Album Review - Bitcho 'Toybox'

It seems appropriate that Bitcho's band bio describes the six piece as being from the Dutch 'lowlands', considering that 'Toybox' is clearly the work of people from some kind of hellish subterranean piss soaked bunker, people who've been starved of love and light for so long , that they've turned their vicious loathing of mankind inward, and managed to dredge up depths that only the few tortured souls of the abyss might know otherwise.

It's a vicious, hate filled, but also meditative four super long tracks of queasy ambience, subdued narcotic heaviness,that revels in it's repetitive nature, the band nursing their foul, tortured rumblings with the delirious loll and creak of three bass guitars , and combining said foul rumblings with an edge of industrialized menace, that recalls the fucked up space rock of bands like Swords Of Texas, along with the murky , acrid doom of old hands like Om and Electric Wizard.The band's sonic deviance could almost be a soundtrack to some forgotten , black and white experimental horror film(one is put in mind of Begotten , or Tetsuo the Iron Man) .It does get repetitive, granted, but that's the whole point.

And so while the band do showcase some lighter sensibilities especially in closer ' Expectations' and it's oddly bombastic, analog- abuse hymnal, it's a fleeting glimpse of any hope being found, and the over all sensation upon finishing the record is of having witnessed the death throes of some awesome , prehistoric beast. In other words:heavy shit.

Rating:8/10

For fans of :Om , Neurosis, Swords Of Texas, Ufomammut

Listen here:http://bitchodrone.blogspot.com/

Stephen O ' Connor

Album Review - Radio For The Daydreamers ' Praying For The Be(a)st'

Scarcely had we time here at BAN to scrape our brains off the floor from Radio For The Daydreamer's last outing 'Mother Superior and Her Fields Of Migraine, than it's successor record, and the second in  the idiosyncratic US outfit's triptych of abstractly menacing ambient narratives of faustian folly, and quietly yearning sonic desolation, arrivess to rape our feeble minds yet again. And while 'Mother Superior' hinted at realms of  nightmarish imagination , here, we get to hear the band truly wig out and further explore their own little patch of hell . . .

Opener 'We are only Safe before sunrise ' is a stunning statment of intent,opening with an aria of gorgeous lilting piano , which is interrupted abruptly by creepy as hell click-clack  horror movie percussion, and the band's by now trademark restrained , dark electronica, overlaid with some chillingly realised and haunting female vocals.'Wasted Faces In Secret Places' lumbers up with some off kilter minimalist trickery a la UK techno loons Autechre , while the dub rhythms and surging, airy piano  of 'Don't Give Up On Me yet Dad'  send you crawling into the light for a  moment, dazzled by false hope . .

However, the funereal interlude of 'Glowing Like Angels , You Are On Fire'  drags us back down into the band's murky depths, and indeed, it is this balancing light and shadow that make this such a stunning record.Less of an album, than a soundtrack to possibly the most fucked up art film ever made, it's a fascinating and at times dizzyingly  diverse blend of styles.Take for instance the spaced out weirdness of the amusingly titled Prog Jazz( All Musicians are freaks) , or the world percussion/smooth jazz mix up of 'Necrosis Stupor' , and contrast it with the gorgeously melancholic,  cinematic stylings of a song like 'No One Ever Comes Here But Me',you might just find your sensibilities a little bit askew afterwards, but persevere, and the rewards are great.This is a record to explore , full as it is with narcotic wanderings and moments of overbearing paranoia, and one that will surely feed into your nightmares, waking and otherwise , and just waiting for you to buy into it's hellish alternate reality.Scared?You should be . . .

Rating:9/10
For fans of : Boards Of Canada, How To Destroy Angels, Aphex Twin, Pink Floyd
Released:December 2nd
Stephen O ' Connor
bornagainnihilist@gmail.com

Album Review - Radio For The Daydreamers 'Mother Superior And her fields of Migraine'

Released in July of this year,'Mother Superior and Her Fields Of Migraine' is the second album by Pittsburgh, USA experimental outfit Radio For The Daydreamers, and the first in a tryptich entitled 'Praying For The be(a)st .It's a wilfully eclectic collection, not easy listening by any means, but a rich, cinematic journey through a mostly  instrumental non fiction narrative of an unnamed 'Faustian' character.

The premise then behind this first album of the series is ,as the band themselves put it, "the story of our character indulging in misery, self-realization, seclusion, developing phobias, anxieties and a need to break out to help his own mind. Accepting negativities, even though it is clear that the consequences of those negativities would be grim. To accept evil just to get some purpose"  .And if all that sounds terribly high minded, well that's because it is,and unashamedly so.More of a kind of soundtrack to an imagined film, 'MSAHFOM' is as abstract as they come, an album rooted in dreamy soundscapes and jazz flourishes, with the occasional outburst of post-rock elegance just for good measure.Opener 'Black River Time Bombs' evokes an atmosphere of Lynchian menace in it's rumbling synth bass and jazz tempo, while 'With wings you will learn to fall'  is a warped blend of demonic sampled voices, and elegant piano, while 'Ghosts keep me safe while you are gone is a blissed out sonic mindfuck that recalls Boards Of Canada in it's uneasy melancholia.

And so further down the rabbit hole we go, with the industrial coldness and demonic breathing of  'Magnetar Mephisto' soundtracking your most subdued, painful nightmares, while 'I am not coming back home' , with it's lead female soul vocal and relative jaunty pace hints at a sense of a light at the end of the tunnel, however dim and fleeting, and provides a counterpoint to the almost pantomime gothic  menace of 'Curl Up And Die'.

Throughout, the band employ such a wide array of musical styles, from minimalist , barely there electronica, to jazz rhythms , to experimental industrial sounds(shades of experimental acts such as Einsturzende Neubaten can be heard in the grind of 'Praying For The be(a)st).But in essense, it's a sound and style of their own devising.Comparisons are pretty much futile, but suffice to say this is one of the most interesting and wilfully eclectic records you'll hear all year.Not for everyone, but the rewards, especially with repeat listens, are there.

Rating:8/10
For fans of :Boards Of Canada,Aphex Twin, Trent Reznor, Simon Bird
Listen here: http://radioforthedaydreamers.bandcamp.com/
Stephen O' Connor
bornagainnihilist@gmail.com