AHLZAGAILZEHGUH

reviews:



"sitophilic remorse" collab c10 w/ yellow tears:

absoluten calfeutrail: Generated collaboratively in the lead up to a shared US tour in support of 2008 full length releases on the Hospital Productions label, this is a grubby little item heaving with sharp harsh noise stabs and an atmosphere of nausea-inducing depravity. The A side series of micro blasts (thirteen in around five minutes) fly by in a hail of raucous aggression, darting around wildly and offering little chance of respite from the thrashing slabs of abrasive tone. These meticulously assembled miniatures bear the mark of the severe edits familiar in the recorded work of Ahlzagailzehguh, though the crude character of the material being mangled possesses attributes found in abundance on the recent Yellow Tears full length �The Pissmop LP�; namely vile harsh noise blasts situated adjacent to largely empty, dank and dripping locales. The following B side outpouring �Head Bobbing for Apples� is a comparatively long form version of the same demented approach, and is accordingly an even more gruelling and disorienting assault of inspired scatological clatter.



music for handi-capped ears, vol.2:

absoluten calfeutrail: Upon contact, this limited cassette release from Ahlzagailzehguh offers an olfactory assault that is absolutely appropriate as an accompaniment for this collection of sadistic harsh noise blasts and wailing walls. The recycled cassettes (which according to the artist were sourced from the local abandoned insane asylum) are packaged in cases heavily abused by paint and flame, resulting in a wonderfully acrid odour of burned plastic combined with paint fumes. Housed within this damaged shell twenty five razor-sharp pieces comprise this work, the vast majority of which clock in at well under a minute. This makes for an invigorating, violent outing pockmarked with aggressive cuts and shifts in texture. While passages of reverb-heavy industrial atmosphere and distortion-laced vocal outbursts appear occasionally (along with a slight curveball in the form of a brutal reworking of a Municipal Waste track), it is the furious harsh blasts that personify this artifact. There is a real sense of urgency present in these contained explosions; in part this is a product of the brief duration of each piece, but the vicious shifts and cuts within each composition are just as important in this regard. (MG)



split c10 w/ viodre:

SoddyTADM: Supreme cudos are to be visited upon the excellent Ahlzagailzehguh/Viodre offering. It is rare that split work manages to hit so hard on both proferred sides, rare that I look forward to each flip of the tape with equally baited anticipation, rare indeed that I spend the duration just shaking my head grinning with shit-eating lubricity. The Ahlz is unstoppable, a highly comprehensive working over of full-flavored - if filth-flecked - earshred symphonica. The signature precision-guided head-fuckery has been honed to produce finely chizeled razor shards bursting with boisterous, belch-spackled, bombast. Practioners of such superlative smithying skill are oft tempted to sacrifice grit-textured bilgery in the name of production-heavy pyrotechnica, seldom exploiting the sinus-shattering tensions to be created in betweem. But Ahlz remains ever vigilant, poised to puncture any apparent threat to retch-hewn, sphinctpipe-rending, grub-a-flub, flatulence. Viodre tends toward a more constricted flow of outlying hack-splatter, a raging beast seemingly simmering just below the frothy surface. But that's Viodre for you. Not content simply to render the noisecranium flattened tete-pulp, Viodre first peels back the scalp and works his synaptic intrusions from the inside out. So whilst attention gets sucked into detailed daliances and noggin-knottering nuances, a darkly splendored bilgebeast slowly wakens deep within the bowels of festering darkness and begins to grow disproportionately monstrous by degrees, eventually consuming everything in its path as the cacophonous maelstrom of incicive flappily-dappilies wail ineffectually against the divine unfairness of it all. Some of the best eight minutes and forty seconds I've spent in my noise halflife.

Sodding Score A+ Harshness 9.1 Density 7.5 Rawness 8.2 Spasticity 8.9 Craftsmanship 9.4 Harmonicaness 4.2

Viciously jagged ripping textures promote high degrees of harshness and spasticity while maintaining a firm grip on a raw-mangled purity. Careful attention to detail combined with a studious balance of seemingly diverse component parts evidence obeisance to consistently rigourous craft, an area in which Viodre has excelled of late. Although finely layered at intervals, heavy reliance on surface dynamics, particularly from Ahlzagailzehguh, relegates the overtone potential to a lower grade harmonicaness - a natural consequence of high grade spastic daliance.



