(SOLD OUT)SCAR 013: Mazakon Tactics "Adorable Atrocities" C-30(50 copies)



Heavy electronics/PE along the lines of more recent Prurient, Yellow Tears, and older Anenzephalia from Sascha of Namazu Dantai fame.

02 Promise.mp3 (Reload the page if song does not play)

$7.00(US/CANADA/MEXICO) $9.00(world). Price is postpaid. Info and how to order at novisiblescars@gmail.com. *DO NOT PAYPAL ME AT THIS ADDRESS* Please! Make contact and I'll provide you with my paypal addrress.

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"Sascha Mandler of Namazu Dantai brings us a half hour cassette of bleak power electronics focused on whispery electronics, clanking metal, looping industrial rhythms, and guttural growls. On Adorable Atrocities, Mazakon Tactics hits the dark ambience hard with some fantastic, plodding moody aural arrangements. It’s the power electronics bent that he takes with his screams, however, that really throw off the listen. Opener “It Must End Here” carries on with a single, droning tone accompanied by varied poetical vocal outbursts. Where the calm of the background would almost ensure a hypnotic trance with its unwavering but solid pitch, Mazakon Tactics adds various screams and growls to the tone; while these screams might be good on a brutal death metal album, Mandler never really hits a solid range of vocal screams. Instead, they’re kind of all over the place, some growls and some higher pitched screams that become almost laughable in places. It’s only when Mandler finds a pattern with a closed-mouth snarl of “It must end here” that the track finds a happy medium, and at that point, it’s over. “Promise” brings things back to form a bit, an atmospheric opening with a nice whirl of abyssal drones, squeals, and then a looped pattern of scraping metal that sounds a bit like a gun hammer cocking and scraping throughout. Again, Mandler sees fit to growl over this pattern with unintelligible words and noises, and I would much rather the track be allowed to play out without that excessive riffing, because without the vocals that track is truly unsettling. Afterwards, the growls cut out for some waves of static played on top of the drone, and this part of the track really shows the depth Mazakon Tactics can hit without the need for vocals, although when they’re added on top it does create a tense display of anger. “Sliced Core, Spiked Lips” has a nice build to it in the beginning, and I will say that the harsh guttural vocals add a layer that juxtaposes that serenity of the droning tones behind it, where some instruments almost sound like subtle piano plinks. And the disturbing nature of the track’s latter half, with screams that echo like those of a prisoner in a dank cave, work well with the Mandler’s powerful growls, as though he is the Captor and we are the Captives. And Mandler certainly captures the industrial side of power electronics as well – the sharp clanks of metal and scraping that permeate through the thick noises are some of the best spectacles on this release. “Aries Axiom” has a spectacular build, the best track on Adorable Atrocities. Full of chaotic static with seriously pissed vocals rocketing through it, then scrapes and and an ambient whir that somehow grows to a climax, this track has got to be the harshest here because of its unrefined brutality. It is here, without the growls that seem to lack believability, that Mazakon Tactics cements the sound of absolute frustration the power electronics genre can achieve. Adorable Atrocities has a disturbing undertone to it, and that’s more apparent on the B-side of the cassette than the A-side (besides the almost throw-away “Almost There”). “Prostration for a Fathomless”‘s rich crumbles and looping create a catharsis hard to ignore, and if you can get over the guttural vocals that can be overwhelmingly cloying, Mazakon Tactics creates a soundtrack to a world that, while not dead, soon will be, and filled with the deepest darkness one can imagine."
http://memorywavetransmission.wordpress.com/

"Here is yet another quality release from this consistent tape label. Mazakon Tactics presents the darkest of death industrial sounds in this brutal 30 minute cassette. Merging the death industrial influences of Brighter Death Now with power electronic death grunts and some clanking metallic sounds Mazakon Tactics has formed one of the most dismal and hopeless records I have heard in recent memory. The cover is quite fitting as this could definitely be the soundtrack to someone being pulled down into the layer of the BTK killer or something. The tape has a good mixture of grit and clarity that compliment each other well. If I were to make any comparison to acts that are out there I might say mix BDN together with Dodsdomb and you have Mazakon Tactics. The album is consistent throughout, not letting even one beam of light into your darkened cell. There are some moments of droning isolationist tones which almost make me think that the sound will transition into a dark ambient atmosphere but the intense industrial always clangs back in before it actually happens. This is my first exposure to the project and they’ve certainly got my attention. Very nice work, only for fans of the most perverse and blackened industrial sounds out there."

