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Alpha Morzel is a new label from West-Flanders, Belgium, which started in spring of 2024. It is run by Gent-based graphic designer Bram Kluizenaar aka Kluzehellion and concentrates on extreme music. Its first release is »You are not alone«, a tape by US harsh noise act Meketa, to be followed by a collaboration between drummer Igor Cavalera (Sepultura, Cavalera Conspiracy, Soulwax) and singer Dwid Hellion (Psywarfare/Integrity). After that it has a compilation in the pipeline, and releases by Skin Machine and True Deep.

skug: When did you start Alpha Morzel? 

Bram Kluizenaar: Alpha Morzel started as an idea end of April 2024.

Why did you start Alpha Morzel? 

The idea of starting Alpha Morzel literally came right after getting out of a toxic, abusive relationship which lasted for quite some years and got really bad. Eventually, I got out of it, leaving me being isolated and inactive for the last three years, not being able to do anything creative, making artwork, or recording music with my own project. Which was quite a fucked-up situation. I had to do something. So Alpha Morzel was an idea to get active again, create music and art, and at the same time get same-minded people and projects together. 

What does the name Alpha Morzel mean? 

Morsel is a Dutch word for cement, by which we build houses and walls, brick by brick. I thought that was a fitting name, so I transformed it into Morzel, and put the Alpha in front of it to make it sound hard and extreme, inspired by Japanese harsh noise and RRR Records.

Why a harsh noise label? 

Alpha Morzel is not exactly a pure harsh noise label. The inspiration for it came through being inspired by early RRR Records and Hospital Productions. It will be a harsh noise-based label, but be it harsh, power electronics, or experimental, doesn’t really matter. Alpha Morzel is extreme-based music first. 

Why is Meketa your first release? 

If you would ask this question to Steve Meketa, surely he would say God choose Alpha Morzel to help with the European version of his US tape. The European version is a great way for Europeans to get hold of Meketa Power Electronics without having to pay these crazy custom taxes we have out here in Europe. So, this release features prayers by Steve Meketa (Lockweld/Apartment 213) and electronics produced by Dwid Hellion (Psywarfare/Integrity). Meketa needed help for a European release and I decided to help out with the project. Couldn’t imagine any better debut release for Alpha Morzel. Steve is very dedicated and motivated with his Power Electronics project. Feel free to join his sermons and prayers!

How did you get to know the music of Meketa? 

I have actually been a longtime fan of Steve Meketa, especially through his project Lockweld. Before getting into experimental music and extreme harsh noise, I got heavily influenced by Integrity and everything Clevo Hardcore and Holy Terror related. Steve Meketa is also the front singer of the notorious Apartment 213, a Clevo grind powerviolence noise and chaos act. So, it all started with Integrity and hardcore music first. The experimental side of that Clevo hardcore scene with projects such as Psywarfare and Lockweld didn’t appeal to me at first. I didn’t like it at all, personally I was only interested in Integrity and hardcore music. You had these Integrity split 7″s coming out with Psywarfare and Lockweld in 1998 on a »major« hardcore label, picking it up from the local music store as a hardcore teenage kid, it left me shocked, it didn’t sound anything like Integrity at all. Later on, I started to get into experimental music and discovered Japanese harsh noise and listened to a lot of early Relapse Records and Release Entertainment Records stuff. Somehow that got me into Merzbow, Bastard Noise and Japanese harsh noise such as MSBR and record labels like RRR Records, which opened a new world of extreme harsh music, which was very underground. So, through ordering tapes and stuff and getting into noise music, one day I got sent a Gameboy Records CD sampler by Mike Shiflet. It contained MSBR, Alpha Government and other projects including Lockweld. Holy shit! There is that Lockweld project, again! And this time not as side of an Integrity split 7″. That got me coming back and reconsider Psywarfare and Lockweld, and this time I did start to like these projects, and it all started growing on me. So yeah, never imagined back in my early twenties, listening to Lockweld CDs in my bedroom, that I would ever talk to Steve or do a release with him. It was great to hear that Steve was back at it again through Meketa. 

Can you also tell me a bit about yourself? 

My name is Bram Kluizenaar. I’m 45 and from Belgium. I always used to create art as Kluzehellion, I come from a hardcore scene and studied art and graphic design. 

Are you part of a local noise scene or is noise a worldwide online community? 

I mostly have been part of the hardcore scene. There is definitely a small noise community in Belgium of projects still actively performing and releasing harsh and extreme noise music. However, I do believe there was more of an active scene for this years ago. Over the years it may have been watered down in fewer and less projects. But there are still a lot of interesting projects to discover. People doing shows and stuff. Internationally, I do believe there is a strong growing online community that is connecting with each other over the internet. The White Centipede Noise podcast for example is something that has been doing great things for a growing noise community supporting the underground noise scene. Locally, here we have Vincent Dallas, a Belgian harsh noise pedal abuser. And a friend of mine called Mark who has been around forever with True Deep is worth checking out as well. He will do a release on Alpha Morzel too. I’m hoping to connect with people through Alpha Morzel. 

What are your future plans with the label? 

So far, we have the Meketa debut cassette »You are not alone«, which is limited to 75 copies and has an exclusive all-over printed design. Alpha Morzel will do a full album for Meketa very soon. Up next is a limited tape which is a collaboration between Igor Cavalera and Dwid Hellion. All artwork is done by Dwid Hellion and comes with all-over printed fill art tapes in bloodred colored packaging. There is also a US version coming out on Dark Empire Records. This will be our second release. Crossing my fingers to do a release for Skin Machine soon, a promising new project out of Cleveland. And True Deep from Belgium. I’m currently working on a compilation that is about to come out around late October 2024, which will have new tracks by Meketa, Psywarfare, True Deep, Government Alpha, Skin Machine, Vincent Dallas, Violent Spread and many more, which might be released as a limited CD or CD-R.

Link: https://alphamorzel.bandcamp.com/