bypassing time passing:

blood ties: With one of the most notoriously difficult to say and spell names, �Ahlzagailzehguh� finally releases his first slab of heavy as fuck vinyl. I mean heavy as fuck in all aspects of the release here. From the insane barrage of destructive noise to the ultra-thick cardboard sleeve with dark black and red collage art typical to the Hospital Productions aesthetic but fitting the sounds of Ahlz a bit more snuggly then some of their other releases. This most immediately reminds me of Sickness's landmark release �I Have Become The Disease That Made Me� but has less of a �technical� feel to it (although it doesn't lack balls in that aspect at all) and more of depressed rage in a junkyard feel. I sincerely feel sorry for the equipment and material that went into recording �Bypassing Time Passing� because it sounds like James took it all for one hell of a ride.
The release is limited to a very small edition of 200 copies and features two long untitled (or self-titled?) tracks each one filling one side of the record with an extra short track tacked onto the end of one side. The first is a non-stop sonic tantrum with twirling, twisting, broken, and screaming sound waves emanating out of the cones in front me with short passages of static, choking feedback, muffled sounds of someone screaming angrily in a room, and crunchy underlying patterns layered beautifully to provide a depth that is rarely reached in noise releases.
The second track picks up directly with a few jabs of metallic feedback stabs leading into a similar bizarre fuckfest of sounds, vocals literally being torn apart at the seems, samples tweaked way beyond recognition, feedback stunted through a wide array of effects. You literally get everything here, motor sounds, skipping delay, heavy distortion, glass-like breaking fx, tripped up synths, pushing hums, filter sweeps, I could type all day and still only be skimming the surface. Towards the middle of the track things begin to slow down just a little bit and fall into a Putrefier-like conjunction of different samples, I swear I heard a kitchen sink, a rotten warehouse somewhere in there, and perhaps a microphone dropped into a factory machine? Although it was barely even an interval soon everything is once again flying by me at the speed of sound and I remain awed and somewhat dumbfounded at the relentless abuse that I am exposing myself to. Finally there seems to be a pause that might perhaps constitute a different track? This track moves a bit slower but seems to focus on the textures a bit more and it's a welcome respite, if it could even be considered that because there remains still remains too much to take in. Towards the end of the track there are some more synth-influenced sounds that appear as well as another short interlude of Putrefier influenced sample fuckery.
And it all sounds so damn good. The production having a lo-fi feel but being extremely crisp and clear to allow the full sleight of hand that Ahlz employs to be appreciated by even the oldest, grossest turn tables. I would really be surprised if there are any of these left but if there are you must pick it up immediately because this is most definitely one of the best releases of the year. Acquire it by any means necessary.

boomkat: Those of us who are helplessly enamoured by the New York noise scene know, there's noise and there's noise. It's like any genre - there's the very good and the hopeless and fake, luckily NY's own Ahlzagailzehguh is one of the former, but then I guess I should have expected that coming from Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions imprint. Although many of the last handful of releases have been no-holds-barred black metal, which is sure to upset the more po-faced noise-lovers, 'Bypassing Time Passing' is going right back to the Hospital core sound - blackened, torturous noise. It's shockingly good too, from what I can discern the record is one continuous track made from hundreds of tiny snippets of balls-out punk noise; think 'Shipwreckers Diary' or 'Prurient' era Fernow, John Weise or Wolf Eyes at their most destructive. Tumbling cuts of white noise, guitar feedback, pained vocals, and daring expansive reverb are layered in micro-edits for the duration, and what at first listen might sound thick and dense, when you listen closer is a symphony of detail and rasping evil. Fans of any of the aforementioned artists or simply those of you desperate to get hold of some genuine New York noise need to grab this without delay - it's limited to a typically meagre 200 copies and has already sold out at the source... huge recommendation.

some guy: Noise. Hulking great slabs of noise. Two long tracks that veer between feedback squall, sheet metal scrapes, jackhammers and static. Both sides are virtually indistinguishable, but the very-occasional peaceful twitters punctuate the second side more frequently, before returning to remixing the sounds of a large building site. Both tracks calm down (relatively speaking) in their second halves, becoming less percussive, but no less noisy for that. The are some vocalised noises at some point, but you can't make them out. I wouldn't have bought this, were it not for it being in the Boomkat sale, and being very limited. But I'm glad that I did. I'm glad that someone, somewhere, is painstakingly putting together this kind of thing, and someone else sees fit to release it. I also like Ahlzagailzehguh's penchant for the cassette-only release.



stretch & burn:

smooth assailing: ahl-za-gail-zeh-guh. sound it out, kids. it's not that hard. now, i've heard of artists having ungoogleable names before (fuck, can, can't, is, the the), but this is one the most googleable names ever. despite this, i can't really find anything about this dude other than that he's from brooklyn. do you like your noise fast-paced, punishing, loud and fueled by an a.d.d. inflicted sense of dynamics? if your answer's yes, you better learn to how to pronounce this guy's name properly so you can go tell your friends how much he rules. side a's contour strip mining is the harder of the two to give a detailed account for since ahlzagailzehguh's mind and hands are moving at such fast speeds that he's cycling through ideas and chopping up sounds before anything has a chance to make its impression felt. this is easily the better of the two tracks. it's constantly interesting and evolving. there's screaming, feedback, denser noise, as well as unexpected subdued moments breaking up the aggression. i'd say that what he's giving us on contour strip mining is up there with some of pedestrian deposit's work, though less concerned with delicate flourishes than borges. his cut-up approach on this first side also brought to mind facialmess's ridiculously great dub made flesh. dub specialist! side b's repetition of disgrace is pretty repetitious, not disgraceful though, just less involved than the first track. it's your fairly tried and true dense noise. there are changes occurring beneath the maelstrom, which i appreciate. not bad, not bad. this was limited to 100 copies. if it's all gone, fret not, you can still drop twenty bucks on the new twelve inch that dom just put out on hospital productions.

