Death Agonies- Dust In The Lungs Of God CS, Cathartic Process 2011, CP-25
I: Before The Span of One's Life Is Run Out opens up with a blazing wall of fury, that gains intensity, before steadily decreasing into electro-acoustic junk sounds, crying modems, and field recordings laced with feedback as the glue. Rising and falling in notions between violent spastic harsh-noise, quieter 'found' moments, and decaying walls, the listener is whirled through waves of waxing and waining intensity. The track is heavily layered, which lends for great transitions between each movement, subtle textures become the main focus as other sounds rise and fall like wounded soldiers.
II: An Unnecessary Stain begins with an elongated modem loop, that evolves into strong glitches with phased white noise swashing, ultimately the glitching fading to emphasize the phasing. Metal scrap abuse cuts in, what makes it particularly interesting is that it isn't the usual feedback drenched Japanese style, but clean. The atmosphere of the phased white noise meeting the harsh directness of the metal is an interesting juxtaposition. The simple metal object turns into several, and the clanking and scraping continues on before a huge bassy synth line weighs down the entire track into swamp territory, creeping and crawling, and continually glitching, gaining no momentum as the track moves on. Seamlessly the synth fades into the junk, which has only gained more force. It seems that field recordings have been layered transparently over the junk, giving a more detailed texture. All of this fades to subtle feedback and the junk slows down, glitching as each new element is introduced.
Black tape, white text, black and white J-card.
A great tape for those who have short attention spans, or just enjoy variety. A great gapless mix of HNW tendencies on side A, mixed with Japanese-harsh noise spats, electro-acoustic junk ambience, and overall just a great sonic mixture of layers.
5/5
Werewolf Jerusalem- Carnal Violence C10, Robert & Leopold 2011, R&L009
Part One (Hunted By The Night) starts with an unusual grinding with an extremely short slap-echo that gives a cyber, almost space like sound and texture. Not quite white noise, not quite HNW, but something different. Like alien chatter. Dwindling and stewing for about 4 minutes, unchanging in the true HNW sense, before cutting off.
Part Two (Escaping The Killer's Grip) creeps in with a barely audible, ambient crunch, much similar to, but slightly different from side A, gaining a bit more momentum and drive, yet still remaining very quiet.
This tape sees a nice departure for Richard from the stereotypical wall that most are accustomed to today. While each track is very statuesque in their composure, the static that most have come to love in WJ and most of Richard's projects is not present. What could be a large head scratcher to some is actually a present surprise, and shows that even heavyweights in the HNW field are looking elsewhere at what 'wall' really is. Each track's titles, along with the sounds, create a great narrative.
3/5
Ryan Bloomer- Punch Pugs CS, New Forces 2011,
AN INCREDIBLE THING HAPPENED WITH THIS CASSETTE TAPE. Someone applied the control of harsh-noise, with the sounds of HNW. Brillant display over two sides of the cassette, entirely about constraint. Never letting go, never fully releasing the full power of the wall, but only teasing, giving bits and pieces of harsh textures before stopping, like retracting statements from a conversation. Think The Rita's 'Predators' 7", except less minimal, more complex textures, and all around more tense. The force of each burst subsiding into scrapes and scratches really emphasizes the control behind Mr. Bloomer. Bravo, sir.
5/5
