I've read quite a bunch of positive opinions about this album when it'd just appeared so before listening to this release I was expecting much and well, my expectations came true. Grain Belt is a composite project in which people from known USA harsh noise projects such as Baculum, Willful and Wince takes part. My recollections about their solo works were rather pleasant - good quality and good emotions. I think the same way about this release. Grain Belt CD is monstrously intense harsh noise album that consists of three live records and tortures you for almost 50 minutes. I think the instruments used for the record or at least their equivalents are shown on the cover - chains, scraps of metal, sheets of tin, wires, pieces of fittings, metallic clubs etc. Since the very start of the album, apart from pauses of couple of seconds in between tracks, this record is uncompromising hell of feedbacks, clanging and crushing of metal, abusing contact microphones and pedals. Since this project consists of several persons and the recording is live, the result is very good and interesting. Let's say one short episode - on the left side distant clanging with chain from behind the wall of feedback appears, several seconds from that it's gone and only screaming feedback is left and more intense noise goes into the right side and so on. Not a second to catch a breath, not a thought about lyrical deflections. That's one crushing harsh noise machine. It's not without a reason that after several spins of this CD you want to make pauses of silence and disconnect from this madness for some time. Noise tires you physically. This album and collaboration somehow reminds me of Finnish noise scene. Intensity, brutality, power and open aggression. Regardless of the fact that all three tracks are connecting via aforementioned descriptions, the last track was the best for my ears. The sound doesn't manouvre in this track only in high and mid-frequencies, but touches pleasant low rumbling too. Also the tiniest details from this performance is heard and they're more distinct than in the tracks before. Anyways, this CD is a top notch release and a must have for noisers who doesn't pity their ears. It would be interesting to hear studio recordings of this project some time in the future. I think that'd be something great too. - Terror
Grain Belt - CD
Grain Belt's self titled full length album is a searing brutal & clamouring attack on your sonic sensers that utilizers brutal metal & junk abuse together with very fierce harsh noise attacks.
The project three piece line-up is made up of members of Wince, Baculum, and Willful projects. On offer here are three tracks that hit between just under the nineteen minute mark & just under the fifteen minute mark a picec & each is a live recording made by the trio in 2009. Opening up the release we have ‘Live At The Terminal Bar’ which attacks you with a mixture of: Jaw grinding metal feedback whirls & grinds, crashing & rapid metal bombardment, thick static noise body punchers, manic vocal calls & screams, & a general air of very angered primal ritual. Track two ‘Live at The Social life’ is even more punishing & fierce in it’s attack with huge roaring & caustic bellowing clouds of static noise tone being nastily attacked by forking steel feedback, fevered sheet metal abuse, coarse & serrated chain clunking & whips, and the screamed & vein bulge primal yells. The last track ‘ Live at the Rathole’ starts off a little more ominous & spaced out in it’s feel with slower metal clangs being violently hovered over by feedback flesh slices & primal vocal calls, but with-in three minute or so it’s up once to more up to the thick clamouring & very harsh noise junk attack of the other tracks. Though through-out the track it keeps return to the more barren & grim semi-ominous clunking & primal call texturing- making this the slightly more pained cinematic of the three tracks.
The whole album sounds wonderful violent, primal & unforgiving through-out, yet there’s a definite feeling of control & building of tension & angry in every track. If your feeling very pissed-off or raging at the world or someone, put this nasty slice of harsh noise junk attack on & I promise you’ll feel much better & some what released- just don’t go smash up your apartment in the process!. - Musique Machine
Toby Dammit/ POTR c50
Enigmatic and minimal split release from the highly productive Phage Tapes. Toby Dammit brings a typically no-holds-barred appearance that contains some new elements to the TD sound. In fact, this release is a great improvement on other Dammit split releases that I have heard lately, with a variety of interesting techniques (such as as musique concrete tape collage and overdriven bass sounds) to make for a very interesting release. There is still the lo-fi approach and recording sound that one comes to expect from Dammit, but there is an intense newfound clarity on these untitled tracks that really bring TD into new territory. This first untitled track does an impressive job of combining Dammit's usual Power Electronics intensity with a complex array of distorted sounds that take over the second part of his side in a tape collage frenzy much like the early works of MB under the Sacher-Pelz moniker.