joe lombardo: Pierced tin pitches, heard through a night soon forgotten, left caked in flesh like that of the equivocal proof displaying finger-sized holes that plague the now burnt out car at the corner of 62 and Kedzie, you know, the one just in front of the old Adult book shop, yes, that's right. The one that hasn't been towed for weeks, abandoned there, like the horror society wishes to ignore, only to discover far too late, their daughters rotting corpses in its trunk.



split w/ impregnable - sole posession:

dead angel: I can already feel myself being pulled under the machine, Ahlzagailzehguh started this off excellently. Thick walls of mechanical crackles... so many layers... I almost think I'm hearing some beautiful music being punished, there are moments where it seems as if some classical music or otherwise is being mangled by his effects. It just builds and builds, constantly stalking you from all angles...this just doesn't feel 'safe' at all. Slowly more feedback begins to creep in, along with a really unsettling wobbling low tone... just when you can't imagine it getting any more painful it drops out to silence. Impregnable's side begins with that speaker punching rumble... feedback fights to get out from under everything. Drops away to what feels like strings pulsing in a giant pipeline with heavy traffic above... then BAM, the sound literally pulls the air from you, the layers are more concentrated now, rising, then the floor gives away and you're crashing through glass. Feedback takes over for a moment, offering slight relief... then the noise resumes full-on for a brief moment before a pastoral drone eases the listener to the tape clicking stop. [Dillon Tulk]



problems with preventive medicine:

night science vol.3: Is 'Problems With Preventive Medicine' seriously the same Ahlzagailzehguh of 'Tools Of A Dangerous Trade' or 'Tactile Agnosia' (both self-released 3" CDRs)? The last few cassette releases didn't even hint at the single-minded tenacity of this new c10, which has completely ditched the clean sounds in favor of raw tape grunt and an odd, lo-fi presentation which is untidy and even unbalanced at times. With no change-ups and little development of the noise on display (at least from this dub) - particularly "Flame Sterilized Syringe" - it's down to a mood which just isn't quite enough for this to succeed; the lower output level and lack of volume in the right speaker even had me racing to raise this as loud as I could but that didn't achieve much either. This uglier side to Ahlzagailzehguh is perhaps just too much of a transition from the finesse of the earlier works for me to be comfortable with, but couldn't this aesthetic find it's way into Ahlzagailzehguh's other work rather then having to regress so starkly? That such a rough wallish work could follow the earlier tapes and CDRs is surprising enough, but that clarity and production values were sacrificed along the way is disappointing. I don't dislike this - as a nasty pair of grubby, vehement, carefree harshnoise expressions the first side and last 30 seconds of "Flame Sterilized Syringe" are more than listenable - but I can't help missing the class and poise this project was so quick to demonstrate previously.



recycled music:

crucialblast: Ahlzagailzehguh...quite the mouthful,huh? Sounds like the name of some ancient Elder God out of the Necronomicon, which is an apropos reference since Ahlzagailzehguh delivers some of the most evil, blackened noise thisn side of Richard Ramirez and The Rita. The NY harsh noise project has been dropping cluster bombs of charred wallnoise brutality for years, including a crushin' LP on Hospital Productions operated by Prurient's Dominick Fernow, which should give you an idea of the sort of attitude on display here. Ahlzagailzeguh's entry in RRRecords legendary Recycled Music Series is pure destructive noise, two untitled side-long tracks of brutal, fast-swirling black noise chopped up and slammed from speaker to speaker through the use of some really assaultive stereo panning. You need to really crank this tape, too; there's so much detail in these chaotic walls, blasts of whiplash feedback and mangled guitar noise, razor-sharp electronic glitches, monstrous roaring vocals ripping through a curtain of filth, awesome demonic noises that sound like cassette player heads having strips of human skin run through them at high speed, and it all melts together into a wall of thick, rumbling, hyperviolent blackened dronenoise straight from hell. With all of the feedback and amplifier abuse going on in these lengthy pieces, it actually gets pretty close to the murderous power-skree of Matt Bower's Total, so fans of that project might want to look into this and other Ahlzagailzeguh releases, which I'll be working on trying to track down as soon as I can. As with all of the Recycled Series tapes, these cassettes are recorded onto random prerecorded cassettes from the RRR record store, and both the tape and the jacket are covered in duct tape scrawled in black magic marker.



disrupting resistance:

joe lombardo: Ah, what the fuck? How is that I have missed this guy? I am I the only retard that does not know much about his project? I checked their website at www.geocities.com/collapsedhole/ and realize that I have not been doing my homework, everyone please forgive me. This is intense noise form the get-go uncompromising, unrelentingly just as I love noise to be. I should be shot for only knowing about the guy so dam late. With nearly fifteen releases under his belt, I feel like this review is old news, but for the love of noise, this is harsh with the sound constantly changing, creative while at the same time inducing massive harsh noise high within a minute of listening. Thought noise could use a little something? Well, dumb ass this is going to run over you with a little something I like to call John Deer. Hell if you know what is good for your noise loving audio corn holes than you will get a hold of any release that your sticky little fingers can find. Seriously guys, what the fuck? This is mind bending. I have listened to this at least ten times in a row. I don't think I could be more addicted to anything at this moment.



