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DET KÄTTERSKA FÖRBUND (Nordvargr + Trepaneringsritualen)

Cold Spring presents two Swedish titans - NORDVARGR (MZ.412) and ᚦᛟᚦ ᚷᛁᚷ (TREPANERINGSRITUALEN) - teaming up for a bludgeoning dose of Death Industrial majesty.

Out 16th July. Pre-order: CD | Ltd LP Olive | Ltd LP Black | Combo (All 3 Formats) | Bandcamp

*CD NOW IN STOCK AND SHIPPING!!* Vinyl in stock early next week. Pre-order price remains in place until 15th July.

COLD SPRING MASK + DONATIONS

We have just a handful of Cold Spring face masks left in stock. **100% of profits on this item will be donated to food banks and animal rescue charities** Once they're all gone we will make our donations. These will not be reprinted.

UK > USA SHIPPING

The majority of Cold Spring label titles (inc vinyl) are available at domestic prices from our U.S. distributor Forced Exposure.

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NEW IMPORTS
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AIGOKEROS - 'Polar Axis Manipulation // Spinalform Temple' 12" (Unheimlich) - £15

Gravitational inversions, magnetic dimensional shifting, holographic weapons against time. Ritual Dark Ambient / Musique Concrete / Esoteric Electronic muzak from U.S. artist Christopher Ashbrook (Telluris). Ltd x 150 hand-numbered copies with obi strip and download card.

DURTHANG - 'The Winter Woods' MCD (Crush The Desert) - £9

Old school Black Metal from Spain, featuring Pesticum members. Raw Black Metal with folk elements and an archaic / atmosphere in the vein of 90's Isengard or Satyricon. Melodic guitars, keyboards and grim, screaming pagan vocals, with lyrics covering Paganism, nature and the writings of J.R.R Tolkien. Dark, heavy, and raw... a homage to the woods and the old ancient spirits. Ltd x 300 copies in a 6-panel digipak.

EMERGE - 'Steps' CD (Attenuation Circuit) - £11

The album "steps" is composed exclusively from field recordings made at the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial site. It is not possible to represent the horrors of concentration camps in music, and - a lesson learned from the many failures in the history of "industrial music" - the attempt to do so will inevitably result in trivialising, at best. Therefore, this is not about a concentration camp; it is about a memorial site. "Steps" shows to what extent contextual information about the sonic subject matter of a piece influences our listening. For part 2, Emerge invited sound artists to give their characteristic processing to the original field recordings. The resulting audio fragments are fed into the performance, symbolising a peaceful, solidary encounter of cultures: Anja Kreysing, b°tong, Claus Poulsen, Freiband, Herr Penschuck, Satøri, Sofia Bertomeu, SRVTR, and more. "There is an eerie atmospheric quality to the music... with noise musicians like Satøri this would lead to some massive doubling of noises, you'd be surprised to hear that this is of similar delicate quality as the other two pieces; sounds are fading in and out very gently as in the others.... This is the best Emerge release I heard so far" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 300 copies in a digisleeve.

GASPAROTTI / CIULLINI / STANCATI - 'Portraits' CD (Unexplained Sounds) - £11.50

Portraits is a new series from Unexplained Sounds Group focusing on electronic and electro-acoustic music composers. Each release creates a 'portrait' of three musicians by showcasing representative pieces of their recent musical journeys, serving as a guide for further listening and a means of exploring their work. This first volume is dedicated to three Italian musicians: Gabriele Gasparotti (Extrema Ratio), Daniele Ciullini, and Mario Lino Stancati. Gasparotti and Stancati are among the most talented emerging musicians on the Italian experimental scene, while Ciullini is a veteran of the post-industrial underground who, after a very long silence, returned to music in 2012. Ltd x 200 copies in a digipak.

NOTCHNOI PROSPEKT - 'Democracy And Discipline' CD (Fulldozer) - £11.50

A reissue of the Notchnoi Prospekt's 1987 album, originally self-released on cassette. Notchnoi Prospekt was formed in 1985 by Alexei Borisov and the late Ivan Sokolovsky, both of whom came from an academic field. The band worked in a wide range of styles - from dance synth-pop to post-punk and industrial, becoming one of the most advanced projects of the Soviet underground. In 1987, following the addition of drummer Sergei Pavlov and violinist, keyboardist and vocalist Dmitry Kutergin, they completely immersed themselves in industrial electronics combined with psychedelia, noise, free improvisation and absurdism. After a long break, Frozen Light released "Polyurythane", the first Notchnoi Prospekt studio album since 1993. Now the time has come for "Democracy And Discipline"... recorded and mixed by Borisov and Sokolovsky in Moscow at the mobile studio of underground producer and sound engineer Igor Vasiliev, this CD reissue is supplemented with two bonus tracks recorded live during the Notchnoi Prospekt's anniversary concert at the Rus' club 2004, Vienna, Austria. Ltd x 300 copies in a 6-panel digipak.

