NWODTLEM is a Toronto based project run by the co-founder of Here’s my Card Records. Pir8 is a DVD collection of eight music videos filled with chopped, spliced, and sampled break-core insanity. The audio-insanity is formatted in such a way that it nearly sounds randomized. The music is brimming with movie samples, which range from absurd voice clips to absurd sound effects. The video samples and audio tracks are perfectly timed and synched.

My first impression while watching PiR8 is that it is very distracting (in a good way). Even if I wanted to ignore this video, I could not. From the moment I pressed play to the moment the disc corrupted (at the beginning of the third video) my attention was stuck to the screen. This guy obviously has a highly technical mind, and a slightly warped personality. I don’t know how long it would take to create something this involved, and I honestly don’t want to know.

NWODTLEM’s PiR8 is a DVD I could have seen myself playing very often. This is a fun and enjoyable audio/visual experience, and I hate that my copy will only play two tracks. Honestly, I feel like I am writing a eulogy, not a review. Here lies a great DVD with a lot of potential. One that I will play on occasion for the two greatly edited videos?and then will turn off in dismay when the disk becomes unplayable. I would sincerely be interested to see more output by NWODTLEM, and I think the risk here is worth the reward. I highly suggest picking up a copy of this DVD.

This curious release by Ewe is the first of two Fractured and Remixed albums by Zarach Baah Tharagh (ZBT). This is Ewe’s fifth release through Smell the Stench Records. Most of the thirteen tracks on this album are within one and three minutes of length. Each track is typically composed of eccentric keyboards and ghostly ambience.

Ewe’s Fractured and Remixed album maintains a consistent sound of droning, dreary ambience complimented by keyboard sounds, sometimes introverted and pretty, sometimes random and unconventional. The image I get from this album is of a haunted piano room captured at different hours of night: never a room someone would feel comfortable alone in, but some hours are more welcoming than others.

There is a good balance between music and non-music here, and the more eccentric keys throughout this album add a sense of levity. Because of the rhythmic nature of Ewe’s Fractured and Remixed album, I find my mind at ease while listening to unearthly and haunted music. I think ZBT has committed more to the tracks on this Fractured and Remixed release, but I suspect that is because these piano pieces need to be heard in full form. All in all, ZBT’s Fracture and Remix of Ewe’s Demo V is a pleasantly unexpected change of pace.

Flutwacht’s Breath is the 25th full-length release of this German-based project. Breath is released by Mask of the Slave Records and The Tourette Tapes. Breath is built of 8 tracks that approximate between 5 and 15 minutes each.

Flutwacht’s Breath is dark, droning ambience at it’s best: subdued sounds with limited progression to the inattentive ear; but the album ever-advances, and an inattentive listener would quickly find him/herself in a heightened sense of anxiety. The worlds created here are ripe, vast, and somehow predatory.

Each track represented on Flutwacht’s Breath is ominous and dissonant. The songs are composed of ongoing drones, with sometimes faint metallic scrapings, feint whispers, or mechanized pulsings. I find my pulse steadily rising with each passing moment, and any amount of attention I have tried to divert elsewhere falls right back into this unsettling work of music.

ErasetheVirus is the Industrial Metal project of Californians Chris Navasatis (Vocals), Ben Bordelon (Programming and synthesizers), Alex Slay (Drums), Tim Huston (Guitar), Chris Hardy (Guitar), and Darren Nelson (Synthesizers). ErasetheVirus is self described as shock-metal and a "sick and twisted mind bloom."

ErasetheVirus’s Songs in the Key of Filth is a time machine to the late 90s alternative/metal/industrial movement with sounds reminiscent of Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, and that Powerman 5000/Rob Zombie team-up, all in the most distorted sense possible. The vocals guitars, and percussion are all dead on for the experience, and the synthesizers/programming provide for lively intros and interludes that make the experience worth hearing.

Songs in the Key of Filth is a heavy, aggressive, high-octane industrial rock experience; one that brings me back to the angst-ridden days of my youth. Listening to this album really inspires the hidden want in me to vandalize or break something. It is obvious that ErasetheVirus is really trying to go somewhere big, and from the sounds presented here, they have a chance. Songs in the Key of Filth will not be the album to make ErasetheVirus famous, but it is a testament to their recording abilities.

DTrash Records is a Canadian based label formed in 1998. The label’s mission is to create an international network of extreme electronic music. This compilation is meant to represent the label’s releases in 2007. This compilation is a single track composed of 10 artists and 18 songs. Most of the artists on this compilation are represented twice.

First, let me say that a single-track compilation is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I was forced to listen to every second of this compilation, and was not allowed to make snap judgments. The curse is that I cannot easily return to the tracks I enjoyed.

Second, the music: Since this compilation is various artists in a single track, I will write all of my impressions in a single sentence. The music represented by this release is akin to Atari teenage riot meets mochipet with hints of mindless self indulgence and the riot grrl movement, and major digital hardcore and gabber influences. This release is, much like the label’s mission, extreme electronics. The highlights for me were the works of Hansel, Babylon Disco, Heartworm, Mind Disruption, 64 Revolt, and Contra. Honestly, I enjoyed almost everything I heard.

DTrash Records’ 2007 New Releases Mix is a very aggressive mix of heavy electro-percussive sounds and angry post-punk vocals. The compilation kept me on my toes for the entire hour it played. If this release is any indication of the quality output from DTrash Records, I would sincerely recommend anyone with an interest in progressive electronics to check this label out.