CAROLINE K – Now Wait For Last Year LP Out Now!

CAROLINE K - Now Wait For Last Year Gatefold LP

CAROLINE K - Now Wait For Last Year Gatefold LP (Black Vinyl)

CAROLINE K - Now Wait For Last Year Gatefold LP (Grey Vinyl)

CAROLINE K - Now Wait For Last Year Gatefold LP (Splatter Vinyl)

CAROLINE K – Now Wait For Last Year LP (4iB070 / OCLP01 / NARCO132)

Side A
1. The Happening World
 
Side B
1. Animal Lattice
2. Chearth
3. Tracking With Close-Ups
4. Leaving
 
Black Vinyl
– Black LP in Gatefold Sleeve
– A2 Poster
– Ltd Edition 75 Copies
25 Copies Available (1st 15 copies incl. CD in white cardsleeve /  handstamped cover with tracks:: Between The Spaces 1, 2 & 3)
 
PRICE (Postage Paid): USD39.95
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Grey Vinyl
– Grey LP in Gatefold Sleeve
– A2 Poster
– Ltd Edition 75 Copies
25 Copies Available (1st 15 copies incl. CD in white cardsleeve / handstamped cover with tracks: Between The Spaces 1, 2 & 3)
 
PRICE (Postage Paid): USD39.95
To Purchase, Please Click Here:

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Black / Grey Splatter Vinyl
– Black / Grey Splatter LP in Gatefold Sleeve
– Special Sleeve Overlay with Affixed No’d Cover Art
– A2 Poster
– Ltd Edition 50 Copies
– 20 Copies Available
– Incl. CD in white cardsleeve / handstamped cover with tracks: Between The Spaces 1,2 & 3
 
PRICE (Postage Paid): USD59.95
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Old Captain, Narcolepsia and 4IB Records proudly present a re-release of a masterpiece of experimental electronic music commemorating 35 years since its first release in 1987!

“She was unique. Had a bad time in her childhood, her later years were never comfortable. But somehow she got an intensity, feeling of direction. Anything she didn’t know, she just learnt it. Awful history in the countryside, then in London, carrying the banner against injustices. I was in the studio many times with her, the single mindedness. Brilliant technician. Long time before sampling took hold, Caroline had 4-track loops, proper innovation. A bit insecure, had to be in a band (natural for the period) to begin, but when she got on her own, I honestly think her material is up with the best classical musicians”- Danny Ayers, husband of Caroline K.

“Now Wait For Last Year” is a work of art of understated electronic elegance with great quality mastering by Nigel Ayers, Nocturnal Emissions, keeping delicate dynamics and depth of bleakness and existential depth.

The LP master artwork and layout design by Mauro Berchi, Eibon Records.


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

SETE STAR SEPT – The Judgment By Reaper / Under world 2×7″ Out Now!

Sete Star Sept - The Judgment By Reaper : Underworld 2x7 (3)

Sete Star Sept - The Judgment By Reaper : Underworld 2x7 (2)

Sete Star Sept - The Judgment By Reaper : Underworld 2x7 (1)

SETE STAR SEPT – The Judgment By Reaper / Underworld 2×7″ (4iB069)

Side A (The Judgment By Reaper)
1. Rituals Of Desire
2. Repeated Blunders
3. Flash Of Light
4. No Overlap
 
Side B (The Judgment By Reaper)
1. Poison Pizza
2. Exploitative Abuse
3. Power to Push Forward
4. Pre-Established Harmony
 
Side C (Underworld)
1. Underworld
 
Side D (Underworld)
1. Beyond-world
 
– 2×7″ in Gatefold Cover
– 1st 60 Label Copies come with Special Paper Overlay & No’d Sticker
– Limited Edition 300 Copies
– 5 904224 871307
 
SETE STAR SEPT:
Kae Takahashi (Vocals/Bass)
Ryosuke Kiyasu (Drums)
 
Recorded at Noise Room Recording Studio on May 31st, 2022
http://www.7s7.org
 
“The Judgment By Reaper” Illustration by Ed Mirrork
 
PRICE (Postage Paid): USD34.99
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SETE STAR SEPT (Kae Takahashi & Ryosuke Kiyasu)The Judgment By Reaper / Underworld” is a double 7″ housed in a gatefold sleeve comprising 10 tracks that were recorded on 31 May 2022 specially for this release. As provocateurs of their exhilarating and furious noise grind, this double 7″ platter of pumped up adrenaline  drowns you in guttural vocals and distorted technical bass lines (of Kae Takahashi), and blast drumming of harsh sonic chaos by a madman (Ryosuke Kiyasu).


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

PATIENT K (Kevin Tomkins) (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend / Sutcliffe No More) – Butterfly Drowned In Oil CD (Out Now!)