It sounds like other recordings are used, as well as a child or girl's voice and what sounds like an Adolph Hitler speech. Very chaotic and extreme, resulting in a nightmarish and vivid landscape of noise that is much more intense than what I am used to from this artist. Some P.E. fans may be disappointed slightly at the amount of non-PE material there is on Toby Dammit's side, but the noise stands on its own and is, in fact, extremely compelling. Second untitled track from Dammit has more screaming on it. I like the noise on this one too, but it is much more dominated by vocals.
P.O.T.R. opens "Dinner," featuring some seriously pitch-shifted vocals that are in a distorted realm of evil. Sounds kind of like a demon made of electricity trying to communicate with the outside world through a human vessel. Not entire successful at enunciation or storytelling, but emotional and compelling nonetheless. Calls to mind a more minimal version of Deathlike Silence LP-era Abruptum. "Abuse" opens with a great synthesizer loop and scary grunted vocals from the singer, with much less effects on them. The synth loop has a hypnotic resonance that gives the vocals a stronger presence, and they rise to the occasion. This song brings things into more Industrial, Genocide Organ sort of territory, and P.O.T.R. pulls this off very effectively. A lyric sheet would be very helpful, however. The presentation of this cassette is extremely sparse, just band names and a big skull on the front. The print job is nice (as always from Phage) and the noise sounds great though to my ears. I will be on the lookout for more material from P.O.T.R. - Heathen Harvest
Baculum - Debris c24
Although associated with the Harsh Noise Wall genre, Baculum has recently been branching out further into the 90's harsh junk noise style. This cassette is a good example of this turn, and provides around half an hour of crunching, squealing metal noise. Baculum seems to be a project that is devoted to no frills, no worries noise for the pure sake of noise. There is dynamics at work here (in the sense that parts sound different from one another, parts are louder than others etc.) but the music seems to be an unedited session, which is the purest form of noise. The individual behind this project is also the being responsible for Phage Tapes, a DIY label that has been getting a lot of attention these days as a proponent of quality Harsh Noise music. Since this release is on Baculum's label, I would assume that this release is a pretty good example of what this artist is up to at the moment.
The noise on here would definitely warm the old-school heart, sounding like something that could be a CDr release on the RRR label alongside K2 and Crawl Unit. Pure junk noise with no consideration or drama. The artwork is very nice looking, a multiple-printing blue screen on a sort of yellowish eggy cardstock, with words printed in a nice bold red. This label seems to be extremely busy these days, putting out boxed sets of Harsh Noise Wall artists (such as a four cassette release by the French artist Vomir) and many releases at a time. It is great that labels such as Phage are able to break even (seemingly) in a continued effort to spread harsh noise to the people of Earth.
The noise on here seems to have no edits and just complete overdrive of harsh low and high-end sounds. Highly metallic and leaning towards piercing high-end destruction. This is a good solid release from this table and a worthy addition to your harsh noise collection. Raw and pure, no frills noise. Be sure to keep an eye out for this label's discography to check out the underground noise going around the USA these days. - Heathen Harvest
V/A - Giallo 12" featuring ...Massacre
Giallo movies and HNW have always made great bedfellows; Giallo movies with there almost uniformed killers in their black gloves, long coats and shadowy hats carrying out brutal and sadistic murders, and HNW with it’s often uniformed and repetitive brutal sound and it’s sleazy, dark and murderous undertones. This four way vinyl split nicely celebrates the union between the brutal movie form and brutal sonic form that is giallo influenced HNW. As always with anything put out by the great Italian Urashima label the package is something a bit special. This time around instead of the normal black card and sliver ink sleeve we have a fitting yellow card and black ink sleeve- giallo means yellow in Italian and it streams from the cheap paperbacks with yellow covers which influenced the early movies in the genre. And inside the sleeve you find the labels black label on black vinyl, along with a yellow card and black ink inlay card that on one side discusses the links between giallo and HNW and on the other side the track listing and its hand number. Also in the sleeve is a photograph still of the iconic image of a women looking terrorized through a razor slashed sheet which of course comes from Dario Argento 1980’s giallo classic Tenbrae.