OLE LUKKØYE - 'Zapara' CD (Fulldozer) - £11.50

An extended reissue of a significant Russian album of the 90's, originally released on vinyl in 1993 (AnTrop). Recording for over 30 years, Ole Lukkøye is an ethno-electronic band from St. Petersburg, and is well known to all connoisseurs of world music and psychedelia. The debut album occupies a very special place in the creative heritage of Ole Lukkøye; its unique and original sound has absorbed both the influences of the best examples of the 80's darkwave scene and the tunes of various regions of the world, as well as the psychedelia of meditative rock, and the avant-garde techniques of jazz fusion. The album's magical spirit-lifting atmosphere is enframed by hypnotic recitatives in Russian performed by Boris Bardash (also known for writing and performing on Theodor Bastard's albums "Pustota" and "Beloe: Hunting For Fierce Beasts"), and Andrei Lavrinenko. Features two previously unreleased bonus tracks: the meditative instrumental 'Enfilade' and the first version of the song 'Toomze', which was recorded in 1995, but was never included in this form in the eponymous album released a year later. Ltd x 300 copies in a 6-panel digipak.

ORGANUM ELECTRONICS - 'Solitude' CD (Siren Records) - £14.50

David Jackman (Organum), a British heavyweight launched a new ultra heavy Drone Noise project under the name of Organum Electronics at the end of 2019. The difference from Organum is that it literally uses electronics as a material for creating sounds. "Solitude" inherits the style of the previous two works, but it is made with a harder and more intense sound mass approaching. The flow of an album in which multiple layers of electronics transform its form can be called action painting by sound. Entrust yourself to a rich sound block with as loud a sound as possible. "This one is sure to please fans of early Organum releases with its rolling churning drone industrial electronics. Again, music made by Jackman, in a world conceived by Jackman, sounding exactly like a part of this immense Jackman language. A new staggering piece to this immense ongoing project" (Penultimate Press). Ltd x 500 copies in a digisleeve.

PHURPA & QUEEN ELEPHANTINE - 'Ita Zor' CD (4iB Records) - £11.50

This inner space journey is a collaboration between PHURPA, renowned Russian ritualists who perform the ancient Bon music of Tibet, and QUEEN ELEPHANTINE, the avant-garde rock group formed in Hong Kong and now based in Philadelphia, USA. Together they weave history with the future into an offering that reflects the present moment, slowly teasing the tension of a dense electric buzzing chaos while seeking anchor and abandon in ancient knowledge. This chant and drone work goes incredibly deep, astronomically far out, and is the sound of death as much as of healing. Phurpa provide the backbone with their transcendent thunderous throat chanting while Queen Elephantine create an otherworldly cloud around them, using gyaling horns, conch shells, gongs, flutes, ceremonial bells and bowls, drums, guitar, and electronics. The artwork features a striking sculpture by Transylvanian skull-carver Victor Seiche; a fitting image for the sound of a dead wisdom tradition adored, adorned, and defiled with sincere devotion. Ltd x 200 copies in a 6-panel digipak.

ROBERTO DANI - 'Notturno' CD (Silentes) - £12

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture". This saying has been around for decades. Whoever said it wished to emphasize the uselessness of translating into words the musician's work. This saying springs to mind when listening to Roberto Dani's new work "Nocturne". An atypical percussionist who dwells on silence and sound fragments rather than large blows and impact, Roberto resembles an expert mountaineering guide leading you on a hike: he teaches to appreciate the imperceptible sound of heartbeats and breathing, and the thin noises of wind, steps, stones and grass. Creating sound on sound as if he was laying stones on stones, gesture after gesture, Roberto builds a cathedral of silence, embedding whispers and other almost unnoticeable noises with the rubbing of his fingers. He moves around his astonishing sound sculptures as if dancing in the dark. Ltd x 300 copies in a 6-panel digisleeve.

