RST/Cathal Rodgers – Demons in the Architecture (C68, Sonic Drift)

Demons in the Architecture is part of a series on Sonic Drift led by Cathal Rodgers, a four-release sequence featuring Rodgers and another noise artist. He’s done splits with Fossils, Culver, and Andreas Brandal, and on this Demons in the Architecture release, Cathal Rodgers shares a C68 tape with drone artist RST. RST is Andrew Moon, who has released quite a few albums since around 1995; Cathal Rodgers is an Irish noise artist who runs Sonic Drift, also known as Spermicidal and Wereju to name a few.

This split is full brooding drones for almost the entirety of its 70 minute running time. RST offers three lengthy tracks, including the somewhat psychidelic “Falcon Leg,” an opener that includes buzzing drones and a crafty guitar line that weaves in and out of the melancholy sustained notes. “Orange Rust and Scarlet” meanders with wind-swept, uplifting harmonies, its sustained notes ringing out as guitar strums draw the listener’s focus. “Vermilion” sounds like an extension of “Falcon Leg,” with improvisational guitar notes adding a nice variance to the unwavering drones.

Cathal Rodgers breaks his tracks down into five with the three-part “Wide Awake and Dreaming” interspersed between them. His drones are heavy and dark, often layering noisy pieces and reverb on top of the other. The longer “Curse the Morning Light,” over ten minutes, drapes itself in darkness before rhythmic pieces begin to appear out of the ether. These are easy pieces to zone out to, but listening to their composition reveals a lot in their structure.

Demons in the Architecture is a good drone cassette, and I’m interested to hear what the other three installments focus on in this series. Cathal Rodgers and RST pair well together, sharing over an hour of creative drones. This is perfect for those looking to zone out or admire the artistry behind the tones.

新宿二丁目 – Feedbacks & Hurlements (CD-R, Ikebukuro Dada)

新宿二丁目 is the joint project between Rotkappchen and Chibre, both of whom have their own solo projects. This release, Feedbacks & Hurlements, finds the two coming together for a noisy display of electric guitar, electric bass, percussion, and electronic noise. Two of the tracks are performed by both members, and the middle offering is from Chibre singly. Over the course of thirty minutes, Feedbacks & Hurlements gives listeners a hefty dose of experimental noise using actual instruments from two capable musicians.

The album begins with “Feedbacks,” a fairly accurate title for this 18-minute track full of electric guitar swirls, biting noise feedback, and Chibre’s percussive elements. Rotkappchen’s guitar sound creates a cacophony in the background while feedback blasts the front end, smacks and hammerings adding nuance to the sound. This is a drony piece, although listeners will probably find it hard to get lost in the guitar distortion since there’s not a lot of variance besides a sustained searing tone. But it’s interesting to hear “Feedbacks” drift, with Chibre’s occasional noise bursts providing some nice alteration to the sound.

“Numb Your Mind” finds Chibre doing a solo noise piece, which works fairly well despite being somewhat muffled from a recording perspective. This feeds right into the collaborative piece “Hurlements,” which again finds Rotkappchen creating some swirling guitar feedbacks while Chibre employs some noise junk work. My biggest complaint with Feedbacks & Hurlements is that it at times feels too wholly similar, with none of the three tracks standing out from each other in variety.

However, it’s a solid half hour of noise experimentation, and Rotkappchen and Chibre pair well together with flowing works that seem to compliment in their drones. 新宿二丁目 is an interesting duo, and I look forward to seeing what they can put together next – perhaps something with just a tad more variability.

Richard Ramirez & Julien Skrobek – Doriana Bridge (C30, Hallucination Tapes)

Here’s an interesting collaboration between two harsh noise wall masters. Julien Skrobek, owner of Hallucination Tapes, teams up with Richard Ramirez (now Richard Ramirez-Matzus, congratulations) for a 22-minute wall that, on this tape, is split into two parts but otherwise seems to exist as a whole track on the Bandcamp page.

For this review I’ll break the release down into the two tracks because that’s how the tape is structured. The opening of “Part 1” fiddles a bit with its wall textures, starting with a dense bass rumble and static crackle before opening up into an airier, somewhat squealing squall. This doesn’t last long unfortunately (as I quite like this wall setup) before feedback signals a change to a heavy bass rumble with slight static crackle in the foreground. The static texture becomes this listener’s main focus, with the loose tendrils weaving some interesting layering.