"The Mazakon Tactics CS is pretty damn good too. Heavy and harsh industrial that has touches of power electronics as well. This is actually an amazing tape that you really need to hear. There's an mp3 on the NVS site that you can hear, and it's pretty indicative of what is on this tape.The feeling I get when playing these tapes is something like this: Something is amiss in the house, and it's quite obvious, but I'm not sure what it is. Whatever it is, I don't want to see it, because it is going to force me to look in the mirror and probably reevaluate things - do I want to live, or do I want to get away? I can't do both, that much is certain. I'm just gonna have to live with this hanging over me for the rest of my life... which may not be long."
http://hammersmashedsound.blogspot.com/

"This is nuts. Right off the bat you get twisted and erratic harsh noise. Not a wall but a cacophony of stabbing and scraping noise. Then right as you are getting your mind around this someone with a very fucked up voice starts screaming at you. Dark and blackened howls that totally carry this release. Often times you get what sounds like a mix between vomiting and dying from the singer. It's pretty grim and it's right in your face all the time. Really excellent work on this release.
Limited to 50 copies and packaged in a 7" bag. Find it."

"Heavy electronics/PE along the lines of more recent Prurient, Yellow Tears, and older Anenzephalia from Sascha of Namazu Dantai fame. Well, that's the label description, not mine. I don't necessarily see the Anenzephalia comparison. In fact, this strikes me as more death industrial than anything, and I want to say I find more reference points to Steel Hook Prostheses (particularly in the vocals), Control, or perhaps earlier Schloss Tegal, just more stripped down and straightforwardly rough around the edges and crude. In So, effective in that respect and certainly recommended to folks that appreciate that style, like me!" Jason(Malignant Records) http://www.malignantrecords.com

"Sascha Mandler is behind Mazakon Tactics and he uses electronics, stringed instruments, metals, lyrics and vocals. Mandler is apparently also from Namazu Dantai, whom I don't know. The music is that of power electronics, but doesn't always sound that harsh or loud per se. Voice seem to be an important ingredient for Sascha and there is definite cold atmosphere about these pieces, clinical and reminded me of the early of Anenzephalia. You expect any moment some doctors voice coming in to tell you about the patient's condition, who is lying in his bed, coughing. Pleasant is a word that hardly applies to this, but in terms of 'noise', not being super loud, or just distorted, but actually well balanced, ear damaging low end bass sound and a crash of metal/voice makes this a nicely affair. After all, nice" Vital Weekly (FdW)


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(SOLD OUT)SCAR O07: OVER "OVER" C-15 25Copies



OVER is project by an NVS supporter/customer. An un-announced CDr and a Polaroid picture of a bed in an attic(?) arrived in the NVS PO BOX last fall just with a note asking for release consideration. I sat on this release for awhile, contemplating releasing it. The music(sound) is a pretty simple and lo-fi repetitive heavy electronic track looped. No vocals per, more like spoken word. Actually, more like spoken word "confessions". 15 mintues of emotional outburst, detailed intimate "family" sexual encounters, self hate etc. In a lot of way's reminding me of Buyers Market. When I asked the individual behind OVER for more insight into the project the response was "I'm OVER it, the events that took place and what I described, I needed to get these things off my chest". “This is the real deal, I lived this shit, my voice”. “It ain't taped/sampled off TV shows and HBO documentaries”. I haven't heard from the OVER individual in months, but if your somehow reading this. I've taken you up on your offer of releasing it. Hope you like!?