SCHLOSS TEGAL - 'Musick From Madness' CD (Eighth Tower Records / Unexplained Sounds) - £12

Spawned out of the decaying biomechanical world of early industrial music, which fused technology with primitive impulses to create bleak and harsh soundscapes instead of danceable techno pieces, Schloss Tegal released "Musick From Madness" on cassette in 1991. Despite being their second outing (the first being the Procession Of The Dead 7"), it already showcased the elements that would grant them the title of pioneers - or even founders - of the dark ambient genre. 30 years later, "Musick From Madness" finally has a proper reissue. We have the paradox of harsh and soft textures, obscure samples, a cinematic presence, and loose song structures that flow like nightmares from which you can't wake up. If industrial intended to place the listener in the center of a tumbling building being demolished by heavy and rusty machinery, Schloss Tegal aimed to create ethereal wreckage. Every detail and every sample is buried under decaying sound layers that feel as if they are struggling to keep everything underneath, but their presence somehow seeps through the cracks. To listen to the suffocating atmospheres of "Musick From Madness" is to let the darkness take hold and lead us through a slow, overwhelming and spiraling descent into uncharted territory. Ltd x 200 copies in a digipak.

TIBETAN RED / THE OVAL LANGUAGE / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE - 'The Breath Of The Hydra' CD (Attenuation Circuit) - £11

A three way collaboration between artists residing in Germany, Rennes, France and Catalan. This is the culmination of an on-and-off exchange which began in 2016; a continuous exchange of audio material, ideas and suggestions. Salvador Francesch of TIBETAN RED, and Guido Hübner of DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE meet again after a concert of at the LEM Festival in Barcelona. Since then working together became evident, as was the choice of including Klaus-Peter John (THE OVAL LANGUAGE) with whom several collaborations have already seen the light of day. The association of their different sound worlds and even more specifically their extremely particular fashions of creating them was meant to merge and melt in a whole able to blur clear distinctions with only an occasional sneaking out of a head and a hissing tongue amongst many that takes the scent and direction respectively in the brooding heat that forges shape and carves direction. "All three composers here share a love for the methods of musique concrète; cutting and pasting with sound to tell a story and that is what they do best here... something that is a top product. They work their way through all the material at a careful pace, not fast, not slow... There is some great flair used in creating this music and altogether a great collaboration, free of ego!" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 300 copies in a 6-panel digipak.

UMPIO - 'Insektio' CD (Zhelezobeton) - £11

Elektrobiologic microsonics to tape 2015-2020. Umpio is the solo project of the Finnish sound explorer Pentti Dassum, a member of numerous bands with incredible stylistic coverage from noise-grind (Romutus) to challenging electroacoustic experiments (SM/DP) and unpredictable brutal noise performed on self-built metal objects. However there's no junk noise this time - "Insektio" is made from massive oscillations, electronic microsounds and tape manipulations. Like a heavy trip into nature, listen with one ear to the ground, how all the insects work, how temperature shifts affect the resonance of the planet, and how civilizations crumble away as only the frogs and moss will survive. Ltd x 300 hand-numbered copies in a 6-panel digisleeve, comes with release artcard.

VOLKOLAK - 'Chornaya Moya' CD (Crush The Desert) - £10.50

"Chornaya Moya ("Black Mine") is the sixth album from the famous Pagan Folk band, after 2016's acclaimed "Ice Walk And Tales Of The Old Wolf". Hailing from the Amur Region, Russia, the band utilise Slavic style folk instruments along with acoustic guitars and clean vocals / chants bringing in a medieval and pagan atmosphere. All of the musical instruments (including flutes, mandolins, harps, bagpipes) have a very powerful sound to them. Volkolak creates another recording that continues the Slavic pagan / folk music style they had established on previous releases, capturing the atmosphere of pre-Christian Russia. The production sounds very dark, while the lyrics are written in Russian and cover heathenism, ancient traditions, referencing both Slavic and Norse Paganism Gods. Ltd x 500 copies in an 8-panel digipak with lyrics in Russian and cover art by Ekaterina Dolgova.

