Mark Solotroff Video Premiere

Return To Pleasure (Body Into Voice) Reposting from Earsplit PR   Bloodyminded and Anatomy Of Habit founder, electronic music veteran, artist, multi-instrumentalist, and all around noise mastermind MARK SOLOTROFF is pleased to premiere his latest video, “Return To Pleasure (Body Into Voice),” today via CVLT Nation. The track comes off SOLOTROFF’s Not Everybody Makes It full-length, released independently last month. Recorded and mixed by SOLOTROFF during April and May of 2021 and mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room in May in 2021, Not Everybody Makes It is SOLOTROFF’s most restrained and controlled synth recording to date. While he anticipated creating a hybrid of more primitive and aggressive sounds balanced by more subtle ambient textures, by the time he finished mixing the six new songs — each one exactly ten-minutes in length — he realized that he had made significant strides in evolving his recent style. Not Everybody Makes It functions as a sonic elegy to the countless losses that so many of us have suffered over the last year and in the recent past, and its shimmering and crumbling frequencies and textures enter into a tense balancing act with elusive melodies that slowly drown in and then emerge from the shifting and eroding dronescapes. Offers SOLOTROFF of the solemn video, “It’s been difficult to view the devastating wildfires on the West Coast, over the last several years, and to not be moved by the widespread damage that they cause. During my last trip to Los Angeles, a friend who lives there pointed out vast stretches of scorched landscape as we drove along the expressway in his car, not all that far from Downtown, where I was staying. I’ve also lived through a fire in a former home in Chicago. There’s nothing like being woken up very early on a Sunday morning by neighbors pounding on your door, only to realize that half of your building is in flames. The distinct smell remained with me for a long time. Fire is a frightening but fascinating thing to see and to hear and I appreciate how it becomes very abstract, as you focus deeper on the dancing flames. “‘Dancing,’ what a poetic word we use! Inspired by the legacy of experimental filmmakers who have been based in Chicago, from László Moholy-Nagy to Stan Brakhage, and Owen Land (who was actually my cousin; a progressively distant one, as far as my family history goes) to Lisa Slodki (AKA Noise Crush, whose work was exhibited by the Museum Of Contemporary Art and who collaborates with my bandmate Isidro Reyes and me, when we perform as The Fortieth Day), I created this abstract meditation on the destructive power of fire.”   View MARK SOLOTROFF’s “Return To Pleasure (Body Into Voice),” now playing at CVLT Nation, at THIS LOCATION. View SOLOTROFF’s previously released video for “Charged Matter (The Problem From The Inside)” HERE.  Not Everybody Makes It is  available on CD, in a four-panel digipak featuring SOLOTROFF’s photography, and on all major digital platforms. Find orders via Bandcamp HERE or iTunes/Apple Music HERE where the record can be streamed in full. MARK SOLOTROFF‘s artwork and music focuses on several related key themes, including how cities develop, both organically and through organized planning, how the human body navigates urban environments, and how people navigate and interact with each other, particularly in an age of alienation caused by severe digital fragmentation. In the music world, SOLOTROFF is best known as the vocalist of both the doom band Anatomy Of Habit and the heavy electronic band Bloodyminded, and as the founder of the early post-industrial band Intrinsic Action. He also has a more than thirty-five-year history playing analog synthesizer. His synth work has been at the core of Bloodyminded and Intrinsic Action, and he