music for handicapped ears:

aversionline: Great packaging, as usual from this project. The cassettes come in cases that are painted entirely black and lightly charred, with a small black and white insert inside with chaotic text and abstract textures all over it. Even better is that the cassettes themselves were taken from an abandoned psychiatric hospital, so they've got typewriter labels on them representing their former content. My particular copy, for instance, looks to have been a recorded sermon called "Diligence" in its former incarnation. Stylistically this is highly active harsh noise with much more of a cutup style than some of his past work. It's very in your face and abrasive with shitloads of movement swirling all over the place and almost constant stereo panning for added impact. So, expect chaotic wails of feedback, straightforward harsh distortion, some glitchier electronic noises, a few quick breaks of shouting/screaming vocals, plenty of warbled textures and frenetic movements, some thicker and more rumbling low-end distortion textures, scarce samples, etc. Hell, there are even a few breaks of complete silence or "empty" background sounds, shuffling, dead signal hums, etc. It's basically 45 minutes (the same track appears on both sides of the 90-minute cassette) of that chaotic jumble of styles chopped up and assembled in different pieces very rarely sitting still for more than five seconds at a time - literally! The cassette is hand-numbered of a mere 30 copies, and I'm not sure if it's still available or not. This is another that really sets Ahlzagailzehguh apart as one of the more creative harsh projects active in the US right now - it's not groundbreaking, but there's enough creativity all around to give it that extra something, you know? Nicely done.



ahlzagailzehguh / foutredieu!!! - split cdr

degenerate #4: i've heard only couple releases of this band, and despite quite useless name, they create extremely heavy and great harsh noise! it so damn thick and bass loaded you find the floor tremble from insane soundpressure it creates. textures of noise are still rich and enjoyable, only underlining the intensity of this. foutredieu! is less crushing. it relies on electronics, and is good in that. one track with loud vocals make me think why did they not include more?! that track was easily best from their part! more vocals here, and it would make good combination with electronics.

aversionline: First up here is Ahlzagailzehguh with seven generally straightforward harsh noises blasts. A few tracks do explore some different territory, though. "You Would Reach for Something From the Devil?" starts with some frantic cutups, briefly sounding like heavily treated vocals and even a few bass notes? "E.N. Amended" is more atmospheric at first, using softer, rumbling sorts of windy sounds, later stammering a few times before launching into an extreme assault of caustic distortion and what appear to be obscured vocals. It switches back and forth between these two directions, at times transitioning through interludes of cutting feedback. The bluntly titled "Recorded/Mixed Live 3/10/04" starts out with some faint signals and then picks up into some interestingly thick and dry distortion, with a really muddy low-end crackle. It's a slightly one-sided piece (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but I enjoy the recording of it, it really does have its own feel in regards to the other six tracks. Canada's own Foutredieu!!!'s seven tracks start off with the superb dark ambient piece "Galarneau ca Veux Dire Soleil", with plenty of low-end pulses and some ethereal midrange that creates a truly sinister atmosphere - one of the best recordings to date from the project. This leads into the similar, but louder (and very ill titled) "Some Noise for Django Reinhart". "Walking on First Snow 2003" sounds like about a minute's worth of field recordings of just that, but the following "Act for Yourself Right Now" is a full-fucking-blown power electronics track! A huge shock! Harsh distortion and fucking amazing vocal shouts! Amazing! Some of the best I've ever heard with this style! And that leads right into the minimal ambience of "Minus Twelve", another strong offering. In general Snip-Snip fashion the disc comes in a slim jewel case with a xeroxed insert surrounded by a flap of red paper, which includes the tracklist and pertinent contact information. Could be better, could be worse. All in all this is a decent split, but it's not Ahlzagailzehguh's finest work, and the Foutredieu!!! half is really disjointed. Not bad, but as a complete release it's not the best from either contributor.