Perhaps my previous listen to Skrobek’s Sumbru release Sublunary Visions with similar rumbling walls has something to do with it, but “Part 1″‘s bassy texture doesn’t interest me as much as “Part 2” does. The tape flip continues with “Part 1″‘s rumbles for a minute or two before another feedback swell signals a change to the wall. This one features more of the background rumble but includes a heavier static tone that sizzles, a texture that’s easy to get caught up in. It’s my favorite part of this release, with a loud and harsh collaboration that’s a tight wall we’ve come to expect from these two artists.

Doriana Bridge is a great release, although it’s a shame we don’t get anything longer from Ramirez & Skrobek! While I believe the tape itself is sold out, you can listen to the full track on the Hallucination Tapes Bandcamp page.

Sumbru – Sublunary Visions (CD-R, Hallucination Tapes)

Sumbru is a new project from Julien Skrobek, who also runs Hallucination Tapes and has been a prolific artist in the harsh noise wall genre under various monikers. Sumbru adds a new release to his belt with Sublunary Visions, a two-track forty minute excursion into wall noise based on lunar imagery and astrology. Both tracks clock in around twenty minutes, featuring a similar style of wall.

The first track is “Closed Eyes of the Frozen Moon,” a wall that features a heavy bass wollop that remains pretty mid-paced throughout this cut. Muffled rumbles pair with a crumbly static texture deep in the wall, allowing the bass line to take hold and shape the sound more so than the static. There’s not much change throughout this texture, a heavy twenty minutes that increasingly seems to create a droning tone in the middle of the wall, intentional or just a by-product of the tones.

Track two, “Emerging From the Astral Salt,” maintains a very similar structure, except now both the bass and static tones seem a bit less muffled in the mix. The bass texture features a fast churning rumble, while the static crackle sits within the middle of the track to create a nice even tone throughout. Again, the rumbling bass will be the focal point, but the static texture’s shuddering draws the listener into this hypnotic sound.

It’s nice to see Sumbru working within a textual theme here, because both tracks on Sublunary Visions sound closely reminiscent despite some differences in the texturing. Better, though, is the seamless transition between the two tracks, with no silence between the two. This ensures that the listener’s trance will be unbroken between the two walls. It’s another great release from Skrobek, this time under the name Sumbru, and any listener who has experienced his walls before will know what to expect from this album.

Big Hole – Gertie (3″ CD-R, Not On Label)

Big Hole has released some excellent harsh noise walls over the years, and Gertie, a 21-minute slab of crunch and static, is no exception. The project doesn’t interpret walls as stoic, unchanging monoliths that force the listener to sit through forty minutes of the same texture looping over and over; while there are projects that do this kind of wall well, that kind of wall noise is often lost in the overwhelming sameness of the genre. Here, the sole track “Gertie” features some textures that never change but also those that intermittently add variation to the tone, a truly enjoyable offering.

The track starts with a real sound clip, an interview with Ricky Hobbs; the release itself is based on the murder of Sylvia Likens, a brutal story of torture and abuse perpetrated by Gertrude Baniszewski and Hobbs that ended with a life imprisonment sentence for Gertie. Horrific murder and abuse plays heavily into this track as Big Hole sets up a damaging static crackle that continues throughout the work while chaotic, arhythmic crackles – in this listener’s opinion, the metaphorical stand-in for torment – continually alters the wall. This is an exceptionally intriguing wall, with the crackling textures becoming a kind of hypnotism and imprisonment for the listener.

Ultimately Gertie‘s running time feels the perfect length, with the wall never ceasing to lose its energy. Big Hole manages to evoke the same tonality as the murder case that he references on this release, and it showcases how harsh noise wall can generate a feeling even when noise itself is emotionless.