First up on the first side we have a just shy of nine minute track from An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter which of course is: Richard Ramirez(Werewolf Jerusalem, Black Leather Jesus, ect) & Cristiano Renzoni (Alo Girl & runner of the Urashima label). Their track is entitled “La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo” which was the original Italian title for Mario Bava influential and genre defining early giallo movie 1963’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much or The Evil Eye, as it was know in the US. The film featured American cult actor John Saxon in one of his first roles in Italian cinema, and the plot followed an female tourist who while visting Rome witnesses a murder and then gets tangled up in a series of bloody murders carred about by the Alphabet Killer. So onto the track itself, the pairs ‘wall’ finds boorish and brooding bass judder meeting taut and locked static jitters. It brings to my mind a large killer hold down his victim and liberally slashing away at his victims bare and goose bumped flesh. The track ends with a few seconds of movie sample featuring an argument between a man and women over dramatic music.
The Second track on side two is a nine minute track from Japanese/ American HNW project Forced Orgasm- the project offer up another nine minute track entitled “Cat O' Nine Tails”. The track takes it’s title from second giallo movie by Dario Argento from 1971 which told the story of a newspaper reporter and a retired, blind journalist who try to solve a series of killings connected to a pharmaceutical company's experimental, top-secret research projects and in so doing, both become targets of the killer. The ‘wall’ on offer here finds a long morse code or stop/ start like roaring bass tone thats mixed with churning and slicing static uniformity. It all makes for a great tense, edgy and paranoid track which brings to my mind a victim running through a busy tube station trying to hide from a killer in the crowd, but each time they stop they are slashed or stabbed by the black gloved killer.
Over onto side two and we have a just over eight minute track from USA HNW project …..Massacre which is of made up of j. cadle(whose also in Foul and Oasis Of Fear, as well as runs the excellent Bane records) and Sam Stoxen(whose also in Baculum, Grain Belt, White Plague and runs the excellent Phage tapes label). The pairs track is entitled “Vacanze Per Un Massacro” and it takes it’s name from 1980 Italian moive Madness whose plot finds A husband and wife going to their country cottage along with the wife's younger, university-student sister with whom the husband is having a secret affair. They run into an escaped convict who has hidden a cache of money in the cottage. The convict gets the upper-handover the husband and holds the trio hostage, having his way with both of the women;- to me it does’nt sound very giallo like it sounds more an cheap Italian riff on Last house on the left type capture and torture movies. Anyway onto the sonics which are certainly HNW, the pair offer up a ‘wall’ of rolling bass judder that has skipping and jittering static running over the top of it. The static elements keep flowing over the judder in nice waves of brutal texture. To me this track brings to mind some hours after a murder has taken place, and the victims naked body is hung up side down to drain. Flies are just start to buzz and settle on the victim’s Orifices’ and many cuts. The track starts to get quite enclosing and enraged towards the end giving the feeling like the killers get ready to kill once again.
Lastly on side two we have a just under nine minute track from Naked Girl Killed In The Park which brings together Richard Ramirez & Thomas Mortigan( also of Black Leather Jesus & RU-486). The pair offer up a track entitled “Mystère (High Class Murder)” which after a brief scan of the net doesn’t seem to be a movie title, so I’m guessing this is just a genreal tribute to the giallo form. The track starts with a movie sample of two women talking about something been stolen, then seemingly one women attacks and the other and kills her. Then we jump into a very rapid, battering, crude and thick textural judder that seems to have this weird and barren horn texture of muffled soundtrack music tone runing deep under it. This track brings to mind a crazed and enraged fight between two people, with one person punching and battering the other over and over again, you can pick out nice sweeps or bands of juddering and crusty static sweeping through the track. The track finishers off with another movie sample that takes in taunt and shrill bass and string sound tracking, and the sound of a man killing a women- a very fitting end really.