fall of because: brand spanking new release from Snip-Snip Records, featuring a split between New York's Ahlzagailzehguh and Canada's Foutredieu!!! As with most Snip-Snip releases the artwork is minimal, with only a black and white xeroxed picture split into two diagonal halves, framed on both sides by red panels. The artists get seven tracks each, most of them fairly short and to the point and about half of them harsh as fuck, while the other half is more in the realm of dark ambient. Ahlzagailzehguh's tracks range from blistering vocal assaults and piercing high-end to throbbing, gut-wrenching low-end and cascading midrange violence. The shortness of the tracks is a big plus here. There are lots of ideas presented in the music and nearly all of them get enough space to be followed through thoroughly, everything is explored to its conclusion. I was very pleased to hear for the first time an almost ambient side of Ahlzagailzehguh on the track "E.N. Amended", perhaps the best track on the CD-R. It's a masterpiece of tradeoffs between harsh, destructive, blasting noise and a gentler, vaguely industrial sounding atmosphere of metallic hums, abrasive rumblings, and distorted clangings. Simply amazing. There is a nice clarity in the sounds here and the tracks are more layered than on previous Ahlzagailzehguh releases; there is more attention given to panning and stereo separation which gives everything a sense of complexity and detail. I am also quite fond of the two very short tracks (just over 30 seconds each) "Lunatic Concepts" and "McCarthy and All of Us", both of which are very brief assaults and also very different from each other; the first a clamor of banging metal and piercing feedback and the other a sonic rendition of a rumbling post-human industrial site. Good to see a little bit of artistic evolution from the project with the unpronounceable name. Canadian Foutredieu!!! kicks off with a track called "Galarneau ca Veux Dire Soleil", an ambient piece of slowly oscillating basslines and reverberating synths. Very evocative and also not at all what I had expected. The range of styles covered by Foutredieu!!! in the next six songs is impressive (but also somewhat erratic); even though he rarely meanders very far away from the throbbing dark ambient realms that everything is centered in, he ventures into all manners of industrial styles, from harsh noise and weird experimental sound excursions to raw industrial soundscapes and found sound manipulations or field recordings (as in the weird "Walking on First Snow 2003", which is literally the sounds of someone walking in the snow). There is a great playfulness in these tracks that I cannot help but like, even though I might have liked the tracks to be more focused and not trying to cover all the sonic bases at once. Most of the Foutredieu!!! tracks are rooted in the midrange to high-end realm and it can get somewhat grating to the ears at times with all this saturation. I wish there could have been a tad more low-end to balance out the unevenness of the production. But all in all a great mix of harsh blistering noise and playful dark ambient sonics on this split. Plus, if you buy three of Snip-Snip's releases it's only $10 in the US and $13 worldwide. -Jonas

beauty & pain: Ok so I see Ahlzagailzehguh makes one of the best noise releases ever on Double Cassette for Truculent and now they blow my mind with a Split CDR on Snip Snip. Harsh mind numbing noise they way it should be done the 7 tracks that Ahlzagailzehguh start this CD off with are just fucking perfection nothing need to be more said. Now on to Foutredieu this is a very different creature from Ahlzagailzehguh. More a Drifting and Drone vibe going on here with a high creepy factor. A lot of dissident tones and distorted echoes going on . with 2 tracks into this i think its a bit too much of the same . Foutredieu want to fit in with the avantgarde noise scene it seems like to me. Its good but its all been played out so many times before like this. Its a good split but Foutredieu needs to expand on what they do a bit more.



black destination

aversionline: Jesus this thing is fucking loud! The levels are through the roof nonstop, it seems! "Staring at the Floor" plows straight into some consistent harsh noise that's massively thick and loud and only quiets down significantly towards the end as things drop to a flutter of faint distorted hums that make for an excellent break. Things gradually get more caustic and chaotic with fluttering layers of distortion, but it basically never thins out aside from that one quiet cut. "Catatonic Rigidity" is somewhat similar but more frantic in its constant fluctuations, throwing in more glitchiness to some of the distortion for a more electronic aesthetic. "Lockdown" closes part one of the series with a slightly more consistent piece of noise, a tad muddier (not a bad thing), etc. The final seconds are a quaint ambient throb that also ends very respectably. "Final Fa�ade" is a bit rawer and shorter, more forgettable than the first set of songs. "Triangle Eye" begins similarly with a little more of a raw midrange presence, perhaps a little more percussive in nature, breaking down into a nice humming throb at times, but not for long. With a chirping sort of flutter towards the end of this selection a softer side takes more of a lead role, which is very cool. "Cornered Response" has a few more minimal harsh moments that thin out and let more detail shine through without losing all of the low-end (an effective trait that might be nice to hear more often), and then "Away From All Eyes Sight" is one of the most consistent and repetitious tracks - and that really does add a great atmospheric element. I think there may even be one or two quick samples mixed into the harshness? The cassettes come in a unique oversized case that's double the size of a normal cassette case. The cassettes are held horizontally one above the other and the cover is xeroxed onto thick as hell matte maroon paper. I really like the abstract imagery as well, because it's very suggestive of any number of bleak subjects. Quite nice, really. Another superb example of why Ahlzagailzehguh is one of the most promising harsh noise projects going these days. There's no nonsense to the sounds, the artwork is pleasing to the eye, the track titles seem to bear relevance to the tone of the visuals as well as the music, and so on. Good work. A proper full-length CD or vinyl release should certainly be in Ahlzagailzehguh's near future.

