No End
(Chondritic Sound - CH-267) LP $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
Sarah Bernat and Alex Lukas weld industrial hymns out of gritted synth tones, mutilated samples, darkly protracted guitars, icy vocal delivery and swollen frequencies. The two have an affinity for hardware, dead-panned vox and loaded, unpredictable live performances, and Bad News reveals a penchant for unsavory frequencies, achieved with artful brutality and control of their uniquely industrial sound. Edition of 250
Matters Of Life And Death
(Chondritic Sound - CH-278) 12-inch $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
The roots of this aggressive, rhythmic electro-industrial outfit based in New York City begin with DIY punk, but their harsh, driving dance sensibilities recall the likes of early Skinny Puppy or Front 242. Featuring members of Kama Rupa, Cult Of Youth, Drunkdriver, and Missing Foundation, Matters Of Life And Death’s themes put subjects such as addiction and mental illness at the forefront of many of these songs, and aspire to transition, growth, compassion, hope and love. Edition of 300
Volantà Di Amore
(Chondritic Sound - CH277) LP $16.50 (Out-of-stock)
Electro-goth anthems, uplifting and ripe with sad romanticism by Alex and Andrew Jarson, whose modern maximal-wave is rich in tone and content, melodically sound and incredibly catchy, with pulsing arpeggios under synth leads and swells. Includes download card. Edition of 170
Beneath Triangle And Crescent
(Chondritic Sound - CH-271) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Recorded under the crushing presence of opiates, Hive Mind’s earliest forays into both melody and industrial rhythmic elements drag, thud and shiver with a distinct energy inspired by 90s German and French heavy electronics like Dagda Mor, Inade, Derniere Volonte and Les Joyaux de la Princesse. Auto-melodic tones pair with crude, hand-hammered slews of notes while Greh Holger’s trademark synth-drone rumbles beneath like a kept beast. Each piece progresses to nastier and darker territory, erupting and collapsing at the end of the title track. Previously release by Fag Tapes in 2008. Edition of 400
Sistinas Sanguis
(Chondritic Sound - CH-257) LP (one-sided) $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Erik Proft (of Believer/Law) and Matt Knoedelseder’s industrial sound and ritual unit. Their sound is brutal and animalistic, but also ethereal, a miasma creeping down from the astral plane and into the back walls of consciousness. Named after the ghost of a person’s most animalistic desires (an intermediate “spook” stage between physical death and the afterlife), Kama Rupa tie together threads of industrial, noise, EBM, and dark ambient into a dense knot that is satisfying to unravel. Includes download card. 180g vinyl. Edition of 260
Beta Male
(Chondritic Sound - CH-326) LP $16.00 (Out-of-stock)
The return of Fejhed’s Jesse Sanes to Chondritic Sound sends listeners into a vast chasm of brooding tension and finessed sonic anguish. Culled from the foggy heights of German industrial, Beta Male exhumes a corroded alloy of industrial rhythms, grotesque field recordings and paranoid electronics. From the swirling, claustrophobic symbiosis of acoustic clamor with scrupulous electronics in the vein of Maria Zerfall, to the commanding synthesized martial churns of pre-9/11 power electronics — elevated by painstaking, obsessive production, methodical high-end assaults, and a choir of tortured, introverted voices singing a cringe-inducing case for the euthanasia of masculinity — the meticulous and practiced compositions would stand-out on any State Art or Loki Foundation compilation. Includes download card. Edition of 300
Marshstepper
(Chondritic Sound - CH-256) LP $16.50 (Out-of-stock)
The debut release by these wanderers from the Sonoran desert tears apart murky electronics and commanding vocals with an almost danceable beat erupting from the mist. A storm of fire, smoke and light appears at their live performances — a melding of atmospheric drones, full of fog and winds shifting through synth and guitar textures, and the sort of industrial-techno freak-outs Infinite Beat-era Psychic TV was known for in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Includes three postcards and download card. Edition of 200