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PATIENT K (Kevin Tomkins) (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend / Sutcliffe No More) – Butterfly Drowned In Oil CD Out Now! (4iB073):

1. Strong (7:08)
2. Bovine Rant (0:31)
3. Butterfly Drowned In Oil (5:34)
4. Scum (4:29)
5. Split (6:38)
6. Bovine Anaesthetist (1:28)
7. Mirror Smashed (3:29)
8. Twitch (1:01)
9. The Bends (6:37)
10. Fucking With Vultures (5:30)
11. A Sound In The Swirling Air (0:28)
12. Handsome (5:39)
13. Needy Fucker (5:03)
 
– CD in 6-Panel Digisleeve
– 12-Page Booklet
– Limited 200 Copies
– Label Copies c/w Special CD Sleeve Overlay with Affixed Sticker
– Barcode: 5 904224 871840
Sample Tracks
 
Butterfly Drowned In Oil is a follow up to Patient K (Kevin Tomkins – Sutcliffe No More, formally Sutcliffe Jugend) first album Piss Artist. The 13 songs contained showcase the same fucked up sounds and vocals, fully representative of the vile world that the deranged psyche of Kevin Tomkins dwells in. For fans who enjoy Kevin’s first album Piss Artist, Patient K will continue to fill that unique space in any collection. CD comes in a trifold cardboard sleeve, with a 12pp booklet featuring the stunning artwork of Patient K.
 
PRICE (Postage Paid): USD18
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Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
http://www.4ibrecords.com

THOABATH / DEMONOLOGISTS – Split LP (Out Now!)

Thoabath : Demonologists - Split LP (Front)

Thoabath : Demonologists - Split LP (Back)

THOABATH / DEMONOLOGISTS – Split LP (4iB061)

Side A
1. THOABATH – Surp Skiros (16:18)

Side B
1. Demonologists – Black Tourmaline (Feat. Skulsyr) (3:52)
2. Demonologists – Swamp Witch (Feat. Skulsyr) (3:11)
3. Demonologists – Astral Void (5:21)
4. Demonologists – Skinwalker (2:24)
5. Demonologists – Only Death Remains Here (3:56)

– Limited Edition 300 Copies
– Barcode:  5 904224 870270

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD39.99
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The single track (Surp Skiros) on Side A features Oakland, California based Thoabath, who draws from Death Industrial, Black Metal, Noise and Berlin School electronics. This track was started in Puerto Rico just before the hurricanes hit in 2017. It was later finished after relocating to California. The concept of the track is inspired by Gurdjieff’s concept of resisting force.
Side B features Indiana based occult experimentalists Demonologists. Here, the duo offer up five tracks of their creepy brand of blackened noise / sci-fi influenced horror electronics. Two of the five tracks feature additional contributions from Skulsyr (T.O.M.B.). The material found in this collection conjures up images of demonic summoning and exorcisms, witchcraft, supernatural folklore, death worship, and the infinite void of space.


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

PATIENT K (Kevin Tomkins) (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend / Sutcliffe No More) – Piss Artist CD Out Now!

Patient K Kevin Tomkins Sutcliffe Jugend Piss Artist Image 2

Patient K Kevin Tomkins Sutcliffe Jugend Piss Artist Image 1

PATIENT K (Kevin Tomkins) (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend / Sutcliffe No More) – Piss Artist CD Out Now! (4iB067):

1. Head Count (0:07)
2. Patient K (10:10)
3. In A Glass Cage (5:55)
4. The Proposition (0:27)
5. Prussian Blue (2:44)
6. Piss Artist (0:54)
7. Wicked Boy (9:08)
8. Everything Is Not Love (0:37)
9. The Cartographer (4:53)
10. Wounds (0:31)
11. Mother Mourns (7:31)
12. Swallow Dive (2:32)
13. All That Remains (8:06)
 
– CD in 6-Panel Digisleeve
– 12-Page Booklet
– Limited 200 Copies
– Label Copies c/w Special CD Sleeve Overlay with Affixed Sticker
– Barcode: 5 904224 871284
Sample Tracks
 
Patient K is Kevin Tomkins’s (Sutcliffe No More, formally Sutcliffe Jugend) new solo project. It is a totally unique album, sounding like no other. ‘Piss Artist’ uses a limited sound pallet to recreate the distorted vile world in which the characters in Tomkins’s world exist. The vocals on ‘Piss Artist’ maintain Tomkins vocal style, but finds them crushed into the music like never before. The music is a mix of drum machine, synthesizer, organ and electric piano, all twisted to create a new kind of oppressive atmosphere. Sometimes the music veers into song like structures, sometimes into post industrial nightmares. An absolute must for lovers of his previous work, Patient K will fill a unique space in any collection. CD comes in a trifold cardboard sleeve, with a 12pp booklet featuring the stunning artwork of Patient K.
 
PRICE (Postage Paid): USD18
To Purchase, Please Click Here:
 
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Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
http://www.4ibrecords.com

M.B. (Maurizio Bianchi) & SACHER-PELZ – Pententrances CD Out Now!

