LOD Releases at Crucial Blast

Link here.

Our friend at Crucial Blast wrote some descriptions of some Land of Decay titles.

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JENDON, NEIL Male Fantasies CASSETTE (Land Of Decay) 7.50

Some more fantastic nocturnal kosmiche music from the Locrian guys and their Land Of Decay imprint, here issuing a limited cassette from fellow Chicago musician Neil Jendon. Fans of dark, deep-space synth music should definitely pick up anything from Jendon; his synthesizer/fx-pedal sculpted shadowbliss references all of the great 70's space music greats like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and Ash Ra, while plunging into blacker nebulae like that inhabited by newer star-death explorers Procyon-X, M87, Bestia Centauri and Phaenon. The opener "Red Nurse" unfurls lush layered analogue synth drones flying high overhead a roiling black sea of industrial rumble, like a Tangerine Dream piece drowning in the smoke rising from a stygian furnace. Huge delayed waves of low-end grind and rumbling tectonic plates almost blot out the delicate veins of melodic bliss and ethereal melody that slowly take shape, as it gradually glides into the next track "Vigilante!". Here, it becomes an arctic expanse of shimmering cosmic drone and shifting waves of hiss and fuzz and glitch, then moving into the pure nebulous blissout of "White Nurse"'s fields of angelic choral voices, vast gleaming drones, and incandescent drift laced with blurred strings and infinite stretches of rumbling synth. Great stuff. On the b-side, "Sister, Impure" rises like a black behemoth, the vibe much bleaker than the first side, with endless washes of grimy, volcanic ash-cloud synths, cold droning metal thrum, a harsh industrial dronescape that flows into the cold wastes of "Pillars Before The Sea", with the roaring synths dissipating into sheets of icy thrum, light synth strings eventually breaking through the gloom, and more electronic whir and buzz pouring in, turning into shimmery Theremin-like drones and transforming the rumbling dronescape into a hazey mass of cosmic whirr and electronic pulse. Utterly gorgeous and transportational black-hole drift, highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed his Cities In Flight cd on Bloodlust. Features artwork by Locrian's Terence Hannum, and released in a limited edition of 100 cassettes.

FOISY, ANDRE After The Prophecy CASSETTE (Land Of Decay) 7.50

Here's another arm of the Locrian duo releasing solo material on Land Of Decay; Andre Foisy, the other half of Locrian alongside Terence Hannum, delivers a gorgeous little cassette of deep loop-based ambient shadow that might be the prettiest sounding tape that came in with this recent batch of Land Of Decay goods. The cassette features two tracks (which are repeated on the flipside) of glorious psych-drone, the first "The Great Disappointment" opening with a cascade of haunting looped strings, the ghostly distorted strum of a guitar drifting high above the steady thrum of deep-earth drone. The looped strings repeat continuously, with layers being gradually added, but with little forward momentum; it sort of reminds me of some of the more ambient minimalist stuff from the later Swans albums. After that comes another loop-based dronescape, "Call to Clarion: Flee That Flood", which makes up the bulk of the tape. At first, the track is comprised of a simple circular guitar loop that is gradually joined by eerie scraped violin drones, vaguely reminiscent of the Dirty Three, but as it progresses more layers of droning strings and percussive noises are piled on, and a piercing distorted feedback melody eventually emerges over the looping figures, the droning feedback and violins forming into a sort of buzzing raga, the sound getting darker and darker, becoming a pulsating psychedelic throb, growing heavier as streams of feedback and guitar noise slowly seep in. Later, it breaks down into a squall of malfunctioning guitar signals, the loops decaying into chunks of skree and buzz, getting more abstract and caustic, other guitar loops speeding up into blurs of hyper speed shred, huge doom-laden chords beginning to trumpet overhead, and in the last few minutes, it begins to sound like a mix of Phillip Glass and Locrian's ambient doom-drone and minimalist psych-guitar moves. Pretty damn terrific, and another must-get tape from the LOD crew. Limited to 250 copies.

DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS No Words CASSETTE (Land Of Decay) 7.50

A reissue of previously released material from Swedish artist Thomas Ekelund; as Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Ekelund creates dolorous, dystopian dream music from minimal synthesizer sounds and simple melodies. His haunting kosimiche driftscapes fit in nicely next to the likes of Locrian and Neil Jendon on the Land Of Decay imprint, which assembled this release out of material that had previously been issued on two extremely limited, out-of-print tapes, as well as a previously unreleased track, presented with new artwork from Terence Hannum of Locrian and gorgeous black-on-black printing. This is excellent black hole kosimiche music, beautifully dark space drift that's highly recommended to those into the likes of Svarte Grenier, Jasper TX, and Anduin...
The two-part "No Words" makes up the first side, two versions of the same piece presented back to back; the original begins as simple, minimal, cosmic synth drifting over clouds of grainy electronic filigree, eventually breaking to allow the arrival of a doom-laden bass line, becoming ever more Tangerine Dream-esque, sounding somewhat like an apocalyptic version of TD's theme for The Keep. Dark, ominous, the looped synth melody cycling high above sparse percussion and that hypnotic bass throb. Halfway in, it dissolves into sheets of arctic drone populated with mysterious scraping sounds, then later builds back into the ominous synth riff, a dramatic chord progression repeating over and over as the sound fades into blackness. The second track that follows is a much more minimal, reworked version, a faded shadow of the original, the chordal loop now appearing as washed out drones circling over a vast expanse of muted synth swells and dark drift, the descending bass line becoming a smear of soft low end synth buzz, but becoming a breathtaking new wave of cosmic drone in it's final minutes.
On the other side is a single long track, "Forget Forgive Regret". A bleak droneworld of muted metallic percussion ringing out over subterranean blackness, eventually filled with chittering, hissing electronics, the sound of hordes of black beetles swarming over the barren expanse of ambient drift. A distant percussive banging appears, gonglike reverberations hovering on the horizon, and faint whispers and smears of subliminal melody form in the foreground. Towards the end, bits of Morse code like glitch and backwards sound become apparent, rising up out of the incessant thrumming of the central black drone that runs throughout the track, a grim, desolate atmosphere clinging to the piece until the very end, when a haunting guitar melody takes form and a steady electronic throb appears, leading through the sparse dronescape until it finally blooms into a gorgeously bleak Hecker-like blizzard of distortion and melodic detritus that billows over a pulsating, Gas-like minimal techno bass throb that finishes the side.
Safe to say, fans of the other dark drone music that Land Of Decay specializes in will love this. It's pretty limited though, only 100 copies produced, so you'll want to move quickly.

HANNUM, TERENCE False Bloods MAGAZINE (Land Of Decay) 13.98

Another gorgeous new art zine from Terence Hannum, from Chicago black kosimiche drifters Locrian. False Bloods is a twenty-eight page chapbook that has a similar presentation as the Cataract Of Fire & Blood art zine that Hannum published with fellow artist Elijah Burgher, which we also have listed in this week's new arrivals list; the 8.5" x 11" book features a black-on-black binding card and full color cover, the pages printed on quality paper. The artwork that is contained in False Bloods is much like the other images that I've seen from Hannum, lots of shadow spaces and black amplifier fetishism, piles of skulls and skeletal debris stacked in ossuaries, the images glazed with the grim, cold ambience of the abattoir. One of the things that distinguishes the work presented here is how Hannum has used the Xerox machine as an art instrument in and of itself, running sheets of artwork and photomontage repeatedly through the trays of the copy machine, creating streaks and smears of black toner that add a filthy, corroded appearance to these visions of black space, shadow, inky blackness, and obfuscated human remains. His gouache paintings of towering black amps are great to sink your eyes into, but the industrial-like collage work found here is my favorite thing about this zine. Like all of Hannum's art zines, False Bloods has been printed in an extremely limited edition, this one limited to 100 copies

