Peter Brötzmann & Heather Leigh - Crowmoon (2018)

For some time I was thinking about reviewing a Peter Brötzmann album (if you don't know him he's one of the most important European free jazz musician, a saxophonist), I had to do it, he's among my favourite musicians, but wasn't decided about which one to review (he's releasing many albums, in studio and live). This one convinced me. It's called Crowmoon and released this year, it's a collaboration (he's doing collaborations most of the time) with a pedal steel guitar player called Heather Leigh. it's a one hour long track but a diverse and immersive enough experience to keep your attention. The pedal steel guitar, quite unusual in a free jazz context, is doing mostly drone/atmosphere building while Brötzmann is providing his famous powerfull sax blowing but also shows how good he's also at playing it more quiet, how a complete musician he is. I really enjoy this one. If you wanna try one of his recents releases, I recommend it.

 

Husmanskost - Ambi-Valence (2018)

Ambi-Valence is the third Husmanskost album  and this time again they improved on the previous one. Their old school grindpunk is even more catchy and straight to the point, stripped of all unecessary stuff like sample intros and with a bigger dose of heavier thrashy mid tempos parts letting you breath between the blast/d-beats. They also added a few more melodic riffs and choruses, a bit like in neocrust or in Nasum, and it works well.  Ambi-Valence is a really enjoyable album that is doing well everything I like in grindpunk. Like their previous one this album is among my favourites grind albums of the year. Highly recommended!

The BC page. 

Cognitive Dissonance video

HØRDÜR - Hubris (2018)

HØRDÜR is a new French grind band, and Hubris (released by the also new, good, and French grind label LIXIVIAT Records) is their first album. They play some old school grind, raw and simple, with a drumming alternating d-beats and blasts and some riffing with some neocrust and black metal kind of melodies (this is not super melodic as you guess, but I mean this is this kind of riffs...). They are good at doing it and if you like the more old school and punkish kind of grind you will very likely enjoy this album. I do!

The BC page 

their LIXIVIAT Records page

Oxygen Destroyer - Bestial Manifestations of Malevolence and Death (2018)

Bestial Manifestation of Malevolence and Death is the first album of Oxygen Destroyer from seattle. But what they play is not really US style, their old school thrashy death metal reminds mostly Vader, and also the South-America black/death/trash scene, with also a modern touch with hyperblast drumming to speed up things even more. It's a style of death metal I like very much and since they do it really well, with excellent riffing, drumming and songwriting skills, it makes an album I enjoy a lot.  I will listen to it many times with pleasure. Highly recommended!

The Bandcamp page.

H880 - Self-Perception (2018)

H880 is a French producer that combines his techno beats and industrial/noise/dark ambient music. His new album Self-Perception (with the good German label Instruments of discipline) is another testimony of his skills at producing that mix with some more straight-forward beats driven tracks and some more ambient ones. I especially likes how he discreetly adds eerie unsettling sounds here and there, like it's coming from a great distance, from some forgotten memories or from deep under water, to contribute to his mysterious and dark atmospheres. Good stuff.

The BC page.