WUORNOSAILEEN BANDE - 'The Eternity Of Accumulation From Cradle To Grave' CD (St.An.Da / Silentes) - £12

Power Electronics / Death Industrial / Experimental Noise from Italy. "The continuous accumulation, a society driven towards destruction, an increasingly extremist religiosity, a reality distorted by information. Misleading information, right and wrong words, non-communication between people except with false hatred or hypocritical love, the return to parochialism between states, false prophets and new dictators: the technological Middle Ages have arrived". For this incarnation, Wuornosaileen Bande is: Laura Agerli, Lorenzo Abbatoir, Tiziana Vallero, Massimo Basili. Guests: Sandblasting, Human Virus Transmission, Omicidio, Claudio Frassine. Definitely one for fans of Atrax Morgue and She Spread Sorrow. Ltd x 200 copies in a 6-panel digisleeve.

WYRM - 'Wolfish Outlaws & Other Heathens' CD (4iB Records) - £11.50

WYRM was the primary project of Allan Zane (2000-2011). The project was disbanded in 2011, but is now in the "exhumation" process. Using whatever technology was at hand at any given moment, WYRM constructed aural amalgamations of genres now often referred to as dark ambient and experimental electronica. WYRM's fascination was with the shadow aspects of human existence - yet constituted virtue, consciousness-expansion, and illumination. "Wolfish Outlaws & Other Heathens" is a collection of rare and unreleased recordings from 2000-2011. This collection offers an opportunity to showcase music that otherwise might never see the light of day - including a cover of Psychic TV's "I Believe What You Said" and a collaboration with Nocturnal Emissions. Allan Zane (WYRM, Le Scrambled Debutante, Solumenata) has worked with such luminaries as the late Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Psychic TV), Robin Storey (Rapoon, :Zoviet France:), Richard Rupenus (The New Blockaders, K2, GX Jupitter-Larsen (The Haters), Mark Davis (Omenya), PBK, Nigel Ayers (Nocturnal Emissions), and many more. A must-have for any aficionado of Dark Ambient or the Avant-Garde. Ltd x 200 copies in a 6-panel digisleeve with 8-page booklet.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'Gudelnaya Polyana - Solar Systo Togathering 2020' 3 x CD (Zhelezobeton) - £18

A three-hour long compilation of live recordings, made in September 2020 at Gudelnaya Polyana (droning glade) - the experimental stage of the Solar Systo Togathering festival. Every year musicians gather in the woods of the Leningrad region to take part in this ritual action. The unity and diversity of the 'total drone' sound on this commemorative compilation gathers musicians from different fields: ambient, drone, noise, electronic, and academic. The first disc gently immerses us in the forest thicket, swamps and electrified fogs; the second takes us further into the labyrinths of sound experiments and unlikely consonances; the third begins with the piercing clarity of dawn, which gives way to a calm daytime mood, followed by the coming of night; the deep darkness thickens, we're riding electromagnetic waves and trying to look beyond human existence. In order to recapture the atmosphere more precisely, the tracks of 28 artists are smoothly rendered in three hour-long mixes: Aiko Online feat. Kikimota & Anton Sonda-Junglov, Andrew Sprrw & Nika, AU, Drone Liberation Front, Egregoros, Evergreen DJ, JAGATH, Jam Dazan, Kontakt S Inoplanetyanami Eto, Kryptogen Rundfunk, Lunar Abyss, Mira Drevo, Noises Of Russia, Peter Theremin, Petrograd Drone Gathering, Sacha Rush & Inspectr, Six Dead Bulgarians, Soilcult, Sonozero, Svetlo111, Symphocat, Tile-Shore, Tim Six, Tremorkikimor, Tretiy Mir, Tuhjades Maades, W I I, Waldgrenze. Ltd x 300 hand-numbered copies in a 6-panel outsized matt-laminate sleeve.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'r | e' CD (Attenuation Circuit) - £7

A compilation of experimental artists who were invited to play the "re:flexions sound-art festival", Augsburg, Germany in 2020. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the line-up of the festival had to be changed, but the CD gives a very good idea of the festival's original concept. The individual artists were "matched" in trio or quartet configurations to create new collaborations. In anticipation of performing live at the festival together, the newly created line-ups produced the tracks for this album by way of remote collaborations: Bu.d.d.A. Stadlmeier & Chris Sigdell (aka b°tong), joined forces with trumpeter Fabio Fabbri and Tangerine Dream violinist Hoshiko Yamane to create a haunting yet mind-opening space scenario; Agente Costura plays her sewing machine, laying the beat for post-industrial noise-electro in a trio with Occupied Head & Boban Ristevski on electronics; Gintas K, Calineczka, & Wilfried Hanrath weave a delicate tapestry of lowercase drone sounds, interspersed with fragile metallic sounds; Lee Enfield, Waterflower, & KOMPRIPIOTR, dive deep into drone ambient territory, yet with a noisy edge buried underneath the lush layers of harmony. N(91), meets like-minded duo Deep, who use two electric bass guitars and some electronics to create their music, closing the album with meditative post-rock drone ambient. PVC sleeve.

