Issue #9

Mindscan was an excellent electronic musick tapes label, which released great albums from The Grey Wolves, Pessary, The Rorschach Garden, Satori, Psychopath, Siegmar Fricke or Sebastian Gandera. The label sadly stopped its activities in 1995 and its founder, Robert Maycock, started then with new musical activities, such as running the Lockjaw magazine. Here is the issue #9 and the next one, issue #10 should be ready for a release in April/May 2000. Robert is not a newcomer in the industrial-ambient scene and his magazine is really excellent, as was the Impulse fanzine years ago. It features interviews and reviews of dark ambient electronic bands and about 20% of the fanzine is dedicated to death-black metal. Interviews of Band of Pain (dark-ambient), Cyclobe (ex-DIJ and Coil), Expose your Eyes (electronic soundscapes) and Jesus Fix (gothic-rock), and a few metal bands. Reviews explore bands from In The Nursery, Burzum, Kerovnian, Throbbing Gristle, Moby, Labradford, Delphium, Sephiroth, amongst others, with also the bands featured in the interviews. This issue is the first one that includes a CD and it should continue with this format. Half of the tracks of the Lockjaw compilation are excellent dark ambient and ritual industrial pieces while the other half presents death metal and gothic rock bands. Extreme death metal is not really my cup of tea , I must say, so I will concentrate on the other projects. Expose Your Eyes offers two superb primitive / minimal electronic tracks with glittering and dissonant atmospheres. The Magician has one good techno compositions that grows louder and louder to end into some noisy ambient structures. Arache Hurlant is also present with two excellent tracks of tribal industrial music, powerful and rythmic. Band of Pain contribute a brilliant ambient piece of music with slow loops of rythmic sounds and electronic effects, a delightful success. Jesus Fix has two gothic rock tracks, good but nothing really innovator, while Ulcer and Nargothrond explore both sides of black metal and extreme death metal; not my thing, sorry.

Try to grab a copy of issue#9 before it's out of order and ask Rob to get a copy of the issue#10 to be released soon. The issue#9 costs £4. Better ask what's the price of the next one will be.

Recommended.
 

Contacts and informations :

Lockjaw
c/o Robert Maycock
Basement Flat
154 Minnis Road
Birchington
Kent CT7 9QF
England
 

March 2000