I love small indie labels such as Cruel Nature Records.
The DIY scene is something that I wish was stronger back in the days when I was in a band called Duma. Back then, you either had to get lucky with a label or release some shoddily put together homemade CD’s that never really worked. But thankfully, it’s a lot easier in the modern age for bands who are not (for want of a better word) “mainstream”. Not everyone is going to be into the latest craze of K-Pop, Beyonce, Nu-Metal or whatever else is out there. Some people want music that challenges, that attacks and at some point, just plan confuses people.
Cruel Nature Records started in 2013, mainly producing limited cassette albums and digital downloads for noise and drone bands in the North-East of England. Since its inception, 117 albums/EP’s/single have been released via the label. Artists from all over the world have been lucky enough to have their music/noise/oral abuse unleashed upon the world by Cruel Nature Records, causing people to react in many wonderful ways.
Earlier this year, before my self-enforced hiatus, I was given some Cruel Nature Recordings releases to review.
Needless to say, Cruel Nature Records have released a few more since then. So, what I’m going to do as a way of an apology, is to do a brief review of every release (so far) from Cruel Nature Recordings in 2019. As I’m not 100% familiar with each band, I will be using the blurb from each of the pages on the Cruel Nature Bandcamp page (which you can find at this link).
Modern Technology – Modern Technology
Modern Technology is the self-titled EP from the East London duo of Chris Clarke (bass & vocals) and Owen Gildersleeve (drums). Formed through a shared frustration of a post-truth society and political unrest that is currently suffocating our global conscious, they confront these issues head-on, tackling themes of political injustice, social anxiety, austerity and inequality.
This EP is a six-track affair, starting with a wall of noise on “Modern Technology”, this drops into a Sludge drone track that reminds me a lot of Godflesh and a stripped back With The Dead. This noise is kept up with “Project Fear”, being thrown at you like a brick through a window. “Select Retail” has a sinister vibe, which crawls over you with the speed of a spider heading for your personals.
“Toner” has many things going for it: Part noise, part sludge, part Melvins, part something new, all deafening when played at the right volume. Penultimate track “Queue Jumper” is my favourite track, with a Fugazi/Blacklister vibe to the sound, very stark and heavy as hell. Ending this release is “Modern Detritus”, which brings back the wall of noise and a fuck load of feedback.
As an introduction to their sound, Modern Technology is a spot on. It’s heavy as hell, drowned in noise and you could use it to get rid of offensive humans in your life. It’s one of those releases that sparks something primal in you, with a glorious attempt to rob you of your ability to hear anything ever again. What is there not to like about it?
Top track – “Queue Jumper”
Whirling Hall of Knives – Knukke
Whirling Hall of Knives is a collaboration between Magnetize and The Last Sound, hailing from Ireland and they’re named after a Butthole Surfers song. Knukke is their 9th album, featuring four tracks called “Knukke”, “Skarper/Apprehe”, “Summer Love” and “Single-Use Earth”. The whole release is about forty minutes long, noisy and intense as hell.
Now, depending on how much you love noise music, that will tell you what you’re going to think of this release. If you shrink in horror at a sound that is as beautiful as Nurse With Wounds and Aphex Twin, with a massive dose of distortion and migraines, then this is not for you. However, if like myself, you appreciate a load of audio abuse, then Knukke is one of those releases that will bring a smile to your face, a pain to your temple and you’ll love it for each ear-piercing note. One of the most intense records of 2019, like a war of attrition, approach with care!
Top track – the whole thing, just have painkillers at the ready
Comicide – Moral Improvement (Live 1984CE)
Moral Improvement is a historical document, one that I feel lucky to have heard. COMICIDE were Stephen Ãh Burroughs and Eric Jurenovskis pre-Head of David. A short-lived project totalling two live performances and four tracks. Their two live shows were as support to power-electronics act, CON-DOM. The first was at the Star Club, Birmingham, a socialist establishment. The second was to Eve Hill Afro-Caribbean Club in Dudley. According to the Bandcamp release, these were two typically enterprising venues arranged by Mike Dando (CON-DOM).
What I love about these recordings is that you get a retro feeling. There is a slight remastering by M.P. Wood, but there has been no attempt to clean up the sound. And I think it would suffer if it was cleared up. There is an organic filth to this, one that suits the noise and industrial/post-rock sound of Comicide’s sound. You feel as if you’re in the middle of a hall, being bathed in sound and random shouts whilst in a swirl of fog. I love it when sets like this turn up, a quality ambient noise release!
