Favorite Records of 2015

1. Rectal Hygienics – Ultimate Purity (Permanent)

2. Circuit Des Yeux – In Plain Speech (Thrill Jockey)

3. Destruction Unit – Negative Feedback Resistor (Sacred Bones)

4. Bichkraft – Mascot (Wharf Cat)

5. Mommy – s/t 7” (Toxic State)

6. G.L.O.S.S. – Demo (Not Normal/Self-Released)

7. Prurient – Frozen Niagara Falls (Profound Lore)

8. Obnox – Boogalou Reed (12XU)

9. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)

10. Eartheater – Metalepsis (Hausu Mountain)

11. L.O.T.I.O.N. – Digital Control & Man’s Obsolescence

12. Uniform – Perfect World (12XU)

13. November Novelet – The World in Devotion (Galakthorro)

14. Diat – Positive Energy (Iron Lung)

15. Kamasi Washington – The Epic (Brainfeeder)

16. Koufar – Lebanon For Lebanese (Fusty ****)

17. Bjork – Vulnicura (One Little Indian/Sony)

18. Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy (Merge)

19. Obnox – Know America (Ever/Never)

20. Heather Leigh – I Abused Animal (Editions Mego)

21. Round Eye – S/T LP (Ripping)

22. Broken Prayer – Misanthropocentric (Sorry State)

23. Pedestrian Deposit – The Architector (Monorail Trespassing)

24.Total Abuse – Excluded (Deranged)

25. Inferior Passions – Any Day (Chondritic Sound)

26. TALsounds – All The Way (Hausu Mountain)

27. Pye Corner Audio – Prowler (More Than Human)

Release of the Day: Prurient - Despiritualized EP

It's hard to keep up with Dominick Fernow. The dude has released an ungodly amount of music under both his Vatican Shadow and Prurient monikers, not to mention Ash Pool, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, Machinegun Warfare, and...well, you get the point. It's as impressive as it is overwhelming. Many of these releases have come out of his own Hospital Productions label, though it's an equally daunting trying to figure out exactly what has been released and who the hell did the releasing. And it's a total gambit as to whether his next release will come out in an edition of ten or one thousand.

Dom also has a bit of a maniacal, obsessive following: people will pay a LOT of money for some of his more obscure releases. Fortunately, a lot of his recordings is streaming more or less for free, and a lot of his output is very good. But for those of us who revere the physical and visual aspect of an artist's recording, finding an original cassette or lathe cut of his may be difficult or expensive.

Luckily, Tesco has recently started putting out/reissuing harder to find/acquire releases on their Archaic Documents sublabel starting last year. So far it's been knocking things way out of the park for industrial and noise lovers with some heavy hitters like Genocide Organ's KwaZulu-NaTal, a document of a live show from 1994 released as an LP, and Anenzephalia's Funkspiele, originally released as a CDr but redone as a vinyl LP in October 2013.

The newest batch of Archaic Documents is an LP of live Anenzephalia recordings and also a 10" vinyl reissue of Prurient's Despiritualized. Tomorrow's release of the day is going to be the Anenzephalia record, but today we're going to focus on Despiritualized.

Despiritualized originally came out in an edition of 110 on Hospital as a double cassette in October of 2011, and has been out of print pretty much since then. Some of it is on YouTube, but the whole EP is also streaming on Spotify, as is a lot of Dom's output. The 10" release that Tesco just did, however, is really something special. I mean, it just looks fucking great. Heavy stock packaging to ensure a healthy life on the shelf, and a properly weighted vinyl pressing to make for a full-sounding listen.

The music itself hinges somewhere between noise, power electronics, and dark ambient music. There's less of a crunch here than on an earlier record like History of Aids, but it doesn't share any of the techno-influence that a record like Through the Window has. There are moments of harshness cast throughout the record and a vocal performance that wavers between a militant roar and an elegiac coo is dotted here and there, though the mood of the record is the obvious star.

Definitely worth picking up and should be done soon, as these things never stay in stock for long.

Release of the Day: Various Adversaries - Around the Dragon's Broken Neck Hangs The Medal of Saint Lazarus

ATDBNHTMOSL was the first thing I bought from Hospital Productions, Dominick Fernow’s excellent label that releases everything on the darker wavelength of the music spectrum. I bought this cassette because of the Contrepoison songs - “I Keep on Searching” was something of a transformative song for me. A lot of the beauty lies in the simplicity, but it was also hearing that someone could make such a powerful song without a ton of resources. It probably changed the way I approached music on the whole.

This was my first foray into power electronics and industrial noise. I never really looked at the track list on this 2 x CS until recently. And my friend Erik is on there as Kama Rupa. This sounds totally ignorant, but I just had no idea. It’s funny how after a few years sometimes you become more acquainted with surrounding details that can make a piece of work more meaningful. I bought the 2 x CS because of the poppy song “I Keep on Searching,” and while that had a lot of impact, I’m equally impressed by the noise and electronic work of some of the other artists on here. Alberich, Blus De La Lum, FFH, Kama Rupa, Lussuria, Prurient, and Vatican Shadow all make appearances. It’s a great opening to the Hospital Productions roster.

Surprisingly, it's on Spotify too so you can listen to it Here