Unsustainable Social Condition – Unsustainable Social Condition (C10, Oxen)

Unsustainable Social Condition is the harsh noise/noisecore project of Matt Purse, also owner and operator of the Oxen label. This project has amassed a number of new releases in 2016, almost all of them released on Oxen. Notably, it seems as though Unsustainable Social Condition moves through a number of different noise genres, since one of the project’s latest releases, Dispersant, features a series of four tracks with lengthier runtimes than what’s offered on this self-titled cassette. Over ten minutes, Unsustainable Social Condition gives us crumbling harsh noise and blast beats akin to some of Sissy Spacek’s noisecore speed offerings, with 23 tracks across both sides in very minute bursts.

It’s too difficult to tell where one cut ends and another begins on this release, so referring to individual tracks is an unhelpful reference. Instead, Unsustainable Social Condition’s tracks tend to blend into each other, with crumbling noise-wall textures and crunchy swirls of noise pairing well with contributor Josh Taylor’s drum blasts. While Unsustainable Social Condition‘s A-side tends to approach the harsh noise side of things with Purse’s electronics doing much of the grunt work, Taylor’s drumming adds a significant amount to the B-side’s tracks, bringing brute force to the electronic crackles, static swirls, and occasional contact mic-style tinnitus.

These tracks will fly by, making it hard to decipher exactly the methods Purse is employing on this release. Like cut-up harsh noise, this release runs through a gamut of sounds, an excellent introduction to the madness inherent on any one Unsustainable Social Condition release. At only ten minutes, this cassette warrants repetitive plays, and it’s a perfectly chaotic release that should please fans of harsh noise and noise-laden grindcore.

Big Hole – Overwhelming & Collective Murder (3″ CD-R, Not on Label)

Big Hole’s Overwhelming & Collective Murder is a 20-minute disc featuring one wall, and it starts out with a sound bite from Burden of Dreams, a documentary on the making of Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo. I’ll confess to knowing very little about either of those two things, but one thing I do know is that this sound clip is perfectly in tune to Big Hole’s oppressive ripping wall spanning the course of this album.

“Overwhelming & Collective Murder” begins with a subtler crackling static before the full wall takes effect, and it’s a nice way to showcase the focal tone before moving into the wall’s more atmospheric layering. When the full wall starts, it’s part of that crunchy crackle – which is nicely raucous and rather fast-paced, wriggling endlessly throughout the 20 minutes – along with a somewhat denser static tone that combines quite nicely, plus a higher-pitched texture that makes up all three areas of the wall.

It’s very easy to get lost in this wall despite its harshness, and I’ll confess to getting absorbed in it despite my attempts to keep attentive to its shiftings – after a while, all three of the textures blend so well together that I forgot where they began, and it’s a hypnotic and, as the title states, overwhelming listen that leaves the ears ringing. Big Hole’s release says to listen loudly, and that’s a dangerous request: it’s rewarding and also quite damaging, and that’s probably the point.

Oscuro – I (3″ CD-R, Textural Nightmares)

Oscuro is an interesting wall noise project from Julien Skrobek, right now comprised of just two releases simply titled I and II. Both were released on the Textural Nightmares label, which, after four releases, now appears to be defunct. On I, Oscuro offers one stoic untitled track that clocks in just under twenty minutes.

“Untitled” is what many would call an ambient noise wall, comprised of an overwhelming airy tone at the forefront of the wall that is actually quite difficult to withstand for the 19:12 length of time. The tone is tough to describe, but for me it’s something akin to the blurry noise that a car window makes when opened slightly at high speeds. That is paired with low volume crackling static that is at times barely audible beneath the whirr, adding crunchy texture to this piece.

It’s interesting to hear how Oscuro manages to craft something so minute and also searing, a wall that doesn’t have much heft but also makes for a rather engaging and difficult listen. One complaint is that I wish the static crackle was just a tad bit louder, enough to overcome some of the droning whirlwind of the airy forefront of the wall. With its lower tone, it’s easy to miss the nuance in that droning, something that one has to focus intently on anyway.

Otherwise, Oscuro’s I is an interesting and quick listen, one solidly built ambient piece that showcases Oscuro’s more minimal approach to the craft while not overextending its welcome. Unless you managed to grab this when it released, it looks like you’re out of luck hearing it – it’s not even up on Julien Skrobek’s Bandcamp page (though Oscuro’s II is).

