Tag: top 2011

Derek M Johnson (Olympia)

Derek M Johnson released his first solo record this year featuring four tracks that go across genres, all equally enjoyable live and on record. I first saw DMJ play in April 2009 at the Spokane International Noise Conference (INC) and was taken aback by this person who is an amazing cellist, but also experiments widely with noise using effects pedals and vocoders among other things.

The record starts out with the track FKXMS. If anyone knows DMJ, they know he hates X-mas with a passion because by day he’s a rural mail carrier and faces the train wreck that the holiday is first hand. This track is by far my favorite, followed by the final track, You’re Welcome to Play, which he played accompanied by Serena Tideman at Hollow Earth Radio. I really hope to see many more releases coming from Derek M Johnson in the next year and on!

Blue Sabbath Black Cheer & Irr. App. – Skeletal Copula Remains LP (Seattle)

I try to pick up every Blue Sabbath Black Cheer release. Skeletal Copula Remains was released March 2011 as Part 2 in the 4-5 part collaboration between BSBC and Portland’s MS Waldron’s Irr. App. The now trio, Stan Reed, William Rage, and Crystal Perez, are one of the harshest noise bands out in Seattle to this day. I was so excited about this release, that I started my first show on Hollow Earth with the first track, Subterranean (Insurgence), in October. This is definitely one of my favorite listens of the year.

The first side starts out with a sludgy death metal track. The second side has a lot of dimension, first starting with a drone track, then getting into an experimental sonic war zone, and then raising a tension in you that if a pin dropped in the room, you might explode. The artwork for the release by Stan Reed is also excellent with skeletal and human remains spilling intestines, fitting the name of the album perfectly.

Extraordinary Pigeons/Regosphere Split (Seattle)

This year Extraordinary Pigeons and Regosphere released a split on cassette. The album starts off with a long drone track called Spirits of the Ice Forest which is haunting and beautiful. It places you right in ice forest and then segues into acoustic guitar. This is followed by a noisier track Nervous Reaction which gets real interesting about half way through until you finally feel the nervous breakdown. I’ve seen Extraordinary Pigeons and their member Jason Young’s project, Red Squirrels, many times and have always enjoyed their work. This is my first encounter with Regosphere and I definitely want to check out more of his stuff.