Maurizio Bianchi MB Sacher Pelz CD 1

Maurizio Bianchi MB Sacher Pelz CD 2

M.B. (Maurizio Bianchi) & SACHER-PELZ – Pententrances CD Out Now! (4iB063)

1. Entrance 01 (1955)
2. Entrance 02 (1960)
3. Entrance 03 (1966)
4. Entrance 04 (1984)
5. Entrance 05 (2000)

– Digipak CD
– Limited 200 Copies
– Barcode: 5 904224 871277

M. B. & SACHER-PELZ played treated elektronix, retreated noises and modulations.
Decomposed during late 2020 at Opera’s House.
Pentaperspective pictures by M. B. & SACHER-PELZ.
Pentathanks to Pharmakustik for his nebulous and dischord mixing.

Pententrances’ consists of 5 tracks that narrate the story of the different houses that Maurizio Bianchi had lived in from his birth (1955) until the present day (2020). This album captures the memories and emotions of the person and artist, spread out over 65 years expressed through his signature ambient style. This release features M. B. being the prerogative driver of the project, and his alter-ego Sacher-Pelz being that supportive role.

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD17
To Purchase, Please Click Here:


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
http://www.4ibrecords.com

PAUL TAYLOR (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend / Sutcliffe No More) – Songs From A Hospital Bed CD Out Now!

R-22064002-1644248737-1264
R-22064002-1662792365-5172

PAUL TAYLOR (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend / Sutcliffe No More) – Songs From A Hospital Bed CD Out Now! (4iB068)

1. First Blood (7:18)
2. Ordeal (4:59)
3. Despair (6:34)
4. Drenched (4:54)
5. Crisis (6:52)
6. Morphine (5:30)
7. Colostomy Catastrophy (5:50)
8. Infected Coma (8:54)
9. Cured (6:20)

– CD in 6-Panel Digisleeve
– Limited 200 Copies
– Barcode: 5 904224 871291
Sample Tracks

Paul Taylor is one half of Sutcliffe Jugend and this harrowing solo album is one of the best noise albums I’ve heard in a long time. It is the soundtrack to a particularly brutal part of Taylor’s life where he almost lost his life in a horrendous medical emergency. Taylor was in and out of a coma, had three major operations and ended up horribly scarred and addicted to morphine as a result of his hospitalization.
This album, produced by Kevin Tomkins is both terrifying and darkly beautiful. Its cloaked in a sepulchral darkness and ripples with confiscating noise and ambient interludes. Menacing and foreboding work at times reminiscent of the early tape experiments of Maurizio Bianchi Highly recommended.
(Review by Kristian Carter)

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD18
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Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
http://www.4ibrecords.com

SUTCLIFFE NO MORE (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend) – Consenting Adult 2xCD Out Now!

SUTCLIFFE NO MORE (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend) – Consenting Adult 2xCD (4iB064)

Disc 1
1. Akrasia (4:15)
2. Drug Mule (5:15)
3. Brother (4:27)
4. Cut Tooth (3:31)
5. Plainsong (4:00)
6. Savant (5:14)
7. Consenting Adult (4:42)
8. Mother (5:11)
9. Wicked (0:35)
10. Father (3:47)
11. Sister (5:22)

Disc 2
1. Drained (9:46)
2. Heavy Petting (8:52)
3. Berlin Pharmacy Shopkeeper (10:09)
4. Coma Toy (9:58)
5. I Digress (12:02)

  • 2xCD in 6-Panel Digisleeve
  • 24-Page Booklet (artwork by Kevin Tomkins)
  • Limited 300 Copies
  • Sample Tracks

After the harrowing ‘Domestic’, comes the cathartic release of ‘Consenting Adult’. The video for opening track ‘Akrasia’ on YouTube gives the viewer a taste of another seismic shift, this time towards a varied selection of songs closer to the Sutcliffe Jugend sound, yet still utterly unique. No limits. No boundaries. No template.
Disc one features shorter songs, a release of energy and creativity, featuring unique tracks like ‘Drug Mule’ and ‘Cut Tooth’ while disc two’s songs go deeper and darker still, especially on ‘Heavy Petting’ and the disturbing ‘Coma Toy’.
Kevin and Paul’s most varied album since ‘With Extreme Prejudice’, this double CD with special portrait art throughout by Kevin Tomkins, is available in a triple fold sleeve with 24pp booklet.

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD28
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Please direct all enquiries to:
4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords
http://www.4ibrecords.com

 

EDGE OF DECAY – Last Trip To Paradise CD Out Now!

EDGE OF DECAY – Last Trip To Paradise CD (4iB062):

  1. Sewer Romance
  2. Nuclear Death
  3. Last Trip To Paradise

– CD in 6-Panel Digipak
– Limited Edition 200 Copies
– Barcode: 5 904224 870249

Last Trip to Paradise gives you a high dosage of raw soundspaces, demented analog screeches and vile industrial machine manipulation. 43 minutes of total Harsh Noise worship from Finland.

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD18
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Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

Z’EV & JULIEN OTTAVI – Crash & Cross CD (Out Now!)

