TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES PART 6.16 (SONIC WALL OF SOUND TO LA CHAIR À CANON (FODDER) TACTICS)

(Our Hanoi-based supporter Vizzah Harri reaches the end of his 6.16-Part selection of infectious songs from 2023. Find the preceding Parts here.)

Chiffonnier is a dirty word

“Effervescence just like chiffonniers

assumed as having one role, yet

aggrandizement of innate embodiment

illusive in so far as seeing it as is.

In an abject boiling and a shelved existence,

a shine too found there, sharply cloying amongst

the detritus of the better daemons of our nurtured.

Fleeting and specter-like fallibility in insouciance.

Gutter-crawl me a séance, envelop me a vector.

Interrogating your will to transvestitize your ideals,

deified by association, nullified by intransigence.”

-Vragen en Zien

This is the real final part of my attempt at leechcrafting the void of infectious lists. If you want to have a cherry-pie-picnic with your duck soup, simply skip on down and hit the list of leftovers.

I know everyone’s day job can be a grind, so like many of you I’ve been in a pyrrhic trench melee with the rent in the hourglass spilling sand and I’m still losing. Sisyphean levels of unwanted attrition related to end-of-year – no fucking bullshit – from the Marianas trench depths of character void into, damn, “the guys I hold as the high-watermark fvcking stratospheric into the Van Allen belt of taste and refinement just accepted a series of articles I wrote.” Look up ‘bliss’ in an encyclopedia and my face right now is the chiaroscuro alighting it for everything being in its right place.

People either balk at being the center of attention or thrive in it, yet it is when those unassuming serendipitous happenstances of waking up to the sound of a Hanoi International Orchestra member practicing his very much not cheap trumpet next door that one starts realizing good things are around the corner, and the rush starts setting in. I’ve been questioning my sanity of late, well that’s a lie, it’s been inundated with everything short of a literal inquisition.

Last time I experienced undiagnosed mania, a literal truck smashed, drug (past participle of drag), and slapped the literal contrived cognizance out of my egghead. And that time I thought the dexamethasone I started using for backpain was really nice, nicer than a cup of tea with the grandma next door nice. Months later upon consulting Doctor Elgoog again, as well as my sage/sister/mother/scientific shaman of a medical researching doctor, found that said muscle relaxant induces a fake sense of well-being. However, tripwire tapdancing the line of over-dosage upon upping my tolerance meant: mania.

This is important because I’ve realized I’m very possibly Bi-. At which point you’re like “bye, we don’t care about outing yaself.” Bipolar. My late aunt had it, she wrote about it extensively, she was quite possibly gay and vastly misunderstood, having come from an evangelical to-the-preaching-in-the-street-halleluja-can-I-get-a-halleluja-y’all kinda cult sect”

This time ’round it isn’t exactly one hundred percent chemically induced, maybe 13%, maybe 61.6%… I mean I can probably be called the kind. I like fucking with divergence. A good friend of mine gave his honest and solicited critique on part 1 and said there was way too much self-reference going on, so the next sentence won’t start with an ‘I’ right? … I’m more of an oneironautic dissimilitude hypnopompia-induced hypnagogic jester of sorts. Yes, NCS has a style, but for me it was the fact that they were pushing quality underground music and managing to write about it eloquently; I was never going to try and emulate. These articles have less hits on the meta page for harping on about last year when we’re in a global society of the next best thing, yesterday please, right the fuck now.

Don’t worry, it will all be tied together at the end like the truest sage (of the fantasy genre who never knew they needed him [of course China is #13… if you followed that link]) in Steven Erikson who so gracefully informed us about his method. This time ’round though, it’s the euphemism of inclination towards abuse in order to reach cathartic release that has loved ones question whether I’ve got all me Anas platyrhyncos in a row.

This is being shared with y’all faithful readers because mental health is stigmatized to shit, and even when we suffer from it, we tend to shy away from people opening up about it. Ever since I had to rewire all my synapses after a very literal truck smashed the bejesus out of me last year and I decided to treat my – as to then – undiagnosed severe concussion with no less than a vial full of DMT, a preposterous amount of psylocibin, picking up smoking again, as well as an unreasonable amount of auto-prescribed opioids. The supply of painkillers in the country was knee-barred, resulting in a medical crisis. I’ve had insomnia, and sleep-deprivation is the weirdest drug of them all. I’m not addicted to any of those substances, I’m addicted to hypnagogia.

