photos by Greg Cristman

Lustmord

"Rumbles, thunderclaps and a baleful reading from the Old Testament prophet Amos -- "I will slay the last of them with my sword" -- opened the set by Lustmord on Sunday night at the Abrons Arts Center, the finale of the Unsound Festival of electronic and contemporary music and video. It was an extraordinarily rare live performance by the British musician Brian Williams, who has been recording as Lustmord since 1980 but has given only a handful of public concerts during his career, emerging for the Unsound Festival in Krakow, Poland, last year.

Lustmord has been a pioneer of what is generally called dark ambient music. It is textural rather than melodic, ultra-slow and submerged in bass and sub-bass frequencies, merging natural reverberations -- Lustmord has recorded in crypts -- with electronic ones. It opens abysses and lingers in them. When Lustmord got started it was associated with post-punk industrial music. Mr. Williams was a member in the 1980s of the Australian industrial group SPK and more recently has collaborated with the Melvins and Tool. While recording prolifically as Lustmord he has worked extensively as a sound designer in Hollywood, bringing ominous resonances to movie soundtracks."
[NY Times]

Lustmord played two Unsound Festival shows in a row, both presented by the Blackened Music Series, at the Abrons Arts Center in NYC on Sunday (4/10). Polish experimental musician Robert Piotrowicz and Void Ov Voices (aka Attila of Mayhem) also played both shows. More pictures from the late one (Lustmord's second USA show in 25 years), below...

Continue reading "Lustmord played rare US shows @ Abrons Arts Center w/ Robert Piotrowicz & Void Ov Voices (pics)"

words by Black Bubblegum, photos by Greg Cristman

"It started its show, as usual, with a 20-minute censing of dry ice and the recorded chants of Gyuto monks. Then the band started its march of long, long notes, played by guitar and bass and a little bit of keyboard. The members played through the pieces in unison, without a drummer, so slowly and loudly that small discrepancies of timing produced dissonances that worked like sonar drills on your guts." [NY Times]

It was hot. DAMN HOT. Add to that soupy air from the blasting fog machines, a room packed with people, and the walls were literally dripping with condensation. Nevertheless sunn O))) hit the stage to a packed Brooklyn Masonic Temple on 9/22. As expected, Attila Csihar performed with the band, with costumes varying from a mirrored statue of liberty with laser fingers (sounds weird, but it worked) to a winter demon. Sunn O))) did venture into clean and simple tones, with assistance from a keyboard and trombone, but the full stacks of vibrating low-end were the order of the night for the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley.

"When we first started we thought of it as a studio project," Anderson says. "We had no intention of playing live. But we discovered [that] to really capture what Sunn O))) was about, that physicality of sound we were getting off on, it can't be produced on CD or vinyl. We had to do it live. There's no substitute for volume." [Metro Pulse]

Sunn O))) is still on the road with Eagle Twin, but for this special event at the Masonic Temple, they were also joined by the mighty Pelican and Earth. Pics from those bands are to come, but for now you can see some more from Sunn O))), and a couple of videos, below...

Continue reading "Sunn O))) @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple in NYC - pics & video "

by Black Bubblegum

Nadja's and their undulating waves of dis/pleasure (heicktopiertz.com)

Experimental doom/droners Nadja will celebrate the re-release of amazingly badass "Skin Turns to Glass" (cop it April 1 via The End, sample "Sandskin" here) tonight (March 7th) with a show at Europa in Brooklyn - a show that is also celebrating the NWOBHM (that stands for New Wave of BROOKLYN -not British- Heavy Metal, nyc-ers). Special guests include the mighty Bloody Panda, Tombs (who have a new song and are playing Europa again in May), Tournament (playing with Trap Them), as well as And This Army....

Tickets are still on sale and only $6! The show is part of a greater tour, which includes dates at SXSW with Made Out Of Babies, Giant, and Jarboe. More on Nadja here.

Speaking of Jarboe, scoot on over to Metalkult for a multi-part video interview with the ex-Swan as she reveals details on her frightening new EP collaboration with Justin Broadrick called J2. She spills the beans on her time as a sex worker, being a woman in extreme music, and her new record which includes guest appearances by Phil Anselmo, Attila Csihar (Mayhem), Josh Graham and many unnamed others!!!

Some live Nadja video below...

Continue reading "new NADJA song streaming, Europa Tonight; JARBOE video interview, new album w/ Attila Csihar AND PHIL ANSELMO"