Corey Larkin has a history of making intense & not so easily accessible electronic music. As I’m sure you might expect from the title, Raw Data Studies is more of those wonderful sound experiments.

There’s only 2 tracks, the first is a mere 35 seconds long. It’s a quick brittle static blast sourced from a PDF file. The second, titled “Dissipative Music/ µũ Law Algorithm,” is wayy longer, clocking in at 15 minutes. This is some HARSH shit. Abrasive squelches, piercing glass & blade tornadoes, lo-fi robot blurts, and ghostly electronic chatter, this runs the gamut on cold, inhumane, & antiseptic noise. It’s like dipping your amputated limbs in Clorox.

I’m not entirely sure how these sounds are made. They’re primitive & digital and my guess is Larkin is using some traditionally non-audio data to make noise, similar to Steven Flato’s transformation of “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” .txt to an .aif (Larkin even thanks Flato for “directing me to the medium of raw data” on the disc). This isn’t easy listening, this isn’t even pleasurable listening, it’s startling & painful but goddamn if I’m not still drawn to it. It’s not just the intrigue of the creation, it’s actually a varied & compelling experience, one that I probably won’t listen to on a daily basis but will no doubt peel away at its layers and get more out of it with every listen.

This is the first of four releases in Copy For Your Records‘ Fan CD-R Series. They’ll all be a 3″ inside a 5″ CD-R, limited to “no less than 100 copies, and cumulatively, as a complete series, totalling an edition of 500.” Strange, but whatever. This is totally fucking rad, major props to CFYR for getting brilliant future-noise glitch in the physical hands of those who care.

Mamaleek is made up of two brothers making a terrible & raucous purge from San Francisco. Their black metal is totally original, unlike any other band out there right now. There’s throngs of weirdo fucked up black metal and Mamaleek might be considered part of that, but they do it without being gimmicky, keeping it 100% pure & accessible. Now I’m going to say, “Black metal with strong Middle Eastern elements and world-music instruments” and you’re going to say “WTF fuck that I don’t want that shit in my black metal” and I say “Trust in me, trust in Enemies List, sit down, take 40 minutes out of your life, and have your mind totally fucking blown by Mamaleek’s soon to be patented brutality.”

Kurdaitcha is fucking INSANE. There is so much going on, so many different styles pumping through it. I get a strong video game vibe from “Wake Up, Jacob,” specifically the Birdo fights in SMB2, with that guitar and its tweaking intensity, timing the jumps just right so you land on that goddamn egg. Then there’s fucking Steve Reich piano as the twinkling foundation while drums stutter and religious figures sing Latin hymns, and that’s interspersed between warped buzzing chords and hidden blown out vocals. There’s mostly drum-less black noise tracks caked with industrial static, shrieking feedback, rusted screams, and silent haunted wind, there’s a mournful ballad with plodding drums & cinematic synths, there’s even a sludge pop piece that sounds like they wanna be best buds with Torche.

However they make it, with whatever the fuck they want to throw in there, it’s blistering, engulfing, monolithic, and fucking kvlt as hell. Mamaleek are making their own black metal, copying no one, shocking anyone who gives them a chance. Kurdaitcha is unreal, exceeding my stupidly high expectations for a new Mamaleek record. It’s a destroyer of things, speakers, headphones, faces, minds, and it’s one of the best black metal records I’ve had the honor of listening to.

What we have here is R41nb0w squared. There’s double the farts, double the blast beats, double the delicious glitter, double the LOLs, and a motherfucking meme OVERLOAD. There’s samples from all your favorite everythings from pop & obscure culture chopped & fukdup to oblivion: “I’mma let you finish,” Banana Phone, Ren & Stimpy, Billy Mays, Ace Of Base (with farts), Indiana Jones, and a zillion other things, including the most necessary of all, Double Rainbow. Full on. SO BEAUTIFUL.

When Foxdye’s not sampling Mario, Uncle Phil, and every other fucking thing on the planet, there’s the actual music parts which take a jungle dub skwee rainbow shit all over your chest. Way harder than on R41nb0w, these are the glitchiest nastiest beats to ever pump through your speakers. This is hardly danceable but I’ll be DAMNED if I can’t help myself from flailing uncontrollably in pure ecstasy.

No amount of sub-genres can be applied to Foxdye. They’re useless. She’s beyond them. I don’t even think the self-described “happy hardcore” is enough anymore. This is some ultra-level shit that builds off of everything, resulting in a meta noise that if it weren’t so rooted in current trends I’d swear it came from the future.

Weathers is joined by numerous pals in this Ensemble, each tackling their instrument of choice, be it wind or string or whatever. Together they form a multi-faceted electro-acoustic peacekeeper, spreading the warmest vibes possible. There’s lots of drone, although this isn’t really a drone record. There’s also plenty of percussion & singing, and mixed with violins, banjos, & guitars you’d think this might be headed into folk territory. It’s not. It’s something else entirely. It’s just… perfect. It takes everything that’s right with music and puts it on one album.

