Release of the Day: Akitsa - Grand Tyrans

Akitsa's Grands Tyrans covers a lot of territory. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise, though. Outre-Tombe (real name Pierre-Marc Tremblay) is also the brainchild of Contrepoison, Guerre Solitaire, in addition to running the Quebec label Tour-De-Garde. On Grands Tyrans, he uses his background in underground music to his utmost advantage, welding together his interests in the experimental, the electronic, the dark, the visceral, and the strange.

On select tracks, Outre-Tombe incorporates full-on, distortion-less singing. Though a song with more melodic vocals, like "Chimeres," would seem more at home on a deathrock record, it makes sense in reference to the whole. Of course, Tremblay knows this. That's why he'll follow such a song with a straight-up burner like "Noire Bete Ailee" pounding the listener with blast beats, shrieks, and cold riffs.

That's how it succeeds so brilliantly. Grands Tryans gets its strength from its variety, its brutality, and its commitment to fuck with its audience. Where black metal records often become tedious through uniformly-belabored structures, lyrical themes, and vocal style, Akitsa transcends.

Akitsa will also be performing at Berserktown II at the Observatory in Santa Ana, CA.

Release of the Day: Appetite - Appetite

There's a misunderstanding that electronica relies on consonance and formula while noise is pure chaos. Auditory art, like everything else, isn't birthed from a void: it isn't generated, but synthesized. Influences are gathered and then harvested, even if we're clueless to it. You can't know what you don't know, after all. In electronica and noise there has always been a give and take - a techno artist may interrupt his or her flow with a sample, a full-on rest in sound, or even a sonic blast, and a noise artist may indulge in rhythm and melody.

Appetite lives in this middle ground. The Brooklyn duo featuring Ciarra Black and Jane Chardiet pulls from industrial music and power electronics as much as electronica. Their debut EP on the consistently great Ascetic House NYC branch boasts dense electronic backrops laying a foundation for Chardiet's evocative, haunting vocals. The tape begins with the siren-song "Anxiety" a straightforward, sexy dance track. But then track "Bordeaux Gallow" comes and disturbs the fuck out of you with its startling, lurching beat and violently disorienting vocals - Chardiet screams and gags after lengthy pleas and moans.

The two-fold, unexpected nature makes the tape. It takes the listener for a trip through the joy of drug-littered, dimly-lit nightclubs, but also makes sure not to pass over the fear, the clenched jaw, and the painful I-swear-my-body-has-nothing-left-to-vomit nausea from the comedown.