Geordie post-hardcore riding on a SWERVEDRIVER, HARVEY MILK, LEATHERFACE, UNWOUND tip.  Featuring members of legendary North East UK pop bands, MARZURAAN;  R.Y.N; JINN; BALLPEEN; GRACE. 

This is the only recorded output from their brief two-year existence (2010 – 2012), re-mastered and finally seeing the light, 10 years later.

End Now - Half Live

The Stuttgart free-form collective return with 8 new compositions ranging from intoxicating psychedelia , jazz  and shapeshifting drone onslaught 

"Hegemon Amour" focuses on the endless story of power and submission, the eternal ebb and flow of hope and despair in a world full of discord and malevolence. Collecting the shards of indestructible beauty and surreal meditation. Rearranging them into a blossoming aural tale of collective triumph in challenging times.

Zebularin - Hegemon Amour

Side project from the folks involved with Finnish psych band, Vahvistusharha.  A selection of wide-ranging multi-instrumental hypnotic improvisations, recorded across two sessions in 2020 and 2021, perfectly capturing the spirit and oeuvre of Finland’s DIY psych scene.

Friend Of God From The Oberland - II

'Violet Fields' is the new studio album from Nnja Riot, the solo project of Lisa McKendrick who is based in London.

Using her skills as a songwriter and her love for noise she has crafted seven new tracks which hint at the shamanistic disharmony inherent in human evolution, the futility of war and the disconcerting horror of current global events. She explores these themes amongst disparate and poetic lyrics where she conveys her own feelings of being a human struggling to make sense of a fast changing world intent on its own destruction. As if a scholar of sound she records her memoirs through beats, field recordings, noises, rhythms of the city and nature. As if viewing the contemporary world through the eyes of an alien she observes and dismantles, then rebuilds through the fullness of sound, creating a story that can only be told within the realm of music.

Having immigrated from the remote shores of New Zealand her music often conveys a sense of distance and journey as do her personal experiences of existing between two worlds at opposite ends of the earth. As a multidisciplinary artist her work as a painter is often evident in the colour, abstraction and texture of the music.

Sometimes the beats whirl and confuse like a tumultuous tornado turning in on themselves and at other times they are clear and defined pulsating with intent and clarity. Like huge storm clouds the sound is thick with fog as if driven by the forces of nature only to transform into a clear sky waiting for the next verse. Sometimes they seem to summon the gods with hypnotic force and other times they are lost in the mayhem.

At its nucleus lies a shamanistic yearning—an aspiration to forge an alternative trajectory, and to smash at the doors, make an uproar of noise, to shout, sing, speak in tongues or whisper and use
whatever instruments are needed as weapons to battle on the wasteland of the Violet Fields.

She recorded this album using the infamous Octatrack as a base instrument to create song compositions and then she made overdubs with various instruments like the guitar for a fuzzy distorted noise, synths for some of the melodies, vocals and sometimes vocoders, and the violin which she uses to make whale-like noises and abstractions. Also included in the mix are the Chernobylizer and Fort Processor which are both psycho-geographic synths which she has co-designed.

Nnja Riot has performed both in the UK and internationally more recently at Chaos Theory, Plastic Infinite Presents, Noisemas III, Earworm Presents, NNNNN, IKLECTIKA, Corpora Aliena,
Resonance FM, Piksel Festival Norway, Exit Points Canada and many others. Her other music projects include Isn’tses and previously Listen Lisse.

Buy album

Nnja Riot - Violet Fields

Taken from the album 'I' released available at https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com

Gnäw - Marras

Gnäw - حلاج

Gnäw - گمگشته چوپان

Gnäw - Waters of Ether

Gnäw - Mirha

This split LP sees the pairing of US based electro-punk quintet Lip Critic and UK based punk-noise duo Omnibael.

With Lip Critic’s tracks mixed and mastered by Phil Moffa at Butcha Sound, and Omnibael’s by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, the pre-order for the nine-track LP on cassette and 12” vinyl goes live on 16th July. The physical release ships on 30th July. 