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Z’EV & JULIEN OTTAVI – Crash & Cross CD (4iB066):

  1. Untitled I (7:36)
  2. Untitled II (11:45)
  3. Untitled III (10:28)
  4. Untitled IV (13:30)
  5. Untitled V (5:18)
  6. Untitled VI (4:33)
  7. Untitled VII (6:55)

– CD in 6-Panel Digipak
– 8-Page Booklet
– Limited Edition 200 Copies
– Barcode: 5 904224 870942

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD18
To Purchase, Please Click Here:

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In 2009 at Area10 in London, our mutual friend Kasper T. Toeplitz introduced Z’EV (1951 – 2017) with his percussion to me (Julien Ottavi) during a David Tudor’s Rainforest IV performance that I was organising at that time with the support of Apo33.
Even though we had played a couple of gigs before in London and Nantes, the real start of our collaboration was when we toured together in 2011. In 2014, Z’EV came to live in Nantes and we spent time playing music together, mainly working with Orgone Nantes Percussion on a Z’EV piece for percussion. We worked on some recordings mixed live and studio sessions that had been put together over the year after 2015. We used both percussion recordings and live music that were sometimes processed and other times not. We spent a whole year recording bits and pieces that were assembled together during a few months. The idea was to create a release that will cross the different aspects of our collaboration, together, live, recorded, in the same place, sometimes in different places. The aspects of composition were really strong as we worked on each other’s materials through exchanges about the way to mix it and arrangement of the multi-track recordings. Some parts of the live materials were recorded as stereo, and the most interesting parts were cut and assembled. Even today, it is difficult to say which one is live and which one is not. But does it really matter?


Review of Z’EV & JULIEN OTTAVI – Crash & Cross CD (4iB066) by Roger Batty (Musique Machine)

Crash & Cross is a seven-track collaboration that moves between churning ‘n’ grinding noise craft, and more eerie ‘n’ unsettling fare. It brings together two respected experimental sound maker- American percussionist/ sound-artists Z’EV, and French composer/ musician Julien Ottavi who is known for his abstract noise project The Noiser.

The release appears as a CD on Singapore’s 4iB Records. The disc comes presented in a six-panel digipak- on its unfolded front side we get a close-up monochrome picture of an ageing key lock system. And on its unfolded reverse, we find a close-up picture of yellow and grey lichen. With a six-page colour inlay booklet featuring pictures of both projects in live/ coloured smeared picture form. So a nicely presented release, which is Ltd to just 200 copies.

The album takes in seven untitled tracks- these each have runtimes between four and thirteen minutes. In the first half of the disc we move from the sweeping grain-meets-warblingly harsh electronics of “Untitled I”. Through to the sinister drone hoover and loose murky guitar slug ‘n’ sear of “Untitled III”. Onto unease drift and ebb of “Untitled IV” which brings together grey drone bob and low-key tone bay.
In the album’s second half we go from the murkily nocturnal “Untitled V” which pulls together unwell pitch drifts, light textural electro jitters, and waving simmer. Onto the slowly slicing percussive cuts ‘n’ clangs meets unwell electro-dark ambient bubbling of “Untitled VII”.

Sadly, Z’EV passed away in 2017- so it’s always nice to hear unreleased work from him. All in all Crash & Cross is a most worthy collaborative release, which nicely sits in both noise and uneasy ambient camps.


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

SUTCLIFFE NO MORE (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend) – Domestic 2xCD Out Now!

SNM Domestic Outer Cover Art

Domestic poster 1 copy

SUTCLIFFE NO MORE (Ex-Sutcliffe Jugend) – Domestic 2xCD (4iB060):

Disc 1
1. You Are The Mirror (2:51)
2. Complicit (11:33)
3. The Misery Of Loves Company (7:14)
4. Domestic (14:17)
5. Unclean (9:09)
6. Imperfect Tragic (10:16)

Disc 2
1. Talent (8:36)
2. Hide (9:28)
3. The Day Before You Came (The Letter) (10:32)
4. Trigger Warning (8:53)
5. One Piece Missing (7:51)
6. Cozy Doll (14:26)

– 2xCD in 6-Panel Digisleeve
– 16-Page Booklet
– Double Sided A4 Poster
– Limited Edition 300 Copies
– Barcode: 5 9042248 70232

Track Samples: Here.

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD28
To Purchase, Please Click Here:

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Sutcliffe No More, a continuation of Sutcliffe Jugend release the harrowing new double CD ‘Domestic’ recorded during Lockdown 2020-21, which explores themes of isolation and domestic abuse. This double album is the result of the current Pandemic, taking into account loss, frustration and fear that have rained down on the world this past year.
This is the first release by Paul Taylor and Kevin Tomkins as Sutcliffe No More, which is Sutcliffe Jugend but with a new name. After the one off album as Slaves No More, the band reverted to the same lyrical themes and musical intensity of Sutcliffe Jugend, through using spoken word and singing combined with classical, choirs and electronica. This superbly produced album is a one of a kind release that is unique and as always, a difficult listen and definitely not for the faint hearted. It takes you to a place outside of your comfort zone and is essential listening for those with a taste for extreme art.