So all in all this is a very nicely presented collection of giallo influenced HNW, with each project offering up their own distinctively nasty yet atmospheric tribute to the black gloved and bloody razor genre that is the Italian Giallo moive. - Musique Machine
...Massacre - After Party Massacre C47 + biz card
“After Party Massacre” brings together a C47 and mini business card CDR worth of highly rewarding static texture bound HNW from this US project that features: j. cadle(whose also in Foul and Oasis Of Fear, as well as runs the excellent Bane records) and Sam Stoxen(whose also in Baculum, Grain Belt, White Plague and runs the excellent Phage tapes label)
The tape and mini business card CDR comes in a very smart and unassuming little blue box that doesn’t really prepare your for the brutal yet creative ‘walled’ sonic fruits with-in. Firstly I’ll talk about the tape, then move onto the Business card, So on the first side of the C47 tape we have an untitled twenty minute track which starts out as a muffled, tight and jittering mass of oddly soothing static & lite metallic like juddering. As the track progresses the pair keep the track tight & constant in it’s ‘wall’ state, yet they very cleverly add in a varation of different jitters & judders along the way so it wonderful morphs it's sonic shape. Firstly it has a battering wind type feel, then it moves onto a flicking fire like textural dwell ‘n’ wave, through to a juddering and alternating sweeping feel, and lastly into droning purr ‘n’ smaller jitter dwell. The pair seem to effortless move from one pattern, texture or vibe to the next; so there’s never a break in proceedings. The track seems to surrounding you in this great thick sonic mass of often intricate static texture that almost feels like you could reach out and touch it, or press your face into its seemingly almost organic shift 'n' move.
Over onto the second side and it’s another untitled track and once more it comes in at just around the twenty three minute mark. This track starts out with a very rough and mid-pace sort of long dragging & muffled texture, which sounds like the someones been dragged along a forest or very rough concrete floor. As the track moves into its second minute it becomes more juddering and stuck billowing flag like in its feel. As we get deeper into track the pair once more slowly shifting and morph the tracks textures in a most rewarding & clever manner, though this sides track is not so comforting or pleasing as the first sides track- it seems somehow more rough, barren and bleak in its intent. Anyway like the first side it’s a very rewarding & engrossing piece of ‘wall-making’ and it really shows both Cadle & Stoxen at the height of there creative and controlled noise texturing powers.
So lastly we move onto the business card CDR which features just a five minute track- but what a track it is!. The tracks built around this very cavernous, echoed and stuck static jitter pattern that starts out quite spaced out, but pretty quickly begins bouncing back off it’s self to build a great sinister machine like feel to it. The track brings to my mind a static jittered footage of someone having there head severed by a slowly moving and aged mechanically lift, over and over again. Truly it’s a great & very original end to this great set- lets hope they investigate similar textures again.
So in summing-up “After Party Massacre” is a very nice & originally presented tape & Business card set that really highlights how apt these two are at manipulating static texture in a highly rewarding, original & atmospheric maner. Sadly this is ltd to a crazy number of forty one copies- so act quick before you missing out on what is clearly one of 2010’s noise highlights.- Musique Machine
...Massacre - Movie House Massacre CDr
…. Massacre is a HNW and brutal static texturing two piece that bring together the considerable extreme noise talents of Sam Stoxen(whose also in Baculum, Grain Belt, White Plague and runs the excellent Phage tapes lable) and J. Cadle(whose also in Foul and Oasis Of Fear, as well as running the excellent Bane records that put this great album out).
On offer here are two tracks that hit around the twenty minute mark a piece, and each track is quite an active, jittering and juddering bound slice of brutal HNW matter and seared static texturing. The first untitled track starts off with a smothering, mid-pace, keep ‘threatening to flicker out altogether’ static jitter that settles around you in a wonderfully edgy and jumpy manner. By the three minute mark the jittering has picked up pace somewhat, and there are less instances when it feels like it’s going to cut out altogether. Yet it’s still maintain's quite a tense and nervous feel to it’s make-up, but now there’s more anger and wound-up emotion attached to the track- like a killer on the spur of snapping and creating a blood bath.
The rest of the track really sees the pair switch between the faster and less threatening to break-down attacks, and the more mid-pace and nearly jittering to a stop dwells. Around the ten minute mark there’s what sounds like stuck and slightly bent voodoo drums appearing in the guts of the track, which the paired rewarding pull and judder out over the remainder of the track- this adds another interesting edge to this already very rewarding track.