recorded and released one-hundred hours of lo-fi analog synth music under the name Super Eight Loop, which he recently digitized and remastered. He is part of the dark-synth group Nightmares, which released a new album in early 2020, as well as the post-industrial trio, Ensemble Sacrés Garçons, which released their first new album in over twenty-five years, in early 2021. SOLOTROFF has also collaborated with and contributed synth and/or vocals to numerous bands, ranging from a four-year role in Wrekmeister Harmonies, to live appearances and/or studio recordings with diverse electronic, experimental, and metal bands, including The Atlas Moth, Brutal Truth, Consumer Electronics, Indian, Locrian, Plague Bringer, Sigillum S, and The Sodality. In late 2019, SOLOTROFF‘s synth was included on new releases by Azar Swan (“The Hissing Crane” on Primal Architecture) and The Body (“Remixed” on Thrill Jockey), and in 2020, he created remixes, augmented with his synth, for Statiqbloom (“Asphyxia Remixed” on Synthicide) and Snow Burial (“Painting The Streets With Our Blood”). “…Not Everybody Makes It is somber and deliberately restrained, meant to be played at a volume that allows the ambient sounds of the listener’s home to slip through… SOLOTROFF shapes sound into bite-size meditations that thread the needle between representing anxiety and soothing it. Much of his work is confrontational and violent, but he’s also a master of the elegiac (such as in Anatomy Of Habit), and that’s on full display throughout Not Everybody Makes It. Like much of the music I’ve heard from the past year and a half, its emotional perimeter has been shaped in part by solitude, grief, and worry… a beautiful, subtle record that will reward repeated listenings. – Chicago Reader “SOLOTROFF focuses upon emotional states, as through chronicling a mix of anxiety and mourning. There’s space to immerse within the morose sounds that SOLOTROFF presents… it’s quietly surreal.” Captured Howls “Themes of isolation have been prevalent in SOLOTROFF‘s recent work, with a series of eight tapes in the past few years (compiled earlier this year onto three 2CD volumes as the Strategic Planning series), but while those captured a sense of urban loneliness and anomie, Not Everybody Makes It is more personal and introspective. Besides the intentional imagery conveyed by the title, the hushed volumes and pseudo-melodies (not something often associated with his work) lock on to this sense of loneliness and despair.” – Brainwashed “SOLOTROFF’s ear for sound is more unique than most. A listen to this record may inspire a new way of thinking and appreciating noise; a ponder into the authenticity of sound regarding what we consider to be music.” – Distorted Sound “This collection was in part SOLOTROFF’s response to the emergence of the pandemic last year, a set of circumstances that intensified the significance of the themes with which his work is usually concerned – how people navigate and interact with each other, particularly in an age of alienation caused by severe digital fragmentation, how cities develop and how the human body navigates urban environments. Taking this into account the layers of stillness, movement, fragility, ambivalence, menace, and unease wrapped in the strata of glassy, metallic drone make sense.  This is a very beautiful yet disquieting collection that SOLOTROFF has created, perfect for our times.” – The Sleeping Shaman “Those who like their ambient music to be dark, dystopian, and minimalist in nature should have a very good chance of finding this album to be quite the rewarding experience.” – The Viking In The Wilderness For MARK SOLOTROFF coverage contact liz@earsplitcompound.com  http://marksolotroff.com http://www.facebook.com/solotroff http://www.instagram.com/marksolotroff http://marksolotroff.bandcamp.com/

