Penurium - Darkest Tendencies Webzine [www.penurium.com]
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Dante Augustus Scarlatti es una one man band de BLOOMINGTON, Indiana- Estados Unidos, Su album "Demises of the Dynamic Microphone [in Monodelity]" distribuido por Auris Apothecary y grabado en 04-05-09 es una muestra de Avant garde -Doom en baja fidelidad grabado así intencionalmente, como el mismo lo explica.

"Intentionally low-fidelity avant-garde doom soundtrack for mournful situations & meditations, crafted from improvisational recordings of vintage auditory devices in varying states of decay blending with dreariness in the vein of slowed down classical guitar vinyl records"

La caja es reciclada de un reel de grabación original, pintada de negro y serigrafiada en plateado con imágenes muy oscuras referentes a la muerte, y contiene dos cartas mecanografiadas, una tiene insertada la fotografía de la caja antes de ser sacrificada para crear el álbum, y la otra explica un poco sobre la mono fidelidad, y recomendaciones para escuchar el álbum, más un parche de tela negra con la imagen del Auris Apothecary impresa en negro brillante, y un sticker blanco serigrafiado en negro con la misma imagen, mas el sobre negro cerrado con un sello de cruz de cera plateada que contiene un Pro vynil Cd. Todo este arte Handmade es impresionante, y le da a todo un aspecto muy oscuro pero igualmente elegante, la combinación de colores negros y plateados mas las texturas usadas y los papeles porosos hacen de esto todo un trabajo artesana.

En cuanto a la música DAS uso los siguiente

"reel to reel machines.
vintage turntables.
60's & 70's organs.
cassette decks/recorders.
countless effects pedals.
hand-crafted noise-boxes.
vintage keyboards/synths.
1970's lawsuit SG.
70's mono microphones.
vintage high-wattage amps"

Para crear un sonido muy minimalista es cruda, oscura, depresiva y nostálgica nos llevara profundo hasta lo que verdaderamente somos y nos hará reflexionar profundamente, tracks como Recitations of the Reel Rhythm in a Stern Seasonal Stereophonic Headphone Set encierran vagos sonidos del ambiente en el cual fue grabado, y otros como Vinyl Etchings Containing Hymns of the Sacred Greek Orthodox Funeral muestran sonidos sintéticos y otras muestras interesantes de sonido que no puedo identificar, en algunos hasta se lograra escuchar como rechina la silla de madera donde DAS estuvo sentado, los fallos de los cables y la respiración, detalles que hacen una relación más directa con el oyente, sin temor a equivocarme afirmo que Demises of the Dynamic Microphone [in Monodelity] es un álbum excepcional.

By Luis Angel [bicho].

Auxillary Out [www.auxillaryout.blogspot.com]
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It's not often you get 11 tracks on a 3" CD-r but that is exactly what Spade & Archer has given us with Sullo Scaffale released on Bloomington, IN's Auris Apothecary. The dude covers a lot of different terrain over those 11 tracks as well. The sub-minute "Purple Tulips" starts things off with a stomping, mid-tempo DJ Shadow-esque intro before moving suddenly into rhythmic full band rock mode in "Judge and Jury" driven by a rumbling bass line and is eventually given a nice send off of atmospheric piano. "Window Business" is more aggressive with more distortion and wild hit-every-drum-as-fast-as-I-can-style drumming which ends up being a keyboard/drum rave-up. "Yeti" has the same feel but it comes off with a "sampled" sounding vibe, which is kinda cool. "Bell Crawl" provide a brief breather of grainy acoustic guitar and, as you might expect, a bell set. "Cool Breeze" has a kind of smooth jazz vibe which is a little jarring and in all honesty I'm not really feeling it. What I am feeling however is "Fifteen Stories High" a little minute and a half treasure nestled in the middle of the album. Looped drums, piano and guitar make this lovely, groovy, melodic Menomena-esque cell that sadly doesn't live long before the tempo and volume get jacked up and the piece closes out with a rhythmic mad dash. "Faraar Gil" matches thumping drums with sprinting, spacey piano lines that almost takes on a free rock sensibility which is surprising cause everything is so precise. "Floodwaters" is the default epic at 4:23. Most of the album is these brief, little nuggets that establish their point usually in a matter of seconds, "Floodwaters" is a bit more leisurely in establishing itself. It's pleasant to listen to but also doesn't really lead anywhere over its four minutes. "The Short Lines" is pretty jammin' though. It's got a great low-end piano melody (with a killer countermelody as well) and lively energy about it that makes me miss the heyday of piano-driven rock bands like Pleasure Forever and The Get Hustle. "Yeti Guen" wraps things up with a shuffling drum and sitar loop, the most straight up hip-hop-influenced track on here.