HANNUM, TERENCE & ELIJAH BURGHER Cataract Of Fire & Blood MAGAZINE (Land Of Decay) 10.98

Most of you would probably know Terence Hannum for his work as one half of the Chicago-based kosmiche industrial duo Locrian, but he's also been keeping busy with his own artwork which has been featured in various Chicago area art spaces. Along with the exhibitions, Hannum assembles limited-edition art zines that he's printed and published through the Land Of Decay imprint, and they're fantastic looking art objects that go out of print fairly quickly. The Cataract Of Fire & Blood art zine came out earlier this year, but I've been able to grab a few for the shop before it disappears; presented in a black envelope with black screen printing sealed with black wax, this is a twenty page booklet that contains a mix of Hannum's moody images of shadow-cloaked amplifier stacks and black spaces, and the almost pastel-like full color illustrations of homoerotic occult rituals and flesh cutting by Elijah Burgher, another Chicago area artist whose work is fascinated with the secret rites of mysterious fraternal societies. Both artists imbue their work with occult symbology and a dark, surrealistic vibe, with Hannum's eerie amplifier fetishism contrasting sharply with Burgher's almost Crowleyan visions and the images are presented beautifully in this high quality chapbook-style document. Limited to 100 copies.

Locrian “Endless Plains/Flat Horizon” c27 cassette

We've had a bunch of people asking us for copies of the Locrian "Endless Plains/Flat Horizon" tape that came out on Peasant Magik.

Looks like Mimaroglu has copies in case you've been looking.

Anti-Gravity Bunny on Neil Jendon "Male Fantasies"

Link here.

This line alone describe the release:

"It saunters right up to New Age and says "Fuck you, this is how it's done.""

Thanks Justin! Review below.

-A

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Another piece of sweetness from Land Of Decay, although this is the first one from them I've heard that is non-Locrian related. Neil Jendon is just a dude who makes some killer drone, and also used to be in Zelienople and runs the gutflora label.

Side A is really dense stuff, deep rumbling static with delicate layers of barely there shimmer lying beneath the surface. Sounds like massive earthmovers hauling down dirt roads, kicking up an impenetrable wall of dust behind them, and seeing the sun in sporadic blurs where the dust has thinned out just a bit. And as the enormous trucks move on, the rumbling fades, the dust settles, the sun shines. Bliss sets in, soaring drone in the wide open barely blue skies. It saunters right up to New Age and says "Fuck you, this is how it's done."

Flip it over and it's 20 more minutes of amazing fucking drone. It sounds like electronic static distortion ramped up and evened out to create a plane of intimidating drone, yet still with the twinkling euphoria thrown in. It gets increasingly intense, imminent fucking danger where everything's about to go supernova. Feedback, static, low end throbbing, more static, and then it just fades away into the deepest growl you've ever heard. I'm talking from the depths of the deepest trenches. That kinda deep. But then that, too, fades away, into some more heavenly drone like the end of the A side. Some seriously incredible sounds, totally lush, a little OPN type warbling synth with star dust and tape hiss. It doesn't get much better than this.

Male Fantasies is some supreme drone. Jendon has pulled out all the stops, going from crumbling static to glowing glory and everything in between, mixing it all together and making a DAMN fine album in the process. It's a limited tape (250 copies) and it's one of the best aqua colors I've ever laid eyes on. So vibrant and punchy! Love everything about this.

Ox Magazine on Locrian "Rain of Ashes"

Link here.

LOCRIAN
Rain Of Ashes

Format: CD

Label: Basses Frequences

Spielzeit: 59:39

Genre: Electronic

Webseite

Wertung:

„Die verminderte Quinte sowie die kleine Sekunde im Bezug zum Grundton klingen besonders dissonant“, sagt Wikipedia über den Lokrischen Modus, englisch: locrian mode. Als in Musiktheorie Unbegabter habe ich das zwar nicht verstanden, aber ein Projektname, der auf Dissonanz hinausläuft, scheint mir für das Duo aus Chicago passend zu sein.

