Experimental / Dark ambient / Doom metal / Noise It is unusual, after years of traipsing through the dark and blackened world of experimental music, to find instances that contain the power to shock, surprise, or terrify. The occasions that this has happened for me are few and far between: With headphones on, Mekigah’s opening track – Total Cessation of One – elicited a similar chilling response. With its obfuscated whispers and dense cinematic swells undercut by sinister chords, spines cannot

Non-’s track titles talk of the past and mistakes made. Things that cannot be undone. And, indeed, this is echoed in the various contemplative moments on this self-titled record. Guitars saturated in longing and grief divide up break-neck blast beats. Boston’s Jack Whelan has an ear for the grand and epic, particularly when it comes to vocal performances. On Absent, the terrifying wailing often associated with The Body is brought to mind. There is also something of Envy’s Tetsuya Fukagawa in Whe

Blackjack Illuminist Records, home of the ever prolific Vlimmer, have linked up with Sana Obruent for this, the California-based artist’s third and most personal release to date.. August initially appears light and airy but lurking beneath the empyrean waves lies a sense of foreboding, perhaps even dread. Something akin to forcing a smile through swelling tears. Still, it is somehow calming. There is a kindness in this musical serenity. Space for consideration and, a rarity for our modern, hect

“Before unearthing this letter, I had questioned myself about the ways in which a book can be infinite. I could think of nothing other than a cyclic volume, a circular one. A book whose last page was identical with the first, a book which had the possibility of continuing indefinitely.” The question of the infinite in regards to a poetic text – be it prose, paint or performed on an instrument – is unlikely to have been far from the mind of Raffaele Pezzella when curating this two hour plus comp

A line of queuing black clad people snakes its way through haberdashery, glinting tchotchke, and choking perfumery on a Saturday night in London. Zone 1 has a new venue and, as noted by the Quietus, the number of venues within this region in the capital has been drastically reduced. Unusually it is Selfridges – yep, that’s right… The thrice voted “Best Department Store in the World” – who have stepped up to the plate and set up the Ultralounge. This is part of their Music Matters project, the in

2Methyl (formerly know as the tongue-twisting 2Methylbulbe1ol) has pulled out all of the stops for the packaging of his latest release on Agnost1k Records. Available in a limited run of fifty handcrafted CD boxsets, Etched is presented between two tiles which are then secured together by screwed bolts in each of the four corners. Unsurprisingly a similar level of care and attention has also been applied to the musical content too. Opener Germanium has a muscular swagger with subtle glimpses of

This, the ninth release under the Destruktionsanstalt alias for Per Najbjerg Odderskov, is an atmospheric foray into the potential depravity of industrial music. Initially available on cassette as Ex Bello Mortis, the title of this album has shifted from death to bliss over the course of being digitised and made available for download. DMT users might concur with the parallel drawn here. Kicking off proceedings on this album is someone who is no stranger to psychedelics – Jack Nicholson – and i

As Impie As Can Be by El Prêtro Maniaco Combining 2016’s EP As Impie As Can Be with Opus Premum from 2015, El Prêtro Maniaco has forged this 75 minute ode to horror, the occult, and religion. Haunting samples, dread-invoking chord stabs and surging strings fashion a psychologically unnerving space. Chills seep deep into the bone but at a pace glacial enough to slip beneath any conscious register. This isn’t concerned with jump scares or gross-out gore. This is the unnerving world of the sinis

This release for German label Attenuation Circuit comes from the twin noiseniks of Alexander Adams and Exedo. The latter of which is the “evil side project of EMERGE” who also happens to be AC’s head honcho. Exude makes music that is not for your consumption. It is for their devouring of you. This corrodes. Gently at first, like an arctic breeze blowing through an abandoned camp amongst deep fjords and steep mountains. But then it amps up into a full scale assault by the four stags of Yggdrasil

The concept of transmedia storytelling has been ruthlessly co-opted by advertising agencies as a means of commodifying creativity or building a brand. Whilst this might keep coffers topped up, other artists have considered this method for more expressive reasons. Harmony Korine described his recent film “Spring Breakers” as a “pop poem” in which themes and ideas loop, and the structure resembles that of an electronic pop song. The cult author Mark Z Danielewski has described his works of fiction