Weirdo Rippers #7

Hands down, the hardest thing to accomplish around these parts are feature intros. Nothing really changes from month to month. Well… actually it does, but no one cares for the minutiae of someone who feels like they are slowly becoming an AI bot…

Not withstanding the last point, there are no complaints, of course. It’s wonderful to be sent so many new releases from artists revelling on the fringes of a world that becomes that much stranger with every passing day. That’s what makes Weirdo Rippers so special, in my opinion.

Like every other month that has passed so far in 2023, the new releases come thick and fast from the sphere of experimentation and, if the release schedule is anything to go by, June is set to be one of the busiest months since we actually opened the doors back in 2020.

First things first, however. May has been another solid month for the weird and wonderful releases from all over the world, and here are some of our favourites.

Waterflower Interview: “I draw inspiration from the beauty of nature”

Craven Faults: Standers
The Leaf Label

It’s been three years since Craven Faults’ debut long-player, and while the world has changed significantly since Erratics and Unconformities, the meticulous purveyor of tone and greyscale ambience returns with what can be considered his most consistent offering yet.

Standers is inspired by the bleak rolling Yorkshire mist, not straying too far from Craven Faults’ thematic lineage, as he delivers a series of greyscapes with a new layer of darkness. It’s marrow-cold and stark, with a thread of dead-eyed laser beam drones that travel across the moors.

Closing in at over an hour, whilst perhaps considered another epic journey for modern day standards, it doesn’t feel like that at all. From front to back, Standers is truly absorbing.

Matt Espy: Hawksworth
Drag City

Dead Rider’s Matt Espy has always gone against the grain. For starters Dead Rider themselves – a wrecking ball against the conventions of guitar music, splicing together post-punk and no-wave into a cultish frenzy.

On Espy’s latest solo offering, Hawksworth, whilst far removed from the Dead Rider experience, the same principles apply. This is experimentation for the early hours. Field recordings catching various avian wildlife from all across the world, backed by Espy’s fractured jazz rhythms.

With Hawksworth, somehow, Espy manages to conjure up something that’s elusively hypnotic and easier on the ear than it suggests, evoking the kind of pure imagery that coalesces with the summer months ahead.

FEND: tlú​r
Self-released

Formerly of Merseyside noiseniks and Sun 13 favourites Lonesaw, Christopher Connor marks a return under his new moniker, FEND, unleashing his debut EP, tlú​r. Also featuring Lucy Grey (Majia, Dubs Club), Connor’s influences aren’t too far removed from another Irish contingent who are set for mention below.

With a series of cinematic-tinged IDM workouts, Connor also draws from the bread and butter of his background in noise, giving these tracks a gritty texture that sweat with the kind of AM warehouse euphoria we’ve all felt at some point during our lives.

Stitching together the grimy sound worlds of noise and electronica, on tlú​r Connor marks a fine return, and we can’t wait for the next instalment.

Markus Guentner: Onda

Helen Money / Will Thomas: Trace
Thrill Jockey

Under the Helen Money guise, Los Angeles cellist, Alison Chelsey, has swept across the dark frontiers, collaborating with everyone from Jarboe and Steve Albini to Neurosis and Bob Mould.

On her latest release, Trace, Chelsey teams up with fellow composer, Will Thomas, in what is sound design with new brooding washes of sound, containing BPM panic attacks (Thieves, Tilt), heavy emotional weight (Half Asleep) and brooding cinematic bass weight (Boulevard in Silence).

While some may associate sound design with a dead-behind-the-eyes aesthetic which can sometimes be off-putting, with Trace, Chelsey and Thomas reach new depths of darkness, with a series of emotionally stirring compositions that never outstay their welcome.

Of One / Whirling Hall of Knives: Recoil / Grey Wash
Cruel Nature Records

Part rave, part glitch, part tech-house part just fucking great, veteran IDM producer Alan O’Boyle teams up with Barry Murphy and Stephen Gethings of Whirling Hall of Knives for a split that feels like a rumble in the front bar of the night club. There’s no need to go through to the dance floor – the beautiful noise unravels within the spit and sawdust confines of civic vitality.

With two tracks clocking in at 15 minutes each, Of One and Whirling Hall of Knives pick apart the melodic debris of Surgeon and hurl it against the mirror. The ensuing pieces glistening with the kind of magic that the three respective producers have been renowned for over the years.

It’s another fantastic offering, with the only criticism being that there isn’t more.

Pefkin: Observations on Land and Sea
Sonido Polifonico 

Having released the wonderful The Light Bends in January, Gayle Brogan’s latest release as Pefkin, Observations on Land and Sea, continues her fine run of form this year.

One half of the equally great Burd Ellem, on Observations on Land and Sea, Brogan unfurls five compositions of dream-laden folk drone, rich with sullen strings and dark atmospheres likened to a thick fog hovering over the river bank.

It’s the kind of soundscapes that call for the spirits. Deeply engaged and hypnotic, Brogan is one of the most underappreciated voices in the U.K. experimental sphere, and if you haven’t entered the world of Pefkin, then Observations on Land and Sea is the perfect place to start your journey.

Ozmotic | Fennesz: Senzatempo

Wolf Eyes: Dreams In Splattered Lines
Disciples

In many ways, the artwork to Wolf Eyes’ new album, Dreams In Splattered Lines, tells the whole story. The project led by Nate Young, supremely indefinably and fierce in always playing by their own rules.

Operating within the margins of noise, the Michigan duo have never done things by halves and they don’t stop here. With fragments of improv’ free jazz that are like thick curls of smoke, the customary gadget wrangling ensues, with bleeps and screeches creating a wild abstract noise that sounds like a boiler about to explode.

And that’s just it. Wolf Eyes have always been noise’s answer to a powder keg. A discordant, no-wave mess, and over 25 years since their inception, on Dreams In Splattered Lines they continue to find ways that no other act in this space dares to explore.

Eijra Woon: Sophia
Cruel Nature Records

Brittany, France noise agitator, Eijra Woon, covers a lot of ground on his latest LP, Sophia.

Pitting lush acoustic arrangements against blistering black metal assaults, think Alcest and Wolves In The Throne Room getting in a room together and jamming at half speed. In fact, it’s quite a surprise that no one else has tried something similar, however Eijra Woon nails it.

While black metal can sometimes seems over-bloated, Sophia doesn’t outstay its welcome. At four tracks clocking in at under 25 minutes, it’s a wonderful appetiser that showcases hard-nosed aggression and warm tender acoustic passages in equal measure, and while some may believe the two sound worlds shouldn’t coexist, with Sophia Eijra Woon blows that theory out of the water.

Previous Weirdo Rippers features:

#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1