I’m doing better now, have been for a while, still a madman, but felt the urge to extrapolate a little bit more on my condition seeing as so many stellar releases from last year dealt with different iterations of mental discord and some about ascending from the ashes of the grief of a kind of death few of us would ever experience, not to mention comprehend.

If you are inclined towards hallucinations and are not as visual as the next person, ones stemming from sleep deprivation, powerful painkillers, insomnia and the pain of having a fifth of the sole of your broken foot ripped off and having gone the necrotic route, they are second to none. The only other thing in this part of our universe that comes close is music, and we gather here to discover that which can send us into the aether, exorcise the more deviant of our daemons, or sublimate our very flesh into the welkin dust. I didn’t say that the ellipsis will be obvious other than its being referenced even if you hear “that bell ringing” (heavy-handed Erikson reference again), but my addiction to music only reached its true catalyst when I lighted upon No Clean Singing the first time, and it allowed me at times to even reach a sort of perpetual fill ego-unalive which we all have to undergo at least once in life.

This site has been my therapy, for the words shared, the music pushed and for being consistent as f*ck in introducing sonic fine art. That’s the reason why I went out on a limb to write Islander; that’s a lie, I pre-empted it with an extremely speculative email about picking up on a few minor issues in an article I won’t link here, the comment was deleted, and the article promptly fixed. It’s just apt to conclude this word-hoard with a love letter to my favourite blog, so you might notice some captioned images throughout, and if you had the endurance to even get this far into this deluge of Verdun-ian proportions, it will be justified when you decide to click on some of the (gotta say it myself) hilarious– and, dare I pronounce, gorgeous easter-egged music links. And if you like the pseudonymized poems, you could peruse this depraved jester.

I have to thank Islander for being an absolute G by approving what transpired but it’s thanks to him and the core writers goddamn ‘crushing’ (unserious and yet purposeful troll of the antithesis to hapax legomenon in NCS writing, hence the LOTR references earlier ) it lately. A lot of editing and refinement was necessary seeing as I went a bit far and above my paygrade as far as bringing conceptual effrontery into metal writing. The list that follows is as the editor of this fine establishment calls what was left “on deck,” with one bonus mini-review acting as #46 of the complete list.

“Flow, the illusion thereof latched onto identity.

Marketed, besmirched, through the slime of diffusion dragged ‘til even the quest towards true knowledge is lost, that which leads to an omega-conditioned and meaning. Dissolved through euphemism. Misconceptions of the self and the other and influence, as a method of control in the East. Just flow. Context also of import, moments of flux, but reachable only through strife and blood and sweat. In the whole however, in the herd, as the herd, part of it, that is how the concept retards as a Verdun.” – Willekraai Bruusk

 

Bonus #2:

#46. Trhä – t​ë​mana olh q​ë​t​ë​n colv​ë​nna b​é​’jar lh​ë​lh tun lhaja en​Ω​ë​j​ë​da​£​ehan inqom (Texas) – August 18^th 2023

For fans of wanting to be metronomically beaten by a raw tomahawk steak at sunset for 4 minutes before there’s a let up. With some Hors D’oeuvres served in an intentionally retroactive false order and a perfectly balanced Malibu Sunset – though the mixologists consciously added just enough methanol to induce slow burn but irreversible bilateral blindness after about the 6-minute mark.

The synths complementing the rancid meat feeling like caresses at around 7 minutes of attrition urges you to keen for more and your wish will be granted for another good two minutes of vile pummeling before releasing you into Stockholm Syndromic bliss narrated by your 13th removed Latvian grandma(stery).

Trhä‘s disdain for norms yet embracing of the more(s) means their audio-visual perceptions are spot on too. What you see on the rawest expression of a nuclear-sunbathed tropical twilight captured 2 seconds before the evening redness in the west fades into the vantablack, but with extra grain for spice, is as exact a rendition you’ll get of what an album will sound like any year.