fall of because: I was extremely impressed by the "Tools of a Dangerous Trade" and "Tactile Agnosia" 3" CD-R's by Ahlzagailzehguh partly because of the fast paced flow of his delivery and the fact that it's mainly a one-layered effort with a live feel to it (not many sounds are competing at the same time), but also because most of the songs were short and didn't drag on forever. Here, however, we have, at least partially, the complete opposite: This is a multi-layered beast with many sounds crashing in on each other, although he frequently uses his old one-layered style as well, this is more involved and at times extremely busy. The tracks are also longer on this double cassette (which comes in a nice oversized tape case, by the way, along with a purple-ish insert with some abstract patterns on the cover), most of them in the five-minute realm, while some tracks, like the opener "Staring at the Floor", are almost twice as long. The deal here, as you most likely have guessed by now, is harsh pedal noise, brought to you by Truculent Recordings. I was initially a bit weary of the length of the tracks, fearing that Ahlzagailzehguh wouldn't be able to pull it off, but boy was I wrong! There is enough pace and flow in here to never let anything become stagnant or repetitive: There are crushing bursts of low, rumbling distortion; brief lulls and quieter moments; full on harsh, feedback-contorted destruction; semi-rhythmic passages of knob-tweaking madness, and chirping, fluttering squeaks. Some tracks like "Triangle Eyes" have (at least partially) a definite live feel to them where the metal banging comes through in the background. "Triangle Eyes" is also one of my favorites on this release, mainly due to the lengthy low-end rumbling excursion about halfway through that gives it an almost death industrial throb, through which the occasional high note or fluttering feedback breaks through. All in all this is an excellent release. Highly recommended! -Jonas

worm gear: This is a double cassette release in a traditional but oversized cassette case that's pretty neat really. Both tapes are rather short, and could have been a single release easily, but obviously this was done for the cool factor, and it works for me. I've heard good things about this project but this was my first exposure to them. Tape one side one features the track "Staring At The Floor," a turbulent harsh noise track consisting primarily of heavy low end with feedback and higher frequencies spiking through the onslaught. There are a couple of moments of isolated crumbling sounds that I quite liked, and they provide a nice quiet before the next burst. Tape one side two features two tracks, "Catatonic Rigidity" and "Lockdown." "Catatonic Rigidity" is another piece that is rooted in a heavy and destructive low end, but features, more bursts of analog squirms and squelches, as well as pauses where the bass elements drop away to leave the mids and his scraping and chirping alone. "Lockdown" stays more in the mid range fried and sizzled texture zone, and incorporates a more open and atmospheric base. Tape Two side one begins with "Final Fa�ade" a mix of looping distortions and low end bursts. "Triangle Eye" is next, it has slightly more disjointed take, with layers dropping out and popping back in abruptly, solitary tones ringing out, loops emerging by themselves from the chaos and I think even some voices buried in the mix. Tape two side two holds "Cornered Response" and finally "Away From All eyes Sight," both of which continue the active, well mixed and executed direction of the previous tracks. While this a harsh noise release, the rise and fall of that noise, the way things are isolated and consumed, and the inclusion of really gritty yet reserved moments makes for some nice flow and an intriguing release. There is a lot of energy to these tracks, and clearly some craft behind them, very nicely done. After hearing it, is too bad this didn't come out as a CD with a proper mastering job to really accentuate all of the biting and scarred frequencies because there are some really great sounds and jagged edges here. - Scott

beauty & pain: A beautifully dark textured brown paper cover is what i start with on this amazing release from my good friend Jeff of I:G ? Truculent recordings. This label is becoming a 1st love for me in the harsher noise realm now. Ahlzagailzehguh make some of the most harsh atonal noise I've heard in a long time. It's almost to the point of were is just too extreme to even be extreme noise. This person is one very annoyed human with one mission to assault as many ears as they can in one sitting. I know nothing about this project at all and there website tells me nothing more then they have a few releases out on such labels as Tronik's and Coming titles on Snip Snip label. What i have to say is start here as I did and now just like I'm going to do get some other material my this Sonic Terrorist . Ahlzagailzehguh fucked up name and one truly wonderfully fucked up noise unit. Ps this is limited to 100 copies don't miss out I'm warning you.

viscereality: Ahlzagailzehguh is making a name for himself quite quickly with his releases. This release is a 2xc-20 packaged in an oversized cassette box. The design is very well done. The art is dark (as are most Truculent label releases) and sparse. The tracks themselves usually consist of a lot of mind-numbing low end, mid-range feedback spikes, and every now and then, an interesting computer sound or something else which makes the tracks very varied and interesting. A lot of noise doesn't leave a lasting impression after you're done listening, but I feel an impression after each track on this one, which is probably why I hold it so dear. The sound is dark and muddy, everything is mixed well. Even though the sounds are a bit obfuscated, no one sound takes the floor for very long, resulting in rich, textured tracks (even the opener, "Staring At The Floor", which takes the whole of side A of the first cassette never gets boring). Every track is crafted to perfection, with all of the ideas at hand developed quite well given the time frame. "Lockdown" begins with an interesting chainsaw-synth sound before grinding into menacing bass pulses and high-end blurry destruction. "Triangle Eye", the second longest track at seven and a half minutes long, is also quite engaging, with its wide array of mechanical and synthetic sounds juxtaposed one after another. Hell, this would get top score if it were a full 60 minutes. Perfectly done harsh noise, totally raw, totally loud; the way noise is meant to be. Highly recommended.



