Psychotic style drum n bass along the lines of a distorted Photek or Squarepusher, very harsh, very industrialized and aggressive. Also planted underneath are very skillfully executed and trickily timed synth patterns laying under the noise, whereas that is lacking in the world of noise-techno. At times this reminds me of a cross between prior day Evil’s Toy minus the vocals and a more upbeat version of Gridlock’s dark drum n bass masterpiece "Further". Rating: 9.

Nordvargr (the mind behind MZ.412, the now defunct Folkstorm, Toroidh, Hydra Head 9 and the eponymous project, plus probably a few more) has been particularly prolific over the last few months. I really can't count all the recent releases of his, considering the several different projects, an anthology ("Enter Nordvargr") and a massive ltd boxset containing I can't recall how many cds... crazy. "Awaken" has just been released - in a limited edition - by Eibon, this time teaming up with Code666 (www.code666.net), an Italian label mostly active in the post-black metal field (Aborym, Void of Silence, Thee Maldoror Collective, Ephel Duath...); one more sign of the rising connection between extreme metal and some forms of industrial and electronics. "Awaken" (8 tracks, 55 minutes) plunges you deep in a pit of anguish and despair. Obsessive dark ambient drones with a Lustmord feel, but pushed to even more extreme territories; cold and oppressive, powerful and obstinate in its solipsistic nightmares, dissolving and absorbing filtered voices, painful samples of screams and rattling noises, sparse orchestral parts and military drummings. Closer to the brutal approach of industrial noise and power electronics rather than academical ambient music, "Awaken" is a realistic representation of a total absence of light.

Issued by the UK label Fleshmadeword in a ltd edition of 200 copies, "Maelstrom" is a 20' cd-r featuring one single track by the prolific Israeli artist Vadim Gusis, well known for a series of releases on labels like Crowd Control Activities, Drone, Stateart, and The Rectrix. Minimally packaged in a folded brown paper sheet, the cd-ep is a long, powerful ambient drone, with a kind of reverberated organ sound, quite different from other recordings of Chaos As Shelter's I've listened to - probably closer to a minimal approach, and actually not that dark, while maintaining a peculiar intensity in its monolithic repetitiveness.

An interesting compilation of various artists coming from Israel, which inevitably signs the peculiarity of this record in some of its manifestations; track 10 features no artists but "One minute of silence - for the memory of all those who violently lost their lives in the middle east conflict, except those who took other lives while losing theirs". Scars are manifest. The sampler, superbly packaged in a stylish layout with an informative full-colour booklet, ranges from various forms of electronica (Grundik-Slava, Screening, Forma, VectorScope) to rhythmic industrial (New Jerusalem Defense Forces), from ambient (Chaos as Shelter) to avantgarde and electroacoustics (Igor18, HU) to proto-apocalyptic folk (Agnivolok) and a mix of jazz, ethnic music and electronics (the final 17' jam by The Crossfishes). I think it'd be pointless to go into details about personal tastes - all tracks are good in their fields, with a few excellent ones. I'd quote Chaos as Shelter, good as always, and HU as being particularly inspiring - the latter with an amazing concrete track obtained by playing a metal helmet! Both projects are actually manifestations of Vadim Gusis, also in NJDF, Agnivolok (new album just released by Stateart!) and The Crossfishes, and the man who mastered the compilation itself. I'd say, check this release out, the Israeli experimental scene seems to be incredibly healthy and propositive. The cd is also distributed by Stateart.

With song titles like "What is this Dimension Where I am Encased Within A Mile Deep Pit of Feces?" this can only be interesting, even if on the titles alone. That one brought up some images I could have easily done without though! The sound runs the gamut of Flesh Becomes Word as well as some artists from labels like Frozen Empire Media (new home of Gridlock), spanning a large roster of industrial and ambient artists, some combining the two. My favorite is by Cdatakill on Volume one, with it’s classicly analogue keyboard lines plinking over tricky time signatures and sound effects sounding like they came from the game Guardian Legend (my fave game, and my first intro to electronic music ever back when I was 7. It’s still an analogue MIDI masterpiece), definitely something to get tranced out to. Overall both discs back to back have a pretty flowing mood about them, though I prefer Volume 1 and it’s more analogue, ambient sounds to the more quiet sounds of Volume 2. Rating 1: 9 Rating 2: 7