Reviews

"Night Science III" is the third issue in noise fanzine from Australia-based Cipher Productions, coming with a CD of tracks from each of the six artist interviewed with in. Weighing in at a hefty perfect bound 100 pages, looking more like a booklet that a mag, this surely is one of the most impressive fanzines I ‘ve seen in many a year.
The first and longest interview is with Prurient- at 12 pages, it's a very well written and highly informative piece, of interest to fans and new comers, which is a difficult balance to make with an interview. Other interviews and features include, three page interview with Edwige, one pager with Yellow Cab, five pager with Romance, 3 pager with Astro, four pager with Defektro, 3 pager with Armenia and lastly a three page feature on Abisko label. All of the pieces are well written and interesting, giving a taster of worldwide noise scene - as of course does the excellent CD.
The rest of "Night Science III", a whopping 60 pages, is made up of reviews, covering all manner of noise matter over the last year or so. Again in a down to earth, readable and enjoyable manner, with a clear understanding of noise and how to write about it, which sadly is lacking in most moving towards the mainstream publications who try to tackle noise. It’s all topped up with a handy four pages of contact info for the various labels and artist mentioned within.
Even if you have only a passing interest in noise this is well worth a look and of course if you’re a fan of the many-thronged noise genre this really is unmissable. To order direct and find out more go here.
Taken from Musique Machine

Cipher Productions has really stepped it up a notch here with this glorious presentation of noise and experimental electronic music. The zine is excellent with in depth interviews of the artists presented on the accompanying CD compilation that include Prurient, Edwige, Yellow Cab, Romance, Astro, Defektro, and Armenia.
The reviews featured in the zine are excellently written with honest opinions presented throughout, a must-have for any fan of noise/pe who would like a comprehensive detailing of releases put out over the last few years.
The compilation CD is of course comprised of hand-picked artists and feature some interesting tracks. Up first is Dominick Fernow's Prurient project with “Water from Christ's Side” a brutal mix of harsh noise and pe showing my favorite side of Prurient. Next he presents a live track featuring a fair amount of his classic high-end feedback often falling into low bowel inducing surges of rumbling destruction. The live recording I'm not crazy about since I've seen this set several times and it isn't quite as striking as his more varied noise/pe anthems, but a good representation of his sound nonetheless.
Edwige is a project I am unfamiliar with and he plays some crunchy low-end noise reminding me of The Cherry Point. This isn't really my style, I find it to be pretty boring. He takes things down for a few seconds towards the middle fo the 10 minute track to bring in some horror movie samples or something and follows up with the second half that features a bit more movement then the first half, so I enjoy it a bit more. Still this really didn't strike me as anything that special.
Yellow Cab bursts in with some squealing electronics in “110903.” This is another act of which I am not familiar with and the noise is comes off rather bland to me once again, although I do enjoy it a bit more then the strait up low-end crunch fest. A dirty squealing mess with drowned-out vocals in the background often falling back to a healthy buzz with squirming filters/synths over the top. I like the recording quality here, it's dirty but screams loudly.
Romance lays down possibly the best track on this comp with “The Laidly Worm of Spindelston Heugh.” I happen to be a fan of Romance's previous output and he truly delivers here even though his track is the shortest. It begins with some contact-mic-in-the-mouth ambience for a minute before stabbing you unmercifully with quick blasts of noise until finally the abominable harsh angular noise is released cutting you like your tumbling through a gigantic machine. The skipping blasts and roving feedback only break to let in some subtle ambience that fits the bill perfectly.
Astro presents a more subdued track then his counterparts, and even then what he usually records. A psychedelic synth ride with subtle laser movements, much like he just recorded a synth track and then stretched it out a bit. It's a 14 minute ride through outer spheres of psychedelia. I find it to be too long, the sounds lose there effectiveness but to Astro's defense he does explore some noisier textures towards the end of the track while still remaining within the confines of the sound he has created. It is an enjoyable track to merely space out to. Certainly fits my mood as I have had too much cold medication today and am feeling out of my element.
A barrage of texture and harsh metallic sounds comes next, with a heavy industrial loop lurking underneath and some glassy lo-fi feedback rolling around on top. Defektro's “Vanishing Point” is a great track and paves the way for his other 2 short outings of what sound to me like experimental musique concrete. A multi-layered cacophony of objects banging against each other, being thrown into things, falling apart perhaps? Defektro separates himself by not playing the harsh noise card, but the material fits in with the harsh and raw sounds presented by the other artists, another great addition to this admiral comp.
Armenia steps in to finish us off with his token droning wall-noise. I've never been a big fan of his work and I have to say, I am still not convinced. The sound somewhat reminds me of a mixture between Gelsomina and The Rita, if you're into that sort of stuff then I would heartily recommend it.
All in all the price is worth the zine alone, not to mention the eclectic CD accompanying it. A good release with a consistent and focused vision. Cipher Productions has garnered my respect with this one even though I don't find myself interested in a few of the tracks it's a great overall package.
Taken from Blood Ties

Hands down THE noise zine around these days. A massive packet with interviews with Prurient, Edwige, Yellow Cab, Romance, Astro, Defektro, Armenia and Abisko label, and in addition to those fucking 60 pages of reviews! The Prurient interview is so in-depth and thought-provoking that it alone would be reason enough for getting this. Actually, the other interviews do seem a bit secondary in comparison, but they are all well worth reading anyway. As mentioned, there's an exhausting amount of reviews and they're all quite thorough. The editor really knows his business, he's a real human noise database it seems. As if all that wasn't enough, there's also a compilation CD with 10 tracks by interviewed artists. Some of the noise is simply great and none of it is unlistenable. There's really no excuse for a noise fan to now own this.

