Released
1998
Label
Bastet Recordings
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Bastet Recordings
P.O. Box 170 116
D - 47181 Duisburg
Germany
Last Edit/Update
19 august, 1998
Various Artists
(Bastet Recordings)
BASTET'S BASTARDS V.2
Track Listing
1. Heid -- Pilgrim Of The Sublunary World
2. Wejdas -- Die Welt Ohne Rahmen (excerpt)
3. N.L.C. -- Le Langue Des Autres (Part II)
4. P/D(B) -- Foetor Ex Ore (Remixed 1995)
5. Defekt -- Stab Of Regret: Open Wounds
6. DL/EK -- 0.1752
7. Møhr -- Broken Glass Construction
8. Bande Berne Crematoire -- Firefox
9. Megaptera -- My Lonely Brain
10. Bad Sector -- Density Matrix
11. Exterior Mirror -- Unthinking Promiscuity
12. Reptilicus -- My Fair K
13. Necrophorus -- Sophysis
Bastet Recordings is the new side-label of German Vuz/Cat's
Heaven. The specific justification for this new imprint is to release CDs in
accordance with the spirit of the tape-labels, which had their heyday in the 1980s. This
means that Bastet Recordings burn their own CD-Rs, and release these in
rather limited and exclusive editions (normally of 200 copies). Each release comes in a
little plastic box, with the CD mounted in one side, and room for various accessories in
the other.
The compilation at hand very much
works as a musical newsletter, including thirteen tracks by as many artists, each one
representing either a current release, or a deleted or forthcoming title -- the majority
on Bastet, but a few of them on Cat's Heaven. The box
also includes a floppy disc on which one can find a catalogue of all Vuz/Cat's
Heaven/Bastet releases presently available, along with ordering instructions.
Furthermore, a Bad Sector screensaver program is included -- images from
50s sci-fi flicks float around on the screen, changing ever so often with an appropriate
spurt of static or electronic hiccup -- a true novelty!
Many of the compilations that I
have recently reviewed have been sheer treasure chests of new music, each one opening up
whole new vistas of sound, and Bastet's Bastards is certainly no exception. The
bands and artists featured on Bastet -- a number of them quite obscure --
are generally excellent, and if anything Bastet seems to plunge deeper
into the underground and extreme than its sister labels. The compilation swiftly moves
from atmospheric and classically inspired soundtrack music, over harsh noise, and on to
more experimental types of electronically generated music.
The CD opens with a very
beautiful piece from the now deleted CD by Heid -- Submitting To The
Uprush Of The Unconscious. The sound is closest in quality to some of the more
atmospheric bands on Cold Meat Industry; a stately progressing,
classically inspired anthem composed of layers of darkly harmonic themes, and dense,
shattering percussions. Wejdas carry on the mystical and somewhat
disconcerting mood of Heid, although their mode of expression is
radically different. On "Die Welt Ohne Rahmen" the listener is led into a primal
setting, echoing with slow ritualistic rhythms and grotesquely distorted voices. "Le
Langue Des Autres" by N.L.C. retains the classical elements of
violins, piano and distant chorals, but corrupt the orchestral serenity with sputtering
electronic emissions, a media sample concerning the theory of gravity, as well as a
sensual female voice reciting brief messages in French.
With P/D(B)'s
"Foetor Ex Ore" (a selection taken from the CD re-release of one of the now
legendary Sound Source tapes that came out in the early nineties as
collaborative releases between Cold Meat and Vuz), the
synthetic darkness gains the upper hand. The track is a slow, menacing descent into an
abyss that is shaken by tremorous, stomping beats, and a steady stream of boiling
electronics. The next track -- "Stab Of Regret: Open Wound" by Defekt
-- is a brief, stripped, claustrophobic outburst of disillusionment, featuring minimal
screeching samplings of metal, staccato synth percussion and contorted electric
tonalities. And, from these first signals of dissonance, DL/EK (a
collaborative project between Dachau Lustknaben and Einsatzkommandos)
plunges the compilation into an outright inferno of screaming electronic noise; Møhr
follows troop, although their brand of aural torture is more textured and structured.
From this excursion into the
terrain of absolute extreme musical expression, Bande Berne Crematoire
slowly steers the CD back to more recognizable musical territory. "Firefox" is
nonetheless a rather harsh example of industrially oriented metal and synths -- fast-paced
crashing and lashing beats, screaming tonalities, brief eruptions of white noise, and
suffering vocals wavering in the background of the piece. Megaptera
follows with a track from the upcoming Cat's Heaven/Slaughter Productions
co-double-CD release My Lonely Brain. Nightmarish furnace room acoustics, with
melodic synth thematics rising out of the grinding march of processed beats -- horror
ambiance that would seem the perfect accompaniment for a post-industrial anxiety attack.
Bad Sector is
represented with a fantastically rich soundtrack of clinical synthetic minutiae, and
slowly unfolding, grandiose thematic presences. This expansive musical glimpse of the
future is included on this Italian project's new CD Polonoid, which is one of Bastet's
current releases. Equally synthetic and futuristic -- albeit in a more alien and
disconcerting fashion -- is the next track by Exterior Mirror, which pits
a variety of swirling, slithering sound effects and high-pitched soaring signals against a
deep, rumbling background of dark harmonies. Delta -- the CD from which this piece
is selected -- is due out in the near future.
Bastet's Bastards
closes with two tracks taken from a pair of excellent past releases on Cat's
Heaven. First is Icelandic Reptilicus with "My Fair K"
from their album Temperature Of Blood -- a composition that fluctuates between
segments of strange hovering atmospheres, and vocal sequences driven by dynamic drums and
guitar work. The other track is "Sophysis" by one of Peter Anderson's
(Raison D'Étre) side-projects Necrophorus. And, as one
would expect, this piece is a voyage into a landscape of great exotic beauty, tranquility
and mystique -- an excellent way to bring the compilation to an end, bringing the CD full
circle while encouraging the listener to hit repeat, and start again at the beginning with
Heid.