The second untitled track starts out with a brutal and quite fast 'rain storm of tin roof' like dwell which the pair hammer down around you in a very pleasing manner. The ‘wall’ seems to be built around tow slightly out of stink static rain downpours, which the pair ever so often move away from each other to create this great almost 3d surround feel for a few seconds at a time . This track is structurally less active and shifting than the first track, yet it does have a few switchers and turns as it rains down around you, but there more really on a micro level.
So in summing-up two very nice, rewarding and moorish walls from this great two piece. Lets hope it’s not too long before there’s some new …massacre material out because Stoxen & Cadle work so well together. - Musique Machine
V/A - Untitled Split featuring White Plague
This four way HNW split boxset brings together a side/track a piece from the following wall noise artists: Death Laid An Egg, I Am A Slut, The Sun Turns Black and White Plague. The two tapes(a c30 & a C40) that make up the set come in a long white box, which features some effective but simple black and white artwork of textural, slashed, scrawled pattern art- this of course nicely compliments the thick, bombarding and extreme walls of textured sound found with-in the box.
So onto the tapes themselves- first up we have the C30 tape and on the first side of this we have a side long track from Death Laid An Egg- which features Richard Ramirez(Werewolf Jerusalem, Black Leather Jesus, Vice Wears Black Hose and many other projects) & Trent Bingham( ex Forced Orgasm). The track on offer here is entitled “Jealous Love Triangle”, and it jumps straight in with a very loud and dense wall of battering and juddering textural noise bombardment. It’s really difficult to make out what’s going on here really as the pair are throwing so many layers of noise into the ‘wall’- but from what I can make out from there’s: rapid metallic battering, crusty juddering ‘n’ slicing, roaring ‘n’ rolling noise sears, and possible galloping and noise fired giallo like soundtrack textures. The track remains extremely dense, layered and overloaded through-out, but there seems some movement with in the textures but this could be a trick of the mind. So “Jealous Love Triangle” is a very thick, airless and in the red of slice wall-making, that you'll get total overwhelmed by
The Second side of tape one features a track from Polish based I Am A Slut, and the tracks entitled “White Beauty Unleashed”. This tracks ‘wall’ is based around a mixture of huge, slight caught and junk lined noise juddering, searing/roasting static grain, and latter on descending, hissing and falling noise textures. The track nicely roast, bends and collapses in on it’s self, the 'wall' remains extreme and deeply intense through-out. I guess if I could compare the track to anything it sounds what it might be like to try and walking through a burning building that’s collapsing, roasting, caving-in, and violent shifting around you. All told it's a great and violently moving textural wall of noise, and it shows this project on fine form again.
Onto the second C40 tape, and on side one we have a track from The Sun Turns Black- this Minneapolis based project features Stefan. S ; who runs the New Forces label and is the mind behind harsh noise project Breaking The Will. This projects track is entitled “Temple In The Trees”, and this ‘wall’ is like a huge dark mass of juddering, roaring and split noise. The track rather brings to mind what a very destructive earthquake would sound like if it was tearing and ripping through a vast forest of very large and tall trees- with the sound of ripping earth n’ roots, splitting and smashing wood, and roaring/crashing masers of trees, leafs and branches. At just after the six minute thirty mark there’s a small gap, and then we seemingly start another track(though there’s only ones listed!) this track is a mixture of more rapid and galloping textural tears, rumbling judders and sudden mass of branches like rips and rough pulls - I guess it sounds like some vast demon racing through a forest tearing trees up as he goes along. Both(?) tracks are very rewarding and apocalyptic slices of wall making, and I look forward to hearing what this project does next.
So on the last side of tape two, and we have Minneapolis based male and female project White Plague which features Sam Stoxen( of Baculum, …massacre, Grain Belt and runner of the exellent Phage Tapes) and his girlfriend Angie Ridgeway. Their track is entitled “Too Little Too Late”, and it finds the pair building a really low-down, deep and nasty ‘wall’ out of: rubbery and blow-out bass judders, helicopter like hover and descending texturing, and smaller jittering spoke like elements. It’s a great, inventive and tense slice of wall making, and I wish this pair would release more stuff together as everthing I’ve heard by them has been top notch and very well thought-out examples of HNW.
