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Post by berzmow on Jun 14, 2011 2:26:14 GMT
Listening to it now.
VERY impressed. Album of the year? Possibly.
Love the organic quality of the tracks (as opposed to purely synthetic processed sounds) - Stabbers Conspiracy is already becoming a firm favorite.
Muchas Gracias.
9 / 10
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Post by Danhod on Jun 14, 2011 9:30:38 GMT
I love the way Shut Up And Bleed cleans your ears for you
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Post by judemason on Jun 14, 2011 20:02:22 GMT
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Post by Danhod on Jun 16, 2011 10:33:32 GMT
I wonder if Zeitkratzer could cover Cut Hands? hahaha
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Post by Susan Lawly on Jun 18, 2011 21:08:41 GMT
review in this month's UNCUT magazine by Piers Martin (4/5)
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Post by Susan Lawly on Jun 29, 2011 15:25:36 GMT
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Post by Susan Lawly on Jul 2, 2011 10:56:01 GMT
review at Aquarius Records (http://www.aquariusrecords.org):
CUT HANDS s/t (aka Afro Noise I) (Very Friendly) cd 17.98 What happens when a middle aged, extreme noise musician suddenly gets all voodoo "drum circle" on us? Cut Hands is what happens. Ethno-forgery, not exactly, ethno-freakery more like it! Let's say this up front, so there's no confusion: this Cut Hands disc is bloody awesome, and nobody here at AQ (except maybe Jim) is all that big of a Whitehouse fan, either. We mention that 'cause Cut Hands is the new project by William Bennett, the perverse genius (?) behind infamous '80s industrial noise terrorists Whitehouse, who are up there with Merzbow in the noise that annoys pantheon. We appreciate the extremity of Whitehouse, sure, but unlike Merzbow, never really enjoyed listening to 'em all that much (maybe that's the point). As a result, we really weren't aware of the extent to which, in recent years, William Bennett had been getting into this so-called "Afro Noise" bag of his, with some of his more recent Whitehouse albums (like 2003's Bird Seed, which contained a track called "Cut Hands Has The Solution") incorporating the use, and probably abuse, of authentic ethnic Central African instruments. Although, we do remember when, in 1997, Bennett's label Susan Lawly put out an amazing compilation, now long out of print, called Extreme Music From Africa, that we totally loved. It featured a bunch of mysterious artists like Rorogwela, Vicious Teengirl, Electricity Featuring Fire Eater, and National Bird, that we'd never heard of before or since, doing tracks that somehow combined what sounded like genuine African tribal music with Whitehouse style noise... and was really quite listenable, too! We always half-suspected it might not have been on the up and up, that the bands weren't really from Africa, and were instead the work of Mr. Bennett and friends, and we'd still like it just as much anyway... Cut Hands certainly makes us further assume that might be the case, since our description of the sort of sounds found on Extreme Music From Africa would also describe this Cut Hands disc quite well: "Chanting and hand drums are buried in washes of hiss and white noise. Merzbow style blasts of crunchy feedback dissolve into tribal rhythms and explode again into shards of jagged buzz. Intense and aggressive and totally great." In any event, Cut Hands is the next logical step in Bennett's "Afro Noise" obsession. While there is of course an electronic noise component to this, it almost takes a backseat to the rhythmic, almost machine-like intensity of the hand percussion. Bennett has apparently amassed quite a large collection of Congolese and Ghanaian percussion instruments, and he puts 'em to use here, 13 varied tracks of primal, polyrhythmic, electro-acoustic pulsations. Djembes and doundouns played with jackhammer precision, mixed with washes and waves of hiss and drone. Some tracks attack with feedback, others are more quietly sinister and even shimmeringly atmospheric. There's one track with vocals, declaiming something in what sounds like an African language, amidst divebombing distortion and shuddering glitch, while the rest are purely instrumental. And all it is frighteningly trance-inducing. It's kind of insane, kind of incredible. We like, a lot.
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Post by berzmow on Jul 2, 2011 13:18:17 GMT
review at Aquarius Records (http://www.aquariusrecords.org): Yeah, just received the Aquarius newsletter today. They don't think highly of Whitehouse?? Hmmm. And why do they refer to Whitehouse as "80s industrial noise ....". 80s?? They survived well into the 00's. So far this Cut Hands release is second only to the new Ulver album, for best album of 2011. For me personally, anyway. But then again, anything that came out right now would be second to the new Ulver - it's that good.
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Post by Danhod on Jul 2, 2011 20:26:34 GMT
2011 is not over yet! and we still have the extra three Cut Hands tracks to hear, which i am looking forward to!
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Post by Susan Lawly on Jul 7, 2011 12:17:29 GMT
the album is reviewed in the current issue of Record Collector magazine by Spencer Grady rating ****/*****
(30/6/2011)
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Post by Susan Lawly on Jul 7, 2011 14:40:05 GMT
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Post by Susan Lawly on Jul 24, 2011 18:37:34 GMT
(from Tumblr/beachsloth)
Cut Hands – Afro Noise1 8.1
Cut Hands is the solo project of William Bennett, founder of Whitehouse. If you know of Whitehouse and their sick, depraved general interest in sheer awfulness, you’re in for a surprise. This is a surprisingly tasteful affair. Most of it sounds crystal clear, fantastic, and with little of the hallmarks of the Whitehouse outfit.
Little of the hallmarks mean there have been some hints over the last couple of Whitehouse albums. Williams’s interest in Ghanaian and Congolese percussion were present in the last three releases, “Bird Seed”, “Asceticists 2006” and “Racket”. In fact, three of the loudest songs on this album are from those releases, “Munkisi Munkondi”, “Nzambi la Lufua” and the closer “Bia Mintatu” respectively. Personally, I was glad to see “Nzambi la Lufua” on here as it is a favorite of mine.
The newer songs are considerably sparser than you’d expect from Mr. Bennett. Gone are over-distorted vocals. Atmosphere and percussion play a far larger role. Instead of non-stop aggression the music is infused with a large amount of threat. On some of these tracks the percussion is simply fantastic such as “Stabbers Conspiracy” which just leaves your mind baffled. “Rain Washes over the Chaff” shows the few years William spent working on this were not for naught. It feels unlimited by restraints like time or space.
After working in the field of power electronics for so long this is the biggest surprise he could done. Everything is tactile. You can feel the actual humanity in the recording. Considering for how long William did screaming (not a bad thing by the way) it is doubly refreshing to hear him do something so refreshingly different. Don’t worry it is still bleak but in a new wonderful way.
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Post by Danhod on Jul 25, 2011 10:00:47 GMT
After working in the field of power electronics for so long this is the biggest surprise he could done. Not really considering elements of African percussion in later Whitehouse works, I can think of some more suprising things
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Post by luke on Jul 26, 2011 1:08:42 GMT
Does anyone else think that Nzambi Ia Lufua is really loud on the Cut Hands CD? Every time it comes on I have to turn the music down.
Also, I was listening to Consumer Electronics 'Nobody's Ugly' today I think the second track, Grubbing, has a kind of afro-noise sound to it.
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Post by Danhod on Jul 26, 2011 9:47:49 GMT
Does anyone else think that Nzambi Ia Lufua is really loud on the Cut Hands CD? Every time it comes on I have to turn the music down. Don't turn it down, tremble in its power! It's been mastered slightly louder then on Asceticists from what i can tell.
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