Various - Votive Offerings LP
From the always interesting and uncompromising At War With False Noise label come their 100th release! Or rather catalogue number 100 (they've done over 200 releases by now). This is a compilation of Glasgow based bands. Here's a description from the label....
The two Charity Murder tracks are probably the most "conventional" tunes here, sitting somewhere in the realm of early 80s goth a-la Second Coming / Part One / Skeletal Family with a more bombastic sound and Robert Smith's guitar tone from the three good Cure albums (you know the ones). There's absolutely a big influence from The Fall (check out the bonus track on the tape, Julie...bass line is well lifted off "Mountain Energi"), particularly in superb cutting sarcy lyrics. This is music that couldnae have been recorded by a southerner.
Hausfrau gives two tracks of light and shade; "Clean Hands" is a creeping piece of sinister, minimal synth built on a simple beat and a brutal buzzing WASP note, which utilises that "silence then note drop" to devastating effect. "Visions Of Love" closes the album from silence to a chorus of layered vocals and tones and is perfect in every way.
Vom are one of the most important bands on this label and it was obvious they be on here. Their sound has become more esoteric and mysterious over the years and the two tracks on here are testament to that. "DMT" is built around a heavy bass line and doesn't really have a conventional structure at all, building up through weird ritual samples and effects. It sounds like what might happen if you took a bunch of mescaline and got locked in an underground bunker. "Mirage" is the more conventional tune, a cold drum machine providing the basis for distorted whispered vocals, shimmering guitar, anchored down by the Vom trademark heavy duty bass and gothic synth lines.
Schalken continues to be the most enduring dark ambient I know of, and this is maybe his best track yet. One long exercise in sustained, slowly-shifting tone, it's really reminiscent (aesthetically anyway) of Maurizio Bianchi's classic "The Plain Truth" or Coil's "Time Machines". It's minimal, but totally engrossing throughout.
Cursed Image (previously IO Pan) have been doing stuff together for a few years now but haven't got anything out, and Darren in particular has been working for YEARS on some of the best stuff I've ever heard coming out from Glasgow, but I dunno, lack of belief maybe has stopped him getting it out there. Which is a fuckin shame cos he's genuinely one of the most talented musicians and soundest people I know. The lengthy track these guys have on here absolutely blew me away. It's nearly ten minutes of absolute sustained tension constructed around minimal synth lines and Josh's deliberate intonation. Lyrics are based on Jane Arden's "You Don't Know What You Want, Do You?", breaking free from the rational mind. The closest comparison I can make is a band who don't sound like anybody - COIL - but that's a pretty lazy one and these guys stand totally on their own.
At War With False Noise Records