Cassette: https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/lip-critic-omnibael-split-lp

Vinyl: https://nim-brut.bandcamp.com/album/lip-critic-omnibael-split-lp

Chris Nosnibor of Aural Aggravation on the album: ‘There’s something special about a split release. Complementary and contrasting elements brought together. Oftentimes, you’ll buy a split release because you’re a fan of one of the bands, and a well-paired split means you’re likely to become a convert to the other act too.
The pairing of Lip Critic and Omnibael is truly inspired. The two acts are certainly more contrasting than overtly complimentary, but that’s the key to the success of this release.
Lip Critic’s previous release, the critically-acclaimed Lip Critic II was a whirlwind of derangement, a frenetic exposition that defied all categorisation. The songs on this split release aren’t quite as noisy or as manic but instead operate on a whole other level.
Make no mistake, Lip Critic are on fire here with their wildly eclectic assimilations. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that they bring together a host of wildly eclectic assimilations and set them on fire. How else do you reconcile the psychedelic jazz jamming of ‘Angel’ that slings in a sack of stoner hip hop into the mix and whips it all into an increasingly tense cocktail? This is a brain-melting postmodern melting-pot of an effort, and I daresay it’s no accident that ‘Bike’ – very much not a cover of the Pink Floyd song – calls to mind the cultureclash racket of ‘Terrorists are Gay’ – the song by fictitious band The Bikes featured on the Chris Morris-penned sitcom Nathan Barley. Only, instead of cheap, trashy lo-fi punk, it’s a hip-hop hybrid that emanates a glorious, self-aware stupidity that’s positively genius and totally fucking Mexico.
We live in a crazy intertextual world, where not only originality is dead, but there’s celebration to be had in the revelry of throwing together the wildest pick ‘n’ mix party possible. Here, Lip Critic fully embrace the electronic, using it to construct a car spray-painted with all shades of hip-hop which they then proceed to drive headlong into a wall. Repeatedly. It may be a rather clumsy analogy, but on hearing this, it will make sense. From industrial jungle to electroskapunk drum ‘n’ bass, Lip Critic pack a lot of insanity into five short songs.
Ombinael’s darker industrial leanings are a whole lot more serious, and a whole lot bleaker, evoking vintage Pitch Shifter and Godflesh: hard, heavy, and propelled by clanging metallic beats, theirs is the sound of rage, of fury, of powerlessness and nihilism. The four tracks on offer here are entirely deserving of all the classic adjectives: pulverising, punishing, crushing, devastating, pounding, annihilative, abrasive, relentless, thunderous, merciless, and unforgiving. Every track is an assault, a steel-toed kicking that will leave you battered, bloodied, bruised and thoroughly dazed. The musical equivalent of a night at Fight Club, anything less would be a disappointment.
But what we ultimately have here are two bands trying to make sense of a fucked-up world, scanning the same perplexing vista from different ridges and seeing the same bewildering mess. There’s no one way to respond, although the only same approach is in madness. Avail yourself and channel the madness.’

Lip Critic/Omnibael Split LP

OMNIBAEL - Ash

LIP CRITIC - Bike

LIP CRITIC - Angel

LIP CRITIC - Shame

Snare drum and vocals collide on a long-distance collaboration by Ryosuke Kiyasu (Sete Star Sept, Fushitsusha. Shrimp et al) and WATTS (Lump Hammer, Plague Rider, Lovely Wife et al). 

Recorded in Japan and the U.K. respectively, and mixed by David Curle at First Avenue Studios, Newcastle. 

Zero Gap is constructed entirely from one snare and one delay drenched throat. Clattering and rasping around each other for just over half an hour they explore the outer range of their respective instruments' sound worlds.

Ryosuke Kiyasu + Watts - Zero Gap

Jamie Davis is drummer with Dublin improv group Zeropunkt. This is his second outing as Ddrome. The first release being 'Perimeter' in May 2021. on Dublin label Last of our Kind.

