POPPENHEIMER “Karmageddon” C32 (Outer Realms)

Insanely limited to 12 copies, this release has risen to the top of my current rotation, much to the dismay of my neighbors and roommate. This 32 minute recording was culled from a live guitar/synth/vocal improvisation which, on more than one occasion, has convinced me that there is a seriously deranged person in my house who is about to murder me. Texturally the record is pretty varied and dense while remaining completely unhinged. I listen to quite a lot of doomy noise stuff, and this has definitely been one of my favorite releases in the past year. There are passages of low, tape saturated synth pulses, that are violently interrupted by either squealing guitar freakouts, or indecipherable screaming. Every outburst gradually degrades into feedback, lulling you back into an uneasy calm before the next psychic assault. KARMAGEDDON plays out the same as most horror movie soundtracks: ominous and terrifying before the bloody, caterwauling murder scene. After the first crescendo, it just makes the next mellow section even more tense. It’s no wonder i was sneaking around my house with a shillelagh preparing to bludgeon my would be attacker.

Side note: have you woke up to your housemate blasting Van Halen records? I have. This tape has saved me on several occasions when Diamond Dave and his cohorts have ruined a perfectly gloomy afternoon. I put this tape on immediately upon waking, and adjusted the volume, finding the perfect blend between the two recordings. I doubt my living buddy found it as amusing as I did. Good news is I finally found a way to tolerate Van Halen. It might be my own personal Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon moment.

In summation, I enjoyed this recording on many levels. If you need to get dark, buy one of the remaining copies, or stream it on bandcamp.

http://outerrealms.bandcamp.com/album/karmageddon

- - Joshua Meakim

SIMON MAGUS "I Traded Virginity for Vice" C32 (Outer Realms)

At first glance, I thought with the computer-generated geometric cover, that this might be some sort of mellow space-ambient chill-out-with-your-headphones-on-the-bus moon-synth new-age spiritual computer-healings of electronic introspection, though the urgency of the song titles seemed to clue in that it might be otherwise: " So Cold, So Old" & "I Am In Control". Upon pressing play and actually going for it, I am finding this to be more a layering of noisy (but not cluttered) oscillations and textured electronic groans, with garbled, urgent vocals adding a sort of kitchen-sink junk-noise vibe.

The jams sort of get into a groove for a while and then fall apart to gurgle, soon forming another sort of groove-thing (with wild-man vocals punctuating certain parts) and riding it out for a while. This feels like a kind of plug in, hit record, and go nuts vibe. That is probably exactly what it is, but there is enough direction to it that I wouldn't be surprised if there was overdubbing or more specific planning involved.

Something about the vibes here reminds me of being in my late teens in the pre-internet days, and knowing there had to be "noise music" of some sort out there. I was an avid zine reader, and ordered my first DIY noise cassette (an Earwigs tape) in response to some ad I saw somewhere. Dunno how similar they really are, Earwigs is probably more cluttered and feedbacky and all over the place, but somehow this is totally making me think of the weirdo freak-out junk-noise vibes I was taking in at that time.

Straight out of Lansing, MI. Edition of 12, so if you like yr tapes limited...

http://outerrealms.bandcamp.com/

-- Garrison Heck