Second track does not disappoint either, just wait at least 7 minutes and 11 seconds into its nearly 47-minute run-time for it to hit genius level (first track is just under 23 so you can ask what your age is again in a cavernous wailing of despair). If you like your raw ambient black metal to have an ecstatic synth aesthetic and just enough drunk drum techno to ease off the – at times – Mexican wall of sound, then this is for you. They’ll leave you empty of want.

Atmospheric, ambience, lo-fi, nursery-crypt synthy, raw black.

 FFO Sadness and boxes of chocolate.

https://trha.bandcamp.com/

 

The ”on deck” list, whittled down to 58 (it’s 57, but adding Trhä from above seals it) from an impossible 300, dive bar numerology: 5+8=13…6% of which ain’t metal:

 

Acausal Intrusion – Molecular Entanglement

https://youtu.be/Gmlt2-9reT0

Act of Entropy – Unseen Sinuous Shrines

https://actofentropy.bandcamp.com/track/unseen-sinuous-shrines

Agriculture – Relier

https://agriculturemusic.bandcamp.com/track/relier

Amalekim – Psalm VII: Mizmor LeQuayn (‘am a lick em goooood)

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/track/psalm-vii-mizmor-lequayn

Aodon – Inaki

https://aodon.bandcamp.com/track/inaki

BAAZLVAAT – The Beginning and the End

https://baazlvaat.bandcamp.com/track/the-beginning-and-the-end

Bekor Qilish – Unaware Gods

https://youtu.be/1yTRPJQltXo

Blood Incantation – Obliquity of the Ecliptic

https://youtu.be/O9WYceFbHw4

Bolt Gun – The Vulture

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-vulture

Brutus – Victoria

https://youtu.be/hEdmzn41tTU

Cattle decapitation – Just another body

https://cattledecapitation.bandcamp.com/track/just-another-body

Creeping Death – Boundless Domain

https://creepingdeathtx.bandcamp.com/track/boundless-domain

Crow Black Sky – The Blinding Might of Creation

https://crowblacksky.bandcamp.com/track/the-blinding-might-of-creation

DVVAD – MRKLB IV

https://dvvad.bandcamp.com/track/mrklb-iv

Fires in the distance – Wisdom of the Fallen Leaves

https://firesinthedistance.bandcamp.com/track/wisdom-of-the-falling-leaves

 

 

GODTHRYMM -Unseen and Unheard

https://godthrymmdoom.bandcamp.com/track/unseen-unheard

Gridlink – Revenant Orchard

https://gridlink.bandcamp.com/track/revenant-orchard

Helfró – Ildi Óhreins Anda

https://youtu.be/XO0_F1x43ps

Horrendous – Chrysopoeia – The Archeology Of Dawn

https://horrendous.bandcamp.com/track/chrysopoeia-the-archaeology-of-dawn

Job for a Cowboy – The Agony Seeping Storm (2024 album but premiered single in 2023)

https://youtu.be/rdte-9YqWoI

Kasturn — Lynched by Seasons

https://kasturn.bandcamp.com/track/lynched-by-seasons

Keys to the astral gates and mystic doors – The Lighting of The Treasured Candles
https://emptypitrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/the-lighting-of-the-treasured-candles

Labyrinthus Stellarum – The Eternity

https://labyrinthusstellarum.bandcamp.com/track/the-eternity

Lamp of murmuur – Hymns of Death, Rays of Might

https://lampofmurmuur.bandcamp.com/track/hymns-of-death-rays-of-might

Liturgy – Antigone II (Talking about BC comments, before Christus I compel you to go read cos as far as shortform is concerned some people there write better than I ever will. I have to quote purajit on this one: “Liturgy’s absolute best. It’s got everything. It’s massive, never boring. Somehow, after 44 incredible, insane minutes, you still haven’t heard the biggest, craziest songs of the album. 15 blistering minutes later, you _still_ haven’t heard the best song Liturgy’s ever made. What the hell, Haela. Favorite track: Antigone II.”)

https://liturgy.bandcamp.com/track/antigone-ii

Malokarpatan – Vovn​ú​tri chl​á​choliv​é​ho úto​č​i​š​ta kunstkamru

https://malokarpatan.bandcamp.com/track/vovn-tri-chl-choliv-ho-to-i-ta-kunstkamru

Modest by default – Permaculture: Permeations permafrosted for negating the subversive, having rent the mind to not have one’s psyche soup unpercolate completely.