BACK IN STOCK!

CREATION THROUGH DESTRUCTION & NIHILIST ASSAULT GROUP - 'Philosophy Of The Hammer' LP (4iB Records) - £17

This full length LP release completes the collaborative process between 2 highly esteemed noise projects: Serbian Harsh Noise act Creation Through Destruction (Dead Body Collection) and England's notorious and anonymous noise terrorists Nihilist Assault Group (The New Blockaders). Much effort was involved in the production of this release as the original sound frequencies were deemed impossible to be cut on vinyl. After many roadblocks, the audio content (for vinyl) was finally realised, all painstakingly managed through effective mastering and readjustments of the erratic fluctuations of extremely high frequencies. There is very minimal compromise to the original sound source and the entire full length tracks on both sides are delivered in its true ear screeching and brain busting layers of sonic brilliance. Blast this to its optimum levels to bring about further satisfaction to the inner psyche, and enjoy being submerged in an aural sea of discordant bliss. Ltd x 250 copies with full size numbered insert.

DAVE PHILLIPS - 'Post Homo Sapiens' CD (Attenuation Circuit) - £9

Dave Phillips has often been classified as a noise musician, and this is true to the extent that high volumes and extreme frequencies play an important role among his musical strategies. However, the quieter moments full of foreboding (of ecological disasters, for example) are equally important, especially in this album. "Post Homo Sapiens" is not just about full-on sonic assaults, but also a lot about atmosphere and suspense - hence it is no coincidence that one track of the album is dedicated to Jerry Goldsmith, composer of myriad film scores such as "Omen" and "Alien" However, rhythmic, quasi-industrial noise parts also have their place in this album, as well as the dissonant microtonal droning of the opening piece "Biosemiotics", which sounds somewhat like Tony Conrad's early-60's string experiments, possibly played by crickets. Conrad explained his interest in the drone in socio-political terms, namely from his interest in the dismantling of any and all forms of organised culture. This concern may well be shared by Dave Phillips as he urges us to shift our attention from the narrow focus of our human-made culture to the larger natural world of which we are only a part. "Ritual protest music". Sealed card sleeve.

DAY BEFORE US - 'Ode À La Nuit D'Ombre' CD (OPN) - £11

Day Before Us is a melodic dark ambient duo whose style borders graceful neoclassical tones, oneiric soothing textures and chilling soundscapes. On these new pieces Philippe Blache and Natalya Romashina embark on a musical journey of immediate expressive moods, often mystical, exalted, animated by a tragic and existential breath, touched by a seraphic sense of poetry and guided by poignant emotional stories. Singer Natalya provides achingly beautiful vocals with poetical lyrics favouring the aesthetic of suggestion and a tremendous sense of musical fluidity. Those evocative, virtuosic lyrical components communicate with the invocatory, litanous and harmonious qualities of Philippe Blache's instrumental compositions. "Ode à la nuit d'ombre" is an album of staggering beauty where all pieces come together organically. Gatefold digisleeve.

FRAGMENT. - 'Home' CD (OPN) - £11

Fragment. is Thierry Arnal, a Frenchman with a penchant for slow, long, simple arrangements inspired by Low and Jesu. Two lengthy, lush tracks (just under 50 minutes) that take in elements of drone and shoegaze with a keen but subtle emphasis on melody, or rather a sense of melodics. "Home" juxtaposes slowly building layers of extremely down-tuned guitars with atmospheric electronic instruments and loops to create huge, swirling soundscapes that need to be heard loud. Features Nicolas Dick. Ltd x 500 copies in a digipak.

LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM PROSPEKT - 'Khara-Khoto' CD (Zhelezobeton) - £11

The first new studio album from this project since 2012's "Atimudra". Khara-Khoto was the name of a Tangut city with Buddhist culture which existed in the XI-XIV centuries before it was captured by the troops of the Chinese Ming dynasty (now located in Inner Mongolia). The idea of creating this album appeared after visiting a special exhibition of original artifacts from this ancient settlement buried in the sands. From a musical point of view, one can hear the full sound palette typical for Lunar Abyss. This includes multilayered ambiental sketches with flowing chains of samples, voice loops and acoustic instruments; rhythmic percussive tracks with vigorous pulsating energy; abstract collages made of analogue electronics, radio noises and fragments of television programs; semi-static enveloping drones spiced up with field recordings. Ltd x 300 copies in a foldout cardboard matte digisleeve.

MAUTHAUSEN ORCHESTRA - 'Private Thoughts Recordings' CD (St.An.Da / Silentes) - £12

Nine years after the death of Pierpaolo Zoppo, an unforgettable artist and a forerunner of Industrial Music with his cult Mauthausen Orchestra project, this new CD of completely unreleased material (containing tracks he composed between 2009-2012) is finally realised. The album shows us Pierpaolo Zoppo at the peak of his artistic maturity. After investigating the most extreme and intransigent sounds for years with impetus, he finds a moment of reflection and some quietness, without completely abandoning its original instinctive and 'wild' nature. He knocks corners and softens forms, giving us ten tracks of music / non-music as strong as ever, but at the same time touching and poetic as never before. "Private Thoughts Recordings" (the title taken from hand-written notes by Pierpaolo on the original recordings) is perhaps the best gift that the artist could have left us before departing for his long journey, and the most intense proof of his deep sensitivity and his incredible avant-garde sound visions. A final chapter not to be missed. Ltd x 200 copies in a 6-panel digisleeve with visuals by Stefano Gentile.

PHURPA + MARE DI DIRAC - 'Misericordia' LP (4iB Records) - £19

Misericordia (Turin Session) was recorded in Italy in September 2015 and is a collaboration between shamanistic Bon spiritualists Phurpa from Russia and experimental drone and field recordings Italian act Mare Di Dirac, fronted by Lorenzo Abattoir. The overall album drowns you in a meditative tantric soundscape consisting of Alexey Tegin's deep gutteral vocal vibrations (rgyud-skad) or 'tantric voice' and Lorenzo Abattoir's dark ambient field recordings and sound effects. Organic sounds are produced by bells, gongs, chimes and traditional hand-made instruments created from human bone and animal remains, resonating a background ambience of calm and prayer. This very intimate and powerful recording showcases the soul wrenching effects that take hold and the artists ability to shake the foundations of the human subconscious through ritualistic and meditative performance. Ltd x 250 numbered copies with insert.

SHROUD OF VAPOUR - 'Suicide Forest Sessions' CD (4iB Records) - £11.50

Hiroshi Hasegawa, Rohco, L'eclipse Nue (Daniel Sine) and Yoshiko Honda collaborate as Shroud Of Vapour for this special project. The Suicide Forest in Aokigahara, Japan, serves as the recording ground due to its strong historic association with demons in Japanese mythology as well as being a popular place for suicide in Japan. The dense forest is still, quiet, void of almost all wildlife, bringing out the very nature of the artists true intent, reflecting the atmosphere of desolation and despair of a haunted suicide ground. The weaving in and out of distant female wails and ambient like soundscapes seem to echo the lost spirits of those that have chosen to take their own lives here. This entire project was recorded using only equipment that required no electricity and relied purely on battery power. Strangely enough, out of a total of 3 recordings that were done that day, only 2 were able to be retrieved, and are thus presented here in their true form. Ltd x 250 copies.

THE NEW BLOCKADERS & CREATION THROUGH DESTRUCTION - 'Negative Mass' 12" (4iB Records) - £13

Two prolific noise making entities partnering together with the intent of inducing a breakdown of the senses through their own distinctive identity of generating relentless noise assault. This collaboration of UK harsh noise pioneers The New Blockaders, with Serbia's HNW act Creation Through Destruction (Dead Body Collection) sees the merger of two noise genres with unique creative sound methodologies being amplified and redefined to an even greater level of sonic brutality. A full on display of explosive sonic violence, anguished background screams drowned further by a wall of weaving noise. This incessant ear battering of tonal destruction sustained through the complicated textured layers of brutal grating pandemonium is what nightmares are made of, and made even more disturbing by the masked anonymity of madmen. Direct metal mastering for an extra loud cut. Ltd x 250 numbered copies with insert.