'Beyond the Thunderddrome' sees him in similar drum n' drone territory, sticking to his twenty minutes-per-track format. It was recorded in August 2021.

'Fearless and feral wins the race' is inspired by his witnessing of young people rioting in Dublin in late summer during Covid lockdown, It's fluctuating rhythms and tension and release echoing these events. The nonchalant whistling motif a nod to casual violence. The album's other track

'Stairdust' is just that. Cosmic sonic household DIY if you will. An obvious pun on 'Stardust' but proof that you don't need to travel too far to leave earth. Household finds make crystalline bell sounds and jazz brushes sweep up the dust.

Ddrome - Stairdust

Francesco Terrini - From Wasps And Through Membranes

Mitternacht is a member of Liverpool band Rongorongo. His solo music deals in electronic soundscapes veering between blissful ambience and lo-fi techno.

The Snake was loosely conceived as a soundtrack to driving along the Snake Pass. This mysterious, historic route through the Pennines connects his hometown of Liverpool with his childhood city of Sheffield, and as such forms a bridge between family and friends. The music attempts to evoke the fierce natural beauty of this treacherous road.

Mitternacht - Turntpike

Score is the solo project of Chris Tate, known for his work with d_rradio; producers of a number of notable atmospheric electronica cuts from the early 2000s.

'Still Moving' is his fifth album for Cruel Nature and although unreleased until now, it was recorded in 2017; the 'forgotten' stepping stone between 'Slump' (2016) and 'Vent' (2018).

"Score bring in bits and pieces of anything and everything to forge their own unique hybrid. It’s not ambient, it’s not glitchtronica, it’s not folk or chiptune, it’s not psychedelic or dream pop: it’s all of these, and more, all melted and swirled together to create an intriguing stylistic collage" (Birthday Cake For Breakfast

Still Moving

Score - Think Through

Taken from the album 'Half Live' available from Cruel Nature Records
https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/half-live

End Now -- Princess

End Now - Lifter

End Now - Iris

End Now - Tearplugs

Taken from the album 'Half Live' available from Cruel Nature
https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/half-live

End Now - Agnes

Zebularin - Alghoul

Zebularin - Zimtpaar

Zebularin - Orthrosis

Zebularin - Japra

Zebularin - Naphtarot

Friend Of God From The Oberland - Un jour de conge

Friend Of God From The Oberland - On modernity

Friend Of God From The Oberland - Jättömaa

Friend Of God From The Oberland - Avaruudessa

Friend Of God From The Oberland - Toisto

Taken from the album 'Violet Fields' released by Cruel Nature Records 2024
https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/violet-fields

Violet Fields is the new studio album from Nnja Riot, the solo project of Lisa McKendrick who is based in London.

Using her skills as a songwriter and her love for noise she has crafted seven new tracks which hint at the shamanistic disharmony inherent in human evolution, the futility of war and the disconcerting horror of current global events. She explores these themes amongst disparate and poetic lyrics where she conveys her own feelings of being a human struggling to make sense of a fast changing world intent on its own destruction. As if a scholar of sound she records her memoirs through beats, field recordings, noises, rhythms of the city and nature. As if viewing the contemporary world through the eyes of an alien she observes and dismantles, then rebuilds through the fullness of sound, creating a story that can only be told within the realm of music.

Having immigrated from the remote shores of New Zealand her music often conveys a sense of distance and journey as do her personal experiences of existing between two worlds at opposite ends of the earth. As a multidisciplinary artist her work as a painter is often evident in the colour, abstraction and texture of the music.

Sometimes the beats whirl and confuse like a tumultuous tornado turning in on themselves and at other times they are clear and defined pulsating with intent and clarity. Like huge storm clouds the sound is thick with fog as if driven by the forces of nature only to transform into a clear sky waiting for the next verse. Sometimes they seem to summon the gods with hypnotic force and other times they are lost in the mayhem.

