Another essential chapter in the Messthetics collection of rare and forgotten tunes from the golden age of DIY. This one deals with the South Wales area, and you'll find a bunch of irreverent youngsters floating around the Z-Block label, a label set up in a disused student house in where Reptile Ranch installed themselves (check out their website ... they're still alive and spreding the DIY philosophy: www.zblock.co.uk) and playing various kind of do-it-yourself post-punk. As the previous Messthetics, along with those amazing tracks (24 songs + mp3s for a total of 90 minutes of music), you'll get a thick and detailed booklet with precious information, documents and interviews with the bands. Before this one, the only band I could remember from Wales were my beloved Young Marble Giants - quite obviously they're not here (even if I read that "someone" from YMG plays in the, here included, Table Table track) because they're well known and they've never been forgotten. So I discovered those rough diamonds with extreme pleasure - some highlights here: The Czechs track is like hearing Coxham's bass over a speed-fueled postpunk; What To Wear and Crash Action Winners both from Swansea and both more rough and punk-oriented; both tracks by Decadent Few that blend postpunk rhythms with softer psychedelic singing. A mention must be made to the work of the music archeologists at Hyped2Death, always after those lost b/w-cover 7"s - always caring to restore the sound avoiding tape hiss and vinyl crackles without compromising the full dynamic range of the originals (and that's where lots of re-issues fall short).

Ok - you're not hallucinating and this is NOT the new solo record by the genius, but an ear-shredding blast of uncompromising noise as I haven't heard in a while. Eva Aguilla is the one and only person beyond all this - and she surely knows how to deal with pedals and painful frequencies - but sometimes she stops the carnage adding some psychotic moments with treated instruments (can't say which instruments though). All the tracks are well composed (don't laugh ...) and your attention is kept focused by some slightly changes in the loops between the walls of white noise. "Catholic Guilt" and "Nothing's Never Ending" are loopy and somehow hypnotic. I'm not into such violent stuff anymore but this one stands above many of the records I've heard of the same genere. Judging from pictures on her myspace (http://www.myspace.com/kkevinsshields) her live performances must be really something. This cd is a joint effort between three cult labels: Entropic Tarot (http://www.entropictarot.com/), Deathbomb Arc (http://deathbombarc.com/) and Emr Records (http://www.emr-records.com/).

Ariel's new album brings the pop back into shoegaze, while lots of bands of the new generation are more focused on the atmospheres. The comparisons could be sunnier side of Secret Shine and the most accessible Spiritualized (how I miss them...). The opening track is called "Introduction" and is using many layers; it's hard to pigeonhole but it is somehow clichéed and reminds me of a guitar version of Herrmann & Kleine earlier stuff. "The Battle Of Sealand" contains at least two outstanding tracks, the first is "Sugar Crystals" which features Ulrich Schnauss and it's a mind blowing example of nu-gaze - I'm sure this will be a classic in their repertoire; the other one is "Mermaid In A Manhole" (quite strange to find a reference to a very graphic movie of the infamous Guinea Pig series on a record like this). The record is amazingly recorded and there are lots and lots of fuzzes and layers of distorted guitars - but personally I liked Airiel better when they were experimenting with ambiences and drones.

"Revolution Of The Antichrist (R.O.T.A)" is the new album from the well known Stahlwerk 9 project and shows a twist into pulsating ritual ambiences. They used to play a compelling mixture of death ambient with noisier moments but this one is a lot quieter with gloomy drones and some minimal rhythms. "R.O.T.A." is a concept album dealing with the coming of the Antichrist and we are accompained for this descent to hell by ten superb artworks (one for each track) by Alexander Nemkovsky. Those paintings show a very peculiar vision of hell full of allegories that reminded me of Jodorowsky's approach to religion and myth. Returning to the music - the sounds heard herein have to be absorbed carefully. The cd comes in three different editions - the basic is limited to 666 copies has the size of a 7" and contains the 10 pictures, the wooden box edition which is limited to 333 copies and the box with t-shirt which is limited to 66 copies. For sure this is the most intresting and compelling release by Stahlwerk 9.

Stig Berg is famous for having created one of the most beautiful and inspiring ambient albums of the last few years, "The Nacrasti", released under the name R|A|A|N, sadly overlooked but with a strong cult status in the dark ambient scene. This new release as Moth Electret keeps its obscure roots but deals with different sounds - the compositions here on "Lil" are made by field recordings collected in areas with fishing activities like Eureka in California or Barcellona's Harbour. The result is slightly different from the usual droney works out on the Mystery Sea label - there's a lot of movements here, best enjoyed with your headphones on.