The RuinsZu project is bassist Massimo Pupillo and saxophonist Luca T. Mai from the band Zu, along with drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, who performs under the name Ruins Alone. RuinZu's repertoire consists of both Zu and Ruins songs in new arrangements and new songs. This work is twelve tracks released on vinyl, CD and digital download. "Gravestone" starts it off with heavy riffing and wild drumming as well some non-verbal vocalization. It's a real roller-coaster ride with plenty of dips, hills, plummets, lifts and air-time. Maniacal, insane and intense. "Speedball" might have Zappa rocking and rolling in his grave. It has that early Mothers of Invention vocal/instrumental madness they were known for with time changed galore. And yes, it is quite fast. "Asmodeo" slows it Down quite a bit, atmospheric and percussionless at first, but it's not long before the band settles into some abstract groove, albeit with some nice dynamic and tempo changes. That track slides too easily into "La grande madre delle bestie" with riffs that would make Van Der Graaf Generator weep. All of a sudden, it kind of falls apart, or morphs into something distant and completely different. "Vexopracta" brings back the vocal element and has the improv feel and energy you can only get from a live performance. If you though "Speedball" was fast, "Burning Stone" takes it way over the top. It's like listening to a coked-up methamphetamine Pere Ubu. This runs right into "Hyderomastgroningen." along the same lines. It does include some unexpected changes, something this outfit excels at.

"Sanctuary" is a weird and wacky tune (due to the bizarre vocals) sprinting across your speakers like a 3-headed gazelle. "Memories of Zworrisdeh" is equally outlandish, maybe even more-so in the vocal department. It's the Pupillo/Yoshida rhythm section that drives this one across the finish line. Lots of proggy elements...maybe too many... (Nah, you can never have too many!) The most notable thing about "Muro Torto" is Luca's sax going ballistic by itself. "Mar Glaciale Artico" sounds like a broken or dysfunctional machine but is really quite cool in its deconstruction. "Solar Anus" (alright, who though of that title) is the mostly wild and inevitable conclusion to 'Jazzisdead(live).' I think this was recorded at the final date of their 2024 European tour in Turin, Italy. What a lucky audience! This album is intens with a capital 'I' and the players are phenomenal. Their promo sheet describes them as progressive-metal, avant-garde noise, but I'd call them avant prog-punk speed-jazz rock. Great album no matter how you classify it.

From Montreal, Canada comes THISQUIETARMY (all caps or no caps but all letters run together), the solo project of Eric Quach, who has been doing this sort of thing since 2005 (with literally dozens of releases under his belt), but he has help on this release. This is the first time I've heard THISQUIETARMY. 'Langue Hybride' was written and arranged in less than 4 weeks during thisquietarmy’s music residency at Centre d’Expérimentation Musical (CEM) in the region of Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean, Québec. Not unlike his previous full-band efforts ('The Body and The Earth' or 'Machine Consciousness'), thisquietarmy expands his signature brand of guitar-based noise/ambient music even further — this time, assisted by professional session musicians of CEM playing drums, percussion (Émile Boucher-Cloutier), bass (Stéphane Beaulieu), synth, guitar (Bruno Ouellet), violin (Jessy Dubé), and cello s(Iabelle Harve). This is a live album performed at Centre d’Expérimentation Musical (CEM) in August 2023 — Saguenay, QC, consisting of 5 tracks clocking in at about 57 minutes. Beginning with "Les rayons cosmiques," heavy, sludgy, distorted guitar amidst the crash of cymbals heralds a gloomy atmosphere. Juxtaposed with viola and cello that comes in after, it sounds like an outtake from an early-to- mid-70s King Crimson jam session. Then an electronic-based rhythm emerges and TQA moves into full jam mode, which actually sounds pretty cool, with a big distorto build-up at the end. If that track wasn't heavy and sludgy enough for you, "Respirer l'instabilité" remedies that with a slow jam wall of distortion lasting nearly 4 1/2 minute before any reprieve. After that. it's a band jam including funky wah-wah guitar that gets pretty wild for a while. Of course, it all has to end in a wall distortion. The ominous "Les radicaux libres" has this strangely woozy quality about it, almost inspiring seasickness on land. The little bit of structure there is is dwarfed by the improvisation by all musicians involved, and halfway through, a rhythmic theme emerges with palpable tension, a kind of march toward total destruction that peters out before it devolves into total chaos.