So all in all this is a great & highly consistent four way split that no self respected wall-fan can be with-out!, and thankfully there’s a few more copies of this than many HNW release with a pressing of 50 copies been done- so act quick and pick one of these up before there all gone. - Musique Machine
V/A - Buio Omega featuring White Plague
“Buio Omega” is a plush yet grim two C40 HNW tribute to the uncomfortable and nasty 1984 Joe D'Amato movie of the same name that told the story of a young man and his necrophilic love for his dead and stuffed girlfriend. Taking part here we have: Italian Alo Girl( aka Cristiano Renzoni who is also in An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter with Richard Ramirez and runs the excellent Urashima label), American White Plague which features Sam Stoxen(of Baculum, ...Massacre. Grain Belt and of courses runner of the great Phage tapes) and his girlfriend Angie Ridgeway. Harsh Noise and HNW US act Churner and Blacked US wall maker Foul.
This is the first tape release by the Urashima label, which usually specialize in vinyl pressings. And they really have pulled out all the stops to create a really pulse yet grim bit of packaging for the two tapes. The two tapes come in a deep oversized cd style thick black box which features a cut out murderous still from the movie on the middle front middle of the box lid, and when you open up the box inside lid you find a silver ink printed logo of the label. Before you get to the tapes there’s a false card bottom in the box which holds in a small square opening two badgers; one featuring the Urashima label logo and one featuring another bloody still from the movie. Pulling out the false bottom you find the two tapes in a cellophane sleeve with a card backing. Underneath this is a black ink on black card inlay that features the track details on one side, and on the other side the Urashima logo and it’s hand number. Also there's a very bloody full colour mini flyer of a gory poster from the movie that features a body been melted in a bath of acid. Topping the packaging off each black tape features a colour wrap around mini label that features a picture of the skull that floats to the top in the acid scene bath scene. So a very grim, but arty and well thought out bit of packaging.
So onto the equally grim and blood splattered sonics inside, each act takes up a side of tape a piece, and offers up a single twenty track of dark and bloody HNW that’s their own individual tribute to D'Amato’s disturbing movie. First up we have Alo Girl’s “Beyond The Darkness” and after a brief Italian dialogue clip from the movie the track drops into a ultra muffled and nasty noise wall that’s a quite fast moving mixture of juddering static muffle and buried lower toned static jittering. As the track progresses it remains fairly fixed and thick in structure, yet it does effectively thin out in its juddering here and there making you think it might draw to a blood stop, but it never does. The ‘wall’ wraps around you like a blood sodden blanket blocking out all hope, and putting you in quite a queasy state as it nicely recreates the film sleazy and unpleasant air.
Onto the second side and we have White Plague’s “You Will Die” and this track is about a more defined and roasting mid-pace mix of juddering and rapid hacking static subtones that seem to become more prominent as the track goes on. Again the tracks very thick and unforgiving in it’s structure, yet it seems there’s this building tension and urgency with in the wall as it seems to get more panicked and ramped-up as it goes along. But of course this could all be a trick of the mind and the ‘wall’ is pretty much unmovable- which ever it is it makes for an effective and on-a-knife-edge type of vibe. The track brings to mind one of the couple of sexualized, then brutal and bloody attacks the films main character carries out on a few of the female victims in the movie.
