Playlist: Stan Reed

Stan Reed is a noise musician from Seattle, Washington. His current projects include Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Dried Up Corpse, and The Broken Penis Orchestra. He is also co-owner and operator of the Gnarled Forest record label, and previous owned and operated PsychoChrist Productions (1993-2003) and PsychoForm Records (2003-2007). His past projects are Plethora and Broken Human Machine, and he has been involved with Nurse With Wound, Mixed Band Philanthropist, Nihilist Assault Group, and Pig Heart Transplant. For more information, visit http://gnarledforest.blogspot.com.

Masstishaddhu - Shekinah LP
A really great ritualistic ride into trance and beyond, this is an early project that involves The New Blockaders master, Richard Rupenus, along with Sean Breadin, & Mike Watson.

Explosions
All kinds, field recordings, real ones, guns going off. Nothing like a good explosion to ease the body.

Orchid Spangiafora - Flee Past's Ape Elf LP
A very nice early jaunt into the realm of collage, I learned about this gem from the infamous Nurse With Wound list and fell for it immediately.

Begotten
By far the most bleak movie I have ever seen.

Nurse With Wound - Scrag! cassette
What can I say, I am, and forever will be, a NWW junkie. I was sucked in in 1987 when I heard the Merzbild Schwet LP and it's been love ever since, This cassette is a great little collection of snippets and random oddities, some of which appeared on 'A Sucked Orange' and 'Drunk With The Old Man Of The Mountains', that I can't recommend enough.

The sound of airplanes
Perfect drones, wonderful atmosphere, incredibly relaxing.

Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa - Runter Da, Zimtsterne Und Baghwan Jünger cassette
Another group that caught my attention immediately and has stuck with me like glue. This cassette is one of the early adventures from the Dom label of Christoph Heemann. The early cassettes are hard to come by, but if you can find them, in any format, listen closely.

The Road
Another incredible movie that is very well done and bleaker than hell.

Merzbow / The Haters - Milanese Bestiality / Drunk On Decay LP
A great tribute to Maurizio Bianchi by these two legends in their own right. Exactly what you would expect and exactly what I wanted to hear.

Riding down the freeway with the car window rolled partly down
Nothing more enjoyable than to turn off the stereo and listen to the violent wind whipping around your head, mixed with other cars and trucks, pure bliss.

Faust - The Faust Tapes CD
You know Faust? You should...one of the most underground influential bands from the 70's. I like this one especially due to its collage quality. A really nice ride through sound.

Oscillators
I have gotten 4 new ones recently, love finding a groove and riding it for long periods of time. Find myself pacing to them.

Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics LP
Fucking Heavy. Nuff said. I'm not usually a big fan of this genre, but when I heard this LP for the 1st time, along with Dopethrone, I was floored. Black Sabbath on steroids.

Water
Been listening to it forever, and working more closely with it as of recent.

Crash Worship - This cassette
I only wish that I had been able to see them live. Incredible tribal, industrial and essential listening.

Back room of a bowling alley
The majestic sounds of the crashing balls and pins is really quite serene and peaceful once you find the right groove, being right where it all comes together is a joy.

The Rita - The Voyage Of The Decima MAS CD
One of the upcoming releases that the group I am in, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, has in the works, is a collaboration with the mighty Rita. Been studying this very closely with a tight ear. Sam is an incredible person and an incredible sound designer, I always look forward to new works by him.

Spun
A tweakers dream, or nightmare, but the sound effects and design used in this movie turn me on big time, very jarring and violent, yet collaged so well.

UFO Or Die - Cassettetape Superstar LP
Another, not as well known project, from Yamatsuka Eye and Yoshimi of the Boredoms. Crazy Japanese madness of the best kind, sure to rattle the brain back into the right, or left, place.

The street
Took a job recently as a doorman in a local club. Standing out on the street at night is very fascinating, and this type of boring job gives me the opportunity to really listen and take it all in. A cacophony of sounds mixed together, like a symphony tuning up, people, machines and nature all coming together to bring you a madcap mind blowing soundtrack.

Wayne Butane - Sucks Bigtime CDr
One of my all time favorite collage artists. He has been creating absurdists masterpieces since 1992. If you want to piss in your pants while scratching you head...get Wayne...