Mit mal schrägen, mal extrem massiven Gitarrendrones, düsteren Soundcollagen, fiesen Schreien und hoch- wie niederfrequentem Noise schaffen LOCRIAN ein unangenehm im Bauch brodelndes Unwohlsein und eine beängstigend intensive Atmosphäre, ohne sich über die beiden zusammenhängenden, je halbstündigen Stücke im Selbstzweck zu verlieren.

Dafür hat ihre Komposition auch zu viel Dynamik. Und das ist beeindruckender als der ewige öde Krieg, wer denn den längsten Noise-Schwanz hat.

André Bohnensack

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And a crappy translation below:

"The diminished fifth and the minor second in relation to the fundamental sound very dissonant," says Wikipedia about the Locrian mode, in English: Locrian mode. I am not talented in understanding music music theory, but as a project name referencing dissonance seems to be a good fit for the duo from Chicago.

With oblique views, sometimes extremely massive guitar drones create dark sound collages, nasty screaming and high-low frequency noise such as an unpleasant Locrian seething discomfort in the abdomen and a frighteningly intense atmosphere, without losing on the two contiguous, each half-hour pieces in themselves.

For their composition has too much momentum. And that is more impressive than the eternal desert war, who then has the longest tail noise.

Land of Decay Related: CALL & RESPONSE / Zine w/ Scott Treleaven

For those in this congregation interested in printed matter, Locrian's Terence Hannum has issued his seventh zine in his monthly series for 2010, Call & Response, a collaboration with artist Scott Treleaven, for the month of July. Locrian has worked with Scott for years scoring his films and videos and just recently performed at a screening at Light Industry in Brooklyn, NY. If you've been keeping score with the past 6; False Bloods, Temple of the Immortals, Cataract of Fire and Blood (w/ Elijah Burgher), Profaned Missive (for Fan Death), Black Arts and our own New Rites - again you will not be dissapointed.



Call & Response is a visual dialogue between Terence Hannum and Scott Treleaven . Over the course of one year the artists emailed back and forth, trafficking in images both personal and culled from their extensive archives. When the words were stripped away, what remained was a record of an excavation of their own peculiar belief (and disbelief) systems, overlapping and colliding throughout the conversation. Call & Response pays homage to their devotion to underground zines, nefarious causes, cults, hours lost and gained, corrupted architecture, and youth pinioned in agony/ecstacy. Hazy stills from videos and films carry over formal concerns and a similar tone of darkness that these two friends share, punctuated by drawings and scrawls, xeroxes and vellum.



color xeroxes with black on white |
black on black xerox on paper and vellum
34 pages |
7" × 8.5" |

Edition of 200

$17ppd (US) / $20ppd (World)
Please send payment to: landofdecay (at) gmail (dot) com

Uncut Magazine on Locrian "Territories"

Link here.

Locrian Facebook Page

Link here.

LOD 008 - "Land of Failure" Sold Out

Thanks to everyone for your interest in the "Land of Failure" loop tapes. We are currently sold out of this release. We didn't expect so many people to be interested in picking up this release, which, we think, is very cool.

If any become available then you can send us your email and we will include you on the waiting list.

Or if you would like to be the first to know about such releases, then you can join our mailing list by emailing us at: landofdecay@gmail.com with the subject "Subscribe."

We are also sold out of the Gerritt Wittmer tapes, as well as the André Foisy "Seven Thrones" CDR. Thanks for the support on these releases.

LOD 008: Locrian "Land of Failure" 2x Loop Tape

Artist: Locrian
Title: "Land of Failure"
Format: 2x Loop Tape
Catalog Number: LOD 008
Edition Size: 13 Copies

"Land of Failure" is a 2x loop tape that the group intended listeners to listen to simultaneously, ad nauseam. One tape consists entirely of Locrian member Terence Hannum and the other consists entirely of André Foisy. The packaging comes with a folded insert, black printing on black paper. Each of the tapes are made on black tapes with white labels. Photography by Kelly Rix.

