Three Radikal Rekerds #16: Shying Sky Spiders

Genre: Experimental/Field Recording

Standout track: Mutations 1

A truly unique "sonic activism" record that defies easy categorization. The results of a collaboration between experimental musician Dave Phillips (of Dead Peni fame, as well as a member of the performance art collective Schimpfluch-Gruppe) and Swiss science artist Cornelia Hesse-Honegger.  Hesse-Honegger has spent the better part of three decades documenting, via the medium of extremely detailed colour illustrations, the subtle mutations present in invertebrates that live around places with high radiation. Inspired by this body of visual art, Dave Phillips presents three almost-twenty minute long pieces of manipulated recordings of insect noises and activity, transforming these animalistic noises into menacing and and venomously harrowing dark ambient soundscapes.   

 

Genre: Rock/Folk

Standout track: Light Song

Consider me a repentant ambassador for this truly great album from 2018, one that I indefensibly overlooked until 2020. The whole thing is a testament to the song-writing and atmosphere conjuring of Emma and her co-musicians. Fans of shadowy and enigmatic folk-laden rock music in the vein of Angels of Light or Windhand ought not to let this one slip by unnoticed. 

Genre: UGBM

Standout track: Follow The Ancient Light

Metal for misanthropic souls who purposefully live to wade waist-high into nightmarish waters. Indeed if you enjoy this, and have any sort of appreciation for the weird and outré spectrums of black metal, you should have a good long look at the bizarre and beastly discography of Moonworshipper Records.