At its nucleus lies a shamanistic yearning—an aspiration to forge an alternative trajectory, and to smash at the doors, make an uproar of noise, to shout, sing, speak in tongues or whisper and use
whatever instruments are needed as weapons to battle on the wasteland of the Violet Fields.

She recorded this album using the infamous Octatrack as a base instrument to create song compositions and then she made overdubs with various instruments like the guitar for a fuzzy distorted noise, synths for some of the melodies, vocals and sometimes vocoders, and the violin which she uses to make whale-like noises and abstractions. Also included in the mix are the Chernobylizer and Fort Processor which are both psycho-geographic synths which she has co-designed.

Nnja Riot has performed both in the UK and internationally more recently at Chaos Theory, Plastic Infinite Presents, Noisemas III, Earworm Presents, NNNNN, IKLECTIKA, Corpora Aliena,
Resonance FM, Piksel Festival Norway, Exit Points Canada and many others. Her other music projects include Isn’tses and previously Listen Lisse.

Violet Fields

Nnja Riot - Shimmer Zero

Nnja Riot - Dark Assassination

Nnja Riot - The Evolve

Nnja Riot - Horror Heart

Taken from the album "Too Many Souls" released by:

Cruel Nature Records
https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/too-many-souls

Somnimage:
https://somnimage.bandcamp.com/album/too-many-souls

Avi C. Engel:
https://aviengel.bandcamp.com/album/too-many-souls

Avi C. Engel is an independent non-binary artist and musician based in Toronto. Their most recent album, Too Many Souls, features voice, acoustic guitar, gudok (a 3-string Slavic bowed instrument), percussion, and melodica. Genre-agnostic, handmade music that is playful, sorrowful, and ecstatic. Plucked and bowed stringed instruments and organic ramshackle wooden percussion build sensory worlds that coalesce with Engel's sung-poetry.

In the words of Byron Coley: "There's a very dark centre to the music, recalling the gothier moves of 4AD artists, but the clarity of Engel's vision creates something far less commercial sounding than that infers. Deep woods, gloam, mists...these are all elements evoked by Engel's music. Hard to believe they've been doing music this good for that long without more notice." (The Wire, Sept 2023)

"I'm not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die." (Engel)

Too Many Souls

Avi C. Engel - Ladybird, What's Wrong?

Hailing from Glasgow, Dragged Up are an off-kilter psych-garage proto-grunge band with a spoken word element, founded in late 2018 by Eva Gnatiuk (Violent Butlins, Escape from GLA) with Simon Shaw (Youth of America, Trembling Bells) and writer Lisa Jones. Chas Lalli (Bad Aura, Vom) and Stephen Mors (The Owsley Sunshine) joined in 2019 and 2022 respectively. 

Hot on the heels of the 'Hex Domestic EP' (2023) and recent single 'Missing Person', Dragged Up present their second album, 'High On Ripple'.
 
Drawing its title from the teenage trash-talk of Martin Scorsese’s 1974 movie 'Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore', 'High On Ripple' sees Dragged Up expanding on the lo-fi garage scuzz of their debut album 'D/U' (2020)  with Sabbath-esque doom (Professor Boo Boo), ethereal spoken word (Die Tryin’) and deconstructed glam-punk (Young Person’s Guide). The album’s cover painting and linocut, created by Eva and inspired by the work of Japanese woodcut artists such as Hiroshige II, works in tandem with closing track 'Third Level' which juxtaposes mythological imagery against Western culture’s disharmony with nature.

Written and performed by Dragged Up.

Chas Lalli - bass 
Eva Gnatiuk - guitar, vox & percussion
Lisa Jones - vox & percussion
Simon Shaw - guitar, vox & percussion
Stephen Mors - drums

All songs written by Dragged Up, 
except Die Tryin' by Dragged Up with Jack Doe. 

Recorded by Robbie Wilson at Spaced In Studios, Cumbernauld, 
and Chris Geddes at Banchory Studios, Glasgow. 
Additional recording by Tommy Duffin and Dragged Up. 

