V/A - Soundtrack For The End Of The World CD (1994)
Inspired by the Noisextra episode on the "Music Should Hurt" comp, I dug this one out and gave it a proper dedicated listen. I picked it up maybe 2 or 3 years ago, felt underwhelmed on my first listen in my car and haven't really listened to it since. Part of the issue was misplaced expectations. I often think '80s and '90s comps will be more brutal or aggressive than they are (Noise War and Americanoise aside), and I'm not always in the mood for the variety these old comps offer that's so often praised now.
So that being the setting, I went into this with an open mind and total dedication to listening to it all and doing nothing else. I think the first thing to note is the lack of crunch and bass, in comparison to more modern noise/industrial/etc. A lot of these tracks flutter in a mid-frequency range with some highs and lows but nothing that would wreck your speakers. Native X open it up, a Hafler Trio related project that delivers some really nice unsettling industrial-ish stuff. Then Taint comes in and gets really ugly. Insect synths, looping samples, feedback, metal abuse. It would fit nicely on Indecent Liberties or Justmeat. I'm a bigger fan of his Sex Sick/Whoredom type material but I'm not complaining either. Con-Dom delivers one of the most aggressive tracks on the comp, and maybe the only one with proper vocals. The pace is slow but the sound is fuck you and in your face while being simultaneously disorienting given that the sounds are hard-panned on either channel. Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock's track is too weird for me. Constructed on a bed of weird samples, it goes on about 5 minutes too long for me and was the hardest track to listen to attentively. I'm no Macronympha expert by a long shot, but I felt their contribution was slightly unusual. Extremely broken sounds with just absolutely piercing mid/high tones, a mix of feedback and beeping tones of extreme unpleasantness. Minimal crunch, but lots of modulation. Just damn unpleasant, sort of like getting a cavity drilled. Then the Haters come in and deliver one of the very best tracks on the comp. Hard-panned looping sounds, the left channel glass breaking and cars crashing, the right channel a burning fire, wood crackling, and this ripping and tearing sound. Four and half minutes of perfection. Admittedly I have basically zero experience with Aube outside of comps, but this track is a ripper. Utterly fucked sounding synths over fast paced heavy noise. Lots of activity, lots of modulation, total bleeping insanity. It's reminds me of MSBR's "Ultimate Ambience" at times. Lengthy and unrelenting, it's a really nice mid-way palate cleanser. The rest of the comp is pure gold to my ears. S*Core delivers what I expect, mellow but heavily textured and murky noise. Skin Crime's "Not Soon Enough" is a pleasant blend of bullets fly, explosions, death gurgles, I'm pretty sure the Godzilla roar and unsettling noise, like a knife scrapping a cast iron skillet. Diesel Guitars then go on to give one of the most bass heavy tracks that's also one of the most "straight forward" harsh noise tracks. Love it. And it all ends with the one-two punch of Violent Onsen Geisha delivering ten-minutes of extremely unsettling noise/industrial that I wound up listening to repeatedly after my uninterrupted listen. And then we get an ending very similar to the opening, cavernous sorta-kinda dark ambient with crystalline tones and building dread. So if this compilation is any indicator, the apocalypse will not be a whirlwind of destruction but a weird series of mutant plagues.
Final thoughts, I'd recommend this compilation. It's a nice mixture of lesser and well-known names, with a pretty wide variety in approaches and sounds. Highlights for me are Con-Dom, The Haters, AUBE, Violent Onsen Geisha, and Diesel Guitars.