This release was recorded in July 2010 marks the end of Locrian's phase one of existence.

Cost $10 US @ postage paid/$15 World @ postage paid

Payment to landofdecay@gmail.com

Please inquire to make sure that copies are available before sending payment.

Locrian "Drenched Lands" Review at Headphone Commute

link here.

Locrian – Drenched Lands (At War With False Noise / Small Doses)

Although the prolific Chicago based Locrian duo, André Foisy and Terence Hannum, had quiet a few releases since Drenched Lands, I’m still enjoying this dense, drone heavy, massive album. Released on a Scottish drone/noise label, At War With False Noise and Small Doses in 2009, and later repressed by BloodLust!, Utech, and DeathSmile, Drenched Lands is a dark voyage into post-apocalyptic land of abandoned concrete highways and obsolete ruined structures. The inner desperation of desolate landscapes and overgrown wastelands is conveyed with howling vocals, growling guitars and power electronics, blending dark ambient and black metal into cacophony of thick layered sonic palette. With its narrative structure, the album “starts with a slow descent into a dark abyss, moving torturedly, gradually rediscovering the light, then leaving you where everything began – completely transformed”. Background distorted riffs are punctuated with foreground guitar strums in an epic buildup, appealing to cinematic soundtracks of deep caverns and cold cells. The last, 30-minute track, is a complete trip. If you dig this sound, be sure to also pick up Locrian’s Rain of Ashes (Fan Death, 2009) and their latest album, Territories (2010).

Locrian @ Brooklyn Vegan

Link here.


Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Locrian, John Zorn, Bill Laswell & others appearing @ the new Museum & elsewhere

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Locrian - "Invisible/Visible" (M4A)

Locrian (photo by Lenny Gilmore)



Locrian will play NYC on Saturday July 10th as part of a artist Scott Treleaven's The Touching Of Hands exhibit at Light Industry in Brooklyn. The show will consist of the band playing a full set, as well as performing "Visible/Invisible" (downloadable above) as part of the artist's "Last 7 Words" video, an "affectionate and ethereal Super-8 portrait of [Genesis] Breyer P-Orridge".

The Touching of Hands
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 7:30pm, $7

...An evening of solo and collaborative projects by Scott Treleaven and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, focusing on the shared influence of artist and mystic Brion Gysin. Gysin's close friendship with Breyer P-Orridge, and in turn her friendship with Treleaven, has over time given rise to a number of aesthetic and philosophical affinities found in the work of all three, communicated from one to the other.

Each has explored, in his or her own way, the nature of extreme mental states, ideas of eros and thanatos, and modern applications of occult thought. Permutations of the cut-up technique, invented by Gysin in the 1950s, can be found in the reordering of visual information by both Breyer P-Orridge and Treleaven. A preoccupation with the legend of the Cult of the Assassins led to Gysin collaborator William Burroughs's novel The Wild Boys, Breyer P-Orridge's collective Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth and, later, Treleaven's The Salivation Army, his VHS classic about a mid-90s movement centered around a Wild Boys/Psychick Youth-inspired zine. All demonstrate what Treleaven calls a "pre-Web concept" of "total intimacy and privacy, unmediated by uncontainable social networks."

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge will not be in attendance that day, as s/he will be preforming as part of Thee Majesty in Torino Italy on July 10th. However, Genesis will be in attendance for a lecture on Brion Gysin on July 15th as part of a program put on by the New Museum.

Two nights earlier, July 13th, the New Museum hosts a related event - "8pm Dream Machine, A Celebration with performances by York Factory Complaint and John Zorn & Bill Laswell". Flyer for that one below with info on how you can help get a movie about Genesis and Lady Jaye funded...

