Aquarius Records on Anatomy of Habit CD

Thanks to Aquarius for the positive write-up!

Anatomy Of Habit is the noise-rock ensemble revolving around the twisted mind of Mark Solotroff, Chicago's long standing power electronics king known for his numerous projects over the years including Bloodyminded and Intrinsic Action. Accompanying Solotroff is another noise icon, Blake Edwards (aka Vertonen), yet even with these two ear-shattering technicians on board, Anatomy Of Habit's impressive dynamics come from the far more traditional axis of drums, bass, guitar, and vocals, as played by Dylan Posa (Cheer Accident, Brise-Glace), Greg Ratajczak (Winters In Osaka), and Kenny Rasmussen, amounting to a steamroller of huge Swans / Neurosis riffs and chugging out lots of bad vibes. Over the past 12 months or so, they self-released a couple of LPs with lengthy tracks gracing each side of vinyl. Both of those 12"s collected here. The first eponymous LP (which was graced with a black sleeve) featured two sprawling numbers - "Torch" and "Overcome" - that both hypnotically build out of interlocking guitar and bass that steadily builds towards a distorted, crushing climax with dexterous turns toward powerdrone sludge. Solotroff, with his years of barking like William Bennett, has turned into quite a deft vocalist with his baritone in perpetual motion amidst the roiling noise-rock, coming across more like a cross between Jaz Coleman and Michael Gira. From the second lp (also self-titled but featured a white cover), "The Decade Plan" begins with a bright ellipsis of guitars that wouldn't be out of place on a slowcore jam from Codeine or Slint before the band launches into a super heavy riff, girded by metal-bashing percussion only to settle into a assaulting groove to further along Solotroff's tales of sex, violence, and their psychological implications. The brutal brooding continues on "After The Water" amplifying their smashed sound even further through the tranced-out, sludge riffs and subharmonic roar. Think Pelican, Isis, Bodychoke, and of course, Swans. Still fucking massive!

Aquarius Records on new Anatomy of Habit 12-inch

Thanks to the folks at Aquarius Records for the continued support of Anatomy of Habit!  They just received stock of the new 12-inch:

Anatomy Of Habit is the noise-rock ensemble revolving around the twisted mind of Mark Solotroff, Chicago's long standing power electronics king known for his numerous projects over the years including Bloodyminded and Intrinsic Action. Accompanying Solotroff is another noise icon, Blake Edwards (aka Verto nen), yet even with these two ear-shattering technicians on board, Anatomy Of Habit's impressive dynamics come from the far more traditional axis of drums, bass, guitar, and vocals, played by Dylan Posa (Cheer Accident, Brise-Glase), Greg Ratajczak (Winters In Osaka), and Kenny Rasmussen. "The Decade Plan" begins with a bright ellipsis of guitars that wouldn't be out of place on a slowcore jam from Codeine or Slint before the band launches into a super heavy riff, girded by metal-bashing percussion only to settle into a assaulting groove to further along Solotroff's tales of sex, violence, and their psychological implications. The brutal brooding continues on "After The Water" amplifying their smashed sound even further through the tranced-out, sludge riffs and subharmonic roar. Think Pelican, Isis, Bodychoke, and of course, Swans. Cut at 45 rpm, these two tracks are fucking massive!

Aquarius Records on The Fortieth Day + Sshe Retina Stimulants + Terence Hannum

FORTIETH DAY, THE / SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS / TERENCE HANNUM  "split"  (Land Of Decay)  cassette

The final installment in the recent batch of tapes from Land Of Decay, this one a three way collaboration between Terence Hanuum, he being one half of aQ faves Locrian, and two other groups we had never heard before, The Fortieth Day and Shee Retina Stimulants, and like the rest of the tapes in this batch (Number None, Ithi, Andre Foisy, Wraiths) this is another slab of grim, low end minimal blackness, a sort of post industrial thrum, all looped layers and blurred rumble and crunch, but LIKE those others, this is way more than just noise, the sound here is lush and haunting, the loops add a subtle rhythmic element, much of the time spent creeping and drifting and woozily shimmering, but the proceedings pocked with bursts of static, blasts of tangled psychedelic noise, the framework provided by sonar like beeps, and softly stuttering clipped loops that become actual rhythms, occasionally sounding like some murky sprawl of heroin house, while at other times like some sort of abstract doom pulse, a heady plunderphonic songsuite of blacknoise, post industrial drift, and blissed out psychedelic minimalism, that manages to be surprisingly hypnotic.