THE SAND RAYS (THE INFANT CYCLE) - 'Remembered Vol. 2' CD (Zhelezobeton) - £11

The Sand Rays is the new project of The Infant Cycle's Jim DeJong. This second volume features recycled sounds of shortwave radio, household appliances and malfunctioning electronics, recorded 2016-2018. Jim's music is like ghostly monochrome corridors and sound tunnels which often end with sudden turns and dead ends. It is like endless fields of inner calm, woven from reverberations and atonal textures, giving way to mysterious several second-long cuts in which seemingly almost nothing happens. It is like a quiet psychedelic introversion, a contemplation of bitcrushed emptiness, a parallel existence in intangible layers of space. Ltd x 107 hand-numbered copies in a gatefold digisleeve.

THE STONE TAPES - 'Revolutions In The Head' CD (Attenuation Circuit) - £11

The Stone Tapes here is: Edward-Ka Spel (The Legendary Pink Dots), Frans De Waard (Beequeen, Frieband, THU20, Shifts, Kapotte Muziek etc), plus Big City Orchestra members dAS, Ninah Pixie, and Philip Knight. "Revolutions In The Head" represents an almost transcendental stream of 60 minute soundtracks created over several days for a TV station in San Francisco. The concentration involved was almost terrifying, but the satisfaction displayed when that clock hit the magical 60 minute mark seemed like a glorious release. Big City Orchestra instigated the project and were joined by Frans while Edward Ka-Spel joined for the last part of the penultimate session, having literally just got off the train from London and connected his devices mid-session. When the music was over, there seemed to be a general consensus that this meeting of minds needed to be heard by a wider audience. "A transcendental head trip breathing a calm, blurred atmosphere of circular, hence the 'revolutions' in the title, synth waves, frequencies and radio sounds. That 'revolutionary' circular sound aspect is more or less the central theme here, embellished with, at times Nurse With Wound-like sounds, reversed tones, modified analogue squeaks and bleeps, static and a quieter bit with sequenced chords... a very listenable and pleasant sound sculpture" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 300 copies in a digisleeve.

VOLKOLAK - 'Ice Hike & Tales Of The Old Wolf' CD (Crush The Desert) - £10.50

First album since 2012 from this famous Pagan Folk band hailing from the Amur Region, Russia. The band utilise Slavic style folk instruments along with acoustic guitars and clean vocals / chants bringing in a medieval and pagan atmosphere. All of the musical instruments (including flutes, mandolins, harps, bagpipes) have a very powerful sound to them. Volkolak creates another recording that continues the pagan / folk music style they had established on the last release, the production sounds very dark and raw while the lyrics are written in Russian and cover Slavic and Norse Paganism themes. Ltd x 500 copies in a 6-panel digipak.

VOMIR - 'Cloîtrez Et Tuez Vous Tous' CD (4iB Records) - £11.50

With "Cloîtrez Et Tuez Vous Tous", Vomir aims to return to the most basic essence regarding his identity as a Harsh Noise Wall practitioner. This single full length track of more than one hour is the final result of that depurating mindset; focusing on achieving the true bone of his signature sound, while continuing to devastate all ears with a raw and unmovable wall of static. Still as relentless, the boundaries of its aesthetics get pushed further and deeper by the storm of distortion overlayed by the bleakness of massive cloistered sounds. Romain stays true to his non-conformist approach by presenting his Harsh Noise Wall entirely stripped of any ideas and unabided by any rules. This album reflects Vomir's nihilistic view of the world through the effective manifestation of his noise-craft, delivering a remorseless and emotionless sonic punishment. Ltd x 300 copies in a digisleeve.

VOMIR - 'Recouvre La Merde' CD (4iB Records) - £11.50

"Recouvre la Merde" or to loosely translate, "Cover the Sh*t" embodies the dark and sick humour of French 'troubadour' of HNW, Vomir. Romain Perrot unleashes a torrent of unyielding wall-of-noise-harshness through 3 brain-convulsing tracks (72 mins) delivered in one long continuous movement. A guttural avalanche of sonic boom / unpleasant roar harangue the listener into psychotic submission. The grinding movement of each abysmal track succumbs the listener into a state of sonic claustrophobia through its absolutely unique monolithic tonal amplification, all streaming seamlessly as one complete orchestral symphony. The album is also visually disturbing due to the vivid reference to coprophagia. This is attributed to the creative design work of imagenumérique's Felix Rosier. Do not buy if you are easily offended! Ltd x numbered 250 copies.