Moonlight sorcery – The Moonlit Dance of the Twisted Jester’s Blood​-​soaked Rituals

https://moonlightsorcery.bandcamp.com/track/the-moonlit-dance-of-the-twisted-jesters-blood-soaked-rituals

Moon Tooth – I Revere

https://youtu.be/jDi3KEofjPA

 

 

Panopticon – Cedar Skeletons

https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/track/cedar-skeletons-2

Paradox’ Mysticism — Whispers of Spectral Damnation

https://paradoxmysticsm.bandcamp.com/track/whispers-of-spectral-desolation

Pestifer – Draconian Daemon

https://pestifer-band.bandcamp.com/track/draconian-daemon

Sadus – Scorched and Burnt

https://sadusofficial.bandcamp.com/track/scorched-and-burnt

Sea Mosquito – Son of Man

https://seamosquito.bandcamp.com/track/son-of-man

See You Next Tuesday – Hey Look, No Crying

https://cunexttuesdaygrind.bandcamp.com/track/hey-look-no-crying

Stortregn – Xeno Chaos (seriously Minh-ing mate)

https://stortregn.bandcamp.com/track/xeno-chaos

Summoning Death – A Traumatic Night of the Creeps

https://chaos-records.bandcamp.com/album/a-traumatic-night-of-the-creeps

Svartkonst – Haunt Me

https://youtu.be/r5BP4YTQsfE

Swampborn – Sleepingstatic

https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/track/sleepingstatic

Thantifaxath – The Lost Wisdom of Wolves

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-lost-wisdom-of-wolves

The Anchoret – Forsaken

https://theanchoretofficial.bandcamp.com/track/forsaken

The Mars Volta – Blacklight shine

https://youtu.be/rYAR6bpf85Q

Thlipsis (Θλίψις) – Enemy At The Gates (​Μ​π​ή​κ​α​ν Σ​τ​η​ν Π​ό​λ​η Οι Ο​χ​τ​ρ​ο​ί​) [Yes this track was released in 2022 but it appears on their 2023 album, which is when I first heard it]

https://thlipsis.bandcamp.com/track/enemy-at-the-gates-2

 

 

Tinariwen – Arajghiyine

https://tinariwenmusic.bandcamp.com/track/arajghiyine

Totenmesse – Impact resistance Ego

https://totenmesse.bandcamp.com/track/impact-resistance-ego

Tribunal – Without Answer

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/track/without-answer

Ukakuja – I am the Fruit of Final Slumber

https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/track/i-am-the-fruit-of-final-slumber-2

Vastum – Stillborn Eternity

https://vastum.bandcamp.com/track/stillborn-eternity

Verminous Serpent – Seraphim Falls

https://verminousserpent.bandcamp.com/track/seraphim-falls

Voidceremony – Forlorn Portrait: Ruins of an Ageless Slumber

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/track/forlorn-portrait-ruins-of-an-ageless-slumber

Wilczyca – Magija

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/track/magija

Witching – Damnation

https://witching.bandcamp.com/track/damnation

Xoth – Saga of the Blade

https://xoth.bandcamp.com/track/saga-of-the-blade

You might have wondered what the catchiest song was of 2023 and why it was sung cleanly?

Yaeji’s For Granted?

https://kraejiyaeji.bandcamp.com/track/for-granted

Yellow Eyes – Master’s Murmur

https://yelloweyes.bandcamp.com/track/masters-murmur

Zulu – Who Jah Bless No One Curse (I read comments. Bandcamp comments tend towards the aurelian and when you light upon albums where listener’s ‘favourite tracks’ on any which album are not one the same: you know you got a fresh pork sausage for ya mash.)

https://flatspotrecords.bandcamp.com/track/who-jah-bless-no-one-curse

ZØRZA – IEI (Ignoramus et ignorabimus)

https://zorzapbm.bandcamp.com/track/iei-ignoramus-et-ignorabimus