"Organismes en aérobiose" begins with guitar arpeggios as a theme that is built upon by the other musicians, then moves into something more thematically formidable. If the Velvet Underground were into free jazz, it might sound something like this, but really, this is much more in King Crimson's domain. Finally, we get to "Solastalgie impalpable," a sweetly melancholic syncopated track that turns harsh with slabs of noisy guitar, coalescing into a melange of electronic drones where it stays for a good long while, until the inevitable breakdown of the finale. It's pretty obvious 'Langue Hybride' is a live album meant to feed on the energy of the audience, as all the hallmarks are there. I do believe there's a big (well, relatively, for leftfield noise drone like this) market for this kind of album, and the energy expended is astounding on everybody's part. I doubt it would have come off half as successful as it is without the participation of the talented supporting players, and 'Langue Hybrid' should raise a few eyebrows and pierce a few eardrums in the process. Both the LP and the CD are limited edition, but if you want' the vinyl, you need to act fast, as it seems there are very few copies remaining.

'M6' (aka 'The Black Album') is the sixth album by Aachen, Germany's Minusheart fronted by vocalist Diver, along with guitarist Chriss Rey and the noise engineers RK and V-Nerv. The last I heard from Minushearyt was 'The Dark Side of the Sun' back in 2020, and obviously they haven't been idle since then. 'M6' is not dissimilar to that one, although obviously the songs are different, but the format remains consistent - old school EMB industrial-electro along the lines if Leaether Strip, Dive, Wumpscut, Tolchock, Nitzer Ebb, and others along those lines. Diver's distinctive vocals will likely remind you of some of them, but I think this guy is now the top voice in the genre. This stuff is bloody simple (no fancy frills, no multi-layered sequencers going at once, no elongated ambient effects), absolutely designed for the dark club dancefloors. Songs are based on simple concepts - "One Heart," "Live Together," "My Enemy," "A Catastrophe," etc, etc. Sonic variety is subtle on 'M6' and while different sounds are employed on different track there is always going to be that 4-on-the-floor big beat. Straight ahead EMB has been the unspoken punk element of electro-industrial music, and these guys are easily the Ramones of EBM, but obviously sound nothing them. (Maybe a little closer to the Stooges, if played synthesizers rather than guitars.) While there isn't much variety in the format, at lease songs have different BPMs - 130, 145, 100, 140, 120, 188...to cite a few. I did notice at least one missed opportunity - on "Haunted House" where a brief dialogue sample of somebody describing a commercial spook house attraction is the only atmospheric embellishment, and the non-spooky synth blips don't really cut it. The synth-guys could have crushed this one on some spiffy atmospherics. While the last stated track, "Be Like Water," is unlike the others being more atmospheric and less dance-oriented at 80 BPM, there is one more, "Rise and Fall" after 53 tracks of 4 seconds of silence each. Man, that's old-school. I haven't heard that done on a CD in about 20 years! Over all though, 'M6' is a really good album if you love quailty EBM like I do. If you're lucky enough to live in or near Germany, you can catch the band on tour this summer.