REVIEW OF SUTCLIFFE NO MORE – DOMESTIC
 
” The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces. ”

 

Does any human being show their true self?

Is there a person amongst us who never hides their stomach churning conflicting emotions behind a blank or smiling facade?

Behind the multitude of masks that you wear; how do you know who is the real you?

Do you even care anymore?

Or has life simply become a charade where you masquerade as what you honestly believe others wish from you?

Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor know a lot about masks. For almost four decades now they have utilised the faces of others, not to hide away but in order to explore the darkest, most depraved personas of the dregs, the deranged and the worst of human kind. 

With Sutcliffe Jugend they utilised the howling chaos of Power Electronics in their venomous examination of the psyche of both aggressor and victim. By donning the veil of those malignant societal outcasts they plumbed the depths of both psychological and sonic horror. Their early work was rakish libertinage, a theatre of cruelty, an audio Grand Guignol. 

Their brief side project Bodychoke was a very different musical endeavor that managed to retain SJ’s baleful explorations of the shadowy realms of the human condition .With Bodychoke though the synapse shredding feedback was replaced with a more musical approach that was based on conventional rock music.  

From serial killers, abusers, the abused, the victim and the survivor; Tomkins and Taylor managed to get into the subconscious of their subjects with an often alarming sense of both ease and enthusiasm. 

This wasn’t just shock tactics, there always was a sense of seeking to find the true face of those who were willing to commit such heinous acts against their fellow humans. 

To understand.

To know.

Sutcliffe Jugend finally ceased their work over three decades of experimentation with sound and ideas in 2019. Over the course of this long recording career they moved away from the harsh sound of their formative years towards a more introspective experimental sound. A sound that involved using both acoustic and electronic methods to purvey the darkness that lies in all of us.

Domestic is their new album under the moniker Sutcliffe No More. The new project being both a nod to their lengthy past and an acknowledgement of the future they initiated with the Scott Walkeresque stand alone Slaves No More release.

The album is a deeply unsettling listen. It was recorded remotely at the height of the first lockdown in the United Kingdom. Isolated alone and unable to meet both Tomkins and Taylor set about sending one another fragments of sound and text which would be worked on again and again until the tracks that grace this two disk set began to crystallize and form. 

There is a sense of claustrophobic density within the tracks which is very unusual as this is not a dense morass of sound but a more minimal approach to recording. There isn’t hugely complicated patterns to discern but every  sound is honed to absolute perfection. Every click, scrape, drone, pulse, chord is perfectly placed within the track. It is a work of meticulous intensity. Domestic is a focused work of obsessive detail. There are moments of striking beauty and stomach churning dread. Nothing is overused and equally nothing is underused. Every word and sound has been carefully analysed for maximum effect.

The final few Sutcliffe Jugend albums were lyrically highly unusual, it appeared that the masks worn to plumb the depths had began to slip and what we were catching sight of was the wounded man behind the facade. 

Sutcliffe No More has seen the mask cast aside and the cauldron of horror that exists in all of us is now fully exposed to our eyes.

Tomkins lyrics are both disgusting and disgusted. There is both a sense of indignation at the horrors and resignation that we are helpless in the face of such malevolence.

The recurring themes of entrapment, abandonment, loneliness and abuse highlight the huge rise in cases of domestic violence during the lockdown. 

If your home becomes a prison where you are caged with a beast, then just where can you go to find sanctity and safety?

How long before you home goes from prison to your own personal morgue?

The most horrifying listen of the album must be the title track ‘Domestic’. It begins with a beautific organ that draws you into the sanctity of home, lulling you into a false sense of domestic bliss before the slow unfurling horror of the destructive nature of an abusive relationship becomes clear. It is a creeping malevolence that details the relationship between a man with mental health issues and his violent addict partner. Tomkins manages to convey both the vindictive spite of the aggressor and the hollowed out emotional wreckage that is the victim. 

Domestic is not an easy listen. It is also an album not easy to categorise. It is perhaps the most organic album that Taylor/Tomkins have released. The majority of the music being from autoharp, synth, guitars and organ. It is also the most alien sounding of all their material. Everything is so clinically cold and foreboding. There is no sense of hope.

Listening to Domestic was the sonic equivalent of been waterboarded, your all alone and gasping for air. The walls have closed in and there is nothing to breathe but hopelessness. 

These aren’t songs; despite there being words.

This isn’t abstract avant garde sound experiments, there is too much purpose for abstraction.

What this album is then are razor blade cuts upon the tapestry of life.

Cuts that expose the putrescent filth that dwells like a coiled snake in the souls of everyone of us.

 
Kristian Carter 
( October 2021 )
 

Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

SACHER-PELZ & M.B. – C.M.E.R. CD Out Now!

