Jazkammer's Lasse Marhaug appears to be keeping a constant high profile in the avant-noise scene with a constant stream of limited edition solo releases and collaborations with Sunn and Merzbow, but we don't hear as much about his partner in the legendary Norwegian noise duo, John Hegre. That's not because Hegre has been slouching, I just think his other projects lean towards a less noisy form of experimental music that's not as visceral as much of Marhaug's work. When not touring and recording with Jazkammer, Hegre has kept busy working on collaborations of his own with Maja Ratkje and putting together his first solo album Colors Don't Clash which came out on Dekorder in 2007. This just came in to Crucial Blast, and chances are that most of you probably havent heard this yet since it hasn't received a whole lot of distribution outside of Europe. It's an excellent collection of abstract sound collages with a few moments of serious heaviness that Jazkammer fans need to check out.

Colors Don't Clash is divided into five interconnected pieces that move one right into the next, and the array of diverse sounds and how these tracks fit together reminds me of the interesting direction that Jazkammer took on last year's Balls The Size Of Texas album. There;s a similiar sonic palette being used here that incorporates the harshly abrasive computer-noise that Jazzkamer is known for, as well as detours into hypnotic, bluesy rock riffing and gorgeous abstract drones. The album starts off with the delicate "Don't", where a softly manipulated and looped electric guitar blossoms into clusters of notes and crystalline pulses. Things become much more abrasive with the second track as it starts off with a brutal blast of harsh high end feedback skree, followed by a swarming cloud of clicking particles and airy, metallic drones, like hearing masses of tiny buzzing robotic insects swirling back and forth around your head while heavy guitar drones rise up from below. The last half of the track fuses a fractured jazz guitar chord progression with muted percussive loops and strange blips and glitches. That's followed by the most brutal piece on here, the 9+ minute "They", a brutal storm of grinding wall-noise and churning low-end drones. "Never" is about 7 minutes of crushing blackened free-rock that has corroded sludge riffs and mangled, discordant chords oozing out of heavily distorted amps and flecked with glitchy electronics. That one almost approaches KTL/Fushitsusha territory. Lastly, the last track takes us out with some hazy, softly played psychedelic blues that goes on for a few minutes, becomes more and more abstract, and is then replaced by a few minutes of scraping, droning sounds, childrens voices and other found-sound weirdness. The album vacillates from dreamy surreal soundscapes to abstract noisy heaviness, weird and confounding and quite beautiful, really. Comes in a full color gatefold with brain damaging sleeve design by yasutoshi yoshida of Government Alpha.