Mixed by Tommy Duffin and Dragged Up at 16 Ohm Studio, Glasgow. 
Mastered by Sam Smith at Green Door Studio, Glasgow. 

Artwork and layout by Eva. 

Released in collaboration with Cruel Nature Records and Rare Vitamin Records. 

Thanks to Steve Strode, JD, Julian Dicken and Alasdair Campbell. 

©DU Recs2024. © all rights reserved.

Dragged Up - Third Level

Canadian experimental guitarists Aidan Baker (Nadja, Caudal, Tavare) & Eric Quach (Thisquietarmy) originally formed Hypnodrone Ensemble in Berlin, Germany in 2014, along with the drummers Felipe Salazar (Caudal), Jérémie Mortier, and David Dunnett, to explore the conjunctions of atmospheric space-rock and shoegaze with motorik, krautrock-ish, propulsive beats to offer immersive, psychedelic, and transportive performances. While these five musicians formed the original core of the group, members have regularly changed over the years and, besides stalwarts Baker and Quach, currently features Angela Martinez Muñoz (nunofyrbeeswax, Tavare), Fiona McKenzie (Halma) and Sara Neidorf (Mellowdeath, Aptera). This line-up, along with bassist Gareth Sweeney (Caudal) and guest vocalist Lane Shi Otayonii (otay:onii, Elizabeth Colour Wheel), toured in Europe in the spring of 2023 with a pause on 1 May for a recording session set up by Heartnoize at Punctum in Prague, CZ.

The result is The Problem Is in the Sender - Do Not Tamper with the Receiver, featuring material from the May 2023 Punctum sessions and to be released on vinyl by Wolves & Vibrancy (DE), CD by WV Sorcerer (FR), and cassette by Katuktu Collective (US) and Cruel Nature (UK)

Aidan Baker - guitar
Fiona McKenzie - drums
Angela Martinez Muñoz - drums
Sara Neidorf - drums
Lane Shi Otayoni - voice
Eric Quach - guitar
Gareth Sweeney - bass

Recorded at Punctum in Prague, CZ - May 2023
Engineered by Daniel Nulty
Edited and mixed by Aidan Baker
Mastered by James Plotkin
Photography by Leon De Backer
Layout by Eric Quach

Hypnodrone Ensemble - Alchemia

Hypnodrone Ensemble - Underdogs

Hypnodrone Ensemble - Desdemona

Hypnodrone Ensemble - Transit

A mix of songs used as touchpoints by Deep Fade when making their latest album, 'Further'.  Chopped up and reconfigured into a DJ Screw-style haze of slowed, reverbed waves of distortion. Like listening to music coming out the window of someone's little shoreline cottage while you sit on a dark beach watching the tide. 

'Further' is available from Cruel Nature Records
https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/further

Deep Fade "Sad Songs For Late Nights” mix

Taken from the album 'Live Amsterdam / Berlin' a set of live recordings drawing from a series of performances by Stefan Christoff in 2023, shaped by live experimentations and improvisations.

For this album the first recording is from a live show in Amsterdam and was produced and mixed by Floyd Atema from Katzwijm studio. The concert was hosted by OCCii and took place at Willem de Zwijgerkerk church. The recording from Berlin was produced and mixed by Rabih Beaini from a live show at Morphine Raum studios. The third recording was from a concert at 8EAST in Vancouver, recorded by Brent Cross.

“What I remember most vividly about this concert was the way that Stefan’s mesmerising piano compositions cultivated a fecund quality of intention and attention among those of us in the audience. It felt as if our enchantment with the music was itself a strange collectively-played instrument, and we were collaborating with Stefan. We were making something together we could not have imagined before we made it, that we didn’t even know we knew how to make. " – Max Haiven

Stefan Christoff - Live at Willem de Zwijgerkerk Church, Amsterdam (Jan. 2023)

Northumberland (UK) based DIY label specialising in limited edition cassettes for eclectic tastes.  

Channeling sonic diversity since 2013

For a full discography head over to http://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Cruel Nature Records

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