Obsolescence And Monality
(Chondritic Sound - CH-305) CD $10.50 (Out-of-stock)
Lee Landey stunning debut release is an immense alloy of noise, ambient, rhythmic electronics and industrial music melted down to one solid vision. Snatches of datastream chatter and squalls of electric plasma color his unsmiling pieces of thumped kick, metallic klang and a well-heeled electronic array of ominous sweep and swoosh, that embrace goth-horror synth. Full-throated bellowing service the densest, deepest accretions of Oil Thief’s techno have the indecipherable vitriol found in grindcore and noise. Edition of 200
Giftgarten
(Chondritic Sound - CH-133) LP $18.00 (Out-of-stock)
The ten dark electronics tracks here largely abandon the hard, one-two rhythms of Standard Of Living and instead explore murky, acrid wastes of toxic marshes and nervous nights. Altogether sinister and strange, Giftgarten ruminates on shadow worlds and shadow selves, on catastrophes of war and of earth and of the spirit, and, most of all, on sleeplessness and its gifts and thievery. Instead of drum machines, the duo opts on several tracks for grinding and transient sounds generated by synthesizers, while “Omission” and “Flood” are more traditional dance songs inspired by early EBM and electro. Experimental in its approach and palette, Giftgarten is still wholly a pop record, full of melody and steady rhythms.
Standard Of Living
(Chondritic Sound - CH-306) LP $18.00 (Out-of-stock)
Moving further into the whirring electrical storm suggested by their more minimalist previous recordings, Hive Mind’s Greh Holger and J. Short of Brotman & Short create a soundtrack to a crumbling culture, full of provisional one-two rhythms and syncopated bursts of white noise, complimented by grim arpeggiated melodies. Pure Ground straddle early EBM — owing inspiration to Klinik and Front 242 — and more melancholy, minimal synth downer. An undercurrent of experimentalism comes to surface (on “The Glory Of Absence,” for example, where the convoluted rhythms of In Phaze-era Portion Control merge with an industrial din and vocal delivery reminiscent of European power electronics groups like Genocide Organ). Lyrics focus on the disharmony between the human dystopia of the post-industrial wastes and the natural and spiritual worlds, and the contradictory sensations of bliss and desperation, ecstasy and fear. With download card. Edition of 300.
In The Shadow Of What Never Was
(Chondritic Sound - CH-325) LP $16.00 (Out-of-stock)
The first full-length by Justin Lakes is a meditation on the transformative effects of near-death experiences, aiming to connect observed parallels between chaotic events in the lives of strangers and Lakes’s understanding of stressful environments. The three-part A-Side focuses on May 16, 1986; crude and distant devices build tension until there’s nothing left but an alarming and discomforting reality. Mundane power electronics and crumbling walls of tape come and go. The B-Side’s quadriptych dwells on the effects of prolonged periods of fear. Serene environments are quickly corrupted. Includes download card. Edition of 319.
Window Hammer
(Chondritic Sound - CH289) 7-inch + DVDr $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
Nine tracks of pure aggressive grindcore on one side, backed with a noisy piece of broken glass and atmospheric trash, by the Mumma / Ronnau / Wiese incarnation in sharp, blasting hardcore form. Guest backing vocals by Joe Preston. Stamped DVDr has the band performing this material on their last West coast tour -- twenty more minutes of bliss and gristle.
At The End Of The Rope
(Chondritic Sound - CH-020) 2xCD $10.50 (Out-of-stock)
Thirty absolutely nasty tracks of morbid and harsh filth, with each disc separately themed on strangulation and auto-erotic asphyxiation. With Atrax Morgue, Cleanse, Clew of Theseus, Concrete Violin, Control, Deathpile, Dødsdømd, Eeyow Karoom, Gruntsplatter, Hentai, Immaculate:Grotesque, Inhalant, Lefthandeddecision, Mania, Moribund, Navicon Torture Technologies, Nicole 12, Omei, Priest in Shit, Propergol, Prurient, Redrot, Richard Ramirez, Sickness, Slogun, Steel Hook Prostheses, Stegm, T.E.F., Viodre, and Whorebutcher.