-- the New Museum will present "Brion Gysin: Dream Machine," the first US retrospective of the work of the painter, performer, poet, and writer Brion Gysin (born 1916, Taplow, UK-died 1986, Paris). Working simultaneously in a variety of mediums, Gysin was an irrepressible inventor, serial collaborator, and subversive spirit whose considerable innovations continue to influence musicians and writers, as well as visual and new media artists today. The exhibition will include over 300 drawings, books, paintings, photo-collages, films, slide projections, and sound works, as well as an original Dreamachine--a kinetic light sculpture that utilizes the flicker effect to induce visions when experienced with closed eyes. "Brion Gysin: Dream Machine" is curated by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator, and will be on view in the New Museum's second floor gallery.

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PLEASE HELP SUPPORT MARIE LOSIER'S FILM
ABOUT GENESIS AND LADY JAYE

"After 5 years of shooting, making costumes, interviews, working on the film on Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, I need some help to make this film happen finally. I need an editor to help shape the film to a good solid story, a sound engineer and transfer of films to HD. The goal is to have the film completed by November so that it's ready for premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.

In order to meet this goal I need all the support I can get and I'm excited to announce an online fundraiser via Kickstarter.com.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marielosier/ballad-of-genesis-and-lady-jaye

In order to make your support worthwhile, I have included a variety of amazing and unique rewards from Genesis Breyer P-orridge, Invisible Exports, Bernard Yenelouis and Tony Conrad. This is an opportunity to not only help me complete my project, but also get a wonderful piece of artwork to boot!

Here's how the Kickstarter fundraiser works:

1) Go to our Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marielosier/ballad-of-genesis-and-lady-jaye
2) Take a look at the Rewards and see how much you'd be willing to donate. No matter how small, ALL donations are deeply appreciated.
3) Click on "Back This Project".
4) Enter your amount and select your reward.
5) You will need to sign up with Kickstarter.com.
6) Enter your credit card info using a secure Amazon.com account

I have 90 days to reach my fundraising goal. But, in the end if I don't meet it, you won't get charged.

This is just a small part of what we need to finish our film.Whether you can help by making a pledge or not, please spread the word about this campaign, I am endlessly grateful for your help and support. Pass this info along to any friend, family member, fan club, user group, mailing list who might be interested.

Thank you for all your support!

Marie

Interview Magazine on Scott Treleaven/Genesis Breyer P-Orridge/Locrian Screening/Performance Next Saturday -- Join the Occult

Link here.

There's no shortage of people behind a museum exhibition—curators and artists, for sure, and installers, and security, and administrators. However, the exhibition of Brion Gysin opening tomorrow at the New Museum required more storytellers and historians of sub-culture, and so curator Laura Hoptman enlisted artist Scott Treleaven.

Treleaven came of age in the gay scene of late-90s Toronto, defined by its storied mix of radical culture and community spirit assembled by nightlife impresario Will Munro. In 2002, Treleaven directed a short film called The Salivation Army, which earned a reputation as being a Blair Witch Project of sorts for the queer experimental cinema set. The film is a faux (or perhaps totally real) document of the blood rites exercised by a band of young men. Treleaven's visual art digs even deeper into the legacy of his esoteric culture's more flamboyant conspirators like Derek Jarman, Kenneth Anger, and undersung radical artist Brion Gysin, for whom he has a particular affinity. Perhaps then, it's no surprise that Treleaven has written a catalog essay for the New Museum's Gysin retrospective, which opens tomorrow. But a more intimate and interdisciplinary investigation into Treleaven's adoration of Gysin will take place on Saturday evening at Light Industry in New York. This will be a collaborative event of film, music, and performance curated by Treleaven and the always-titillating Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV fame, who was a close associate of Gysin in the 1970s.

According to Treleaven, the event will begin with some "very psychedelic and possibly unsettling" videos created by P-Orridge that date to about 1990. A requisite encore of The Salivation Army will lead up to Last 7 Words, a film portrait of P-Orridge shot by Treleaven in Paris last year, accompanied by a live score performed by Chicago-based drone metal band, Locrian. The evening as a whole has been titled "The Touching of Hands," which Treleaven describes as, "A sort of magical precept Gysin had taught [P-Orridge]: that magical teaching is transferred from one person to another by direct contact. I suppose the idea is about a line of friendship as much as it is about three artists who've sometimes had very, um, peripatetic ways of working in service of some bigger concepts."