BLOODYMINDED - The Future State Of The Body

CVLT Nation is premiering a new track from our forthcoming album, starting today. Please check out "The Future State Of The Body" here:

https://www.cvltnation.com/experience-experimental-noise-bloodymindeds/

CVLT Nation Streaming BLOODYMINDED "Outside The Gate"

Thanks to CVLT Nation for streaming a track from the new BLOODYMINDED album!

http://www.cvltnation.com/exclusive-cvlt-nation-streaming-bloodyminded-outside-gate/

CVLT Nation revisits AOH EP

Anatomy of Habit are in great company on this year-end list from the excellent CVLT Nation site - sitting with our friends Locrian, Sun Splitter and Rosenkopf: http://www.cvltnation.com/cvlt-nations-top-six-avant-garde-releases-of-2012-2/#more-64990

CVLT Nation on Sun Splitter "III" LP

With thanks to the great folks at CVLT Nation!

Eye of Jupiter…SUN SPLITTER Review 

I’m covered in sun right now, but my whole world is a bright grey, because I’m blasting the new Sun Splitter record entitled III, out now on BloodLust. To say that I’m excited about this album would really fucking be an understatement! Sun Splitter have created a record that will be spun at least twice a week for the rest of my existence on this planet. This collection of songs will open doors in your imagination that you didn’t know existed. Play their track “The Serpent’s Golden Death” and you will hear pounding dirge that will pick you up off the earth and have you looking into the eyes of your eternal madness. The thing that is so radical about the way this band writes songs is that they are able to bury harsh noise in a beautiful grave where deranged sonic flowers grow. Sun Splitter are the perfect balance between ancient organic sounds and machine-like audio rain that crashes against your skull. It’s not about what you are hearing on the surface – this band’s magic is hidden under layers of ethereal feedback and aggressive distortion. They are brilliant at conjuring up whirlpools of cryptic rhythm. They weave melody into their own tapestry of angst that I want to cloth myself in. The closing track, “Two Cold Oceans,” is a 16-minute-long stellar example of how this band manifests magic. The riff in this tune is catchy as fuck, but it’s the way that the song melts into a lake of moving noise that keeps your attention. I really don’t care what kind of music you are into, Sun Splitter should be heard, and when you are done, tell a friend so that they can share the knowledge of this killer band! Even this review can’t speak to the heights that Sun Splitter can take you – on the real, they are my brand new high.

CVLT Nation reviews Anatomy of Habit EP

We are flattered by the ongoing support that CVLT Nation has been giving Anatomy of Habit!

http://www.cvltnation.com/after-the-water-anatomy-of-habit-review-stream/

The new Anatomy of Habit self-titled EP is a sonic diagram of audio magic, and it’s available here. For me, this band defies labels, which makes them masters of their own universe. They define what it is for all elements of a band to come together as one. The first thing that grabs my attention about this release is the insightful lyrics that I can relate to like I know them on a personal level. Anatomy of Habit’s vocals puts so much emotion into his delivery that there is no way not to feel where he is coming from. Then you have the musicianship of this band, which speaks its own language of rhythm and bugged-out repetative melody, that creates a surreal and enchanting atmosphere. Song number two, “The Decade Plan,” is something that I will listen to from now until my last breath. The words on this record will have a conversation with your inner doubts, and afterwards your insecurities will become the things that make you strong. As songwriters, Anatomy of Habit know how to wrap your eardrums in dirge before burying the nonsense of the outside world in its own unmarked grave. What I enjoy about this band is not just how they sound, but also how they make me feel with each listen. Anatomy of Habit use space an instrument of awesomeness that will expand your imagination with each listen. If I had it my way, every living being would inject themselves with this music, and maybe then we might start to know what’s real. Anatomy of Habit should be shared, so make sure to tell your friends that you know a band that breaks down the human condition like no other!

CVLT NATION on Anatomy of Habit

From the CVLT NATION website... A nearly perfect review, aside from the songwriting credit:


What if there was an album that was perfect rainy day music, but it even sounded rad on sunny days? What if there was an album that had elements of blues, but wrapped it in slow moving gothic neo-folk? What if there was a band whose lyrics made you think of the world beyond what you could see in front of you, and made you see the universe in terms infinity? Chicago’s Anatomy of Habit has created a new self-titled album full of haunted treasures that will open your mind and at the same time will give you a feeling of isolation. The first track on the album, “Overcome” is a 17-minute clinic in emotional dirge that has the power to guide you in your nightmares. As songwriters, Anatomy of Habit are masters at building ancient audio cathedrals with loads of secret catacombs, so that your thoughts can wonder off and find a new reality. The lyrics and vocals on this song are both just fucking otherworldly, and I know you will be able to find a piece of your humanity in where this band is coming from. Musically, “Overcome” is like a play, with different dramatic scenes tied together by a sonic tension that pulls you in and never lets go. Anatomy of Habit knows how to allow the song to breathe, so you never get a sense that there is too much going on. Then there is the second track on the album, “Torch” – now this song is a 17-minute majestic ride in the clouds. I just can’t get over what an awesome lyricist Kenny Rasmussen (sic) is, what gets me about him is that he is totally in tune with the power repetition. While listening to Anatomy of Habit, you realize that these humans know each other very well and could probably create what they do with their eyes closed, because with every note that this band creates, you feel the trust that they have in one another. This is the kind of music that feeds your soul overtime, you hear it blasting through your speakers and at once you are hooked. Anatomy of Habit are the kind of band that words don’t do justice to, so make sure to find this record and allow them to change your world.

CVLT Nation interviews Locrian

The CVLT Nation site posted a new interview with Locrian that is worth a few minutes of your time. As always, I appreciate their kind words!