Top track – All of it to be honest, it’s a mindblowing release
TAKAHIRO MUKAI – Paraponera Clavata
Releasing forty-one of anything is impressive, but forty-one music releases is a great feat. Since his debut in 2014, there’s no denying that Osaka based synthesist Takahiro Mukai is prolific. According to the blurb of the release, Takahiro Mukai pushes the boundaries of glitchy abstract techno with skittering fragmented rhythms and acidic modulations that bite and sting. This record was originally recorded in 2016, but finally saw the light of day in March this year.
From the beginning, you are challenged with different attacking sounds on “#207”, with competing sounds demanding your attention, but will you find a union of rhythm and noise. This theme is continued throughout the release, each track from “#210”, via “#218” and again with “#211”, you are confronted with a strange mix of minimalism, noise and a total disregard for rhythm. Of course, I love it, but I can also see why it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Top track – “#212”
Гласность (Glasnost) – Пиета (Pietà)
Гласность (Glasnost) are a Post-Punk/New Wave band from Moscow who deal in passive-aggressive songs. They are (according to their Facebook page) the maximum transparency policy used in the music creation of Alexander Chiesa (Skverna, Homepage, Horseraddish) and Alina Vaulina (Angedemer).
Пиета (Pietà) truly stands out from the rest of the Cruel Nature Record releases, whilst still fitting like a glove. It’s ultra heavy, with a pumping bass, massive keyboards and aggressive female vocals. The songs are catchy, with a fantastic piece of writing. In a different era, Пиета (Pietà) could have been an international smash. It still should be, as songs such as “Вспоминай (Remember)”, “ПТСР (PTSD)” and “Тело (Body)” sound fantastic to me. Not something I would always reach for, but impressive never the less.
Top track – “Тело (Body)”
Tankengine – Tankengine EP
Tankengine are one of those bands which I think should be forcibly played to a fuck load more people, especially people that find Liam Gallagher “edgy”. Hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne, this three-piece is made up of Iván Diaz on drums (Little Moscow, Lingua Vulgaris, Jolly Green Giants), Ross Harley on vocals and bass (Tomahawks for Targets, yourcodenameis:milo, Crucial Taunt) and Adam Hiles on vocals and guitar (Mammal Club, yourcodenameis:milo, The Shitty Beatles (what a fucking name!!!! ).
There is lots to love about this EP. There’s the noise which has a spikey indie feel (imagine The Jesus Lizard mixed with McLucsky and you’re in the right direction), the lyrics are clever and the fact it is over too soon is proof for me that this project has durability. A pitch/noise mindfuck of a five-track EP, it’s one of the highlights on this list. Why haven’t you purchased it already????
Top track – “Pedro”
Lovely Wife – Audible Beef
Ah, the ever beautiful Lovely Wife, a bastion of reverb, sludge and depravity for many moons. I love the way which Lovely Wife always sound completely different on a release from anything previous. They are constantly evolving, changing and creating a massive racket on the way. One of three releases from Lovely Wife this year, Audible Beef is a harsh mistress. It’s not easy on the ears, but then again, it’s not meant to be either. This two-track affair is just under forty-minutes long, brutal as a Japanese horror marathon and with a brilliant display of originality and tinnitus. It’s sludge/noise at it’s best – unrepentant, destructive and intense – exactly how I like this sort of stuff!
Top track – Take your pick, both are brilliant!
Fret! – A Vanity Spawned By Fear
The latest album from Fret has a special place in my heart. On my previous radio show, Attention Please, I was lucky enough to do a radio session with Fret before this was released. It was one of the loudest things I’ve ever experienced, you could feel the bass hitting you through the chest. A few of the songs that were recorded on that album have made it onto this release as well.
Out of the eight tracks, you have the usual noise/indie/sort of surf rock, you have low pounding bass, you have brilliant guitar work and a drummer that doesn’t seem to take a breath (as well as providing vocals). This is a great follow up to Through The Wound The Light Comes In, which was one of my unsung heroes of 2017. This will be in my top albums of 2019, that is a promise.
Top track – “SUSD”
John 3:16 – John 3:16/Visions of the Hereafter
Another reissue special, with not one, but two albums from John 3:16! JOHN 3:16 is the persona of Philippe Gerber, formerly one-third of the London based trio Heat From a DeadStar (2004–09). As JOHN 3:16, Gerber’s music has been released by such labels as Alrealon Musique, LCR Records, Flood Records, 75orLess, White Label Music, as well as Cruel Nature Records and more. Gerber has also collaborated with the likes of Oxbow’s vocalist Eugene S. Robinson, Pas Musique, Philippe Petit, Anthony Donovan, Peter Webber, and Mark Harris. Both albums were re-mastered at All Real Sound in 2019, with original art by the renowned Nicole M Boitos Hayworth (Swans, Insect Ark, The Body Lovers, Red Sparowes).