LIGHT INDUSTRY IS LOCATED AT 177 LIVINGSTON, BROOKLYN.

André Foisy Solo Video at Acid - Mashmallow.com

acid-marshmallow.com | Andre Foisy

TWISTED SHAPES OF DOOM

For those of you that are in Chicago next weekend, be sure to check out this great lineup.




Saturday July 10, 2010

The Viaduct Theater
3111 N. Western Avenue
Chicago IL 60618


10:00 PM
18+
$7.00

BloodLust! Presents

Wolf Eyes

Anatomy of Habit

Neil Jendon

Rabid Rabbit

Metal - Temple on "Territories" and Locrian "Land of Failure" 2x Loop CS

We're fairly certain that we'll have LOD 008 - Locrian "Land of Failure" 2x Loop CS out later this week. Keep your eyes peeled since this will be a very limited edition of 13 copies.

link here.

LOCRIAN is a band that, while only having been around for about five years at the time of this review, has a large number of releases under their belt. These releases range from 7”, cassette tapes, splits, CD-r’s and LP’s. Their sound is a mix of drone, Black Metal, ambient. One could classify parts as “avant-garde” and “experimental.” The last album of theirs that I reviewed, “Rain of Ashes,” wasn’t my cup of tea. However, there is a noticeable change towards actual songwriting on “Territories.”

The opening song, “Inverted Ruins,” is a very simple song, with a series of long, drawn out notes which is actually successful in creating an atmosphere. I enjoy listening to this song (as well as the similar “Ring Road”) when I’m stressed out and it helps me relax. On the other end of the spectrum, you have “Procession of Ancestral Brutalism,” which is rather brutal, in a black metal sense. There’s plenty of tremolo riffing along with some barely-above-demo quality sound that fans of the genre seem to enjoy so much.

However, I would classify the majority of the material on here “post black metal,” and for what it is, it’s actually very good. It’s not going to bludgeon you with riffs or in-your-face attitude, but when I’m in the right mood for this type of music, “Territories” will usually find its way into my music player. As individual songs shuffled with other music on an Ipod, “Territories” is less successful. However, it is not meant to be listened to in that manner, which is probably why, as far as I know, this is only being released on vinyl (although I received my copy on CD-r). When put in a music player and listened from start to finish, one will be able to appreciate the full value of this release.

Land of Decay Related: NEGATIVE ALTARS: Terence Hannum @ Peregrine Program

Please join us for LOCRIAN member Terence Hannum's solo exhibition.


July 16th through July 31st 2010
OPENING: July 16th, 2010 - 6-8pm
Peregrine Program | 500 W Cermak Rd #727 | Chicago, IL 60616

Our dark ages. A spectral gathering of amplifiers. The ghostly smear of hair in mid-headbang. A charred chapel, blasted out windows, candles burn in some arcane rite and a bonfire menaces in the distance. What are we in? A concert gone wrong? A cult ceremony, the apocalypse?

For the past few years, Terence Hannum's oneiric gouache drawings have culled the periphery of heavy metal subculture and amplifier worship to analyze the nexus of music, myth and ritual. In ‘Negative Altars’ the drawings are combined in triptychs, arrangements that position them akin to medieval narrative devices. In many of the pieces, the focus falls upon a shrine composed of (mostly) vintage amplifiers from an era where maximum volume was the aim, and that has only enhanced these monoliths' collectibility and further fetishization. Echoing the obsolescent amplifiers and speaker cabinets incorporated in the drawings, Hannum has made a wall and floor installation using analog magnetic tape and a reel-to-reel tape player. Containing a loop of voices and acting as a functional frame for a drawing, this piece is the formal invocation of the unholy order the artist is conjuring with this show.

Welcome to his blossoming cult.