Salute - Reek 1 + 2 (Throne Heap)
Discussion in the White Centipede Discord about Sewer Election inspired me to try his Bandcamp page to see what I have missed throughout the recent output. Dan has managed to do so much, that it can be hard to keep up with and truly determine what stuff I really like and which I do not. As a general rule of thumb, I tend to enjoy his more lo-fi endeavors, with the more hi-fi projects failing to move my personal needle.
This brings us to the release mentioned here, which I think sits in a very fine middle. There is murk to be had, but it is not amongst his most broken works. "Murky" might be the best word to describe the sonic palette. Lots of metal looping quietly chattering in the background as synth ambiance is overdriven to a blissful max. It sounds pretty clean on the end of production quality, but isn't as sharp as the aforementioned earlier Sewer Election that I just cannot stand. That's cool, I can work with that.
Overall, very good release! One of the more underrated titles to come out of the Gothenburg canon in recent years.
THE RITA - Crusty Etruscans (SPITE)
At this point in listening, I have kind of figured out what era of THE RITA does it for me. That 2000's run that leads up to the Voyage of the Decima MAS CD is really one of the most impeccable runs of harsh noise. You could pick anything in that timespan, throw it in, and be like "yeah, this deserves the praise." It's all as nasty and crushing as advertised! Stuff that comes after just couldn't compare for me.
So what about what comes before? Those early ventures from Sam? Well truthfully, I have only heard Living Dead Girl. I liked that, but never bothered to continue to listen back to more. Now upon listening to this tape on SPITE, I find myself encouraged to keep venturing in the earliest, crustiest depths of this lake! It is far more active than the era of the project I am fondest of, and that's a great thing! Sam's mastery of distortion mixed with some continuous movement? Yeah, absolutely sign me up. Gotta also add how lovely the tape saturation is on this. Such a blown out mess; lovely!
Listening to this gives me memories of first finding the project and teasing a friend into listening to all of Sea Wolf Leviathan. We used to agonize at our desk jobs how "nothing happens" on that release. And despite that, I continued to revisit and be fond of the nothingness. Imagining now how high expectations would have been if we started here. "Killer harsh noise! Why did he stop doing this after a while?" Hah. Awesome.
