Raspberry Bulbs is a modern rock band that defies easy classification. People immediately reach for indie comparisons, hint at black metal (Bone Awl connection) and noise (Hospital Productions connection) in reviews, and you can often see the group playing live with today's crop of NYHC mutanoids. However, Raspberry Bulbs are lone wolves -- they don't quite fit in -- and it's exciting to witness this kind of thing happening in real time. Deformed Worship is Raspberry Bulbs' second proper album (the first with a full band), and Blackest Ever Black's first 'rock' record in their ever-growing catalog of experimental newcomers. It's a strong effort and immediately solidifies the group's place in aughts punk history. Think about it contextually -- when is the last time a record label with an almost entirely electronic roster released an album of pummeling rockist assault?

None of this would matter if the music itself didn't truly kill, and it does. Opener "Cracked Flesh" kicks off with a 1-2 guitar crunch, with vocalist/bandleader Marco del Rio lending a heavy wallop about 30 seconds into the song, propelling it forward with a hardcore energy. Throughout the album, drummer (and Other Music staffer) Ning Nong delivers gut-punch fills and driving cymbals, often leading the group into jarring start/stops. The 'guitar section' drives hard the whole record, knocking songs out, standing them back up again, and then descending in a new direction before you've fully recovered. A few tracks in, "Before Man" is their "Ready to Fight," with the song sticking to a plodding, unrelenting mid-tempo downer beat. Later, "Groping the Angel's Face" stands out because of its grotesque vocal delivery, harkening back to del Rio's previous project, Bone Awl.

You'd be safe to say the real beauty of Deformed Worship is that it's chock full o' crude, distorted, powerful no-frills riffs. It takes the palette of great noisy '80s sludge punk (Lubricated Goat, Scratch Acid), and mixes it with very slight, tonal black metal influences, Japanese heaviosty (think High Rise) and NWOBHM thuggish shredding, and heads into some kind of alternate reality where all these things blend and bleed together in a pinkish, slimy sonic black hole. A band clearing its own path and not looking back. An album that warrants repeated listening. Kill your fuckin' idols! [RN]

Bernard Parmegiani is arguably one of the most important composers of the French INA GRM electroacoustic school; his work stands as some of the most intricate and complex yet deceptively direct and powerful musique concrete, with pieces that flow in a forward narrative, sculpting fully immersive sonic worlds out of recontextualized prerecorded sounds. De Natura Sonorum is perhaps one of Parmegiani's most epic and infamous works, a beautifully detailed contrast of silence, space, deep resonating tones, and percussive textures. This remastered double-LP release is actually the first time that the complete work has been available in one concise collection, as its constituent parts have been issued piecemeal on assorted LPs over the years, and in its entirety previously only via CD. Here it is, though, in all of its glory -- every buzzing, throbbing, pulsating note, every rich drone, every flickering rhythm, every dazzlingly forward-looking slice of sonic architecture. This is pretty much as essential as electronic music gets, folks; few pieces of work are as fully-realized, deeply moving, and wholly engrossing as this, and while I'm a huge fan of Parmegiani's catalogue as a whole, this is certainly one of the best entry points into his universe as you're likely to hear. I cannot recommend this more highly. [IQ]

Sub Rosa, the legendary Brussels-based label for essential gems of avant-garde and experimental music, continues its tradition of excellence with this inspired release by Belgian composer Baudouin de Jaer. Over the course of two expertly recorded discs, de Jaer presents compositions for two ancient Korean instruments, the geomungo and gayageum, both zither-like devices whose origins can be traced back to the 4th and 6th centuries respectively, some legends even hinting at earlier times. Unlike more academic approaches to traditional instrumentation, de Jaer moves well beyond the strictly demarcated historical applications and explores the sonic and compositional possibilities of these rarely heard instruments. While honoring their Korean origins, the compositions present a fresh take, pushing towards John Cage-like modes of exploration, with a wide-range of deep and light timbres and a mysterious, blues-like sense of metaphysical imagination.