Aquarius Records on the Anatomy of Habit LP

"There was a zine produced by power electronic antagonist Mark Solotroff, back in the mid-'90s, called Rape Of The Angels. In one issue, he wrote rather poignantly about two new projects which then were mostly unknown - Brainbombs and Bodychoke, describing them as two sides of the same abject-rock coin with one side aligned with the bacchanalia of the Stooges and the other the melancholy of Joy Division. At the time, Solotroff's principal outlet for his power electronics was Intrinsic Action, which was shameless in appropriating Whitehouse's ultra-violent posturing and searing noise. But since, Solotroff has ventured into a whole host of projects with various aesthetic differences, but all of which maintain an axis of grime, sleaze, transgression, and violence. Anatomy Of Habit is Solotroff's first venture into an outright 'rock' context, after the punishing electronics of Bloodyminded and the bleak coldwave of A Vague Disquiet; and here, it all comes back around to Brainbombs and Bodychoke (although more Bodychoke than Brainbombs) with Anatomy Of Habit. Formed around Solotroff, drummer Dylan Posa (Brise-Glase, Cheer Accident), Greg Ratjczak (Winters In Osaka), Kenny Rasmusen, and Blake Edwards (Vertonen), the band is a steamroller of huge Swans / Neurosis riffs chugging out of crawling rhythms, and lots of bad vibes. Both sides of the wax are sprawling numbers that hypnotically build out of interlocking guitar and bass that steadily builds towards a distorted, crushing climax with dextrous turns toward powerdrone sludge. Solotroff, with his years of barking like William Bennett, has turned into quite a deft vocalist with his baritone in perpetual motion amidst the roiling noise-rock, coming across more like a cross between Jaz Coleman and Michael Gira. Well worth checking out."

Aquarius on Locrian Territories

From the new Aquarius Records update - a mail-order catalog listing, of course:

LOCRIAN "Territories" (At War With False Noise / Basses Frequences / Small Doses / BloodLust!) lp

With every single release these guys get better and better, their sound, a constantly evolving, ultra dense blend of abstract black metal and deep ambient dronemusic, the early records were more about energy and vibe than execution, still eminently listenable, heavy and atmospheric, black and brutal, but their skills as composers and arranges have definitely made leaps and bounds, arriving finally at Territories, the latest sprawling epic from this Chicago duo, here, aided and abetted by a whole bunch of guests, including Blake Judd from Nachtmystium, Andrew Scherer, drummer for black metallers Velnias, and Mark Solotroff, power electronics maestro, and man behind Bloody Minded and the BloodLust! label.
And the guests make their presence felt right away, on opener inverted ruins, a smoldering doomic plod, more power electronics than black metal, with Solotroff ranting over a sea of swirling buzz and skree, glitched out electronics, and some simple stripped down drumming. Over the course of the track, it begins to coalesce into a more ominous creep, shedding noise as it goes, before finally slipping into a deep shimmering drone, which introduces the next track, a lush, slow building cinematic dronescape, constantly shifting layers, drifting through clouds of cymbal shimmer and blackened buzzing strings. It's not until nearly the end of side one that black metal rears it's ugly head, a flurry of manic riffing, and they're off, a pounding midtempo blast of raw feral blackness, insane shrieked vocals, chaotic drums, muted riffs, all blurred into a blackened haze, lo-fi and muddy, but also epic and intense.
The flipside opens with another bout of power electronics, dueling synths unfurl undulating layers of wheeze and warble and buzz, laced with shimmering overtones and fragmented melodies, a churning black sonic sea, that eventually fades out leaving, a smoldering stretch of shadowy guitar, of blissed out ambience, a short stretch of crystalline chiming guitars laid over a warm whir, shoegazey and blissed out, which finally leads into the closing track, the weirdest of the bunch, with organ and saxophone, acoustic guitars, and pretty much all the gusts present and accounted for, a bleak buzzing driftscape, sort of post industrial, keening melodies over fractured buzz, and deep rumbles, creaks and skree and groaning low end, finally explode into full on melodic black metal, martial drumming, epic riffing, more tortured vokills, cool tangled woozy minor key melodies, a swirling druggy ambience, weirdly catchy and otherworldly, but still heavy and psychedelic, maybe our favorite track, and the perfect way to wind down this serpentine blackened outsider drone metal journey...