Taken from Hard and Obscure #2

Third edition of this excellent Noise zine. The accompanying CD contains tracks from Astro, Prurient (2 tracks), Edwige, Yellow Cab, Romance, Defektro (3 tracks) and Armenia - plus extensive interviews with all 7 of these artists, and a profile for Swedish label Abisco. Over 180 reviews. Perfect bound A5 B&W magazine (more like a softback book!) with 104 pages. Ltd x 500 copies, Australian import. An impressive collection, a very enjoyable read and a highly recommended addition to any noise collection!!

Taken from Cold Spring

Cipher Productions produce one of the best noise zines on the market in Night Science. This perfect bound A5 zine coming out of Tasmania has all that a proper noise zine should have; in depth interviews, stacks of reviews and a truly great accompanying CD. I have issue three here and it has interviews with Prurient, Edwige, Yellow Cab, Romance, Jap noise experimentalists Defektro and former C.C.C.C. [still?] one mane vintage analogue dronester Astro. It's worth getting just for those but then you get the CD into the bargain which has some shit hot contributions from all of the aforementioned plus South American noise duo Armenia. There's about five million reviews of all things noise too which makeas Night Science one of, if not THEE best noise zines on the planet. Certainly the most comprehensive I've seen for many a while. Far more worthy than The Wire and far more professional than this here rag.
Taken from Idwal Fisher #8

Night Science III is a magazine dedicated to the glorious and often misunderstood 'noise' genre. This latest issue has 104 pages with interviews with all the artists on the accompanying CD as well as over 180 reviews. The brain child of Chris Groves, who also runs the Cipher Productions Record label which is based in Australia, it seems only fair to split this review into two parts. Which is what I'm going to do.
The magazine: Writing a self produced magazine is a labour of love. Time consuming and expense draining you need to be totally dedicated to your subject to keep going on. Thankfully for us there are people still out there willing to spread the word by the printed medium. This is my first chance to read a Night Science magazine and what a find it is. Comprising of eight interviews, some lengthy and others short, with some of the players within the 'noise' scene these interviews are highly informative and enlightening considering the space allocated to them. The Prurient interview in particular being a stand out, mostly because it takes up 12 pages, but also because of the information imparted by the act. The writer gets into the mindset all of his subjects resulting in an in depth study of the modus operandi of each with intelligent viewpoints continually coming to the fore. The reviews, covering CD, CDR, Vinyl and Cassette formats, are fair and straight to the point and written creatively. If a recording deserves damning criticism then it receives it. By the same token he is never shy in throwing praise for a release that works for him. I thought I was fairly up on the 'noise' scene but after finding I had only 12 releases in my collection covered in the reviews I'm re-thinking that viewpoint. This man is a walking breathing all knowing 'noise' addict. What his wife feels about his passion isn’t recorded but she must be 'the most understanding woman of all time' to put up with some of the releases that blast out around their house. My only quibble about the magazine is that a full discography, or even selected highlights of the artists recorded works by the writer, would have been a welcome touch at the end of each interview. Apart from that I can honestly say that Night Science is a fantastic achievement and thought provoking read that will appeal to anyone even remotely interested in the 'noise' genre.
The CD: This is where my inadequacies as a writer hits home. How I wish to have a small percentage of the talent that Chris has for his subjects. You see I'm at that stage in my life where although I like my 'noise' releases I don't get as much out of them as I used to. In my long off younger days I would have creamed myself whilst listening to this music. Now I just think... nice... next. Over familiarity has bred contempt in many ways. I didn't have much hope of this compilation changing my views. As such I was right and wrong. First up Prurient does his usual 'extreme' noise thing over two tracks. One studio and one live. Been there. Heard that. Nice... next. Edwige steps up with a low end throbbing rumbling piece that drags on for 10 minutes. Tolerable but overlong. Nice... next. Yellow Cab seek to impress with a frantic burst of electronics that tries hard but just fails to stand out. Suitably aggressive I still shrugged. Nice... next. Romance try the supple 'quiet before the storm' approach instead of hitting Mach 10 from the off. Throwing in the odd blast of noise punctuating the quieter passages it works rather well overall and was one of the better offerings on display. Astro's effort was also noteworthy for trying something different. Almost semi-space ambient, though encompassing the 'noise' aspects, the music is one long drawn out piece that I found particularly invigorating. An artist worth checking out more summed up my feelings after listening to it. Defektro hit all the right buttons with their three tracks. Next to Astro and Romance they were the stand out acts in my opinion on the release. Mixing purest Industrial noise with rhythmic parts I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the way they approached the layering of their music. By far the most accessible pieces of music for those not acclimatised to such traumatising sounds. Lastly Armenia strike for home with a non descript piece of 'extreme' noise flagellation for the body and soul. You can guess the rest. Nice... next.
With only 500 copies of the magazine available this is a quality release in every aspect. The magazine is worth purchasing alone. The accompanying CD will give hours of sadistic pleasure to the ears. The fact you get both for the price of one makes this an essential item that will keep the 'noise' fraternity frolicking like happy bunnies on a Spring morning. Or words to that effect.
Taken from Heathen Harvest

New issue for our Australian mates Night Science, coming with an interesting CD compilation. Each project has been interviewed in this little but rich fanzine and they are all great names such as Prurient, Edwige and Astro, besides other less known but interesting acts. Prurient shows two different aspects, a sharp wall of noise with extreme vocals in the first track, more minimal with metallic clangors and heavy feedback in the second. Noise without compromise for Edwige, instead Romance offers more interesting moments based on atmospheric drones broken by sharp noise passages. Astro proposed long noisy drones, while Defektro hits with three nervous short tracks with percussions and feedback. Very good A5 fanzine coming with 100 pages.
Taken from Exoteric #4