ahlzagailzehguh / the cherry point - split

degenerate #4: ahlzagailzehguh is unknown name for me, but sounds something i could expect from usa. this is heavy as fuck harsh noise. edisting is fast, but not super-hectic. sounds are different, but they still change only in specific soundrange. it stays always heavy and thick, and frequencies remain quite same after each change, so it doesnt feel very jumpy, but neither goes into static wall of noise style. the cherry point delivers surprisingly same kind of sound. noise itself is different. just overall sound quality is so close, this could be product of one band instead of split. its recorded live in hollywood. strong low end, and harsh middle. coarse, not sweet or polished. more or less fast forward wall of noise. sometimes you may wonder why got to buy/listen to this, when theres ton of other tapes of same category available, but... why not? when i hit the play button it is just something i feel ripping my guts and attacking the ears with such force, it purifies mind of useless question and gives the answer.

aversionline: Ahlzagailzehguh takes side A with "Smothering Mask" - a total harsh attack unloading tons of midrange, piercing high-end, a decent amount of density, and some very obscured vocals. It's almost got a power electronics feel on some level, granted the core is still grating distortion without many add-ons. There's still some subtle atmosphere in there, though. And that's what I've always felt has started to separate this project from the masses of generally worthless harsh noise acts out there these days. The piece seems fairly minimal in a sense, it doesn't give off the impression of using a great deal of layers, and there's not a wide range of variety. Things do thin out at times, or become even louder and more acerbic, but it's a consistent track as a whole. Side B sees The Cherry Point cranking out another harsh blitz by the strange name of "Blood Dolphin" (Say what!?), which is similar to Ahlzagailzehguh's contribution, but perhaps a bit harder hitting on the low-end, and with plenty of shredding feedback cutting in and out from time to time. It's slightly rawer to my ears, and flows together in a more liner manner as well - rarely letting up when the distortion sweeps forth from the low-end and caves in a tad. The cassette comes in a standard case with a straightforward insert xeroxed onto red paper. It's simple and clean, and I don't mind it, but it's not in keeping with the visual aesthetic of either of the project's solo releases, especially in regards to Ahlzagailzehguh, so it does leave a little something to be desired. Not bad. Being a tough listener to please when it comes to harsh material, of course I'm not blown away by this, but it's not boring either. Were the cassette much longer than 20 minutes I might have found the redundancy problematic, but 10 minutes per artists keeps things in line and gives you just enough.

fall of because: This tape is but one in a long row of split 20-minute cassettes, all of which have The Cherry Point covering one of the 10-minute sides, making them a perfect vehicle for new up and coming noise artists to get the attention of the listeners/buyers out there. Most of these tapes are sold out really quick and are usually very limited, around 15 - 40 copies or so. Newbie noisemaker Ahlzagailzehguh usually impresses the hell out of me with his very harsh cascades of nausea generating noise, often paired with a tendency towards industrial soundscapes buried somewhere deep beneath the sonic mayhem he produces, but on this release I'm only mildly impressed and at times outright disappointed when great passages of brittle, crashing highs rush on top of low-end avalanches, only to suddenly degenerate into an undifferentiated mess of muddled distortion and white noise. Only rarely does Ahlzagailzehguh reach the same proficiency and clarity of sound, as well as complexity, as he did on "Tactile Agnosia", and I think it might have something to do with the fact that all of the tracks on that release were short and quick, while here we have a 10-minute monster, which may be overly long for Ahlzagailzehguh. Perhaps he should've cut this one long track into several shorter ones. Some great parts, but for most of the duration is a bit too dull for my tastes. Next up is The Cherry Point with the tack "Blood Dolphin". This is pretty much standard from the project: Lots of rumbling, slowly evolving low-end over which massive waves of fuzzy midrange crash into each other. Intermittent high metallic squeals perforate this rumbling juggernaut, and sparse shifts and swells move in and out of the mix, but for the most part everything stays pretty much the same. Which is both a strength and something of a problem. For monotony to able to work for me in these kinds of wall of noise type tracks, everything is dependent upon my mood at the time of listening. Unrelenting walls of unswerving, dense noise can be great but it can also be extremely boring. This falls somewhere in between. The artwork on this cassette is fairly typical Troniks style: A red insert with a blurred photo of a woman's arm, possibly lying on a bed, though it's impossible to tell from which angle this is supposed to be seen. -Jonas

in the fence of reality: Thank you once again Phil at Tronik, I can do another cool �Condescending review of a record I own that you can�t have since it�s sold out!� Every time I review Tronik stuff that�s the case (but don�t be mad against me Phil, you know I�m a fucking slacker�) Considering the fact that I love both project I�ll review them. Ahlzagailzeguh is maybe the most interesting new project around in noise today and I may not be the only one getting psyched about them. Here�s some really loud and dirty noise with some panned manipulation. At some point we can hear something that sounds like knife-chopping stuff followed by some scream. There�s also something that sounds like metal pot banging samples. It�s still the way harsh noise should be played in my sense and I guess Ahlzagailzehguh can teach to people what is good noise. I guess I never ever had bad times with this New York project. Sincerely I can�t wait to see how the project turns on their most recent release (a two tapes set on Truculent and split with the marvellous Foutredieu!!! (let�s be pretentious) on Snip-Snip) Although the name of the project is not really as evil as Ahlzagailzehguh, The Cherry Point starts with very direct and crazy noise. I really like the way the noise of TCP is doing and considering that he mostly only release 20 minutes tapes it don�t felt in the boringness path as a lot of projects did. I particularly liked a deep and loud sound in the middle of the tape that reminds me of a boat horn, the high feedbacks are also very sympathetic all along the tracks. I guess every composite of a good noise are present here. The end of the tracks are more consisting of grating noise effects before returning into some more noise and then stopping suddenly. So here�s another short but sweet tape from two always nice to hear project. You missed it possibly, but jump on their other releases since they are above the genericness of many other noise projects around� Rock on!