Idwal Fisher [www.idwalfisher.blogspot.com]
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Auris Apothecary is a small not for profit micro label releasing 'drone, electronic, avant-garde, metal, punk and other varying forms of underground music'. So far so good but they sent me three conceptual releases two of which are unplayable and the other of which I could play but not in the manner as prescribed. But I'm not complaining. I'm all for conceptual/anti releases just so long as you back it up with some well thought out philosophy. Anybody can stick something on a plinth and call it art but it takes the mind of a man like Duchamp to really make it work. AA make it work by wrapping their ideas up in a cloak of Black Magic, pagan ritual, power electronics, noise, ambience, punk, attention to detail and striking design. They release music on regular formats but its their more outre efforts that raise the eyebrows: candles with micro-cassettes inserted into them, records made of glue, field recordings on loose tape inside jars, a video game and reel to reel tape. All of it exquisitely hand made and in some instances in runs as small as five. With Unholy Triforce we get to sample Power Electronics in its most advanced state.
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Sandin' Yr Vagina is a cassette release rendered [virtually] unplayable by being filled with sand [30 brown, 30 black, 30 white and 9 unfilled]. The playing holes are then further filled with sand and sealed up. The whole thing is then wrapped in a strip of emery cloth, sealed with a wax seal and placed in a plastic bag. According to the website the sounds therein contain: 'Experimental material scrapes, drones and eeriness drowned out in a tape-saturated wall of harsh power electronics and disturbingly-active silence' although I'm not quite sure what active silence is, I'm intrigued. I dare say I could retrieve it from its plastic grave, brush all the dirt out of it, reseal it and play but I'd rather not loose the use of my only portable tape player. Maybe if I come across a really cheap and cruddy player I'll report back but until then its still an un-played conceptual/anti release.
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Auris Apothecary have done what a lot of other people have failed to do and that is advance the cause of Power Electronics. I'd heard that PE was finally evolving but I never imagined it to take off in such an avant-garde manner. One to watch I reckon.

By Mathieu Gandin

By Brent Andrew Dare

Aquarius Records [www.aquariusrecords.org]
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If you follow aQuarius on Facebook and Twitter, then you may have gotten a little taste of what is quickly becoming our new favorite label, Auris Apothercary. The first releases we got from them, was a tiny glass vial, with a single tape loop within, old Norwegian recordings of oceanographic instruments, the second was a series of NEC tapes, each with the original music from classic Nintendo games, with the packaging perfectly emulating the original designs. The vials sold out in a flash, we might have a couple of the tapes left (just ask), but we will henceforth endeavor to review anything and everything we can get from AA. A quick look at their other releases reveals an impossibly meticulous approach to packaging, everything in limited numbers, mostly because they are all hand designed and assembled, in fact, just take a look at this, a tape from someone (or something) called Dante Augustus Scarlatti, whose tape comes housed in a printed, clear plastic slipcover, with the tapecase itself also silkscreened, not to mention ANOTHER transparent insert, cool line drawings of mountains, and old maps, the two tape spools behind silver inked globes (the tapes cleverly not rewound, so each spool is a perfect planetoid sphere, the various layers perfectly blended into one elaborate almost 3 dimensional image, each one also numbered, limited to just 99 copies. With things like this, it almost doesn't even matter what it sounds like, it's a piece of art, that would look just as nice sitting on your shelf as it would jammed in your Walkman. But don't let its artiness keep you from enjoying the mysterious sounds inside, nearly two hours of rumbling drones and swirling atmospheric mystery, blurred industrial landscapes of dreamlike crumble, buried barely there rhythms, constantly shifting textures, guitars and oscillators woven into heaving swells of washed out decay and feedback wreathed glacial drift, each side a single slow burning expanse of tectonic creep and gauzy greyed out ambience, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing minimal dronemusic that should most definitely appeal to all the aQ shoppin' dronelords out there.