The first disc features new compositions mostly for the geomungo, whereas the second one is a welcome reissue of de Jaer's 2012 out-of-print release of gayageum pieces. On these discs, de Jaer audaciously zigzags through major and minor modes, exploring haunting pentatonic scales and expressive silences. An earlier review compared his approach to Jozef Van Wissem's recent appropriation of the classical lute, but while both musicians express the same spontaneity and at times affectionate experimentation, Baudouin de Jaer's approach is much more that of a composer. This is further highlighted by the fact that all instruments are played by virtuoso Korean musicians displaying ingenious finger work and subtle pacing, fully emphasizing the quietness and disruption of de Jaer's majestic compositions. Revealing a rich sound world that should appeal to everyone interested in the inventive reframing of traditional, avant-garde, and world music, Compositions for Geomungo and Gayageum is an absolute essential listen. [NVT]

After years of building up a following in the noise and industrial communities, and earning a reputation as the man whose production skills helped shape much of the Hospital label's back catalog, Kris Lapke's own music is finally seeing the widespread acclaim it deserves. Machine Gun Nest rounds up just some of the many highlights of his cassette output as Alberich, and while this may be a compilation, it's sequenced so well that it plays like a proper album. Lapke's personal vision takes in influences from early rhythmic industrial pioneers such as Esplendor Geometrico and PAL, the heaviest power electronics on the Tesco Organisation roster, and the vast expanse of John Carpenter's soundtracks. Though his work is at times too noisy for the dance floor, his rhythmic approach always has heads nodding nonetheless. Built around a distorted pattern that skitters across the stereo field, "Snow Is Falling in the Ruins of Stalingrad" is one of his finest tracks, and it's nice to see it pressed to vinyl after first appearing on Hospital's double-cassette compilation, White Eye of Winter Watching from 2011. Also welcome is the inclusion of both of his contributions to Hospital's hard-to-find 2010 double-cassette comp, Around the Dragon's Broken Neck Hangs the Medal of Saint Lazarus. Side two opens with a brief reprieve from the rhythmic onslaughts by way of the ambient track, "No Mistake," previously only available on last year's self-released Turned Back cassette. This collection is a great entry point for newcomers and a welcome record to spin while we wait for the official follow-up to his debut LP from two years ago, which sold out of its 200-copy pressing in a flash. [NN]

Nate Young's newest solo album, Regression: Blinding Confusion, is a gentle sonic nightmare full of long synth waves, pump organ, twisted percussion shakes and hallucinatory voices. Opener "Forever Day" is a slow-burning, smooth piece of organ drone, where we find Young toying with recurring melodic themes and high frequency sine wave tonal noise. It transitions flawlessly into "Beneath the Mist," a spooky, pulsating, electronic symphony inna recent Wolf Eyes style. The flip side is total monster lurker zone from the start, featuring "Escape with Nothing," which pairs growling Godzilla vocals against sputtering street-trash electronics. Many moments on this album recall recent drone sounds emanating from Call Back the Giants, as well as the lonesome/down aesthetics of JD Emmanuel. Weird, slow-moving, and affecting. [RN]

Also available from Mississippi Records is Nightingales and Canaries, a beautiful LP that collects performances by female vocalists from the Middle East during the early 20th century. Singers from Turkey, Roumelia, Istanbul, and Anatolia offer performances that veer between more raucous and flirtatious odes to love and sensuality, to more sedate, devotional, and demure cries of passion. The "Nightingales" of the title refer to the first generation of native Turkish women permitted to publicly sing after a wave of cultural reform, while the "Canaries" were those who fled the Republic for new lives in New York City. Their music is absolutely stunning in both its emotional power and rhythmic drive, as their yearning, aching voices intertwine and rise above a series of serpentine orchestral grooves. This is, without question, one of my favorite Mississippi releases to date, and the package is lovely, including a booklet filled with historical and contextual information. This one is NOT to be missed. [IQ]

In anticipation of Camella Lobo's debut LP as Tropic of Cancer, due in September on Blackest Ever Black, the label has repressed her 2011 12" in a limited edition of 500 copies, complete with the original picture sleeve. Written and produced with Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), these three tracks straddle the line between darkwave and post-punk, and combine the elements in a way that makes them sound more now than then, though fans of Minimal Wave and Dark Entries will find much to embrace. While there is an emphasis on claustrophobic atmosphere, these are more "songs" than abstract pieces, as Lobo's echoed-out vocals and skeletal guitar tones float ghost-like over persistent clicky drum machine beats. "Temporal Vessels" is a real gem, owing as much to the slower tracks from Pornography-era Cure (think "A Strange Day") as it does to classic shoegaze. If any of this sounds vaguely appealing, do not hesitate. This is a lucky last chance to get a long-sold-out 12" you'll wish you had when the forthcoming album is in constant rotation in a few months. [NN]

THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS

[IQ] Mikey IQ Jones
[MM] Matthew Malone
[RN] Ryan Naideau
[NN] Ning Nong
[NVT] Niels Van Tomme



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