From the Depths of Hell's Ocean cassette [Knife in the Toaster, 2008]

Opens with what sounds like an extract from a documentary about secret Nazi scientific research. The majority of this release appears to be an extract from some cheesy American 80s horror film or other (can't identify which one, maybe several), complete with silly horror dialogue ('did you hear that?', 'no ... *clang* oh, NOW I do'). It's effectively spooky enough, but how much of this is due to the filmmaker rather than what was edited for this tape is another matter.

After the intro comes moody and spooky crackling classical music which segues to some pretty cheesy keyboard generic horror soundtrack music, and a woman talking about a ship breaking down, some wave noises. Some moans and creaks lead into further Halloweenish music and noises, cheesy dialogue, more footsteps and keyboard spookiness, more classical music and some slightly distorted voice and music effects (like the classical music on a turntable is being sped up/down), but mainly just sounding like a film soundtrack recorded to tape.

It's quite effective for what it is, a fun spooky cassette but I'd rather just have watched the film.

Filthy Turd - Filth mini cdr [?]

No information on this one, all it is is a picture of Mr Turd's amp with 'Filth' painted on it. We begin with a collage of voices which sounds like they have been taken from pornography, all echoey and layered but often recognisable and not quite descending into all-out noise. Some interesting use of digital-sounding reverse echo around the 2min mark, occasionally audible words (silly porn speak). By 3.30 a wall of metallic harsh noise has overwhelmed he orgy-party, clangs and high end feedback fulfill Filthy's other fetish, harsh harsh feedback/noise. Very high sounds with slow variations, harsh tones and pure feedback high in the noise mix. Despite the variation in the noise this is real teeth on edge stuff and a withering experience even on a 3"cd.

[photo coming soon]

Ultra Fuckers - Worst City CDr [tin cans and twine]

5 track EP of scuzztronics, a strange mixture of musical styles. List of instruments includes 'ladder percussion' alongside the usual guitar, vocals, drum and electronics. Track 1 is driven and exciting with vocals and is probably in a style which ends in '-core'. 3rd track is laid-back Japanese hiphop. The final 2 tracks are live and have more prominent drums (recorded a bit low making them sound like toy drums), and ranting over the keyboard/electronics riff. Same riff and drums continue for the final track with some meandering/quite boring electric guitar improvisation (?), before ending with a bit of thrash noisiness.

Comes in a simple nasty photocopied cover and cellophane sleeve from this low-priced label, with some helpful information about Osaka (the 'Worst City in Japan' - no doubt pristine by British standards) in broken English on the back. Nice bright red coloured CDr redeems the boring cover.

[photo coming soon]