Within the cardboard box was a package of limited edition Hot Pockets. Unfortunately, the contents of the box were not Hot Pockets but something even better! It turned out to be a cassette tape wrapped in vinyl. We felt bad for breaking the vinyl to get to the tape, but apparently the vinyl is supposed to be broken - it serves to tell us that we are the first people to ever touch the tape. Kind of cool, no? We grabbed the tape (7th Grade is a Drag, and yes, the lead singer was actually in 7th grade at the time) and went on a drive to listen to it. Little Orpheus and the Rogue Lyons are fantastic. A mix of psychdelic garage and some plucky funk, the sound is intensely catchy, and I found myself quite bereft after realizing there were only two songs to listen to. While the music was released in November of 2006, the tape was released in January of 2011, and it turns out two of the members of this band (Doug and Rachel) are now in MMOSS!

Aquarius Records [www.aquariusrecords.org]
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A while back we got a strange 'release' from this 'band' which consisted of a tape loop, in a tiny glass bottle, the music on the loop a snippet of old Norwegian oceanographic recordings, the bottle held shut with a small cork, and branded with Unholy Triforce's triangle logo. We never even got a chance to properly list and review it, as we mentioned it online and we sold out of all of the copies in a matter of hours (follow us on Twitter, people!). In keeping with Auris Aopthecary's M.O., that bottled tape loop was as much a musical art object as it was a proper release, and in that case specifically, probably more so. Which brings us to this, the latest high concept audio missive from this mysterious band, this one called Crucifiction, featuring a very brief audio accompaniment, which you can sample below, recorded onto a clear cassette tape, with the Unholy Triforce logo, housed in a clear tape case, each one hand etched with an upside down cross, and each one held shut with four NAILS, driven not just through the case, but through the tape itself. We're not sure how easy it would be to remove the nails to listen to the tape, but needless to say, that little detail might just be what makes this more art than music. Either way, it looks amazing, and we can't imagine a tape nerd who wouldn't treasure one of these, and give it a spot of honor on their tape shelf, it's intense and ominous and dangerous looking (and sounding actually), and thus, will require some extra packaging if you order if with other stuff, to keep that other stuff from also getting crucified.

The sound is delivered in mp3 format as four tracks clocking in at 1 minute 11 seconds each. This doesn't give much room for evolution at all but does give enough of a taste to appreciate the extremely harsh and rough sound that False Flag delivers. I gotta say I am very much enjoying the direction in which this is going.

The buzz saw drone in Lucre Part 1 is my favorite sound here and continues for the majority of the track. Lucre Part 2 isn't quite as strong because it's harsh noise but just not that aggressive which you quickly realize when Teeth Part 1 kicks in. It absolutely pummels you with spastic harsh noise wall and manipulated vocals, as Teeth Part 2 follows suit and does a similar thing with a longer introduction and another blast of overblown noise at the end.

I really dig this release as a whole yet because the audio is so short and just flies by so quickly it's difficult to judge. But as far as an under 5 minute release goes it's great. The packaging, as I stated before is the best thing I've seen in a while so this is definitely worth a purchase. Stuff like this just gets me psyched on the current noise world in general so I'm glad to see things evolving this way.

