We had written some time ago that there would be a lot of newcomers on Ad Noiseam in 2012. These new acts are not only side-projects of people we already work with (such as the Underhill supergroup or Igorrr's Whourkr project), but also musicians that are somewhat newer to the scene and haven't work with the label yet. It's time now to present the first of them, Oyaarss.

Latvia's Oyaarss is not yet as well known as it should (and will) be, but this act has already had a remarkable record released by our friends of Creative Space, and recently had a remarkable remix on Cloaks's "Versions Grain", released by 3By3. It's now time for this musician to come with a first full length album, the topic of today's announcement. Entitled "Bads" (meaning "Hunger" in Latvian), this album is an astonishing work combining walls of gritty noise, gigantic percussions and a slow but deadly tempo, the whole thing bathing in resolute but subtle darkness. Somewhere between the headbang-inducing metal, the tempo of dubstep and the details of modern-day noise, this album is, we insist, an particularly impressive one, set to make quite an impression.

Oyaarss's "Bads" will be released on CD by Ad Noiseam in March, at the same time as Underhill's "Silent Siren" (the subject of another announcement next week), and was just mastered by Angelos Liaros of Mobthrow / 4Be. More information and pre-orders will come soon, but in the meantime, check out Oyaarss's website here, "like" him on Facebook there, or check his older material on Soundcloud. A taste of it all is featured below. People in Riga should also check Oyaarss live there on the 4th of February.

Ad Noiseam is partnering with Samplephonics (who recently released a sample pack by Ivan "Balkansky / Cooh" Shopov) as well as sE Electronics, Soundcloud and Propellerhead for a remix contest of the Balkansky & Loop Stepwalker track "8.9", off their "Adhesion" album (adn153).

The list of prirzes is impressive: not only will the three winners get copies of the album and of Ivan Shopov's "Lights & Shadows" book & CD, but there's a microphone from sE, a full copy of Reason 6 and various Soundcloud accounts in the lot as well. All the details about this contest can be found here.

The deadline is February 23rd, meaning that you have almost a month to get behind your samplers and keyboard, get the source material and submit your remix. We look forward to listening to what you will all come up with.

The Anglo-French friendship between Niveau Zero and Matta is going very strong at the moment. These two acts have collaborated on a new record, the soon to be released on Ad Noiseam "Riot / Be Real" (adn154), their second vinyl collaboration after 2010's "Venom" EP. But the topic today is a remix that Matta juste did for a track originally co-written by Niveau Zero and his colleagues of Tambour Battant.

This remix of "Quicka" will be released soon on Chateau Bruyant, a young label to which Niveau Zero is associated. You can listen to it here or below.

Tambour Battant & Niveau Zero - Quicka (Matta remix) by Matta Music

Here they are, out and available. Ad Noiseam is happy to present its first release of 2012 in the form of two new EPs, by Hecq on the one side ("Enceladus", adn149) and the all star DJ Hidden & Broken Note / Niveau Zero & Balkansky ("Existence / Obey", adn155) on the other side.

Hecq "Enceladus" (adn149 - info / 12" / digital):
A follow-up of sort to "Sura", "Enceladus" is another evolution for Hecq: his pristine dubstep gets enriched here with even more encompassing soundscapes and humane melodies. Collaborating with Skyence on the title track, Hecq has given birth to a very coherent record mixing cinematic atmospheres, huge percussions and a light nod to retro tonalities. Add to this a mischievous crunk remix by Knight Riderz and a dancefloor explosion by Mobthrow, and you get a compact yet exhaustive snapshot of Hecq's unmissable talent.

DJ Hidden & Broken Note / Niveau Zero & Balkansky "Existence / Obey" (adn155 - info / 12" / digital)
Four confirmed, veteran Ad Noiseam artists and a myriad of versions, edits and corrections ping-ponged between all of them. "Existence" and "Obey" are the carefully laid-out, detailled and fresh results of musicians having fun with each other's material and proving how at ease they are with both dubstep and drum'n'bass. DJ Hidden's sharpness, Broken Note's epic proportions, Niveau Zero's clever open-mindedness and Balkansky's meticulousness: yes they managed to pack all of this in these two highly cohesive tracks. A must-have for anybody into any of these acts.

Friday freebie: in time for everybody to prepare for his new "Enceladus" EP (Ad Noiseam adn149, coming January 23rd), Hecq presents this week two excerpts from recent live shows for a total of 30 minutes of IDM, dubstep and techno good taste. Both can be listened to for free below, and feature both tracks by this musician as well as his labelmates and others.

The first excerpt was recorded on January 8th in Berlin and features, besides Hecq's music, a track by Roel Funcken off his "Vade" album (adn122) and TechDiff's remix of Balkansky & Loop Stepwalker's "Kora" (from the "Fraktals" EP and the "Adhesion" CD). The second is only a couple of days older, recorded in Leipzig on January 6th. Click below to listen to and enjoy parts of these live sets.

Here is a piece of news for the ones of you with the longest hair and the blackest souls: not only is Igorrr putting the finish touches to the third album of his Whourkr metal project (expected this Spring on Ad Noiseam), but he's been joined in the recording of his fourth Igorrr album by none other than Teloch, better known to be the live guitar player of Mayhem as well as a member of Gorgoroth (pictured above, not right), Nidingr and 1349, among other black metal outfits. Igorrr and Teloch are working together on at least one track on this coming album, and there might be more. Also featured on this tune is a vacuum cleaner.

Do you remember that we posted Mobthrow's full set from the 10 Years Ad Noiseam party which took place in Lyon on October 8th 2011 a few weeks ago? Now is time to also check what was happening backstage at the same time, mainly a pretty long interview done by Riotbeat with Enduser and Bong-Ra. Press play below to listen to it and realize how much Enduser sounds like Tom Waits.

Though it stayed complex and tricky, Raoul Sinier's latest album, "Guilty Cloaks" (adn146) was also the one in which this Paris-based producer showed his love for poppier beats and more classical song structure. And while all the tracks on this album were his creations, people who have been following him online might have noticed that he's currently having fun covering pop classics, mixing their influence and texts with his own particular sound. This was the case with an official Thom Yorke remix, later followed by some of original material by Metronomy, Blonde Redhead and others.

This time around, it's Siouxsie & The Banshees' 1981 classic "Sin In My Heart" who gets the Raoul Sinier cover treatment. You can listen to it here or below, and it is also included in this set of covers and remixes on Raoul Sinier's Soundcloud page.