tools of a dangerous trade

night science vol.2: Fuck. This one�s loud. Nasty. Forceful. The volume dial is barely raised, and already �Tools Of A Dangerous Trade� is angling for my jugular, brutish, sharp shreds of noise ripping from the speakers. This disc works with brevity � seven tracks in 20 minutes, and a myriad of angular cuts and grabs built into these seven. The aim is destruction and confusion, loops prised apart, flatter textures seared and scalded, �Grudge� constantly dissolving into the hum of broken, failed equipment. Opener �Half Faced� and �Bastard Maniac� further the barrage with angular, hostile harshness attacking disorientingly from all sides, the rush of focused distortion in constant flux. In such a relentless attach, the 20 minute format is ideal � the listener is a wrecked mess by the end � and this is but Ahlzagailzehguh�s second or so release; little more than a self-distributed demo. �Tools Of A Dangerous Trade� is easily one of the most assured, accomplished releases I�ve heard from a newer artist, made attentively and with little thought in mind beyond brutal punishment. This one may be unavailable now, but a new double cassette on Truculent which shows a darker, more sinister edge is among some newer material definitely sourceable.

aversionline: 20+ minutes of vicious harsh noise with no bullshit. The bulk of the tracks run around three minutes each (rarely more, rarely less) and consist of violent distortion layered about with a few more minimal tones or some cutups to fuck with the pacing. "Bastard Maniac" is probably my favorite track herein thanks to some painful panning and a somehow more atmospheric approach that offers just enough variety to really leave a mark. "Fastest Way Out", a more consistent attack, opens with some truly acerbic assaults before plunging into some massively reverberated distortion for its duration. The sound is a little on the raw side, but in a way that tends to benefit this style with a thick, oppressive density - allowing some biting high-end to slice through to the fore on occasion, but generally resting in a warm pit of lower midrange grit. The CD-R comes in a small, slim jewel case with black and white artwork that has some blurry text and images that are a little hard to discern. I actually really like the blurring of the text because it creates a weird off-center look, almost like when the second color of a screenprint isn't lined up properly. It's not crude though, it's bleak, and I really enjoy that aesthetic. I'd rank this as being a bit more developed and forceful than Ahlzagailzehguh's last 3", which is a good sign. I still think there is room for improvement, but I can confidently state that with this release Ahlzagailzehguh has become one of the select few harsh noise acts whose future recordings I'll be anticipating. Good work.

in the fence of reality: I like to receive stuff when I�m not prepared to and especially when you like what you receive and getting this 3� by New York�s Ahlzagailzeguh was certainly a very intense surprise. This small 3� is certainly one of the best noise record to be released in the underground noise scene in the year 2003 and the proof is that I ask them to do a split right after the listening of his two 3�. The concept is not new, some very disturbing noises assembled in a very chaotic way and succeeding each others but the way they are played are certainly made to let you taking a shit in your pants. I really don�t know how to describe you more of this, but this is 100% heavy noise in the way I guess you should give a listen to know what is harsh noise if you don�t� Promising project�



tactile agnosia

aversionline: Damn! 25 tracks of harsh noise on a 20-minute 3" CD. That's unexpected! Few of these pieces run more than a minute, and none longer than a minute-and-a-half, so the short bursts of explosive noise actually move along quite nicely, especially because a lot of different sounds are explored throughout. Sure, they're all fairly in your face and aggressive, and lots of distortion is employed, but at the same time, there are different ways to manipulate different tones and styles of distortion. Apparently all of this stuff was created using broken electronic devices, metal, various household objects, effects pedals, and synths. That sounds about right, because there is a certain lo-fi quality to the recording here, and the compositions are fairly minimal as far as layering and such. From straightforward walls of harsh distortion to banging and clanging sounds, to garbled rumbles and caustic treble, there's a little bit of everything, and then some. And it rarely calms down a notch. That's not to say this is like Masonna or Merzbow or anything, it's not, but it's not at all ambient either. I tend to be bothered by tracks that start and end abruptly, as it makes things feel unintentional, and that's something that can be disruptive here. But there are so many tracks that the stuttered beginnings and endings become common enough to work. Limited to just 44 copies, the first seven came in handmade sleeves with melted black/gold wax and glue. This one, like the rest, comes in a small sleeve printed on cream-colored paper with an abstract collage of images on the front and back, and a small xeroxed insert with the song titles inside. Not bad. I like the visual aesthetic and there is a certain feeling to most of the tracks, it's a little boring, but I can appreciate it. I'd be interested to hear longer, more developed works for sure. 1

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