 

Sacher-Pelz & MB Maurizio Bianchi - CMER CD 1

Sacher-Pelz & MB Maurizio Bianchi - CMER CD Inside

SACHER-PELZ & M.B. – C.M.E.R. CD (4iB057):

1. Cainocide Menus (29:47)
2. Existat Regurs (29:30)

– Digipak CD (1st 40 Label Copies c/w Special Sleeve & No’d Sticker)
– Limited Edition 200 Copies
– Barcode: 5 902249 003802

PRICE (Postage Paid): USD18
To Purchase, Please Click Here:

Paypal Image Link


Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.”

Duality is thus described as – an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something; a dualism.

Four decades of musical output has seen the Italian electronic legend ; Maurizio Bianchi’s music tread in both the shadow and the light. His brutally bleak and unforgiving early work as Sacher Pelz were a stark vision of dystopian isolation. The early loops and concrete drones the soundtrack of sanity slowly eroding. There was little if anything of humanity within those blunt tones, that despite being so minimal; seemed paradoxically to be insurmountable. Huge granite slabs of sound captured like mechanical demons onto the reels of cheap cassettes.

His later work as MB initially continued this exploration of decay and desolation but this time his own terror, horror and disgust at the modern world was transposed into the nightmarish vision. It’s almost as if you could glimpse a glance of him encased within the cavernous void a static scream upon his face; howling into the abyss. A howl of rage, of pain and of anger at the destruction of our humanity by the technocratic slavery that the whole of humanity was sleep walking towards.

Then there was silence.

A sabbatical.

Then the return.

This time Bianchi had taken solace in the light. He continued to work with the darkness but only in order to take a burning torch into the void. To illuminate that which for too long had subsumed to the gloom that dwells in all of our hearts.

C.M.E.R is an exploration of duality, an album that explores both darkness and light. An album that weaves a deftly spun web of both uplifting quasi classical synth work with bleaker more industrial tones.

It consists of two lengthy tracks; Cainocide Menus is a cold, metallic, disorienting pulse of overloaded oscillators. The slow rumbling looped drones giving the track an almost rhythmic pattern. A slow funerary march into the apocalypse. The sound of a cowled figure beneath a steel sky, marching slowly into oblivion.

Meanwhile Existat Regurs is the sound of that condemned man being released from purgatory and into the light. Slowly the shackles that bound him are cast aside and the slow ascent begins. An ascent of beautiful melodies that flicker at first through the darkness that attempts to bind; before casting it off completely and heralding a new dawn.

Mr Bianchi has been extremely prolific over the last twelve months and seems to have found a new sense of purpose. As the pandemic has swept the world we have seen an increase in activity from him. Almost as if he is possessed by the same desire to push back against the pestilence as he was against the technocratic slavery he recognised as a young man.

C.M.E.R will please those who are interested in both the bleaker, harsher early years of this artists work and those who enjoy his more spiritual forays into sound art. It is a surprisingly powerful work consisting of both damnation and salvation.

Duality.

” May everlasting light shine upon them, O Lord, with thy saints in eternity, for thou art merciful.”

By Kristian Carter


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS / FRAG (Head of David / Tunnels of Āh) – Esoteric Sedition CD Out Now!

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NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS / FRAG (Head of David / Tunnels of Ah) – Esoteric Sedition CD (4iB058):

1. Wartime Summer (5:25)
2. Primordial Furea (4:16)
3. Telstra Sandpile (5:49)
4. Netra Mode (4:18)
5. Nomical Index (4:59)
6. Reflexive Control (5:53)
7. Symmetry Diffusion (5:18)
8. Particle Serum (4:22)
9. Ionone (5:16)
10. Boundless Informant (5:07)
11. Subtopia (5:34)
12. Propylene (6:03)

– Digipak CD (1st 60 Label Copies c/w Special Sleeve & No’d Sticker)
– Limited Edition 300 Copies
– Barcode: 5902249003819

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Nocturnal Emissions may be the better known act here. Their history stretches back to their early associations with the then burgeoning industrial music scene. Long before he became renowned for his role in the noise rock outfit Head Of David, FRAG’s Stephen Āh Burroughs was creating industrial music with the short lived project Comicide. Today, his main project Tunnels Of Āh is a form of esoteric electronics in the vein of early Current 93 and Coil combining Buddhist and Gnostic texts with the genius loci of place. FRAG is a newer and more prolific project offering slabs of sound on short run cassettes and CD-Rs. FRAG’s recent collaboration with Italian composer and industrial stalwart Maurizio Bianchi, almost brings this full circle since it was Nigel Ayers of Nocturnal Emissions who co-founded the label, Sterile Records, which released Bianchi’s first album and 4iB Records who released the MB/FRAG collaborative album, Psychation, as well as being the label behind this one.