Transfiguration – Lovecraftian Rhetoric (C60, Existentiell)

Transfiguration is the doom metal/black metal project of Cathal Rodgers, also the artist behind Spermacidal, Wereju, and more. Lovecraftian Rhetoric is the only release that I can find from this particular moniker, a slow-moving cassette from 2014 released on Existentiell; here, Transfiguration offers up three tracks influenced by the titular writer H.P. Lovecraft as well as Dante Alighieri, steeped in depression and mired in an ethereal muck. Both sides of this tape contain the same three tracks, making it easy for listeners to flip and repeat.

Purveyors of blackened doom will certainly enjoy Lovecraftian Rhetoric‘s often glacial pacing, with plodding tracks that reach the 9 minute mark almost every time. “Comedy Divine” keeps the same heavy bass thudding throughout with excellent depressive, melancholic synth patterns that shudder throughout the track. It’s an enveloping experience, and Transfiguration allows the notes to soar and sustain, holding them out like a wallowing wail. The vocals on this track, too, are more akin to black metal’s cries.

“Some Mute Inglorious Milton” centers more in doom territory, though, with heavy rhythmic riffs and a deeper-toned growl that echoes through the muddied recording. That murky sound is a boon to Transfiguration, creating a foggy atmosphere that makes these recordings – particularly Lovecraftian Rhetoric‘s second track – eerie and unnatural, a perfect fit to Lovecraft’s often indescribable settings.

The title track, “Lovecraftian Rhetoric,” takes on a similar tone, slowly paced with fairly simplistic drum beats and an overall synth tone that carries the track throughout. It’s another great doom offering from Transfiguration, but it also signals a problem some listeners may have with this tape: the tracks often meld together, especially at longer lengths, because of their similarities. For this reviewer, it’s not a bother considering how largely similar most doom tends to be anyway, with the differing tones elevating these tracks. But less focused listeners may find themselves struggling to pick out what makes each track distinct.

Still, Lovecraftian Rhetoric is an immensely enjoyable experience for those who like slow, funereal doom and black metal. Transfiguration has done some great work on this cassette, and it’s unfortunate that the project hasn’t – to my knowledge – released anything else yet. You can check out this release on the Existentiell Bandcamp page!

Naughty/Sloth – Split (C20, Sloth of Northeast Ohio)

Naughty and Sloth get together for a strange mix of harsh noise walls on this split C20, a quick one-and-done for each artist. Naughty is the harsh noise wall project of Charlotte Duchene, a project devoted eroticism and beauty; Sloth is a bit more of a mystery, with the project’s Bandcamp page featuring a slew of releases with crazy titles and often perverse imagery. Here, the two offer two side-long walls, with Naughty’s being a bit more rigid to the HNW format and Sloth morphing a song into a wall.

Naughty is on the first side with the track “Join At In the Bottom of the Swimming Pool”; clearly, there’s some kind of typo with that title, although since I don’t want to assume anything I won’t correct it and will use the title as written on the case (clarification from Naughty: it’s “Join Me At the Bottom of the Swimming Pool”). This is a ten-minute track heavy on the bass, with a low-end rumble throughout and deep crumbling static textures. It’s more ambient than harsh, actually, and it’s quite easy to fall into the rhythms of the static throughout; since this a deeper, more sonorous track, the textures crumble into each other, with little space within the static crackle. It’s good work, one that fans of nuanced HNW will enjoy.

The second side features Sloth (here just Sloth instead of his dual monikers Sloth of Gulf Coast Florida or Sloth of Northeast Ohio), and the track begins with a homemade song that he’s created. It’s a blurry, bleary eulogy to death metal, as one might expect from the title “Death-Metal Died”; there’s a very subtle melody that’s pretty indecipherable, along with singing and some barking lyrics; this gives way to the wall quite quickly, which almost feels like a Paulstretched version the original song. Ultimately, this creates a strange guitar-like drone that’s paired with a lot of crackling static and even some background textures that repeat over the track’s ten minutes. It’s not a traditional wall with static and bass rumbles, but it’s an interesting track for sure that contains a lot of areas for listeners to lock into.

The two tracks on this split are completely different from the other, but that’s kind of what you’d like to see based on two artists doing their own separate works. Both projects offer up good walls, and the major differences with these two harsh noise wall artists provides an eclectic twenty minutes.