“Ecstatic, Unchanging” is the embodiment of this record. It seamlessly mixes violin & cello drone with slow paced banjo picking and processed vocals. It’s fucking INCREDIBLE. So so gorgeous. It’s like this was fucking made for me. Vocal glitchiness, heavenly drone, and banjos? In case you didn’t already know, I have a hardcore weakness for banjos & free reeds, which kind of explains why I love this album so much. Fucking banjos GALORE. Plus organs & harmonicas. I never stood a chance against We’re Not Cautious.

Some pieces focus on one sound more than others but most of them mash everything into a single song, like “Ecstatic, Unchanging” or “Go Lightning” which switches gears from static drone bliss to lone banjo & layered vocal harmonies. It would be pretty easy to fuck up something as complicated as this. Blending so many instruments and different styles into something that’s this cohesive, original, and enjoyable is a goddamn feat and a half.

There’s so much feeling evoked from this ensemble, you can just tell it was made by friends that love & care for sound. It’s unbelievably warm, so rich & soft, tender & charming, absolutely beautiful in every way. It can be played at full volume and it won’t overpower, it’ll simply fill your home with the most delicately lush sounds you can imagine. I’m pretty sure We’re Not Cautious is going to stay with me for a long time to come. And if there’s any justice in the world, it’ll be in heavy rotation for everyone forever. Do your life a favor and pick this up at Sleep On The Floor because it just dropped TODAY.

Magic/Khands is a 50 minute bedroom romp, toying with New Age bubbles, epic space synth, beat heavy psych jams, kicked out guitar drones, sad bastard shoegazing pop, and all points of general lo-fi blissage. This thing is SATURATED in tape hiss, probably because it was recorded on “2 broken 4-track´s cassettemachinery.” Seriously, there might actually be a bit too much hiss, even for a guy like me who loves his trashed tapes.

I’ve yet to encounter something so murkily blissful as this new Skogar tape. It’s dank and mysteriously swampy but glittering with magical purity, clearly recorded in those special few moments of Golden Hour where the most mundane & suspicious transforms into majestic perfection. Even the dirty as fuck blown out static guitar groove towards the end of the A side is glazed in warmth & euphoria.

I think part of the reason I adore the SHIT out of this is the heavy use of a nondescript organ/Casio/synth thing that makes the most glorious droning melodies. It shows up everywhere and is unbelievably fucking heartbreaking, like seeing the girl of your dreams making out with your arch nemesis but through a Terrence Malick filter type heartbreaking. Can’t get enough of that sound, man. So fucking beautiful.

Obviously, you need to grab this tape stat. It’s definitely the best thing I’ve heard from Skogar. But even regardless of his previous work, Magic/Khands is ridiculously awesome. Plus, there’s a Bardo Pond cover and the physical cassette is a very sharp pink. Can’t really argue with that.

Worried About The Fire is a dark & beautiful drone fest with dozens of sound makers: cellos, violins, saws, bowls, free reeds, and presumably anything else within arms reach. Martin dips into the processing world, too, manipulating the analog, bending it in ways that still fit the natural aesthetic that embodies The Fire. There are purely acoustic tracks like “Water Tongue” with its building string layers that are unbelievably beautiful, so elegiac and somber. And then there’s the highly fucked with “Marked In Dust” that buzzes like a generator, pulses like a swarm of cicadas, and flurries like spiraling snowflakes.

For what’s primarily a drone record, the songs are incredibly short. All but one are under four minutes long, making it feel more fast paced than is typical. This sounds like a Constellation release that’s a cross between Zomes’ self titled and Et Ret’s brief ambient violin loops on Gasworks. And seriously, Constellation, Zomes, and Et Ret are three of my favorite things ever, so that comparison is giving some high fuckin praise. My opinion with drone is make it as long as humanly possible, or take The Fire approach, take something that is usually static and make it dynamic enough that a three minute piece is still endlessly interesting.

I love this record because I’m never entirely sure what it is that I’m feeling. It’s not confusion, just a difficulty in pinpointing the emotions. It’s almost but not quite warm, cold, blissful, and unsettling. It walks a fine line of creation that results in something that’s inarguably gorgeous but open for interpretation in every other way. Just make sure your interpretation stems from the vinyl experience.

This is some crazy fuckin shit. Johnson makes noise pop unlike anything else I’ve heard. He’s got a thing for solid beats, intimidating blown out electronics, vocals FXed all the way to fuckin Jupiter, and seemingly stream of consciousness lyrics. He’ll come up with a phrase that he likes and repeat it ad infinitum, shifting it from MC Chris highs to dying “Daisy Bell”-singing-HAL lows.

Tons of fun stuff on here. Short bits like “Obstacle Course” that’s all noise and WOOO!s, lo-fi murky mournful moans on “Blown Sonnet,” stuttered percussion on “Beating” for the dancing impaired. “Mic & Drum Part 2” is a minimal industrial techno jam that builds to a massive distorted noise drone explosion, dropping bombs down old missile silos and watching the ground crumble just because. “Upb” is pure masochism, no pop at all, just laser pulses and static blurts, electronics & vocals blurring in a whirlwind of smashed windows.

Quite Boring is anything but. Totally fucking rad weirdo jams that mash bizarre vocals with ear cleansing grit & occasionally party starting beats. Honestly, I doubt you’ll hear much else that sounds like Moon Climb The Wall. He’s got his own thing and he’s fuckin DOIN IT.