area of rural Britain, the tones and hues of the photo seem to give a wistful, bittersweet atmosphere. However, much like the history surrounding Scotland’s beautiful capital city itself, a closer inspection reveals a much more sinister underbelly, with a hollowed out car in the foreground and lifeless winter trees in the background. It’s as if the chaotic … Read more

Peter Evans & Weasel Walter – Poisonous

The Music

The Words

Poisonous indeed, the newest release from free, avant-garde jazz duo Peter Evans & Weasel Walter is a journey into the delirious mind of a poison-afflicted would-be mycologist. In forty-four minutes, the two seasoned musicians craft an album obsessed with venenous fungi that sounds as lethal as its subject. I don’t know how many layers of improvised or forethought material have been arranged to create this fever dream, but the result is a dense hallucinative soundscape as heard through thick forest haze.

Some parts are almost metal in just how harsh and intense they are–see “Sulfur Tuft”. … Read more

EXCLUSIVE SONG PREMIERE: Reg Bloor – “(You’ll Feel) a Little Pinch” and Review of Sensory Irritation Chamber

The Music

The Words

Reg Bloor is an experimental metal guitarist from New York City, and Sensory Irritation Chamber is her sophomore release. Reg’s style is immediately recognizable by the solo presence of electric guitar with multiple harmonizing effects and distorsions. Sensory Irritation Chamber is a forty-minute album of layered guitars that act as a wall of noise that falls on and buries the listener brave enough to face it.

The compositions on this album are truly interesting, however. There is not a moment where I’d rather not be listening to the music here. With frequent metric modulations, extended and … Read more