Current Worming "Untitled" CS (Dogmatics In Outline)
So-called "noise" can sometimes be a strange thing when looked at objectively. Case in point, there's the most recent tape from Current Worming. This tape could easily have been recorded and released by a Danish (?) project called Corrosion, but it's a Canadian project called Current Worming. To be fair, I have to wonder what makes me like Current Worming that much more than Corrosion; by that I mean this tape is probably my least favorite CW effort so far. It's not bad, but it just doesn't have the character of the previous and therefor lacks it's main strength.
Yes, it's good, as in crunchy, "real" noise with acoustics, an "organic" feel and some great loop sections etc., but it's lacking a certain emotive or energetic quality much like Corrosion in my opinion does as well. There are some admirable textures and in some moments on the second A-side track, very tasty resonance/acoustic junk, as well as a very nice loop on the latter half of the B-side, but overall it's a bit too compressed with overlong meandering sections that have force but not a lot of power. Higher frequencies are just kind of crunched out of the mix. I'll easily concede I could be just turning into more of an asshole, in that other CW fans will probably not be as picky as me – still worth getting if you liked what you heard on other CW tapes.
Publication Ban "Miranda" CS (Dogmatics In Outline)
Again, "noise" et al can be a strange thing – another example of what makes you question how is one project at all separate from another (including my own). Here in the latest Publication Ban tape, side A's "Role Play" sounds suspiciously like the above project, Current Worming: pounding background rhythm at various mid-pace speeds underneath a flow of mid-bassy, full-sounding blown out crunch, moving on to some shrill acoustic scraping (presumably) and then including some nice feedback/high-pitched whistling tones. This could pretty much be CW – I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same person/people, or if one project is the solo project of a member of the other. This is pretty tasty, though, with an emphasis on high-end over lows that is very much my kinda thing. Latter part of A-side reminds me just a little bit of Incapacitants or Gelsomina, oddly enough. Some piercing, chime-like sounds end the track very nicely.
Interview/interrogation sample opens the B-side track "Stage Distribution" laid on top of hissing, shrill feedback-type noise. Fluttery texture not unlike Peter Kurten/RTK-era Whitehouse. When the sample drops in volume, a grinding tone momentarily overtakes things before getting quiet and more slight, quiet feedback slices in. When sound is reduced to just the generator tone and slashes of the tinny feedback/chime sound, it's perhaps the best highlight before a louder, mid-range crunch sort of bulldozes everything and then gives way to glassy, tinny, thin-sounding junk clatter and stops abruptly. If it weren't for the sample, I'd say this just should have been another Current Worming tape, maybe released instead of the above. Not bad, but I hope the label goes for more adventurous efforts in the future.