John 3:16 was released in 2007, during Gerber’s tenure in Head From a DeadStar, whilst Visions of the Hereafter was released in 2012. John 3:16 covers the seven tracks (with a Brucey bonus on track 8), the remaining songs make up Visions….. The electronic/industrial drone that was pushed out of the speakers is intense, which reminds me of a noise act I saw supporting Ginger Wildheart in a local club (Legends in Newcastle) many moons ago. Both sides have their own facets of tone that I found captivating, with a nod or two along the way to the likes of Swans and Skinny Puppy. However, to compare John 3:16 to another artist is a bit of a cop-out, as his output is fascinating in its own right. Out of all the releases here of artists I’ve not encountered before, this is the one that I will look further into.
Top tracks –
John 3:16 – “Whosoever Believeth”
Visions of the Hereafter – “Star of the Sea/Guardian Angel”
Waheela – A Wreck So Clean
Extract from my separate review of A Wreck So Clean – There are many things on A Wreck So Clean that make it stand out from its brethren, which can be quite hard for Waheela. I love the opening, that city soundtrack which fades into the song. I adore the intensity of the feedback, the boys have done a fantastic job! The production job by Tom Goodall, the cover, everything about this record is spot on, it’s a joy to behold. It doesn’t beat the holy grail that is HX Pop, that album is still timeless, but it’s so close. Everything is connected and essential to this album, the whole wouldn’t work with one piece missing. At the end of the day, A Wreck So Clean is an amazing noise record for 2019. It’s always great to have the Waheela boys back, long may they continue to fuck up with noise.
Top track – Just purchase the album already
Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska/Kombyant Robotron – Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska/Kombyant Robotron
Here is the blurb that goes along with the release on the Cruel Nature Bandcamp page:
In November 2018 extraterrestrial contact was made in Bensham, Gateshead (UK) by intrepid space monitoring experts Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska.
The encoding on said message was too encrypted so they enlisted their fellow universe explorer Junzo Suzuki to interpret the message.
Here are their findingsKombynat Robotron = Freak-out Krautrock from Kiel Germany
And that is pretty much it, all the information that comes with this, apart from the fact it was mastered by M.P. Wood. Which sort of suits this release down to the ground. The first track is from Kombynat Robotron and is called “Seltsame Attraktoren”. This is an eighteen-minute, trip-out, krautrock, a psychedelic droning monster that never gets dull. You will either fall in love with it and never want it to end, or you will think that time is going on forever. There will be no in-between point and I think that is a perfect tribute to this song. It’s not for everyone, it’s for the few and it’s going to make a massive impression.
The section track is by Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska and features Junzo Suzuki, lasting a much shorter 16 minutes. The first two minutes are a slow fade-in of screeching guitars, loose drums and various noises that float on the edge of hearing. Whilst the track takes a little too long to kick in for my own tastes, it’s still a great number once everything is going. The early psychedelic noise behind the band is powerful, with a compelling amount of drone to keep even the most stoned person engaged.
Top track – “Seltsame Attraktoren”
Nathalie Stern – Nerves & Skin
Of Swedish origin but now living in Newcastle, Nathalie Stern is a fantastic musician who has been creating noise with the likes of Candysuck and Lake Me, as well as releasing a traditional Swedish folk roots/experimental sounds on her 2010 solo album, Firetales. Neeves and Skin is her follow up to that record, which has been long anticipated, continues to use vocal harmonies, synth loops and drones. I first saw Nathalie supporting Thomas Truax at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle and she was one of the best acts of the night. Since then, I’ve caught her work in various project, most recently when she performed with Tilde at the 2018 edition of GNAW.
If your idea of “heavy” is the Misfits or Napalm Death, it’s likely that Nerves & Skin is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Same goes for pop fans, indie fans or the great unwashed. This is a very good thing in my opinion as somethings should surprise people, such as when metalheads in the 90s’ adopted The Prodigy. Nathalie has created a dark, brooding and pulsating monster here, one that is beautifully played, whilst at the same time being uniquely uncomfortable as well. There is a Scott Walker Tilt period atmosphere to the music, with industrial/avant-garde overtones as well. You will be lucky to find anything as haunting in the winter months as Nerves & Skin, what a great sophomore record, get it now!
Top track – “Stig in Lucia”
The world needs labels like Cruel Nature Records.
All artists need to have an outlet, somewhere to release their wares and not everyone is destined for a major label. But not everyone wants/needs to go down that well-trodden route, which has been the case for many years. I love that other labels contribute to these releases, as a limited edition tape run is very trendy these days. I love the dedication to the craft of outsider music that Cruel Nature Records strive for, it’s truly awe-inspiring. The world would be a lesser place if labels such as Cruel Nature Records did not exist, this year’s releases are evidence to show the world that sometimes, just sometimes, you need to go down the left-hand path.