Onto the second tape and on side one we have Churner's lengthily tilted “Grieve / Jealousy / Lactate Erotic / Anna”. This is the longest track at just over the twenty minute mark, and it’s sadly one of the more disappointing moments here. It’s the start of the track that lets things down, which is a pity as latter on it recovers but sadly you never fully forget the bad start. Basically for the first two minutes of the track finds Churner playing this awful low-grade church organ tune that sounds deeply amateurish and painful; quite why this is here in the track I’m not sure, but I'm guess it’s meant to be atmospheric though it just comes off as been very annoying. As I’m sure long term readers of M[M] are aware I have a soft spot for Churner’s work in genreal, but this beginning is truly terrible and unforgivable. Anyway thankfully things do improve after this and Churners spins out this thick weave of muffled, battered and roar noise matter. I guess you could call it just HNW, but to my mind it’s a bit to active and shifting for that label I guess it’s best described as airless and suffocating thick noise texturing. As we move into the eighth minute it seems to become more rumbling and roaring in a muffled manner, sort of what you might hear if you where been held under water in a bath as the taps are put on full pelt. There’s also these great creepy and violent tones that keep swimming through the swamp of sound that bring to mind slowed and evil male moans. The last six or so minutes find Churner become more 'wall' like in the use of tight, throbbing and locked walls of noise tone, but it still thins out ever so often for those weird & pained moaning elements.
So lastly onto side three and we have Foul’s track “Iris”, and this is a rather pleasingly nasty ‘wall’ that’s built around droning and drilling judder that's skipped over by smaller and thinner sounding static grain. Foul propels the track along at a fair pace, and I really like the way he weaves the droning bleakness with the more painful yet controlled static skips. Later on the track gets more dirty and weathered as the skipping static seems to form into more of a suffocating web over the battering and trying to escape droning judder. All in all it’s a great slice of ‘wall making’ and it once more nicely conjures up the films sleazed, perverse and unwell edge.
So really this is a near faultless collection of tracks that pay tribute to one of the most disturbing and unsettling horror movies of all time. All packaged in fittingly grim yet plush manner- lets hope this wont be the last foray into tapes from Urashima, as this is something very special indeed.
ce & classy looking box-set offering up three distinct takes on the HNW sound- not one for newbie’s to the genre, but those who are addicted and hooked on Harsh wall making this is a must have item. - Musique Machine
V/A - Brick By Brick 7x3"CDr featuring White Plague
'Brick By Brick' is an impressively presented, distinctive looking & sonically quality bound collection of Harsh Noise Wall material. The set offers up seven HNW artists who get a 3inch disc or twenty minutes worthy of space each. The seven discs come in a very neat & classy small plastic box which has black ink on black paper outside cover & inside the box you find a twelve page booklet detailing each track, a near A4 manifesto by Vomit & a 1” badge/ button. Each of the seven discs has it’s own plastic see-through sleeve which is attached to the box by two little plastic ring binders- as I said a very classy, distinctive & thought out package.
So we move onto the ‘walls' of sound inside & disc one offers up a single twenty minute piece from A View From Nihil( who I can’t seem to find much info about) entitled “Creation In Order To Subdue The Torment Of Perception” – the piece is a nicely punishing slice of active rolling & thick bass crunching noise with a low grade sort of electro purring & burning quality about it. The track attacks straight from the off and does not let go until near on twenty one minutes later; it’s pretty unrelenting & changeless in it’s intent & it’s a nice fiery start to the set.
Onto disc two we have a single twenty minute track by Canadian based noise artist's Ryan Bloomer entitled ‘Taking It on the Jaw’. The track starts off with this nice jittering & tight static tone that’s underfeed by a slow gas escaping hiss. As the track progresses Bloomer nicely & subtle alters the main jitter pattern, but around the five minute mark it becomes a lot more tighter & airless in it’s feel; the gas hiss tone also becomes more active & pronounced taking on almost running away or stuck glitch feel. By the seven minute mark he’s turned up the intensity once more with a tighter & more digital hacking take on the sound & the rest of the track follows in a similar brutal, wall like but progressive manner as Bloomer turns the sonic thumb screws more & more. This is certainly one of my favourite tracks of this collection showing Bloomer being true to the HNW sound, yet trying to be creative & inventive with it too.
Disc three offers up two tracks by Four Files- who for this track were Richard Ramirez, Christian Perdome, Matthew Solondz & Hageshiseto Ohno( the project is now just Ramirez). The first track is entitled “I Was Made Of Blisters And Remorse” and it's just short of sixteen minutes mark. The piece is built around the meeting of these rapidly juddering & crunching tones; with one of the tone having an almost nasty & over loaded techno bass line feel about it. The track has a nice urgency about it & it keeps fairly focused on it’s punishing pounding & crunch, though there are a few rewarding slight sonic shifts & moves in the tracks thickness along the way. The second track is entitled ‘The Beast Of Scars’ and comes in at the four minute mark- this track is a lot more wiry, static, lower toned, and slower than the first track with it opening with looped tonalities which shift into more droning & drilling feeling ever-so often.