Sutekh Hexen, Luciform LP & No Funeral, s/t 12" EP

Finally, the debut LP from California's Sutekh Hexen is upon us. Entitled Luciform, this LP will destroy your place of residency, so prepare to be homeless. Everything the band has done has been great, but this album is miles beyond their previous works. Droning, destructive, cacophonous atmospheres surround the wall of noise, which stands on a solid base of catchy, heavy riffs and screamed, face-melting vocals. There is a cosmic aura to the madness at hand on this LP; you'll feel yourself awash in the remnants of a dying star, about to be sucked in to the black hole - but you'll never get there, so your body and mind will have to cope with being torn apart for eternity. It feels as if Sutekh Hexen's previous work was leading us here all along, building up to finally present this blakkened opus of primal darkness. Descend into the maelstrom now, and order this LP from Wands. Limited to 350 copies, 100 of which are purple. If you order multiple copies, one is guaranteed to be the color variety. Be thankful that this is only available on vinyl - the music is amazing, so it would work on any format, but this truly is one of those releases that needs to be presented on wax to get the full effect. Do it now and worry about how you'll pay the bills later.

Also available from Wands is the debut EP of raw, scathing, blackened punk from a band called No Funeral. You must hear this; I'm not sure what it is, but this band is onto something- something gloriously malevolent and brutal. This 12" EP was mixed and mastered by Sutekh Hexen's Scott Miller, and the artwork and layout was done by Scott's bandmate Kevin Gan Yuen. Amazing in all facets. Again, LP only, limited to 350 copies, 100 of which are on clear vinyl. Order here.

Both of these LPs are must-haves, so if you can find a way, order them now. I doubt either will last very long.

Honduran

Never been a big fan of grindcore/powerviolence, but I got a 7" in the mail from a band out of Portland, Oregon called Honduran, and while I still am not a huge fan of the genre as a whole, I am finding that I like Honduran quite a bit. They play fast and furious, sometimes slowing down ever-so-temporarily, with guttural, harsh vocals at times accented with higher-pitched shrieks and yells. It's nothing groundbreaking, but the songs are well-crafted and performed well, making this 7" an overall solid release. 4 songs, totaling just over 7 minutes. See the link to their website above to get it thru mailorder, or contact them here to see what else they've got. If all else fails, head to their Bandcamp page to download their entire catalog free of charge.

Playlist: Heinali and Matt Finney

Matt Finney is an American poet who plays in the band Finneyerkes, and Heinali is a Ukranian composer. Together they make up Heinali and Matt Finney (catchy band name, right?), who play some of the most viscerally impressive and recognizable heavy music today. Heinali provides the music, and Matt Finney's poems provide the lyrics, delivered in spoken-word format. Their new album, Ain't No Night (which we reviewed here) was released on Monday, and can be purchased (along with a nice t-shirt) at Paradigms Recordings. The band's previous work is also available for download from their Bandcamp page.

BOOKS

Heinali:
1. Plato's Dialogues.
I get back to them from time to time.

2. Peter O.Gray ‘Psychology’ 5th Edition.

Got acquainted with this textbook via the 'Introduction to Psychology' Open Yale course. Would highly recommend to anybody who's eager to know how our mind works and why we do what we do. It's well-written and appealing, I would even say entertaining.

3. Eliseo Diego 'Los dias de tu vida' and other poetry.
Stumbled upon his book while was browsing the home library. Read a couple of poems out of curiosity and didn't even notice how the time stopped. There's something about Spanish language and poetry that never fails to captivate me. Maybe it is the ever-present most tender subtlety of heartache and loneliness. Elusive, but it couldn't elude the heart that suffered.

4. Richard Taruskin 'Oxford History of Western Music'
Instead of fixating just on facts, biographies and dates, like the most music history books do, Taruskin takes a different approach, building his work on bringing out the causes and reasons. I've been looking for this kind of approach for a long time and was quite happy when I discovered his books. Extremely informative and enlightening.

5. Tertulliani Opera Selecta.
I've decided to begin my theology study with Tertullian, reading him right now.

Matt:
1. Cormac McCarthy- ‘Blood Meridian’
It's become essential at this point but I finally made my way through it a few weeks ago. My mind is still processing it. Had so many nightmares by the time it was over. The Judge is easily the most frightening man I've ever read about. I might have to give it another go once my psyche recovers.

2. Raymond Carver- ‘Where I'm Calling From’
This is a collection of short stories from other collections but re-reading the ones that I already loved by Carver are amazing. He's probably had the biggest influence on me as a writer and I can't recommend him enough.

3. Neil Gaiman- ‘Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country’
I've been reading this piece by piece whenever I have enough money to pick up a new installment. I'm loving it so far. I've never read much comic book stuff outside of Batman stories but Gaiman is great and I'm gonna pick up some of his other novels once I'm through with this
series.

4. William Faulkner- ‘As I Lay Dying’
Read this a few months ago. My ex left it with me and I never gave it back. A classic.