$6.00(US/CANADA/MEXICO) $8.00(world). Price is postpaid. Info and how to order at novisiblescars@gmail.com. *DO NOT PAYPAL ME AT THIS ADDRESS* Please! Make contact and I'll provide you with my paypal addrress.

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"Fans of death-industrial should take note of the tape by OVER. spoken word over a cold synth loop. content is confessions of teenage fighting, masturbation, being accused of molestation... definitely something you actually have to LISTEN to. the label's descript is dead-on. RECOMMENDED" Keith Brewer(Taint/Mania)

"The first of these two releases is very obscure. According the No Visible Scars website the release by Over is by a supporter/customer of the label. Fifteen minutes of music/spoken word, although its hard to say what's about, but according to the website (again), its ""confessions". 15 minutes of emotional outburst, detailed intimate "family" sexual encounters, self hate etc". Now he's over it and behind it. Well, alright then, so are we. I couldn't say I particularly enjoyed it, but it wasn't bad either. Highly obscure, from every possible angle: that's for sure" Vital Weekly (FdW)

"I kinda want to give this a 3 rather than a 2 but i am torn. When I first put this on I was instantly into it. A super dark and lonely drone that seemed to fill the whole room with dread. I was getting ready to start taking notes but then all of a sudden some samples came it. A man was recalling his childhood in short bursts of edited samples. Talking about being a kid, going to Toys r us, jacking off and molesting. Maybe it's my age or even my exposure to a lot of this stuff in the 90's (I don't want to admit how many times I listened to Buyer's Market by Peter Sotos as if it were music) but I think this doesn't really effect me anymore than making me a bit bored. The music on this release is excellent and right up my alley; super bleak and dark. When you add the samples over the top I get the feeling you want to force me to feel deep dark emotional torment and it becomes a bit contrived. Turns out the samples are not taken from another source. These are the artist's own confessions. That does make this a bit more interesting but sonically I still have the same issues. I think if I listened to one side of the tape and it was just the music and the other side was just the samples it would have been way more effective. That's the other thing. This tape is one sided. It's not exactly a deal breaker but you really need to go ahead and repeat the program on side B. Packaged in a 7" bag with a pretty grim photo on the cover though. Limited to 25 copies."

"So the story goes, Connecticut’s NoVisible Scars, a DIY label that peddles in severly limited extreme metal and noise cassettes, received an unsolicited CDr through the post in late 2009 from a previous customer hoping to be considered for release. It was accompanied by a single Polaroid picture of bed in an otherwise unfurnished room. The contents of the disk were very minimal: for almost 15 minutes a single bleak, lo-fi synth wave extends and pulsates broodingly while a male American voice slowly describes short episodes from his childhood that include sharing sexual experiences with his brother in the attic room of his grandparents’ house – presumably the one depicted on the Polaroid. The label pondered its release for a year and finally decided to make 25 copies available.
The qualities of the sounds on this cassette place it firmly in an old-school industrial vein. Like countless tracks before it a taboo subject is frankly conversed over cold electronics. But the key difference with ‘Over’ is that the voice incorporated does not seem to be sourced from exploitative television documentaries or late night chat radio shows designed to appeal to the prurience of its public, rather it is, more simply, a self-confession.
The voice is clearly distressed with occasional sobbing and is not presented clearly in the minimal mix, perhaps by design as it encourages concentration to fully grasp each word as they slowly form their few regretful memories.
Before releasing it the label asked for more information on the track and got the answer "I'm OVER it, the events that took place and what I described, I needed to get these things off my chest". Whilst it’s understandable and reassuring that this cathartic exercise helped its creator to an extent, it’s unclear what the rest of us are supposed to do with it. Of course, a genuinely unsettling feeling is achieved, particularly upon initial inspection as events first become clear and you hear how much the speaker hates his brother as a consequence, but it’s not the more lascivious episodes that unsettle the most, it’s the highly personal and intimate nature of the admissions.

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