On disc four we have a twenty minute untitled track by Griz+zlor & it’s a nice example of this projects often storm bound, thick & murky take on HNW. The track really feelings like your trying to make your way through a high wind tearing, snow heavy storm- it’s very thick, near unchanging yet rather for filling in it’s constant & brutally hypnotic attack. Disc five takes in a single twenty minute track from Infirmary entitled ‘Hold’ which has a roaring & thick standing under a huge pipe quality about it as the project pretty much loops out the same roaring & huge deep pouring tone for it’s length- it’s ok though maybe lacks that magic hypnotic or Moorish feel the best ‘walls’ have.
Disc Six features a untitled track by the French HNW master Vomir which nudges in at the nineteen & a half minute mark. The tracks made up of two main tones; one a barbwire tight static tone & the other one a more rumble bound tone-Vomir nicely rolls them along together in a fairly unchanging yet rewarding matter & I found my mind getting nicely shucked in to the grooves of each & like the best HNW wall’s feeling a little empty when it finishers. Lastly on disc seven we return to USA with two piece HNW project White Plague who offer up a just over eighteen minute track entitled ‘Viral Replication’. This is an nice brutal, but somehow almost cosy feeling track which is built around two running together roaring or heavy rolling tones that have slightly crackled edger’s to them. The pair keep the track very constant & thick in its progression, yet there are some nice yet subtle shifts in the textures of the track which nicely pulls you into the constant rolling tunnel of walled sound.
All told a very nicely presented & thought-out celebration of the steadily growing HNW scene, which works as a wonderful primer for those who have still to taste this extreme but often exhilarating & hypnotic form of Noise, but i'ts also a must have item for anyone who’s already an admitted wall addict. - Musique Machine
White Plague/ Wallkeeper split 2xCDr
This double disc CDR release offers up two Walls of near unchanging Harsh noise matter that fall between just short of an hour & just over an hour a piece. The first disc is taken up by Minneapolis based White Plague who is Sam Stoxen(which runs Phage tapes & is also in Baculum, ...Massacre & junk noise collective Grain Belt) & Angie Ridgeway. And the second disc features Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany based HNW act Wallkeeper. The first disc is taken up by the White Plague track ‘Spread The Disease’ which comes in around the forty five minute mark & it’s quite a pleasing and almost soothing slice of textured noise making. The track is built around a slow & constant static snow like crunching & crackling dwell which the pair build into a thick, but fairly unchanged flow of sound that nicely envelopes you in it’s textural grain & tone. The track seemingly speeds-up and becomes thicker in it’s crunch 'n' settle as it goes along; through this could just be my mind playing tricks as I try to see patterns & progression with-in the sea of crunch & ebb. I guess the track can can be compared to a more searing or caustic take on drone matter or repetitive yet highly inviting ambient music. It’s ideal for locking oneself away from the world around & drifting off with the constant hypnotic static crunch 'n' fall of tone.
Disc two takes in a Wallkeeper called ‘Pain Reduction’ which comes in around the 75 minute mark. This track is a bit more nasty, crusty & sleazed in it’s tone than the first discs track & it finds Wallkeeper offer a thick jittering & electro fly like feasting wall of sound. The tracks built around one rolling & fast boiling drone that’s ground & seared over by a second more active, crusty & tightly wound tone. Again the tracks fairly unchanging & unforgiving in its attack, through you can make out distinct yet slow pitch slides up & down through-out the tracks length. This is my first taster of any of Wallkeepers work and I must say I like his crusty, nasty & rapid moving take on ‘wall’ making.
So in summing up this two disc set offers up two very enjoyable, thick & unforgiving sonic excise in Harsh Noise wall making that will be very much enjoyed by those who like getting lost & hypnotized by lengthy & trance inducing noise matter. But I can also see the first track being possible enjoyed by more adventurous drone & ambient heads too. - Musique Machine