5. Charles R. Cross- ‘Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain’
The most detailed and thorough book I've read about him. I picked this up when I was in 8th grade and I revisit it all the time. Highly recommended if you're a big Nirvana fan but since I get so much shit for liking them I guess I'm the only one.
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FILMS

Heinali:

1. Andrei Tarkovsky: ‘Nostalgia’

Tarkovsky was the last. In a sense in which Arvo Part is going to be the last in music. And what I love about his works the most, apart from the obvious, is that they grow inside you. They grow with you. We have to treasure this, we have to treasure his works because they remind us in this shallow speedy age of what we once were capable of, as human beings. How deep and strong we were capable to love. How much could we feel.

2. Andrei Tarkovsky: ‘Solaris’

3. Lars von Trier: ‘Antichrist’
I just think about it a lot.

Matt:

1. Control
It's a wonderful Ian Curtis biopic. Sam Riley, the guy who plays Ian, is spectacular and so is the rest of the cast. The replay value is high too. I've watched it about 30 times and I'll watch it whenever HBO puts it on.

2. No Country For Old Men
Not a big surprise from me but I love this movie and I've become even more obsessed with it because of this idea we've been having for a record at some point. I don't want to give too much away right now though. I'm probably gonna end up like Ed Tom.

3. Blue Valentine
This one hit close to home. It was like watching the last relationship that I was in played out by other people in front of me. Derek Cianfrance just hit the nail on the head. Ryan Gosling is pretty much me in that movie down to the awful hairline. Can't even lie, I was devastated by the time it was over.

4. Two For the Road
This is kinda like an older version of Blue Valentine. I watched it after the ex from the Blue Valentine section above recommended it to me. It's a great movie and Audrey Hepburn is so charming in it. I'm in love with her.

5. Observe and Report
Whenever I need something that isn't completely depressing. This movie is one of the funniest I've seen in a while and it's fucking dark.

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MUSIC

Heinali:
1. John Dowland: In Darkness Let Me Dwell
If anybody was about to search for the origins of doom metal I would strongly suggest Dowland. He wrote dark depressed songs before it was cool! Well, actually melancholy was in fashion amongst nobility back then in 16th century. Jokes aside, this record of Hilliard Ensemble's performance of his works is on repeat all this year.

 2. Monteverdi's Madrigals
"let your tongue explore mine like the bee, leave upon my lips a smear of nectar. Bend your body's bough, let down your hair, allow yourself to ripen in my warmth. Urge my hands to ramble in your garden, encourage me to try its curious scent." Pure delight.

3. Arvo Part's Fourth Symphony
See Tarkvosky.

4. Hildegard von Bingen
To hear Hildegard after Gregorian chants is almost the same thing as hearing Monteverdi madrigals after the mass of others. A wonderful medieval garden with properly fitted antiphones, sequentias, tropes, is instantly metamorphosed when you come closer to Hildegard's music, that has in itself something else, something you didn't encounter yet. It's the vision. And, carried by the flow melodic variations, you feel you've just witnessed something amazing. A miracle, genius.

5. Russian Eastern Orthodox Bell Ringing.
Just don't get me started, I could go on talking about the bell music for hours.

Matt:
1. Sleepmakeswaves- ‘...And So We Destroyed Everything’
They're great friends of ours and they put out this album recently and it's mindblowing. I know a lot of people throw that word around but to people that have followed them since their first release to this know the change that these guys have been through. They took everything that made them great in the first place and showed us a side that we didn't even know was there. They came out with something new and inventive. It's one of the best albums of 2011.

2. This Will Destroy You- ‘Tunnel Blanket’
I think a lot of people write them off as a standard post rock band but they're missing out on such a great album here. If anything, this is a straight up drone record. I can't urge everyone enough to check this out.

3. Slow Head- ‘Night Glitters’
Another talented friend of ours who put out an amazing record that I can't stop playing. I'm not even sure if it's still available but hurry up and buy a copy before it's gone.

4. Wreck and Reference- ‘Black Cassette’
I got the recommendation from LURKER and, as always, Richard's review is spot on. They're one of the most inventive bands out right now and I'm proud to say that I own the last actual cassette they put out. Can't wait to see what they do next.

5. Sailors With Wax Wings
I'm gonna sound like such a kiss-ass since we're on R. Loren's Handmade Birds label but he's one of the best guys I know. I was already a big Pyramids fan before he reached out to us and then I found out that he was behind this project. It's extremely inspiring and we hope to have more hands help us stir the pot in the future but we probably won't be able to pull it off as great as he did here. Gorgeous album.