Noise Not Music #8: The Body & Thou, Napalm Death And More

Happy New Year noise nerds! There’s a lot to get through this month and, alongside the usual dose of vicious extreme metal, we have top-notch new efforts from the worlds of field recording, jazz, techno and power electronics – enjoy.

New Releases

Ascension – ‘The Dead of the World’ (WTC)

Sneaking out at the very end of last year – with a slightly impractical Christmas Eve release date – the second full-length from secretive German black metal troupe Ascension builds on their majestic, and rather overlooked, debut in impressive style. This is very much contemporary orthodox black metal - think a blend between Deathspell Omega and Watain and you won’t be too far off the mark – but that’s no bad thing.

In fact, I’d go so far as to call Ascension one of the most powerful of the new wave of European black metal acts doing the rounds at the moment. This isn’t quite as ambitious as their debut, but ‘The Dead of the World’ is nevertheless demonstrative of their willingness to push their songwriting past the boundaries within which some of their more restrained peers prefer to operate. This is certainly worth seeking out, with the mighty trio of Unlocking Tiamat, Deathless Light and Mortui Mundi providing the highlights.

The Body & Thou – ‘Released From Love/You, Whom I Have Always Hated’ (Thrill Jockey)

When The Body & Thou released their first collaborative EP, ‘Released from Love’, last year, I wrote in this very column that, after its four tracks had come to a conclusion, I felt rather like heading off to bury myself in the back garden. Imagine my joy, then, on learning that the pair were coming back with more gruesome misanthropy, alongside the four tracks already released.

There aren’t really any words that can do justice to how incredibly powerful this record is at times. The cover of Vic Chesnutt’s Coward, originally recorded just before his death, is devastating, while a version of Nine Inch Nails’ Terrible Lie is horrifically violent in its execution. This is going to take some beating when it comes round to compiling the column’s end of year list in December.

Lawrence English – ‘Viento’ (Taiga)

Always capable of subsuming the listener in wave after wave of sound, Australian sound artist Lawrence English’s latest effort is the result of time spent recording in the field in Patagonia and Antarctica. The two tracks here, assembled from wind recordings in both locations, stand among the most disarmingly visceral pieces in his lengthy catalogue.

In fact, the overall effect of Patagonia is perhaps akin to rubbing one’s ears with sandpaper over a thirty-five minute period, or of being trapped and disorientated in the wilderness on a stormy night. Antarctica, meanwhile, adeptly draws the listener into the barren, snow-covered tundra. A disorienting, and powerful, listen.

Kerridge – ‘Always Offended, Never Ashamed’ (Contort)

Samuel Kerridge’s particular brand of industrial-influenced techno may be a long way from the more dancefloor-friendly side of electronic music but ‘Always Offended, Never Ashamed’ is more accessible than many of his previous records.

Alongside the distorted drone guitar slabs and painfully contorted beats there are moments of energy here that listeners unfamiliar with the harsher end of the electronic spectrum should thrive upon. Having said that, this still packs a pretty severe punch, and those expecting something colossal and steadfast in its commitment to uncompromising expressionism should not hesitate to pick this up.

Napalm Death – ‘Apex Predator – Easy Meat’ (Century Media)

The Brummie legends have been in pretty scintillating form over the course of recent releases – 2012’s ‘Utilitarian’ being particularly impressive – and ‘Apex Predator – Easy Meat’ certainly doesn’t mark a downturn in fortune for the group. As has become customary, this release comprises of a mix of classic Napalm Death, which you won’t (or at least shouldn’t) need me to describe to you, and several strains of brutality that are relatively new to the group.

This time around it’s largely the dirge-like industrial post-punk intensity of Swans that seems to have influenced the group, especially on the opening and closing tracks. Lyrically, of course, their railing against the exploited masses is as relevant as it was nearly 30 years ago on ‘Scum’. One could probably make a case for this being Napalm Death’s finest moment to date. In other words, it is absolutely essential.

