Dan Fox is a man with many hats. In addition to running Inner Demons Records, he records under the names Fail, Loss, This Is What I Hear When You Talk, and several others. This is a record of a short tour that he did in 2024 with Vasectomy Party under the name Fail. Let’s dive in and get a sense of how this plays out live.

We kick it off with Fail’s performance in Jacksonville, Florida. This is, without a doubt, the best piece I have ever heard from Fail. If you buy any disc from Fail, this should be the one you get on the strength of this performance alone. The composition is complex, well crafted, and beautiful. Frankly, I'm impressed that he could pull this off live because there's so much going on here. Fox draws on a wide range of sounds and dynamics to take the listener on an auditory ride. This is noise in the way that the ocean or a thunderstorm is noise; awesome and glorious. Well done.

I wish we had the first 3 minutes of Chattanooga, because it was fantastic also. It's similar in style to the Jacksonville performance, but this one seems a bit more digital, for lack of a better term, and has a kind of intensity and tension that wasn't as prominent in the other track. Fox makes great use of crescendo and building of tension throughout by repeatedly arpeggiating up the scale. This repetition serves to build intensity and works well.

Finally, we have the performance in Panama City, which like Florida itself, is much more chaotic than the previous two. Like the other two performances, this is well put together and uses dynamics to his advantage, lulling you in with a drone only to hit you with a lot of analog noise squiggles.

All three of them are excellent but my money's on the first two. It's nice to hear a master of his craft at work and if you ever find yourself stuck in Florida for some reason and you happen to see Fail on the bill of a show, this disc shows that it's definitely worth getting up and going to check it out. Well worth picking up. This album weighs in at around 47 minutes.

The liner notes state, “Dedo no cu e gritaria é uma dupla sertaneja que acabou de chegar," which translates out to "finger in the ass and screaming is a country duo that just arrived" in Portuguese, if Google Translate is to be believed. I can't really attest to whether or not there is a finger in the ass, but there is certainly a lot of screaming in this. According to the notes, this is the work of EQQVPSVCETV and Thendonna, with Thendonna on Drums and Screaming and EQQVPSVCETV on Sax and Effects. I was unfamiliar with this duo, so let’s see what the screaming is all about.

I know what you're thinking. What is saxophone doing on an Inner Demons release? This album consists of one track, “Kurt,” which is some pretty noisy free jazz style saxophone that at some points sounds almost like a kazoo. The drumming is not so much drumming as pounding on the side of the drums for a clacking sound, and there is certainly a lot of screaming. I don't know the language that they are yelling in, but I presume it is Portuguese based on the band name.

I don't know who Kurt is, and I'm still not really sure if this track being about him would be a compliment or an insult, but it is certainly lively. This reminds me of some of the work that I've heard come out on the Public Eyesore label so if that would be up by your alley this would certainly be one worth checking out.

I have previously reviewed several of Davids’ albums and have enjoyed them all, so I was interested to see what he had in store this time. For those unfamiliar with Andreas Davids, he hails from Germany and also records under the name Xotox. The liner notes state that “Beautiful Isolation is about the difference between being alone and being lonely. Being alone sometimes makes you more creative, feel free or something like that. But being lonely is terrible!” Well, let’s invade Davids’ space and see what his isolation is like.

The disc consists of one track, “Beautiful Isolation,” but can be thought of as two movements. The first half can best be described as "subtle." Heavy drone that threatens to overwhelm everything else. There are small bits of noise that peek through here and there, but if loneliness is the theme, Davids does a fine job portraying it. The second half keeps the drone, but there is a lot more going on. Ratcheting noises, some percussion sounds, processed voice, and other elements come to the forefront as the drone shifts and changes.

Overall, this is an interesting composition and the theme itself is interesting. As an aside, I'm always looking for music that would work well with the sounds around me, so I gave this a listen on my morning commute. This works really well to give the mundane a surreal soundtrack as I hear the train announce different stations and someone having a conversation nearby. Give this a try. This album weighs in at 20 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.

I had not heard of Russell's Teapot, but they hail from Leeds, UK and describe their music as "A journey into prog psychedelic sounds featuring experimental cosmic jams, free improvisation, harsh noises, found sounds, ambient, drone, distortion, and doom! Minimalist Kosmische slice lysergic jazz bespoke beats producing soundtracks, field recordings and musical landscapes." So everything but the kitchen sink, eh? Well, let's dive in and see what is floating around between the Earth and Mars.

We kick it off with "How Do You Spell Marmoset?" which is a noisy, chaotic, pulsing number with plenty of layers of noise to peel back. Clanging noises and a rhythmic noise layer gives it a sense of momentum. "Air of Green" changes direction completely, with a drum set being played with little processing. It is a nice groove, and as a drummer, I can appreciate the feel; it's almost like someone warming up or practicing. All of this is taking place over a layer of tape hiss, a bass line, and a bit of drum machine thrown in for good measure. That said, it seems like it could have gone a bit further and it all became a bit repetitive over time. "What a Day" closes it out with a nice mix of the previous two approaches. There is a drum beat that goes throughout, but it is a lot noisier and grittier, with a healthy dose of feedback and analog filter noises. The chaos is undergirded with the drum beat which gives it a bit of stability.

Overall, this was a pleasant listen and the last track was the strongest of the three, taking the strengths of the previous two tracks. If you like your noise with a beat, but want it to be mellow, this may work for you. This album weighs in at around 28 minutes.

Fail is one of the many monikers of Dan Fox, who also records under the names Loss, This is What I Hear When You Talk, and the man behind Inner Demons Records. In short, he has been around long enough to need little introduction. Fail is one of his noisier projects, but it is much more varied in scope than TIWIHWYT and less orchestral than Loss. So let's dive in and see just how unfortunate things can get.

We open up with "Tallypractice," which begins with some heavily processed voices that give way to lots of bass drone and squiggly analog noise sounds. About 6 minutes in, there are some unexpected noise blasts that are significantly louder than the rest of the track. This would be only the first surprise as we find that this was simply Fox opening the floodgate of noise and things get increasingly intense. We have a plodding thud over what sounds like a series of table saws running in unison. Towards the end, we hear more of the processed voice before it is all buried under the crushing noise only to re-emerge victoriously. If you like your noise with a lot of variety, Fail has you covered.
"Unadequacy" opens with what sounds like a dot matrix printer and some synth drone. Bits of static and reverbed metal noise interrupt it all like an unwanted dinner guest. We get a drum beat of sorts later on, but this is dismantled immediately in favor of screeching noise.

Overall, this is a fun ride and there is nothing unfortunate about it. If you found This is What I Hear When You Talk to be a bit too wall-ish for your tastes, this is one you need to check out. There is a ton of variety and the music is crafted well and things are clearly done intentionally. This is solid noise and well worth checking out. This disc weighs in at around 20 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.