For a while, ever year Brett Lunceford would release a Christmas compilation on his label Zaftig Research. I believe the last one for a while was in 2008 then it came back in 2017 and now we have the 2018 version to review. I am not usually very good about reviewing compilations because it is tough to break down every single track but I wrote a short little blurb here about each one as I went through them, some two times to get it all in.

Conure: The Return of Ralphie is more sapling from A Christmas Story layered and chopped into an ever-growing noisy nightmare, excellent as expected from Conure!

Darmkwadraat: Electric Snow is a digital soup of synthesizer bleeps and bloops with a noisy edge on top. Great stuff from a pretty new act who as far as I can tell only has one release on Lage Landen Lawaai, which puts out super limited tapes. Lots of fun!

Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain: Jingle Construct is the track I provided for this compilation, so I will not be reviewing it here ;-)

Goose: Sugarplum Dreams contains a beautiful winter landscape of drones and bells, you can hear the wind in the background and some bells jingling nearby, excellent mood music. A brief version of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy shows up at the end.

Praying For Oblivion + Skullwall: Stockholm Syndrome brings together two harsh noise masters with a track of layered chaos. Both projects released a collaboration at the end of 2017 and much like this split they bring in the sound from each project and mix together very well.

Jan-M. Iversen: Christmas Morn brings a beautiful drone piece that is so intricately layered and musical. If you know how prolific Jan-Morten Iversen is you will not be shocked by the talent behind all of his music.

Orange: No Presents For Christmas is another one of Brett's projects, this time though he brings in the Power Electronics to punish our ears, good old school dirty vibes.

Narishkeit: The Ant Eater. Narishkeit appeared on last years Christmas compilation and they also have a release on Inner Demons. This project from the Netherlands has not been super productive but what they are putting out there is pretty great. The project has some mystery behind it but hopefully, we will hear more from them in the future.

Phog Masheeen: It Will Be Christmas In Hell is a weird loungy track with spoken/sung "lyrics" on top of it. I have not heard any of their other work to know if it is like this but it is odd and I'm not sure if I like it.

Weeping Wall: Five Minutes With A Ten Dollah Ho Ho Ho brings a "noise" track that I wouldn't call harsh at all, it is like a broken digital sounding wash of static. Not many changes in the track but I dig it. I can't find much about this project out there, hopefully, more will turn up soon!

Survey Control: Salamajarvi National Park is an excellent stark track that sounds like someone floating through space attempting to make radio contact with someone out there. Gorgeous outer space drones! Sounds a bit like Bad Sector maybe?

Stolen Light: Boxing Day where Brett brings in the layering of noise and recordings from home maybe? Layered professionally and masterfully.

Bardoseneticcube: Ambioz is another classic ambient sci-fi sounding track as would be expected from this project. Never disappoints!

C/A/T: A Letter To Santa sounds like what we have come to expect from Ben Arp after all these years, classic Rhythmic Noise, I am happy to see that Ben is working on new material again!

Collapse: Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Revisited, the first part of that track name "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a John Lennon song but I am not sure if that was the inspiration for the title. Collapsist is a project that I believe uses modular synths. Excellent repetitious waves of synthesizer sounds!

Overall this is an excellent compilation from Zaftig Research, I know Brett has more planned for the label which is very exciting for myself being a fan for years.

Over the last year or so I have personally started to move toward a more positive focused lifestyle. If you can find a way to talk about your feelings or find a way to vent them in some creative manner this seems to work best.

Stolen Light is Brett Lunceford who I have known, chatted, and been fond of his work for years. This time he has released an album title like Self Destruction it sounds like this could possibly be a cry for help, but to me the music seems as if it is a good way for Brett to get out some anger and frustration. The first track is titled "Frustration" and it lets loose a barrage of harsh noise precisely layered and focused for a 15-minute assault on your ears. I would shy away from calling this a harsh noise wall because it does have some feeling and texture to it unlike a lot of the nihilistic emptiness of that scene, however, it would likely appeal to that audience.

"What The Hell Happened To Us?" is the second track which starts off with a more quiet approach, it takes me back a bit to the 3" CDr on Inner Demons titled Voices. This track goes in waves of these field recordings with background noise textures, that pan from left to right, to harsh blasts through out the 30-minutes. Often times I see a 30-minute track and I wonder if my short attention span will kick in and I will get bored, but it is kept interesting enough and kept my curiosity piqued.

The final track titled "Memories Reclaimed" has a cleaner field recording session from somewhere with people talking, the discussions are not clear but different voices are there. There is a constant less abrasive sound over the recording this time which almost seems more cathartic than the two previous tracks, this is a good finish to a solid album overall.

As I said in the beginning, as I get older I find it important to find ways to vent your frustrations and move past negative circumstances. Self Destruction has shown a healthy way of moving forward.

If you are unfamiliar with Bizarre Audio Arts you are missing out on one of the most prolific noise labels for the last 23 years. Leo Sabatto has run the project Armenia and has done splits with so many well known and several lesser known noise artists over this time period. Over the last several years Leo has worked with the original Macronympha front man Joseph Roemer to reintroduce their version of this project onto the scene. Also contributing to this release are John Grimaldi and Henry Mallard who bring even more sonic chaos to this album. Both of these artists are two noise makers from western PA who are doing some awesome work in their own right.

The A side of this album clocks in at 20 minutes over three tracks and is a sonic throbbing loop which does not give way for much of the side, although it does shift on occasion. The repetitiveness of this loop is pretty disheartening and with the side of this tape being given the name “Terror” I can see why. Macronympha has really never been about pleasing the ears there has always been a sense of unfriendly nature to the songs and this release is no difference.

Side B is titled Chaos and it starts off with the track Horrifying Scars of Mismanagement, it is actually a little more laid back to begin with, a similar style on the first side with the repetitive loop starts the first track but this time there is more disruptions to the tracks with what almost seems like the side is skipping or slowly degrading, I think I prefer the Chaos over the Terror because it doesn’t make me feel as uneasy.

The second track on Side B is titled Plundering Overlords and is probably the best track on the cassette with classic harsh noise textures more quiet than the other tracks but excellently produced.

Overall this is not the best ever Macronympha album but it does not disappoint, I haven’t heard a bad one yet out of the bunch when it comes to the Bizarre Audio Arts releases so I highly recommend you dig in where you can and get uncomfortable.

Frore & Shane Morris we’re both new to me and after reading the press release I was a bit curious to see how well they would do because of comparisons to Vidna Obmana, Robert Rich and Steve Roach. That is some pretty big shoes to fill but o do have to say they succeed in walking those same paths while still standing out.

Eclipse is filled with 8 tracks most running right around 8-10 minutes a piece and lays down some excellent slow tribal drumming with some beautiful ambiance. It is very easy to throw the album on and zone out for the hour plus that this album runs and just enjoy the ride.

This album is described as a collection of free improvisations. I will start by saying that it is a pair of talented individuals and the music on this album is quite enjoyable. The only issue I have with it for my own personal tastes is that it is all over the place, it is good but it doesn’t have a consistent theme.

Experimental music should be challenging and this is for me because I often look to either chill out or put on something heavy when I’m listening to this genre of music and this goes back and forth. If you listen to this type of music and can switch back and forth between repetitive drones and guitar strums to noisy guitar fuzz then back again then this is a great album for you. I just could not find a consistent pace to get into it for myself.

I guess reflecting back this isn’t a bad review, and maybe this just wasn’t the right space for me at the time. I recognize the talent and effort put into this album but I felt slightly uneasy going through it.