Matana Roberts – ‘Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee’ (Constellation)

The third part of Roberts’ ‘Coin Coin’ saga sees the saxophonist adopt yet another approach, focusing on her solo playing and field recordings instead of ensemble playing. The weighty subject matter – the ‘Coin Coin’ series is intended to be a 12-album saga on the subject of gender and race relations in American history – lends Roberts’ music a degree of pathos and seriousness that could threaten to obscure its musical brilliance, but ‘River Run Thee’ emphasises her superb compositional ability.

Her immaculate fusion of spoken word narration, singing and sax with a dense series of further recordings is no mean feat. Roberts has always been at home working outside conventions but, given that ‘River Run Thee’ sees her operating even further outside the realm of standardised jazz than  usual, this record should earn renewed praise. ‘River Run Thee’ finds one of the most unique voices of the contemporary avant-garde in essential form.

Primitive Man – ‘Home is Where the Hatred Is’ (Relapse)

This 30-odd minute EP/mini-album is a welcome return from Primitive Man, the Colorado sludge trio whose 2013 debut album, ‘Scorn’, was a startlingly consistent exercise in savage blackened sludge. Things are no less nihilistic on ‘Home is Where the Hatred Is’. Seething squalls of feedback dominate the four tracks here, with 11 minute opener Loathe being particularly vicious. This is, in keeping with the band’s name, sublimely primal in tone and execution.

Rwake – ‘Xenoglossalgia: The Last Stage of Awareness’ (Relapse)

Rwake are criminally underrated, remaining restricted to the depths of the underground despite being one of the most important bands in the world of sludge. ‘Xenoglossalgia’ was originally the Arkansas collective’s first full-length demo release, but has now been suitably prepared for wider release through Relapse. It is remarkably accomplished for such an early release, and there’s plenty of the band’s distinctive character, and willingness to experiment, on display throughout. The incredible 45 minute closer Calibos/So Fucking Tired is one of the most relentlessly oppressive things you could ever wish to hear.

Sumac – ‘The Deal’ (Profound Lore)

Former Isis frontman and all-round heavy music legend Aaron Turner is back with a new supergroup (although I doubt that’s the term he has in mind). Sumac sees him united with Russian Circles bassist Brian Cook and Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn, and ‘The Deal’ is every bit as heavy as that trio of names suggests it should be. Turner’s fiendishly hefty riffs are the main focus but Yacyshyn’s drumming deserves a special mention on the titanic Hollow King. Ultimately, while ‘The Deal’ may suffer somewhat from being released so soon after Old Man Gloom’s colossal ‘The Ape of God’, this is one of the weightiest records we are likely to hear in 2015.

Theologian – ‘Pain of the Saints’ (Malignant)

I’m not entirely sure why I put myself through the new Theologian album. The first thing that needs to be clarified is how long it is. Two and a half hours is a long time to listen to anything, let alone a new album from Lee Bartow’s disturbingly brutal project. One cannot help but think that the title of his last record, a sprightly 45 minute effort called ‘Some Things Have to be Endured’, might have been better used here. Although there are, inevitably given the extreme running time, moments here that could be done without, the overall impact of ‘Pain of the Saints’ is tremendous thanks to its unwavering and obstinate determination to unnerve.

Zs – ‘Xe’ (Northern Spy)

Saxophonist Sam Hillmer may be the only member of Zs to have been present since the group’s 2000 inception, but the lucidity and cohesion of the current line-up – completed by guitarist Patrick Higgins and Liturgy drummer Greg Fox – means that Zs feel like a different band to the one that produced ‘Arms’ or even ‘New Slaves’. ‘Xe’ is not necessarily the strongest record in their catalogue, but it is a remarkably concise and effective statement of radical musical will. At times harsh – from the machine gun effect of opener The Future of Royalty to the twisting and turning of Corps and the title track – and at others flexibly subtle in its abstractness, ‘Xe’ makes for thrilling listening from start to finish.

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