Aeternal Flux II

KLAVIER KRIEGER - . ​ : ​ . SCONSACRATI INFANTI DI CIELO . ​ : ​ . The atmospheric black metal associations suggested by neologisms like ‘hellnoise’ and concepts like embracing the void in this album’s Sufi manifesto-like liner notes are not without relevance; but they’re more a part of the tapestry than the dominant motif. “The dark vibe to Klavier Krieger is an accident,” explains the artist behind the avatar (who wishes to remain anonymous for professional reasons) in an email exchange. “It just comes out dark because I’m carrying a lot of heavy shit that I keep a lid on. I’ve had friends give me skulls, robes, a human kidney, a monkey skull, weird shit like that as gifts, so it figures I’d find some use for it.” If there’s a spiritual ancestor for this release (available as download or cassette through the Bandcamp page linked below) it would be avant-metal guitarist Rev. Kriss Hades’ 2005 live album Paganini - Bloodlust - Static Age .   Both are works by underg...

GRID - DECOMPOSING FORCE NNA Tapes 2020 Doom Jazz is how NNA Tapes have chosen to market GRID, the Brooklyn-based experimental trio comprising Matt Nelson on saxophone, Tim Dahl on bass, and Nick Podgurski on drums. Promotional material for  Decomposing Force , their second full-length release on that imprint, continues in likewise vein. What’s doom jazz, you ask? Signifier of inter-generic distinction or aesthetic/mood? Dahl’s band Child Abuse sounds like death math zuehl jamming with Otomo Yoshihide’s malfunctioning sampler in a Dantean pachinko parlour. It’s exhilarating stuff once the synapses have melted/moulded to its wavelength. But where is GRID coming from? Somewhere even less categorizable, more variable and unbounded. Blackened, noisy free rock?  Dahl toured with Teun Verbruggen as part of The Bureau Of Atomic Tourism in 2014, but Chaos of the Haunted Spire, the Belgian drummer’s duo with saxophonist Andrew Claes, might be a closer point of com...