Lieutenant Colonel Cooter - Substandard Operating Procedures (Covert Operations of Terroristic Intelligence Reconnaissance Special Forces)
Power Electronics for the age of terror and misinformation! A couple of listens in the past left me not entirely enthused by this material, but something just clicked in this round. The A-Side falls more into the area of "audio collage" than noise for the most part, as news clips that are spliced and panned dominate the mixer far more than any other sound source for a majority of the runtime. Ends up in a noisy burst, but that is only after a crude cover of Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Getting Back Together" ends (talk about terror, huh?). B-Side has more creeping noise and synth work from the jump, but is still playing the backing track to some George W. Bush press conference clips.
Pretty great release all around. I would recommend this for anyone who is into the conceptual end of PE and isn't afraid of the "new breed."
Nurse with Wound - Salt Marie Celeste (United Dairies)
Probably not an uncommon position to say that the more ambient / drone-laden material of this group is by far its most interesting stuff. This particular piece has always stood out to me as the crowning achievement of the group though (and this is coming from a guy who has one of those huge Soliloquy for Lilith boxsets before he's ever even owned a copy of this). My history with this piece runs sort of deep. I first listened to the version that appeared on the Current 93 split, Music for the Horse Hospital, whilst coming down from a particularly negative acid trip in my bathtub. That version is much less engaging, moving with just the same non-changing, enveloping drone for about an hour. Nonetheless, I understood the general horror that resided in this piece and it's been embedded in my soul ever since.
The version that appears here adds more variety to the sound, as various creaks and chatters are added and removed from the mix as time passes. I used to think it was sort of "corny" to have these movements make their way in, but older ears (and less drugs) have led me to become more appreciative of just how much they add here. I think of a ship lost at sea, with an army of locusts devouring the crew present on it. The darkness that this piece emotes is not forcing you to "feel" any such way as a lot more "emotive" noise does, and that might be why I feel so damn much from it. It doesn't care if you engage with it or not, it will still be here, droning on and terrorizing for eternity. This piece feels like it exists outside of any regular convention of time or space, which is how I have always felt Nurse with Wound as a whole has operated. This is sound from the great beyond.