Aquarius Records [www.aquariusrecords.org]
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With a name like (((o))) we were pretty much imagining some SUNNO)) like rumbles and slo-mo glacial low end creep, and this Mexican drone/dirge soundscaper did not disappoint, but like everything released on Auris Apothecary, one of our new favorite labels, the over the top packaging deserves as much discussion as the music. This one comes as a black tape, wrapped in a full color fold out paper sleeve, sealed shut with a black wax seal, housed inside a black velvet bag, screen printed on both sides and sealed with a drawstring, while alongside the tape inside is also a small sealed bag containing hand broken Mexican obsidian, hand numbered too. It's a gorgeous little piece of art, which just so happens to contain some amazing sounds. Thankfully, regardless of whatever inspiration (((o))) drew from SUNNO))), the sounds here are much more varied and interesting. The tape opens with some deep drones, but are soon accompanied by some haunting female spoken word, in Spanish, before slipping into a woozy bit of soft focus psychedelic guitar, all spidery melodies, drifting in an expansed of greyed ambient shimmer. The tape twists and turns, slipping from a crumbling processed chunk of blurred noise to full on Merzbowian buzz (infused with all manner of murky melody and clattery percussion), from rumbling de-tuned tarpit riff ooze to field recording flecked blacknoise ambience, and finally to a swirling windswept chunk of pulsing, distorted rhythmic murk, all pulsing distorted swells and buried blackened melodies, weirdly hypnotic, noisy, but still impossibly pretty.

Torture Corpse's Ooru Naito Rongu comes packaged in either grey or green scouring pads held together with metal wire, wrapped in a printed transparent Japanese style obi, sealed with a black wax seal, and inside there are printed inserts. It's pretty dang striking, and the rough scouring pads are a hint at the rough and raw sounds that lurk inside, as this is a way noisier proposition than the other TC we reviewed, starting out with a weird bit of super distorted and totally garbled noise rock, which then transforms into a sort of blackened industrial dirge, before finally slipping into a more black and droney drift, but that drift is caustic and chaotic and noisy for sure, a thick corrosive black sonic smear. And so it goes, the sound a blown out, in the red, speaker melting series of jams, dirgey rhythmic krautrock one second, doomy creep the next, stumbling noise rock heaviness one second, and blissed out crumbling Sunroof! style ur-drone the next, everything here slathered in blacknoise, streaks of hiss and whir and shards of keening feedback, all except the nearly nine minute closer, which is a surprising bit of dreamy droney drift, complete with some strange haunting vocals just below the surface.

This definitely benefits from headphone listening, but either way, like the other Torture Corpse (and the other AA stuff), totally recommended.

The sounds are treasures within themselves. What kicks off as a lo-fi death industrial chugging noise swash breaks down into unearthly chant loops. There's plenty of atmospheric shuffling and incidental sound here but that doesn't ruin the atmosphere at all. The textures finally die down into lulling tape loops, but it eventually pics up with creepy flute-like sounds, delayed and degraded to form very cult-like cinematic feel. This is definitely unique and creepy which makes for a very profound listen. I highly recommend burning candles or incense while listening for a deep experience.

This is a one sided tape, so the second track immediately follows the first. It reminds of something off of N.'s Hospital Murders cassette and it features a droning organ piece with plenty of airy drones accompanying the dying melody. Maybe there are even some tape degraded vocals in here too, I can't tell. The piece drones on and simply is nothing but blurry candlelit ceremonies. A perfect soundtrack for your next opium-laced orgy.

Untitled is a warm analog ride through satanic mass and dusty, dark corners of forgotten church tombs. Perfectly realized from the packaging on down through the creepy drugged-out sounds this release is yet another excellent addition to the ever-flowing sparkling waters-turned-wine that is the catalog of Auris Apothecary. Excellent work.