The origins of Esoteric Sedition came about when FRAG approached Nigel Ayers with the idea of a collaboration, and opening with the warm lulling ambient atmospherics of ‘Wartime Summer’, it’s clear Esoteric Sedition takes its cues from Nigel Ayers’ most recent sounds, of minimal works and soundtracks for film and television. And let’s be clear, decades have past since Nocturnal Emissions have produced anything which could be considered industrial music. Here ringing and shimmering pipe like atmospherics are shadowed by subdued grumbling textures. There’s an electroacoustic aspect to ‘Primordial Furea’ in the ricocheting gong chime and clatter of treated metallic textures set over pumping heartbeat pulse fused with spiralling noise reverberations which never overshadow the manipulated source material. Haunting synths wax and wane on ‘Telstra Sandpile’; its ominous presence deepened by the incessant crackle and click of a radiation detecting Geiger counter. It’s representative of the shadowy presence FRAG bring to the sombre, solemn sounds of Nocturnal Emissions. Up till now the brutalist noise of FRAG may have appeared absent but it becomes more prevalent on ‘Netra Mode’, where a torrent of noise is unleashed threatening to obliterate the glinting and glistening ambient electronics in a storm of distortion.

Rendering the ambient synths in distortion, ‘Nomical Index’ is quite disarming. Imagine listening to a radio broadcast where you’re not quite tuned in to the right frequency. Buzzing and fizzing, it’s all carefully controlled and designed to not overpower but to work alongside the mellow ambience. On ‘Reflexive Control’ FRAG’s textured atmospherics do become more prevalent as they continuously dart and swoosh cloaking the subtle forlorn synths in shredded noise layers. ‘Boundless Informant’ works in a similar way and it’s testament to how FRAG have approached this release. It seems rather than obliterate the release with lashings and slabs of noise, they have produced sounds and textures which are attuned and sympathetic to the original Nocturnal Emissions material. On this one they employ drifting and gestating patterns of distortion which go hand-in-hand with the gentle plaintive synths creating something alluring and quite beautiful.

A choral aspect flows through the source material of both ‘Symmetry Diffusion’ and ‘Particle Serum’. The airy cut-up manipulations of the former expanding voices into a series of tones and drones, offset by controlled noise interjections and waves of gnawing distortion. ‘Particle Serum’ is perhaps harsher, its mass of angelic voices disrupted by the oscillating shriek of whirring frequencies. The queasy disembodied piano score of ‘Ionone’ unfurls to a melodic discord of chiming notes and stabbing chords, shifting and blurring in fragmentary fashion sliced with power-tool buzz and percussive rattling and saturated in droning electronics. FRAG continually rein things in, never over stepping the mark as they bring their own noise based concrète music to enliven the source material. Assuming a scratchy, ripped form, ‘Subtopia’ could be considered glitchy if it weren’t for the fact that FRAG employ an analogue based approach. Still, it is the noise textures that create the focus here as they scratch, rip and shriek and, at times, whip up something of a noise storm over the soft focus gliding ambient synths of Nocturnal Emissions.

Ambience and gritty noise textures combine to great effect on ‘Propylene’. Due to its restless construction, I found it particularly disorientating as I struggled to focus on either the gentleness of the rays of wafting atmospherics or the fermenting niggles and churn of the distortion. Haunting and queasy in equal proportions, it’s not a track I’d recommend to anyone, like me, currently enduring the effects of vertigo. It is, however, a satisfactory end to an album where FRAG deploy noise and textures, which accompany and embellish, shroud and shadow the minimal synth work of Nocturnal Emissions. Nocturnal Emissions may have the longer pedigree in experimental and (post-) industrial music, but I consider Stephen Āh Burroughs as Tunnels of Āh and FRAG as one of the most expressive and accomplished proponents of whatever industrial music has become today. Esoteric Sedition is a wonderful distillation of both their approaches and is certainly worthy of investigation if not a full blown recommendation. Esoteric Sedition is available digitally and on CD from FRAG Bandcamp and 4iB Records

(Review by Compulsion Online: http://www.compulsiononline.com/nocturnal_emissions_frag_esoteric_sedition.htm)


Please direct all enquiries to:

4iB Records
PO Box 206
Singapore 914007
email: gerald@4ibrecords.com
www.4ibrecords.com

Review of K2 / Astro / V.O.E.R. – Subconscious Error CD (4iB048) by Progress Report

Main CDI was hoping this was going to be a collaboration between these three artists but it’s actually separate tracks on one CD. You get two from each.

K2 is the project of Kimihide Kusafuka, he started out making noise music in 1981, a few years later, he suspended his musical activities to finish his studies as a pathologist and returned to music in 1993 after graduating. K2 has used many different implements and instruments over the years and on his two pieces here he uses modular and semi-modular synths and effects to produce two pieces of noise that are continually evolve in a mass of analogue burbling and feedback. Lots of variety and movement throughout his two pieces keeps them from getting dull and predictable.

I was a big fan of C.C.C.C’s psychedelic approach to noise and have enjoyed Hiroshi’s Astro project too. He and Rohco give us two tracks of classic Japanese noise. Their pieces are more full-on walls of noise than the K2 pieces. Huge blasts of noise under pin the more random bursts of different squeals and stabs of dissonance that overlay them. Probably the highlight of the album for me.

