Thursday, September 13, 2012

REVIEW: SKIN IRRITANT COMPILATION

A New Review for the Skin Irritant comp on Memory Wave Transmission popped up.

There is a GRIZ+ZLOR track on it, and overall it's a really good harsh noise comp. I don't have any copies left, but i'd still recommend finding a copy if you can.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

RETURN OF NOTHINGNESS

A few more reviews popped up recently, the first from Memory Wave Transmission, concerning last summer's Glaciating 2. The next review just popped up on Musique Machine, highlighting the "swan song" from the GRIZ+ZLOR project, Black Summer put out by the ALWAYS excellent Phage Tapes.
I'll have my copies with the the extra book available sometime before the apocalypse, but if you can't wait, buy it from Phage and e-mail me and i'll make sure you have the ability to buy a copy of the book when it is available.

here is also the crucial blast web shop blurb on the release:
"According to the label, this is the final release from Griz+zlor after six years of activity, signing off with two hour long cassettes filled with the sort of murky, tectonic HNW that this project has primarily worked with. Black Summer Each side of the spray painted tapes features a different track (titled, in order: "A Coffin Full Of Hope", "Paint It Black", "Always Wear A Smile", "Last Gasp") that evokes the general macabre atmosphere that tends to cling to Griz+zlor's recordings. I haven't listened to a whole lot of this project's recordings, but what I have heard has been very consistent in how impenetrably bleak these noise-walls sound, and the material on this set is no different. For over a half-hour, you are enveloped in a distant washed-out rumble of corroded low-end drone, similar to the sound of an airliner roaring through a storm in the middle of the night, or the colossal reverberations of whole cities collapsing into the earth as heard from ten miles away. Compared to a lot of the harsh noise wall material that I listen to, this is borderline ambient. In fact, I can't think of anyone else in the "HNW" field right now that sounds as subdued and as minimalist as Griz+zlor does on this set, although as with any quality HNW, immersive listening at high volume and/or with the use of headphones will reveal some ominous-sounding activity obscured by the vast murky avalanche-drone, mainly in the form of eerie foghorn-like tones and minor key chordal movement that occurs way, way out on the periphery of the sound. All in all, though, the sprawling pitch-black rumblescape offered here is meditative, even relaxing, if you're the sort that finds your self zoning out to the sound of black locomotives rumbling through the twilight and the distant roar of an all-devouring maelstrom. These tapes are perfect for late-night mind-blot, capturing nothing else than the pure sound of dissolution and collapse, the minute roar of decomposition magnified a thousand times, the writhing of maggots on a corpse rotting in the July sun amplified into a hypnotic hum of absolute disintegration. 
The package design for this tape set fits these minimal black noisescapes perfectly, housing the cassettes in an oversized jewel case with a large j-card cover screen printed with murky black and green ink on both sides, the ink layered in such a way that some of the black print almost seems to have a varnish-like quality to it. Very cool. Limited to ninety copies."

The FIRST release under my name went out earlier this week, but unless you were one of the lucky eleven from the HNW tape swap you won't hear it for a while i'm afraid, that is until i sort out what i am going to do with the bandcamp situation....

As far as future releases go, there will probably be radio silence until the new year, unless you are from the philadelphia area, then you might just stumble upon something...

Thursday, May 24, 2012

DHUSK s/t Review

A new review popped up on Musique Machine for this s/t cassette, i still have a few left, so when my life becomes a bit more stable, i'll make sure to post that they're available. More than likely i'll make them available when the Andreas Brandel tape is comes out from IMPERIAL.NOIR. This was another tape that got EX-CELL-ENT reviews, but sold/traded so little. I think it has more to do with the sign of the times than anything else.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Life as HNW, HNW as Life

As in, things are moving slowly, a slight shift is ahead hopefully, i really need to finish up the books on the last GRIZ+ZLOR release, the books are about 50 pages, and i got QUITE a bit more copies than i expected from the always excellent Phage Tapes. Other than that my main release for the year is upcoming, and unless your one of the lucky 11 on the HNW 12 month tape trade, you really have no hope of hearing save on bandcamp after the entire year is done, or maybe we discussed putting them on the HNW graveyard? I can't recall really, but it brings me to a thought i had on releasing stuff.

I always struggle with the "hype" i create as an artist for my work, not only because i HATE the idea of being a salesman, but more along the lines of how much do i tell someone as to my intent, and how much do i leave a mystery for them to piece on their own. I really want people to look deeper and find things on their own, as i usually put quite a bit of thought into the releases i do. I'm only really pondering this now as i'm working on the art for the 12 month tape trade, and the central image, at it's base core is a physical object. This object was originally made a VERY particular way, and it's that very core idea that has influenced how the audio was created. When i unleash it (July), i'll post the art here and when the trade is completely over, i'll post the links to the audio, both on bandcamp and if it is indeed posted to the HNW Graveyard.

In other news a review on last summers Glaciating 1 popped up on Memory Wave Transmission. I am very proud of this release, so much so, that after the first 4 copies of the double cassette were gone, i started to feel guilty that only four people heard it. So i re-imagined it as 2 single cassette releases to maybe get a little more exposure, especially catering to the "sometimes" HNW consumer. I even sent out copies to be reviewed, something i haven't done since the earth.space noise days. Yet STILL after all that work less than 20 copies total were produced. That includes the original 4 double cassettes, AND 5 sets sent to reviewers. The reviews were pretty positive though, so i guess you can't really determine worth by units moved, as i think this is definitely one of the best releases i ever put together....


Friday, March 16, 2012

GRIZ+ZLOR - BLACK SUMMER (final GRIZ+ZLOR release)

From the AMAZING Phage Tapes!




PT:171 Griz+zlor “Black Summer” 2xc62
Edition of 90 copies in side by side Norelco cases. The cover is a 3 color screen print with the first layer of ink being flat black, second layer being clear gloss and third layer a metallic black. The design is the abstract layering of Paul Dever. The cassettes are spray painted green and stamped with a hand made lino cut.
Here Griz+zlor supplies the last HNW release for the project. Black Summer is a slow low end rumble of the dark days that have past.For maximum effect play at extremely loud volume.



http://www.discogs.com/Grizzlor-Black-Summer/release/3391362

i'll have a deluxe edition available with a book soon. i will not be trading unfortunately, so if your not interested in the book please order or send trade requests to phage tapes...


And with this release, i mark the end of an era and the END of the GRIZ+ZLOR mission...
i will continue under my own and a few other monickers here!