The Sami, Europe's northernmost inhabitants, are an indigenous arctic culture inhabiting Fennoscandia (the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia and Finland). There, underneath the Baltic Sea, lies the Baltic Shield, the exposed Precambrian northwest segment of the East European Craton. It is composed mostly of volcanic rock belts which have undergone numerous deformations through tectonic activity. This region contains the oldest rocks of the European continent. During the Pleistocene epoch, great continental ice sheets scoured and depressed the shield's surface, leaving a thin covering of glacial material and innumerable lakes and streams. The Baltic Shield is still rebounding today following the melting of the thick glaciers during the our current ice age, the Quaternary Period.
This first full-length from Xambuca states dedication to the Saami people and the nation of Sapmi. The music here seems to equate not only to the 3 billion year old geological history of this icy multi-cultural region, but to the ancient pre-christian shamans, cult images and animal ceremonies so important to its people. Unfortunately, and much like the rest of Scandinavia, Swedish priests eventually refuted and abolished anything they deemed heathenism, superstition or witchcraft.
Joulupukki is cerebral electronic music fueled by dark ambience and introspection. These are soundscapes that are at once glacial and volcanic, driven by minimal beats that feel post-industrial and post-techno. There is a consistently somber mood presented here. Certain pieces hint at martial percussion and there are even sounds that invoke concepts of science fiction and Marinetti's retro-futurism that are all shrouded in Orwellian discontent. Later there is a track of doom-laden electric guitar that ever so slowly cuts through the breakers of the Baltic Sea.
Under this monumental weight, the Atlas that is Joulupukki manages to attain catharsis. The latter pieces over-driven, the beats big, brutal and nasty, the record seems to therapeutically expunge itself of all emotion, culminating in a final cut that is a defiant ship lost in a storm, battered by rogue waves yet faithfully waiting for the calm. In this state of mind, devoid of all concern, there is nothing left but a meditative stasis.
Get it Here
I've been back on a classical kick lately, scouring thrift stores for original Deutsch Grammofon vinyl and watching those lovely yellow spines amass on my record shelf. This always makes me feel like I'm better off, like I'm not as dumb as I think I am. Classical music may not make you smarter, but it certainly makes you think in a more civilized manner.
The Sami, Europe's northernmost inhabitants, are an indigenous arctic culture inhabiting Fennoscandia (the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia and Finland). There, underneath the Baltic Sea, lies the Baltic Shield, the exposed Precambrian northwest segment of the East European Craton. It is composed mostly of volcanic rock belts which have undergone numerous deformations through tectonic activity. This region contains the oldest rocks of the European continent. During the Pleistocene epoch, great continental ice sheets scoured and depressed the shield's surface, leaving a thin covering of glacial material and innumerable lakes and streams. The Baltic Shield is still rebounding today following the melting of the thick glaciers during the our current ice age, the Quaternary Period.
After the demise of Scottish punk / new wave band "The Freeze", David Clancy and Gordon Sharp formed Cindytalk in 1982. This project is something Sharp described as ambidustrial. I know that doesn't really roll off the tongue but it does summarize how he took elements of Editions EG's ambient releases and fused them with the then hip and new industrial sound.
When label boss Rik Skodvin isn't slaying my brain with his own Miasmah imprint, he's slaying my brain with his friend Otto Totland as "Deaf Center", and sometimes he slays my brain with his solo project "Svarte Greiner. Here is a mixtape he did for Type. Sit back, relax and enjoy this voyage to the bottom of the drone-colored abyss. Cheers. 
This Texas mysterioso is really doing it for me right now. Noisy creepy crawlie blackened psychedelic Industrial mayhem containing warm tones and textures. There are obvious elements of Swans and Godflesh. However, nothing does their sound a just description more than the fact that the label describes them as Loop meets Abruptum. 
Anarchitektur is the first release of their Musterhaus project, a series of more experimental CD releases that were only available via an annual subscription through their website or from shows during their 25th Anniversary Tour. 
This early 80's tape of a live show the band did is outstanding. A noisy atonal lo-fi No Wave washed out beauty. I know nothing about this visionary German band except there are some tapes floating around. Dying to here more. I had a dream that Warsaw and Einsturzende Neubauten had a bastard child and then it showed up on this tape. Seriously comparable to those groups. A beautiful hybrid here. Tracks that have driving pounding tribal drum rhythms with crunchy flanging guitars alternating with tracks that are industrial soundscapes with ritual chanting. Just fucking lovely. Das ist eine gute. 