V.O.E.R is an artist I’ve not come across before and appears to be a project from Krister Bergman. The two pieces here seem to be linked at least by their titles. There’s The Garden of Eden and A Garden of Flesh. The first piece is a thick wall of noise with some vocals low down in the mix that it’s difficult to make out the words too. Vocals are performed by Primitive Knot who seem to be a band from Manchester. The second piece follows a similar style; a wall of noise with some vocals over the top. You can hear the vocals quite clearly on this piece and the delivery of them almost pushes this towards a metal/dark ambient flavour. Not really to my tastes I prefer less vocals in noises pieces and the style of the vocals reminds of some pieces by Sunn0))) and is all a bit too dramatic and theatrical.
Really enjoyed the pieces by K2 and Astro but didn’t find much to grab me in the V.O.E.R pieces. I might enjoy them more if I heard some instrumental work by them but these two weren’t for me. DB

(Source: http://www.progress-report.co.uk/Reviews/K/K2%20Astro%20VOER.htm)

Review of Bosses Hang & Government Alpha & Torturing Nurse & Astro & Vomir ‎– 一期一会 2xCD (4iB056) by Musique Machine

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Crossbreeds between noise and more formal music are always difficult propositions- either the noise elements are secondary, feeling like an afterthought. Or the noise elements overwhelm/ unbalance the musical elements- it’s very difficult to get the perfect blend between the two, and more often than not releases that try to do this cross-blending fail or at least come away feeling somewhat disappointed. Once in a lifetime is one of the better/ more rewarding examples of noise/ music crossbreeding- though unfortunately, this sprawling double album does sometimes fall into either of the mentioned problematic camps.

The release appears on Singapore based 4iB Records, which has a good track record at releasing more carouse/ distinctive noise-based fare. The release comes in the form of a double CD set- this is presented a grey fold-out gatefold, which features a nice blend of moody pictures and simple photo collage. Also featured is an inlay booklet- featuring pictures of each collaborator and grim medieval prints. It’s ltd to 300 copies, and I can imagine these go fairly fast due to known noise names connected to the release like Vomir( why I wanted to check this out), Government Alpha, Torturing Nurse, and Astro.

At the centre of this release/ featured on every track is Bosses Hang- aka Romania’s Raul Starcz, who offers up the more musical elements here- with these moving between dramatic mood-scaping, post-industrial sound scaping, spaced-out to- jazzy improv, searing rock jamming, doomed out rock, etc. As far as I can gather the Bosses Hang has been active as a project since 2018- with it’s work mainly focusing on collabs with other.

Over the two-disc, we find a total of ten tracks- and these have runtimes between four and twenty-three minutes, though as you’d expect mostly the tracks are at the more length side of things. On the whole, the two CD’s together offering up a rather varied record- at points, it does slightly lack its own identity when the collaborators sound bleeds and burns in too much, but it’s a largely eventful and entertaining cross breed album.

On the positive/ worth side of things- We kick off with “All The Power To The People, I Will Die For Something Which Is Still Nothing In The End”( all the tracks have these overblown/ at points pretentious titles)- this track finds Starcz collaborating with two noise acts- Shanghai-based Torturing Nurse and Japans Government Alpha- as the track musical focuses we have this bounding and brooding mix of synth bass lines, grim higher-pitched harmonics, and dramatic drum fills- around this the noisemakers build searing and rewarding detail, with the focus sometimes nicely drifting to more noise bound texturing/ dwelling- through the musical elements are never far away. There’s “What Will You Do At The End Of The World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? (Reprise)” which features Government Alpha and the project adds really nice selection of simmer-to-shredding noise tones to Starcz lumbering and doomed out guitar and smash/ crashing drum work. Or the albums finale track “Death Is Not The Ending, It Is Just A Reasonable Conclusion To Another Average Story”- finds a wondering blend of doomed blue rock work out, hazed by a nasty Vomir sear and baying and wailing female vocals by Junko

On the less effective/focused side we have lose jazz guitar improv meets wondering harsh noise of “I Am Intoxicated With The Ashes Of A Long Gone Past, But I Am Still Breathing” which finds Starcz collaborating with Torturing Nurse. Or “Throne Of Blood And The Ballad Of A Thousand Crying Sparrows” which features Astro and Vomir, this opens with a sort of wondering and laid back semi- country fed psych-rock jamming- sadly the musical elements start to slip/ slide and become messy the deeper in you go, and unfortunately, neither noise collaborator is really adding anything too interesting.

In conclusion Once in a lifetime is certainly an interesting experiment at blending/ blurring noise and atmospheric music fare- not all of it works, and at points, the double album format does feel too sprawling/ unfocused. But if you enjoy where noise and music meet, it’s certainly something I think you find worth/ enjoyment from.

(Source: https://www.musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?id=8515&fbclid=IwAR0RxjdLKS8eb_HMTB4XGQ2gf3udfoxmBs_4vWvAxAxElDedq_JXeDk-DUc)