New album by two members of the Dark Sky Alliance - ambient guitarist David Helpling, and ambient soundscape architect Eric "The" Taylor (who is also a drummer) without the other two (drummer Jerry Marotta and synthesist Rupert Hreenall) takes a journey into the unknown for both of them. Having already worked with each other in DSA, they have the distinct advantage of familiarity in this latest collaboration. Seven tracks in about 63 minutes climbing to the stratosphere and beyond propel the listener into here-to-fore uncharted regions. Taylor’s fervent analog synthesizers, Helpling’s ethereal guitar and cinematic vistas are here, but 'The Precious Dark' is more wistful and moody than their previous efforts. "The Space Between Atoms" may seem small to you but it's all a matter of perspective if you're an electron. The duo present a dramatic presence with discreet melodies woven through the huge ambient pads, and a potent rhythm that propels these particles through time and space. So many elements are combined here that any simple description fails. Powerful, elegant, majestic. The title track follows features Helpling's ethereal guitar over oodles of ambient pads and bass undertones. Helpling presents a simple melodic theme which he expands and embellishes over time with Taylor's synth work as its perfect foil. You could easily lose yourself in "Cavenrous Heart," a track that begins sounding like the space between the spaces, and ends in something much more immense and fantastic, all the while going though an interesting array of permutations. There's a chilly reception waiting for you in "The Ice Has Dreams" as the cold, alien sonics crystallize into something solid at first, then melt into puddles flowing away. Must have been winter they were think of for "Her Cold Embrace," but who knows whether the sequenced code-tapping is a distress signal or not. The underlying gentle squall of noise makes me think of snow, but there is no compass but the signal for direction. Ambient pads swell like an avalanche towards the end.

It's not all dark "For Those in Shadow" as plenty of light creeps in, but melodic shades are explored in this piece perhaps more than any other on the album. It's a study in contrasts pitting the familiar against the unfathomable. 'The Precious Dark' comes rushing to a heady conclusion on "We Rise in a Harmonious System," the longest track on the album at over ten minutes. The big build-up doesn't happen until the middle, doesn't last very long, subsides then rumbles out on bass chords. This is one of those albums that will likely take several listenings to really appreciate as its subtleties are easy to overlook on a once-over. Lots of emotional high and lows for those who invest the time. David and Eric work very well together and something tells me this certainly isn't the last we'll hear from them.

Here we go again! Brooklyn's goth-folk duo, Charming Disaster (Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris) are on the verge of releasing their sixth album after 2023's 'Super Natural History' on May 16th. 'The Double' explores the world that exists behind the one we know, featuring songs inspired by nature, mortality, magic, ritual, and literary genres ranging from science fiction to Victorian horror. Charming Disaster invites listeners to step across the border of an alternate reality, where spells are cast, time travel is possible, plants are taking over civilization, and vampires lurk in the shadows. Adventures in the darkness lie beyond the threshold. Let's face it, nearly anything is better than the current reality we're all forced to live in at the moment.

Opening with the low key "Black Locust" you might almost think you were hearing the Cowboy Junkies gone darkside, except for the distinctive voices of Ellia and Jeff. It's a sweet, if not particularly gripping number that picks up towards the end. More formidable is "New Moon," a neat, mid-tempo indie rocker full of urban insomnia and restlessness. The melody is a little familiar, but welcome. "Trick of the Light" is the likely spooky first single off the album as the duo balance quirkiness with commercial potential. (I could imagine this song in an episode of 'Wednesday'; it would fit perfectly.) "Time Machine" fantasizes on the "what if" factor, assuming we could go back in time. While not a bad song, "Scavengers" seems like filler and ground tread by this band before. "Beautiful Night" has a nice string arrangement, but once again, offers nothing new. Much better is "Vitriol" couching cool social commentary in coded language. Nice arrangement too. The cabaret style 3/4 time of "Haunted Lighthouse" is a dark carnival delight, most welcome at this stage of the album. "Gang of Two" is more about Ellia & Jeff's relationship than anything else, but I'm not sure following the previous song with another in 3/4 time was a great idea. More fluff than great stuff. Gardening and its fruits is the subject of "Green Things," the most rootsy track on the album for obvious reasons.

'The Double' is a good album with a few great songs on it. Some of the other folks who helped make it happen are: Don Goodwin: bass, drums, percussion, horns; Peter Bufano: piano, accordion; Mike Dobson: percussion; Kate Wakefield: cello; Stefan Zeniuk: reeds. 'The Double' also serves as a double album offer, this one being released with 'Time Ghost' (2024, a collection of tracks released as singles from 2013-2024) on vinyl only.